Essentials is $25 MSRP btw
D&D 5E (2014) Stormwreck Isle Starter Sets show up in the wild!
- Thread starter darjr
- Start date
I mean I don't understand it from a marketing perspective given the existence of the essentials kit for the same price. It's redundant. A dnd-beyond code would help bring the new players into the online dnd ecosystem. Things like a double sided map or a screen have a wow-factor for new customers. As far as I can tell this doesn't even really need to come in a box.
My initial thought was that a new starter set might change racial ASI to floating, and then not have things like the essentials kit evil orcs.
darjr
I crit!
I've seen it at $13¡
darjr
I crit!
Essentials? At Targert?
Yep
I have it, AMA.
The pre-gens are high elf evoker wizard, lightfoot halfing (thief) rogue, human (devotion) paladin, wood elf (champion) fighter (archer fighting style), hill dwarf life cleric.
Structurally it is similar to the Lost Mine of Phandelver Starter Set, with if anything even narrower rules (even fewer spells and magic items, for example, and a slightly smaller bestiary). Like with Lost Mine, the pre-gens each have adventure hooks that tie in to the adventure, and these individual quests are a bit more fleshed out in the adventure text than was the case in LMoP.
While the LMoP set covers levels 1-5, this covers only 1-3.
I have only started reading the adventure. The maps are color, similar in quality to those in Dragon of Icespire Peak. My impression of the adventure so far is that it is superior to Dragon of Icespire Peak, but not sure if it's better than Lost Mine. It starts with a combat encounter (a much more survivable one than LMoP does) but then instead of proceeding directly to a starter dungeon, it moves to a hub settlement with 12 friendly NPCs (which might be a bit of a heavy lift for new DMs, but it's pretty smoothly done). From there it opens up into two major adventure sites (with quests given organically by NPCs, vastly superior to Icespire Peak's quest board). After completing both of those (in the order of the players' choosing), the adventurers are level 3 and are funneled into the final adventure site. Level 4 at the end of the adventure (though rules for level 4 are not included). I estimate ~16 hours of playtime for most groups.
While the rules are the same as those we've had from the start of 5E, the sensibility of the adventure is quite different from LMoP and especially from DoIP, with MUCH more emphasis on role-playing (the personal quests often involve talking and bonding with NPCs, learning their histories or discussing their philosophies or what the player character's future or destiny might be). Also, while combat is definitely there, it's not "go there and kill everything" in the way that DoIP often was - there are some non-violent options, and very early on the players meet friendly members of a traditionally evil monster race.
The pre-gens are high elf evoker wizard, lightfoot halfing (thief) rogue, human (devotion) paladin, wood elf (champion) fighter (archer fighting style), hill dwarf life cleric.
Structurally it is similar to the Lost Mine of Phandelver Starter Set, with if anything even narrower rules (even fewer spells and magic items, for example, and a slightly smaller bestiary). Like with Lost Mine, the pre-gens each have adventure hooks that tie in to the adventure, and these individual quests are a bit more fleshed out in the adventure text than was the case in LMoP.
While the LMoP set covers levels 1-5, this covers only 1-3.
I have only started reading the adventure. The maps are color, similar in quality to those in Dragon of Icespire Peak. My impression of the adventure so far is that it is superior to Dragon of Icespire Peak, but not sure if it's better than Lost Mine. It starts with a combat encounter (a much more survivable one than LMoP does) but then instead of proceeding directly to a starter dungeon, it moves to a hub settlement with 12 friendly NPCs (which might be a bit of a heavy lift for new DMs, but it's pretty smoothly done). From there it opens up into two major adventure sites (with quests given organically by NPCs, vastly superior to Icespire Peak's quest board). After completing both of those (in the order of the players' choosing), the adventurers are level 3 and are funneled into the final adventure site. Level 4 at the end of the adventure (though rules for level 4 are not included). I estimate ~16 hours of playtime for most groups.
While the rules are the same as those we've had from the start of 5E, the sensibility of the adventure is quite different from LMoP and especially from DoIP, with MUCH more emphasis on role-playing (the personal quests often involve talking and bonding with NPCs, learning their histories or discussing their philosophies or what the player character's future or destiny might be). Also, while combat is definitely there, it's not "go there and kill everything" in the way that DoIP often was - there are some non-violent options, and very early on the players meet friendly members of a traditionally evil monster race.
Last edited:
pukunui
Legend
IIRC LMoP came with a high elf evoker wizard, lightfoot halfling thief and hill dwarf life cleric as well. Can we compare these to those and see if there are any mechanical differences?
Can you tell us if the pre-gens have powers or abilities that recover on a short rest?
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