Dragon of Icespire Peak DM Guide | How to Run Dragon of Icespire Peak 

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I did something similar to your “malnourished orcs” after the Dwarven Excavation. I had my player with the highest passive investigation notice that they seemed to have a few odd patches of skin. They did a subsequent Medicine check to discover that several of them had patches of frostbite, but not on their ears, nose, fingers, or any place it would naturally start.

New DM here. We've run the first three quests from this kit so far, I've learned a lot already from my short time with it. I am glad I've read ahead and started prepping in advance, it's helped me with some of those unbalanced encounters... For the manticore, I had him visibly injured, dropped him to half HP and had most of his tail spikes already used up from an encounter with Cryovain, which is the reason why he has fled from his nest. I didn't think a manticore would have much use for gold, so I had him asking for food, or to be healed instead. This made the encounter more believable, tied in the threat of the white dragon, and made it a more manageable fight if it came to blows. My players negotiated and gave him a healing potion and some rations, so he flew off and they avoided the fight. But I was ready to stop the encounter, and have the manticore pause to make another demand if one of the players had fallen unconscious or even have Adabra come out to heal one if things went south, just in case. I didn't want a complete party wipe out with two brand new players this early into their first time gaming. They'll be plenty of chances for that at higher levels. Since the manticore was spared, I'm thinking of adding in a conversation that they can eventually overhear, of a farmer talking about how he's lost several sheep and goats to a manticore recently. Still driven from his nest by the dragon he's looking for easy meals and has started to prey on the farmer's flock. Could turn into another encounter once they've leveled up a bit. I have to say, I'm not crazy about the 5e rules on the lycanthropes being completely immune to non-magical weapons, especially considering vampires are only resistant. It seems unbalanced, they should either both be immune, or both be resistant in my opinion. But dropping silvered weapons ahead of time for the players is a good idea, it's one of the flaws of the book that they don't give the players anything leading up to that encounter. My plan is to just make the wererats resistant to non-magical weapons, while silver and magical weapons do full damage. This keeps with the overall theme of the creatures, but still gives the players a chance to actually do something if a fight breaks out. Lastly, if you also have the Starter Kit with the Lost Mines of Phandelver (which I have NOT run yet), you could easily pull a few select pieces from there and intertwine them into this narrative to make the story even broader, since they both take place in the same town. For example, I've introduced the Redbrand ruffians into the village, nothing significant yet just that the players have noticed them hanging around town, looking like they are up to no good. There's a couple of other locations from the Starter Kit that are not mentioned/listed in the Essentials Kit that could easily be woven into your story, so you wouldn't have to run the full Starter Kit story per se, but just pick and choose a few key things that fit into what you want to do with it. It will certainly add more depth, and could always be a teaser thread for something that might pop up in a later campaign after you've completed Icespire Peak. At the very least it will give you plenty of sidequest options that will make the game feel even more like a sandbox environment for the players.

A tip for anyone who doesn’t want to prep 3 quests at once: have your party see the board with any (new) quests on it at the END of your sessions and let them decide what they want to do next! For my party I didn’t even use umbrage hill as a quest, but I just let them encounter it on their way to phandalin, (bonus: didn’t need to prep the entire town) It was kind of a travel trough dangerous land, escort caravan, orc ambush, oneshot deal haha (oh and they met Cryovain!) I had an npc not so subtly suggest they might want to try a non-violent solution, so the manticore encounter was over in 15 minutes after succesfull negotiation :p They found the jobboard and are now really excited about Gnomengarde, to get some stuff to fight that pesky dragon with!

Hey, I'm starting out as a new DM, and got this adventure, I really enjoyed watching trough your playtrough, and see how you changed some things up and added some details. I'm absolutely going to use some of the things you said in this video (and the playtrough) to make the game as fun as possible for everyone involved!

This is all very great. I am going to make this my 1st DM campaign and you all, through the video and comments, have made me feel much more confident. I just think I need to learn more about putting in random encounters and how to execute combat with the players in believable way as I haven’t played much DND myself.

I really like how you break this down in a practical approach.

I ended up completely rewriting the opening to this module. I ran it last week and it went really well. I just really strive to make things narratively driven rather than mechanically driven. I also have a group of players who are keen for an RP heavy experience so the whole "you're a preexisting party, oh look! A job board" wasnt quite going to cut it! Happy to share what I did if anyone is interested.

As a new DM getting ready to run this, really appreciated the insights! Thank you!

Thanks for this! Super excited to play this adventure as a first-time DM for friends who have never played before!

11 more days! 11 days until I DM this adventure for 5 of my closest friends. We have never played any D&D, but I just bit the bullet to DM, so we could all enjoy this amazing game. Your guide and playthroughs are so helpful, I am taking notes!

Love this video, hope to see more from you!

My 8 year old son and I are just starting out, both of us first time players and myself a first time DM. I appreciate the advice on where to put the focus. It’s been hard for me to keep a narrative as I am trying to get him engaged in helping with the story, and have missed a few opportunities. Thank you for putting this together, I think it’s going to help me out in the long run!

Thank you, very helpful video. I’m going to start my adventure as a DM and the tips in these comments are great as well

Brand new to DM and even the game and running this one this weekend. Thanks for this!

Favorite Icespire Peak guide I've listened to so far, out of a half dozen or so. Will be listening to more!

Hey thanks for this! I'm about to DM my first ever campaign so this made me feel way more prepared.

Awesome video. Me and my friends are all new to dnd, i currently have a campaign im in as an aarocockra druid. We are maybe 10 sessions in and im loving it. This helped me a lot with setting up my first time dming

Such a good guide. I cant wait to start. My friends and i are starting our first go and i decided id find it fun to DM and this really makes me feel a little more comfortable!

Im on 3rd session on phandalin. This content is gold for me.

You sir, just gave me a tonne of tips to help make my Son and Daughters first dnd experience a successful one. We will have fun regardless but I want to make sure they get as much as they can out of their first experience. 👍 Cheers.

I have been wanting to run this adventure. Awesome video, Jake!

I like your suggestions here. I'm about to DM this adventure with some new players so looking forward to this.

Great work!!

This was a very informative video, thanks so much!

New DM here! Love the advice!

Just wanted to come back and let you know that your advice was great. I used a few of the tips you gave here like the malnourished orcs and describing the effects of the land because of the dragon.

Thank you for all of these videos! I am DMing for the first time, and I am doing it through Roll20. I have prepped quite a bit already, but these videos have been incredibly helpful for ideas, tips, and tricks. I especially like the little additions you suggest (such as new magical items, weapons, etc...).

Hey, thanks for this video. I''m currently preparing to DM this campaign and this video has helped me gather my thoughts. Also a lot of excellent tips in this video too, like foreshadowing the dragon before the final fight to make the last fight more impactful. That was really good advice. Thanks!

Just found the channel and I'm really enjoying this Icespire Peak series! I hope you'll consider doing a similar series for the sequel trilogy to Icespire Peak, too. They are great adventures and a really great place to go next, but there's so little content for them out there :) I loved your advice about making the adventure fit to the characters. You asked us to share how we do the same, so here's one thing I'm doing: since I'm planning to have the players go into the sequels, I decided to make Harbin Wester be the investor responsible for getting Phandalin back up and running. But I am also making it that he invested in buying up Conyberry and Leilon, too, as long term rebuilding plans. Wester is a self made millionaire and he lacks a crucial thing: a title. One of my players has a noble background, but her family has no land. They lost everything due to disaster (using the premade background from Lost Mine of Phandelver as I combined the adventures). The hook provided for Storm Lord's Wrath is that Lord Neverember of Neverwinter is supposed to ask the PCs to go to Leilon to help build the new town. But I have decided that Wester is going to come under fire in a bit. Plans are already in motion, in part due to the PC's actions, and he is going to desperately need to be titled or risk having Phandalin taken from him by the Lords that control the realm. And so he will make an offer to my player. Knight him Sir Harbin Wester (they hate him, of course) and he will give her father Leilon to rule (her backstory is that she wants her father to be back as Lord of a town again), which should serve to get the players to go there and rebuild it, as the story requires!

I'll be DMing my first game for my son with this Essentials Kit. Thanks for the video

Great video!

Fantastic ideas! Great advice here. My only comment is 100% give sidekick control to the players. Assign sidekicks their own turn in combat, and allow the players to decide how they will manage the sidekick.

thank you so much for the insights as a new dm who never played dnd and goin to teach my nephew and niece how to play. ur vid helps

Thanks for this! I just ran this yesterday for 2 completely new players and they had a blast. I went with the flow, added flavor to the NPCs. I made Toblen skeptical of the dragon arrival and weirded out by the party deciding...to flirt with him? My players headed for the manticore first...ouch, they both rolled absolute terrible numbers and had no clue what type of creature it was. After offering the beast food because 'It's like a big cat, it must be hungry' they didn't even bother to ask Adabra what was that. So know they're headed back to Phandalin thinking they defeated a dragon...and Toblen will probably be "Ah yea... it all makes sense, sounds like the folks here can't distinguish a manticore for a dragon' And I won't tell my players if that was actually it or if there's a dragon still...

Well, what more can I say that hasn't already been said by other new DM's!? Great vid lotsa help. Hope one new humble subscriber helps!

I really wish you could make a half hour video on every 5 mins you provided in this one. I will say this definitely helped but I've still got so much learning before I can even begin to DM. However to reenforce, this helped so much!! I just love how you explain things. Big issue here is my lack of understanding of the terminology. I'll be back to check it out again once I know a bit more. Thank you for all your contributions to the community. I'm new here but I can tell you're most definitely not :)

I know this video is possibly over 2 years old, but id like to say this has greatly helped me build the courage to dm for the 1st time as someone who has played only 1 session of dnd ever in their lifetime. I certainly don't like the idea of railroading and and sand boxing, so giving the absolute feeling of freedom for pc decisions is most important to me, its how id like to play if i could find a competent DM. Thank you so very much for the tips and video i hope this continues to help new dm's. The intrest from my friends to want to try playing is a direct result of the new dnd movie (honor amongst thieves). Critical role got me into dnd but isnt appealing to the common folk that id hope itd have when showing my common folk friends, unlike the movie.. go figure!?

I know I am a year late however, great video. I just started playing D&D again after 20+ years being away. My 13 year old son wanted to play so I got this set. I did a sample play of the Umbridge quest and ended up killing the “PC” at level one. I didn’t want to have this happen to my son but really wanted to have him fight a Manticore. I really wanted to trash talk him to be honest! So I decided to have him encounter an Orc and some goblins on the way to the quest. This encounter got him to explore his spells and also level up, allowing him to be level 2 before going toe to toe with the Manticore. I also made the Manticore a little easier to fight by reducing the tail spikes and HP. The Manticore had used many of its spikes when attacking the windmill and the HP reduction was due to a wound it took from fighting Cryovain. All and all it was a good fight. He still almost died, having only 3 HP at the end. I can not wait to continue through this adventure.

I’m so exited to run icespire peak for some local kids!!! We are doing a charity kinda thing and introducing these kids to dnd is amazing

I am relatively new to dming but what I did with the first time the characters encountered cryovain was they saw them from afar kill twice as many orcs as they had just struggled to beat it really drove home the point of Oh this is an apex predator and it needs to be dealt with

I'm DM'ing this, and have been for a bit, between just me and my Fiance. She wants to try out DND together so she can learn the rules / mechanics before we join another group, so I just rolled up a quick DMPC who is just a archer that later cross-classes into cleric to fill a gap in the party. I just basically made her a companion that lives in the area, a wood elf who left her home in the Neverwinter Wood to find information about the dragon and search for an ancient weapon Cryovain may have stolen for his hoard. (I let her control the character in most situations and just use it to give her info on teh area when she needs it.) She decided to start as a warlock based on the fact that she wanted to play a tiny halfling wielding a huge warhammer that she could summon and dismiss at will. She kept trying to play as a fighter type character, and was really frustrated at her armor class and lack of armor options, so I let her re-do her character to be a eldritch knight subclass fighter for the weapon bond ability and then take levels in wizard to give her more toolbox options. She just hit level 5 and is starting into the tier 3 quests. She ended up being cursed with Lycanthropy in the mine (she rolled really terrible on the saving throw from the bosses last attack during the fight after crushing all the other rats in a tough fight, as she was still a warlock at that point and had improved pact weapon making it a +1 weapon, so I ruled it a magic effect weapon.) I threw together a simple skill challenge for her to travel to Neverwinter and get it removed. (she didn't want to be a wererat at all, and was dreading it the entire fight, so the boss wererat got a particularly gruesome death after biting her.) From there, we travelled into the woods and she just met falcon last session. A few tips for those of you just starting: - FLESH OUT NEVERWINTER / LEILON. Either find a map of some sort online or generate your own. The game as written provides fuck all about neverwinter, even though it's basically a huge hub of commerce and port trade in the forgotten realms, so if your characters want to go there, find something for them. (When they first see the map, there are only a few places labeled, and neverwinter is the most prominent, even being more centrally located to the map given than Phandalin. (when I first opened the map, she asked if we started in Neverwinter). The other city, Leilon, plays into events if you do the follow up campaign to this one (a trilogy of Storm Lord's Wrath, Sleeping Dragon's Wake, and Divine Contention, which I believe you get for free if you purchase DoIP on D&D Beyond or activate a code that comes with a physical version) but make sure you have something ready, as they'll surprise you when you least expect it - My Fiance really loved Halia Thornton, and immediately loved this older woman running the center of commerce in this town, to the point where I made it seem like she was actually running things in this town, and just let Wester be the face of the town, sort of a "power behind the throne" thing and leaned into her connections with Neverwinter. - Fudge rolls for the dragon's location. I have rolled every time we leave / arrive, and the dragon has yet to arrive anywhere where she is or will be. He's mostly been flying between Gnomengarde and Ice-spire Hold, with one stop over at the hunting lodge very early on where I had her spot him flying high above. Trying to be fair, I haven't actually had her encounter him yet, and I regret it. My plan is to have her be ambushed on the way out of the wood and have a group of orcs come at her only to have Cryovain land amongst them and wreck shop. - SHRINE OF SAVRAS IS BULLSHIT. If players go early, it's a really tough fight with lots of semi-competent enemies, and if they go late, it just scales horribly. My Fiance played really well but just got overwhelmed really badly. We ended up doing that fight over again since I didn't realize that it was so hard as written. As written, they are outnumbered 3 or 4 to 1 and action economy screws them hard. The bell they find there is also listed as being worth 2500 gold, which is a STUPID amount of gold to give a low level party, even for such a hard fight. This area isn't connected to any other quests (aside from a mention in the Gold Toe Mine as the old nesting ground for the wererats and a mention from townspeople meant to guide them there.) My Fiance had been playing a good, friendly halfling so when I mentioned a guard on the tower, as the game tells you to (unbeknownst to her, it's an orc.) she decided to just wave and say "HI" really loudly, which made him throw a spear at her. I hadn't expected her to travel that way, so hadn't read ahead at that point and just started the fight, and she got ran over hard. She got really upset, and I felt like it punished her for exploring and being nice, so we stopped the fight and re-started the encounter with 1 less ogre. This is when she decided she wanted to re-tune her character. Tune that area down a touch if you have your party go there, especially for low level parties or small groups, and you may want to have that bell only be sell-able for a fraction of it's cost. I fixed it by letting her buy a bag of holding in Never-winter, since she wanted one after reading stuff online and it really doesn't affect game balance in any way if you aren't using encumbrance, which we aren't, but her character got a nice bag of holding that she got to customize. (it has a little d20 on the leather tie and she can use a command word to switch between two internal storages, which she uses as a security measure to keep people from stealing things from it.) - Give your players what they want to an extent. My fiance wanted a pet, so I had puppies available to buy in Phandalin, but she didn't buy one because she was worried about it dying. I had her spend some time carving a wooden statue of a dog, with some quick and dirty rules for item crafting I found online (something she wanted her character to be good at anyway, she chose woodcarving tools as a proficiency in her backstory) and then had the gnomes enchant it at Gnomengarde for her to allow her to summon a pet in exchange for helping them. It doesn't help in combat (it's actually a blink dog in the form of a Corgi that teleports back into her backpack when it gets scared) and functionally can't die, since the statue lets her re-summon it, but she used it as part of her backstory when she re-made herself as an eldritch knight. She now has her wizard familiar (an owl named Indigo) and the two of them are competing for her affection. She's not super into role play, and is quite shy in social situations in real life, but she loves her dog and owl, so it's bonding her to the character a bit more. I also had her find a dagger of whittling in , a home-brew item I found online that allows her to make simple wooden carvings once a day (she rolls a d10 to determine the value of them in gold). I plan on letting her magically infuse those into her wooden statue of her dog to give it more abilities over time if she chooses to do that instead of selling it.

Reading the comments and hearing your thoughts about the „imbalanced encounters“ in the early Game I have to strongly disagree: I love the encounters and for me it makes for a very memorable campaign. Here are some tips and tricks regarding manticore and lycantropes: Manticore: Dont run the stat block as written! I never do that :) My manticore was wounded by the dragon (foreshadowing the bbeg) and down almost all tailspikes by the combat against the dragon and by trying to tear down the door of umbridge Tower. Make it a roleplay encounter! The manticore wants healing potions or something to eat. Let the PCs go hunt some deer. Even if combat breaks out the wounded manticore is likely to flee after a few hits, it does not want to die! And even if a few PCs get downed, make adabra rush out and stabilize them with healing potions, she is the only supplier of healing potions and the PCs come to rescue her after all. Regarding the wererats. Give the PCs some hints and clues that something aint right. Let the wererats change shape. Let the PCs learn during combat that only silver and magic weapons damage them. Let the PCs flee and come back later. Hell, even make one of the PCs get infected, how fkn awesome is that?! If they dont like it make it a sidequest to cure the condition! Adabra might know how to do it :) When the PCs finally manage to beat the wererats it will make the victory sweet and the adventure memorable. Hope these tips help out some new DMs. Apart from that good video ;)

Hey, man. Great video. This was very helpful for this new DM. And, wow, it's bonus that you're so handsome.

great job! I love the ennergy you give! It's not to much.

Very help I’m new to dm and and gonna be playing with a few friends who haven’t played before im really hoping to do it justice and get them interested I haven’t play in a very long time and don’t have a playing group yet

Sweet I’m usually a player and am still very new to the game but I want to start a solo campaign to practice being a Dm so I can play with my family

New dm here...starting with this b4 going home brew as the players are going to travel and serve as a group of hunters similar to the role witchers had also tonadd to imersion there characters will be created with ai and npcs will be ai generated with ai voices pretty excited to get started

I removed the choice on the first quest and had Harbin hand them the first quest of Umbridge Hill himself. They had the option to talk the Manticore down or fight her, in which case just not Multiattacking makes the fight rather easy for a group of 4 level 1 characters. Now with level 2, the other 2 quests aren't nearly that deadly anymore.

I know this is not everyone's thing but I added a respawn mechanic, especially because one group includes my kids. I've mentioned in another of your vids that my world is a complete sandbox. And how the warerats said it sucks to suck lol. But because of the nature of my world players can go anywhere but that doesn't mean they can survive anywhere. If a player does die then they respawn at the last town they rested at but the world continues. They come back but a week has passed (10 days based on the Faerun calendar). This can make death a whatever to some but there are consequences (they lose EXP and if their die enough then they can go down a level. Each death increases the amount of EXP lost). An example would be with the warerats. If a player died there and tried to return, the rats have gained a few followers and are on alert. Plus the player is now a warerat since they died. Main reason I made this mechanic is because in old games I would let my players add "Jr" to their character lol to keep things moving. I know some DMs will force their players to make a new one, and heard stories that some even make them start back at level 1 or they can't pick the same race/class/subclass.

(Trying to get started on this adventure as my first time playing AND as a DM) Is the only thing we read or tell the players is the box text? Is it up to us how we open the scene or get them to go around the town? How do we let them know the background of the area? How much are we to read a head and plan stories? Sorry for so many questions up front…thank you for your time with this video explanation! Looking forward to learning.

great video!! 👍 on another note, I'm an old man, so I'm curious if you have ever heard of Greyhawk? in 5e it's the setting of Saltmarsh.

I'm actually going to be a player in this adventure with my character being a Water Genasi Ranger of the Archeologist Background. Subclass I'm going for is Horizon Walker Ranger.

its a great structure if you want to build your own adventure off it. though I like the story a bit as well as it shows that domino effect of what happens when a dragon moves in and disrupts an ecosystem, it feels more natural than Lmop.

I'm about to run this campaign with my kids, It's our first time playing any TTRPG and this seemed the way to start. Thanks for the video, It's going to come up in handy when we begin in a few days.

I'm starting this with 2 of my friends soon and one of them is starting with a level 1 character but the other is bringing in a level 3 character from a previous campaign so I'm hoping that makes the quests a bit more balanced.

I made the manticore more of a social encounter rather than combat. They had to figure out what he wanted and how to get it for him.

Great video! I have a question If the grup dont pass in a hability check what they need to do, for exemple in the dragon barrow the only entrace need do make a cd test of 15 (atletcs) to open, If the grup dont pass what the grup need to do?

As a new DM, is it OK to just reduce the CR of the Manticore in Umbrage Hill by improvising its HP and dmg output? Maybe have it be weakened, tired, or a much younger manticore? lol

I was thinking about, to make the players fear Cryovain and be able to take in the manticore, cryovain and the manticore are fighting when the players arrive. It lowers the manticore’s health and shows the players how powerful the dragon truly is. Would this be a good idea?

"Phandalin serves as a home base for the players." I am a brand new DM. My players robbed the Lionshield store in the first session and are now wanted in Phandalin. Well. For the second Session I created a custom map of Leilon. Maybe they don't fuck it up there as well :D

I was planning on running this campaign for the manticore i was thinking of halting the health and giving it ice burn related wounds making it damn near blind maybe

What if I just let them do the dwarven expedition first? Like its urging so they dont have a choice? Then they are level two and I give them the choice between the other two starting quests? Could that work with three level 1 characters?

My husband and I are starting D&D with this adventure. He wants to play as a single player to get a handle on it before we have friends over to play together, they will all be level 1. If he progresses in his levels by doing pre-sessions, will that make it easier for everyone else to be level 1 for their first game. I.e. they can beat the manticore if they have a higher level player with them? Thanks!

IV never really dmed. Ik how to and I start tmmr lol

Hey, I'm new to DnD and I want to DM this campaign. I made myself familiar with all of the places to go, but I am kinda confused what to tell them and what not to tell them. For example when they travel to the house in the woods. Do I tell them about the backstory? If not, how do they find out about it? I hope you can help me out there.

This is going to be my first DM campaign and i havent read the book yet, but as soon as you said "Barthen's goods" i heard "Not just good, they're GREAT!" in the most monotonous voice ever. I dont know who barthen is yet, but i know hes inherited the shop from a distant relative, didnt want it, and that his parents MADE him accept it so that they could have their basement back to make a study and enjoy their rerirement. 🤣

Immaciated and aggressive orcs make sense in this context. Trying to survive they’ll be pushed to their limits for sustenance

10k view? Yah boiiiiiii

First time DM, played this with a couple other first timers and I didn’t know how to keep them alive lol we had three sessions, we had fun but the dwarven excavation quest ends with an Orc attack and those guys just seemed op to my level 1 noobs 😂 should I have leveled up my players? Idk where I went wrong to keep my players alive but I think I should have leveled them up or something

My players killed the townmaster and looted the hall, along with doing a BnE on Halia's house, they also killed ms alderleaf in the lost mine of phandelver, my story might have to change a little

I’m completely new to DD and I still am not sure how to follow the story…do I just make it up as we go??

My players have now kidnapped Halia (from the Miner's Exchange) and forced her to join them. XD

Currently running this for my group on Tuesdays. It's... Well, it's going interestingly. Players teamed up with the Manticore and left IMMEDIATELY after meeting it to Icespire Hold, and then I rolled the Cryovain's location, and guess what? Icespire Hold. Then my friend's bard practically 1v1'd Cryovain, after climbing up the side of the hold onto the roof! Tue battle ended with Cryovain at 7 Hp left, and my bard unconscious, due to Cryo's breath attack recharging right before he was about to die. Had me scared and confused the ENTIRE time, how tf did level 2 bards get that strong???

My players robbed a load of people and one of them got caught one of them also tried flirting with one of the shopkeepers

Here's a solid starting party: Four Wood Elves. Divination Wizard (DW), Fighter to Eldritch Knight (FEK), Rogue to Arcane Trickster (RAT) and Life Cleric (LC). So Darkvision, Keen senses, Fey ancestry, Trance, Fleet of foot, Mask of the wild, PW 15, Initiative +3, Background Criminal, proficient with thieves tools. Using standard ability scores at 1st level. DW-STR 10/0 DEX 16/+3 CON 12/+1 INT 13/+1 WIS 16/+3 CHA 8/-1 Arcana, Deception, Investigation, Perception, Stealth FEK-STR 13/+1 DEX 16/+3 CON 12/+1 INT 10/0 WIS 16/+3 CHA 8/-1 Deception, Insight, Perception, Stealth, Survival RAT-STR 8/-1 DEX 16/+3 CON 12/+1 INT 10/0 WIS 16/+3 CHA 13/+1 Deception, Investigation, Nature, Perception, Persuasion, Expert with Sleight of Hand and Stealth LC-STR 8/-1 DEX 16/+3 CON 12/+1 INT 10/0 WIS 16/+3 CHA 13/+1 Deception, Insight, Perception, Persuasion, Stealth The entire party has Mask of the Wild and Stealth with high dexterity and initiative, so they can hide almost anywhere. The entire party starts out To Hit +5 and Damage +3 with bow and short sword and AC +3 from DEX. The party is eligible for the Help action to grant Advantage in one third of all the skills: Deception, Insight, Investigation, Perception, Stealth and Persuasion. The LC can Help the RAT gain Advantage in Persuasion for negotiating and the DW can Help him gain Advantage with Investigation. Exploration is not a problem as the entire party is stealthy. The Wizard has a Familiar of a Flying Monkey that can pick up one of the party and fly with his weight. So the Flying Monkey can carry the party one at a time over any obstacle. Also, the DW can use Mage Hand to move a robe covered mannequin ahead of the party to trigger any ambush. The RAT is expert with Thieves tools and Sleight of Hand to detect and remove traps or open locks with Advantage. At level 3, the DW, FEK and RAT can all use Magic Missile to do a good amount of automatic damage every round. Good luck! P.S. Most players forget that they can subdue an enemy and capture them for questioning. Make a mini-quest that the mayor will pay a bounty for captives.