I am going to run the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure for my mom and brother, both of which have never played D&D before (they made a rogue and a wizard). As the book says that the adventure is intended for 4-5 players, I thought about just having half as many enemies in each encounter and calling it a day, but then realized that there are several fights where there is only 1 enemy. What do I do?
If it's got an AC of 17, drop it to 14 or something so they can hit more often. If it's got 80 hp, drop it to 50. If it does 2-12 damage, drop it to 2-8. I.e, weaken it.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
If it's got an AC of 17, drop it to 14 or something so they can hit more often. If it's got 80 hp, drop it to 50. If it does 2-12 damage, drop it to 2-8. I.e, weaken it.
OK. Thank you for the help. As a relatively new DM myself, I got a bit lost.
I run a LMoP and DoIP campaign for 2 players. One thing I do is adjust the number of creatures in a fight. Action economy is super important with only 2 players. Also, consider sidekicks, let them befriend one or two of the wolves in Cragmaw Cave or hire someone in the town to help out for a cut of the treasure. Another thing I do is when I roll damage for enemies, I don't add modifiers, ex: instead of 2d6+4 damage, its just 2d6. Let your players be the heroes and get away with things you might not if they had a full group.
A sidekick is a great idea. I might just have one of them befriend a wolf or two in Cragmaw cave. Also, as both of them dumped strength and none have a wisdom sxore above 12, I thought about having a cleric sidekick (possibly even a DMPC) join them on their adventure, providing strength, tankiness (18 AC is great for level 1), wisdom and healing.
Low strength is fine; a rogue can probably Dex their way past a lot of things that could be done with strength, and a wizard has spells. My first recommendation would be to be flexible with how you let them approach problems - even if the module says "It takes a Strength check of Y" to do something, let the rogue and wizard use other approaches.
Low wisdom is going to be harder to work around, in part because that informs perception and that's overused in D&D, with lots of "perception checks" to notice things. I'd say for perception stuff:
1) Let them both roll to notice things.
2) If something hasn't been explicitly hidden by an enemy (like a trap), lower the perception requirements by a bunch, or just don't make it need a check at all. Also remember not to make them roll perception checks for information that you want to give them anyway.
3) When appropriate, let the wizard use investigation instead of perception (usually appropriate when they're explicitly searching for something in a bounded area, and you can flavor that as a systematic investigation rather than a 'look around and see what you see' kind of deal).
Also be more generous than normal with magic items.. extra boosts to stats from magic items can make up for the fact that there are only 2 of them and they can only have so many stats with good bonuses.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I think for single enemies, chopping its hp and dmg in half should roughly give you the results you’re looking for.
for two first timers, especially your mom, I wouldn’t worry about it being too easy. Especially the first session, then maybe ramp up difficulty later, or don’t.
I'm playing with my two sons, the way I solved it was to make a character I play but that character doesn't help in making decisions. They started out with at druid friend and then I introduced other characters they can choose to take with them in the town. A cleric in the shrine, a barbarian in the inn, a bard playing in the town square etc
They only get to have one to tag along with them so they can switch it up between sessions/quests
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I am going to run the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure for my mom and brother, both of which have never played D&D before (they made a rogue and a wizard). As the book says that the adventure is intended for 4-5 players, I thought about just having half as many enemies in each encounter and calling it a day, but then realized that there are several fights where there is only 1 enemy. What do I do?
Just remember:
Baby Groot > Baby Yoda
Weaken the 1 enemy.
If it's got an AC of 17, drop it to 14 or something so they can hit more often. If it's got 80 hp, drop it to 50. If it does 2-12 damage, drop it to 2-8. I.e, weaken it.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
OK. Thank you for the help. As a relatively new DM myself, I got a bit lost.
Just remember:
Baby Groot > Baby Yoda
I run a LMoP and DoIP campaign for 2 players. One thing I do is adjust the number of creatures in a fight. Action economy is super important with only 2 players. Also, consider sidekicks, let them befriend one or two of the wolves in Cragmaw Cave or hire someone in the town to help out for a cut of the treasure. Another thing I do is when I roll damage for enemies, I don't add modifiers, ex: instead of 2d6+4 damage, its just 2d6. Let your players be the heroes and get away with things you might not if they had a full group.
A sidekick is a great idea. I might just have one of them befriend a wolf or two in Cragmaw cave. Also, as both of them dumped strength and none have a wisdom sxore above 12, I thought about having a cleric sidekick (possibly even a DMPC) join them on their adventure, providing strength, tankiness (18 AC is great for level 1), wisdom and healing.
Just remember:
Baby Groot > Baby Yoda
Low strength is fine; a rogue can probably Dex their way past a lot of things that could be done with strength, and a wizard has spells. My first recommendation would be to be flexible with how you let them approach problems - even if the module says "It takes a Strength check of Y" to do something, let the rogue and wizard use other approaches.
Low wisdom is going to be harder to work around, in part because that informs perception and that's overused in D&D, with lots of "perception checks" to notice things. I'd say for perception stuff:
1) Let them both roll to notice things.
2) If something hasn't been explicitly hidden by an enemy (like a trap), lower the perception requirements by a bunch, or just don't make it need a check at all. Also remember not to make them roll perception checks for information that you want to give them anyway.
3) When appropriate, let the wizard use investigation instead of perception (usually appropriate when they're explicitly searching for something in a bounded area, and you can flavor that as a systematic investigation rather than a 'look around and see what you see' kind of deal).
Also be more generous than normal with magic items.. extra boosts to stats from magic items can make up for the fact that there are only 2 of them and they can only have so many stats with good bonuses.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
You could always try using sidekicks. The rules for those are introduced in the Essentials Kit.
I think for single enemies, chopping its hp and dmg in half should roughly give you the results you’re looking for.
for two first timers, especially your mom, I wouldn’t worry about it being too easy. Especially the first session, then maybe ramp up difficulty later, or don’t.
what im doing for my dad and brother is lowering the ac a little bit and the enemy count
I'm playing with my two sons, the way I solved it was to make a character I play but that character doesn't help in making decisions. They started out with at druid friend and then I introduced other characters they can choose to take with them in the town. A cleric in the shrine, a barbarian in the inn, a bard playing in the town square etc
They only get to have one to tag along with them so they can switch it up between sessions/quests