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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lancelot" data-source="post: 6761125" data-attributes="member: 30022">My advice, having run it (so far) all the way through to the Fane of the Eye...1) Start the PCs at 1st level. Either use the indicated prologue side-treks in the book, or consider running the first half of Lost Mine of Phandelver. Personally, I used the material from PotA, and it was a lot of fun. However, you need to pull your punches as the DM. The necromancer boss in the starting adventure can easily TPK a 1st level party if played "optimally". You need to play him as indicated by the adventure notes: he's a coward who runs from the party, might cast a single spell or two in defense, and otherwise collapses in a heap. Same is true of the earth priest under Red Larch. High AC, good HP and decent offensive spells can be hard on a 2nd level party of beginners. Maybe he "wastes" a round gloating or monologuing. Maybe he casts a weak spell for effect, or to show his contempt for the party.2) Don't neglect the side-treks. They're really important to keep the players from going insane. The module is basically: fight cultists from 3rd-14th level. Grinding through the underground temples is especially trying. The side-treks allow the players to experience something different and unpredictable, before returning to cultist fights.3) On a similar note, I'd suggest avoiding any random encounters with cultists. There are so many cultist fights in the book; the party doesn't need to fight more when traveling on the road. Instead, use some of the many other interesting encounters with different monsters or NPCs.4) Don't reveal any of the passages beneath the "above-ground fortresses" until you're ready to do so. In the module, as written, the party can theoretically go to Feathergale Spire (or any of the other above-ground locations), find a tunnel going down, and immediately wander into an encounter zone that is way outside their level range. This may be fine for experienced players and DMs (who can have a fun time with figuring out that they're in over their heads), but it can be a nasty experience for a less proficient group. It's almost certainly better to guide the party through the adventure zones in a more logical order. In my game, I removed the below-ground tunnels altogether. My party finished off the above-ground fortresses in order. Then, during one of the side-treks, they found some old ruins that had a single tunnel descending into the "air quadrant" of the underground temples. This basically ensured they had a smooth progression in difficulty.5) Be a bit wary with cultist spellcasters. Fireballs can be rough on an inexperienced group; multiple fireballs in the same round can be even rougher. Just because the NPC stat block says they can cast a certain spell, don't automatically make it the go-to option. Vary the NPC tactics, even if it means using a suboptimal spell or option in a particular round. This is particularly important given the sheer number of similar cultists the party is eventually going to be wading through.6) In hindsight, one of the mistakes I made while DM'ing the earlier parts of the adventure is not directly emphasizing that there are other ways of dealing with the cults than a frontal assault. I assumed my experienced group would at least try some approaches like stealth, subterfuge, deception, etc. They didn't. Every single cult headquarters became a room-clearing exercise. They took no prisoners, and never attempted to infiltrate or bluff the enemy. This made part of the adventure less interesting for everyone at the table, even if it was the players' choice. If I had the chance to do it again, I'd have a helpful NPC actively suggest that the party try to disguise themselves and infiltrate at least one of the above-ground fortresses, simply to change the flavour from a dungeon crawl to more of a social interaction with one or more of the cults.</blockquote>

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