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

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Each story beat also leans heavily into what you might expect when you're a new player. You'll encounter bandits, and combat dragons, before delving deep into dungeons. 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. Based on how the book was marketed, this isn’t too much of a surprise. An early press event revealed the designers aged-up the campaign, taking away its family-friendly reputation and aiming it more towards experienced players. However, Phandelver doesn’t really commit to being entirely one thing – beginner-friendly or streamlined for long-time players. Players who continue on through The Shattered Obelisk also get to face off against the idea of otherworldly threats that recent games and entertainment like Baldur's Gate 3 and Stranger Things have continued to bring to the public psyche. Should I Buy Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk?

The events of the first chapter provide a taste of each of the pillars of adventure: exploration, social interaction, and combat. Not only does this provide a chance for any given player to shine early on, but it also establishes what both a player and DM might expect in a typical adventure, and how to navigate aspects of each pillar. Use these as learning opportunities! 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. From chapter five onwards, Phandelver and Below is a gradual decline into insanity. It plays upon the D&D community’s affection for Phandalin, dangling the idyllic setting and its wholesome inhabitants on a thread and leading you further into darkness. The writing is atmospheric, the encounters are varied, and the details that embellish every corner are excellent. Accompanying Gundren from Neverwinter is Sildar Hallwinter, a middle-aged human and member of both the Lords’ Alliance and Waterdeep’s griffon cavalry. Players will find Sildar captured and held prisoner in the goblin hideout. He knows quite a lot of information that will thoroughly set up the adventures to come (see more below), and readily provides it to the characters once safely rescued. (Is a person in need not enough to encourage your players?Perhaps his mild fame precedes him, and a reward is all but guaranteed.)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 significant changes that someone familiar with the original release will notice are more artwork and battle maps, and some NPC have been altered to create a world filled with more than just humans.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. I think there was a strong desire from folks in the studio to preserve Lost Mines of Phandelver in a hardcover book – which was just a booklet in the starter set”, she says. “We wanted to preserve and update that adventure to have that longevity and staying power. My hope in doing that is creating an adventure that goes places people don’t expect.” You can access all of the monsters and magic items from Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk in and out of the game. 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. Its first four chapters are a remaster of Lost Mines of Phandelver, a beginner-friendly adventure that was part of the original 2014 D&D starter set. After a simple delivery gone wrong, players must explore the town of Phandalin – and the titular Mines of Phandelver – to thwart plots that threaten the idyllic and welcoming town.

For many trying out Dungeons & Dragons for the first time with 5th edition, or coming from previous editions, chances are you started in the same place: Phandalin. The Lost Mines of Phandelver was for so long the 5e starting adventure, but now with our hands on Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obeliskwhat are our thoughts on this new adventure? 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? In Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk, journey to the beloved town of Phandalin, 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.NPCs with adorable, horrifying, or hor-dorable traits make a mundane place feel memorable. Story-driven mechanics give combat encounters a new spin. And the second half of the story is tied together neatly with mechanics that prove the severity of the situation to your players – and adjust the difficulty of the final fight depending on their actions earlier on. This dual identity affects the adventure’s content too. Phandelver and Below is trying hard to be two different adventures at once, and the ties between them are pretty weak. A strange goblin is mentioned here and there in the remastered first half, but there’s no other lead-up to what’s coming next.

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