Goblin Ambush Tweaks! | Lost Mine of Phandelver Campaign Guide

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Do you think this encounter was too easy? Too difficult? How did your players handle it, and did you make any adjustments? Let us know by leaving a comment.

[@OpenWorldAddict0]

So how I handled it is having the player characters escorting a caravan of supplies bound for Phandalin led by a driver NPC and two horses. The goblin ambush is six goblins and not 4 and they are not targeting the PCs but the horses, the driver, and trying to steal the crates of goods on the wagon, not attacking the PCs except to defend themselves when the PC's try to protect the caravan. The goblins don't fight to the death; instead, they will try to run away when they get low on health (which can happen very quickly.). This gives the players a decent first taste of combat while making them feel heroic as they try to protect the caravan from this ambush, and can even give chance and try to capture some of the fleeing goblins. I was very nervous about running this encounter the way I redesigned it because at first glance it seemed more deadly than what was in the book, but I had a good feeling about it still. I ran it, and the party did really well and all the players had a lot of fun. I would definitely do it again this way next time i run this adventure.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

That sounds like a great change!

[@nikolayaleksandrov1988]

​@@LunchBreakHeroes One of my PC at 1st round took headshot crit from goblin... and it cleric of the group :( He did nothing in this game before it and said "hmmm - is it the end of the game for me? D&D is so intersting..."

[@jamiedorsey4167]

I ran into an idea somewhere that I like. Have a group of traveling priests, of Gond maybe, come across the PCs just as they're about to turn onto Triboar trail and cast Aid on everyone ("That trail is dangerous"). Those 5 max HP at that level make a big difference.

[@liamcage7208]

I ran this with 8 goblins to 4 1st level PC's. The ambush triggered with arrows whistling past the PC's heads (description no attack rolls), then 4 goblins (2 per side) charged out of the woods to attack like berserkers. These 4 goblins were minions with one HP each. The idea was to give a sphincter puckering adrenaline rush for their first combat and the satisfaction of one hit kills. The archers were regular goblins that took effort to root out and kill. For the first time players in the group they were instantly hooked.

[@icywinterof88]

First time ever dmed the goblins crit stealthed. The attacks were enough to kill one of the players and take down the other. The first encounter I ever ran and in that moment i changed the damages to bring the players to 1 hp rather than take them down. So it was scary but not a tpk

[@sonder_ua]

Just roll behind the screen and don't change rules on air.

[@StrifeA217]

Omg this is no joke it was my very first time DM with very first time players on the very first role goblin archer roles a nat 20 on the wizard and i rolled high on the dmg...... the wizard instantly died... as in I aced the wizard dead dead double his hp on dmg dead. I just told him he was downed for the fight. It was the best I could do looking like a dear in headlights behind my dm screen.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Lol... Just today I did 76 damage to our rogue with a fireball (vuln to fire). Negative Hp was 3 HP over his max, but he was the reason we were at our location. So I let him slide with an incapacitation. 😆

[@jn3xus858]

1:20 My first time playing my dragonborn friend and I were arguing with each other and he rolled to punch me and it was a nat 20 and my half elf corpse flew across the room and lodged itself in a wall. The dm was nice and let me be in a coma instead.

[@Artemisthemp]

Little did your DM tell you but you now have Amnesia and have disadvantage on Int check until your Amnesia is over :p

[@hannessteffenhagen61]

Instead of fudging dice rolls I actually would prefer to make the goblins a little stupider than they need to be and have them engage in melee - as archers, with the ability to hide in foliage and climb trees they're indeed deadly especially for new players. I use this encounter for teaching combat mechanics so while I do try to make it a little challenging (usually by having 2 of them stay behind and taking pot shot at spellcasters if they're not engaged by a melee PC), I'm usually going to assume that the party isn't super tactically minded at this point (nor are they strong enough to mitigate that by brute force) so neither should their enemies. If you have more experienced players then yeah, you can make their lifes hell with SWAT goblins.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Sounds like how I ran this encounter the first time. A few arrows whizzed over the players heads, and then the goblins ran out into melee. It's definitely a good tutorial for combat mechanics.

[@hannessteffenhagen61]

@@LunchBreakHeroes Yeah, I've so far not really felt the need to make it harder. I've pretty much always have at least one person unconscious at the end either way... last time I ran it, had an overconfident paladin charge in alone and the goblins got super lucky with their rolls and just eviscerated the poor guy.

[@SkarmoryThePG]

Honestly I am extremely worried about making this encounter harder, as it's highly unlikely the party will get to rest before, well, ALL of Cragmaw Hideout

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

It's not too bad, right up until they meet Klarg. He's the worst part of it for the players, when combined with his pet wolf. If you feel the party's doing poorly, just remove a goblin or two on the sly.

[@bryansmith844]

Thin out the goblins as needed, they can kind of show up or vanish however you want with the "underbrush" nearby. I threw in a couple weak healing potions for the party as well - a gift from Gundren, a token of more magical riches soon to come. Also having the goblins fire at the oxen pulling the cart OR a driver NPC can help to spread the damage if you need to. Otherwise you're right, they kind of have to make it through the ambush and all of the hideout before they could squeeze in a natural rest (assuming your group takes the hook in the first place)

[@eidalac]

I didn't have to modify this - the 3/4 of the PCs had enough passive perception to detect the goblins and they moved to flank the two to the north of the road, which held up that pair long enough for the spell casters to take them down and wound another of the ones to the south. The last goblins bolted when the first two went down and the warlock was able to snipe one of them. The last one made it down the trail leading towards the hideout. Easy enough. The wolves in the hideout, however.... with advanced noticed that someone was coming, the wolves were free... and got alot of 20's in a row. 3/4 PCs were down in a few rounds. I ended up fudging some attack rolls by the goblins to give the artificer enough time to do some healing. It was tense but they pulled through and I pushed them to level 2 as a reward. The big issue with low level parties, especially at level 1, is how powerful luck is. The party tank is well built and well played, but there just isn't enough HP at level 1 to ward of a high damaged crit. I did have a backup plan to have them taken as captives if they did fall, and would have done the same if they fell against the goblin ambush. I tend to run villains that have at least some interest in captives/information so I can leverage that if the need arises. I'm all for letting a PC die due to stupid actions, but I try to avoid having bad luck remove a character if I can reasonably avoid it.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Absolutely. Death by bad decision is well and truly justified. But, as I say in defense of fudging some die rolls, "Sometimes the dice tell a crappy story."

[@GonzoTehGreat]

To solve the problem of level 1 characters having too few HP and hence dying too easily - *Introduce a level 0 and start players with HP = Constitution Score, so that they begin with 8-18 HP (typically, 10-12 on average) at level 0.* Once they reach level 1 they gain HP as normal, according to their hit dice. If you're worried about characters having too many HP at higher levels you can half their hit dice, thereby halving their HP. (E.g. Instead of a Ranger gaining 1d10 HP each level, they instead gain 1d5.) This ensures low level characters (0-3) don't die so easily in combat, whilst also ensuring that high level characters (7-10) don't have so many HP that they're almost Invincible.

[@danburrows2762]

Good ideas. Thanks

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

No problem--thanks for watching!

[@sonder_ua]

How the F 4 goblins can be deadly for 5 heroes? I've ran campaign like 5 times and there were no problems with this part.

[@8triagrammer]

Another youtuber had a great idea - have a carriage driver included that sparks roleplay on the road to the encounter, and then when the party sees the dead horses, the driver is killed by an arrow shortly after (like when the party decides to investigate), which kicks off the encounter, sort of letting the players know how deadly this is, and hopefully urging them to take cover and focus on A-game tactics.

[@GigglingKat]

My current DM and a fellow player that has DMd in the past have told me “there are no enemy nat20s at level 1! You roll one? It is just 20 to hit. Move on.”

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

That's a good policy. Level 1 PCs are squishy.

[@DnDnBeer]

Very nice.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thank you!

[@gregfrederick4198]

I thought it was way too easy when I was a player, so when I DMd I added 2 wolves as well

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

And I thought I was a sadistic DM. j/k

[@MarceloHenrique1404]

If players are veterans, it's fair...

[@WadeSmith1001]

“Lost Mine”

[@Dragonspassage]

Your videos were doing really well for me till I got to this one and you suggesting fudging dice rolls...The second level option is what I always use but I hate seeing people recommend fudging dice. I firmly believe its one of the worst things a dm can do.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

It's a controversial topic, for sure!

[@miaomiiao]

I agree, it’s disgusting, and a breach of trust.

[@MaleusMaleficarum]

@@miaomiiao meh... playing since 2nd edition... if the PCs are Murder-hobos... i roll the dice in front of the screen... if it is more RP heavy, those dice are behind the screen all the time.

[@theincrediblefella7984]

Why? I don't like the idea of fudging either, but i'm not wholly against it since, again, sometimes the dice tell a bad story. I'm not sure if i'd ever fudge, but why are you so vehemently against fudging?

[@Artemisthemp]

Goblin encounter deadly? You mean for the Goblin right? Melted a Goblin face with my Sacred Flame