D&D 5E After Phandalin

[Stormonu]

It's looking like after the next session or two my group will be finishing the starter box adventure, Mines of Phandalin. Unfortunately, I haven't been keeping up with 5th edition products and was wondering if there are any follow-up premade adventures that would be good for continuing this campaign. Back in the day, I'd have made my own stuff to follow, but these days my energies are directed elsewhere and I'd prefer something that was already put together. Preferably, something WITHOUT demons involved.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Azurewraith]

Without demons only thing i can think of would be hoard of the dragon queen. There could be some 3rd party adventures i don't know about though.

 

[Rabbitbait]

Both Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Princes of the Apocolypse are set nearby if you want to stay in the forgotten realms, and the first parts of both adventures are not essential - so you can ignore the earlier levels of the adventures and jump in where your characters are currently at.

Both have their positives and negatives and I think both are probably quite good to run - it just depends which grabs you more. They have different styles.

 

[darjr]

Dragons would probably be best. Though the sandbox nature of elemental is cool and can fit.

 

[delericho]

I would recommend "Princes of the Apocalypse" - it starts nearby and is intended to begin at 3rd level so should be easily adaptable for 5th level (post-Phandalin) PCs.

The other possibility is to segue into the second half of "Out of the Abyss", but I'd recommend against that - not only because it features demons front-and-centre, but also because OotA has a spectacular first half but then rather goes off the boil, IMO (and the less said about the end, the better). So the last thing I'd want to do with that would be to skip the start and jump into the second half!

 

[Al2O3]

The advantage of going into Hoard of the Dragon Queen after LMoP would be the connection to Thundertree. I think they are sort of intended to be connected, the cult presence in Thundertree part of the same effort as the cult activity in Hoard of the Dragon Queen. If you don't mind moving the characters you could also see if you can find any of the DDAL expedition material set further east.

Unfortunately there are no adventures I know of that are designed to start at level 5 or 6.

 

[delericho]

Unfortunately there are no adventures I know of that are designed to start at level 5 or 6.

There's the Fifth Edition Fantasy adventure War-Lock.

Or I daresay there are some Adventurer's League adventures for those levels - I don't have access so I don't know.

 

[Al2O3]

There's the Fifth Edition Fantasy adventure War-Lock.

Or I daresay there are some Adventurer's League adventures for those levels - I don't have access so I don't know.

Good point about some DDAL adventures probably starting at about that level, that was poor phrasing by me. And I was so focused on official FR adventures that 3PP did not even cross my mind.

 

[Mercule]

Princes of the Apocalypse would be the best fit. Period. It should have been marketed as the follow-up to Phandelver.

It's written by the same author, so you know what you're getting.

The overland maps for the two adventures overlap. Very easy to "stumble upon" the new adventure or to receive the message that help is needed. Also, since the official hook (which can be easily ignored) is that a dwarven envoy has gone missing, the fact that the PCs have already proven themselves as allies to at least one dwarf works well.

PotA has a few low-level side treks designed just to bring the PCs up to 3rd-5th level. These can be safely ignored, if your party is already at that level, without losing anything of consequence. On the other hand, the fast advancement to 3rd level in 5E means that you can safely use these without leveling up your group too much, if your group is big on exploration, role-play, or you just want them invested in the area.

My group went from Phandelver to PoA without any fuss, whatsoever. Since we're using Eberron, and I set the adventures in different geographic areas, that's a statement purely about the mechanical synergy of the two adventures. Using the flavor that comes from the Realms would only improve integration.


Tyranny of Dragons can be rejiggered to work with a 5th level group, but you have to skip the initial hook and miss out on some of the escalating story. I, personally, think that ToD is an extremely weak adventure and wouldn't recommend it even if you were creating characters fresh. YMMV on that, though.

I haven't read through Out of the Abyss, though it sounds like a decent adventure. The big red flag of which I'm aware is that it has an assumed start of 1st level/pre-adventurer PCs being captured and starting in a cell. That would be a huge bummer for anyone who'd gathered 5th level worth of stuff, and it could really unbalance that part of the adventure to do otherwise. My understanding is that the first half (or so) of the adventure is the captured PCs making their way free, so it can't be easily skipped.

 

[ki11erDM]

Princes of the Apocalypse. I personally think the over all story is only ok, but the adventure locations are really nice.