Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk (Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Book)

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Discover what lurks below in this high-fantasy adventure that begins with the familiar story of Lost Mine of Phandelver and then delves into a brand-new adventure in the perilous Underdark. Play with Less Prep on Roll20 This existing relationship may come in particularly handy at some tables. Whether by unfortunate dice rolls or a party that neglects to invest in Wisdom (who needs Perception?), the players have ample opportunity to miss a goblin trail leading to the first real quest that sets the story in motion. Or perhaps other character motives see the party hasten to Phandalin instead of chasing this lead immediately. In either case, the plot thread may be handed directly to them by Elmina Barthen, owner of the town’s biggest trading post: Gundren is missing! Gold is a great motivator, but isn’t the real treasure the friends we rescued along the way? PaintPhandalin As Idyllic

The 2024 Core Rulebooks provide new options for players and DMs along with updates and improvements to the classes, mechanics, items, and monsters of fifth edition. All updates are being done with care to make sure anything from fifth edition will continue to be fully playable. Triboar Trail? Try “Tutorial!” The earliest encounters offer a taste of everything, letting you and your players become comfortable with both the rules of D&D and the three pillars of adventure.If you're a DM who is looking to start with a new group that includes brand new players, and somehow no one has managed to play or read this adventure it's well worth this being your next adventure. From here (or if prodded by Elmina in Phandalin), exploration begins! Encourage your players to consider what abilities might be useful in finding and following the nearby goblin trail. Then comes another surprise: traps! With two separate goblin-built traps placed at various points along the trail, there is ample room for both success and failure. This is another moment that simply captures a significant danger in adventuring, prompting your players once more to always be prepared. Drag & Drop over 85 magic items onto a character sheet to instantly arm a character, including brand new Mind Crystals that allow casters to manipulate spells (double your range or cast a spell as a bonus action!)

Mutates are introduced, a class of enemies that are aberrations of previously known monsters that a player might have encountered in the past. Humanoid creatures mutated will obtain abilities to deal with psychic nightmare blasts and will have webbed wings sprouting from their bodies. The removal of that beginner-oriented text however means that a new player wanting to get into Dungeons & Dragons without other experienced players they're likely going to want to continue using The Lost Mines of Phandelver, especially as it's free through D&DBeyond. A major aspect of the original release that has been removed, is the beginner verbiage that was included in the Starter Kit adventure. New DMs won't find this version of The Lost Mines as helpful, explaining to the DM what rules they'd need to understand themselves or be able to explain to their players. A New Quest For The Shattered Obelisk

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Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk is a DnD campaign designed for four to six players. Players begin a familiar dungeon-crawling adventure at level one, and they’ll face a crisis of unexpected scale (and weirdness)by the time they reach level 12.

Following the trail to its end leads to the Cragmaw goblin hideout, the first real “dungeon” ripe for exploration! With the goblin ambush and traps behind them, are your players ready to put those rules to use in their favor? Perhaps they are well-equipped now to move with Stealth, to ambush any unsuspecting foes, or to set traps of their own. The Cragmaw goblins, antagonists though they may be, act as rather notable NPCs as a group! In addition to being the catalysts for adventure, they too have a fair bit of interesting knowledge. Besides providing more immediately relevant information—the location of Sildar, for example—an interrogated goblin might reveal information that enables easier exploration of Cragmaw Castle (in chapter 3), or that hints of grander events to come in later chapters. Lost Mine of Phandelver has a simple but strong hook, launching players into the action with immediate combat that then opens up a larger driving goal for the party. Here's where it gets weird. The Lost Mines of Phandelver has been out for so long and is so widely available, being actively promoted for new players, it's going to be hard to find people who have been playing D&D who don't already know what half of this book is about. Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk is a Level 1-12 adventure. The first five levels are an update to The Lost Mines of Phandelver, and the following seven levels of the experience are a new adventure continuing the party's relationship with the town of Phandalin as strange otherworldly effects start taking hold.The adventure continues to focus on Phandalin and its surrounding areas, but as new dungeons are explored and leads are followed up on, the adventure shifts into creepier territory. The Psionic Goblin Brawlers and Commanders are also a great treat to throw into any campaign if you feel like the regular Goblins just aren't doing enough to challenge your party. A goblin is suddenly no longer the butt of the joke when they're dealing 4d6 psychic damage on a 30-foot radius sphere. Who Is Phandelver and Below For?

No new races or subclasses to do with these threats is a strange omission, but it may also be as OneD&D is ramping up for 2024 there's less of a desire to add new options for character creation that are going to immediately be contradicted/invalidated. Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk Review | Final Thoughts The obelisk in 2016's Storm King's Thunder is only mentioned and not seen. Players visiting the village of Nightstone will learn that it got its name from a large obsidian megalith that stood in the center of the village square. This stone obelisk had been covered in strange magical glyphs, but by the time the players arrive during the DnD campaign, cloud giants have stolen it. One of the hallmarks of memorable adventure is when seeds of information planted earlier on blossom into realizations of what is to come, or provide hints on how to overcome a particular obstacle. Laying this groundwork as a DM is extremely rewarding when it ultimately pays off. Fortunately, these seeds are plenty and scattered throughout this first chapter, offering bountiful opportunity to capture your players’ engagement. Plant tidbits of information early and often. If the players are invested in figuring out the connections they form, the rewards are all the sweeter! Discover what lurks below in this high-fantasy adventure that begins with the familiar story of Lost Mine of Phandelver and then delves into the perilous Underdark.where a malevolent cult threatens to overtake the region. Together with your party, solve mysteries and stamp out growing corruption as you uncover more about the peculiar happenings plaguing the town. Between the touched-up Lost Mines of Phandelver content, and the new Shattered Obelisk questline I find that the overall collection sits in a bit of a strange place between celebrating nostalgia and taking a step forward.