I did a test run of 5th edition and the players liked it. Just a basic dungeon crawl. Most of them made 2nd level (some showed up half way through and 1 didn't make it). We decided to play Hoard of the Dragon Queen but continue using there characters they have with the coming adventures.
For the first chapter how would you increase the difficulty? I was thinking of adding more Ambush Drakes and Guards but I don't know how many. We have 4 characters that made it to level 2 and 3 characters that made it to level 1. Thats if everyone shows up on time. =)
It is quite simple just add in more npcs and monsters. If you have the DM Basic Rule set that they released check it for any hints to increase the difficulty of the challenges. Or you can simply not increase the difficulty so that way you wouldn't have to for all of the campaign.
The encounter building rules are easier to understand and so far from my experience not that difficult to understand. You might better off adding more raiders (aka cultists and kobolds) then adding ambush drakes but guards are the same CR as cultists and kobolds so go right a head. Though you can make an interesting couple of encounters using the ambush drakes as bloodhounds looking for loot and survives in homes as the party make their way to the keep.
Given that just about anyone and their dog is criticising HotDQ as being a meatgrinder that kills PC's and cute, fluffy kittens, I'd say you shouldn't alter it at all.
When I was looking at the info and the chapter 1 encounters. I was thinking to myself these are pretty difficult encounters for 1st level people. I haven't had enough experience with 5th yet to figure it out.
Yes Grdian4 I know how to increase it but a good DM should know how to increase it without killing the party.
HotDQ is pretty challenging (and a sexy ice cream treat), especially Episode 1. Be sure to use the scaling suggestions for number of PCs, and you should do just fine.
Adding more monsters can be tricky; a middle ground is to give some monsters (leaders) maximum hit points (based on hit dice) rather than the average numbers provided. This means that you don't get extra attacks every round (more monsters), but your monsters (especially leaders) will live a little longer.
I've found that difficulty is in the eye of the beholder. Instead of risking a party wipe fiddling with the encounters, I would use flavor text to make the enemies sound like more of a threat.
The cultist looks at the dragonborn with madness in her eyes, she licks blood off her rusty dagger and cuts her own flesh in anticipation.
The kolbolt pack looks up from their slaughter and eyes the party. At first they appear nervous but after a knowing look at each other they smile and nod, ready to crush you head on.
The acolyte is screaming scripture at the top of his lungs to the smoke tainted sky as the heavily armed mercenaries drag crying villagers from the Inn. The mercenaries notice the party and with practiced ease, draw their well-worn weapons with a steely “It’s time to go to work” look in their eyes.
I've found this makes each encounter feel special. Even if the players completely steam roll the enemies it will often make them feel like they accomplished something important. The reverse is also true, if the party is having a hard time, they will credit the enemies rather than dwelling on poor dice rolls or strategy.
Manchine wrote:
I think adding more monsters is the easiest way to make it harder.
If you go too far, and you fear its gonna be a TPK, just remember you can always alter the HP of each monster - there is a dice range provided, you can choose any HP in that range. If the players query you, just say you rolled hp for the monsters earlier, or whatever.
DMG apparently has morale rules, which could also help stave off an accidental TPK.
We are almost done with book one. My party of 5 blows through the listed encoutners. Honestly I just add two encounters togeather and sometimes even have a third show up before the fight is over to make it atleast seem like there is a chance to die. The tougest fight so far was when I changed an encounter to have the 4 arm troll have 2 troll buddies with him. The warlock in our party used fireball, and if you read trolls, they go after people that use fire or acid first. Poor warlock, stayed making death checks for half the encounter. But the party still survived with no deaths.
K-Ray
As written Episode 1 allows very few chances to recuperate and should be fine, even with 2nd level players in the mix. If the party is having an easy time of it, increasing random encounter frequency solves the issue. The problem for many players is that kobolds (and goblins too) are a lot more nasty to low-level players than in previous editions. It's easy for a 1st level party to charge into battle with 6 kobolds and come out with dead characters as kobolds can gain advantage on attacks when in large groups.
After Episode 1, the XP should balance out and things should be fine.
Have them fight that 1/2 dragon?!? haha. 4d10 breath weapon, average 22 damage will ghost any first level character, and a lot of 2nd level characters, and significantly injure 3rd level. But have it fight the whole party, not just 1 character; maybe increase it's hp so it doesn't go down in 1 round. haha.
also, I believe in the first part there's a dragon flying around, maybe have them make saves vs. falling debris damage or something. which could theoretically help reinforce the legenary regional stuffs or whatever some legendary monsters have. or something... i got nothin.... 
Im in a similar situation, I have 6 players with an average character level of 3.5.. We are just starting HotDQ, currently im tossing up between two solutions:
1) giving ALL enemies max HP and advantage on DAMAGE rolls...
2) Changing all Kobolds to Orcs and Cultists to Acolytes
3) Just changing all Kobolds to Orcs
Thoughts? is there any reason why this wont work?
Quick Rule --> Just increase the number of creatures in your encounter by one per each player to increase the difficulty.
- Say, encounter consists of 4 kobolds plus an Ambush Drakes, now with 4 player, you'll add some extra 4 creatures; not just four kobolds, a Drake and 3 additional kobolds will do.
- Repeat the same with every encounter you want to increase, always choosing Higher Challenge Level monsters, before repeating the lower challenges in your calculations.
- Don't forget that you must add an extra "creature" for every player, so if there are seven players in the table, seven extra creatures will appear in your scenario
- Be aware that your session will last twice as long as what a regular encounter's lenght is measured in the Adventure Product's guidelines.
Simple, deadly, but not overkill...
An alternative - talk this over with the group; do NOT do this by DM fiat - would be to tell the group to re-set their characters to Day One L1. They can make whatever changes based on their experience at the table, but think in terms of starting fresh for a new adventure arc.
P.S. Let them read the v3 Book of Adventuring. (I think that's the accurate title.) They are going to need the advice on how to supply / equip a party for more than one fight a day, to get through HotDQ.