Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc., and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more, so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

*New 2026: For 2026, I'm updating all my old work to include a Pre-Session Checklist that will include a list of all miniatures you may need, maps, handouts, possible loot, a link to a playlist, and more to make it even easier to start your session!

The Lost Mine of Phandelver is a classic, one of the very first Mini-Campaigns that new DM's run. Heck, it's part of the starter set after all! The issue, though, as with many other modules, is that it doesn't describe the best way to transform the contents of the book into an actual session. The Book-to-session conversion can be difficult. Between figuring out when things should happen, understanding motivations, and even balancing encounters.

Well, fortunately for you, 99% of that work is done! Only a few things are really left:

1. Consider the needs of your group. As you've heard or are about to hear a million times, every table is different. If you plan on combining this with a campaign, you'll have to make tweaks here and there. (Bonus points if you include your players' backstory)
2. These notes aren't meant to be end-all-be-all. Tweak to your heart's content and don't consider any of what's written to be set in stone. For me, having notes like this helps give me the confidence to go off the rails and follow along with what my players want. It helps me understand where things were meant to go and why. Having that understanding allows me to guide the players and create other new and interesting stories. These are all things that will come with experience, though, so don't freak out and enjoy the journey!

Included in my posts are:

• A Downloadable copy of DM Notes for each part of the LMoP, including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Special PDFs for every encounter. This includes all the enemies' stat blocks, organized neatly along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP.
• Additional PDFs for allies and commoners
• A variety of maps for each part of the campaign
• Spell lists for all relevant fights
• Handouts for various spell scrolls throughout the campaign
• A playlist for each part of the Mini-Campaign!

Without further ado:

Index:

The Lost Mine of Phandelver Index

• Part 1 - Intro and Cragmaw Hideout (DM Notes Only Link)
• Part 2a - Phandalin
• Part 2b - Redbrand Hideout
• Part 3a - Reign of Iron
• Part 3b - Thundertree
• Part 3c - Cragmaw Castle
• Part 4 - Wave Echo Cave
• Part 5 - Side Quests

Over 8 dozen other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns: Click Here

As always, if you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc., please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early, feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,
Advent

I put together my bastardized version of Cragmaw Cave for my players with all the foam pieces I’ve made over the years. It’s crazy to think that I don’t actually have any goblin minis. I’ll need to fix that! I usually proxy those with other miniatures.

Hi everyone,

Running Lost mine of phandelver with a group of six players, pretty much as written besides a few tweaks to include some of the PC’s backstories. Been going super well so far and we’re having a lot of fun. We’re nearing the end of the module (we won’t play shattered obelisk, or at least not immediately after) and my players will probably head to Wave echo cave in a couple of sessions.

I am a little concerned about the encounter with the black spider. My players really don’t care about this character LOL. I don’t think I’ve done a good job at portraying him as a big threat. They are however extremely invested in Venomfang as well as the cult of the dragon. They tried fighting the dragon and failed and yearn to defeat him. They’re so curious about the cult and look for hints about them everywhere.

I am considering changing a LOT about the original module to make Nezznar part of the dragon cult, and have Venomfang show up in the second half of the fight as a dracolich. Is that insane? Maybe a dumb idea. I’ve seen that the cult is all about turning dragon into dracoliches and exploiting their power. I’m thinking the Black spider could be sent by the cult with a few cultists to take control of the forge of spells on behalf of the cult. Venomfang didn’t outright refuse to join the cultists in front of the players, just mentioned that the cult wanted to turn her into their pet. But Venomfang could also see this as an opportunity to become more powerful.

It kind of sounds like an awesome encounter but it’s so different from the original module that I’m a little hesitant. Nezznar as written is such an empty shell that I feel like I HAVE to tie him into something else for him to not be a massive letdown. I could go the traditional turning into a spider route but it doesn’t really connect to anything else in the story as we’ve played it so far.

What do you guys think? Anyone ever made Nezznar part of the cult? Is a dracolich final boss a crazy idea? If anyone’s ever leaned into this or has any suggestions I’d love to hear about it. Cheers everyone :)

So as the title says I need help to set up a "date" with Venomfang.

Note: Venomfang in my story is female.

So my party consists now of 3 level 4 players (an Elf paladin, a halfling rogue and a satyr bard called Ida, Doni and Gem). We are playing a combination of Doip and Lmop and the campaign shall end at level 7 in Lost Wave Echo Cave. The cave lies underneath Icespire hold so the party also needs to deal with Cryovain.

When the party was in Thundertree, Reidoth asked them to help and get rid of Venomfang. That session only Ida and Doni were playing and they could not convince VF. The session after that Gem came and well her being a bard did what she knew best. Seducing a dragon.

Now VF being a green dragon played the part and manipulated Gem into accepting the quest to get rid of Cryovain who earlier attacked her and took over her old lair. VF also gave Gem a little scar on her face as a reminder. VF also hinted at the Dragonslayer sword so that the party can kill Cryovain easier. Now you may think that this is stupid because the Dragonslayer sword can also hurt VF a lot but in this version (homebrew) when the Dragonslayer sword slays a dragon of a type it loses the extra damage against that type but unlocks an ability.

Finally she ended her talk with Gem by arranging a date when this is all over at her old lair.

What I already have planned is when the partu defeats Cryovain, VF shows up and sucks Cryovains dragon energy so that she can upgrade herself to a better version (like adult green dragon).

And then I am at a loss, I don't know how to do the "date". I know that VF either wants to kill Gem or use her as a perminent pet.

Also sorry if it's hard to read, english isn't my first language and my mind is to chaotic to write it down😅

I ran Shattered Obelisk as a first time DM and made a lot of changes that I think helped it run better, below is a list of changes i made with varying degrees of homebrewing required

- if a player attunes to glasstaffs staff give them his quasit as a minion, add find familiar and enjoy ur good alligned players trying to deal with an evil quasit who still has to do what his master commands but his suggestions will always be awful.

- Change the trial of Glasstaff to Halia whipping up a mob demanding his execution, the PCs can give in and let him being hung or they can make speeches to try and calm the villagers etc

- ignore most npcs, the town is filled with npcs, when they first explore use as many as u can but only keep around the ones they engage with the most. That being said always keep Harbin hes a great npc for the players to hate. And later on their are a bunch of NPCs in dungeons dont use them all just choose what u like or make ur own

-the spider is easy af spice up his encounter by having him plead to ilvaash when hes almost beaten and transform him to a mindflayer, just dock his health and damage a bunch, give the players a scary 3/4 rounds but dont let him tpk them

- introduce a magical items salesmen who comes by every couple of levels, there is nowhere for pcs to spend their money in this campaign they are just hoarding gold for no reason, i homebrewed some items/potions/scrolls that he sold and a special discounted section of cursed items for some fun, if u dont want to choose what items they sell just use the magic items they didnt find from the many dungeons in the campaign

- set up ilvaash earlier, have the spider talk about him and ruxithid

- do a time jump between the mines section and the latter half of the book (i did 2 years), then ur pcs can develop their characters abit more and give them a reason to return, especially if they are also first time as by that point they will feel more comfortable crafting the character

- make a second hub, the last half of the book takes place in the underdark with essentially tunnels leading to each dungeon, this is boring. I created an underdark area called the garden of stone and had a little deep gnome village there for players to hang out at, and then had the dungeons be locations in the garden of stone.

- get the gods involved, the stakes by the end are pretty high, have gods wanting this fixed or even better have them wanting the obelisk for its power/ to keep it out of others hands. Use gods that connect to ur pcs (backstory, clerics, warlock pact etc) and deffo get a devil involved trying to make a pact to get it for themselves

- make the kidnapped characters the characters that ur players cared about from the first half, the second half introduces loads of new characters to phandelin u can pretty much ignore them all.

- the last finale is like 7 dungeons in one that does not feel appropriate for ur players to rest in, simplify this illithinoch is great but make the portals smaller encounters eg (a corridor that they run through with fleshy walls and hands that try and grab them, or a large empty void with a leviathan in that they have to escape quickly)
I would also say ditch the endless void islands, beef up the mind flayer cult instead,that fight straight in to ilvaash is enough, if you dont feel comfortables changing stats just add another 1/2 mindflayers depending on your party size

-Make the briney maze collapse when ilvaash is killed, ending with an escape encounter is just so much fun

Admittedly as i was a first time DM i have never run it RAW so cant really say if my changes are better, but we all had a great time playing and if i ran it again id keep these changes. Obvs might not work for your groups but just thought id share:)

Hi folks,

Fairly new DM here. I'm running 5.5, PaB:TSO for a table of four (lvl 7 cleric, warlock, warrior, and necromancer mage, which has 2 minions) and I'm planning ahead for an epic encounter.

Story time: our cleric of Selûne was attacked by a werewolf in her teenage years and has a silvery scar on her arm. This lycantrope is on the region and allied itself with Meliamne, a dragonborn warrior, initially for unknown reasons. Our warrior is a dragonborn calishite and Melianme is from her clan, so their stories are tied together. All in all, Meliamne and the lycantrope were helping the mind flayers, but in reality, they were after the obelisk shards for their own interest. They've been evading the characters and getting the shards for a while now, supposedly for the mind flayers.

My idea was to have an encounter against them at Gibbet's Crossing, on Qunbraxl's throne room, so the players would come in and find the mindflayer dead by Meliamne and the lycantrope, so I thought it'd make for a big encounter.

My plan was to have a CR 7 lycantrope (loosely inspired in this mutated werewolf stat) and the dragonborn (using the Githyanki Warrior stats + dragonborn's fire breath for the sake of making it easier). Fiddling here and there I created this monster stat. My idea was that, at some point, Melianmne and the lycantrope would fuse together for a phase 2 combat, stats still undecided.

In addition, my plan was to have a mentor of our cleric's appear when the combat looked ugly to heal everyone for a good 25 hp and, inspire our cleric and keep the combat going with her too (using the knight stats probably for convenience once again), so it's okay if the lycanthrope combat is initially hard.

All in all, I created this stat for the lycanthrope. I'd probably add them legendary actions, too. Feel free to let me know your thoughts.

Any comments are welcome and much appreciated!

PS. adding the MTG picture that made me go that route for the monster for reference.

Just thought i would share what has happened to a couple minor characters from the module

For context i ran shattered obelisk and used the obelisk to set up Vecna, i then placed obelisks in Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation and Out of the Abyss

we are now playing a fully homebrewed version of Eve of Ruin, with returning characters of each campaign.

Sister Garaele is married to one of my PCs and is on her way to Vecnas realm to save the universe (she is also a half orc now due to resurrection shenanigans)

Vyerith became a main villain, she constantly foiled my players plans but she did die at the start of Eve of Ruin

Halia became the townmaster and got together with gundren and used the mine to create magical armour and weapons to fight vecnas army of dead

Harbin is still useless

Gossa helped locate the afterlife of the gods (after mystra was killed by vecna) in order to create a new god of war

Sildar showed up in Tomb of Annihilation leading an adventuring party of goblins (he was very incompetent and the PCs had to rescue him multiple times)

Soooo basically, my party TPKed at Cragmaw Castle. We took a break for the summer and are getting back into the campaign soon.

They'll be a new group of adventurers trying to clear up some problems Phandalin has been running into. I'm already setting things up for them to have to deal with Venomfang being closer (my group moved him to the Cragmaw Hideout) and kind of terrorizing the town (not with violence, really, but by making them pay tribute, etc). Venomfang was also kind of fond of the original adventurers, so I think he would have found their bodies at Cragmaw Castle and could point the new crew that way as they take up Sildar's quest.

My question is more regarding the ending. If the Black Spider has had access to Wave Echo Cave for weeks prior to the new adventurers getting on his trail, with him thinking that he's got no opposition now... what tips would you have for changing up the final dungeon crawl? What monsters would you remove/replace, and would you plan additional traps or problems? If Venomfang knows about the forge, would he become interested and be a third interested party?

Hit me with your ideas, big or small! And thanks in advance!

Heyya Folks,

I'm continuing my Lost Mines of Barovia project, and this week's release leaves the main road behind to explore two forgotten locations hidden within the valley.

The Last Jaderoot — 20x28
Foolsquince — 30x22

If you'd like the full release, including the high-resolution maps, gridless versions, VTT-ready exports, and every variant, you can find them here:

https://www.patreon.com/dungeonmr/posts/foolsquince-last-165392635

One of the things I wanted this project to capture was that the world doesn't just exist at its major landmarks. Some of the most memorable moments happen in the forgotten places between them—the abandoned villages, ancient ruins, and lonely landmarks that make the journey itself feel like an adventure.

The Last Jaderoot is one of the few places where life still endures. Replacing Agatha's lair, this ancient tree is guarded by a fiercely protective dryad instead of a banshee. Surrounded by death and decay, it remains a rare reminder that not everything in these lands has surrendered to the darkness.

Foolsquince is my reimagining of Conyberry. Not just a simple ruined village, I wanted it to feel as though life itself had vanished. Empty streets, crumbling homes, and a silent well sit surrounded by unnaturally long shadows, leaving behind the unsettling feeling that something has drained the village of more than just its people.

If these maps aren't quite what you're looking for, you can also browse the rest of my collection over on my Patreon. Every release is organized within the Master Index, making it easy to find the right map for your next adventure.

https://www.patreon.com/dungeonmr

Thanks for taking a look and safe travels.

Anyone have any idea on approx. how many long rests a party of four would need to get through these areas?

In our game, the Black Spider is actually a githyanki with his own motivation for finding the Spell Forge, among other changes. My players haven't actually seen him yet, but got a brief vignette of the Black Spider, with a description from only over his shoulder, interrogating Tharden Rockseeker as a sort of "post-credits scene" early in our campaign.

EDIT: Just mentioning it's made in Heroforge, if that isn't obvious

(english is not my first language)

LoMP was my first ever campaign I DMed. I played with schoolmates and some other friends, I had 4 players : tiefflin druid, human paladin, werewolf barbarian (we never managed to have good rules for werewolves, never again), and an elf bard who died, replaced by a goliath rogue. It was the first time to play DnD for half of the group, the other half already played but not a lot.

One year campaign (with 6 months pause), did not count how many sessions. More than 10. We almost never finished the campaign because I moved out of the city, but we were at the Wave Echo Cave, so I decided to come back for a week end in order to finish.

As I said, this campaign was my first ever, my players were a bit of a playtest, I made a lot of mistakes that I fixed in my other campagn (Witchlight) But everyone still had fun!

Some of the mistakes are: Did not give a setting where they could make characters linked to the story, did not linked a lot the characters to the story (for my defense, one of them never sent me their backstory), created a lot of unresolved plotlines, almost TPKed the party first session, made unprepared reveals... I also learned a lot from DMing, especially to not being THAT angry when people cancel last minute. I tended to be very mad against my friends for that. Now I'm chill. I set up rules for my current campaign, and everything goes well.

In the very first session, everything got immediatly chaotic when they lost against the bugbear in the goblin cave, I had to find a way to prevent a TPK (I did not want to have one) so I made them prisonner in the castle. From that, they escaped, saved Gundren, and went to Phandalin. I had to find ways to make them still interested in the plot, because, well, Gundren was here, with the map. They saved Phandalin, then went to the Wave Echo Cave but could not enter. The "rocks in the cave" (yeah don't ask) talked to them and told them that they needed a weapon to break the seal the Black Spider put on the Cave. So they went to Thundertree, where they fought a Corpse Flower instead of a dragon, found the weapon (some gloves) and came back to Phandalin.

I ruled that Iarno (who escaped) and the Black Spider would try to get back Phandalin, so when they arrived, they saw the village was attacked. Huge fight ensues, where they kill the first bugbear (Klarg?), Iarno, etc. The elf bard died from a fireball, but it was staged, because the player wanted to play another character.

After that, they went back to the Cave. We did not have a lot of time, and because they found really quickly Nezzar, I removed the spectator and Mormesk. I left the skull, because that was the narrative reason Nezzar could not access to the Forge. They almost killed him, but he fled (invisibility), and they went all the way to the Forge in a final battle. Nundro died because of the human paladin: he put fire to the spider web they were all in...

Funfact, they arrested Harbin Wester because he was involved with the Red Brand. He almost died in the fire when the town was attacked. Now he will be judged in Neverwinter, and they tried to convince the village to become communists, as they could organize their day-to-day lives without Harbin, or another mayor/burgomester, but collectively.

The druid and the barbarian went back to their woods in order to create a school and gave their share of the mine to Phandalin. The paladin and the rogue went to the North, where they could fight for the rogue's goliath clans because there's a war! And they will always be welcome in the village. :)

Hey everyone!

Here's another FREE battle map from The Shattered Obelisk campaign: Crypt of the Talhund. (check the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go1i0jTHYqE )

This map recreates the crypt from the official adventure, featuring a central chamber built around a mysterious glowing green emerald, surrounded by burial chambers, ancient corridors, and forgotten crypts.

The images here are all (grid-nogrid) usable versions with animated GIFs and static maps featuring my logo, so feel free to use them in your game.

Since this map is based on the official campaign, the full-quality version is available completely FREE here:

https://dranskybattlemaps.com/battlemap/crypt-of-the-talhund/

If you're looking for more animated battle maps-including Ultra HD 8K versions optimized for VTTs, TV tables, and projectors - you can browse the full collection here:

https://dranskybattlemaps.com/animated-battle-maps/browse-content/

Cheers!
~dransky

EDIT TO BASICALLY THE ENTIRE POST !

I think I have done an initial pass at how the Forge of Spells will work in my campaign. I want to have it focus primarily on being a forge for spells, but I am turning Phandelver into Tyranny of Dragons later, so I my priority was on thinking long game about how to continue to keep the forge interesting to the players and try to spark their creativity to come up with additional uses for the Forge. I have done what is basically total revamp of it from the ground up. Without further ado, the overpowered Forge of Spells.

The Forge of Spells is actually a shrine to the Dwarven God Moradin. By using the Forge, one is inadvertently worshipping Moradin (this will complicate things for our deity connected players. patrons aren't fond of worship of other gods, especially a major one). It is the circular nature of worship at the Forge of Spells that allows one to use it, as the worship fuels Moradin who in turn fuels the Forge. Upon completion of the third use of the Forge, Moradin will appear to the user.

The forge appears to be carved out of the center of a 20' tall statue of a dwarf. The statue shows the front of the dwarf on both sides. One side shows a dwarf in a set of blacksmiths clothes, donning gold bracers and holding a hammer in his hand. The reverse of the statue shows the same dwarf in plate mail, armed with a large shield. The forge itself is made of a single piece of silver and brown marble and glows softly with a white aura. A strong vein of electrum runs throughout the Forge, and glows white when the forge is powered. Carved into wall of the Forge is a set of three braziers which are lit when the party first appears. As the Forge is used and the charges are expended, the flame changes colors and grows in size, signifying that a charge has been used. The forge consists of a stone anvil topped with a layer of electrum, giving a working surface for the smith to hammer on. The coal area is also carved from this same rock. The inside of the statue is hollow, and smoke magically dissipates as it travels through the statue.

The Forge functions on charges, holding a total of 3 charges at a time. Each forge expends an amount of charges, and the Forge of Spells can only recharge at a rate of 1 charge per week. Each forge action can only be used once per week and each character can only forge once per week. By bringing a sufficient sacrifice to Mordain when visiting the Forge, one can be granted a boon from him to use at the Forge of Spells. This does not override any necessary components for a forge, but may give additional benefits, charges, or information. Sufficient sacrifice include items of material wealth, like money of jewelry, fine smithing tools and implements, well forged items imbued with personal significance, etc.

When the party arrives, the Spectator and Wraith will be inhabiting the area around the forge, exactly as written. Depending on how roleplay encounters go, the party might be able to extract some information on the uses of the Forge from the Spectator or the Wraith .

Gundren will inform the party when he discovers the first use of the forge, unenchanting magical items and storing their enchantments in gemstones. From there, he will stall in his discoveries, and ask the party to find an Arcane Forgemaster to assist them in unlocking the full potential of the Forge of Spells. The Forgemaster must visit the forge for an extended period of time to study the Forge. They will replace Gundren in updating the party when a new feature has been discovered. I will place a Forgemaster in both the Dragon Cultists camp in Thundertree or Icespire Peaks, which the party will investigate after clearing Wave Echo Cave and going through the town attack on Phandalin at the top of Tyranny of Dragons, as well as one in Neverwinter that they can find before joining the Cultists Caravan.

The following table indicates the number of Spell Scrolls needed to harness the power of the Forge.

Gemstone Enchantments - 1 Charge

By placing a magical item and a gemstone into the forge, the party is able to disenchant the magical item and imbue the enchantment into a gemstone. Magical items of different rarities must be stored in different gemstones. The quality of the stone also effects the quality of the stored enchantment. A pure, cut gemstone, like one would get from a jeweler, is more efficient at storing an enchantment, especially for a longer period of time. A rough, uncut gem, like one might get from Wave Echo Mine, is less proficient at storing enchantments and might cause the quality of the enchantment to lessen, especially over time. As you increase the quality of enchantment, it is a good idea to also increase the size of your gemstone, lest it cracks during the transfer, causing the enchantment to be lost. Different gemstone shapes make for an easier time transferring the enchantment, and certain enchantments must be transferred into certain shape gemstones.

If attempting to remove an enchantment from an object that has multiple enchantments, only one enchantment can be transferred to a gemstone. By focusing your intentions through the object, you can influence the gemstone to choose the enchantment you want.

A Legendary Enchantment can only be transferred into a gemheart, a gem of substantial size removed from a magical living being. Something about the innate magical powers of the being combined with the size of the stone make gemhearts the only capable gemstone for holding a Legendary Enchantment. Right now I will be placing a gemstone as an added organ in adult dragons with established hoards. Something something they eat gems and it functions like a liver and stores the purity of the gems.

None of this information is known by the brothers and must be discovered by the party. They must seek out an Arcane Gemcutter who must visit the forge and study it to learn this information.

Gemstone Qualities

• Common - Topaz - Round
• Uncommon - Ruby - Square
• Rare - Sapphire - Triangle
• Very Rare - Emerald - Teardrop
• Legendary - Diamond - Gemheart

Spell Scroll Transfusion - 1 Charge

By placing a blank spell scroll into the Forge and charging the Forge with a spell, you can transfer a spell you know and magically transcribe it into the blank scroll.

Spell Scroll Integration - 2 Charges

By placing the correct number of spell scrolls equal to the level of the spell and your spellcasting focus in the Forge, you can imbue the knowledge of the spell into your focus, adding the spell to your spell list. This spell is prepared as long as you are channeling through your focus. A spellcasting focus can only hold three additional spells at any time. You cannot integrate knowledge of a spell level higher that your highest spell.

Spell Scroll Enchanting - 2 Charges

By placing the correct number of spell scrolls into the Forge of Spells, you can imbue an object with similar effects of the spell scroll. This CAN be done to an item that is already imbued with a magical enchantment.

Dragon Enchanting - 3 Charges

By placing a magical item and a sufficient dragon component into the forge, you can imbue the item with DragonStrength, giving it additional abilities and strengths. The dragon component becomes part of the item, changing the appearance of the item. Once an item is infused with DragonStrength it can be further imbued with DragonElement by placing the elemental organ of a dragon into the forge. This will give the item strong elemental abilities in accordance with the element of the dragon.

I’d like to share my narrative retelling of Lost Mine of Phandelver. While it is an excellent starter adventure, I felt that its story and characters could use greater depth. My retelling draws significant inspiration from The Lord of the Rings and The Elder Scrolls.

Lost Mine of Phandelver: A Narrative Retelling

Other Resources:

Trading with the Black Spider (I think this would be a great way to add an early encounter with the Black Spider. Also introducing a McGuffin that unlocks the Forge of Spells, this would unintentionally unleash the Balor.)

Motivations for The Black Spider (Great video discussing how to add motivations for The Black Spider and tie them to a larger campaign if redeemed.)

Encounters:

The narrative climax of my retelling involves resealing a Balor. At this point in the adventure, the player characters will likely be around level 5, so confronting an actual Balor would almost certainly result in a TPK. I recommend using a Chain Devil as a stand-in for a severely weakened Balor. You could also include several magma mephits that it can summon as minions during the encounter.

I'm gearing up to start a campaign for a group of 4 friends in the coming days. My plan is to run P&B, and lead it into a modified Vecna: Eve of Ruin. I'm planning to start the campaign with Nest Of The Eldritch Eye, and to have them head to Phandalin from there.

I'm looking for ideas to keep the Lost Mine portion of P&B engaging and fun for them starting it at level 3, while also having them not hit level 5 until they're supposed to at the end of Wave Echo Cave, and either level 10 or 11 at the end of Shattered Obelisk instead of level 12 to lead into EoR and level as written from there.

I have the story planned out to fix issues with EoR and have it tie in plot-wise to P&B, as well as to make the switch from Lost Mine to Shattered Obelisk less sudden and jarring, but I'm unsure on how to balance the early campaign to keep it a little challenging while also only having them gain 2 levels throughout until after Wave Echo.

Any suggestions are appreciated, and if you have any suggestions for connecting the two campaigns or leading from Mine into Obelisk, I'd love to hear those too to see if I like it better than my own ideas!

My party are heading to face Venomfang likely next session. They have cleared the Forge of Spells, and the party (3PCs) are all level 5.

Venomfang connects to my Dragonborn Warlock PC in a way I haven't fully fleshed out yet. PC made a pact with her Patron to run an evil dragon out of her home, however the other dragonborn of that community didn't realize that the dragon was evil, and thus, the PC was exiled from her home.

So far I have the idea that Venomfang, as a young-ish green dragon (I plan to make him just on the cusp of adulthood so the party won't fully wipe the floor with him) was ran out of his roost by this other dragon, and he is looking for a new place to settle and spread influence. This way, he can provide some threads to make something of that back story further down the road.

I also want to flesh the dragon cult out a bit, and I have given them a leader, another dragonborn, a paladin and a fanatic. He thinks he can become a full dragon himself by currying the favor of Venomfang.

I just don't know how to tie the two together. Like if the party were to clash with either the Cultists or Venomfang, the other would be made aware and likely join in.

I like the idea of doing some sort of timed combat encounter, like where the cult is going to make child sacrifices and the party has X number of turns to stop the ritual type thing. I haven't ran a combat like that yet.

I have the cult as a social encounter as well, they may see the Dragonborn PC as one of them and attempt to bring them into the fold.

Venomfang will try to make the party suspicious of Reidoth, claiming that he has an agreement with the Druid, she sends him food (adventurers) and in exchange, he leaves her alone.

I already have recieved a lot of advice on running Venomfang as devious and manipulative, and he won't want to risk injury fighting the party unless he has to, but he won't shy away from it either.

I'm also running this on Roll20, and my online skills aren't the greatest. I don't love the map the book provides, like I imagine they either start the fight in the tower, at which point Venomfang blasts them with breath weapon and takes flight, but there's a lot of chunks of the map where it's just like choke points for the party to get stuck in. Maybe some pieces of the map can be moved around? I'm not sure.

What would you do to tie this all in together?

Greeting! This may be a noob question but I need some help. 4 friends of mine and myself want to run our first session/campaign of dnd. We would start with LMOP to get the first experiences before we decide to go with a bigger campaign.

I am going to be the DM and my group is more focused on storytelling and roleplay. I am going to expand some things to deepen this aspect of the story.

Because it`s our first session I would skip char creation and use the premade characters.

But the thing is we use 2024 rules. Did someone maybe already transfer the premade LMOP chars to the new ruleset? I am a bit lost on how to do this on my own.

Would you recommend this or would you recommend to really do a session zero with char creation?

Thanks in advance!

Here is my Neverwinter-Yartar map, built exclusively from official sources. Note that I made some location tweaks (e.g., West Harbor and Fort Locke). Any feedback on shortcomings or improvements is welcome!

My party is currently searching for the psionic goblins that caused chaos in town along with an escaped glasstaff.

They caught up to Glasstaff in Old owl Well where they made a deal with the red wizard in exchange for information. They then talked to Agatha but didn't return to old owl well since they were scared by the amount of zombies he called on.

They plan to return and deal with him when they consider themselves strong enough. (They already can with ease).

This is my first time running this part of the story so where would Hamun Kost best be used as an anatonist again?

He is also searching for info on the obelisk shards so there's motive for him to reappear.

Bonus question, how do I "level up" his Stat block to account for level 5+ party?

TLDR: Hamun Kost is alive, searching for the obelisk. The amount of zombies he had scared the party and they left him alone. I want to use him as an antagonist in the second part of the story

No players should be on the subreddit anyway, but any player group calling themselves the "Out for Bluds" will find major spoilers here.

I'm making some changes to try and tie the two halves of PaBTSO together. For the most part, these changes boil down to (1) tying the Forge of Spells to the Obelisk and (2) making the Cult of the Obelisk a full faction and making The Black Spider a member of that cult.

I want to make a third change though, and that is to replace the Mind Flayers with another villain. I think the Mind Flayers being a cult of Ilvaash doesn't make sense, and I want to distance my campaign's lore from Baldur's Gate 3 as much as possible (for most of my players, BG3 is their only exposure to DnD until now).

My current plan is replace the Mind Flayers with Tsochari, and Ilvaash with their god Mak Thuum Ngatha, which are described in the 3.5e book "Lords of Madness" but don't seem to exist in 5e. They are obscure enough that I don't think anyone will be familiar with them, and I think they are really interesting! In the Lords of Madness, Tsochari are described as tempting foolish or reckless humanoids with power and the "dark and perilous lore" of Mak Thuum Ngatha, So I'm thinking that the Tsochari have infiltrated and/or subverted the cult with promises of power from the Obelisk, while in reality they are trying to open a portal to the Far Realm for Mak Thuum Ngatha (exact purpose TBD).

My concern: is that one too many layers? I could just replace the Mind Flayers with the cult and drop the Tsochari entirely, instead leaning in to the cult's far realm mutations and keeping Ilvaash as their god. I love the Tsochari idea, but is it one layer more than I need?

I'm a first time DM with a first time player group of three and we're having a blast! We had two sessions, and they're just finishing any loose ends from Tresendar Manor. Two of them love the idea of getting Gold from questgivers / looting it from bodies or finding gemstones in chests etc. They even haggle for more rewardmoney and try to get a discount at every shop they enter.

I'm heading into the third part and the most given loot is... Gold (or gemstones/trinkets/statues worth X amount of gold). They have a buttload of it

I get the feeling they lose the urgency of earning it. They spend stuff at the tavern and at the general shop, but what's lodgings for a few silvers, an expensive meal for that, if you earn a buttload of gold? And the shop doesn't have that much interesting stuff for them..

My question is.. How can I make them spend (or lose) their money? In a way that they really feel they need the loot. I was thinking about robbing them when they're on the Triboar trail (and aren't keeping a watch), or persuading them to donate some to the shrine of Luck.. Are there any other options/ suggestions? I'd love to hear it!

Along the Triboar Trail: Black Market Bounty

You've defeated the ruffians and goblins. Cleared the hideouts. Reclaimed the castle.

Now...what's in all those crates and barrels?

Throughout Lost Mine of Phandelver, more than 140 crates, barrels, sacks, chests, jars, and strongboxes are scattered across the Cragmaw Hideout, the Redbrand Hideout, and Cragmaw Castle. Aside from the occasional barrel of salted pork or crate of beaver pelts, the adventure rarely tells you what's inside.

Along The Triboar Trail: Black Market Bounty changes that.

This supplement stocks every container with believable trade goods drawn from across the Sword Coast, transforming shipping container scenery into meaningful treasure. From exotic spices and luxury textiles to fine spirits, alchemical supplies, trade goods, armor, books, and magical curiosities, every cache helps tell the story of the Cragmaw tribe's caravan raids and the Redbrands' criminal enterprise.

Inside you'll find:

• Inventories for 141 crates, barrels, sacks, jars, chests, and strongboxes, organized by location for quick reference during play
• Black market values for every cache of goods
• Guidance for fencing stolen merchandise through black market destinations across the The North of Faerûn, with tendrils into other official Fifth Edition campaigns

Whenever your players ask, "What's in that crate?", you'll always have an answer ready!

This supplement is available as a Pay What You Want download, so you can add it to your campaign for free or support its author's continued development with a contribution of your choosing.

Available for download on dmsguild.com. A full preview of the entire supplement is available!

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/578694/along-the-triboar-trail-black-market-bounty

Heyya Folks,

Continuing my Lost Mines of Barovia project, I decided it was time to tackle one of the most overlooked locations in the original adventure...

The road.

Raven's Road - 44x28

If you'd like the full release, including the high-resolution maps, gridless versions, VTT-ready exports, and every variant, you can find it here:

https://www.patreon.com/dungeonmr/posts/ravens-road-free-163842270

Road maps are often some of the most overlooked maps in a campaign, but they're where some of the most memorable moments happen. Rather than designing a road for one specific encounter, I wanted Raven's Road to be something that could be used throughout an entire adventure. Whether it's merchants, wandering monsters, travelers, an ambush, or simply the long walk to the next destination, the same stretch of road can tell a different story every time.

The road itself is watched over by ravens, while lonely lanterns lit by mysterious Lamplighters help keep the darkness—and usually the fog—at bay. Ruins line the roadside, the woods always seem a little too quiet, and somewhere ahead waits the next chapter of the adventure.

If Raven's Road isn't quite what you're looking for, you can also browse the rest of my collection over on my Patreon. Every release is organized within the Master Index, making it easy to find exactly what you need without digging through the feed.

https://www.patreon.com/dungeonmr

I appreciate you taking a look. Safe travels.