LMoP to OotA

[criticalfumble]

Hi all. I've been reading up on other threads about where to take players who've just finished Lost Mines. Part of me is toying with a homebrew hag-based story line, but I'm not sure I'll have the time for that.

The other part of me is thinking of running Out of the Abyss for them. I'll have a bigger than normal group of six players with fourth, possibly fifth level characters.

Other threads and blogs I've read suggest that people just run the higher level characters through all of OotA, and it's fine. I'm worried that a combination of party size and level will be a bit too much in terms of fire power, and that maybe I should just dump them into the second "defeat the demons" part of the story.

Anybody who's done this have experiences or suggestions to share?

Thanks!

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[MerricB]

The more natural point to enter OotA is likely with Bruenor recruiting you in chapter 7, but you lose all the set up stuff.

If starting at the beginning, it can work, although you probably should skip a lot of the random encounters while travelling, as they slow things down and aren't a threat for higher level characters anyway.

Cheers!

 

[criticalfumble]

It's a tough choice. If we do keep the same characters, the midway point seems like the right thing. I'll have a full read through, and if it seems weird just to run the second half, maybe we'll roll up new characters.

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[Anakzar]

What about upgrading the encounters a bit by adding numbers or a few bigger things mixed in to existing encounters.

 

[criticalfumble]

What about upgrading the encounters a bit by adding numbers or a few bigger things mixed in to existing encounters.

I was thinking about that. There's probably a point where the level disparity tapers off, although there will still be the larger party to deal with as far as encounter difficulty.

Finishing the read through of the first half seems like it might be the right point to decide on that. If I can beef that up to make it challenging for them, but abbreviate it a little so they're still the right level going into part two, that could work.

I'd rather not muck with the entire adventure if I can help it!

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[Uller]

It's a tough choice. If we do keep the same characters, the midway point seems like the right thing. I'll have a full read through, and if it seems weird just to run the second half, maybe we'll roll up new characters.

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For the first half you have a menagerie of NPCs with the PCs. If you have a big group that is also higher level than intended, it will all seem kind of boring unless you do a lot of work to toughen it up for them. Doing your own homebrew would probably be less work.

Here is an idea (you'll have to get your players' buy-in for this): Give them some pregens (and/or make some of the NPCs fully fleshed out PCs...Eldeth, Jimjar, Sarith, etc) and play through the highlights of the first half with a lot of narrative...escape Velkenvelve, travel to Sloobludop to witness Demogorgon, maybe travel to one or two other locales to get some background info then play through the final escape. Then turn those PCs back into NPCs to give an info dump to your normal PCs (or let your players switch characters or whatever they like...maybe they would make handy cohorts or back-up PCs) before going back in for the 2nd half. You can probably boost up some of the mini-adventures like the hook horror lair to be for higher level PCs easily enough so your players don't miss out on them. Actually a couple of those would be good to get 5th level PCs up to 6th level.

You can probably do it in 3-5 sessions.

 

[criticalfumble]

For the first half you have a menagerie of NPCs with the PCs. If you have a big group that is also higher level than intended, it will all seem kind of boring unless you do a lot of work to toughen it up for them. Doing your own homebrew would probably be less work.

Here is an idea (you'll have to get your players' buy-in for this): Give them some pregens (and/or make some of the NPCs fully fleshed out PCs...Eldeth, Jimjar, Sarith, etc) and play through the highlights of the first half with a lot of narrative...escape Velkenvelve, travel to Sloobludop to witness Demogorgon, maybe travel to one or two other locales to get some background info then play through the final escape. Then turn those PCs back into NPCs to give an info dump to your normal PCs (or let your players switch characters or whatever they like...maybe they would make handy cohorts or back-up PCs) before going back in for the 2nd half. You can probably boost up some of the mini-adventures like the hook horror lair to be for higher level PCs easily enough so your players don't miss out on them. Actually a couple of those would be good to get 5th level PCs up to 6th level.

You can probably do it in 3-5 sessions.

Yet another option! I'll add this to the discussion with the group.

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[Satyrn]

You could alsoask your players if they'd be cool with slowing down their level advancement for a stretch near the end of LMoP and through the opening of OotA. Like, you hand out half XP from 4th level and until they sync up with where they ought to be.

They may very well buy into tbis if you explain your reasons. I would be cool with it, because those are good levels to stick at.

 

[Motorskills]

I'd have them captured in the final room of LMoP...and start OOTA "immediately".

 

[criticalfumble]

I'd have them captured in the final room of LMoP...and start OOTA "immediately".

I thought about that. If they blow the final encounter on their own, I may take that route. I do want to give them a chance for their moment of glory, though. In that case, maybe the drow dispatch a party to "collect" them in retribution for what they did.

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