D&D General Iconic and Best Adventures in each Edition

[John R Davis]

B: Rahasia, Silver Princess.
X: Nomads/Temple , Amber.
1st: Cult Reptile, UK2/UK3
2nd: Never played.
3rd: Barrow/Spire/YuanTi triplet
PF1: Kingmaker, Feast Ravenmoor.
4th: only played a tiny amount
5th: SKT, CoS

Non-TSR/Paizo

Starstone by Northern Sages
Buckets Homebrew

 

[humble minion]

For 3e from WotC, Sunless Citadel has got to be up there. It was the Phandelver of its time, it seemed like every group had a Meepo story. Red Hand of Doom and the Dragon adventure paths that Paizo did would be the other iconic ones that spring to mind.

 

[Staffan]

I came here expecting to talk about Dragon's Crown as I usually do in these threads, but I see the OP already did that.

• Dragon's Crown: captures the feeling of Dark Sun setting, epic voyage

So instead I'll give another mention to Red Hand of Doom, which I think is the quintessential 3e adventure. It does some fun stuff within the system, and uses many of the more interesting monsters from later in the release cycle (particularly dragonspawn) as well as leveled NPCs. And plot-wise, it is neat that it is separated into several smaller locations rather than a big megadungeon, and that the success of each sub-adventure has bearing on the Big Fight later on (essentially, you're trying to remove the supporting forces from the big invasion army).

 

[Rabbitbait]

I came here expecting to talk about Dragon's Crown as I usually do in these threads, but I see the OP already did that.

So instead I'll give another mention to Red Hand of Doom, which I think is the quintessential 3e adventure. It does some fun stuff within the system, and uses many of the more interesting monsters from later in the release cycle (particularly dragonspawn) as well as leveled NPCs. And plot-wise, it is neat that it is separated into several smaller locations rather than a big megadungeon, and that the success of each sub-adventure has bearing on the Big Fight later on (essentially, you're trying to remove the supporting forces from the big invasion army).

I loved every aspect of that adventure except the conclusion (Tiamat) which just seemed a bit generic compared to the rest of it.

 

[Staffan]

I loved every aspect of that adventure except the conclusion (Tiamat) which just seemed a bit generic compared to the rest of it.

I had been a bit too generous with the PC creation rules, so I was compensating by boosting the opposition a bit. And then I checked the stats of the Ghost Lord and went "Really? CR 13 and topping out at 4th level spells (plus a 5th level spell already cast)? Nope, I'm gonna have to rewrite that Blighter* prestige class." And so I did, changing it so instead of having Blighter casting replace druid casting, it would add onto it like a normal PrC. And since I was already boosting everything, I gave him another level for good measure.

And of course, the Ghost Lord utterly massacred my poor PCs. The difference between one 11d6 flame strike on one hand, and finger of death and harm on the other, was quite pronounced. I think one of them managed to run away, but that pretty much ended the campaign for my group.

I still think my initial instinct that "There's no way that that's CR 13" was correct, but I definitely overcompensated. One of many examples of how 3e's rules for CR were, well, bad.

* Blighter was a prestige class for ex-druids turning to necromancy, sort of like the Blackguard for paladins, except they started over from 1st level spells but got one spell level per class level instead of per two as usual. So ex-druid 6/blighter 5 could cast 5th level spells, but in this case the 5th level spell was create undead which had already been cast off-screen.

 

[pukunui]

I had been a bit too generous with the PC creation rules, so I was compensating by boosting the opposition a bit. And then I checked the stats of the Ghost Lord and went "Really? CR 13 and topping out at 4th level spells (plus a 5th level spell already cast)? Nope, I'm gonna have to rewrite that Blighter* prestige class." And so I did, changing it so instead of having Blighter casting replace druid casting, it would add onto it like a normal PrC. And since I was already boosting everything, I gave him another level for good measure.

And of course, the Ghost Lord utterly massacred my poor PCs. The difference between one 11d6 flame strike on one hand, and finger of death and harm on the other, was quite pronounced. I think one of them managed to run away, but that pretty much ended the campaign for my group.

I still think my initial instinct that "There's no way that that's CR 13" was correct, but I definitely overcompensated. One of many examples of how 3e's rules for CR were, well, bad.

* Blighter was a prestige class for ex-druids turning to necromancy, sort of like the Blackguard for paladins, except they started over from 1st level spells but got one spell level per class level instead of per two as usual. So ex-druid 6/blighter 5 could cast 5th level spells, but in this case the 5th level spell was create undead which had already been cast off-screen.

I did a similar thing with the main hobgoblin general who leads the assault on Brindol. (Can't remember his name, but he was meant to be a Talon of Tiamat.) I thought he would go down too quickly and so overcompensated by making him too OP. I think the PCs did manage to defeat him, but it was a bit of a pyrrhic victory.

The closest we got to a TPK was during the black dragonspawn assassin ambush. I think only one PC survived that.

I loved every aspect of that adventure except the conclusion (Tiamat) which just seemed a bit generic compared to the rest of it.

When I ran RHoD, I didn't bother with that last part. We were all feeling pretty burnt out on 3.5e anyway, so we stopped after the Battle of Brindol.

 

[not-so-newguy]

B/X B10 Night's Dark Terror

 

[Enrico Poli1]

Really? No Against the Giants...? :-(

It is one of the quintessential adventures in D&D history IMO.

Against the Giants is iconic, yes; I say to my friends that it has something primal about it; you basically enter, kill monsters and take their stuff. But I prefer the Keep on the Borderlands

 

[Enrico Poli1]

1E and 2E are separate editions and cover an awful lot of time, they should probably be covered separately. I'd also say there's a huge difference between "best regarded", "must play" and "most iconic" - it's easy for an adventure only be one of those three.

I've never even heard of The City of Skulls and I've been playing since 1989 so I have difficulty believing it's that iconic. Seems to be an obscure 1993 mid-level Greyhawk module.

The biggest 2E adventures I'm aware of are probably:

Dragon Mountain

The Night Below

Dead Gods (and possibly other Monte Cook ones - definitely not Faction War though!)

Do yourself a favor and try The City of Skulls. It's the only worthy rescue mission adventure in the history of the game (that I know of).

 

[Enrico Poli1]

Pretending 4e doesn't exist yet again

Reavers of Harkenwold and Madness at Gardmore Abbey were the standouts.

Lol I tried 4e, I really tried, but wasn't able to learn the rules!
Thank you for the integration!

 

[aco175]

I find a big disparity in best adventure and best remembered or maybe most iconic. Styles have certainly changed over the last 40 years. I remember running White Plume Mountain years ago, but find it rather silly now. I'm running the updated Against the Giants now and find it lacking as well. I did get a lot out of the Under Illefarn module back in 2e days and was able to make a couple campaigns out of it.

 

[Velderan]

B: In Search of the Unknown, Keep on the Borderlands (only 2 adventures I played sadly)
1e: Ravenloft, Dragons of Dreams
2e: Dragon Mountain, Night of the Vampire
3e: Didn't play
4e: Didn't play
5e: Lost Mine of Phandelver, Curse of Strahd

 

[iserith]

D&D 3e: The Sunless Citadel

D&D 4e: Glitterdust (Dungeon Magazine #211 by Will Doyle)

D&D 5e: Lost Mine of Phandelver

I don't have anything good to say about the adventures in any previous editions of D&D (and most adventures in the above editions), particularly AD&D 2e which was a low point for adventure modules in my view. I read some of those and know exactly where a lot of what I consider bad DM habits come from.

 

[braro]

As someone who only had preboxed adventures started in 3e:

Non-Starters:
3e: Red Hand of Doom - had a great blend and fun challenges, and had a real threat. A lot of my campaigns
4e: King of Trollhaunt Warrens - had a really fun, psudo-faerie feeling to it that I enjoyed. I liked the use of a cunning troll as a major threat. The sandbox books (Threats to the Nentir Vale and Vor Rukoth) get an honorable mention because they are weren't adventures but they did inspire them.
5e: Wild Beyond Witchlight - because it really is nice to dig in to the faerie stuff, and even if some parts of it are silly, it still adds a lot of lore and things, and it has some interesting situations that come up.

Starter Adventures:
3e: The Sunless Citadel - a great intro dungeon delve that established some great tone.
4e: Reavers of Harkenwold - Good tone, interesting action, a cool threat for the players to oppose.
5e: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle - it's an introductory adventure with a small sandbox, a clear scope, plenty of dungeons AND plenty of dragons, that lets the characters solve their problems in a variety of ways. Phandelver might be a better adventure, but Stormwreck is a better starter, I think.

 

[Velderan]

D&D 3e: The Sunless Citadel

I didn't play 3e, but the 5e conversion in The Yawning Portal sounded like a really good starter adventure.

 

[iserith]

I didn't play 3e, but the 5e conversion in The Yawning Portal sounded like a really good starter adventure.

Yep, that plus Forge of Fury are the ones to play in that book in my opinion.

 

[Clint_L]

I find a big disparity in best adventure and best remembered or maybe most iconic. Styles have certainly changed over the last 40 years. I remember running White Plume Mountain years ago, but find it rather silly now. I'm running the updated Against the Giants now and find it lacking as well. I did get a lot out of the Under Illefarn module back in 2e days and was able to make a couple campaigns out of it.

I agree but I still love those old modules.

I ran White Plume Mountain again not that long ago (the 5e update) and it was super fun, even if it is a fairly random assortment of encounters ("here's a vampire!"). And the traps are top notch - simple, but leading to really fun gameplay. Against the Giants is a straight up nostalgia pick for me.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

2e Desert of Desolation
3e/3.5e not sure
4e not sure
5e Waterdeep

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I find a big disparity in best adventure and best remembered or maybe most iconic. Styles have certainly changed over the last 40 years. I remember running White Plume Mountain years ago, but find it rather silly now. I'm running the updated Against the Giants now and find it lacking as well. I did get a lot out of the Under Illefarn module back in 2e days and was able to make a couple campaigns out of it.

Most definitely. I recently ran WPM and what I liked about it was it was simple and straightforward to run. What I didn't like was it felt completely unmoored from anything else in the world. Classic older D&D dungeon - some mad wizard built this for inscrutable reasons - your goal as heroes is to try to clear out the monsters and solve the puzzles/traps. Oh and as players, you are to be impressed, amazed, and struck dumb with wonder at the inenguity of the encounters!

Compared to many 5e APs, where characters have motivation that feels mostly understandable, especially the newer ones - WbtW, IceWD, ToA you kind of understand what

Spoiler

Acererak

is up to and why. Even in Tyranny of Dragons, you understand the Dragon Cult's motivation, even if it's a bit hard to understand exactly what the lower tier cultists get out of it

Still, I do like those old puzzle box type adventures! I'm throwing another of my groups into the 5e Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan after they finished Phandelver. First encounter there's already some whiplash - we'll see how they do

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

White Plume Mountain wasn't meant to be a published adventure -- it was an audition to get a job. ("Look at these cool traps and encounters!")

The silliest thing about White Plume Mountain is that the adventure expects the players to return Blackrazor, Whelm and Wave at the end, because presumably no one at TSR ever met an actual AD&D player.