Thank you for the shout out, Nate! Definitely going to check out your guide for the quests :D

I took my players into Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and in session 1, room 2 they ran into 2 swarms of spiders that killed one of them. I felt terrible. the Challenge rating suggested that the fight shouldn't have been too hard, but resistance to slashing, bludgeoning and piercing was too much for a couple of characters with little magic. So, I made up some story about how the dead character was dragged out of the house and met by a wizard on the road. He agreed to revive the character but the cost was too high. Since I just read Tashas, I had a merchant step in to help (whom we had already established owed my player a favor), to "save" him. That merchant is now their patron, helping to fund them.... which includes some men-for-hire I created using the sidekick rules. They loved it. They thought thats how the adventure was written. And they didnt have to spend another 3 hours creating a new character to play for 15 minutes. I will definitely be more careful in the future. I like your method. thanks!

Fun Fact: Rime is frost which forms by mist or fog touching an object and then instantly freezing onto that object, rather than by the usual method of dew forming on an object and then freezing after the dew has formed. Bonus Fun Fact: I first encountered this word in the opening of Charles Dickens' famous story, A Christmas Carol, where a part of the description of Ebenezer Scrooge is the phrase "a frosty rime was on his brow" (hyberbole for him being a cold and unfeeling person). I wondered what the word meant and so looked it up in a dictionary when I could.

I am also very overwhelmed by DnD and this really helps!

So the Serial Killer quest....It's the "Starting Quest" but not the first quest to be completed. The group is supposed to learn about the serial killer, and search the 10 towns for him. As they travel from town to town, they complete "side" quests along the way. The serial killer quest should ideally be the last quest that bumps the party from 3 to 4, and gets them to explore the rest of Icewind Dale.

Seeing you pic those two as the first quest/towen options put me at ease. This is the first campaign I'm DMing and that was my instinct as well.

A great break down to the start of this campaign. There are so many quests in this first chapter I was stuck for a while on which one to pick but like your self Bremen stood out and really does set the scene for this lanscape

I tied the lakemonster in Bremen and the white moose in Lonelywood together for a oneshot. After befriending the lakemonster, it pulled their rowboats to where it had last seen Ravisin, which was close to Lonelywood. The first half of the adventure was for RPing and getting to know the DnD-system, the second for fighting and solving puzzles.

Nate, this was incredibly helpful to me in deciding where to start my first quest, also very excited to start watching your live stream videos. Excellent, as always!

Awesome as always! And thank you so much for the great advice!!

I like this adventure, takes from the yawning portal, and saltamrsb, cuz they are easy to dissect and put together as litttle individual adventures, which is nice when you are doing for a group where not everyone is their everyday

Thanks Nate! I like your process-of-elimination logic, makes sense to me. Those two definitely sound like the most fun for new players/characters!

Great video. I looked at these two as well, and went with Foam Mugs as I wanted to start them arriving up the trail into Bryn Shander returning to the Dale after nearly two years away. So that the Rime still happening and the towns people getting desperate was new information for them. Also running Sephek as an over arching chapter one baddy that have to murder mystery rather than npc names right away.

I just got the campaign book and am starting to plan out the campaign. this video and the town adventure write-up on your website are SO helpful!

Just started running this I definitely agree with you on the starting quests I started mine on the mountain climb

My group took up the Lonelywood quest. We then headed to the mine. Weirdly, both ended up pretty good. I think we just have a good formula for our group. We also took up the other starting quests and kinda run them simultaneously. Now we were allowed to choose the town we started in. And we all settled on a town we felt made sense for us to meet in. We needed a water based area so that knocked out a few towns already. Then we have two outlanders and a druid. This meant we needed an area that made sense for all of us to prefer. This basically left Lonelywood due to the forest. So yeah, we started with the moose quest. It also made sense for us, in retrospect, for our characters’ motives. Now we did leave out a few things that made our quest easier. First, we have very high perception and I have good stealth so, between both we managed to get the drop on our quarry. Now, second, we talked the Druid out of joining up. It ended up a philosophical conversation about responsibility and territory. We are all very nature based so that showed, our characters are well aware of the cycle of life and territory disputes. So yeah. And we probably are going to still have to deal with more awakened beasts in Lonelywood since the Druid will likely, implied as much, awaken more of them. Our characters are no pushovers at this point though. For context we have a Druid (they will be taking a few levels of cleric, too, probably with this next level up), a wizard, a Paladin, and myself, a ranger. The Paladin is still debating his subclass and our Druid hasn’t said much on hers. Wizard either but I don’t see that as an issue since he will have access to a wide range regardless of choice. Also he is the most experienced player at the table as he is a forever dm turned player. He’s been very helpful and good at pulling us into rp. As for our Paladin, he’s done well, like he will either take Matt Mercer’s open sea vow or the ancients one. Both will serve well. The Druid has already said the cleric subclass they will take will be nature. Myself, I’m a gloomstalker and I made it clear at session 0 that this was my plan. It’s my first ever dnd campaign and game so I poured over my research to figure out how best to design him. I’m quite happy how my character turned out and is being received by the party very well. One of my character’s goals is to purchase a sled dog though and I plan to name it Arlo. Too expensive for now and we have the Ramshackle still to fix up and now kobold employees to pay (yes we cleared the kobolds by rehoming them, and yes I’m aware one is possessed but our characters don’t and have no way to figure that out for now, so it will be something to deal with later). Anyway, yeah, it’s going well and we plan to take on as many of the town quests as our dm allows. We’ve also already accepted the starting quests and are working them simultaneously with some of the town quests. My ranger has made it weirdly quick work to get between the towns (favored terrain) and his perception is quite good, even in not so good rolls so we tend to be able to preempt a lot of problems. We are a weird looking lot but are already building up a friendly and helpful reputation that our dm has implied is being shared between the speakers. I’m quite liking this module, to be honest. To be fair, once I got a jist of what the adventure and general story was, I did seek out a group that was specifically playing this so I could have this adventure story. No I didn’t read the details. I figured that would ruin the fun. For what I do know I’m making sure to keep in mind what my character would know and what I know and keeping those separate. And yes, again, this is my first dnd game. Not my first rp though. I used to rp on forums and other chat websites quite regularly all the way since middle school to now. I also write stories and help my friends with theirs and am considered a good person by them to discuss character builds, backstories, arcs, etc. So for me, characters were the easy part as is the storytelling. Hard part is me learning my mechanics but I specifically want to try because I want to dm in the future and I don’t feel comfortable with doing so unless I have some player hours under my belt. I want a handle on mechanics and what they feel like in play since I will be using a lot of that knowledge as a dm. I wanted the context basically. I really like Icewind Dale though. My impression so far is that it is a good mix between sandbox and plot and it has good stakes that are easy to feel invested in, no matter the player. There is also a lot of freedom to be creative I find. I also have realized they are a good module to take advantage of some of the ranger abilities that are usually bashed on, like the favored terrain. Now hopefully I still love this module by the later chapters but I think it will be fine.

Nature Spirits as a quest is a great chance to have a light-hearted start to an otherwise crushing adventure.

Great video as always, Nate!

I played this w/ my brother, and he died going up Kelvin's Cairn, caught in a avalanche and couldn't escape. He had a strength of 20...

Thank you very much! Really enjoying your campaign! Very helpful!

This was very useful info! Was planning on running this campaign starting tomorrow and my biggest question was where to start. This answered that perfectly.

Been really enjoying Icewind Dale. My characters are a bit higher, so I might need to scale up some of these, but all of them were fantastic. Looking forward to all the additional stuff people release to go with these campaigns via Dungeon Masters Guild etc.

Thank you so much, this is exactly what I was looking for. As a new DM I'm having a rough time judging the difficulty, really wish they would have put some recommendations in there.

Really great overview

Thanks Nate awesome tips as always love your channel!

Thanks a lot man, im still new to DM-ing and I was scared I was gonna choose one thats too hard.

so I missed the first seven minutes of the live premiere, and had no clue that you were running Rime. I know what I'm gonna do today. Can't believe I missed that.

If you want what we in the industry call "a rather brisk campaign", you should definitely have the party do the "Cold-Hearted Killer" quest at level 1 and immediately encounter the killer and caravan.

I love it when the D&D community recommends other creators.

Nice video! Super helpful, thank you my friend🤘🏼

I ran foaming mugs for my players. When things looked bad for the party Arveiaturace landed on the wagon and flew off with the bears in her claws. The wagon broke from the harness and crashed to the ground.

I had the same rationale as you except went with Thargos. I really liked the it had them going right up into a mountain making survival checks and dealing with an avalanche. That led them to Caer-Koning as the nearest town so now they're doing The Unseen. I'm hoping to direct them towards Lake Monster next. Think doing at least something on Kelvin's Cairn and something on the water will best set them up for having the correct equipment before they venture into more remote parts of the world.

It makes me really happy that Bremen and Bryn Shander are the best fits based on those criteria. They were my two favorite towns, (along with Easthaven, though that's more nostalgia for the Icewind Dale cRPG) and I might give them a try if I get to run Rime at some point. Great video, Nate.

This was super helpful even for an experienced DM. I’m running it for a group of brand new players and will only have 3 for the first session most likely. I was leaning toward these two as well as the gem mine because I can modify the grell without affecting the setting. I do like that these get them out in the world and the environment is a huge part of the adventure.

Our (first time) DM is running Icewind Dale for our long-term campaign DM and me. We actually started out with the east haven quest and made a deal with the hag. (Pushing the Raven Queen blood hunter/warlock into a deep moral conflict lol). He's scaling down the health of some monsters for us since we're only two people. Doesn't mean they hit less hard though lol. Exploring the cave was really fun and the town received our weird elf PCs quite well haha Our DM is transitioning us over to the Killer quest and... I'm scared. But we've got a moose on our side!

I’m running the Sephek Kaltro quest as a murder mystery. They love it!

I have an idea to give an "indication" of which quests the party should do first to level up a little and then move onto - The ten towns could have a bounty system on a main billboard - the higher the bounty the more difficult the town quest - this maybe can lack some realism because maybe the towns don't even have enough info on the problem, but it can easily indicate to the characters which fights to pick first and then move onto harder fights such as the White Moose

I will be running this campaign sometime soon and I figured they start with the Targos quest which may have them go to Caer Konig and and Caer Dineval and discover the sunblight story line and then they could go to easthaven where there is lots more to do. Also introduces the black swords.

I actually started with the toil and trouble quest (the hag cave) but warned the characters upfront, that the quests in the campaign will not be balanced, so they were quite cautious. There was some great roleplaying with Maud the hag - my PCs were a bit reluctant to kill her and she was not attacking of her own accord. I found this to be a great but somewhat dark introduction to the campaign and managable for a wary level one group. My initial intention was to introduce the foaming mug quest but my PCs found the setup a bit boring so they went on with something else and I did not want to railroad them

Interesting that I came up with the Foaming Mugs quest as a starting quest for a different rational. Byrn Shandar is the place that people coming into Ten Towns would be dropped off at, so it made the most sense to start off with that town's quest (plus it just to match well with a characters back story).

just bought book no clue what im doing... subbed.. i think im off to a glorious start

Nice one good sir.

Could you please make a video (probably unedited) showing you prepare for a D&D session? I'm a budding DM and would love to see how someone, as experienced as you, prepares his sessions.

Thanks, Nate. I have one small disagreement with you regarding Cold-Hearted Killer. I don't think the PCs are supposed to complete this quest at level 1. It's supposed to motivate them to explore the towns. They shouldn't fight him until they've done a few of the other quests first and gotten at least a level.

Wow, I suggested that he should do this on the review, and he did - and improved upon it. Great Job! Thanks a lot!

Super useful info! my party is about to start this campaign. While it isn’t obvious, I think the first two starting quests, especially with the Sephek Kaltro at a challenge rating of 3, i think it was to be interpreted as the characters are also picking up the town quests while looking for Sephek. By the time they reach a level that they can battle Sephek, depending on the size of the party, should still be a challenge, but not so much that the party TPK’s. Same with the chewinga quest. The party would have to search for multiple towns, doing those town quests before they actually find the creatures. At least that is what I interpreted.

Man Nate... you’ve come a long way, buddy. I remember when I first came across you on KZfaq back when I was still trying to figure out how in the hell you play this crazy game. You were like... in a garage I think? Going over the basic rules of how to roll stats for new characters. That was 6-7 years ago if memory serves. I lost track of your channel for a while. Now you’ve got a whole set, graphic cards, and professional lighting/camera quality. Well done sir!!

Thanks for posting that interesting and informative video. I had to chuckle when you talked about groups getting inventive and smashing encounters that were supposed to be far too tough for them. I remember a high level party in a game I ran many years ago when 2nd-ed was still the latest thing. There were 6 PCs at levels 10-14 with two level-8 henchmen. I had a huge dungeon with a fire giant lair right in the center that they were supposed to navigate around. Of course, they ran into the fire giants, took out the outer guards and were lucky enough to prevent one pf them escaping to raise the alarm. They then found the giants' auditorium - with seating for over 150 giants. This was supposed to be all the warning they should have needed to back off and look for another path. Since they were still in good health, they did a little exploring - by chance, running into the chieftain's quarters. They fought the chieftain and his bodyguards (all with bumped-up stats), and the chieftain's wife (a fire giant mage). They got their butts kicked, but ultimately prevailed and all survived. After retreating and healing up, I figured they would take the hint and look for a way around the FG lair, but they had had the week to discuss it and they decided to go back in. For several hours, they fought a running battle, working together with the ruthless efficiency of a navy-seal team. Eventually, after the giants had lost almost half their tribe and sacrificed all their pets and guard monsters without killing a single intruder, I decided that it was time for the giants to gather up their small valuables and abandon the lair. Although there was no way for the giants to know, the PCs had been hanging on by their fingernails for some time having used up the vast majority of the resources they had been hoarding almost since the start of the campaign. I guess the net result was that they got to trade in most of their one-shot magical items (potions, scrolls, wands) for a boat-load of XP and a really memorable evening. Shortly after this encounter, I developed my infamous knock-down rules for giants.

Caer Konig is such a great town that I'm working on a 30 days of Night level 20 one shot for fun.... All because vampire kobolds If i could finish Dinoisland & Crimes on Crawford hill 😞

Thanks for this. Really helpful stuff :)

Well, I really love nature spirits, because you can do it in addition to any other quest. Just carry the lantern around until it turns green, a bit of social interaction, then little bit of tracking, and finally a fun weird game with Chvingas, rewarding player creativity with charms. It's short and doesn't take much time. And Termilane kobold mine is fun. I love dungeon crawl, and as do my players. Yes, Grell can easily punish too careless player, and it would be a good lesson for a future (yes, I'm that kind of dm). But my player's waited until all came down, and actually triggered that encounter by looking up. And poor Grell...against 6 players, it was annihilated in one round, barely surviving, and was cut in half by apartunity attack, when he tried to leave through the giant hole to underdark

Very useful guide, helped me a lot.

Was definitely thinking of Bremen first because of the foreshadowing. Now I’m certain I’ll do it.

Nate, I know the OGL decision was wrong but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE run more D&D adventure modules or your own home brew campaign ! Your live streams are an invaluable tool for us noobs at DM'ing these campaigns Plus myself and others dig your DM style Please do please ! I learned how to play this game based off of YOUR videos last year and your icewind dale rime of the frost maiden sessions are like lightbulbs for new DM's and players Dude WE NEED YOU and your Live Sessions Signed, New Players & New DM's P.S. - Thank You

I started by showing my players the map of all the town’s and going off only that, they would choose which one to start at. They chose Easthaven. I started with the town’s quest so they’re not just starting at the town to leave it. I then continued to nature spirit to get the party to start exploring the rest of ten towns, and for the most part, it worked. The town quest almost killed them at first, but they took a step back and started being more cautious. And when the cauldron they found was stolen later on, it also gave them more of a reason to leave Easthaven

So to start I rolled a D10 and got lonely wood and gave them the nature spirits and white moose Quest. They had some right bloody fights but come out the other side. So far they have done 4 of the 12 quest almost lvl 3 with how im leveling them.

Great, will check out the quests. One of my characters wanted to be a reincarnation of something, as a wild magic sorcerer. Ended up me giving him a secret he does not understand yet, as I found the idea of reincarnation interesting, and they just played Decend into Avernus. I figured, if Asmodeus got a grip on things here, maybe, some divine power have their eyes to assist, hence the player not knowing I have made it into a reincarnation of an celestial being, although, right now..it is a Goliath. A slight hint to its divine being have been given in the form of a wild magic sorcerer being given the divine magic trait from divine souls, and the ancestral knowledge trait. Looking forward to run through this campaign with my group and see where it leads. Ohh...Wild Surges..yes, they know it will occur extremly often. You pick a wild magic sorcerer in my campaign you can count on wild surges occuring left and right, for good and bad. I want this otherwise to be a low magic campagin item wise and focus more on character development and story.

I'm actually planning of starting in Waterdeep. They all get the quest to solve the mystery of the winter, and then get thrown into the start of Waterdeep Dragon Heist (fight in the tavern) introducing them to the Arcane Brotherhood, who trounce the monsters, then have a bit of roleplay as drinks flow. Then they travel towards Bryn Shander, begin to feel the cold, and then have an avalanche close off the road. There's other NPCs to handle the possibility of a tpk by digging them out. They get to Bryn Shander on foot, possibly an encounter or two on the way as they suffer the effects of exposure (basically a tutorial of the mechanics to the players) and rest at Bryn Shander. Now the normal campaign starts with the possibility of the killer quest but now at level 2. Oh, and I'm gonna spread that out all over the first two chapters as a murder mystery, perhaps having the Frost druid as the killer instead of Sephek.

I’ll be DMing this module and yeah some of these encounters are super dangerous. I think I’ll have my players start out at level 3 and start in Bryn Shander. That way they aren’t super low level and can move in either direction in which town they want to go to next.

Funny story. One of my players is a chef barbarian. (Don't ask lol) but we did toil and trouble and they convinced the hag with bunch of insanely good roles and a nat 20 to stop eating people and learn to cook with proper ingredients. It was hilarious. I had to let it happen.

I'm just a beginner. Him and his past videos have helped me dramatically. Keep it up man! Though I am confused on exp earning and distribution.

Man Sepheks is a mean dude to face. I was in a party of three level 2's when we faced him, and while he wasn't that hard (we burned him down in 2 turns), he does hit extremely hard. My level 2 Bladesinger was at max hp when he got crit, and if the DM rolled 2 more on his damage die, I could have rolled up a new character.

I think cold hearted killer is a good quest if they are doing other quests while looking for the killer, that way they can start with that one while still leveling up. And it gives like a nice “final boss” for the first chapter. But I guess that depends on the party.

So far I've done Foaming Mugs (Classic goblin quest) > Toil and Trouble > players are about to choose between Black Swords and The Unseen, they'll do both quests, then I'm doing Cold Hearted Killer, I've beefed Sephek up with some bonus actions, reactions and villain actions I found on reddit, just to spice combat up a bit and give him some more survivability, I have a large party and some of them are hardcore

the Cold-Hearted Killer quest is exciting for me, because the description of the killer's abilities described my character, so i requested to be a "prime suspect" and kinda start as the fake first suspect in a Police Drama.

Also, Nice glass o' water!

Nice

Play your DnD however you wish... Alternatively however, I've learned if your players feel you, as a DM, are going soft on them, or believe the DM will always save them, or go easy on them in any way... Then this lessens the RP or the "theater of the mind" intensity, potential excitement, and walking on eggshells feeling the players (IMO) should and must experience most of the time. If the players are TPK'ed by the dice, then they have 2 options... 1) Roll new PC's and start over, or 2) Start at level 2. I'm not a fan of the 2nd one, but the players, to heighten the experience... must feel as if at anytime, their PC's could die. I'm not saying as a DM to be heartless and out to TPK them, unless a meat grinder/hardcore game is what they want, but the PC's need to be on edge and growing suspense and intensity from the start of the game. (Unless you're DMing kids, it's a little different there, but only toned down, not off.) But play however you wish... It's your games.

I started by group in Bryn Shander. They skipped the quest though because they didn’t think they could take on a Yeti at level 1. They traveled to Good Mead. Didn’t like the idea of fighting a giant so moved on to Dougan’s hole. And they decided to follow the Winter wolves where they almost died to the mammoth. Lol

Chwingas are awesome! A Chwinga snowball at you sir!

Now that I've played the Mines of Phandelver adventure with my beaten up set, i need 3 things: new sheets for my new party that I will meet on some wednesday, and an adventure and dice. Should I get the essensials kit and this book so i have enough dice, sheets, and info on character's creations? or does the player handbook have the info i need for snowy enviorments/gear & hot to create a winter envorment character? Because i probally need this book and the essensial kit. maybe i can add the mini quests in?

From my experience DMing in regard to difficult encounters. Group A Players: control the elements of existence to nullify whatever. Group B Players: TPK by jumping from a cliff into oblivion thinking... Idk what they were thinking.

Leaving a comment after looking at the thumbnail: Cold Hearted Killer isn't as "hard" as people make it look, because your players will have most likely gone through the starting town quest and gotten to Level 2. At that point, it is certainly possible, especially if he is in Bremen or some other isolated area.

Kool Bob shout out

im reading through this and wanting to start but i was thinking about front loading the quest and throwing in the pixie thing as a quest they can do while completing another quest. my thought is to give them options to make it feel more open and also like the world is packed full of stuff. any thoughts?

I ran black swords as a one-shot, My players killed the cult leader, then through a set of persuasion rolls took over the entire cult. (They infiltrated by looking like aspirants to the cause). Only the cult leader died. It was a fun night. One of them is now in league with Levistus.

I see you also have fallen into the common misconception that the starter quest is supposed to be completed in a session. The 2 starter quests are meant to be given in the first town, and the characters go to various towns and do their quests as they search for the killer or chwingas. Caltro would wipe the floor with a first level party, but probably not a second, and that's the point. You can start with the starter quest, then session 1 can still be one of the towns quests, my players didn't find the chwingas until session 4.

So the quest for Sephek while a "starting quest" doesn't imply you have to finish it at level 1. The way I read it, you get the quest early on, but you unravel it whilst doing other quests. I'll be running session 2 of Rime of the Frostmaiden tonight, but technically it's session 1 again, because the real session 1, the players chose to start in Easthaven. The hag cave led them to the frost giant undead and rather than fleeing, level 1 and having just come off the back of a level 20 campaign they felt they could stand and fight. Needless to say, round 3 when it gets its first action, it hit the Barbarian with 15 max HP for 32 damage. Instant death. Then on subsequent turns with multiattack cut down the entire party who still chose not to flee. Easthaven's quest is brutal for level 1.

Where can I get printable versions of the maps please

My players got a surprise round on sephek and killed him before he went because the rolled higher in Initiative and got lucky with a crit that dealt like 20ish damage his hp is 75

The starting quests are not supposed to be the first quest to be finished, they are there to incite the party to travel around Ten Towns. You are not supposed to throw Sephek at them in the first session, it's just that they want to look for him.

Rime of the Frost Maiden does not mess around with level 1 characters. It is so deadly, but I guess that happens when your quests are for lvls 1-4

Which. Parts of this book have best horror

Personally I don't agree with your viewpoint. Both the Bremen and Bryn quests don't do anything story-wise, but that's the most important thing a starting quest should do. So firstly I'd look at player backstories - if they're mountain climbers or miners then those quests make sense. But from an overall perspective I think there's only one real starting quest option: the Unseen, the Caer Konig quest. The Duergar plot is Act I of the campaign and the Caer Konig quest foreshadows it + gives the party a reason to start traveling (to the Easthaven ferry). You'll have to start your party at level 2 or 3 to make it work, but from a narrative perspective I don't see any of the others work.

I ended up starting in Good Mead by chance and nearly murdered everyone. Lmao

I'm wondering if the ten towns have been in lock down for 2 years how are they coping are they steelinging from each other? Are people only eating fish? What are traders and bandits doing. Who looking after the poor or are they all frozen outside . Just skimming the book not seen answers.. also I'd like to foreshadow things from future quests..maybe having the druids watch the pcs like the tests latter

Hey I'm making new character in DnD and I'm not very experienced Im making dragonbor warlock and Im not shore what to put as damage type and atack bonus on breath atack (Fire line)

Do you think you'll make a player's guide? I've been searching for one desperately, trying to avoid DM guides haha

Do I really need to read the whole 320 page book before I even start running this adventure?

One thing I do not like about 5e is running games starting with lvl 1 characters. The chance for a couple of bad rolls killing such 'heroes' is too extreme for my GM style.. Ergo, I start all new campaigns at level 2. Let them have their initial victories, it will balance out soon enough...

"I did drop some hints that they could speak with it" -- I'm curious how you did this? This is the main issue I have with this quest. It has a cool back story, but it seems to me it is very unlikely that the PCs will discover what is really going on. Why would they try to speak with a lake monster? I just don't see it happening.

Go Lake Monsters!

Why play d&d when you have Forbidden lands on your shelf?

The starting quests, especially Sephek, are way too tough for squishy level 1 characters. Did WotC do any playtests at all? My after work D&D game of Rime of the Frost Maiden the party (8 players!) was suppose to arrest Sephek but they pissed off that caravan so they had to deal with a CR3 undead plus a CR2 bandit captain and four CR1/8 bandits. The DM had to nerf Sephek because he could have easily wiped the PCs by himself. That quest should have been more of a murder investigation so the players follow the trail of dead people that would eventually lead to Sephek after the PCs got to level 3.

I love you and love your videos but damn it if you didn't come up with the most obvious yet clever user name .... New dm about to run either this or strahd this helps a lot and wish more people would go into each video as it may be someone's first time running but I understood why it isn't common.. maybe a video of what information I should have from a book and what I should write them on....lol I have some notebooms...post its....little note cards....and curse of strahd...rime of the frostmaiden. ..what the fuck do I get ready for session 1? What do I write down vs what do I leave to look up when I need it .. I need a one hour explain like I am five for running a premade adventure

Everyone says Sephek Kaltro is a TPK machine. He really isn't. I have watched about 4 actual plays of that fight and there was not even a pc death, let alone a party wipe. Yes, he can do a crapload of damage. But that is all he does. He has no real cc or status affects, no area affects, he can misty step a few times if the dm wants him to run for it if he is loosing. His ac sucks and his saves are not exceptional. The action economy just beats this guy down. He is going to be absorbing everything the group and throw at him plus the kitchen sink. Provided the pcs have a few emergency heals to get people back on their feet, a decent front line, and a reliable source of fire damage (or a chill touch cantrip) to shut down the regeneration is just not that bad of a fight. Some pcs will probably fall over. Its pretty unlikely that they will die.

As a DM you can change the difficulty level and tone of an adventure. I think these pre-created adventures work best when the dm makes it their own.

First

What’s your ideal way to begin a campaign? Start in a tavern!! That’s never been done before right?! (Wait... I shouldn’t have posted this... now someone is going to steal my wildly original idea!!) People of the comment section: you never saw this! I was never here!

The group I play with are not that smart. They want to go in swords blazing not think about the adventure and how to deal with the encounters any way but fighting. Since I don't know any other players I am stick with this group. The players had to make new characters 3 times, my character ran each time and survived. We played to Good Mead adventure 3 times.