Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 mightyTeuton Jul 16, 2014 11:40:15	Has anyone tried running the starter set adventure with only 4 players?  I'm struggling to find a 5th, and was wondering if it is difficult to pull out a monster here and there to balance it.  I've read that it's pretty challenging, particularly at level 1.
#2 edwin_su Jul 16, 2014 11:49:18	in one of the sessions they streamed that was run by Greg Bilsland they had 4 players so i think it shoulden't be a problem.
#3 solomani Jul 16, 2014 15:10:34	I potentially have 7 players for the first session. My current plan is to let it go but the characters will just level up a little slower.  I am not sure this us the best solution.  I guess I could throw in an extra goblin at each encounter and play it by ear.  Open to suggestions.
#4 AaronOfBarbaria Jul 16, 2014 16:29:35	The adventure specifically says it is set up for 4 or 5 players - if you have either of those numbers, you don't need to change anything about the adventure.   I have 6 playing through it, and haven't changed a thing, and it is working just fine (one of the characters even almost died) - encounter building is not nearly as fragile as one might guess.
#5 mightyTeuton Jul 17, 2014 12:09:17	Thanks for the feedback, everyone. My wife came up with a neat idea to squeeze in an additional body without another person to control it, so I think I'll bite and allow it.   She grabbed the fighter as her class (I'm letting people roll their own characters based on basic if they don't want to use a pre-gen). I'm letting her play two fighters who are twins.  One of them was born mute, and the other one grew up being protective of her sister.  This way, she only has to speak as one character, even while controlling the actions of two.
#6 DocSun Jul 17, 2014 12:49:15	mightyTeuton wrote:
#7 Kennethray Jul 18, 2014 23:36:48	The group i run for has 5 players but only 4 have been there at one time. They are about to start the last part and have been doing fine.   K-Ray
#8 Plaguescarred1 Jul 19, 2014 5:10:19	I have run Lost Mine of Phandelver for 3, 4 and 5 player characters. The lower the tougher of course. The adventure is intended for 4-5 PCs but if you find it to be too hard for them, you can always reduce monsters number by 1 in encounters that feature 2+ creatures.
#9 dundjinnmasta Jul 20, 2014 6:17:42	If the module is set for 4-5 players then it is fairly easy to figure out which parts are suppose to be 1 creature per player, etc etc... I had 8 players for my game. Since the module is set for 4-5... the initial ambush of goblins (4) was changed to (8). Goblin look-outs at the cave was 2, half the party, so it was changed to 4. I just gave them the experience offered in the book at that point.
#10 kanageddaamen Jul 20, 2014 12:46:09	I did a dry run of it with 5 characters and found it too easy actually (and the party JUST BARELY made it to 5th level even with every side quest and bonus XP).  When I DM it for my group of five, I am a adding 25% more CR of monsters to hopefully scale that better. Also, as an aside, keep an eye out for errors.  I have found a few instances where they do not give enough XP for the monsters, they list monsters in the flavor text that aren't in the encounter list, etc.  Also, make sure the goblins using bows have a 2 worse AC.  They can't use their shield with the bow!
#11 DM_HEEGZ Jul 20, 2014 15:51:06	We have been playing with 5 PCs and it was on the easy side. I would venture that the Starter Set is a nicely balanced challenge for 4 PCs if you take one of each of the core classes (ie. drop 1 fighter pregen).