Suggestions: LMoP - what's next ?

[Targas]

I wanted to know if any DM successfully finished LMoP and which campaign adventure he/she ran afterwards ?

I'm thinking about running Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle/Scourge of Sword Coast/Dead in Thay in succession afterwards by adjusting the encounter difficulties appropiately. Anyone did this ?

[Seananigans]

I plan to combine my own custom stuff with pieces of PotA and HotDQ/RoT. I'm sure what you plan will work just as well.

[Zacchaeus]

You could follow on with Out of the Abyss. Although it's supposed to be playable with 1st level characters levels 3-5 seem to me to me more appropriate. Level 5 might be slightly OP but not by much.

[spite]

If you're comfortable adjusting encounters for slightly higher level chars, I can't recommend Hoard of the Dragon Queen enough, really enjoying running this campaign, andit gives you plenty of opportunity to bring in lots of homebrew encounters, side quests and stories off the beaten path.

[Griogre]

The problem with LMoP is it takes you to a level that isn't good for starting the adventure paths. Our group used Lost Mine to get our feet wet with 5E and then restarted with a different group at first level for Tyranny of dragons. The two adventures of Tyranny are Hoard of the Dragon Queen which does start with 1st level characters and Rise of Tiamat. I think you would lose some of the desperation and high heroic feel of HotDQ if you started things at higher than 1st level. You also won't be able to fully use the module specific backgrounds or bonds with help set the feel too. High heroic feel and desperation is something that can be hard to pull of with D&D. Note I'm currently running 2 games of HotDQ and I have played LMoP.

Unlike the Tyranny of Dragons adventure path, the other two adventure paths: "Princes of the Apocalypse" and "Out of the Abyss" adventure paths really begin at 3rd level. They each have "sandboxy" start areas where you can do a lower level start but the core adventure path really start at higher levels. (I think they did this because just how fragile 5E 1st and 2nd level characters are - but in HotDQ they made this a strength since party casualties tend to make the *players* really want to get the bad guys).

So like Zacchaeus mentioned I would suggest if you want to use that same party for an adventure path then use "Out of the Abyss" or "Princes of the Apocalypse". Most of the adventure paths use an episodic leveling system where you level after you hit a certain point in the story, usually after an episode. Your guys would start overleveled, but you could simply not level them and let them play until they made it to the point where the module would make them higher than their current level.

If you want to just run some adventures Coleman's Dungeons on Demand seem solid: https://www.rpgnow.com/browse/pub/8123/Dan-Coleman-Productions
I backed him on Kickstarter and his adventures seem solid. I've only read Bandit's Nest and set it up for FG, because some of my friends are running the other ones but he has a good level selection and each adventure is suppose to advance the party one level so they are easy to mix into home brew. They look like they are on sale too now.

[Targas]

Thank you all for your valuable advise. I thought I might fall into this trap with LMoP, as I translated the whole module into German (which took more than a month and lots of hours). However I must say I really like the story of LMoP and thought Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle and such would fall nicely into the nearby environment setting.
Maybe I'll try Out of the Abyss, but I reckon playing half of the story is not my favourite. That's why playing a series would be good as well.
I'm currently porting GoDC for FG, as it's not available for purchase, yet (but SoSC which I have is).
It's a pity WotC didn't extend the LMoP module path. Coleman's Dungeons would be a nice in-between Option, but are only available for particular character levels - and would be again no end to end story line.

Lot's to think about...

[healdhj]

I took the PC's background and built a homebrew and they turned Phandalin into their new base of operations. The first main adventure was Return to Thundertree. They led a caravan from Phandalin back to Thundertree to help the Druid rebuild the town. I had created a half dragon that was the sibling of Venomfang.

One of the party members had a backstory that involves a Drow aunt's soul living in her head. The drow's family attaches and rips the soul out and then the party chases the Drow into the underdark. Much longer story there.

We now have one party member who is the town master of Phandalin. The Neverwinter army has a battalion garrisoned there in response to the cult of the dragon (HotDQ) is playing out with some original party members in the background. They've even crossed paths while in Phandalin!

Also we played around in the astral plane with Chris Perkins "The Lich Queens Beloved." We mainly used the reference material and quickly ventured into the Lich Queen's palace.

In other words, plenty to do and see and kill!

[TMO]

I wanted to know if any DM successfully finished LMoP and which campaign adventure he/she ran afterwards ?

I'm thinking about running Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle/Scourge of Sword Coast/Dead in Thay in succession afterwards by adjusting the encounter difficulties appropiately. Anyone did this ?

I actually think Princes of the Apocalypse is a natural transition from Lost Mine of Phandelver. It is intended to start at a higher level anyway (although probably a little lower than your current characters), but depending upon the size of the party I think it will soon balance out. Also, geographically the two adventures are close to each other so there is a way to narrate the characters from Phandalin to Red Larch via the Triboar Trail and The Long Road.

[Targas]

Thanks for all your feedback. I think you got me with Princess of the Apocalypse and from what I read about reviews this campaign adventure is highly recommended and rated highly as well. Thanks for making my day. However lots of work to translate everything into German. Maybe WotC or SW is interested in publishing a localized release after I did the work? :-)