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.