DnD Adventure Books Ranked!

#dnd #dungeonsanddragons #onednd
There's a ton of content available for D&D, some of it good and some not so good. In this video I tier rank every official release for 5th Edition since 2014!
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[@TakaD20]

This might be... ambitious... but I'd like something like that for third party books. Not everything of course, but maybe for popular books of the most popular third parties like Kobold Press.

[@Dyanosis]

Technically he did some 3rd party books - like the ones by Critical Role. Also, anything not published directly by WotC is 3rd party. Just sayin'.

[@ddd-if2ng]

@@Dyanosiscan you elaborate on wotc being third party, I thought that wotc was the official publisher ?

[@backwardsface3046]

@@ddd-if2nganything *not* published by WOTC is 3rd party

[@ddd-if2ng]

@@backwardsface3046 oops never mind I misread the comment I replied to

[@ddd-if2ng]

@@backwardsface3046 thanks tho

[@danielquest8644]

As someone who owns almost all of these books, I will say dragon heist is my favorite and I also love yawning portal! If you buy only one book, buy the players handbook! If you buy 2, get the monsters manual! I only use the magic item tables out of the DMG, that’s a terrible book, but it’s hard to run a campaign without it for reference. I generally think getting an adventure book is more important than a campaign setting. Xanathar and Tasha’s are THE BEST books for advanced players and add a lot of good color for the DM, but they aren’t required. Having run curse of sthrad , I wouldn’t purchase that for your first campaign…. It’s awesome, it just takes some experience to run well. I would never recommend ravnica, it’s too specific and not generally useful. I would really focus on the one shots and compendiums if I was starting out…. If you get a really good group that can get schedules to line up, I would run out of the abyss, tomb of annihilation, dragon heist, or something with a theme everyone is into. Then I would pick up curse…. You will really appreciate it more after running a campaign to level 12+. I think campaign setting books, monster additions, and similar books are a waste of money unless you are a dm that has an active campaign that would benefit from the book. Our group shares books all the time, better on the pocketbook! Finally, so many books on this list I want to like, but they aren’t good. Look at the book from a friend, see if there is a gem in there then buy it if your players are into it or it helps you in your current campaign!

[@100vampires4]

I gotta say, I picked Dragons of Stormwreck Isle over Dragon of Icespire Peak because I found it a much better way to introduce my players to D&D. It has a variety of tasks that introduce a number of fun thing about D&D. Lawful Good Kobolds, a lost Owlbear, MYCONIDS IN TROUBLE! and a dragon fight at 3rd level instead of: Go somewhere and warn them about the dragon; collect 50gp Go somewhere else and warn them about the dragon; collect 50gp Go somewhere and warn them about the dragon; collect 25gp Go somewhere and warn a (maybe) dead guy about the dragon and find his cow. Plus there's an entrance to the Underdark to follow up with, and the library at Dragons Rest is a great away to work in some of the stuff from Candlekeep Mysteries. So I got that goin for me, which is nice. Thanks for making the list.

[@Vossenator]

I'm currently finishing Stormwreck Isle and I plan on carrying over to Icespire Peak but skipping those "warn people about the dragon" quests and starting with the higher level content (level 4)

[@InsightCheck]

@Vossenator all the subsequent adventures are a ton of fun!

[@Noob_DnD_Dad]

Thank you! That was helpful. I'm currently DMing Dragon of Icespire Peak for 2 different groups and I love it so far!

[@InsightCheck]

I freaking love Icespire Peak. So fun, easy to run but has a lot of different places it can go and a lot for players to experience! It’s fantastic!

[@blazingspirit8499]

Oh dnd dad I love watching your videos

[@Noob_DnD_Dad]

@@blazingspirit8499 Aw, thank you so much!

[@Noob_DnD_Dad]

@InsightCheck yeah, I think I'm addicted to it and the setting . It will be my go to for beginners!

[@anthonyambrose7830]

An in-depth look at dungeons from prewrittens throughout dnds history would be great. Xp to level 3 made a fantastic vid on the tomb of horrors that I'd love more of. Unfortunately he stopped😮

[@InsightCheck]

That could definitely be a lot of fun! I actually also made a video about Tomb of Horrors last year, and it was a ton of fun exploring that era!

[@SevillaLorenzo-kd2ef]

This tier list unfortunately isn’t that helpful because the reviewer hasn’t used most of these books. The point of these books is for you to use them - either for scraps/parts or running them. Reading a book doesn’t mean you’ve used it, so reviewing it would be weird.

[@JasonCorfman]

FYI, Lost Mine of Phandelver is no longer free on D&D Beyond. If you claimed it while it was free, you still have it, but if you didn't, it is no longer available... for free. They want you to spend the money on Phandelver and Below instead.

[@InsightCheck]

Ah good call out. Yeah I grabbed it while it was free. I guess they ended that when Phandelver and Below released.

[@lancearmada]

The DMGs advice was the main inspiration for my first homebrew campaign, but I agree its very difficult to find what you are looking for in it.

[@r.downgrade5836]

Always a bad sign when you someone describe Spelljammer as 'having racist issues' instead of the truth, which is 'people pretending their was a racist issue so they could be offended'.

[@InsightCheck]

…

[@Coleman2017]

Wow,I really liked this video! Your teir rankings were pretty good. I hope you have a lot of success!

[@InsightCheck]

That’s really kind of you to say, thank you :) Glad you enjoyed it!

[@waifusmith4043]

Fizban could have been S tier but we dont have s greatwyrm patron warlock 😢

[@jacobjensen7704]

I really like the 3-book box set. I hope campaign settings are all like that. One book for lore, one book as a bestiary, and one book as a pre-written adventure module. That’s what I think we should have for every campaign setting. It’s just really sad to not have any pre-written modules for other settings.

[@azzaelulbrinter]

I like the idea behind 3 book sets, but they should be softcover so they can use more pages and less cardboard.

[@jamesreed2475]

Tomb of Annihilation is one of the very best. You should get to that asap.

[@InsightCheck]

Hoping to restart it once the game I am running ends, which should be relatively soon!

[@sugoitta8323]

Love the refreshing positive posiive attitude :) Keep up the great work !

[@InsightCheck]

Thank you! I really appreciate that :)

[@SevillaLorenzo-kd2ef]

Witchlight below Icewind Dale is a CRIME. Witchlight is arguably the only good adventure module they’ve released in the last three years. Way better than Icewind Dale. Even Descent into Avernus is in B Tier, that book is B A D. You want a Baator adventure? Get Chains of Asmodeus.

[@chaosthegod]

Great ranking. I'd put Storm King's Thunder higher, but I understand your point.

[@Dyanosis]

Some of your comments make no sense. For example "I barely skimmed this and for that reason, it's middle of C tier". Or "I'm going to put this at the top of D tier. It's good". "Here's a lengthy explanation for why this thing is terrible so it's going in E tier". "Here's a short explanation that's basically 'I played/ran it' and so it's A tier". Also, you want to talk about "exhausting" - looking at a tier list that goes to F for seemingly no reason is stupid. The most tiers you should have is D, and even that's a stretch. F was just so you could have a place for the DMG, apparently. But why have E and D tier? Those 2 could have been 1 tier.

[@laconsuela69]

Im not crazy about Lost Mines either. I don't know if I'd rank it quite as low but I'm glad I'm not alone. It was my first adventure i had run. As written it felt like the players couldn't wait around and explore because they needed to save Gundren, and then the town is overrun with redbrands so every NPC is pointing the characters towards them when they chat. I'm sure a good DM can do better but as a brand new DM i bumped into those issues

[@InsightCheck]

This is honestly a big part of it for me too. I think that despite it being a “starter” adventure it’s not the easiest to run as a new DM. Its structure is relatively simplistic which makes it seem like it is one but I just find it poorly written and awkward at times. Like I said in the video( it’s definitely a product of its time, but we have way better ones now!

[@theguys3722]

I Wont stand for this dungeon master guides slander its a really usefull book for both new and Old dms alike

[@InsightCheck]

I mean I did say there was a lot of useful information in it and that I WANT to love it but the book itself makes it so hard to do that!

[@andrewvalentine797]

With Princes of the Apocalypse all of the different parts - and there are lots of them - are very good. Dungeons are varied and interesting, the Dessarin Valley is pretty well fleshed out, and there's more than just dungeons. But the problem is the way they are tied together makes no sense whatsoever. As a DM you're going to have to come up with your own way of making sense of this mess, if you can do that you'll have a really great adevnture. Storm King's Thunder is similar, same problem but not as bad. And a lot of campaign setting info, which is great as there hasn't been a standalone FR campaign book in 5E (unless you count Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide - which I don't!) Also for a DM with some experience starting off a campaign with new players, Lost Mine of Phandelver fleshed out with Dragon of Icespire Peak is absolutely fantastic. A really great mix of everything you want new players to experience, plus the option to extend with the later follow-on adventures.

[@edwinfame4214]

As a new DM and someone who hasn't yet watched your other videos, I wish you had stated more specific examples or reasons of what you liked and disliked about each book. I know you were trying to quickly rank a lot of books but for a lot of them the only reason for the rank was "Yea I didn't like it" which wasn't helpful for newbies like me.

[@InsightCheck]

This is a fair point. There were a lot of books and I didn’t want to have a multi hour long video haha but yeah I can agree with you here :)

[@Vossenator]

​@@InsightCheck perhaps make individual videos talking about a specific book? Like a more in depth review of each one based on this list?

[@thatlonewolfguy2878]

I gotta argue with some of these. Lost Mines is B tier at the very minimum, its far and away one of the better, most self consistent sets we've had and is excellent for new players, I say B tier because I do agree with the Essentials Kit being S tier but Lost Mines is nowhere near D, come on, lets be fair and rational now. Waterdeep Dragon Heist is A tier, anything lower is monumentally stupid. Out of the Abyss is E, if not F tier. I'd actually rank it lower than the DMG its that bad. Princes of the Apocalypse is D tier minimum, I'd honestly argue Strixhaven is B tier, Eberron is A tier, Glory of the Giants is D tier, Keys from the Golden Vault is B tier at best, the Book of Many Things is C tier.

[@JScottGaribay]

Spectacular video. Many thanks!

[@InsightCheck]

Thank you! I’m happy you enjoyed it :)

[@randallwilson5361]

Is there a 5e book that covers Deities and Demi gods of the current DND world? I haven't played since first edition DND.

[@dwgautier]

Saving my cash for the DC20 kickstarter. Love the D&D team at wotc, but they need to move on from that horrible company with no real future. Hasbro killed our future of our beloved game.

[@Klaital1]

I agree with most of your picks, main one I would personally differ with (and this is probably mostly personal bias) would be to put Descent into Avernus lot lower in the list. I played through a lot of that as a player, and I don't know if it was issue with the DM or the module (although I have asked some other people who have ran/played through it and they told me similar experiences so I assume it's the module), but it just felt so incredibly railroady to me, there was basically no meaninful decisions the player characters had to do at any point, you just went from point a to point b in a neverending chain of fetch quests, which was just boring.

[@Elkay_J]

I couldnt agree more with your general opinion of 'i wanted to like it nore than i do" I feel that for so many of these books

[@InsightCheck]

Same. There were quite a few books in 2921 and 2022 that really missed the mark but could have been so much better.

[@georginacoffey915]

What do you dislike about Lost Mine of Phandelver? It definitely has its flaws, don’t get me wrong, but D-tier feels harsh. I’d love to know what your hang-ups are!

[@European55]

On the contrary, I'd love to hear arguments on why to rank it higher. Like Insight, I've read it many times and tried to like it, I just don't see the appeal. The locations and encounters are very generic. The characters don't really have much character. There's not really much of a story. It's not great as an open-world exploration campaign either. I don't hate it, just can't really find anything in it to get excited about or interested in. I think D tier was the perfect place for it, so I'm glad Insight wasn't afraid to share his "hot take". I know a lot of people have loved it (and that's great!), that's why I've read it multiple times feeling like I must've missed something big, but for the life of me, I just can't find what that might be.

[@InsightCheck]

D tier might have been a bit harsh, you’re not wrong but I’m still not sure I would move it haha! For me I just feel like the adventure feels disjointed and awkward. You save someone, go to a cave. The enemies don’t really seem to have any actual motivation for what they’re doing so the whole time you’re left kind of wondering “why?” Some elements, particularly in the beginning, are far too deadly for a starter adventure. I think I was, unfairly, ranking it against Icespire Peak which I found to have accomplished the goal of a starter adventure MUCH better and I think that probably clouded my judgment haha. I think people also hold a lot of nostalgia for it, which is totally fair, but I wasn’t playing 5e back in 2014 so I don’t really carry any of that for the adventure!

[@meikahidenori]

Personally the 3 books besides the main boxset I think are essential are Ravnica, Eberron & Aquistions Incorporated. There's stuff related to guilds, patrons and running your OWN adventure guild that is great for custom adventures and world building. To me it's not just the settings in the book that should be judged, but the information held within and these three books give you different ways to involve your players into the game instead of just running a game for murder hobos.... like actually give them their own goals and things they want to have in the adventure. Setting books, supplement books & adventures should really get rated separately and on the material contained within them. Tashas did have new stuff in it, but a huge chunk was just bits from various setting books for people who just didn't buy them due to no interest in them. If you own all the other books Tashas isn't really an essential book unless you desperately want the custom linages & the companions (which isn't really essential unless you want to play the new races they couldn't be remotely bothered to give stats for)

[@Zr0din]

This is a Support 3rd Party Post: OK you did a good job justifying your books. Seems like you read almost every dang book (borderline amazing!) so now I have to ask more of you... Yes, MORE! Did you do any of the Kickstarter and 3rd Party stuff this year (particularly because of corporate behavior?) Right, So here's my question: Monster Books: What was your list for that? So many Kobold Press Monster books, the new Flee Mortals from MCDM, Compared to the Volos/Mordenkainens books or the Muliverse book? Level Up 5e Monster Menagerie? One Shots: Rolled and Told, Loot, Lore, Lairs and Legends, One Shot Wonders, Comparing these to the Anthologies you mentioned? DM Supplements: Lazy Series of books, the Game Master's Book of Series, Most of Nord Games Catalog of random tables (Dangerous Destinations), Campaign Builder: Cities and Towns (Kobold), Kingdoms & Warfare and Strongholds & Followers (Politics books for MCDM), WorldBooks: Tal'Dorei, compared with Eberron, Theros, Ravnica, Midgard, Southlands, Ptolus (if you read that one- you are a superhero!), Venture Maidens Campaign Guide, Path of the Plane Breaker (compared to Planescape).

[@InsightCheck]

Thanks for bringing this up and I’m glad you did, it’s exactly the kind of thing I do hope to do more of in the future. The video I released prior to this one where I discussed the layoffs at Hasbro, I actually pledged to use all my AdSense money for the month of December to support independent creators both of physical products and even on KZbin! I donated to Literary DM’s stream on Tuesday! The unfortunate reality is that I am only one person, with a full time job, a wife and a nearly 2 year old toddler and I do KZbin for the fun and passion of it. I would love NOTHING more than to spend my days poring over third party content, truly, I would absolutely love to geek out over it! But the reality is that D&D does drive clicks more than anything else which allows me to better financially support both myself and those other creators. It’s a really tricky balance. I had a poll the other day about what types of content people would like to see from me moving forward and more 3rd party independent stuff did come up frequently so I will absolutely be making an effort to include more of that in my content schedule for next year but due to time I will certainly just need to pick something sustainable and not 100 different books. I’m really fascinated with what I am seeing from MCDM and will be backing their Kickstarter so hopefully I can deliver analyses on that in the new year :) Sincerely thank you for your comment, I really appreciate it!

[@Zr0din]

@@InsightCheck It's cool man. I know there are only 24 hours in the day. Like I said, if you read Ptolus... that is a super-heroic feat!

[@bytecode5834]

Thanks for the gift

[@LM-rs1co]

While the matter is highly subjective, the criteria you used are dubious to say the least (i played it -> high rank, for example...). Also: how can you make a review of adventures you haven't either run or played, and in some cases not even read?

[@vsevolodnikolaev4428]

Closed the video immideately after ranking tyranny of dragons above lost mine. Tyranny is a piece of shit and lost mine is very good.

[@InsightCheck]

To each their own :)

[@KevShaw808]

Agree on Tasha’s being S Tier, great video!

[@briankelly1240]

Dungeon Master guide gave you what kind of flash backs?

[@InsightCheck]

‘Nam as in Vietnam war Just a silly joke :)

[@chrisray7728]

I really wish I could get into the idea of Curse of Strahd. Everyone says you don't need to be into gothic horror to like it, but for real, scooby doo is about as deep into horror as I enjoy so I've just avoided it.

[@InsightCheck]

This actually got a laugh from me hahaha

[@KaelinGoff]

Yessss Tier list content

[@InsightCheck]

Trying some new things :)

[@DeltaDemon1]

I bought Curse of Strahd because it sounded like a good idea building on the original...It was not.. Thoroughly useless book. The original module is way, way better.

[@monophos]

Hey, you're not Baron De Ropp! Jk, you have great videos and some great insight. I enjoy your content.

[@wannesderichter3243]

why only 500 likes amazing vid

[@robodad1]

Totally agree about DMG- horrible layout

[@briankelly1240]

Thanks for this!

[@futureboy314]

1:09 or to put it another way, ‘No such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism’.

[@InsightCheck]

I mean… it’s pretty damn hard unfortunately…

[@jothrack]

Anyone ever watch me myself and Irene?

[@InsightCheck]

You found me :P

[@JScottGaribay]

By your defiintion of a "book" though you misseed two IMHO - Dungeons and Dragons VS Rick and Morty Box Set and Dungeons & Dragons Stranger Things Starter Set.

[@phoenixknight8837]

👍

[@lancearmada]

9:33 I agree 100%. A lot of the mordenkainens lore was super interesting, and it was dissapointing that this book was supposed to contain basically all the content but they stripped out the lore.

[@jerrybeard8995]

I actively Dislike gothic horror themed, adventures and Vampires. I know I'm in the minority but I'd have to put CoS at the bottom, doesn't mean it couldn't be a great book, its just Not for me

[@InsightCheck]

Nothing wrong with that :) I’m honestly also not a fan of gothic horror but I just found the book to be written so exceptionally well it made me want to run it despite not loving the general theme beforehand!

[@mercofrevenge1]

I don't think anyone likes the DMG. It's too disorganized to be readable.

[@nexusoldbind5015]

Completely disagree with all of your choices clearly you couldn't tell a good story from a bad one if I pointed out for your first hand 🤪

[@InsightCheck]

lol To each their own :)

[@MarkTexasYankee]

Radiant Citadel is hot garbage. D tier at best.

[@cloudeon3468]

You put spelljammer waaaaay too high. I own almost every book and spelljammer is the only one id recommend nobody buy. Its the book that's the least worth it imo because it contains almost no info.

[@firstlast5454]

He couldn't put it much lower 😂

[@cloudeon3468]

@@firstlast5454 belongs in the trash 😂

[@SevillaLorenzo-kd2ef]

I agree but only partially because Light of Xaryxis is actually strangely fun - if you’re willing to change certain plot stuff. Planescape on the other hand is the opposite - Turn of Fortune’s Wheel is realllllly bad, but the monster book and the setting book are actually quite decent.

[@imakuniaw]

Personally, anything that's not a campaign setting or adventure belongs in F(orget about it) tier: don't buy, a new edition is coming, and if you're moving to it, there's no point in using the old stuff. ..hm? What's that? Backwards compatibility? You don't HAVE to move? Get outta here; I am moving, and I'm not gonna play the old stuff.

[@InsightCheck]

Not an unreasonable take haha. I fully plan to move over as well but I do think a lot of the older content will still be viable… to varying degrees at least.

[@justink4051]

I do think buying xanthars and tasha for the subclasses is nice. But understandable take

[@fortunatus1]

Each class will only have 4 subclasses, including cleric and wizard that currently have many subclasses. You'll need a couple old books to run the game fully, if you have 5E veterans that want to play those subclasses.

[@meikahidenori]

old content is always viable. There's like zero effort required to convert some of it unless it's a monster that hasn't been reprinted (and replacement creatures exist anyway)

[@imakuniaw]

@@meikahidenori Well yeah, ofc it is. That was never the point. The point is, if I'm going to play 5.5, I'll play 5.5; if I wanted to play 5e, like I've been for the past 5y, I'd play 5e, not 5.5. I want a fresh coat of paint, not a mix of old paint on some walls and new on others.

[@kyrnsword72]

I'm sure I'm not alone but WOTC is and has not been D&D for years. I will nor fund corrupt Woke companies anymore. D&D is to me MK Games and known as D100 Dungeon. Far better ttrpg system and books. Another good ones are Scarlet Heroes and 4Against Darkness. I'll not put Shadowdark as a good book until I actually receive it.

[@RushAss]

Of course they are not all where I'd rank them, but every ranking will be different and it's all good. 2 Things of note: 1 - I'm not going to spoil it for you but the eponymous dungeon at the end of Tomb of Annihilation is an absolute rock star of a dungeon. Forget the hex crawl, that dungeon is the best feature of this campaign. 2 - While I hardly ever reach for the DM's Guide when wanting a casual read, I will say that when I do crack it open I still find some really interesting stuff in there. I feel the issue is that it spends so much time explaining how to run D&D games that us old-timers who already know the ropes find that material to be skippable. Not much can be done about that. Cheers!

[@InsightCheck]

Looking forward to finally getting there in ToA, we should be starting up again soon! And yeah as for the DMG, it has a ton of great content in it but it’s just so rough to actually find anything reliably in it!

[@RushAss]

@@InsightCheck " just so rough to actually find anything reliably in it" - Yes, yes, and three times over yes! And I hope they fix the index in the new Players Handbook too. That's a rough one.