D&D 5E What are your favorite dungeons from the 5E adventure paths?
When it comes to great maps, there's definitely an embarrassment of riches in the 5E adventure paths.
The paths that I think have the highest overall map quality are Curse of Strahd, Storm King's Thunder, Tomb of Annihilation, and Dragon of Icespire Keep. But they're all great and I've swiped maps from almost every book.
Maps that I've personally played through and enjoyed immensely include:
Cragmaw Cave from Lost Mine of Phandelver. An almost perfect starter dungeon for beginning players and characters, with a surprising amount of options that leads to some nailbiter tactical combats.
Cragmaw Castle from Lost Mine of Phandelver. Like Cragmaw Cave, this seemingly simple map has surprising depth. I recently ran a 10th level group against a group of hobgoblins on this map. While the PCs weren't ever really threatened, the fight was unexpectedly thrilling.
Rivergard Keep from Princes of the Apocalypse. Ditto with the above. Seems simple but unexpectedly dynamic.
Amber Temple from Curse of Strahd. I reskinned this beautiful map as a library of forbidden lore. The players went up against a group of Zhentarim thugs for a legendary grimoire. The spiral staircase led to predictable shennanigans.
Wyrmheart Mine from Tomb of Annihilation. This one I reskinned as the lair of a young blue dragon and his kobold minions. The players had to fight their way all the way from the bottom to the top. It was epic.
Grudd Haug from Storm King's Thunder. A great and gritty location that led to a simultaneous 360 degree battle inside and outside the longhouse.
Ironslag from Storm King's Thunder. In the middle of playing through this right now, but it's epic and evocative. A giant-sized weapons factory with some nasty bosses. Much more fun than I expected.
The paths that I think have the highest overall map quality are Curse of Strahd, Storm King's Thunder, Tomb of Annihilation, and Dragon of Icespire Keep. But they're all great and I've swiped maps from almost every book.
Maps that I've personally played through and enjoyed immensely include:
Cragmaw Cave from Lost Mine of Phandelver. An almost perfect starter dungeon for beginning players and characters, with a surprising amount of options that leads to some nailbiter tactical combats.
Cragmaw Castle from Lost Mine of Phandelver. Like Cragmaw Cave, this seemingly simple map has surprising depth. I recently ran a 10th level group against a group of hobgoblins on this map. While the PCs weren't ever really threatened, the fight was unexpectedly thrilling.
Rivergard Keep from Princes of the Apocalypse. Ditto with the above. Seems simple but unexpectedly dynamic.
Amber Temple from Curse of Strahd. I reskinned this beautiful map as a library of forbidden lore. The players went up against a group of Zhentarim thugs for a legendary grimoire. The spiral staircase led to predictable shennanigans.
Wyrmheart Mine from Tomb of Annihilation. This one I reskinned as the lair of a young blue dragon and his kobold minions. The players had to fight their way all the way from the bottom to the top. It was epic.
Grudd Haug from Storm King's Thunder. A great and gritty location that led to a simultaneous 360 degree battle inside and outside the longhouse.
Ironslag from Storm King's Thunder. In the middle of playing through this right now, but it's epic and evocative. A giant-sized weapons factory with some nasty bosses. Much more fun than I expected.
Nebulous
Legend
I agree, these three were all great. I got to use Cragmaw Hideout three times. The first time the PCs got partway through and had to retreat to Phandalin and return days later after their wizard died there. The third time was a side trek where the PCs were playing goblins and hobgoblins who had to take back the cave from some owlbears. Good fun.
Cragmaw Castle they have gone to I think four times now. The first time they had to retreat and come back later. That was a massive fight as they were only 2nd level and the hobbers and gobbers used effective battle tactics. The third time they went back Cragmaw had been taken over by a family of trolls, and the fourth time they went back was to steal loot from Venomfang. Venomfang is now lord of Cragmaw and will be using it as a base to assault local travelers and Phandalin.
Wyrmheart Mine from Tomb was awesome, I forgot about that one. I had them find Tinder deader than hell on the bottom level, ripped up by an even bigger dragon I named Magmus. The party had Artus Cimber with them and that damn Ring of Winter, and I knew Tinder wouldn't cut it, not even with the kobold minions. But it worked; Artus and another PC died fighting Magmus and the Ring encased Artus in a growing block of ice and was removed from the campaign in a super dramatic fashion.
Killer!
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