D&D 5E Best Official 1-3 or 1-5 Level Adventures?

[pukunui]

Thanks, all! There's plenty here to look into and keep my table busy for awhile, so I appreciate it.

Question, are these the same Scourge of the Sword Coast and Death House adventures mentioned?

SoSC - Dreams of the Red Wizards: Scourge of the Sword Coast (D&D Next) - Wizards of the Coast | D&D 5th Edition | Dungeon Masters Guild
DH - https://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/Curse of Strahd Introductory Adventure.pdf

Yes, those are the ones!

With Scourge, you can theoretically use the monster stats provided but you might find they’re a bit weak since they’re playtest versions. Most monsters will have a final equivalent in the 5e books (e.g. goblinoids, duergar, orcs, ogres, etc). There’s just one or two here and there (e.g. darkenbeasts, some of the named NPCs) that will need an update. Happy to help with that if you decide to run the adventure as I've already done my own updates and still have them on file from the last few times I ran it.

 

[Sacrosanct]

There's always the Strahd intro 1-3. Very deadly but ...oh my.....

One of the players alerted the shambling mound in the very first building you run into. It tore my 1st level fighter in half immediately. so...yeah.

 

[rgoodbb]

One of the players alerted the shambling mound in the very first building you run into. It tore my 1st level fighter in half immediately. so...yeah.

Ouch! I think the whole party is actually supposed to be at the very least level 2 or 3 before getting to that point, so I imagine it would!

 

[pukunui]

One of the players alerted the shambling mound in the very first building you run into. It tore my 1st level fighter in half immediately. so...yeah.

Are you thinking of the same adventure? The entirety of Death House takes place in a single building, and the shambling mound is deep in the basement. You can't really trigger it when you first walk into the house.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Are you thinking of the same adventure? The entirety of Death House takes place in a single building, and the shambling mound is deep in the basement. You can't really trigger it when you first walk into the house.

Not when we first entered the house, but it was the first building we saw and went into. 30 min into the adventure we were in the basement and I guess one of the PCs stumbled on it. Which isn't that uncommon for players who grew up searching everything...

 

[pukunui]

Not when we first entered the house, but it was the first building we saw and went into. 30 min into the adventure we were in the basement and I guess one of the PCs stumbled on it. Which isn't that uncommon for players who grew up searching everything...

OK. I understand now. I've only run it once, and that was as an April Fool's Day one-shot (with a bunch of mixed level pregens who were a traveling carnival troupe known as April's Fools). The party went up to the attic first before going down into the basement. I feel like I had replaced the shambling mound with something else, possibly a vampire spawn, but I can't remember. Anyway, by the end, I think only one PC survived, and they couldn't figure out how to get out of the house, so they went back upstairs to "live" with the kids' ghosts.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Anyway, by the end, I think only one PC survived, and they couldn't figure out how to get out of the house, so they went back upstairs to "live" with the kids' ghosts.

Yeah, I'm not sure Death House is a great lead-in to Strahd unless "can potentially grind the campaign to a halt almost immediately" is what they were going for.

 

[pukunui]

Yeah, I'm not sure Death House is a great lead-in to Strahd unless "can potentially grind the campaign to a halt almost immediately" is what they were going for.

Precisely. The problem, as I see it, is that the designers come up with a cool concept for an adventure, and then somewhere along the line someone says, "This needs to start at level 1 so it can be a complete package", and so after all the playtesting has been done, they tack on this extra little short adventure that doesn't get the playtesting it probably needs (both for balance and to ensure it connects well with the rest of the campaign).

For instance, Death House was not in the "Cloak" playtest packet (which was designed for levels 8-11, incidentally), nor was A Great Upheaval included in the "Dagger" playtest packet. I can't recall if the "Trouble in Red Larch" bit was in the PotA playtest or not, but I think that one is a great starting adventure, and while I've used it twice to kick off unrelated campaigns, I think it does tie into the PotA storyline well enough and creates a great little home base for the PCs to explore the rest of the region covered by the adventure.

 

[Clint_L]

Not when we first entered the house, but it was the first building we saw and went into. 30 min into the adventure we were in the basement and I guess one of the PCs stumbled on it. Which isn't that uncommon for players who grew up searching everything...

I think your DM screwed up. As written, I don't think it's possible to get to the shambling mound without gaining access to the hidden stairs, which is supposed to automatically put you at level 2. They probably missed that bit.

That said, death house is plenty difficult before you even get to that point. The ghouls in the basement are notorious - I assume the scenario was balanced for a party of 8 or something, because 4 ghouls will tear a typical level 2 party apart.

 

[pukunui]

Yeah, I think the haunted house adventure included in Van Richten's is a better starting adventure for Curse of Strahd than Death House is.