D&D 5E Rank the Official 5e Adventures

[Urriak Uruk]

I dunno about statistical validity per se, but this seems about right on a gut reaction level. Dragon Heist can be good fun, and gas some great material, but like ToD YMMV.

I really like Dragon Heist as an alternative starter for new players to Lost Mines of Phandelver (a lot of people of played/heard of it, so something else is a good change). It is a great introduction to a city campaign, but it also depends on a good DM to manage (unlike Phandelver which is great for a new DM).

 

[Parmandur]

I really like Dragon Heist as an alternative starter for new players to Lost Mines of Phandelver (a lot of people of played/heard of it, so something else is a good change). It is a great introduction to a city campaign, but it also depends on a good DM to manage (unlike Phandelver which is great for a new DM).

It's really more of a sourcebook loaded with raw material to make a more custom adventure at home.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

It's really more of a sourcebook loaded with raw material to make a more custom adventure at home.

Pretty much. And once you get past the first leg, you can combine that source with the loads of published content in Waterdeep, like the very good AL modules, to make a full campaign there.

 

[Parmandur]

Pretty much. And once you get past the first leg, you can combine that source with the loads of published content in Waterdeep, like the very good AL modules, to make a full campaign there.

I really like it as a low level urban Lego set, but I can't say many if the criticism I've seen is wrong (much like Tyranny of Dragons).

 

[GlassJaw]

5. Ghosts of Saltmarsh - Have read. 2 great adventures, 1 good one, 2 mediocre ones, and 2 bad ones, and a TON of great setting material and resources Danger at Dunwater and the Final Enemy should have been re-imagined instead of re-printed.

Agree entirely. Saltmarsh as a home base is awesome. Tons of flavor and lots of plot hooks and NPCs. Overall I like the adventures they added.

I was disappointed with Danger at Dunwater and Final Enemy though. So much potential to be reinvented/reimagined as a series of encounters and role-playing opportunities instead of reprinting the entire dungeons. Huge waste.

 

[Burnside]

I could quibble, but not really argue, with how that composite ranking worked out. Feels pretty accurate, allowing for personal taste.

 

[Merifluous]

I think the ranking is accurate, but I also feel like it undersells the quality of the product. Dungeon of the mad mage is not 8x as bad as curse of strahd, coming from someone who has run significant parts of both. All of the WotC material could be better, but I think given reasonable page count constraints its pretty darn good. I've not read anything yet that I didn't want to run.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Subtract from 10, add 10 to all of them and call it a mark out of 20*.



* This is school teacher logic

 

[Electrik Wizard]

Mid Tier- can be good with some work; or just “ho-hum” in delivery
4. Princes of the Apocalypse
5. Out of the Abyss
6. Dungeon of the Mad Mage
Lower Tier – needs some polish to come together as a campaign; or glaring issues that need to be addressed
7. Storm King’s Thunder
8. Descent into Avernus
9. Ghosts of Saltmarsh
10. Tales from the Yawning Portal
Failure Tier – unusable
11. Horde of the Dragon Queen
The other adventures I do not own and do not plan to own or read.

Top Tier
1. Tomb of Annihilation
2. Curse of Strahd
3. Lost Mines of Phandelver

Mid Tier
4. Rise of Tiamat
5. Rime of the Frostmaiden
6. Dragon of Icespire Peak

Lower Tier
7. Storm King’s Thunder
8. Dragon Heist
9. Out of the Abyss
10. Hoard of the Dragon Queen

Fail
Descent into Avernus. Why isn't this at the bottom of every list? It makes Dragon Queen look like top tier stuff! I nearly went on a half page rant about it here.

Looking at the other responses, it looks like putting Tomb of Annihilation above Curse of Strahd was something of a controversial choice. Don't get me wrong, it was a close one. But I think the only thing that makes CoS better than ToA is that the adventure has more character. (As in strength of character, etc, not necessarily NPCs). If it was just set in the forests of Fearun, and Strahd was just a despotic baron, it'd still be an excellent adventure. But if you turned Chult into one of the Domains of Dread, and changed the tropical themes to the spookier gothic horror, maybe even putting Strahd in there somehow, I think most people would be putting that as their No.1 choice.

 

[aco175]

Most of these replies were from a few years ago. May be interested to see if people feel the same now.