D&D 5E Starting Princes of the Apocalypse at 5th or 6th level

[Uller]

My group is wrapping up Lost Mines, probably this weekend. They've killed Black Spider and all they have left is the guardians. They are currently 5th level and could end up 6th level before it's over. I modified LM quite a bit because we started at 3rd level and have 6 characters. So Nezznar was an Arcanist Mind Flayer.

They have discovered that he had made a deal with an agent of "the Prophet of Earth" to retrieve the Brazier of Green Flame for him. They are aware that this agent hails from Red Larch and is part of some sort of cult and this cult has rivals that might also be looking for the brazier or other artifacts of power.

Page 17 gives some advice on introducing the characters to PotA...in addition to the info above I'll probably have one of my important NPCs have a concern over a missing delegation of dwarves that was supposed to have returned from Red Larch. That should get things started.

But here is my concern: My group has already made quick work of some powerful foes, partly through skill....partly through luck (they managed to lock down the dragon in Thundertree for 3 full rounds with Tasha's hideous laughter and they prevented the Arcanist Mind Flayer from dimension dooring behind a horde of hobgoblins and bugbears with a successful use of Counter Spell...had that failed...I think they'd be singing a different tune right about now).

The opening adventures seem kind of...meh....I like the sandboxy feel. But I'm concerned that if I beef everything up too much to match their power level the additional xp they'll gain will cause the same domino effect I found in beefing up Lost Mines...I'll have to continually beef things up all the way through the end of the campaign. I'd rather kind of summarize the early events and jump into the part that is appropriate for 6th level PCs (I think we'll end up with 4 or 5 PCs).

Any one have any thoughts on how best to go about this.

Also, I've set this campaign in Nentir Vale so far...so I've decided that Triboar is just on the other side of Harken Forest along King's Road (Lost Mine I set in the eastern portion of Harkenwold). So my factions are going to be a bit different.

 

[MerricB]

The adventure is written for characters starting at level 3, but I've seen several DMs state that they think it's too tough for that level. Due to its sandbox nature, the players can wander into the higher level sections fairly easily. I wouldn't modify the initial stages - the players wouldn't gain that much XP for the low-level stuff, and after a short while, the problem would correct itself.

 

[Warunsun]

I started using his adventure with most of the party at 5th level and one character at 4th level. So far it hasn't been an issue. Since I am running it in Greyhawk I provided a bunch of quests customized to the affiliations I am using in my campaign instead of the default FR ones. The party chose to head to the Chapel of Beory in the Gnarley Forest (Goldenfields) first instead of to the village of Hommlet (Red Larch). It seemed to be a simple map thing. It was on the way. Then they headed to Riverguard Keep (also on the way). I will know more about challenge when we resume this weekend since they will be headed into the the dungeon below. This module can be played in nearly any order so that is a bonus but it might make some parts seem to easy later. I will just add challenge if needed.

 

[GX.Sigma]

The adventure is written for characters starting at level 3, but I've seen several DMs state that they think it's too tough for that level.

My characters have consistently been 1-2 levels behind, and it seems way too easy. Even fighting multiple foes with higher CR than the party level, they have never been in real danger of defeat. On the other hand, if they didn't have a cleric, they'd all be on their third or fourth character by now.

 

[Netherstorm]

Just send them right into the temple of elemental evil. The air section is for level 6 characters, lots of cool stuff in there. The entrance to the place is in the sighing valley in the feathergale spire section, but you could put the entrance anywhere.

If you want to incorporate your earth cult/brazier storyline, you could have it where the air cult stole the brazier when they snatched Deseyna (during the whole mirabar delegation thing).

 

[Fildrigar]

I've put together a pdf in the downloads area about just this subject. Look for "Integrating LMoP with PotA."

 

[Mercule]

My group is coming from LMoP, just shy of 5th level. I have zero concerns about using the module. In fact, I'm even using the explicitly optional stuff designed to take characters from 1st to 3rd level. The way the XP table goes, it'll balance out in a level or so, and you can rely on "bounded accuracy" to keep the game from sucking, until then.

 

[Inchoroi]

The only thing it will detract from is removing the little entry quests in Chapter 6; for my purposes, though, I just rebalanced the encounters for 5th level and ran them as is, otherwise. Worked fine, and get the party involved in the town before we headed toward the actual adventure.

 

[Uller]

I've put together a pdf in the downloads area about just this subject. Look for "Integrating LMoP with PotA."

This is good. I just tallied up XP from our last game and it looks like they will almost certainly be 6th level after they finish the mines or will be within a couple hundred XP of it.

I think I'll stick with the delegation hook and let things play out but try to expose one or more of the temples after just a bit of investigation. If they destroy any of the outposts I'll probably beef up the reprisal encounter that I use. These are 6th level characters and they way my players play them they aren't exactly subtle about throwing around things like fireballs and divine smites...if a cult becomes aware of them, they'll want to hit them hard and someplace where help/rest will not be readily available.