D&D 5E Combining Phandelver & Icespire Peak

I ran LMoP at the start of 5e and loved it. I still consider it a classic module across all the editions. I picked up Icespire yesterday on a whim and didn't know it was also set in the same region of the Sword Coast with Phandalin as the central hub for quests again. Even fat Wester is there to hand out missions.

Icespire hints at the end that the modules could be combined for extra encounters, but it doesn't give any advice, and this would be a daunting thing for a newbie player or DM to figure out. That is a whole lot of encounters over the two books, most of them unrelated so that could get confusing. I think I would like to run Phandelver again for a newbie group but adds parts of Icespire that I like. I don't use XP so it would be a purely milestone adventure and they would level fairly slowly starting at 1st level.

One idea I had was to call it "Lost Mines of Icespire Peak", if you want to include the still lost Mone of Phandelver and Mountain's Toe gold mine (which isn't really lost at all).

My second idea, and my preferred one, was to call the whole thing "The Dragons of Phandalin" and include Venomfang from Thundertree and Cryovain from Icespire, and have them BOTH doing circuits of the region and occasionally clashing over mutual territory and terrorizing the community from their respective lairs. This would put an even heavier emphasis on the PCs to recover a dragon slayer weapon, and if you wanted to include the Black Spider and the Redbrands and Cragmaw CAstle and Wave Echo Cave...well, you have one hell of an adventure.

As a DM, you'd also need to very carefully consider how to intertwine all the Quests laid out in Icespire, and how best to incorporate them into the already full plate that LMoP offers.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

I've been thinking about this too and it really seems tough. One issue is that Icespire is designed to work as a one-on-one adventure, with one character and a sidekick, but Mines would need to be revised quite a bit for that to work. I'm wondering if Mines would work as a sequel to Icespire, so the sixth level solo character could come back to Phandalin after some time has passed to start the events of Lost Mine.

The default state of the town of Phandalin is quite different in the two adventures. With a full party of characters that's probably all you'd have to deal with in mashing them together. There are some monster duplications (two banshees, two dragons, etc) but probably that's ok.

I've been wondering about this, I hope to pick up the new box to check it out properly.
My thought is about revealing there's a Dark Fae Fortress hidden within the mountains and they have been trying to gain access to Phandelver and beyond which is why the Cult was such a problem in the starter set.

Or in my still being thought up is the province of Rothenel and replace the Cult with evil Ashari intent on aiding the Dark Fae believing they would be rewarded with wealth and titles instead of enslaved with the rest.

The idea the Dark Fae are seeking the Regalia of Chaos a multiple artefact that combined and assembled would doom Tal Dorei however that won't stop them coaxing the heroes to recover the artefacts on their behalf...

Must admit I'm interesting to see what other ideas this thread inspires!

jaycrockett said:

I've been thinking about this two and it really seems tough. One issue is that Icespire is designed to work as a one-on-one adventure, with one character and a sidekick, but Mines would need to be revised quite a bit for that to work. I'm wondering if Mines would work as a sequel to Icespire, so the sixth level solo character could come back to Phandalin after some time has passed to start the events of Lost Mine.

The default state of the town of Phandalin is quite different in the two adventures. With a full party of characters that's probably all you'd have to deal with in mashing them together. There are some monster duplications (two banshees, two dragons, etc) but probably that's ok.

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Yeah, Mines would be super hard with just a sidekick. You could also go the route of assuming the Phandelver mine is "found" and fully functional, but then something else goes wrong. Supply trains from Neverwinter could be disrupted by not not one but two dragons, and there's always displaced orcs to cause trouble.

I was reading that Icespire was more quests and not linear like Lost Mines. It seems that if you combine them you could pick some of the best quests from both, but doing everything will make the PCs higher level than you need at the end and will need to boost the BBEGs to keep up. Not a bad thing, but work on on your end to think about.

I most likely will run it as a separate campaign. My only group played Lost Mines and several of the follow on DMsGuild adventures to finish that campaign and another around Phandalin. This will let me expand on the town if I place it another year later

The easiest way to do it would be to run LMoP as written through the end of chapter 2 (players hit 3rd level).

This is when LMoP opens up into region-based subquests anyway. So you make the first three of DoIP's "follow up quests" available as written. From there, the party follows up as desired on whatever threads or quests they choose to pursue. Might have to slow level advancement down a bit, but honestly that's more like bringing it back to normal since with DoIP leveling as written is quite accelerated.

From DoIP, you would just cut the three "starter" quests. From LMoP, you probably cut Old Owl Well, Wyvern Tor, and Thundertree in favor of the superior 3rd-4th level side quests in DoIP. Wave Echo probably gets tackled before Cryovain's lair.

Burnside said:

This is when LMoP opens up into region-based subquests anyway. So you make the first three of DoIP's "follow up quests" available as written. From there, the party follows up as desired on whatever threads or quests they choose to pursue. Might have to slow level advancement down a bit, but honestly that's more like bringing it back to normal since with DoIP leveling as written is quite accelerated.

From DoIP, you would just cut the three "starter" quests. From LMoP, you probably cut Old Owl Well, Wyvern Tor, and Thundertree in favor of the superior 3rd-4th level side quests in DoIP. Wave Echo probably gets tackled before Cryovain's lair.

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I would hate to cut Thundertree. That was one of my favorite parts of Phandelver, and I do love the idea of a white and green young dragon circling over overlapping territory and occasionally clashing with the PCs in view. As for Wave Echo Cave, I'm debating on how to tackle that, as a continuity of the old original story or keep it as written in the original text with Black Spider. In my old campaign they dipped into the Underdark and a Beholder Lord was very interested in the lost mine....

I am currently running Lost Mines of Phandelver for a group of friends, and I have put some thought on integrating Dragon of Icespire Peak. Currently they have just finished off the Redbrands in Phandalin, and are about to start Chapter 3.

My plan is once the Orc threat at Wyvern Tor is taken care of, I'll have Mayor Wester start offering the DoIP jobs to the adventurers, under the guise that more people will be traveling the Triboar Trail to Phandalin. Then to introduce the White Dragon, I'll have the Dragon Cult at Thundertree mention they were tracking the white dragon Cryovain, but have not seen it in a month and instead lucked out in finding Venomfang. Lastly once Gurden Rockseeker has been rescued, have reports of a white dragon being seen across the area and start rolling for where Cryovain will appear next. Alternately you can have Cryovain attack Phandalin while the PCs are in Wave Echo Cave and have that as the introduction to him as a threat.

My group has been using XP for leveling, so I figure once we get into the DoIP content I'll have to adjust the encounters to make it more difficult for them.

JcFerggy said:

I am currently running Lost Mines of Phandelver for a group of friends, and I have put some thought on integrating Dragon of Icespire Peak. Currently they have just finished off the Redbrands in Phandalin, and are about to start Chapter 3.

My plan is once the Orc threat at Wyvern Tor is taken care of, I'll have Mayor Wester start offering the DoIP jobs to the adventurers, under the guise that more people will be traveling the Triboar Trail to Phandalin. Then to introduce the White Dragon, I'll have the Dragon Cult at Thundertree mention they were tracking the white dragon Cryovain, but have not seen it in a month and instead lucked out in finding Venomfang. Lastly once Gurden Rockseeker has been rescued, have reports of a white dragon being seen across the area and start rolling for where Cryovain will appear next. 9apps Alternately you can have Cryovain attack Phandalin while the PCs are in Wave Echo Cave and have that as the introduction to him as a threat.

My group has been using XP for leveling, so I figure once we get into the DoIP content I'll have to adjust the encounters to make it more difficult for them.

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It seems that if you combine them you could pick some of the best quests from both, but doing everything will make the PCs higher level than you need at the end and will need to boost the BBEGs to keep up. Not a bad thing, but work on on your end to think about.

I most likely will run it as a separate campaign. My only group played Lost Mines and several of the follow on DMsGuild adventures to finish that campaign and another around Phandalin.

This sounds like you're doing the sandbox thing here. Don't worry about what to cut or what to keep. These are all hooks. Your players will decide what belongs by what doesn't by the stories they follow. You can never have too many hooks for your sandbox.