I am a player in a group running through the starter set campaign, Lost Mine of Phandelver.
So far there is no introduction in the gameplay itself or to the underlying rules expectations of characters in order to succeed. All the enemies are so overpowered we just keep dying and achieving nothing. As an introduction to D&D it is not doing too well.
Are we missing something?
We have a Dungeon Master that is putting a lot of effort in but it just seems impossible to achieve anything. We are constantly dying and it is taking the fun out of what was going to be fun.
I am just wondering what possibly we are doing wrong with the game that it is so unbeatable. Is it usual that you do not win any encounters? What is the definition of winning? I assumed defeating the opponents.
We are a group of four: three players and a DM that has played something to do with badgers and burrows. The PCs are
- a Wood Elf, Ranger, Outlander second level (got to second level in first part of the game)
- Gnome, Druid, Outlander third level (came into the game at second level with DM)
- a Dark Elf, Wizard second level.
We nearly all died in the first part. We have seen a few people in the town. We have gone out to the tower well where we met the Necromancer and had to talk our way out as we were overpowered by the undead. We have now gone to take the Orc as they have a bounty, but again we are two members down as the third has had to leg it. We are just not able to hold our own against the enemy as described in the book.
Obviously we are interpreting the rules wrong or doing something else wrong. The DM is suggesting we should be more creative, but that does not help when you do not know what is expected.
Best Answer
Your party isn't what the campaign was designed for
Honestly, the problem is simply that Lost Mines of Phandelver is balanced for a party of roughly 5 players, so you're already struggling because you are outnumbered. The action economy is pretty rough in 5e, if you are outnumbered, you'll likely struggle. Likewise, a single boss monster is usually far easier than their CR would indicate because if you outnumber them, you can easily take them down.
On top of that, you don't really have a party layout that can make up for the lack in numbers. If you have a strong frontliner you might be able to salvage such a statistical disadvantage, but unless your druid is a Moon druid, you lack that. If your druid is a Moon druid, you lack the second thing which helps when outnumbered; a healer who can bring people back to their feet to keep things from spiraling out of control.
D&D 5e is very unforgiving at the first few levels, and you're playing a campaign designed for more people with a sub-optimal party layout, which means that unless you're really experienced players, this outcome was to be expected.
I've played the campaign with semi-experienced players in groups of 4 and 5 and there have been times where an unlucky roll caused a spiral that quickly downed most of the party. With three, that's pretty much guaranteed to happen.
Fixing this problem is honestly something your DM is in charge of, not something you as players can do much about. I'd personally suggest talking to your DM and pointing out that the module is designed for a party of 5 players, and that running it straight out of the box without any adjustments for difficulty is clearly not working out. Perhaps they'd be willing to send some NPC help with you to even the odds (although this can put a lot of extra work on the DM, which results in you watching the DM roll dice against themselves, and tends to take away the spotlight from players; the newly added sidekick characters from the new starter set or unearthed arcana might be useful for this), or adding an extra friend to the campaign to help out in that way. Alternatively, they can start scaling down the number of enemies to a point where it's a more reasonable challenge.