Basically what the title says. My players are halfway through an adventure I home-brewed and will likely be 2nd level when I want to move them into either of the two published adventures. Will it break either?
There's a reason CoS had the Death House in the back. Let them do that bit at level 2 and get them to level 3 by the end, then you can start CoS much easier.
I'm in a ToA game, and we are just half way to 4th.
I got knocked unconscious during a random encounter making fun of a drunk sailor outside a tavern, turns out he's CR:3 drunken sailor! Thank Savras he left it at just knocking me out! Also, we never drew weapons, it was a friendly fist fight.
Our next combat was retrieving a debt from a welsher... and he almost TPKed the party. After that we hit lvl 2, and our luck has been much better. Honestly the extra HP your party will have from being lvl 2 will really help them just dieing from a random encounter in the Port!
Once you hit the Jungle it gets harsh, but you should be lvl 2-3 before you leave the city anyways. The edge it will give your players will even out pretty quickly, in ToA. It helps our party is very magic heavy and large. We have a party of 7 and all but 1 player can cast spells!
Level 1 characters are NEVER more than one die roll away from catastrophic defeat. Wizards make an excellent product but from my observations the published adventures do not mesh with level 1 vulnerability. I saw a TPK in HotDQ on the first encounter, 6 kobolds. I would recommend level 2 TOA or COS.
I don't think you'd run into much trouble starting any adventure at Level 2. Even the Starter Set can benefit from new characters (especially new players) having a bit more padding on their HP before an encounter like Klarg.
Curse of Strahd and Tomb of Annihilation are all sandbox type adventures with different areas meant for different characters levels, and the books are generally written to try and get the characters around levels 8-10 by the time they're done. Starting at level 2 might make the first few encounters easier, but rest assured the remaining 94% game will quickly catch up to them. My current group likes to start their new characters around level 3 so that they can start with some class archetypes, and even then we get countless hours from these published adventures.
I'm in the middle of dming Curse of Strahd myself. There are suggested areas for giving your characters a level up for completing an objective for the storyline, so if you're really worried about breaking the world you could always skip the level up for one of these events. That being said, it really should be fine starting at level 2 - hell, I brought my players in at level 7 and just tweaked the encounters and didn't do the scripted level ups.
I'm about to start my group off in ToA at Level 5. Basically I want them to get the sense of urgency that this Death Curse is a real problem and that they need to get out and get going ASAP. But given how big Port Nyanzaru is, and how much there is to see and do around there, I made my group a handy little flyer entitled "So you've decided to visit Chult", published by the Port Nyanzaru Tourism Board ( ;) ) that Zindar will give them when they arrive in Port. It even has a little Clippy image saying "It looks like you're planning to fight the undead. Do you want me to find you a Cleric?" :P
I can't wait to give it to them and see their reaction. I'm so so stoked to DM my first game, and I really love the ToA adventure. :D
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Basically what the title says. My players are halfway through an adventure I home-brewed and will likely be 2nd level when I want to move them into either of the two published adventures. Will it break either?
I think not. Truth be told, they will have a smoother start staring at 2nd level.
Yeah, starting at 2nd level instead of 1st will probably just make it possible for them to survive ToA or CoS.
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As they're a new group do you think they'll be ok with these adventures?
It depends on how merciful the DM is :-)
The castle of CoS and the tomb of ToA are the really harsh part.
I guess they'll be more experienced and a higher level at that point. D&D has to be dangerous.
There's a reason CoS had the Death House in the back. Let them do that bit at level 2 and get them to level 3 by the end, then you can start CoS much easier.
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I'm hoping to run ToA really. Just finishing my holiday in Cancun and as DM I'm more in the mood for abju glen adventure.
I'm in a ToA game, and we are just half way to 4th.
I got knocked unconscious during a random encounter making fun of a drunk sailor outside a tavern, turns out he's CR:3 drunken sailor! Thank Savras he left it at just knocking me out! Also, we never drew weapons, it was a friendly fist fight.
Our next combat was retrieving a debt from a welsher... and he almost TPKed the party.
After that we hit lvl 2, and our luck has been much better. Honestly the extra HP your party will have from being lvl 2 will really help them just dieing from a random encounter in the Port!
Once you hit the Jungle it gets harsh, but you should be lvl 2-3 before you leave the city anyways. The edge it will give your players will even out pretty quickly, in ToA. It helps our party is very magic heavy and large. We have a party of 7 and all but 1 player can cast spells!
It's a party of four; elf monk, halfling ranger (revised), dwarf cleric, and gnome rogue. Hope they'll be ok.
Level 1 characters are NEVER more than one die roll away from catastrophic defeat. Wizards make an excellent product but from my observations the published adventures do not mesh with level 1 vulnerability. I saw a TPK in HotDQ on the first encounter, 6 kobolds. I would recommend level 2 TOA or COS.
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
I don't think you'd run into much trouble starting any adventure at Level 2. Even the Starter Set can benefit from new characters (especially new players) having a bit more padding on their HP before an encounter like Klarg.
Curse of Strahd and Tomb of Annihilation are all sandbox type adventures with different areas meant for different characters levels, and the books are generally written to try and get the characters around levels 8-10 by the time they're done. Starting at level 2 might make the first few encounters easier, but rest assured the remaining 94% game will quickly catch up to them. My current group likes to start their new characters around level 3 so that they can start with some class archetypes, and even then we get countless hours from these published adventures.
I'm in the middle of dming Curse of Strahd myself. There are suggested areas for giving your characters a level up for completing an objective for the storyline, so if you're really worried about breaking the world you could always skip the level up for one of these events. That being said, it really should be fine starting at level 2 - hell, I brought my players in at level 7 and just tweaked the encounters and didn't do the scripted level ups.
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I'm about to start my group off in ToA at Level 5. Basically I want them to get the sense of urgency that this Death Curse is a real problem and that they need to get out and get going ASAP. But given how big Port Nyanzaru is, and how much there is to see and do around there, I made my group a handy little flyer entitled "So you've decided to visit Chult", published by the Port Nyanzaru Tourism Board ( ;) ) that Zindar will give them when they arrive in Port. It even has a little Clippy image saying "It looks like you're planning to fight the undead. Do you want me to find you a Cleric?" :P
I can't wait to give it to them and see their reaction. I'm so so stoked to DM my first game, and I really love the ToA adventure. :D