Hi :) Me and a group of friends (all new to D&D or haven't played in 10 years) want to start our first game in a few weeks and we ordered the starter kit including Lost Mines Of Phandelver yesterday. The description online says it's for 4 players but there's 5 of us. I found some threads on reddit saying people played this with more than 4 players. Is it easy to adjust it to 5 players? It's also our DMs first time.
Sorry for what is probably a too-late response, but for anyone else who has this question: it is in fact very easy to adjust the Lost Mines for 5 people. It even comes with enough premade characters, if my memory serves correctly. I wouldn’t worry about making actual adjustments; it might be a little easier but there’s always some flexibility there.
Five is honestly probably the ideal adventuring party. The classic group is a warrior (like a Fighter), a magic-user (like a Wizard), a skilled expert (like a Rogue), and a support/healer (like a Cleric). In the classic group, the Rogue can do damage similar to a Fighter and the Cleric can engage foes similarly to a Fighter, while the Wizard acts like artillery, so everyone’s useful in combat and the Fighter isn’t just out there alone.
If you’ve got a fifth person, it’s really good to stack a second warrior in (which I think is how the starter set does it, having one Strength-based Fighter and one Dexterity-based Fighter) or get someone who can cover multiple roles, such as a Bard or Druid. If you’ve got six, of course, you want two warriors and one jack-of-all-trades. Paladins and Rangers are nifty in that they’re warriors who can also do some healing and support/expertise stuff.