In most games, goblins are mindless animal monsters with no culture, language, or strategy.Īs a consequence, most players will see these goblins as arbitrary enemies that exist to be killed for experience points, not part of the narrative.Īs a consequence, 90% of players will kill the goblins, not bother examining the dead horses, not put together any clues, not search for anything, and move right along to town to get their reward of 10gp.Įven if prompted by Barthen to go back and rescue Gundren, most players will not bother to do so. However, this course is almost impossible, as it is highly opaque during play.įirst up, it is almost certain that the players will assume these goblins are all there is and move on. If they are combat-averse and really weird, they can mitigate the wolves and klarg, reducing the xp stretch by 500xp, dealing with only what is necessary to rescue Sildar. While that is correct, the remaining 800xp goes without rests.Īs a consequence, a party is likely to be defeated during this stretch. There is only one reasonable opportunity for a short rest, after the initial ambush. While the total xp is appropriate, the way it is divided is not. It also means that enemies who attack the keep are more likely to kill him without any backup from his off-duty minions.Īt a total of 1250xp, the first chapter is only 50xp beyond the adventuring day budget for a party of 4 1st level characters. It is weird that it is positioned before the goblin den, as it essentially means the entire tribe has to walk through his bedroom/office/throneroom every time they go on duty or come off it. This is a 175% deadly encounter, making it unbelievably deadly- moreso than the goblin den, despite the lower action economy output. Otherwise, they will likely already be damaged from the first flood trap, possibly the second as well, and will likely get ambushed by the goblins here.Īll in all, this fight could be a cakewalk or an impossible barrier, depending on your heroes' intellect. This is a hard encounter, but if the party managed to approach undetected, they'll likely get a round of surprise out of their foes. Unless someone can cast a healing spell on him in the first round, he has a 50% chance of dying within 3-5 rounds- rounds the players will likely spend running for their lives. He gets dropped off the cliff as soon as things go south and has 1 HP. In the end, the only solution to this encounter is to outwit the goblins, possibly destroying the bridge as they cross it, or unleashing the flood trap on them.Īdditionally, almost any strategy the heroes use against this encounter will kill Sildar. The overwhelming numbers are supposed to encourage engagement with the side quest of rescuing Sildar through politics- but even that is ludicrous, because again it would require the heroes to have climbed the walls. This encounter is 50% beyond the deadly threshold, making it almost impossible for a party of characters to engage directly and survive.įor aggressive players with no sense of strategy or wit, this is a T.P.K., especially since they are much more likely to have engaged Klarg first, rather than climb the walls. Having the wolves set loose on the players has such absurd requirements, it will almost never happen. Most players will pass this by, and engaging the wolves is entirely optional. unsuspecting players and DMs alike.Īn easy encounter, especially if the players are strategic in their approach and get the drop on the goblins.Ī hard encounter, but only if the players engage it. Pretty much everyone agrees, this can actually T.P.K. This is a rather surprising way to open an introductory adventure. The initial encounter is exactly on the threshold of being deadly. The problem comes with the transition from the goblin arrows encounter to the dungeon crawl. The start of the adventure is extremely short, simple, and straight-forward- at least, it seems that way at a glance. this analysis is meant to examine what that means for the actual play and execution of the adventure at the table, given a more thorough understanding of the game. Before we begin, I would make an important observation: This adventure was written before the dungeon master's guide, and so does not actually follow its encounter building recommendations. It is written with the assumption that the audience is familiar with the adventure and understand the encounter building guidelines from the dungeon master's guide. The following is a detailed and thorough analysis of the Starter Set adventure Lost Mines of Phandelver for 5th edition D&D.
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