Hello, as title says, I have 2 Players and I'm worried the fights might get too hard and I don't wanna always have the enemies run away as if I'm protecting the players.
You decide how and when combat encounter ends. Your players do not need to see the HP of the enemies and not all enemies are built the same. There is a range of hit points for enemies and you may use those as well if you are worried about making sure that the encounters seem thought out. For an example a Brown Bear has a Hp of 3D10+6 or an average of 22. Not all Brown bears are going to be as strong or as durable so the idea of using the same hp for all of them may not best suit your scenario. You roll three 1's and add 6 you get a sickly Brown bear. you roll three 10's and add 6 you get beast of a bear. Now you as the DM can also decide that your enemies HP can fall anywhere in that range as well.
If all this seems too much, then do what I do and do not keep track of hit points at all and wait till it is most cinematic for your enemies to die. This is my personal favorite and the one I use most. You are the DM and the job you are trying to do is tell an entertaining story, so do not get bogged down with details and try to make sure that all 3 people at the table are having fun. That is what makes a good DM.
You will do great and get better my friend. That I have learned the hard way lol.
I hope that I have helped and may your adventures be epic and rewarding
On top of what Welheilm said, there's this called XP budget. You can scale encounters up and down by adding and removing monsters to keep the encounter within the budget. For example, if an encounter says a party of four will face 6 zombies, two players might only face 3. I use the XP budget even though we're playing with milestone advancement.
As the pre-written encounters are balanced to a party of 4, consider adding an NPC to the party.
If you use the pre-generated characters, The Paladin and the Cleric are pretty swell choices to have a backup healer and they have a personal hook with the island adventures: Cleric's Dream, he's happy to just be there to make sure the ship isn't a danger, Paladin wants to swear his Oath to Bahamut to be Protector, both have a reason to hook up with the two.
You can also use the level 1 versions of both the shipwreck and mushroom cave to adjust for the fact there are only two characters. Might want to remix the magic item locations a little and put the axe in the boat instead of the boots for a little offensive buff earlier, the lightning resistance potion to the mushroom cave to ensure you have one character survive Sparkrender's breath (maybe let Tarak make it for you after the quest?)
In other cases, the hit point generation trick mentioned above works, also consider looking into halving the amount of enemies they face. First shore zombies, 3 for 4 players? Consider 2 for 2 and make the other one either already wounded or make it a Kobold Zombie to really rile the locals up.
Just saying that campaign was one of the worst campaigns I have ever seen in my life
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Go to work. Send your kids to school. Follow fashion. Act normal. Walk on the pavement. Watch TV. Save for old age. Obey the law. Now repeat after me. "YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS"
Stormwreck Isle is designed for four player characters. Cut all groups of monsters in half (i.e. if there are six monsters, they fight only three), and for any big bosses take away maybe 1/3rd of the HP of the enemy, if the boss has multiple attacks then drop one of those attacks.
That'll get you most of the way there. If you're still nervous, have the player characters begin 1 level higher and then gain additional levels when the adventure suggests to gain levels.
Adding NPCs is a bit of a waste of time in truth. It's almost certainly a bad idea to have an NPC that the DM controls join the party, it goes wrong nine times out of ten. Search the forums from DMNPC, or DM Controlled NPC and you'll see the disagreements and bad experiences. It really is not worth it.
What you could do however, and what there does exist rules for is 'Sidekicks'. I think these are in both Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak, I can't remember if they're included in DoSI, but I'd borrow the concept. You voice them, but the NPCs basically do whatever they are told so the players get the stat blocks of the Sidekicks. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/doip/sidekicks
Hello, as title says, I have 2 Players and I'm worried the fights might get too hard and I don't wanna always have the enemies run away as if I'm protecting the players.
Any tips? First time DM here.
You decide how and when combat encounter ends. Your players do not need to see the HP of the enemies and not all enemies are built the same. There is a range of hit points for enemies and you may use those as well if you are worried about making sure that the encounters seem thought out. For an example a Brown Bear has a Hp of 3D10+6 or an average of 22. Not all Brown bears are going to be as strong or as durable so the idea of using the same hp for all of them may not best suit your scenario. You roll three 1's and add 6 you get a sickly Brown bear. you roll three 10's and add 6 you get beast of a bear. Now you as the DM can also decide that your enemies HP can fall anywhere in that range as well.
If all this seems too much, then do what I do and do not keep track of hit points at all and wait till it is most cinematic for your enemies to die. This is my personal favorite and the one I use most. You are the DM and the job you are trying to do is tell an entertaining story, so do not get bogged down with details and try to make sure that all 3 people at the table are having fun. That is what makes a good DM.
You will do great and get better my friend. That I have learned the hard way lol.
I hope that I have helped and may your adventures be epic and rewarding
Thanks for the tips!
This all makes a lot of sense.
On top of what Welheilm said, there's this called XP budget. You can scale encounters up and down by adding and removing monsters to keep the encounter within the budget. For example, if an encounter says a party of four will face 6 zombies, two players might only face 3. I use the XP budget even though we're playing with milestone advancement.
As the pre-written encounters are balanced to a party of 4, consider adding an NPC to the party.
If you use the pre-generated characters, The Paladin and the Cleric are pretty swell choices to have a backup healer and they have a personal hook with the island adventures: Cleric's Dream, he's happy to just be there to make sure the ship isn't a danger, Paladin wants to swear his Oath to Bahamut to be Protector, both have a reason to hook up with the two.
You can also use the level 1 versions of both the shipwreck and mushroom cave to adjust for the fact there are only two characters. Might want to remix the magic item locations a little and put the axe in the boat instead of the boots for a little offensive buff earlier, the lightning resistance potion to the mushroom cave to ensure you have one character survive Sparkrender's breath (maybe let Tarak make it for you after the quest?)
In other cases, the hit point generation trick mentioned above works, also consider looking into halving the amount of enemies they face. First shore zombies, 3 for 4 players? Consider 2 for 2 and make the other one either already wounded or make it a Kobold Zombie to really rile the locals up.
Hope these help.
Just saying that campaign was one of the worst campaigns I have ever seen in my life
Go to work. Send your kids to school. Follow fashion. Act normal. Walk on the pavement. Watch TV. Save for old age. Obey the law. Now repeat after me. "YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS"
Have an NPC join them. You get to play too. :D
Let's make this simple:
Stormwreck Isle is designed for four player characters. Cut all groups of monsters in half (i.e. if there are six monsters, they fight only three), and for any big bosses take away maybe 1/3rd of the HP of the enemy, if the boss has multiple attacks then drop one of those attacks.
That'll get you most of the way there. If you're still nervous, have the player characters begin 1 level higher and then gain additional levels when the adventure suggests to gain levels.
Adding NPCs is a bit of a waste of time in truth. It's almost certainly a bad idea to have an NPC that the DM controls join the party, it goes wrong nine times out of ten. Search the forums from DMNPC, or DM Controlled NPC and you'll see the disagreements and bad experiences. It really is not worth it.
What you could do however, and what there does exist rules for is 'Sidekicks'. I think these are in both Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak, I can't remember if they're included in DoSI, but I'd borrow the concept. You voice them, but the NPCs basically do whatever they are told so the players get the stat blocks of the Sidekicks. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/doip/sidekicks
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
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