Intro adventure in DMG: Too difficult?

[Starbuck_II]

My 4 person party almost died.
I had to not recharge one time when to not kill them.

Granted, it was 4 people when monsters based on 5.

I added a trap as well (falling rockslide that the dragon activated).

 

[LostSoul]

Our party rested before going in there, so we were able to defeat it with no deaths. Still, it was a pretty close thing.

 

[davethegame]

We had a really awesome fight against the final dragon, where we thought we would be down and out (after a string of early breath weapon recharges), but then the battle turned around and we were victorious.

We did skip an encounter, though, so that may have made a difference. I was really impressed when playing the adventure- when I first glanced at it in the DMG, I thought "More kobolds after keep? Boring." Then when I actually played in it, there are some fun encounters in it.

 

[Kesh]

Make sure you encourage them to take a short rest before exploring further. Basically, put the idea into their head that they should always take a short rest, if possible, after an encounter.