New DM, Can You Run "Sunless Citadel" With Characters Starting at Level 2?

[MinorMaze]

I am going to be DMing for first the time and a lot of folks have suggested the "The Sunless Citadel" 5E as a good place for first time DM to start. I'll have a party of four people, two of which have quite a bit of experience with D&D and Pathfinder--one has voiced that they don't necessarily start at level 1 and the other wants to homebrew a character.
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I've read that entire parties have died in "The Sunless Citadel", which I would like to avoid if possible. So, for those who run the adventure before, would starting the players out at level 2 work okay or would there be scaling problems? Or should I just stick with starting everyone at level 1? I know that I would like to move on to "Storm King's Thunder" as the next adventure. Should I allow the other player to homebrew a character? I'm not exactly keen on the idea since this is my first time DMing. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Congrats on DMing for the first time!

I don’t think there’s anything in the module that would be set terribly off-kilter if you started everyone out at 2nd level.

That being said, personally, I’m not a big fan of advanced starts in D&D. If you wanted to give them a head-start, you could always run a “getting to the Sunless Citadel” adventure that gives them enough XP to hit 2nd, easily enough.

As for the homebrewing a character part, new DM or not, chances are your instincts are correct. I’d be leery of it as well. You can talk to them about what they want to do, but it’s perfectly reasonable for you to say “For my first time DMing, I’d like to stick to the official rules.”

 

[Grognerd]

If you are comfortable starting them at 2nd level, I'd say that should be fine. That said, since you are a first time DM, you might benefit more from the suggested "getting to SC" adventure that will quickly level them, since it gives you some easy practice before DMing something more elaborate.

As for the homebrewing a character part, new DM or not, chances are your instincts are correct. I’d be leery of it as well. You can talk to them about what they want to do, but it’s perfectly reasonable for you to say “For my first time DMing, I’d like to stick to the official rules.”

Agree with Ralif 100%. Adding homebrew when you are just beginning DMing would be tough to adjudicate, IMHO. I'd recommend not allowing it.

 

[cmad1977]

Level 2? Sure that shouldn’t be a real problem. Might make things ‘easy’ for the heroes at the start.

Home brewed character? Like a personalized class with home brewed features and stuff? I’d say no for a couple reasons
1) you’re a new DM. Your players should respect that and play within the very generous ‘confines’ of the rules.
2) I’d be worried that some player-created class would be woefully unbalanced and more of a vanity/power gaming project.

 

[Oofta]

I've been DMing for eons and like the others I wouldn't allow a homebrew character even in my own campaign. Between flexible backgrounds and multi-classing I don't see the need. It's just too hard to balance everything out.

Even the official classes written by people who do this for a living and were play-tested by others have issues now and then.

I don't think starting at 2nd level is necessary, but it doesn't hurt much either. The first few levels go quickly by design.

Good luck!

 

[Mistwell]

I am going to be DMing for first the time and a lot of folks have suggested the "The Sunless Citadel" 5E as a good place for first time DM to start. I'll have a party of four people, two of which have quite a bit of experience with D&D and Pathfinder--one has voiced that they don't necessarily start at level 1 and the other wants to homebrew a character.
​
I've read that entire parties have died in "The Sunless Citadel", which I would like to avoid if possible. So, for those who run the adventure before, would starting the players out at level 2 work okay or would there be scaling problems? Or should I just stick with starting everyone at level 1? I know that I would like to move on to "Storm King's Thunder" as the next adventure. Should I allow the other player to homebrew a character? I'm not exactly keen on the idea since this is my first time DMing. Any help would be appreciated!

1) It's a great adventure. A good one to start with.
2) I hope you don't homebrew a player character too much on your first outing. It's amazing how small changes can have big unintended results at the beginning. I would encourage them to try and adapt an existing class and set of options to be more like what they want, and allow them to change the descriptions but not the actual rules of how things function, if possible. We can give suggestions here if you tell us what this player is looking for.
3) Sunless Citadel is not unusually deadly. It can be if players fail to consider diplomacy in face of a roomful of potential foes I suppose. And there are some tougher battles in there. But, I don't think it's known as a party killer.
4) It would not hurt anything to start at 2nd level. I am not sure it's necessary, but it also won't require much in the way of scaling either. The difference between 1st and 2nd level in this game just isn't that much for most classes.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Instead of starting at level 2, you can just give them hp for level 2 ahead of the adventure. Even a second level character can be a bit overwhwlming for a new player.

I would not be too strict with no homebrew if it is more a cosmetic thing. Say if someone wants a rapier that does slashing. Call it sabre and call it a day. Especially if the one homebrewing is new he most probably does it for style. If it is an experoenced rolwplayer drawing from DM's guild, you can allow it if it looks comfortable you. Just tell hin that you reserve the right to withdraw your approval if the character feels numerical imbalanced. Note that this can happen with nonhomebrewed characters too. New players most probably struggle a lot more with even a few abilities.

 

[MinorMaze]

Thank you everyone for all the great, in-depth feedback! It is all very appreciated and I shall relay how things play out after the first session.

 

[Riley37]

I'm a player in a group which started Sunless Citadel at level 1. It's gone quite well. Many sessions, and many days (and thus many Long Rests); many detours, such as returning to town for re-supply, and fighting twig blights along the way. I suspect that we are playing much slower than the intended pace, and that's fine.

The PCs encountered Kalkryx at level 1 and had a near TPK when round 1 breath weapon attack dropped two PCs to 0 HP. The cleric cast Healing Word on one of them, who then picked up the other and ran away; we slammed the door, stabilized the PC who was still at 0 HP, and bravely ran away. New players were running the PCs who made the rookie mistake of standing next to each other despite dragon breath AoE. A veteran player was running the cleric, who didn't cross the doorway into a not-yet-thoroughly-cleared room and thus was in position to rescue with Healing Word. Then we went elsewhere, fought goblins and rats, and leveled to 2 (which gave the cleric Turn Undead and thus we gained access to that room, which is now our base for Long Rests).

We had some back-and-forth negotiations with the kobold queen, with Kalkryx, and among ourselves (about keeping our deal with the queen, after discovering the difference between Kalkryx's agenda and hers). We even tried to negotiate with the goblins for an "everyone gets something" outcome, but ended up fighting them. Level 2 made that survivable. Cleric has Light Domain, and Radiance of the Dawn is a strong AoE versus goblins. We reached level 3 before a rematch with Kalkryx, and it still seemed like a close fight; if he had saved versus Dissonant Whispers... but he didn't.

 

[Baumi]

Just two small tips for a first time GM:

1) The important thing is that everyone has a good time! Don't panic or work yourself up because of some details. Just relax and have fun.

2) Remember that you don't have to kill of a Character if he/she goes down. Even uf there is a total Party Kill, let them just awake in a Cell, naked outside of the dungeon, etc.. This give them a second change and often a very heroic tale.

Also as a GM you can very easily change the difficulty just by making changing tactics of enemies. If the party struggles, just let the Kobolds/Goblins etc. make some mistakes (spending a turn mocking the Characters, fleeing even if the could still win,..) and bosses might start Monologin instead of Attacking or offering the Heroes to work for him.