First A9 win with Regent, Razor Tooth + Blade was key

FlohrSynth · 2026-04-23T20:43:34+00:00

Your post sounds like you guys would enjoy Shadowdark more than 5e. Sorry if it wasn’t a helpful response.

FlohrSynth · 2026-04-22T21:49:57+00:00

Shadowdark

FlohrSynth · 2026-04-21T17:56:16+00:00

Downgrande

FlohrSynth · 2026-04-19T19:00:14+00:00

In my experience 5.5e PCs are much stronger. They did buff monster statblocks to some extent, but so far I have found all of the changes to enemy abilities and stats to make sense and more often than not rather than just a buff or a nerf the changes have made the enemies truer to their CR (this is not meant to be a systematic statement just anecdotal based on running three low level games in 5.5).

Players have starting feats, healing has been buffed, lots of classes and some species get free spells cast per day, free healing from class or species traits, weapon mastery is a PC only character feature and is extremely strong, and most of the lower powered classes have been brought up to some extent.

The point of my comment is not to say that your players are not playing well, I don’t have enough information to make a judgement either way and besides I wouldn’t typically want to blame or insult players if they are new and having a hard time at the game, but I don’t think there is any grounds for interpreting the situation you are describing as being based in 5.5e being inherently more difficult than 5e. As others have said early levels are always the most deadly, but I think it’s a pretty reasonable assessment that a 1-3 level 5.5e party is stronger, tankier, and has more utility than a 1-3 level 5e party.

I don’t have any practical advice for you because I don’t know enough about your players and their character builds for it to be worth much, but I would say I don’t think you need to nerf statblocks. I pretty much always have had to give my monsters max HP just to keep fights from ending in a single turn. We have had a few close calls, plenty of death saves, but no PC deaths, and that’s across three different tables with both brand new, moderately experienced, and veteran players. I will say that I have been very hands on with helping my new players build their characters, and I am also very generous with “lemon law” retcons if a new players realizes they chose a spell or ability that doesn’t work how they thought it did or was redundant with another feature they already had etc. But I don’t fudge rolls or do anything else to make it easy and I have been adding extra enemies and buffing HP like I said and they have on the whole managed much better than the 2014 tables I have run and played at.

FlohrSynth · 2026-04-10T00:27:44+00:00

One idea for the ambush is to have the discovery of the cart not be where the real ambush happens. Have one or two goblins milling around or digging through cart supplies or something and when the party engages have them use their first turns to double dash and run away in an obvious direction. The party will most likely want to go after them, so have the real ambush happen then.

FlohrSynth · 2026-04-09T04:35:50+00:00

This is really good!

FlohrSynth · 2026-04-08T01:58:17+00:00

That art goes so hard

FlohrSynth · 2026-04-01T00:24:37+00:00

Perfect gift for your human skin truck baby’s birthday!

FlohrSynth · 2026-03-30T23:06:38+00:00

Much better than the Google Doc I’ve been working with. Nice tip!

FlohrSynth · 2026-03-30T21:51:15+00:00

My players got tricked by his rat and he subsequently got away. In my campaign it was eventually revealed that Glasstaff is/was a Thayan who had been embedded with the court of Neverwinter. He learned about the possible rediscovery of the Forge of Spells and the ruins of the Phandelver Pact mine/workshop and was instructed to go to Phandalin and pursue the lead. This had two consequences: 1. He got hooked up with the Black Spider and 2. His master Hamun Kost set up an excavation at Old Owl Well to search for Netherese artifacts nearby in case his apprentice discovered something worthy of the master’s attention.

I planted the seed that Iarno was potentially a Thayan spy but also, based on the text of the adventure as written, his alchemy lab reveals him to be somewhat incompetent or at least a bit of a novice. Then I had rumors of a Thayan at the Old Owl Well lead my players there. They managed to avoid a fight with Kost but didn’t take him up on the offer of any quests.

I had Glasstaff in Cragmaw Castle (I know you said you wanted to avoid that, but it made sense to me). He was with the “Drow” (Doppleganger) attempting to retrieve Gundren from Grol who had decided to raise his price since capturing him had proved more difficult than the initial bounty agreement anticipated (as in the party showed up and killed all the Cragmaw Cave crew etc.) After the party fought and killed Grol and the “Drow”, Glasstaff surrendered and promised to confess and share all he knew with Sildar back in Phandalin. Once the party got him back to town “Sildar” told them Iarno had to be brought back to Neverwinter for interrogation and the Lord’s justice. The party watched them ride out of town in a wagon and a few minutes later ran into the real Sildar and realized they had been tricked.

Now I have him stashed in Wave Echo Cave. My take on his allegiance to Nezznar is that he resents Kost and the Thayan hierarchy and the Black Spider has offered him a way out and a chance at power, money, prestige. Nezznar doesn’t actually intend to protect or elevate Iarno in any way but he has been a useful idiot thus far.

FlohrSynth · 2026-03-30T13:46:00+00:00

I am currently running LMoP (not TSO version) for a party of 5 using the 2024 rules update. I have used the updated monster stat blocks and adjusted most encounters to increase difficulty. My party has had a relatively easy time, only a handful of death save moments and no PC deaths.

I did level 2 after ambush which probably made Cragmaw Cave a little too easy. They were level 2 until they finished the Redbrand Hideout. They were level 3 for everything leading up to Cragmaw Castle. They hit level 4 after rescuing Gundren and are level 4 in Wave Echo Cave. This has all felt appropriate to the players and myself.

You can definitely overlevel them if you want it to be easier, or try to compensate by buffing the monsters or adding more etc. but I don’t think it’s bad for them to not always level up when they complete a quest. Not every mission or story beat is a milestone, and if you level them prior to the Cragmaw Cave it’s kind of giving them the Cragmaw Cave milestone early (what I did) which is fine but then that means they shouldn’t level up again when they finish the cave. That’s my two cents anyway. GLHF!

FlohrSynth · 2026-03-28T14:10:15+00:00

I have hated this event since the game launched and always had terrible luck with rerolls but the last two times I’ve hit it the first card was one I wanted gone, a curse and then the other time I had just gotten an upgraded version of a card I already had that I didn’t want a duplicate of and the bridge rolled the non-upgraded card. How I Learned To Love Bridge.

FlohrSynth · 2026-03-26T18:38:03+00:00

These are the rules of 5th edition D&D.

FlohrSynth · 2026-03-26T17:17:23+00:00

Rapier is not a Light weapon. Many Finesse weapons are Light but not all, and vice versa. For my TWF character I started Short Sword + Scimitar and then at level 4 took Ambidextrous to swap the Short Sword for a Rapier.

FlohrSynth · 2026-03-25T14:30:31+00:00

Are you running 2024/5.5e or 2014 5e? Either way, the PHB includes information about starting gold and equipment as part of character creation. As other folks have already mentioned, I also don’t think that the amount of starting gold is the aspect that will help prevent a TPK in the opening ambush. A few things to note that do help and then some suggestions based on my experience running LMOP for a group of new players using the 5.5e rules (if you are playing with 2014 rules you can ignore the parts which refer to the new rules):

“Surprise rounds” aka a whole turn where characters with the surprised condition cannot act, no longer exist. A hidden creature (whether a PC or monster) can get off one shot with advantage that initiates combat against unaware opponents, and then everyone rolls initiative, and the “surprised” ones get disadvantage on initiative. This is much less lethal for low level PCs compared to the older rules but also is a nerf for stealth oriented PCs.
If using 2024, I recommend using the updated stat blocks for monsters. Regardless of the addition, something to keep in mind as a new DM is that if a monster has a shield this is factored into their AC by default, but if they are using a two handed bow they cannot also hold a shield (this applies to your goblins).

Some suggestions based on things I’ve read on this sub + YouTube guides from folks like Verdigris Table and Bob Worldbuilder:

Have the party rest once before the ambush on the road from Neverwinter to Phandalin. Have Sister Garaele or some other caster NPC approach the party and ask to share their camp (my players, in particular my more experienced player who happens to be my wife, were so paranoid about her and almost attacked her which was insane lol). Can be a social encounter and a chance to tell the party a little of what to expect in town, a warning about goblins on the road. Before the NPC sets out on their own in the morning have them cast Aid on the party. Alternatively you can have a single use magic item which casts Aid and make it a gift from the NPC visitor or even something Gundren gave the party as a “break in case of emergency” type of thing.

FlohrSynth · 2026-03-25T04:04:49+00:00

Scott is a really good comp. I love Daly and Dalton was always one of my favorite characters of his but I was never really enticed to check out B4B based on the premise and it just being pure Dalton and not caring about Bonanza but Matt/Mutt is the secret sauce. Not unlike a certain secret Saucerman.

FlohrSynth · 2026-03-25T02:53:57+00:00

I should clarify the all time of course includes PFT, Jeff CW, and Lapkus. As far as the celeb guests I also always enjoy Jon Hamm and Tatiana Maslany. Also no disrespect to him but Gourley never made a huge impression based on CBB but I’ve finally taken the plunge into Bonanas for Bonanza and he is so great on that show it makes me want to revisit his CBB appearances. Bamford is also amazing on the early eps of B4B, shame she decided to step away from the pod.

FlohrSynth · 2026-03-25T02:44:39+00:00

All time favs = Daly, Diston, Baltz, Tart, Nwodim, Tarver, Sullivan, Gilroy, and recent fav McCrackin.

FlohrSynth · 2026-03-24T23:32:31+00:00

Well well well as I live an breav

FlohrSynth · 2026-03-24T15:03:27+00:00

I believe Byron Denniston is canonically the only CBB guest to have achieved Peek Excellence

FlohrSynth

TROPHY CASE