Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk -- Review

[@Gossamer3592]

I've really enjoyed your campaign crafting content, so seeing how you're going to weave this with other adventures would be great. Especially if you're going to use Inkarnate to make a map...would love to see you make it!

[@marcuselias4412]

Seconded! I just wrapped up DOIP for a group of newer players so I'll definitely be checking out the Shattered Obelisk as a continuation, and expanding it into a campaign merged with other modules sounds fantastic. Definitely interested in that. 👍

[@direden]

I might just do weekly session prep videos... as I run the campaign

[@direden]

I posted a draft of a campaign map in the community section. It's not Inkarnate... but it gives you an idea of where I'm going with it.

[@docmysterio71]

Would love to see your campaign video combining those adventures together.

[@krempelritter9950]

Thanks for that great video! I really dig the title. My mon who is 76 years old viciously mocked Klarg to death just six days ago. We really had a blast, but the more I get to know about the new model the more I'm inclined to head for SKT after LMoP/DoIP with my family. Maybe my CoS group off Call of Cthulhu veterans would like to go for the Shattered Obelisk one day after they defeated Strahd (or died trying). Glad I've found your channel. Like your style quite a lot.

[@torino429scj]

I would also enjoy seeing your take on the fitting together of them all.

[@direden]

That's good because there's already 2 videos available... and more to come 😀

[@occupationallystrong1606]

You should do a video on building that campaign.

[@marcushart4445]

I have a act 4 combat encounter planned where the wolf they save from Kragmaw hideout (Act 1) Comes back being chased by their old pack of wolves, now deformed and changed. I thought this would be a great (we are gonna leave the town but wtf) encounter

[@TeeZett89]

Thank you. Now i am sure i have to DM this!!

[@williamedwards8658]

Great review, I’d be interested in the bigger campaign

[@direden]

kzbin.info/aero/PLcXi_vkZAksP7YLy9F024JZTQWYBHUZWE&si=OhLuk6ViDWbc1kkQ Here's a series on planning that campaign

[@alexlalligator4376]

Very interested in hearing about your planned sandbox!

[@christopherdaurio2617]

Rn I'm in the middle of running a Planescape campaign that started out as LMoP. I have plans to run more adventures in and around Phandalin - once my players PCs make it back to The Forgotten Realms/The Sword Coast - so I'd definitely be interested in seeing how other DMs add content to LMoP, since I'll soon use the adventure as a base for my own homebrewed stuff.

[@pdubb9754]

I've played or DM'd those 4 campaigns (minus the shattered obelisk part) and think they should work great as a sandbox. I look forward to hearing how you will do it. If I had a group that never played those, I would consider it.

[@NemoOhd20]

I think minus the Shattered Obelisk part is the key and the path I will take.

[@yomama211]

I thought Phandelin or Phandelver or whatever was a great starter adventure. Had trouble the first few times keeping track of all the npcs while the PCs sand-boxed around once they got to town. Pretty done with wizards on the cheap but sounds cool. Thanks for the review.

[@direden]

Yeah, overall, I'm not impressed with WotC lately. Of the 10 books they've published in the past 3 years... I only liked 3. Van Richten's Guide Wild Beyond the Witchlight and this one. (I'm not counting Call of the Netherdeep... because that's really a Critical Role thing.)

[@Malthan]

3:30 you missed how they massively increased the difficulty of the first level. The whole cragmaw hideout is now a series of deadly encounters with multiple CR1 goblin bosses added, more wolves and increased trap damage. Overall I'm not sure how a party of begginer players is not supposed to wipe in there, if they don't realise how deadly a fight vs 2 goblin bosses and 5 regular goblins is at lvl 1.

[@direden]

Yeah, it's crazy... I think WotC finally recognized that CR is broken. OR maybe they're tired of people complaining the 5e is "D&D easy mode"

[@Malthan]

@@direden they aren’t even consistent with it. They made lvl 1, which already was pretty though, extra deadly. At the same time they made later levels, which were much less dangerous, even easier. (Black) Spider, an already pretty laughable encounter with a “final” boss in the mine went from being a CR2 Spider with 4xCR1 Spiders, to a CR2 spider and 2xCR1 bugbears. They made the final boss fight of the first part of the campaign less difficult than that 7 goblin encounter at lvl 1. Some of the other changes seem just random, for example the removal of the owlbear from Cragmaw castle.

[@Satori2046]

Sweet video ! I would love to know how you build up your campain around these modules. I only DM'd Sunless Citadell in my sandbox campain so that would be super usefull to me ! Cheers to your channel !

[@lschantz64]

I would be interested in how you are going to tie them all together.

[@itachihoover]

Would Love to see how you mix them all!

[@ericksemones9681]

That sandbox campaign sounds pretty cool. I'd love to see your take on it.

[@direden]

My players agreed to play it. And we start session zero next week.

[@rionnachelliot8951]

I was also thinking about adding forge of fury. I am wondering how you are going to add it in. I was planning on exchanging one of the missions for it or perhaps just adding it.

[@direden]

Here's the first video on planning it kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZoCpYYqof8iXnqcsi=8P3KhYUnw_rRFeCP And the third one comes out today.

[@DavidSmith_W6DPS]

Please, definitely do a video in the campaign.

[@direden]

I recorded my campaign process today. I'll edit it down to two videos that will come out Wednesday and Saturday.

[@AlternityGM]

Nice review. I already ran LMoP for my group of players so likely I would run DoiP first to level them up to 5th and then run the Phandelver sequel. I’m looking forward to seeing the official images for the main NPCs from LMoP and also the new maps for Wyvern Tor, Angela’s lair and Old Owl Well. I too thought of running Sunless Citadel as I think it fits good with Phandalin.

[@direden]

I'm curious to know how running Icespire Peak dovetails with Shattered Obelisk. I would love to hear how your group does it.

[@andrewredfern8304]

Great write up. Is Nezznar still a CR2 in this as he seemed very weak to be a main villain in the starter quest and could do with beefing up

[@direden]

I absolutely agree. I'm probably going to make him CR 5... and might make him a Rogue instead of a wizard. I'm still working out the details and motivations for Nezznar and Iarno Glasstaff and how they connect to Fury Forge. I think I might make them group of adventurers... turned villains.

[@Newt211]

So the PC game of Baldurs Gate 3 is all about Mine Flayers, and stopping the spread. They even tie in the Netherese Obolisks that are found throughout other dnd games. It feels very cross promotional with a new product and the pc game.

[@direden]

Yeah, I agree. I'm actually working on another BG3 video.

[@NemoOhd20]

Exactly. Trying to sell products. They anticipated that the movie and BG3 would spur interest. So far, no dice, so to speak.

[@Newt211]

@@NemoOhd20 It kinda makes me feel like they are getting lazy. Each adventure they make targets a new domain or land. But it feels like they are just lazy. And are using the environment as an excuse to write engaging narratives. I feel like back in the day of 1st and 2nd editions, you actually had descriptive boxes at every locations visited. This would set the players and DM to know what they see, hear, feel etc. Now it feels like go to 12b. This is a workshop. It doesn’t describe anything in detail and basically requires a DM to write an intro for each location if they want it to feel more narrative. If the DM does not put in the prep effort, you are left with on the spot creation which I would argue is less effective at story telling. The DM still had a ton of freedom with pre written passages, but it not only pushed the descriptions it pushed the cohesion of the story forward. I feel like nowadays I have to go section by section and write a paragraph of info and details that are no longer present in modern day adventures.

[@ryanflorian2047]

it's incredibly hard to get the players to care about Phandelver the NPCs give loaded tasks that underpay for what the actual difficulty was don't be surprised when players feel cheated and start resenting the town I think the number one thing that pissed them of was when they had loads of prisoners Phandelver has no prison so they had to take all of the prisoners to Neverwinter

[@InhabitantOfOddworld]

You could invent a prison for your own campaign. Sounds like a lack of creativity; skill issue.

[@NemoOhd20]

First line "Dungeons & Dragons flirts with" and you were doing great. But the answer is "owlbear, drow and mind flayers" because they can actually trademark those. They are going to continue to push this hard in their "monetize one, monetize them all" plan.

[@odinulveson9101]

Giving the inherintly psionic and psychic Gem dragons from the Fizban source book and get them in T.S Obelisk campaign would be very fitting! They hunt abberations and players could help out! I would homebrew them in somewhere..Anyway.. Will buy the book, but only physical. Also will support my nordic neighbours ttrpg creators of Dragonbane ( Drakar Och Demonar )and Vae ( ae=æ)sen tons more, not least homebrew in BG3 and PF mechanics into D&D where it struggles Hasbro brought self harm to the D&D franchise. Its suit lead mrCox would see dnd beyond die so pure digital dnd and a.i will win ahead so we better put our money where worth it be it other TTRpg and only physical stuff from WotC make hasbro not get their wish!

[@direden]

There is an amethyst dragon in the adventure. That's the reality in all this. D&D is the game you play at your table. You can homebrew it any way you want. TSR and WotC have a history that goes back and forth between trying to dominate the market and then opening up the game and encouraging 3rd party development. With 2nd edition, TSR threatened to sue competition. Then, with 3rd edition, they made the open game license and encouraged 3rd party developers. Then, with 4th edition, they made a very restrictive license and tried to squeeze out 3rd party content. Then, with 5th edition, they used the OGL again. Now recently... trying to squeeze 3rd party developers again. The hobby and the game will survive despite the Hasbro shenanigans.

[@NemoOhd20]

Good thing I won't buy Fizban or anything else from Evil Wizards I can avoid. I might have purchased the new Phandalin adventure if it wasn't just four chapters of a Mind Flayer.

[@riccardozanoni2531]

Purchasing? Nope. I might still give it a try, though, the content at least seems interesting

[@daanopdebeeck2312]

Another way to deeply root your players after chapter 4, is to reestablish a new Phandelver Pact with the gnomes and dwarves in the region and let them create a homebase in Tresendar Manor. Then you can slowly endanger everything they've built once the corruption is taking place. **evil laugh** I let Nezznar send a doppelganger to the village who transformed into a few of the more important NPC's (Sildar, Harbin,...) to keep an eye on the Redbrands and the village, but uses them later on to spy on the PC's. At later chapters he realizes the party will be in his way so he pays them a surprise visit himself (with Disguise or Alter Self) to send some threats and convince them to back off. In this way the PC's have seen and talked to him at least, but are still too low level to deal with him. Before going into Wave Echo cave, he sends Drow assassins after them. I changed Nezznar's reason wanting to cure his wife who was turned into a Drider and wanted to create an item (needed for the ritual) with the Forge of Spells. This way the characters can strike a deal or promise to cure his wife and this is more interesting than an evil moustache twirling villain they only see once at the end. If both would still be alive, I could use them as NPC's in the underdark dungeons. Now his wife could be mutated by these far realm powers? How would you connect (one of) the 3 mind flayer bosses to Nezznar? Or just let it be its own separate thing as I described above?

[@daanopdebeeck2312]

Oh I also let the son of Quelline, Carp Alderleaf, be captured by a hag, but now he could be one of the hostages of the mindflayers, neat! Btw, I think they changed Daran to Drow because the dungeons later on take place in the Underdark so he could have advice, connections or join the party temporarily. Half-races are not out of the game, but you can decide your lineage independently of your racial options. So you can play as a Human or Elf as a Half-Elf.

[@direden]

@@daanopdebeeck2312 Those are all great ideas! I might steal some of them!

[@daanopdebeeck2312]

Feel free, I'd love nothing more because I will use your advice to run it smoother too ;D An awesome NPC I've always wanted to use is Ioulaum, the inventor of the mythallar and the flying enclaves so he's basically the founder of the Netherese Empire (highly recommend to check out the FR Wiki). He's one of the oldest and still 'living' beings in Toril because he transformed himself into an elder brain lich, known as the Oracle of Ellyn'taal, thus he could give more info or lore about the ancient obelisks to the PC's. About the mystery of the obelisks, WotC released a video about it some time ago and I think the answer is quite obvious: multiversal gateways (or nodes) created by the Spellweavers. The Netherese Empire researched it, probably devised some magical items from it, or tried to replicate it in any way but failed to do so. Not sure about time travel, but in their vid Chris Perkins or Jeremy Crawford does mention visiting old settings and locations from previous modules. According to the wiki on Spellweavers, it's suggested they met their end by reuniting all the planes or trying to ascend their entire civilization to godhood. I quote "an event of apocalyptic proportions that would kill all, including the gods themselves." Well this sounds like something Vecna would get behind, a big multiversal reset button to remake reality as he pleases... @@direden

[@occupationallystrong1606]

You're selling me in this.

[@direden]

Hahaha, well I hope you enjoy it. I don't want to steer anyone wrong.

[@genghisgalahad8465]

So from your thumbnail note, this video is for the 9 or 10 year old dnd players whose moms had them st around the time of 5e's start. Okay, great. Good to know! 👍!

[@NemoOhd20]

Im much more interested in the Sunless Citadel, Forge of Fury and Ice Spire. No real interest in paying $60 to Hasbros for 4 chapters of crystal goblins and mind flayers.

[@direden]

You're in luck! My sandbox video series focuses on those adventures, too. In session zero, I used the Gnomengarde dungeon from Icespire Peak... And my players chose Oakhurst as the starting location for the campaign. Which means I'll be preparing Sunless Citadel soon. So, you'll get a video that's a recap of Gnomengarde and prep for Sunless Citadel.

[@NemoOhd20]

@@direden sounds very interesting. You can have things in your mind about how you would string them together, but still hearing from someone who has done some or all of it already will help greatly.

[@aurvay]

So you’re doing voluntary, uncompansated work for WotC. Got it.

[@direden]

Hahaha, my goal is to help people be better DMs... or start DMing if they haven't done it before. I have no real agenda outside of that. Other than making some money selling my own adventurers some day.

[@OutlawJJ80]

Girl boss is why they gender swapped. SMH

[@Duncan275]

Wtf is body horror?

[@direden]

Body horror is a subgenre of horror (or anime) that intentionally showcases grotesque transformation of the human body.