Dungeons & Dragons Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk Adventure Book Hardcover – 19 Sept. 2023

Great wee book and beginner friendly.

I have just completed this after nearly 11 months of meeting every week for a three hour session. The adventure has a straightforward linear structure, the players find an objective, got to one location to complete it and then find the next objective.It is the most Lovecraftian D&D adventure I have come across, you will need keep an eye on how well they are coping with the battles and be prepared to give them some help sometimes unless you want a Total Party Kill. There is a strong chance one or more players will get fate that a raise dead spell won't bring them back from.The first third of the book is a representation of the Lost Mine Of Phandalin, the Starter set adventure published in 2014. A few minor changes have been made, some of the NPC races have been changed, a couple of monster stat blocks have been rebalanced.THe other two thirds is a new adventure which will take characters from fifth to twelfth level level, Shattered Obelisk. This is centered on the same town of Phandalin, and some NPCs have a recurring role. It is expected that the same group of characters will carry on into this part. However if most of your group have already played Lost Mine Of Phandelver, you could start with Shattered Obelisk, or follow on from another 1st to 4th level adventure.

Bought as a gift. Receiver was pleased.

Standard edition of the Phandelver and Below adventure book, first third of the book is a remixed version of the Lost Mine of Phandelver and the last two-thirds of the adventure are originalIt's got some cool new alien creatures and psionic monsters, definitely worth checking out if you want to expand on the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure 👍

I've started using this book at the D&D club I run at school with the year 9 & 10 students. This will probably keep them going for the most of next year, possibly longer. It's well laid out although some prior reading is always a good thing before a D&D session. It comes with pretty much all you need to run the adventure. You'll need the core books obviously and I'd recommend the monster cards (0-5) as this really speeds things up. This book is ideal if you're looking to start a new D&D campaign. I'd highly recommend it.

Great book, great expansion on the original Mines of Phandelver campaign, though would be nice if it was longer.

Got my copy yesterday... at date of release.There are minor differences in the LMoP section to reflect the more PC culture that's evolved in the 10ish years LMoP has been out, but it's incredibly minor stuff really. The adventure resource itself has a few quality of life updates if you can call it that, maps for location like Wyvern Tor, artwork etc.Shattered Obelisk section is a total step away from the original adventure and tbh doesn't' really feel right to me. It's like they've used the good rep of LMoP to piggy back this onto to make a sale considering the og adventure is available for free from official sources. I also think they've been sitting on this for a good while, maybe even years. There's zero coincidence that this and Baldurs Gate 3 have had a back to back release, and Stranger Things has likely had a hand in it too, building awareness and word association etc.There are some very low key adverts for *specific* other modules too where 'other obelisks' lurk but they're unconnected and would need totally reworking to connect to the 'new' content here, it feels like a low quality bait attempt.Is it worth the £45(is) book? Hell no.A solid half of this is available for free from WotC themselves and the additional contend seems out of place and just there for the sake of a sale to tie in with a large digital release that deals with a very similar narrative (BG3)

There are some germs of a few good ideas here, but they require significant work from a DM to be functional. There is insufficient content about Phandelver itself to get players invested, and the book treats the town and events happening there as at best an irritating distraction crammed in between the endless amounts of dull dungeon maps.To illustrate, this book expects players to care about kidnapped villagers and yet doesn't bother establishing them prior to them being kidnapped, and doesn't name them until they are rescued and doesn't give them any real descriptions at any point.The character allegiance groups (Lords' Alliance, Harpers, Zhentarim etc) make a brief appearance and then are completely irrelevant for the rest of the book.The "madness of the far realm" basically boils down to some random maps with little to connect them thematically or narratively.It could have been really good, but it's just... not. Two stars is generous.