I have a group of 5 players who have only played a few one shots. We started Dragon of Icepire Peak a few weeks ago and the group has easily wiped out the manticore, ochre jellies and the mimic in the first 3 quests. How can I make the quests more challenging for the players?
If your group is okay with it, start using variant encumbrance.
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Homebrew, homebrew, homebrew. I DM homebrew. I homebrew homebrew. My homebrew brews homebrew. I brewed by home. My home brews homebrewed homebrew, homebrewing homebrew that homebrews homebrewing homebrew.
These were supposed to be hard encounters for their level at least for 4 PC. Since they are 5, increasing the number of monters and may be their hit points should make things more challenging for them.
The quests do get harder the further you get along- at least one of the quests that are scaled for fifth level will be done at fourth based on level progression.
But you can also use the encounter builder to level up your encounters. I would wait until they’re in an individual encounter and then add more if it’s going really well- more orcs bursting out of the trees, more monsters from the next room, etc.
The manticore was easy? I always thought it was super overpowered for being potentially accessed at first level- your party must be really good!
I had the opposite problem- running it as a duet. The invisible stalker in the dragon’s tomb was crazy!
By the way, did you notice how the stalker and the thunder pig are the same cr as the dragon? It doesn’t make sense to me that the final boss would be so easy. (Which it really is, considering the amount of dragon fighting magic items the module gives the players)
I read about a house rule once: mass and incidental damage. Per thousand pounds of mass, a creature causes 1d4 damage to those around it to represent the sheer bulk of the thing. A horse stepping on your foot will HURT.
Another option for increasing the threat is to not let the characters take rests.
D&D is a lot easier when there is only one encounter per long rest. Resource attrition is irrelevant, you can just fire everything.
If you know there are a number of encounteres to come before you get back things like slots and metamagic points and rages, then the game gets more difficult (and, in my opinion, more interesting).
Well, I am running a DoIP and LMoP combined campaign and I am about the same point as you are in the doip side of things. The manticore was easy because of their level as well but for the other quests... My best advice is to move where the monsters are, add more depending on party level and modify the dungeons to give them interesting terrain features.
As an example, for gnomengarde I switched the module's wild magic table for the one the warlock has. This kind of backfired in that as soon as the wizard cast one spell I rolled on it and ended causing a level 3 fireball to explode where he was, which would have tpk my level two three pc party. I had to fumble it and pretend it didn't happen.
For dwarven excavation I added a couple of psychic grey oozes to compensate for their higher level and took advantage of the several secret doors and cave ins to have the oozes move into places the party would have to take the long way around then reenter stealth. It helped that it was the first time we used dynamic lighting in roll20.
For tower of storms I had the harpies attack them as soon as they entered the map. I took advantage of them flying and put them in the air a few squares off the cliff that falls to the beach and outside melee range then used their song to try to lure the players into a 100 feet fall. Once they fought it off they moved to attack on melee... By using to shove action to try and throw them off the cliff. Moesko was also a challenge for them because they didn't know he had the lightning bolt spell, after the rogue almost one shooted him in the ambush round he walked a few steps until they were all in a rough line and knocked them out with a single spell. In the end it was a fight between him and a sidekick. I also had planned for there to be a storm that might throw people off the path and into the water or for high tide to flood the lowest part of the path so that the sharks could attack them. If all else fails, there was always the possibility of amping up the storm and making a sharknado.
Butterskull ranch was fairly easy due to me spreading the orcs out so I recommend concentrating them.
They haven't played the other quests yet but in axeholm I was thinking about making it easier to make loud noises that atract the ghouls and replacing some with ghasts or an equivalent. Maybe make those hurt by them suffer something like a zombie plague that reduce their con or max hit points over time and that can only be cured by killing the banshee then have her run away if cornered? Like, phasing through the floor to the one below to escape? Or some dwarf spirits that might posses the players to drive them to recreate the last days of axeholm. Or give the banshee poltgeister like powers as a lair action so that she can take control of the ballistas and use them against the players.
For logger camp maybe the Ankhegs could drag them underground in and anthill lion kind of trap and make the characters use athletic checks to get out or end up being buried alive (i think in the dragon tomb there are rules about that)
I also replaced the white dragon for a blue one who is pretending to be an emissary of talos and took control of the cult as I saw suggested in a reddit post. It has a higher CR, the veterans at icehold could be its honor guard instead of bandits and it opens the chance to put some anchorites for spell support. Alternatively, play up the cold in the area not only with the con saves but also by freezing the roof so that they can slip when they move on top of it to make it harder for melee players. Or a snow storm for low visibility that makes ranged attacks harder.
Mountain toe gold mine... Well, this wouldn't apply to you because my players got in their session zero adventure a token that marks them as friends of all rats so the wererrats would not betray them. I was planning to have Jon Rasking hire the session zero antagonist (a super edgy rat exterminator) and a few other to deal with them and to oppose the party. Alternatively, have the wererats betray the party and attack them as soon as they dealt with the orcs at the shrine of Savras so that they can keep the location and steal the items of the party and orcs. Also put some cover for the orcs.
Maybe some divine intervention? Have Talos buff its followers with bless or curse your players if the fight in the circle of thunder and add some cultists to support the anchorites there. Or some curse from Abathor from the dwarven excavation that grows worse whenever they loot a dwarf related location like axeholm or iceholm.
Simply put, scaling encounters is the easiest way to make combat more difficult.
If scaling an encounter doesn't work thematically, you can also home-brew existing monsters, making them more difficult (More HP, AC, etc.). But this should ONLY be used as a last resort.
Scaling check/save DCs and trap damage can make dungeons more difficult.
EDIT: I am doing a LMoP + DoIP + Home-brew campaign, and have decided to make both of the dragons adults instead of young adults. I'm alright with doing this because A) I have a large party B) They only have to reduce Venomfang to half HP C) In the home-brewed final siege on Phandalin, the two dragons will fight each other primarily.
I have a group of 5 players who have only played a few one shots. We started Dragon of Icepire Peak a few weeks ago and the group has easily wiped out the manticore, ochre jellies and the mimic in the first 3 quests. How can I make the quests more challenging for the players?
If your group is okay with it, start using variant encumbrance.
Homebrew, homebrew, homebrew. I DM homebrew. I homebrew homebrew. My homebrew brews homebrew. I brewed by home. My home brews homebrewed homebrew, homebrewing homebrew that homebrews homebrewing homebrew.
These were supposed to be hard encounters for their level at least for 4 PC. Since they are 5, increasing the number of monters and may be their hit points should make things more challenging for them.
I have a party of 6-7 and so have scaled up the number of monsters and the power of them.
The quests do get harder the further you get along- at least one of the quests that are scaled for fifth level will be done at fourth based on level progression.
But you can also use the encounter builder to level up your encounters. I would wait until they’re in an individual encounter and then add more if it’s going really well- more orcs bursting out of the trees, more monsters from the next room, etc.
The manticore was easy? I always thought it was super overpowered for being potentially accessed at first level- your party must be really good!
I had the opposite problem- running it as a duet. The invisible stalker in the dragon’s tomb was crazy!
By the way, did you notice how the stalker and the thunder pig are the same cr as the dragon? It doesn’t make sense to me that the final boss would be so easy. (Which it really is, considering the amount of dragon fighting magic items the module gives the players)
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
I read about a house rule once: mass and incidental damage. Per thousand pounds of mass, a creature causes 1d4 damage to those around it to represent the sheer bulk of the thing. A horse stepping on your foot will HURT.
“The manticore was easy? I always thought it was super overpowered for being potentially accessed at first level- your party must be really good!”
The party where level three and the sorcerer used metamagic and scorching ray to make quick work of the manticore.
Another option for increasing the threat is to not let the characters take rests.
D&D is a lot easier when there is only one encounter per long rest. Resource attrition is irrelevant, you can just fire everything.
If you know there are a number of encounteres to come before you get back things like slots and metamagic points and rages, then the game gets more difficult (and, in my opinion, more interesting).
Well, I am running a DoIP and LMoP combined campaign and I am about the same point as you are in the doip side of things. The manticore was easy because of their level as well but for the other quests... My best advice is to move where the monsters are, add more depending on party level and modify the dungeons to give them interesting terrain features.
As an example, for gnomengarde I switched the module's wild magic table for the one the warlock has. This kind of backfired in that as soon as the wizard cast one spell I rolled on it and ended causing a level 3 fireball to explode where he was, which would have tpk my level two three pc party. I had to fumble it and pretend it didn't happen.
For dwarven excavation I added a couple of psychic grey oozes to compensate for their higher level and took advantage of the several secret doors and cave ins to have the oozes move into places the party would have to take the long way around then reenter stealth. It helped that it was the first time we used dynamic lighting in roll20.
For tower of storms I had the harpies attack them as soon as they entered the map. I took advantage of them flying and put them in the air a few squares off the cliff that falls to the beach and outside melee range then used their song to try to lure the players into a 100 feet fall. Once they fought it off they moved to attack on melee... By using to shove action to try and throw them off the cliff. Moesko was also a challenge for them because they didn't know he had the lightning bolt spell, after the rogue almost one shooted him in the ambush round he walked a few steps until they were all in a rough line and knocked them out with a single spell. In the end it was a fight between him and a sidekick. I also had planned for there to be a storm that might throw people off the path and into the water or for high tide to flood the lowest part of the path so that the sharks could attack them. If all else fails, there was always the possibility of amping up the storm and making a sharknado.
Butterskull ranch was fairly easy due to me spreading the orcs out so I recommend concentrating them.
They haven't played the other quests yet but in axeholm I was thinking about making it easier to make loud noises that atract the ghouls and replacing some with ghasts or an equivalent. Maybe make those hurt by them suffer something like a zombie plague that reduce their con or max hit points over time and that can only be cured by killing the banshee then have her run away if cornered? Like, phasing through the floor to the one below to escape? Or some dwarf spirits that might posses the players to drive them to recreate the last days of axeholm. Or give the banshee poltgeister like powers as a lair action so that she can take control of the ballistas and use them against the players.
For logger camp maybe the Ankhegs could drag them underground in and anthill lion kind of trap and make the characters use athletic checks to get out or end up being buried alive (i think in the dragon tomb there are rules about that)
I also replaced the white dragon for a blue one who is pretending to be an emissary of talos and took control of the cult as I saw suggested in a reddit post. It has a higher CR, the veterans at icehold could be its honor guard instead of bandits and it opens the chance to put some anchorites for spell support. Alternatively, play up the cold in the area not only with the con saves but also by freezing the roof so that they can slip when they move on top of it to make it harder for melee players. Or a snow storm for low visibility that makes ranged attacks harder.
Mountain toe gold mine... Well, this wouldn't apply to you because my players got in their session zero adventure a token that marks them as friends of all rats so the wererrats would not betray them. I was planning to have Jon Rasking hire the session zero antagonist (a super edgy rat exterminator) and a few other to deal with them and to oppose the party. Alternatively, have the wererats betray the party and attack them as soon as they dealt with the orcs at the shrine of Savras so that they can keep the location and steal the items of the party and orcs. Also put some cover for the orcs.
Maybe some divine intervention? Have Talos buff its followers with bless or curse your players if the fight in the circle of thunder and add some cultists to support the anchorites there. Or some curse from Abathor from the dwarven excavation that grows worse whenever they loot a dwarf related location like axeholm or iceholm.
Thanks for the advice
Simply put, scaling encounters is the easiest way to make combat more difficult.
If scaling an encounter doesn't work thematically, you can also home-brew existing monsters, making them more difficult (More HP, AC, etc.). But this should ONLY be used as a last resort.
Scaling check/save DCs and trap damage can make dungeons more difficult.
EDIT: I am doing a LMoP + DoIP + Home-brew campaign, and have decided to make both of the dragons adults instead of young adults. I'm alright with doing this because A) I have a large party B) They only have to reduce Venomfang to half HP C) In the home-brewed final siege on Phandalin, the two dragons will fight each other primarily.
New DM here,
But I am running this same campaign. My players were having an easy time as well so I:
1. make sure they have a random encounter or two on the way to the quest.
2. Increase the number of monsters if it makes sense
3. Beef up the HP of the monsters.