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

Product Information

A half-elf NPC in LMoP, Daran Edermath from the Edermath Orchard scenario, now becomes a retired Drow adventurer. Another NPC was switched from male to female. Two more adventure hooks are added—Friend of the Harpers and Gauntlet Trainee. A map is provided for the Goblin Ambush encounter. Again, this seems like a minor change, but it isn’t: Dead horses send a clear message of DANGER, which is important because there are four goblins waiting to ambush characters who approach the horses. Furthermore, the tactics section for these goblins have been changed, making it much more likely that this initial encounter will result in an immediate TPK. The D&D team has worked hard to provide a variety of campaign styles and genres for 5E, from heist adventures to exploring the Feywild and epic war campaigns, as well as the solar punk/hopepunk of Journeys through the Radiant Citadel to literally going to hell in Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus, plus a variety of horror subgenres in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft . The original LMoP is very much a classic D&D adventure—a town needs help and resolving the problem requires a mix of investigation, combat, and exploration of the area in and around Phandalin, followed by a classic dungeon crawl in the mine. The Wizards team did a great job of creating an adventure that has a little bit of everything that makes D&D fun. This section does get a lot more art than the original had (and much of the art in the original LMoP was recycled from the Dungeon Masters Guild and Monster Manual), and it looks terrific. Lots of NPCs get art now, such Nezznar the Drow (by Axel Defois) and Linene Graywind (by Robson Michel). Good art really helps to bring an adventure to life, and if Kent Davis' art for the chapter 2 opener isn't a classic for adventurers in a tavern, I don't know what is.

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. 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? It goes without saying that Phandelver and Below has appeal for fans of the original starter set. This is a chance to relive what might have been your first-ever D&D adventure, after all. Many of the tweaks are cosmetic or focus on moving Phandelver on from its starter set status, removing the more obvious DM advice –but the heart of the campaign remains. Is the partyprepared for more combat at the goblins' hideout? Among the party may be a character preferring to be peaceable, or to exercise their gift of gab. The goblins here know quite a bit, if they can be persuaded to divulge. Consider letting certain words in Common slip into overheard conversations. Make a point to ask whether any characters understand Goblin; this is a great way to hint to the players that there may be important information to be gleaned! Notable Non-Player Characters

Enemies Aplenty

The full description of the product reveals some of what you can expect in the adventure. Notably that there’s a secret “malevolent entity” lurking below the town, waiting to claim it as its dominion. The PCs randomly decide to head to Phandalin because… uh… maybe they can do something there (what, exactly?) that will impress the Harpers so that they can join up. There’s a nothic in the Redbrands hideout, a type of creature with specific ties to the Far Realms, Vecna, and the mind flayers in this adventure. We could link him to the mind flayers, perhaps as an advanced scout in the region? Note: This review isn’t going to spill the beans about everything going on with the Shattered Obelisk (i.e., the parts of this book from levels 5-12), but it does have some high-level spoilers. It’s less concerned about spoiling the contents of The Lost Mine of Phandelver, given that the adventure is almost 10(!) years old and the fact that most of the readers of this review have probably already played through it.

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. Phandelver and Below is a welcome return and expansion of a beloved adventure. Other than the location, The Shattered Obelisk is not all that tied to The Lost Mine of Phandelver, but I think that’s fine because tying the whole campaign more tightly together would probably mean more alterations to Lost Mine of Phandelver, which kind of defeats the purpose. Instead The Shattered Obelisk brings a related but independent campaign that mixes the style of Phandelver with a bit of horror and an expansion in scope as the characters become more powerful – grown beyond the town of Phandalin, but still (hopefully) saving it. The Shattered Obelisk has less sandbox and more ‘dungeon,’ right up until it blows the doors open to take the player characters into more mind-bending locations. Phandelver and Below is particularly well-suited for anyone who is coming to D&D 5E for the first time from Baldur’s Gate 3. The standard cover, done by Antonio Jose Manzanedo, is the flip side in terms of design. It looks great, but at first glance it would appear to be a standard D&D adventure scene. Only on closer examination might you notice that these are not normal goblins and then question what they're seeking. So the standard cover represents the horror hiding beneath Phandalin while the alt cover depicts the otherworldly energies seeking to infect the small town and Faerun at large. After strolling around the town for a short while, the players should have their first run-in with the Redbrands. This confrontation is a great set piece for new adventurers—if you’re using the Redbrands in your adventure.So there you have it, adventurers. With this information, you should be set to use Phandalin in your campaigns. If you like weird and different creatures, PaBTSO has you covered. The new monsters are wildly imaginative and often quite disturbing. Plus characters can encounter creatures they typically don't in other adventures with the opportunity to ally with some of them, such as the flumphs and amethyst dragon.