It goes without saying that Phandelver and Below has appeal for fans of the original starter set. This is a chance to relive what might have been your first-ever D&D adventure, after all. Many of the tweaks are cosmetic or focus on moving Phandelver on from its starter set status, removing the more obvious DM advice –but the heart of the campaign remains.

Some characters have been reimagined, such as Reidoth the Druid who is now a woman, and there are some completely new characters, including a tattooed dwarf from Neverwinter who is in Phandalin visiting her sister, and an archaeologist gnome who stumbled into a trap and became artificially aged. I just want to start playing with my friends!” Then let us boil down our advice and deliver the best tips for running the first chapter of Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk: Because these adventures are continuations in each chapter, it's better to take certain elements, ideas, and story beats and use them in your campaign. This means looking into some of the following: Behind The Scenes Action From the press event alone, it’s not clear how extensive the changes to NPCs are. Only one example was shown – new art reveals that Phandalin’s DnD Druid, Reidoth, is now a woman. The significant changes that someone familiar with the original release will notice are more artwork and battle maps, and some NPC have been altered to create a world filled with more than just humans.The adventure continues to focus on Phandalin and its surrounding areas, but as new dungeons are explored and leads are followed up on, the adventure shifts into creepier territory. Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden is the latest appearance of an obelisk and also the DnD adventure that provides the most information. In Icewind Dale, players can find the obelisk on the downed Netherese flying city, Ythryn, and it is this obelisk, along with some sidebar text, sheds the most light on the strange magical stones. The one found in Ythryn is the largest so far, standing 60 feet tall and covered in arcane runes. The stakes of The Shattered Obelisk Adventure do a good job of expanding to the grandeur of an adventure that will end at the 12th level but manages to also keep it intimate. It's less about the fate of the world (even though that's definitely on the plate), but instead, it's about Phandalin. Although things start out pretty idyllic in Phandalin, the town is soon put in peril. This peril escalates in true Dungeons and Dragons fashion, until the players are forced to take action. What begins as a strange investigation then turns into "the strangest adventure ever", with the big bad threat being kept a secret even from us.

The idea of a large interconnect multiverse is exciting, as it would allow players to visit different campaign settings from previous Dungeons & Dragons editions. It also creates a sense that the reality that the players create is more interconnected rather than the adventures existing as separate bubbles. With events in one adventure or world being mentioned or coming into play in one later down the line. Phandelver And Below: The Shattered Obelisk will be released later in 2023 for players to experience the first steps towards a larger interconnected Dungeons & Dragons multiverse.If you so choose, you can also have your players affected by these changes enacted by the Far Realm mind flayers. The same transformations happening to the NPCs can happen to your players. One of the hallmarks of memorable adventure is when seeds of information planted earlier on blossom into realizations of what is to come, or provide hints on how to overcome a particular obstacle. Laying this groundwork as a DM is extremely rewarding when it ultimately pays off. Fortunately, these seeds are plenty and scattered throughout this first chapter, offering bountiful opportunity to capture your players’ engagement.

I think there was a strong desire from folks in the studio to preserve Lost Mines of Phandelver in a hardcover book – which was just a booklet in the starter set”, she says. “We wanted to preserve and update that adventure to have that longevity and staying power. My hope in doing that is creating an adventure that goes places people don’t expect.” With a clear link to the famous Dungeons & Dragons villain Vecna, the obelisks and their role in a new DnD multiverse become clearer. Players can read the updated dossier on Vecna on D&D Beyond, which explains that Vecna has often traveled between worlds or realms. Indeed, in the D&D Direct showcase, WotC announced that Vecna would get his own book in 2024. The Psionic Goblin Brawlers and Commanders are also a great treat to throw into any campaign if you feel like the regular Goblins just aren't doing enough to challenge your party. A goblin is suddenly no longer the butt of the joke when they're dealing 4d6 psychic damage on a 30-foot radius sphere. Who Is Phandelver and Below For? Drag & Drop over 85 magic items onto a character sheet to instantly arm a character, including brand new Mind Crystals that allow casters to manipulate spells (double your range or cast a spell as a bonus action!)Discover what lurks below in this high-fantasy adventure that begins with the familiar story of Lost Mine of Phandelver and then delves into the perilous Underdark. For tables that are interested in playing around more with these body horror elements, there are also rules as to how the energy might affect each of the player's characters adding a sense of urgency to get to the bottom of the issue.

Following the trail to its end leads to the Cragmaw goblin hideout, the first real “dungeon” ripe for exploration! With the goblin ambush and traps behind them, are your players ready to put those rules to use in their favor? Perhaps they are well-equipped now to move with Stealth, to ambush any unsuspecting foes, or to set traps of their own. Also Gundren is, unfortunately, dead in my campaign, accidentally killed by the Tabaxi Wild Magic sorcerer. It is actually Nundro who had taken up the mantle in his stead. On top of that after 5th level we continued with an almost entirely new party consisting of entirely of Dwarves, most of whom hail from Nundro's secret Dwarf Clan, the Ironstar clan. The Lost Mine of Phandelver has been remade. You'll still run the same adventure for the most part, but you'll notice a few improvements and changes along the way. This portion of the adventure is also self-sustainable, and you can choose to end the adventure here if you'd like. This is suggested if you have players not necessarily interested in body horror or mutation elements of the following adventures. You should DEFINITELYrun this - the first half is now a Classic 5e Experience and the second half is new, unexpected and thought provokingly different (some have been more negative/positive about that fact than others [delete as apporporiate]).Lost Mines of Phandelver, and subsequently the town of Phandalin which features centrally in the adventure, is something close to a lot of players hearts - it was their first experience of the world of Dungeons and Dragons, and so it holds a lot of nostalgia and positivity for them. Drag & Drop over 175 illustrated handouts into the virtual tabletop, depicting heinous five-headed hydras and stunning landscapes to set the scene The first few adventures have your party dealing with low-level threats, as your average goblin ambush leads the party to the town of Phandalin. Once there, they'll encounter the Redbrand ruffians and learn the secrets of the lost mine and the gang terrorizing the town.