Post/Author/DateTime

Post

#1 zoroaster99 Aug 18, 2014 10:49:08

I was running my players (6 players, each running one character) through Lost Mine of Phandelver, and after some debate and thought, we've decided that rather than start again at 1st level with new characters, they want to continue with their current characters as we transition into Hoard of the Dragon Queen.   I thought about skipping the first few chapters but I've decided agains that.  My players are now mostly 3rd level, except for one new character starting at 2nd level.  They are about to go into the Mine of Phandelver proper, and would probably be able to get enough XP from what's left of the adventure to pass to 4th, and maybe get close to 5th.  However, instead I'm going to switch to leveling by completing "chapters" instead of monster and trap XP.  And I'm planning to let the 2nd level character level up to 3rd before starting Hoard, so they are all caught up, but then keep them all 3rd level all the way through at least the first couple of chapters of Hoard of the Dragon Queen, then keep them 4th for a long time too, and only let them level to 5th when they would normally level in Hoard of the Dragon Queen based on the chapters in that adventure.   While I'm a bit concerned they will get impatient about leveling slow, I intend to tell the players in advance so they don't think all the levels will go as slow as 3rd and 4th will, and I'll explain that is how I plan to keep from having to skip the early part of the adventure without making them start with new first level characters.   Assuming everyone is fine with that plan, what should I be most concerned about in the early levels of Hoard of the Dragon Queen and how can I tweak the adventure with minimum of work to make those first chapters fun and challenging?   I'm thinking during the rescue of Greenest, I will keep the encounters more or less as is, maybe just adding a couple more more kobolds and/or cultists here and there, but make the missions happen closer together in time so there are only one or two chances for short rests at most during the night.  I will probably buff up the enemy that challenges the party's champion to single combat.  I will see how it goes but generally rely on the characters getting through more encounters without rest rather than changing the encounters too much, unless the encounters turn out to be so easy I need to buff the enemy numbers to make it somewhat challenging.  I may also skip one or two of the less interesting missions.   At what point do you think I can safely let the characters go up to 4th, to then stay there for a while until they level to 5th at the "correct" time and catch up with the normal level advancement by chapter in the module?