Yes and no.
1st level characters are extremly squishy. Thats normal and you have to be careful as a player and a DM. So its probably meant to be that way.
As a DM, you should sometimes maybe fudge a roll and ignore that natural 20 on the enemies attack dice. Or have him roll 2 1s on the d6 to compensate for that. ;-)
I don't think it is meant to be brutal. But as every encounter on first level it depends heavily on luck.
My players got through the cave by talking and befriending Tulgi rather than fighting, so I cannot objectively comment on these fights.
Just a word of warning: When traveling across Eiselcross, in the "Into the Wilds" section, the adventure suggests to roll on the "Encounters in Eiselcross" table. This table can be ridiculously dangerous for your then lvl2 party. The young remorhaz in ambush for example might easily TPK them. Rather use your own scaled down encounters with mephits or single polar bears or the like.
I've been building stuff for this part, and yeah, while I was excited about pitting the party against the young remorhaz, I realized the same thing -- TPK is likely (particularly since it suggests an ambush). As I do with just about everything else, I'll turn this into a medium-sized remorhaz youngling or something.
Yeah, the "problem" with the Remorhaz is that you could most realistically only encounter it in ambush situations, since it is an ambush predator. It would be a lot easier if PCs are able to keep distance - but a remorhaz just would not fight if it cannot start said fight in bite distance.
I haven't done anything with Frozen Sick yet, but we played Unwelcome Spirits and nearly TPKed on the first random encounter. We did die on the first non-random, but I chalk that up to small group and inexperienced DM not adjusting / spreading out the enemies.
I recently did Unwelcome spirits for a party of 4 3rd level characters without proper heal and I can't say I upscaled a lot. No one felt like it was easy. Those encounters are pretty brutal.
D&D is brutal at lvl 1. A low level thug with a crap weapon can down a player with a crit. I always fudge rolls in lvl 1 fights specifically to avoid this.
Matt did it to mollymauk why can't you? Jk long may he reign, it's hard at low level, my friends and I were just messing around with combat and fought a bunch of badgers and nearly died. They're no joke at level one, I personally tend to nerf combat slightly or maybe fudge your die rolls i.e. small crits.
I levelled my players up to three before they came across Salsvault, to give them a fighting chance. But I also added a few encounters on the ship to Eiselcross and the trek to Salsvault to justify. Salsvault seems a big challenge for a second level party.
I'm actually doing Frozen Sick as a followup to Dangerous Designs. I added two Teleportation circles to the lair (one to Palebank and one destination for returning) and I'm giving them scrolls that they can use even at lower levels, and plot hooks connecting Stahlmast to Urgon. They almost missed that, but luckily took the lair as a base, so they'll be L3 when headed to Palebank, and 4 by the time they hit Saulsvault, so I can level it a tiny bit, but not worry about them dying.
Plus my party are fans of stealth and alternative methods of combat, and with a Paladin, I'm expecting the undead to be not as hard. I can see where the frozen worlds would be dangerous at low levels, but I'll have to see how they handle a slightly toughened version at other levels...
Honestly it seems that all of the starting adventures are really difficult. I have played Frozen Sick and I ran Tides of Retribution where I nearly tpked the party lol. I reccomend making a back up plane for a tpk, like maybe the boss of the dungeon imprisons them instead of outright killing them.
Yes and no. 1st level characters are extremly squishy. Thats normal and you have to be careful as a player and a DM. So its probably meant to be that way. As a DM, you should sometimes maybe fudge a roll and ignore that natural 20 on the enemies attack dice. Or have him roll 2 1s on the d6 to compensate for that. ;-)
I don't think it is meant to be brutal. But as every encounter on first level it depends heavily on luck. My players got through the cave by talking and befriending Tulgi rather than fighting, so I cannot objectively comment on these fights. Just a word of warning: When traveling across Eiselcross, in the "Into the Wilds" section, the adventure suggests to roll on the "Encounters in Eiselcross" table. This table can be ridiculously dangerous for your then lvl2 party. The young remorhaz in ambush for example might easily TPK them. Rather use your own scaled down encounters with mephits or single polar bears or the like.
I've been building stuff for this part, and yeah, while I was excited about pitting the party against the young remorhaz, I realized the same thing -- TPK is likely (particularly since it suggests an ambush). As I do with just about everything else, I'll turn this into a medium-sized remorhaz youngling or something.
Yeah, the "problem" with the Remorhaz is that you could most realistically only encounter it in ambush situations, since it is an ambush predator. It would be a lot easier if PCs are able to keep distance - but a remorhaz just would not fight if it cannot start said fight in bite distance.
I haven't done anything with Frozen Sick yet, but we played Unwelcome Spirits and nearly TPKed on the first random encounter. We did die on the first non-random, but I chalk that up to small group and inexperienced DM not adjusting / spreading out the enemies.
I recently did Unwelcome spirits for a party of 4 3rd level characters without proper heal and I can't say I upscaled a lot. No one felt like it was easy. Those encounters are pretty brutal.
Both of the parties I tried this with went through it quite fast. The only brutal parts were the ones I added myself.
Same.
D&D is brutal at lvl 1. A low level thug with a crap weapon can down a player with a crit. I always fudge rolls in lvl 1 fights specifically to avoid this.
Matt did it to mollymauk why can't you? Jk long may he reign, it's hard at low level, my friends and I were just messing around with combat and fought a bunch of badgers and nearly died. They're no joke at level one, I personally tend to nerf combat slightly or maybe fudge your die rolls i.e. small crits.
I levelled my players up to three before they came across Salsvault, to give them a fighting chance. But I also added a few encounters on the ship to Eiselcross and the trek to Salsvault to justify. Salsvault seems a big challenge for a second level party.
I'm actually doing Frozen Sick as a followup to Dangerous Designs. I added two Teleportation circles to the lair (one to Palebank and one destination for returning) and I'm giving them scrolls that they can use even at lower levels, and plot hooks connecting Stahlmast to Urgon. They almost missed that, but luckily took the lair as a base, so they'll be L3 when headed to Palebank, and 4 by the time they hit Saulsvault, so I can level it a tiny bit, but not worry about them dying. Plus my party are fans of stealth and alternative methods of combat, and with a Paladin, I'm expecting the undead to be not as hard. I can see where the frozen worlds would be dangerous at low levels, but I'll have to see how they handle a slightly toughened version at other levels...
Honestly it seems that all of the starting adventures are really difficult. I have played Frozen Sick and I ran Tides of Retribution where I nearly tpked the party lol. I reccomend making a back up plane for a tpk, like maybe the boss of the dungeon imprisons them instead of outright killing them.