D&D General Could you recommend a published adventure for lvl 2-3? À la Red Hand of Doom.

Maenalis · 2026-03-30T17:27:46+0100

One of my groups finished Heroes of the Borderlands and all of them want to go on an "Orc-slayer" campaign, with new characters. I was thinking about starting with Scourge of the Howling Horde (Lvl 1 & 2), something else for lvl 2-3, move on to Forge of Fury (lvl 3-4-5) and finish of with Red Hand of Doom (lvl 5-10).

Could you recommend a published adventure for lvl 2-3? Something that would fit the campaign? It doesn't have to be against Goblinoids/Orcs.

I tried adventure lookup, but I didn't saw anything inspiring.

Thanks for any suggestions!

zakael19 · 2026-03-30T17:33:47+0100

Have you considered using Lost Mines? It fits very well replacing Phandelin with Red Rocks, the bandits can be Baron Trask and his kids, and it will get them to L5. You can tie the Spider over to the hobgoblins, and drop the lead-ins to RHOD throughout. It’s what myself and many others have used, works really well!

Maenalis · 2026-03-30T17:56:22+0100

zakael19 said:
Have you considered using Lost Mines? It fits very well replacing Phandelin with Red Rocks, the bandits can be Baron Trask and his kids, and it will get them to L5. You can tie the Spider over to the hobgoblins, and drop the lead-ins to RHOD throughout. It’s what myself and many others have used, works really well!

Thanks for the suggestion! I don't want to use Lost Mines of Phandelver or Dragon of Icespire Peak. They would deserve their own adventure path. I was thinking about a shortish adventure, something like "Barrow of the Forgotten King" just even shorter.

My best idea thus far is to take the adventure from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide called "Barrow of the Ogre King" and rework it.

Whizbang Dustyboots · 2026-03-30T18:39:33+0100

The adventures are pretty bareboned, but coming from Heroes of the Borderlands, you are probably fine with fleshing adventures out a bit, so I'd recommend glancing at Tales from the Yawning Portal, specifically the Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury.

Did your characters end Heroes of the Borderlands at level 3? You might just skip straight to Forge of Fury, and even that might be a little easy for everyone.

Burnside · 2026-03-30T19:03:59+0100

Dragon of Icespire Peak is nothing if not an adventure wherein you fight orc after orc.

EDIT: Sorry, I see you don't want that one.

Would you consider Sunless Citadel - Forge of Fury - Red Hand?

EDIT: This is a good one to get from level 2 to 3: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/154954/mischief-makers-level-2-pcs

Dax Doomslayer · 2026-03-30T19:08:04+0100

There's a 3.5 adventure for 4th level characters called "Sons of Gruumsh" set in the Forgotten Realms that I liked. Merric posted a review on it here on EN World:

Thread 'Sons of Gruumsh - an ongoing review - MAJOR SPOILERS!'

Oct 5, 2005

I picked up Sons of Gruumsh today. It is the first Forgotten Realms product I've bought since 2001 - the DM's Screen! After giving it a brief scan, I plan to use it in my new Greyhawk campaign.

This "review", such as it is, will be updated over the following days as I absorb the adventure and make notes on how difficult it is to adapt to the World of Greyhawk. You're more than welcome to make comments on the adventure and my notes. Eventually, I hope to pull all of this together into a more formal review, but I want to experiment a bit.

Be warned, I plan to have some major spoilers...

Maenalis · 2026-03-30T19:12:57+0100

Dax Doomslayer said:
There's a 3.5 adventure for 4th level characters called "Sons of Gruumsh" set in the Forgotten Realms that I liked. ...

Oh, I love the orc fortress in that one. I could convert it to 2nd level. Thanks!

Maenalis · 2026-03-30T19:25:50+0100

Burnside said:
Would you consider Sunless Citadel - Forge of Fury - Red Hand?

EDIT: This is a good one to get from level 2 to 3: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/154954/mischief-makers-level-2-pcs

Sunless Citadel is one of my all time favourite adventures. It was my first thought, but one of my players wants to become a DM, I showed her Scourge of the Howling Horde and now she wants to play it with us and run it for another group she might organise later. She really liked the ease of use layout. I'll convert it to 5e for her and us.

Mischief makers looks intriguing, thank you! I have to buy it and take a look. It reminds me of the Paizo Goblin adventures, just from the other perspective.

Also the Sandpoint adventures (Rise of the Runelords & Seven Dooms for Sandpoint).

Paul Farquhar · 2026-03-30T20:27:42+0100

I like Written in Blood (Radiant Citadel) but it might not be the sort of thing your group likes.

Matrix Sorcica · 2026-03-31T10:16:56+0100

Dax Doomslayer said:
There's a 3.5 adventure for 4th level characters called "Sons of Gruumsh" set in the Forgotten Realms that I liked. Merric posted a review on it here on EN World:

Thread 'Sons of Gruumsh - an ongoing review - MAJOR SPOILERS!'

Oct 5, 2005

I picked up Sons of Gruumsh today. It is the first Forgotten Realms product I've bought since 2001 - the DM's Screen! After giving it a brief scan, I plan to use it in my new Greyhawk campaign.

This "review", such as it is, will be updated over the following days as I absorb the adventure and make notes on how difficult it is to adapt to the World of Greyhawk. You're more than welcome to make comments on the adventure and my notes. Eventually, I hope to pull all of this together into a more formal review, but I want to experiment a bit.

Be warned, I plan to have some major spoilers...

MerricB

Replies: 19

Forum: *TTRPGs General

Came here to suggest this. We had a blast with SoG back in the day (and played RHoD straigt after with the same characters. Awesome stuff).

Edit: Battle of Bloodmarch Hill, the first installment in the Giantslayer Pathfinder adventure path might fit very well as well. Change the Mcguffin to something tied to RHoD and you're good to go.