I've never DM'd before but because no one around me plays DnD I had to step up and take the role. I'm excited but nervous about making the game fun and functional for my players who are also first-timers. The Adventure I bought was Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I only have two players, but since the adventure recommends four, I'm letting them each play two characters. They've settled with a Rock Gnome Ranger, a High Elf Sorcerer, a High Elf Paladin, and a Human Paladin.
I'm concerned if this is a balanced party and what I can do to make the campaign go smoothly for them since I've heard that this adventure is particularly deadly for first-time players only after I bought it and its too late to return it or buy another. Any advice is welcomed!!
That’s not a bad party composition it could work. I’d be more worried about new players keeping two classes worth of abilities in their heads. If you have time before you play, there’s one of the box sets, the starter set, I think but I might be wrong, that has rule for sidekicks. It might be easier to manage, especially for new players.
In the first part of dragon queen, there’s a lot of encounters and no time for a long rest. Don’t feel like you have to throw all of the encounters at the players, 2-3 will probably do nicely. Don’t feel bad about throwing a few extra healing potions out, either from the townspeople or as loot, even if it’s not written down. And at the end, the Dragonborn will probably one-shot whoever goes to fight him. I let a townsperson run up and stabilize the character while the Dragonborn walked away all cocky. No fun putting the player in a no-win encounter and then killing them, too. Also, if you keep playing it, it will feel really good when the players get a few levels under them and kill the guy who used to be able to one-shot them.
Ok, i'll definitely look into that box set and see if I can check it out! And you're completely right, I don't think anybody would appreciate it if their character just straight up got slaughtered right out of the gate lol Thanks!
That’s not a bad party composition it could work. I’d be more worried about new players keeping two classes worth of abilities in their heads. If you have time before you play, there’s one of the box sets, the starter set, I think but I might be wrong, that has rule for sidekicks. It might be easier to manage, especially for new players.
In the first part of dragon queen, there’s a lot of encounters and no time for a long rest. Don’t feel like you have to throw all of the encounters at the players, 2-3 will probably do nicely. Don’t feel bad about throwing a few extra healing potions out, either from the townspeople or as loot, even if it’s not written down. And at the end, the Dragonborn will probably one-shot whoever goes to fight him. I let a townsperson run up and stabilize the character while the Dragonborn walked away all cocky. No fun putting the player in a no-win encounter and then killing them, too. Also, if you keep playing it, it will feel really good when the players get a few levels under them and kill the guy who used to be able to one-shot them.
Sidekicks is a UA release. Although I contend that Troupe Style play is not only doable and enjoyable with fully constructed characters, the sidekick rules in the UA are very helpful if you don't want to juggle another full character. The Starter set has a number of pregenerated PCs, it is cheap at around 10 bucks on Amazon. HotDQ is not the best adventure honestly, and can bog down very quickly as it makes assumptions about what the Players decide to do...REPEATEDLY. The second book is way better, if they hang in there.
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I've never DM'd before but because no one around me plays DnD I had to step up and take the role. I'm excited but nervous about making the game fun and functional for my players who are also first-timers. The Adventure I bought was Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I only have two players, but since the adventure recommends four, I'm letting them each play two characters. They've settled with a Rock Gnome Ranger, a High Elf Sorcerer, a High Elf Paladin, and a Human Paladin.
I'm concerned if this is a balanced party and what I can do to make the campaign go smoothly for them since I've heard that this adventure is particularly deadly for first-time players only after I bought it and its too late to return it or buy another. Any advice is welcomed!!
That’s not a bad party composition it could work. I’d be more worried about new players keeping two classes worth of abilities in their heads. If you have time before you play, there’s one of the box sets, the starter set, I think but I might be wrong, that has rule for sidekicks. It might be easier to manage, especially for new players.
In the first part of dragon queen, there’s a lot of encounters and no time for a long rest. Don’t feel like you have to throw all of the encounters at the players, 2-3 will probably do nicely. Don’t feel bad about throwing a few extra healing potions out, either from the townspeople or as loot, even if it’s not written down. And at the end, the Dragonborn will probably one-shot whoever goes to fight him. I let a townsperson run up and stabilize the character while the Dragonborn walked away all cocky. No fun putting the player in a no-win encounter and then killing them, too. Also, if you keep playing it, it will feel really good when the players get a few levels under them and kill the guy who used to be able to one-shot them.
Ok, i'll definitely look into that box set and see if I can check it out! And you're completely right, I don't think anybody would appreciate it if their character just straight up got slaughtered right out of the gate lol Thanks!
Sidekicks is a UA release. Although I contend that Troupe Style play is not only doable and enjoyable with fully constructed characters, the sidekick rules in the UA are very helpful if you don't want to juggle another full character. The Starter set has a number of pregenerated PCs, it is cheap at around 10 bucks on Amazon. HotDQ is not the best adventure honestly, and can bog down very quickly as it makes assumptions about what the Players decide to do...REPEATEDLY. The second book is way better, if they hang in there.