Which adventure to play?

With Wizards of the Coasts’ recent policy of releasing just a few big adventures each year, Dungeon Masters who want to run a published adventure for D&D Fifth Edition have a choice to make. I've written this article to help DMs make informed choices about the adventures they'd like to run. Since we're approaching the holidays, this is also an excellent opportunity to pick out the perfect adventure for the DM in your life. Take note, players!

Why listen to me? While I haven’t played through each of these adventures to completion, I’ve read through them all along with reviews and actual play reports of each campaign. In addition, I’ve played through most of Lost Mine of Phandelver, all of Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat, and about a third of Princes of the Apocalypse.

One last note: all of these descriptions are, by their nature, likely to spoil the content of the adventures discussed. I’ll try not to be too specific about plot points, but if you want to play through any of these adventures blind, don’t read ahead!

Breaking Down 5E Class Design, Part 1: Defining Class and Class Archetypes

Hello, and welcome to Pact of the Tome!

The fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons has been critically acclaimed, winning numerous awards and bringing many new gamers into the hobby. In particular, it's been lauded for having exciting, engaging character classes. What makes them so great? In this multi-part article series, I'll break down the elements and design choices of a fifth edition character class.

The first post in this series will take some time understanding what a class represents in fifth edition and defining the broad archetypes each class draws from. Follow-up posts will break down the mechanics of class features (including spells) and subclasses, showing how these elements fit into the overall picture of a 5E class.

Analytical Methods
Our first step to understanding class design will be to examine the definition of a class. We'll then take a look at the elements of character building that are independent from class in order to understand the traits that class can't define. Next, we'll take a quick look at the three "pillars" of D&D play. Finally, we'll construct a model for four broad class archetypes - Warrior, Skilled, Mage, and Support - and discuss how each of the twelve Player's Handbook classes fit in.

Throughout this article series, expect references to the D&D Player's Handbook, the primary resource for D&D 5E classes. I've also drawn from Wizards' Unearthed Arcana series, a monthly column that releases playtest rules - including new classes and class options! In particular, Rodney Thompson's article "Modifying Classes" contains some very valuable insight on class design.

What defines a class?

Every adventurer is a member of a class. Class broadly describes a character's vocation, what special talents he or she possesses, and the tactics he or she is most likely to employ when exploring a dungeon, fighting monsters, or engaging in a tense negotiation.

 - D&D Player's Handbook, page 11

Since the very first incarnation of D&D, character class has been arguably the most important defining trait for a character. Referring to your character as a "Wizard" or "Bard" immediately sums up your character's skills, abilities, and role in relation to other characters. More specifically, class in 5E has a large influence on combat style, problem-solving abilities, distinctive talents, and resource management. Class also plays a role in a character's story, background, and place in the world.

Quick Fix: The Inn's On Fire Problem

Hello, and welcome to Pact of the Tome! The Quick Fix series of posts covers common Dungeon Master problems along with my solutions to them. The goal is to keep each piece to 500 words or fewer in order to improve readability and hone my writing and editing skills.

The Inn's On Fire Problem
The party has gathered in a tavern, looking for adventure. "Would you like to talk to the hooded man in the corner?" asks the Dungeon Master. Within minutes, the quest-giver's been stabbed, all the money's been stolen from the till, and someone's set fire to the inn.

The Core Issue
It's a problem that's plagued Dungeon Masters for decades: the players just aren't interested in following your adventure plans. Instead, they decide they'd rather assume the role of "murder hobos," running around the world and causing chaos. D&D is a game about doing whatever you want, right?

A common reaction to this problem is to try and stop the players within the game. This could involve sending town guards and bounty hunters after them, telling your players they can't take certain actions (perhaps referencing their character's alignment), or punishing them with arbitrary penalties and bolts of blue lightning from the sky.

These approaches can occasionally be effective. Sometimes players just need a gentle nudge in the right direction. However, they're very risky: once the players and DM start fighting for control of the game, everything falls apart.

Here's the real problem: the players above haven't agreed to the "social contract" of the game. As the Dungeon Master, you've presented them with an opportunity to go along with your plans and they've ignored it.

Five Lessons from playing Rise of Tiamat in 24 hours

Hello folks, and welcome to Pact of the Tome! Today I'm going to report on my personal experience playing through the official Rise of Tiamat adventure in 24 hours - straight!

Fighting Tiamat, helping kids. All in a day's work - literally!
Artist: Unknown

For the last two semesters of college, my friends and I have gotten together to play D&D for 24 hours without stopping. Through the Extra Life charity, we created a drive where we play through the official D&D adventures - Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat, so far - to raise money for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Last April, we ran through Rise of Tiamat, beginning with a deadly iceberg expedition and ending with the final battle against Tiamat herself. (If you want to read our live blogs of Hoard and Tiamat, feel free. Be warned - they're a bit incoherent, and tend to peter out halfway through as we run out of energy. Also, there's a bit of language.)

The charity drives have led to a lot of crazy adventures for us, but the latest session made me realize that there's a lot to learn from our experience as well. When you've already been playing for 18 hours, it's much easier to notice what you dislike about your game. Conversely, there are so many awesome moments that it's easy to pick out what made them memorable.

Before you read further, be aware - spoilers for Rise of Tiamat lie beyond.

Here's what we learned:

Quick Fix: The Rats in the Basement Problem

Hi everyone! It's been a great summer, but I'd like to get started back with blog posts. The "Quick Fix" articles will cover common Dungeon Master problems along with my solutions to them. In addition, my goal is to keep each piece to 500 words or less in order to improve readability and hone my writing and editing skills.

The Rats in the Basement Problem
It's the first session of a new D&D game. The brave heroes are sitting around a tavern, looking for a quest. The innkeeper approaches, offering fifty gold pieces to deal with an infestation of giant rats in her basement.

The Core Issue
It's difficult to come up with an engaging adventure for low-level characters. Their mediocre combat abilities and skills make them unable to deal with large-scale challenges. Thus, Dungeon Masters often present them with an easy adventure in order to "level them up" to the point where they can slay dragons and save the world.
Here's the problem: adventures like "Rats in the Basement" are boring! When players feel like their actions are unimportant or the adventure is uninteresting, they stop caring about the game.

Getting Started with the Starter Set, Part 2: Phandalin

Hello, and welcome to Pact of the Tome. This article is the fourth in a series written for new Dungeon Masters who have picked up the Dungeons & Dragons 5E Starter Set and are planning to run a game with it for the first time. The first two articles cover the process of bringing a gaming group together and building characters, and each article after that will cover one "part" of the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure. I will not assume any prior knowledge about Dungeons & Dragons aside from information in the Starter Set rulebook.

In this article, I'll talk about the second part of the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure, "Phandalin." At this point, you've already played through one or more sessions, so your group should be getting a handle on how play D&D. With this chapter, it's time to kick things up a notch. Your players will have the opportunity to explore the town of Phandalin, interact with the people who live there, and confront the dastardly Redbrand gang. By the end, you'll have a solid grasp on all three pillars of D&D - combat, exploration, and interaction - and your group will be well on their way to becoming established heroes.

Part 0: Gathering a Group
Part 0.5: Creating Characters
Part 1: Goblin Arrows
Part 2: Phandalin
Part 3: The Spider's Web
Part 4: Wave Echo Cave

Planning Your Session

The town of Phandalin is custom-built to be a memorable
home base for your party of adventurers. Make sure you
make the most of it!
Cartography: Mike Schley

Goblin Arrows has a simple structure - the players are ambushed on the road, then track the goblin antagonists into their cave hideout and explore it. Phandalin is more complicated; the players have a whole town to explore, with cartloads of non-player characters ("NPCs") to talk to, several quest hooks to investigate, and a criminal gang to confront. In addition, there's a large dungeon under Tresendar Manor filled with foes, puzzles, and traps. You'll need to spend some time preparing beforehand to ensure you give your players the best experience.

Keep these things in mind as you read the adventure and take notes:

Getting Started with the Starter Set, Part 1: Goblin Arrows

Hello, and welcome to Pact of the Tome. This article is the third in a series written for new Dungeon Masters who have picked up the Dungeons & Dragons 5E Starter Set and are planning to run a game with it for the first time. The first two articles cover the process of bringing a gaming group together and building characters, and each article after that will cover one "part" of the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure. I will not assume any prior knowledge about Dungeons & Dragons aside from information in the Starter Set rulebook.

In this article, I'll cover the first part of the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure, "Goblin Arrows," which will likely be your first game of D&D. "Goblin Arrows" is a fairly straightforward adventure where the player characters enter a dungeon to rescue a kidnapped friend. By the end, you and your group should feel comfortable with the basic elements of D&D.

Part 0: Gathering a Group
Part 0.5: Creating Characters
Part 1: Goblin Arrows
Part 2: Phandalin
Part 3: The Spider's Web
Part 4: Wave Echo Cave

Preparing to Play

So you're getting ready for your first session of D&D. Excited? You should be. Worried? That's normal too, but with a little bit of preparation I can assure you that you'll be fine.

As the Dungeon Master, you're responsible for a lot - knowing and adjudicating the rules, describing the world to your players, and playing as the enemies and allies they meet along the way. The good news is that all of this will come fairly simply once you've gotten a handle on it.

What's the best way to prepare? Reading through the Starter Set rulebook and the first part of the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure is essential. In particular, the "Introduction" section of Lost Mine covers some very important basics for being a Dungeon Master. The rest of this article suggests material to focus on, but there's really no substitute for knowing the rules and the adventure well.

If you learn best by watching and listening rather than reading, you could check out some YouTube D&D videos to get a feel for the game. The folks at Wizards of the Coast put together a few videos where they play through the Starter Set, which ought to give you an excellent idea of what gameplay is like - here's a link to part one.

Getting Started with the Starter Set, Part 0.5: Creating Characters

Hello, and welcome to Pact of the Tome. This article is the second in a series written for new Dungeon Masters who have picked up the Dungeons & Dragons 5E Starter Set and are planning to run a game with it for the first time. The first two articles cover the process of bringing a gaming group together and building characters, and each article after that will cover one "part" of the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure. I will not assume any prior knowledge about Dungeons & Dragons aside from information in the Starter Set rulebook.

In this article, I'll discuss the process of building D&D characters with the rest of your group. As the Dungeon Master, you don't need to create a character, but you'll want to make sure your players have them!

Part 0: Gathering a Group
Part 0.5: Creating Characters
Part 1: Goblin Arrows
Part 2: Phandalin
Part 3: The Spider's Web
Part 4: Wave Echo Cave

Using the Premade Characters

The Starter Set already comes with five characters which match the adventure perfectly. The box includes character sheets for each of these on high quality paper, but you can also print out copies from the Wizards of the Coast website (see the Starter Set Characters link).

Getting Started with the Starter Set, Part 0: Gathering a Group

Hello, and welcome to Pact of the Tome. This article is the first in a series written for new Dungeon Masters who have picked up the Dungeons & Dragons 5E Starter Set and are planning to run a game with it for the first time. The first two articles cover the process of bringing a gaming group together and building characters, and each article after that will cover one "part" of the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure. I will not assume any prior knowledge about Dungeons & Dragons aside from information in the Starter Set rulebook.

Part 0: Gathering a Group
Part 0.5: Creating Characters
Part 1: Goblin Arrows
Part 2: Phandalin
Part 3: The Spider's Web
Part 4: Wave Echo Cave

The D&D Fifth Edition Starter Set is considered by many
experienced players to be the best introduction to D&D
in a long time. If you're considering getting started, I
heavily recommend it - and if you're on the fence, it's
only $20 at your local game store, or $12 on Amazon.

So you've got the Starter Set. Hopefully you've had the chance to flip through the included rulebook, the pre-generated characters, and the adventure/Dungeon Master booklet, Lost Mines of Phandelver. Maybe you've also talked to some of your friends about playing. What next?
In order to play D&D, you need a group of fellow players! At minimum, you'll want at least three players and a Dungeon Master, but many groups include up to 5 or 6 players. Finding people willing to give the game a shot can sometimes be a challenge, but it's absolutely worth it - D&D is best with a good-sized group where everyone can bring something different to the table.

Encounter Building Walkthrough: Kobold Guard Post

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Pact of the Tome! The article this week is very late due to sickness issues, but rest assured that it exists.

Today, we'll be discussing the encounter building rules in D&D 5E and working through an example of how to use them. You'll definitely want a copy of those rules on hand to reference, so either download the DM's Basic Rules (p. 56) or pull out your Dungeon Master's Guide and turn to page 82. We're also referencing the Kobold creature, which you can find in the DM's Basic Rules (p. 34) or in your Monster Manual (p. 195). Finally, I'll be borrowing some techniques from The Angry DM to make our encounter more exciting. In general, I highly recommend this guy's website - though his writing style is unique and doesn't work for everyone, his advice is gold and will improve your game. For this article, though, we'll be referencing his three-part series on encounter building - creatures, battlefields and ambiance, and putting it all together.

Monster Building Walkthrough: A Panoply of Kobolds

It's good to see you back at Pact of the Tome. When we talked about the Hill Giant  two weeks ago, we specifically covered upgrading the monster to create a Hill Giant Chieftain. Today, we're going to do something a bit different. Past editions of D&D had plenty of variations on monsters, from D&D 3E's gnolls with Ranger levels to 4E's Bugbear Backstabber, Bugbear Skinner, and Bugbear Strangler. (Technically, a player character who fights Bugbears could fit all of these descriptions!)

Although D&D 5E doesn't include many varieties for its monsters, it's fairly simple to use the monster creation rules to create simple variants to build more exciting encounters. For this article, we're going to focus on the Kobold, the basic statistics of which are available in your copy of the DM's Basic Rules (page 34) or the Monster Manual (page 195). The Kobold's only listed variant is the Winged Kobold, a rock-dropping flying harasser, but we can do better than that!

Monster Building Walkthrough: The Battle Mage

Welcome back to Pact of the Tome! Previously on Monster Mondays, we've covered the processes of creating a D&D 5E monster from scratch and upgrading an existing monster. This week, we're going to cover the process of building a monster that casts spells. In this case, we'll build a "generic" lower-level spellcasting opponent, suitable to bolster the ranks of any self-respecting humanoid encounter.
To simplify things, I'm only going to reference classes and spells from the Player's Basic Rules (also available as a webpage here), but you can look up their effects in the Player's Handbook if you want. I'll also reference the Mage creature from the DM's Basic Rules (p. 55) and Monster Manual (p. 347). To follow along with the process, you'll also want to pull out your Dungeon Master's Guide and turn to page 274. We'll be referencing the "Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating" table as well as the 20-step process for building a monster

Why restrict archetypes like
this one solely to players?
Artist: Unknown
(D&D 5E Player's Handbook)

Looking at the NPCs available in the Basic Rules and Monster Manual, you might notice that there's a dearth of arcane spell-casting foes at low-to-medium levels. While the Acolyte, Cult Fanatic, Druid, and Priest all cover divine spellcasting, the lowest-CR arcane caster (the Mage) is CR 6. We can do better than that! Certainly there's a place for the mercenary wizard that supplements a bandit gang, or the elvish spellweavers that accompany their warriors into combat. Let's build a Battle Mage.

Monster Building Walkthrough: Upgrading the Hill Giant

Last week, we covered the process of building a monster from scratch. This week, I'd like to talk about the process of upgrading an existing monster from the Monster Manual.

We're going to use the Hill Giant as an example because it's a pretty straightforward monster without any variants. More specifically, let's construct a Hill Giant Chieftain - an upgraded version of the regular monster - for use as a "boss" monster in a Hill Giant-themed adventure. We'll call her Angrboda.

Take a second to pull out the Hill Giant stat block from your Monster Manual (p. 155), or from the Dungeon Master's Basic Rules.

Monster Building Walkthrough: Swarm of Books

Hi folks!

This blog could use some content. My New Year's Resolution this year is to write a blog post at least once a week about some aspect of D&D.
The Swarm of Books is a monster I created for my Library of Bael Turath game. In one room of the library, the PCs found rows of bookshelves, all in the (mostly) unreadable Infernal language. They also found three pedastals throughout the room, each with a thick, heavy tome on it. When Rolf touched one of the books, it began to levitate, along with many of the books on shelves around them. Time to roll for initiative!
After a battle that destroyed a third of the library, Vel'Krathis discovered the trick to using the indexes - simply ask for the book you want in the Infernal language. Turns out it's really easy!
Here's the monster. I'll talk a little about how I constructed it afterwards.