D&D 5E (2014) 5E boxed sets.

[darjr]

The Basic pdf is wonderful. And if you want on demand printed version there is a way.

 

[Gorg]

Well, my buddy texted me to say he'd ordered the Essentials set. We plan on getting together and playing as soon as it arrives.

So now I'm rolling up some new characters. Don't know who or how many of us there will be, so Ima prepare to be the entire party, lol. Got a mage done first. A Moon Elf, who rolled very lucky for his abilities. The +1 to intelligence resulted in an 18!!! The +2 to Dex gave him a 16. So at least he won't be walking around with a 10 AC, and having a tough time making Dex based saves, like my test character, lol. He also gets a +1 for Con and a +2 for Wis. Str is 10, but his CHA is 9... (which ties into his flaw of not thinking before he speaks, and frequently insulting people because of it)

I'm still waiting to hear from him on whether I use the Essentials or the PHB (which I have) for this. I'd like to try out a Barbarian!

 

[Gorg]

Now that I've dived into the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure from the Starter set, I gotta say- you guys were right: This IS a great adventure!! I've just started reading about Castle Cragmore, and I'm impressed. Lots of cool ideas in here I'd never have come up with! The overall story is pretty good, and they did a real great job of helping first time DM's run an adventure.

Wish the Moldvay boxed set had had an adventure like this, when I was learning to DM, lol.

My buddy/DM is reading through the module that comes with Essentials, and likes it- BUT- his impression was the same as many here- it feels more like an odd assortment of mini quests than like a cohesive adventure path.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I actually think it's the other way around.

Lost Mine has really nice encounters and quests. But the larger plot is a bit nonsensical. Why is the mine valuable? Why is it hard to find? Why should the players care? And what does all this other stuff have to do with the mine?

In contrast, Dragon of Icespire Peak has a clear plot: Save Phandalin from the white dragon. From there, both the DM and players are given a menu of quests to pick and choose from. Each quest is kind of bare bones. It requires the DM to spin them into something special.

For what it's worth, I just finished running Dragon of Icespire Peak. I thought it was great. But I put a lot of effort into making sure it turned out that way.

 

[ArwensDaughter]

Whichever if you DMs, if you are using the pre generated characters, the DM needs to carefully read the back stories—especially for the rogue. Great adventure, but it forgets to warn you about that.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For what it's worth, I just finished running Dragon of Icespire Peak. I thought it was great. But I put a lot of effort into making sure it turned out that way.

I think Phandelver is good for new DMs specifically. It lays out a good structure for newbies -- Ye Olde Ambush, small dungeon, sandbox/mission board with adventuring sites to visit, finale dungeon -- which will likely influence DMs for decades to come, as Keep on the Borderlands, Isle of Dread and Sunless Citadel did. (Sunless Citadel, which has a lot going for it, is basically a tube with no real choices for players, which isn't a great lesson for DMs, IMO.)

 

[teitan]

Free pdfs... reminds me of a D&D facebook group I was on for people interested in Exandria. SOmeone posted a link to the D&D beyond free adventure from Wildmounte and the moderators went nuts about how they can't verify that every pdf was offered up legitimately by WOTC or CR... because they couldn't be bothered to look at the URL and see it was on DnDBeyond.com.

 

[darjr]

Speaking of DnDBeyond there are two (three) adventures for after the Essentials Box set that, I've heard tell, are some of the best adventures out there.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I personally like the essential kit adventure more, because it is easier to run in short sessions and easier to run for a first time DM.
The starter set adventure is quite deadly if run by a tactical minded DM.
Probably if a DM plays it with the tactics described in the book, it is less deadly.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Speaking of DnDBeyond there are two (three) adventures for after the Essentials Box set that, I've heard tell, are some of the best adventures out there.

And best is:
Inside the box you get a coupon for the digital variant of the adventure and the follow up adventures and a 50% coupon for the digital phb, which is about a full refund of the boxed set. With the digital phb you can use thr builder to make characters very handily.