▶️ One-On-One D&D: ua-cam.com/video/R78CIEktkwE/v-deo.html 🌟 Scripts now available on Patreon! www.patreon.com/posts/37585778 Join the Pillar tier to get access and behind the scenes videos! Check my post in r/DoIP for the highlights of this campaign guide summary :) www.reddit.com/r/DragonOfIcespirePeak/comments/haq9gt/doip_full_campaign_review/
This feels sooo friendly. I'm shocked no one else did a full breakdown on this...Most reviewers skim the adventure and say buy it. But, you broke it down and played it.
Yeah, I will defend most reviewers by saying I usually don't play the things I review ahead of time! Even in this case, I made a review of the Essentials Kit before I actually played this module. And I'm about to do that for a review video coming next week lol Too much great content, not enough time to run it all :)
@@GrebirfSnej My group wants to run all 3. I finished reading the first one (Storm Lords Wrath) and its ok. Were about half way through it. There are some mistakes (don't think it went through the same QA process) and its not setup as newbie friendly. You'll need to do some work as a DM. The group I'm DMing this particular module for is pretty young (12 year girls and dads) and new to the game. And without a quest board like you have with DoIP, a new DM may have issues with the hooks (lack of) for half the "quests". They have these adventures to go on and no obvious way to get the players to go to a certain place or do a certain thing. I recommend you write up a flow chart with reasons (good ones) for going from one adventure to another after your in town, and expand on what happens after the first encounter with the priest in town and the ramifications of the attack and how the NPC reacts or the game can get bogged down. It's best if the characters have a real investment in this town. If one of the characters is from here or if they have family here, it would go a long way.
@@BobWorldBuilder I think there is an opportunity here. There is nothing online (that's good) regarding these 3 free expansion modules. A lot of people own and have played this module... and there are free follow ups. You play through the expansions and do a similar thing you did here... I would of found you sooner and I bet others would also. Just an idea.
Greetings Bob and Grace! I'm getting back in to D&D after a nearly 30 year hiatus after my 9 year old got hooked on Stranger Things and finding out that I played too all those years ago. The 5e rules are pretty different from what I remember, and your videos were a great help for me to get back into the groove. We've got my 26 year old (daughter) 9 year old (also daughter) trying to get my wife to roll up a character and play as well. I'm glad to be slinging dice again and exploring the realms, thanks for all the coaching you two provided in this video series. :)
Thank you Bob and Grace. I have just stepped into the world of D&D with the help of you guys. I’m 10 sessions in and it’s going great. Your guides are helping me greatly by understanding what information to look out for. Thank you.
That is great to hear, Darryll! Playing through this campaign together was a lot of fun for us, and getting to share it with others has made it that much more rewarding. I'm happy to hear you've found the series valuable :)
Bob World Builder I forgot to also say that I’m sorry about your loss of employment and best of luck with this channel. Like they said in Field of dreams....” if you Bob world builder it, they will come!” I’m Sure that’s how it went.
Hey Bob (and Grace). I just wanted to say, amazing job on the coverage of DoIP. I’m a brand new DM running my first campaign for brand new DnD players and your videos have proved invaluable. Please tell me you’ll be covering more campaigns in the future (Lost Mines would be an excellent start 😃). Keep up the amazing work
It will be a little while until we officially move on to another campaign, but I have the full intention to do so! Thank you so much for the encouragement :D
Bob World Builder That’s brilliant news. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for the next campaign coverage. Any tips on where to go from here, if players want to continue using their characters?
Skippy the Wonder Boar ???🤣 Grace often brings delightfully fresh and unique ways of looking at things to the table. She and you compliment one another wonderfully. Thank you both for the hard work and many hours of enjoyment.👩😸🧔♀❤
This is a great review of DoIP. My players and I spent a lot more time in Phandalin, I made Harbin Wester a scaredy cat and a drunkard in the tavern, always petrified when the characters talk to him. The players were able to convince Adabra to come to town and in the end it paid out for them. Adabra started selling Greater Healing Potions for my players at a much cheaper price and she always has a supply of potions for the group. A player ended up doing business with Linene making glass mugs and selling them for profit.
2:26 I've been listening to some other advice from DMs who've played DoIP and have another suggestion for the Umbrage Hill encounter - have the (wounded) manticore there seeking potions to treat his mate, who was (more grievously) wounded by the dragon. If the players choose to attack it will immediately fly to beyond the range of 100 ft and fling it's last few spikes at disadvantage before flying off, returning at the end of the campaign to wake the dragon while the players are trying to sneak up on it. However, if the players choose to help the manticore, it will swoop in during the dragon fight to aid them against the dragon. On the off chance that they manage to kill the monster then nothing happens. 3:29 I liked how BWB ran the Dwarven Excavation, with the Ochre Jelly having already been divided by the orc scout. Have the dwarves give the party the information about how the jelly divided when slashed, and hopefully the paladin wont go running in to slay the creature with his longsword! As for the second ochre jelly, I'd make that a grey ooze. 4:23 Gnomengard has a really interesting possibility for horror, by replacing the mimic with an oblex that is somewhere between spawn and adult. Make it pretty much immune to the party's standard attacks with a damage threshold, forcing them to kite it through the various traps that the gnomes have set up, which do way more damage than the party.
@@BobWorldBuilder Manticores are intelligent, lawful evil creatures, so holding grudges is entirely within their nature. However, if you need motivation: the manticore's mate is pregnant, which is why it couldn't evade the dragon as well, and by not helping it, the party is dooming its mate and its unborn child. It won't tell the party that, because it fears them tracking her down and killing her. Now, if they do help it, the creature's 'lawful' nature will make it feel the need to repay them (by slinging its quills at the dragon while the party is distracting it). If you up the dragon's CR to adult then the party is going to live or die by the alliances they've made through the rest of the campaign. Fighting the dragon with the help of the orcs, wererats, and bandits, would be a big help! Having a manticore ex machina behind your DM's Screen will reinforce the sense that the entire campaign was linked, start to finish, and that their decisions have consequences. A gnome community would be the perfect place for a horror setting, because to most races (being medium in size) it's low and narrow, claustrophobic. Then you have all the panicking gnomes, creating deadly traps that some players will feel the need to disarm on their way in, which might have to be reset on the fly . . . It's really a wasted setting, as is.
Excellent points! It's always nice when you can bookend the adventure by sliding in things from the very beginning. And I couldn't agree more about the horror idea! Its has me really excited for the new horror-themed campaign announced at D&D Live yesterday
Thank you! It was a lot of fun recapping some of our favorite moments from the campaign, and I wanted to provide this summary for people who might be overwhelmed by the number of videos I now have on the subject haha
These videos have been SOOO helpful! It's my first time as 5e DM and I have been referencing your videos a ton. I can't wait to see what else you end up creating :)
Thank you! That's so awesome to hear. I'm glad these videos have been useful for you! There will be a few more Icespire Peak videos coming, and some other exciting additions to the channel :)
For gorthok/circle of thunder, my players had mounts, so we ended up doing a zelda style fight on horse back as gorthok plowed through the woods heading to falcons hunting lodge. (which was destroyed shortly there-after). A truly awesome moment in our campaign.
Love this, when my party did the gold mine they shoved loads of cheese they had previously picked up into the end of one of the cave passages and when most of the wererats went to go eat it they caused a cave in trapping nearly all of them lol
Not done yet, but the party's most intense moment so far happened when they returned from clearing out Axeholm only to find that Phandalin was about to be attacked by orcs, an ogre, an orog, and an anchorite of Talos. The party snuck into the town, warned the townspeople (they have sway because of their reputation) and convinced them to retreat to Axeholm. Just as the town was sneaking out of town in the middle of the night, the war party attacked. The party tried to hold off the war party and were starting to lose, when Cyrovain darkened the starry night's sky and attacked the town. In the chaos that ensued, the townspeople escaped to Axholm, the orc war party was scattered, and a clever party member broke into the Townsmaster's home where he discovered that the Townsmaster was in the process of buying each building in Phandalin and then renting them back to the townspeople. Hmmm...
Bob, thanks for so much inspiration as I ran this campaign. My favorite quest was Mountain’s Toe but only because I dramatically changed it after your review! I had the party meet a few wererats running from Savras while traveling the Wood. It got violent and the bard got lycanthropy, but that was fine. It was easier to not make it deadly since the wererats weren’t in their lair - reasonable for retreat. Then I populated the mine with kobolds worshipping Cryovain from afar. And I had Don-Jon give the players your modified map, so they thought they knew the layout but then the kobolds had dug new tunnels so the map was out of date. I also loved doing Dragon Barrow with your advice (and Sly’s) to make the barrow itself rise as a dragon. I played 8-bit RPG boss music as I described it rising and my players were stunned! Finally, with my extra side quests, my players were level 7 by Cryovain, so your beefed up adolescent dragon was perfect. Thanks for making our first campaign together a smashing success!!
PUTTING THAT SOUND EFFECT FOR THE INVISIBLE STALKER IS HILARIOUS. Genuinely an amazing gag for anyone familiar with Bob's classic image-woosh technique
Great Review, your videos are so helpful. I have used them to prep for each session. Thank you Bob and Grace. My party are currently on their second quest Gnomengarde and are just about to fight the mimic. - They have spent some time in town. As there is only one spell caster I let them borrow the "Magic of Gnomegarde" spell book. I really wanted to get more use out of the wild magic effects. I made it so each character can use it as long as they are standing within 5ft of a rock gnome that is holding the book. And each character can use 1 spell from it per day. I have taken your advice with making the mimic turn into a half orc anchorite once defeated. A friend of mine also pre warned me of the Were-rats so I was thinking of having the half-orc drop a Silvered dagger or Silvered Short sword as it leaves, perhaps doping hints of that it might be useful against other. "Cursed Shape changers." One of the other additions I am adding to the town is the Daran Eadernath NPC from LMOP. One of the players asked the tavern keep if anyone in the town knew anything about dragons. As a former member of the Order of the Gauntlet, I have turned him into a paladin of Torm. (a god who rides a dragon...) So he probably will be able to give the players some information about Dragons and perhaps free lodging at his Orchard. I was even thinking to have him be the source the Tower of Storm quest Or Dragon Burrow quest.(maybe)
It’s our pleasure! Glad you’re enjoying the series :) Great ideas with the spell book and dropping in a silver dagger! I hope one of your characters will take it!
I played Gnomengarde like john carpenters the thing, because we play on fantasy grounds I made everyone roll a perception check and whoever rolled the worst sent them a whisper that they noticed a strange sound or a whisper or a curtain moving to represent them being on edge and seeing things out of the corner of their eye , It was very amusing to DM.
@@youtigee that's a great idea. one of my players took observant so that could be fun to give the other players a chance to... "notice something..." lol
my player needed a silvered weapon for the gold mine quest. my players were searching the altar in dwarven excavation quest, so i decided to put a silvered dagger at the base of the altar. in the end, they ended up not going there.
My group just fought Cryovaine. He opened with an ambush round breath attack after the group failed to talk their way out of the fight. Then the Monk went first and stun locked him for two rounds and he was beaten very easily. Definitely start with Cryovaine in the air, don’t let him touch the ground.
Bob World Builder they were actually making head way, but then the bard literally said “I am out of ideas, let’s kill him”.....and enter breath weapon.
Thanks for this video! I'm leading my first campaign (this one) tonight! This was very helpful and boosted my excitement and confidence for doing this. Enjoy your day! -Kyle
You suggested removing the orcs from the dwarven excavation, but that's what made it one that one of my players really liked. After they cleared out the temple, they had a chance just to chat with the dwarves, and I had them roll for perception, all didn't meet the DC and so the nicer dwarf (Dazzlyn) ended up with a javelin through him. Battle erupted. As it was an 'as they leave' part, I also rolled for Cryovain, and surprisingly, the d20 rolled for the dwarven excavation location, which meant extra danger. Had Cryovain come in flying with his breath attack to take out two orcs that were in cover and didn't have the players near them. Cryovain sat on the top of the valley as the Warlock used thaumaturgy to shout out in Draconic, however Cryovain called back in Draconic, calling them insolent for daring to speak the same tongue. The barbarian tried to climb up in her rage to attack, but failed a check and was unable to catch Cryovain as he flew off with his orc meal. "It was cool how we thought everything was all done, and safe, and we didn't bother resting because we thought everything was over, and were surprised with more" is what my player said of it. He didn't know at that time Cryovain was random. But a player actually telling me that they liked it makes it memorable to me. My players though, never got to your favourite Bob. Butterskull ranch was never something they felt they needed to do. My players are now getting their teeth into Stormlord's Wrath (after a 2 month hiatus). And I'm enjoying the possibilities with the further story. And have more confidence to add extra twists.
Hey, that's great! Throwing in surprises-- even a dragon, haha, are great for keeping the party on their toes! I try to keep things simple, but you're absolutely right that it's good to shake things up too :)
Nice video once again Bob! Nice review and i had to lightly pay attention as my wife is running this for us and i didnt want to spoil it for me.Welcome Grace, thanks for bringing another perspective to Bob's musings! Rock on!
I am so excited to have found you guys! I love the vibe your video gives off, and your advice is so appreciated! In general, based on this video alone I love the wholesome approach to d&d advice - its a breath of fresh air from the usual rant style videos I always seems to run across when looking into d&d content. So thank you!!
I really loved the in depth way you broke down the module and went through it step by step with gameplay *and* review. Your suggestions for tweaking things are super good, really, I feel you have a creative and unique way of approaching them. I really want to use this module to get my family into the game! I hope you will do a series like this for LMoP as well or perhaps another module? I know there are other guides out there but I really like your chill vibe, it's nice to listen to after a day's work to unwind :D
Thank you so much! The series has been a lot of fun for Grace and I, and while we may just keep it to guides in the future (gameplays are super time-consuming to produce), I do have plans to make series for LMoP, and perhaps this new Icewind Dale book down the line!
I must thank you for your amazing videos and showing me (a board gamer that loves following rules and totally new to DnD.. that rules can be broken). With your help a lot of scenarios in our campaign (still 1 scenario to go before we face cryovain) ended much differently than what WoTC intended... and we had a blast and tons of laughs. Lucky for me and my players, I found your guides that definitely saved our campaign and our first encounter with DnD. I'm happy that you continued the videos on Storm Lord's Wrath as we will indeed continue this campaging and so on... I'm still too green to go searching for a new campaign and new settings :)
only just stumbled across your channel and I've got to say you guys are so friendly and charismatic. Great breakdown and series overall. So that's one huge like and subscribe from me!
The room just across the bridge has 3 stirges in it and a chimney leading to the roof , the only reason a weak monster like that is placed there has to be an alarm system so the dragon cant be suprised. Loved the video series tho
I just bought the Essentials Kit and had some troubles with how to run this as an exciting adventure. All your videos were very insightful and very helpful. I wish you the best of luck on your channel! Keep it coming! 😊👌
You might also point out that since the party is not compelled to do the quests "in order" that DMs should be ready to scale quest difficulty up or down on-the-fly. My party was already level 4 by the time they reached Logger's Camp. The monsters there were no challenge at all. True, I could have increased their number (or movement, or to-hit bonus) but I chose not to because I think the real point was to put together WHY the camp has been attacked. Besides, my party had just been through two pretty epic fights at Circle of Thunder and at Falcon's. They suspected Wester had done something wrong to incur the attack because he was so weasely! Go off script and make it fun, funny, interesting, engaging (using character backstories) - whatever! Bob, since you cultivate more of a community feel in your fanbase, may consider a live event where DMs talk about our mods to the DoIP quests. We'd be happy to support you like that. 🙂
That’s a great point since there is no official order! And I will absolutely look into some kind of UA-cam live stream! Idk how it works yet, but that would be a great idea for getting people together to talk about DoIP or other D&D topics :)
Our group completed this a few months back. I thought Icespire Hold was lack luster (where is the dragons treasure?) and the rest of the place is empty so I expanded it so if you took the sled from the tomb to the bottom of the mountain there was the original occupants treasure in a small puzzle room dungeon and they fought some undead and got some epic loot. We now a third of the way through Strorm Lords Wrath which is the free sequel to this module.
I changed the invisible stalker in the dragon barrow quest to the ghost of Azdraka (a reskinned ghost) and a handful of wisps for support. As soon as my players grabbed the dragon slayer, the ghostly form of the dragon Azdraka (the dragon bones entombed in the barrow) emerged from the bones and attacked! They loved it :)
As someone who bought this module in hopes of being able to finally run my first ever campaign as DM, these kinds of reviews are super helpful and I’m glad I stumbled across this video! It’s great to hear feedback from people who have played and ran this campaign who are experienced and willing to break it down for DMs who may or may not be as experienced DMing. I’m also curious if you’ve done any other videos about one-on-one play and your experiences with it, maybe further advice/reviews related to that, or plan to in the future. I’ll be browsing through your video history, I think lol
I have one general video about one player games in my playlist of DM & player tips. I include some comments about running for one player in my guides for Icewind Dale, and I'll be doing a series in this same style for Lost Mine of Phandelver
Really enjoyed your campaign videos and DM guides mate! They were super helpful for playing through this with my other half and two friends throughout lockdown here in the UK. Are you looking to continue the story with Storm Lords Wrath, Sleeping Dragons Wake or Divine Contention?
@@BobWorldBuilderAwesome, glad to hear that. I've printed the campaigns and will be taking a bit of time to prepare. Enough time for another member of my group to DM a campaign for a few months I think!
Hey awesome overview. Didn’t see your “review”-or final opinion-on the module though, did I miss it? Great content Bob, helped me so much in running this adventure!!
Hahah, ya know, only afterward did I realize we never actually rated the module as a whole! xD I stand by our "lots of fun, but far from perfect" and give it a solid 7 young white dragons out of 10. I'm glad you enjoyed the series! :)
I'm dm'ing my own world, and mostly lvl 1-4 they've had urban dealings. So I have a mountain town I'm looking to be a reskinned Phandalin and throw in some of these quests, so I really enjoy you guys reviewing them one by one!
OMG Bob, you're so awesome! I love your channel, your content and your personal touch on everything! You made me buy the Essential kit, can't wait to get my hands on it. Among your other content, please do some more GMing/playing other modules 😊
Oh no! I guess that's an important lesson for everyone at the table. And I'm glad you had fun at the ranch-- that was definitely one of my favorites :D
I have recently discovered your channel and am enjoying it. You mention here that Gorthok (Skippy the Wonderboar) technically (RAW) cannot escape from the circle because he is too big, but I think he can escape. He is Huge (15') so can squeeze through a gap 1 size smaller (i.e. Large = 10') and the gaps between each pair of standing stones are just about 10', if you go by the dotted rectangles shown beneath the capstones. (Each stone is 5' away from it's partner, with a larger capstone on top, but the pairs, as seen on the map, are a full square plus about 2 half-squares apart, which adds up to 10'). He can also fit (squeeze) below the overhangs of the capstones, since they are 10' off the ground. (And given his shape, he's probably wider than he is tall anyway). I looked at whether he could jump out and he definitely can not. His running high jump is 8' but it is 13' to the top of each capstone, which is more than 1.5 times his jump height. The DM has discretion to allow an Athletics check to jump a little higher than your max but this would be outside of what I would consider "a little". I haven't tried to specify how difficult it would be for him to knock down standing stones - it would be a LOT harder than a shove attack against an opponent - but he doesn't need to, and I don't think he'd want to desecrate his own summoning circle anyway. If he does squeeze out, it will cost him an extra 5' of movement and if the players manage to attack him while he does it (with an attack-of-opportunity or a Readied attack or some special ability) then they get advantage on the attack and he has disadvantage on DEX saves, so it would be a good way for them to get a bit of a bump if they are having difficulty.
What I did with Adabra was making it clear to the party that she hates Harbin Wester as she thinks he is a tool to more influential people “Halia” which makes her doesn’t want to come back to Phandalin Halia being a Zhentarim agent wanted to force Adabra to report to her basically and the town master was to weak to protect Adabra Besides, she believes that Chauntea will protect her as well as the dwarven spirits in the dwarven ruins
I really enjoy these videos - they are casual, straight forward, and honest. Keep it up! Anyone else get distracted by Grace's tuck of hair under her glasses?
@@BobWorldBuilder Most of my sensibilities regarding tabletop gaming coming from an old-school background. (I insist on many means of giving my players a hard time because that's just how I've always played the game.)
I said it before and I'll say it again outstanding run through with lots of good ideas. I am concerned if you run the follow-up adventurers though has the half-orcs show their true colors. Poor Grace may not get to negotiate as much.
I really appreciate it! We won’t be playing through them (anytime soon anyway), though I will be making some kind of guide for the adventures. So far I’ve only skimmed them, so I’m excited to see what you mean haha
Most reviews talk about the fun they had, they seldom ever talk about the module or campaign themselves, about what to do, how it works, what you need to prepare for... Thus was refreshing
Love this starter kit. Changes I made are add kohbolds to icespire peak.the bandits instead were prisoners. Harbin used a drop box in his door to make transactions. And I add some magic using orcs in butterskull ranch basement. I had a tank in the party so had to beef things up a smig. I highly recommend reading the monsters know what they're doing to better use monsters.
Hi new viewer here and first time Dungeon Master, I´m planning to run this for my first campaign with my friends who are also brand new players and I was thinking of setting up an early encounter with the dragon when the are lvl 2-3 so that they are more engaged with the campaign. I thought about having an NPC with them at the moment that the dragon kills so they have a more personal motivation to slay the dragon. Do you have any advice or ideas to actually implement this??? Because it all sounds good in my head but i can´t think of the right way to do it Any way I just found your content and its really good!!!!!!!!!!!!! instantly subscribed! keep up the good work
Thank you so much for this Bob. I'm an old 3.5 player and I have some friends that bought this a month ago, they had never played DND before and asked me to DM. We all loved it and want to play more. What 5e module should we try after this (and it's supplements)?
I remember our hobo murderer tried to instinctively kill it so we got destroyed and all died. Our dm gave us a second chance so instead we got made a deal for us to cook it something, we went inside and the lady rolled a natural 20 for cooking so the manticore flew away.
Thank you, David! I really enjoyed this format too! We will probably do some more videos in this style in the future, and yes I will be making guides for those adventures. Storm Lords Wrath coming next month!
My party was overconfident at the butterskull ranch and they started an all out brawl, which pulled in other orcs round after round. The basically fought of as warm of orcs in hordes of 5 (20 orcs in total). 3 out of 5 were knocked out, One guy went down to 2 failed saves before they saved him, and all their feats and spells were gone. I told them I went easy by trickling them in and that they shouldn't go full murder hobo again, because next time I'd just send them. Flash forward to the next quest and they decided to collapse the mountain toe entrance and smoke out the rats on the other side.... I went easy on them again because if I had just sent the rats through the fire, they woulda still been powerful enough to just wipe my entire party. I had them fight untill the rats lost one ally and then had the rats reason (at least somebody has to be reasonable there).
@@BobWorldBuilder That would be a lot of game time for sure! YAY! for guides though! Also my owlbear came yesterday gonna try an get it painted up before our next game so were not using a medium sized bear that was a placeholder 😁.
As a starter DM, I struggled to run DoIP because the story is very open ended. Great videos that really help getting a idea how to run the adventure :D But please move the microphone out of the middle of the screen :D
Thank you! And I appreciate the critique. I don’t love having it there either, but it’s the best position for picking up just our voices, and we actually just recorded another video with the same set-up. Next time I will try having it lower 👍🏻
Disagree about the were-rats quest.... feel like it teaches the party to retreat and reflect. ...for the party to do a knowledge check or ask around Phaladin ...then buy silvered weapons or perhaps go on a quest for a known/famed silvered weapon.
That's a solid point, but I think a lot of new DMs starting with this kit could have benefited from some explanation about how to handle an impossible fight for their party
@@BobWorldBuilder Makes sense, I'm new to D&D and new DM so definitely would have been nice. I was only disagreeing with simply awarding silvered weapons as the workaround, to instead nudge players to think outside the box (or come back another day).
Very true, I think I followed it up with a statement about having negotiation be more of an option too, because as written the wererats will only give a false alternative (asking the party to clear Shrine of Savras, then still not leaving). So giving the party a way to talk it out is also important
Thank you, Bob & Grace! I really liked this review. Did you recommend adding a d4 countdown to the Circle of Thunder? It really heightened the tension for my players, and they really went out of their way to make sure it didn't reach 0. PS: I also look forward to also watching 'Grace World Builder'!
Ahh, I do highly recommend that, but I think we left it out here. I got caught up in the reminiscing and forgot a handful of tips! 😬 And yesss, we are all excited for more GWB! :)
If the module needs to be changed that much, why is it even in a beginner's kit for new players? I'm glad I came here, because I found those encounters for lvl 1 ridiculous and thought "will they all die in lvl 1 or am i supposed to balance the things out for new players?"
This is brilliant! I’m the DM and my party is 3 quests and the main Cryovain showdown from finishing DoIP. This has made me want to have a whole night (wine & cheese party) where we talk in detail about each quest we did and what we enjoyed/I could improve on for the next campaign. Ps. What is your next campaign? Have you had a thought about what you’ll do next? Thanks Bob!
Yes! I highly recommend debriefing the campaign if not discussing a bit after each session to learn what your players liked and didn't like. Next campaign is a little up in the air for us. I'll be making some guides for the DoIP expansion quests, then we had planned to move onto Waterdeep Dragon Heist, but life kind of got in the way of that, so we may do something smaller like Lost Mine of Phandelver
If you're able to sneak up and cut a dragons head off I would say that's a worthy end. They would certainly need to make stealth checks and have hazards etc. I think they have decent passive perception right?
▶️ One-On-One D&D: ua-cam.com/video/R78CIEktkwE/v-deo.html
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Check my post in r/DoIP for the highlights of this campaign guide summary :)
www.reddit.com/r/DragonOfIcespirePeak/comments/haq9gt/doip_full_campaign_review/
This feels sooo friendly. I'm shocked no one else did a full breakdown on this...Most reviewers skim the adventure and say buy it. But, you broke it down and played it.
Yeah, I will defend most reviewers by saying I usually don't play the things I review ahead of time! Even in this case, I made a review of the Essentials Kit before I actually played this module. And I'm about to do that for a review video coming next week lol
Too much great content, not enough time to run it all :)
@@BobWorldBuilder Will you play through the expansions as well? Storm lords wrath etc
I'll be making DM guides, but not gameplay videos because we are most likely not playing the entire expanded adventure
@@GrebirfSnej My group wants to run all 3. I finished reading the first one (Storm Lords Wrath) and its ok. Were about half way through it. There are some mistakes (don't think it went through the same QA process) and its not setup as newbie friendly. You'll need to do some work as a DM. The group I'm DMing this particular module for is pretty young (12 year girls and dads) and new to the game. And without a quest board like you have with DoIP, a new DM may have issues with the hooks (lack of) for half the "quests". They have these adventures to go on and no obvious way to get the players to go to a certain place or do a certain thing. I recommend you write up a flow chart with reasons (good ones) for going from one adventure to another after your in town, and expand on what happens after the first encounter with the priest in town and the ramifications of the attack and how the NPC reacts or the game can get bogged down. It's best if the characters have a real investment in this town. If one of the characters is from here or if they have family here, it would go a long way.
@@BobWorldBuilder I think there is an opportunity here. There is nothing online (that's good) regarding these 3 free expansion modules. A lot of people own and have played this module... and there are free follow ups. You play through the expansions and do a similar thing you did here... I would of found you sooner and I bet others would also. Just an idea.
Greetings Bob and Grace! I'm getting back in to D&D after a nearly 30 year hiatus after my 9 year old got hooked on Stranger Things and finding out that I played too all those years ago.
The 5e rules are pretty different from what I remember, and your videos were a great help for me to get back into the groove.
We've got my 26 year old (daughter) 9 year old (also daughter) trying to get my wife to roll up a character and play as well.
I'm glad to be slinging dice again and exploring the realms, thanks for all the coaching you two provided in this video series. :)
That’s really awesome, Marshall! I wish my dad had been into D&D back in the day too haha 😆 Happy to help you get your family into the game!
Thank you Bob and Grace. I have just stepped into the world of D&D with the help of you guys. I’m 10 sessions in and it’s going great. Your guides are helping me greatly by understanding what information to look out for. Thank you.
That is great to hear, Darryll! Playing through this campaign together was a lot of fun for us, and getting to share it with others has made it that much more rewarding. I'm happy to hear you've found the series valuable :)
Bob World Builder I forgot to also say that I’m sorry about your loss of employment and best of luck with this channel. Like they said in Field of dreams....” if you Bob world builder it, they will come!” I’m
Sure that’s how it went.
I think I need that printed somewhere xD haha, I appreciate your encouragement!
Is this foreshadowing a spin-off channel called 'Grace World Builder'?
A good summary of the DoIP module, entertaining presentation.
Who knows what the future holds haha xD Thank you, Monty!
Hey Bob (and Grace). I just wanted to say, amazing job on the coverage of DoIP. I’m a brand new DM running my first campaign for brand new DnD players and your videos have proved invaluable. Please tell me you’ll be covering more campaigns in the future (Lost Mines would be an excellent start 😃). Keep up the amazing work
It will be a little while until we officially move on to another campaign, but I have the full intention to do so! Thank you so much for the encouragement :D
Bob World Builder Are you gonna end up doing the adventure supplements for DND beyond?
Bob World Builder That’s brilliant news. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for the next campaign coverage. Any tips on where to go from here, if players want to continue using their characters?
Yes, definitely check out the D&D Beyond expansion quests mentioned by @avalugg 54 !
DM Guides yes, gameplay videos no, we just won't be playing through the whole thing
Skippy the Wonder Boar ???🤣 Grace often brings delightfully fresh and unique ways of looking at things to the table. She and you compliment one another wonderfully. Thank you both for the hard work and many hours of enjoyment.👩😸🧔♀❤
Lots of great tips as always Bob. Need to sit down and work on the next level of quests for DOIP for Brent.
Thank you, Jaime! Hopefully this provides a good summary to help you launch into the follow up quests :)
Amazing video again Bob. I DM my first icespike keep campaign using your guide and everyone had a lot of fun. Thank you :)
That’s awesome! I’m happy to have helped :)
This is a great review of DoIP. My players and I spent a lot more time in Phandalin, I made Harbin Wester a scaredy cat and a drunkard in the tavern, always petrified when the characters talk to him. The players were able to convince Adabra to come to town and in the end it paid out for them. Adabra started selling Greater Healing Potions for my players at a much cheaper price and she always has a supply of potions for the group. A player ended up doing business with Linene making glass mugs and selling them for profit.
I love it when PCs start businesses haha 😆 I hope Harbin Wester finds a new way to cope with his anxiety though
2:26 I've been listening to some other advice from DMs who've played DoIP and have another suggestion for the Umbrage Hill encounter - have the (wounded) manticore there seeking potions to treat his mate, who was (more grievously) wounded by the dragon. If the players choose to attack it will immediately fly to beyond the range of 100 ft and fling it's last few spikes at disadvantage before flying off, returning at the end of the campaign to wake the dragon while the players are trying to sneak up on it. However, if the players choose to help the manticore, it will swoop in during the dragon fight to aid them against the dragon. On the off chance that they manage to kill the monster then nothing happens.
3:29 I liked how BWB ran the Dwarven Excavation, with the Ochre Jelly having already been divided by the orc scout. Have the dwarves give the party the information about how the jelly divided when slashed, and hopefully the paladin wont go running in to slay the creature with his longsword! As for the second ochre jelly, I'd make that a grey ooze.
4:23 Gnomengard has a really interesting possibility for horror, by replacing the mimic with an oblex that is somewhere between spawn and adult. Make it pretty much immune to the party's standard attacks with a damage threshold, forcing them to kite it through the various traps that the gnomes have set up, which do way more damage than the party.
That manticore can sure hold a grudge!! And I love the oblex idea! I’ve never used one but they’re such interesting creatures
@@BobWorldBuilder Manticores are intelligent, lawful evil creatures, so holding grudges is entirely within their nature. However, if you need motivation: the manticore's mate is pregnant, which is why it couldn't evade the dragon as well, and by not helping it, the party is dooming its mate and its unborn child. It won't tell the party that, because it fears them tracking her down and killing her. Now, if they do help it, the creature's 'lawful' nature will make it feel the need to repay them (by slinging its quills at the dragon while the party is distracting it).
If you up the dragon's CR to adult then the party is going to live or die by the alliances they've made through the rest of the campaign. Fighting the dragon with the help of the orcs, wererats, and bandits, would be a big help! Having a manticore ex machina behind your DM's Screen will reinforce the sense that the entire campaign was linked, start to finish, and that their decisions have consequences.
A gnome community would be the perfect place for a horror setting, because to most races (being medium in size) it's low and narrow, claustrophobic. Then you have all the panicking gnomes, creating deadly traps that some players will feel the need to disarm on their way in, which might have to be reset on the fly . . . It's really a wasted setting, as is.
Excellent points! It's always nice when you can bookend the adventure by sliding in things from the very beginning. And I couldn't agree more about the horror idea! Its has me really excited for the new horror-themed campaign announced at D&D Live yesterday
Great summary of the adventure.
Thank you! It was a lot of fun recapping some of our favorite moments from the campaign, and I wanted to provide this summary for people who might be overwhelmed by the number of videos I now have on the subject haha
These videos have been SOOO helpful! It's my first time as 5e DM and I have been referencing your videos a ton. I can't wait to see what else you end up creating :)
Thank you! That's so awesome to hear. I'm glad these videos have been useful for you! There will be a few more Icespire Peak videos coming, and some other exciting additions to the channel :)
@@BobWorldBuilder yesss HYPE! :D
For gorthok/circle of thunder, my players had mounts, so we ended up doing a zelda style fight on horse back as gorthok plowed through the woods heading to falcons hunting lodge. (which was destroyed shortly there-after). A truly awesome moment in our campaign.
Wow! That is one epic chase!! Nicely done :)
Best DM pro tip I've received; listen to the players. Someone said something about Zelda, and it all clicked.
If there's a secret to DMing, listening is it!
Love this, when my party did the gold mine they shoved loads of cheese they had previously picked up into the end of one of the cave passages and when most of the wererats went to go eat it they caused a cave in trapping nearly all of them lol
Not done yet, but the party's most intense moment so far happened when they returned from clearing out Axeholm only to find that Phandalin was about to be attacked by orcs, an ogre, an orog, and an anchorite of Talos. The party snuck into the town, warned the townspeople (they have sway because of their reputation) and convinced them to retreat to Axeholm. Just as the town was sneaking out of town in the middle of the night, the war party attacked. The party tried to hold off the war party and were starting to lose, when Cyrovain darkened the starry night's sky and attacked the town. In the chaos that ensued, the townspeople escaped to Axholm, the orc war party was scattered, and a clever party member broke into the Townsmaster's home where he discovered that the Townsmaster was in the process of buying each building in Phandalin and then renting them back to the townspeople. Hmmm...
Wow! That 3-way fight must have been epic! And I am not too surprised about Harbin Wester haha, glad they caught him!
Bob, thanks for so much inspiration as I ran this campaign. My favorite quest was Mountain’s Toe but only because I dramatically changed it after your review!
I had the party meet a few wererats running from Savras while traveling the Wood. It got violent and the bard got lycanthropy, but that was fine. It was easier to not make it deadly since the wererats weren’t in their lair - reasonable for retreat.
Then I populated the mine with kobolds worshipping Cryovain from afar. And I had Don-Jon give the players your modified map, so they thought they knew the layout but then the kobolds had dug new tunnels so the map was out of date.
I also loved doing Dragon Barrow with your advice (and Sly’s) to make the barrow itself rise as a dragon. I played 8-bit RPG boss music as I described it rising and my players were stunned!
Finally, with my extra side quests, my players were level 7 by Cryovain, so your beefed up adolescent dragon was perfect. Thanks for making our first campaign together a smashing success!!
Thank you, Tim! You really did an awesome job running Icespire Peak! I appreciate your support 👍🏻
PUTTING THAT SOUND EFFECT FOR THE INVISIBLE STALKER IS HILARIOUS.
Genuinely an amazing gag for anyone familiar with Bob's classic image-woosh technique
Great Review, your videos are so helpful. I have used them to prep for each session. Thank you Bob and Grace.
My party are currently on their second quest Gnomengarde and are just about to fight the mimic. - They have spent some time in town.
As there is only one spell caster I let them borrow the "Magic of Gnomegarde" spell book. I really wanted to get more use out of the wild magic effects. I made it so each character can use it as long as they are standing within 5ft of a rock gnome that is holding the book. And each character can use 1 spell from it per day.
I have taken your advice with making the mimic turn into a half orc anchorite once defeated. A friend of mine also pre warned me of the Were-rats so I was thinking of having the half-orc drop a Silvered dagger or Silvered Short sword as it leaves, perhaps doping hints of that it might be useful against other. "Cursed Shape changers."
One of the other additions I am adding to the town is the Daran Eadernath NPC from LMOP. One of the players asked the tavern keep if anyone in the town knew anything about dragons. As a former member of the Order of the Gauntlet, I have turned him into a paladin of Torm. (a god who rides a dragon...) So he probably will be able to give the players some information about Dragons and perhaps free lodging at his Orchard. I was even thinking to have him be the source the Tower of Storm quest Or Dragon Burrow quest.(maybe)
It’s our pleasure! Glad you’re enjoying the series :) Great ideas with the spell book and dropping in a silver dagger! I hope one of your characters will take it!
I played Gnomengarde like john carpenters the thing, because we play on fantasy grounds I made everyone roll a perception check and whoever rolled the worst sent them a whisper that they noticed a strange sound or a whisper or a curtain moving to represent them being on edge and seeing things out of the corner of their eye , It was very amusing to DM.
@@youtigee that's a great idea. one of my players took observant so that could be fun to give the other players a chance to... "notice something..." lol
Liked your approach to sidekicks btw, simple and immersive
Glad you liked it! And thank you for commenting :)
my player needed a silvered weapon for the gold mine quest. my players were searching the altar in dwarven excavation quest, so i decided to put a silvered dagger at the base of the altar. in the end, they ended up not going there.
Haha, then you've got to decide what the wererats do if they have not been dealt with!
My group just fought Cryovaine. He opened with an ambush round breath attack after the group failed to talk their way out of the fight. Then the Monk went first and stun locked him for two rounds and he was beaten very easily. Definitely start with Cryovaine in the air, don’t let him touch the ground.
This is a good tip! Dragons have wings for a reason! Good for them though, for at least trying to talk through it first 👍🏻
Bob World Builder they were actually making head way, but then the bard literally said “I am out of ideas, let’s kill him”.....and enter breath weapon.
That's some famous last words lol, I'm glad they lived to tell the tale!
Thanks for this video! I'm leading my first campaign (this one) tonight! This was very helpful and boosted my excitement and confidence for doing this.
Enjoy your day!
-Kyle
Fantastic! I hope it was a blast! Be sure to check out the other videos in this series :)
You suggested removing the orcs from the dwarven excavation, but that's what made it one that one of my players really liked. After they cleared out the temple, they had a chance just to chat with the dwarves, and I had them roll for perception, all didn't meet the DC and so the nicer dwarf (Dazzlyn) ended up with a javelin through him. Battle erupted. As it was an 'as they leave' part, I also rolled for Cryovain, and surprisingly, the d20 rolled for the dwarven excavation location, which meant extra danger. Had Cryovain come in flying with his breath attack to take out two orcs that were in cover and didn't have the players near them. Cryovain sat on the top of the valley as the Warlock used thaumaturgy to shout out in Draconic, however Cryovain called back in Draconic, calling them insolent for daring to speak the same tongue. The barbarian tried to climb up in her rage to attack, but failed a check and was unable to catch Cryovain as he flew off with his orc meal.
"It was cool how we thought everything was all done, and safe, and we didn't bother resting because we thought everything was over, and were surprised with more" is what my player said of it. He didn't know at that time Cryovain was random. But a player actually telling me that they liked it makes it memorable to me.
My players though, never got to your favourite Bob. Butterskull ranch was never something they felt they needed to do.
My players are now getting their teeth into Stormlord's Wrath (after a 2 month hiatus). And I'm enjoying the possibilities with the further story. And have more confidence to add extra twists.
Hey, that's great! Throwing in surprises-- even a dragon, haha, are great for keeping the party on their toes! I try to keep things simple, but you're absolutely right that it's good to shake things up too :)
Nice video once again Bob! Nice review and i had to lightly pay attention as my wife is running this for us and i didnt want to spoil it for me.Welcome Grace, thanks for bringing another perspective to Bob's musings! Rock on!
Yes, there are definitely spoilers in here, haha! Glad you liked it, and send it along to your DM! :)
I am so excited to have found you guys! I love the vibe your video gives off, and your advice is so appreciated! In general, based on this video alone I love the wholesome approach to d&d advice - its a breath of fresh air from the usual rant style videos I always seems to run across when looking into d&d content. So thank you!!
First time DM here! Just starting this module! I'm watching this in chunks to not overwhelm myself. Thank you for your videos!!
I really loved the in depth way you broke down the module and went through it step by step with gameplay *and* review. Your suggestions for tweaking things are super good, really, I feel you have a creative and unique way of approaching them. I really want to use this module to get my family into the game!
I hope you will do a series like this for LMoP as well or perhaps another module? I know there are other guides out there but I really like your chill vibe, it's nice to listen to after a day's work to unwind :D
Thank you so much! The series has been a lot of fun for Grace and I, and while we may just keep it to guides in the future (gameplays are super time-consuming to produce), I do have plans to make series for LMoP, and perhaps this new Icewind Dale book down the line!
This is for the algorithm but way better than lost mines
The algorithm and I thank you! :)
You are great and make me laugh a lot, thx for the guides!
I must thank you for your amazing videos and showing me (a board gamer that loves following rules and totally new to DnD.. that rules can be broken).
With your help a lot of scenarios in our campaign (still 1 scenario to go before we face cryovain) ended much differently than what WoTC intended... and we had a blast and tons of laughs.
Lucky for me and my players, I found your guides that definitely saved our campaign and our first encounter with DnD.
I'm happy that you continued the videos on Storm Lord's Wrath as we will indeed continue this campaging and so on... I'm still too green to go searching for a new campaign and new settings :)
only just stumbled across your channel and I've got to say you guys are so friendly and charismatic. Great breakdown and series overall. So that's one huge like and subscribe from me!
Awesome, thank you and welcome!
"Ya. Hit it." I'm already done. Damn you, Grace. 🤣
She knows how to get subs! Lol
@@BobWorldBuilder Was that ending planned? Because it was perfect. 👌
Not by me, haha, pretty sure she's planning a coup
The room just across the bridge has 3 stirges in it and a chimney leading to the roof , the only reason a weak monster like that is placed there has to be an alarm system so the dragon cant be suprised.
Loved the video series tho
I see what you mean! I had my characters make stealth checks in that room to avoid the dragon hearing them through the chimney as well!
I just bought the Essentials Kit and had some troubles with how to run this as an exciting adventure. All your videos were very insightful and very helpful. I wish you the best of luck on your channel! Keep it coming! 😊👌
Thanks! I’m glad you found the series useful :)
You might also point out that since the party is not compelled to do the quests "in order" that DMs should be ready to scale quest difficulty up or down on-the-fly. My party was already level 4 by the time they reached Logger's Camp. The monsters there were no challenge at all. True, I could have increased their number (or movement, or to-hit bonus) but I chose not to because I think the real point was to put together WHY the camp has been attacked. Besides, my party had just been through two pretty epic fights at Circle of Thunder and at Falcon's. They suspected Wester had done something wrong to incur the attack because he was so weasely! Go off script and make it fun, funny, interesting, engaging (using character backstories) - whatever!
Bob, since you cultivate more of a community feel in your fanbase, may consider a live event where DMs talk about our mods to the DoIP quests. We'd be happy to support you like that. 🙂
That’s a great point since there is no official order! And I will absolutely look into some kind of UA-cam live stream! Idk how it works yet, but that would be a great idea for getting people together to talk about DoIP or other D&D topics :)
lets gooo new video
Woo! I love your enthusiasm :D
Bob World Builder love your videos man
Thank you!
Our group completed this a few months back. I thought Icespire Hold was lack luster (where is the dragons treasure?) and the rest of the place is empty so I expanded it so if you took the sled from the tomb to the bottom of the mountain there was the original occupants treasure in a small puzzle room dungeon and they fought some undead and got some epic loot. We now a third of the way through Strorm Lords Wrath which is the free sequel to this module.
Adding the puzzle dungeon sounds awesome! Definitely a more satisfying close to that chapter of the campaign :)
I changed the invisible stalker in the dragon barrow quest to the ghost of Azdraka (a reskinned ghost) and a handful of wisps for support.
As soon as my players grabbed the dragon slayer, the ghostly form of the dragon Azdraka (the dragon bones entombed in the barrow) emerged from the bones and attacked! They loved it :)
Y’all guys are so amazing, this video helped a lot!
As someone who bought this module in hopes of being able to finally run my first ever campaign as DM, these kinds of reviews are super helpful and I’m glad I stumbled across this video! It’s great to hear feedback from people who have played and ran this campaign who are experienced and willing to break it down for DMs who may or may not be as experienced DMing. I’m also curious if you’ve done any other videos about one-on-one play and your experiences with it, maybe further advice/reviews related to that, or plan to in the future. I’ll be browsing through your video history, I think lol
I have one general video about one player games in my playlist of DM & player tips. I include some comments about running for one player in my guides for Icewind Dale, and I'll be doing a series in this same style for Lost Mine of Phandelver
@@BobWorldBuilder Thank you for the response! I appreciate it a lot and have been enjoying your content since discovering it a week ago :)
Really enjoyed your campaign videos and DM guides mate! They were super helpful for playing through this with my other half and two friends throughout lockdown here in the UK. Are you looking to continue the story with Storm Lords Wrath, Sleeping Dragons Wake or Divine Contention?
Thank you! Happy to help :) We won’t be playing through them but I will be making some kind of guide for those adventures!
@@BobWorldBuilderAwesome, glad to hear that. I've printed the campaigns and will be taking a bit of time to prepare. Enough time for another member of my group to DM a campaign for a few months I think!
Awesome! It will be worth the wait I'm sure :)
Hey awesome overview. Didn’t see your “review”-or final opinion-on the module though, did I miss it?
Great content Bob, helped me so much in running this adventure!!
Hahah, ya know, only afterward did I realize we never actually rated the module as a whole! xD I stand by our "lots of fun, but far from perfect" and give it a solid 7 young white dragons out of 10. I'm glad you enjoyed the series! :)
Bob World Builder ha. Well said Bob. Can’t wait for what’s next.
I'm dm'ing my own world, and mostly lvl 1-4 they've had urban dealings. So I have a mountain town I'm looking to be a reskinned Phandalin and throw in some of these quests, so I really enjoy you guys reviewing them one by one!
OMG Bob, you're so awesome! I love your channel, your content and your personal touch on everything!
You made me buy the Essential kit, can't wait to get my hands on it.
Among your other content, please do some more GMing/playing other modules 😊
Awesome! Thank you! :) We're currently playing through Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, so I've been making guides for that book too
I lost a character at the windmill. A halfling vs. a manticore is not a very equal fight. The ranch though, that was great!
Oh no! I guess that's an important lesson for everyone at the table. And I'm glad you had fun at the ranch-- that was definitely one of my favorites :D
I have recently discovered your channel and am enjoying it.
You mention here that Gorthok (Skippy the Wonderboar) technically (RAW) cannot escape from the circle because he is too big, but I think he can escape. He is Huge (15') so can squeeze through a gap 1 size smaller (i.e. Large = 10') and the gaps between each pair of standing stones are just about 10', if you go by the dotted rectangles shown beneath the capstones. (Each stone is 5' away from it's partner, with a larger capstone on top, but the pairs, as seen on the map, are a full square plus about 2 half-squares apart, which adds up to 10'). He can also fit (squeeze) below the overhangs of the capstones, since they are 10' off the ground. (And given his shape, he's probably wider than he is tall anyway).
I looked at whether he could jump out and he definitely can not. His running high jump is 8' but it is 13' to the top of each capstone, which is more than 1.5 times his jump height. The DM has discretion to allow an Athletics check to jump a little higher than your max but this would be outside of what I would consider "a little". I haven't tried to specify how difficult it would be for him to knock down standing stones - it would be a LOT harder than a shove attack against an opponent - but he doesn't need to, and I don't think he'd want to desecrate his own summoning circle anyway.
If he does squeeze out, it will cost him an extra 5' of movement and if the players manage to attack him while he does it (with an attack-of-opportunity or a Readied attack or some special ability) then they get advantage on the attack and he has disadvantage on DEX saves, so it would be a good way for them to get a bit of a bump if they are having difficulty.
Awesome! Thanks for doing the math! :)
What I did with Adabra was making it clear to the party that she hates Harbin Wester as she thinks he is a tool to more influential people “Halia” which makes her doesn’t want to come back to Phandalin
Halia being a Zhentarim agent wanted to force Adabra to report to her basically and the town master was to weak to protect Adabra
Besides, she believes that Chauntea will protect her as well as the dwarven spirits in the dwarven ruins
Interesting recap, I would've liked a final review of the adventure as a whole, though.
I really enjoy these videos - they are casual, straight forward, and honest. Keep it up!
Anyone else get distracted by Grace's tuck of hair under her glasses?
Let the players die to the dwarven mine trap. It's a good teaching moment, and nothing teaches quite like player character death.
Depends on how attached the players are to these new characters, but it is a great lesson!
@@BobWorldBuilder Most of my sensibilities regarding tabletop gaming coming from an old-school background. (I insist on many means of giving my players a hard time because that's just how I've always played the game.)
I said it before and I'll say it again outstanding run through with lots of good ideas. I am concerned if you run the follow-up adventurers though has the half-orcs show their true colors. Poor Grace may not get to negotiate as much.
I really appreciate it! We won’t be playing through them (anytime soon anyway), though I will be making some kind of guide for the adventures. So far I’ve only skimmed them, so I’m excited to see what you mean haha
This is it! Ladies and Gents, hold onto your socks!
THIS IS A SOCK FREE ZONE :P
My bad! I forgot about the anti-sockers! 😂
No, no, it's just a safety policy or socks would be flying everywhere :P
Oooooh. Mmmhmnh. I see how it is. The ol’ ‘flying socks’ excuse. (I’ve used it as well 🤣)
"What's his fang"😂😂
Who has time to say "Cryovain"? lol
Most reviews talk about the fun they had, they seldom ever talk about the module or campaign themselves, about what to do, how it works, what you need to prepare for...
Thus was refreshing
Love this starter kit. Changes I made are add kohbolds to icespire peak.the bandits instead were prisoners. Harbin used a drop box in his door to make transactions. And I add some magic using orcs in butterskull ranch basement. I had a tank in the party so had to beef things up a smig. I highly recommend reading the monsters know what they're doing to better use monsters.
Hi new viewer here and first time Dungeon Master,
I´m planning to run this for my first campaign with my friends who are also brand new players and I was thinking of setting up an early encounter with the dragon when the are lvl 2-3 so that they are more engaged with the campaign. I thought about having an NPC with them at the moment that the dragon kills so they have a more personal motivation to slay the dragon.
Do you have any advice or ideas to actually implement this??? Because it all sounds good in my head but i can´t think of the right way to do it
Any way I just found your content and its really good!!!!!!!!!!!!! instantly subscribed! keep up the good work
Thank you so much for this Bob. I'm an old 3.5 player and I have some friends that bought this a month ago, they had never played DND before and asked me to DM. We all loved it and want to play more. What 5e module should we try after this (and it's supplements)?
Well Icewind Dale (Frostmaiden) will be my next series! :)
I remember our hobo murderer tried to instinctively kill it so we got destroyed and all died. Our dm gave us a second chance so instead we got made a deal for us to cook it something, we went inside and the lady rolled a natural 20 for cooking so the manticore flew away.
Hahah that's awesome!
Nice set of videos guys! Are you gonna go on with the followup campaigns?
Thank you! That's the plan, but we won't be recording the gameplay, just DM guides
One of your best videos, yet! Nice camera work. Grace is a delight. Will you be doing the three follow up stories to DoIP?
Thank you, David! I really enjoyed this format too! We will probably do some more videos in this style in the future, and yes I will be making guides for those adventures. Storm Lords Wrath coming next month!
Watching now.
:)
Why is that microphone GIGANTIC!?
It’s not small, but I think it was a weird perspective thing in this video lol
Hey against the invisible there's magic lantern that show invisible, we get it from gnomes i think 🙂 good vids, keep up good work
Really? That doesn't ring a bell, but I love the idea! Thank you :)
My party was overconfident at the butterskull ranch and they started an all out brawl, which pulled in other orcs round after round. The basically fought of as warm of orcs in hordes of 5 (20 orcs in total). 3 out of 5 were knocked out, One guy went down to 2 failed saves before they saved him, and all their feats and spells were gone.
I told them I went easy by trickling them in and that they shouldn't go full murder hobo again, because next time I'd just send them.
Flash forward to the next quest and they decided to collapse the mountain toe entrance and smoke out the rats on the other side.... I went easy on them again because if I had just sent the rats through the fire, they woulda still been powerful enough to just wipe my entire party. I had them fight untill the rats lost one ally and then had the rats reason (at least somebody has to be reasonable there).
Just finished the campaign tonight
Congrats! I hope it ended well :)
Are you guys going to be doing the 3 follow up adventures that take place after this in Leon?
I'll be making DM guides, but not gameplay videos because we most likely will not play the whole thing
@@BobWorldBuilder That would be a lot of game time for sure! YAY! for guides though! Also my owlbear came yesterday gonna try an get it painted up before our next game so were not using a medium sized bear that was a placeholder 😁.
Best of luck Bob.😎🤘take care
As a starter DM, I struggled to run DoIP because the story is very open ended.
Great videos that really help getting a idea how to run the adventure :D But please move the microphone out of the middle of the screen :D
Thank you! And I appreciate the critique. I don’t love having it there either, but it’s the best position for picking up just our voices, and we actually just recorded another video with the same set-up. Next time I will try having it lower 👍🏻
When I ran the shrine of savras, I let my players buy specialized earmuffs before the mission.
Disagree about the were-rats quest.... feel like it teaches the party to retreat and reflect.
...for the party to do a knowledge check or ask around Phaladin
...then buy silvered weapons or perhaps go on a quest for a known/famed silvered weapon.
That's a solid point, but I think a lot of new DMs starting with this kit could have benefited from some explanation about how to handle an impossible fight for their party
@@BobWorldBuilder Makes sense, I'm new to D&D and new DM so definitely would have been nice.
I was only disagreeing with simply awarding silvered weapons as the workaround, to instead nudge players to think outside the box (or come back another day).
Very true, I think I followed it up with a statement about having negotiation be more of an option too, because as written the wererats will only give a false alternative (asking the party to clear Shrine of Savras, then still not leaving). So giving the party a way to talk it out is also important
Thank you, Bob & Grace! I really liked this review. Did you recommend adding a d4 countdown to the Circle of Thunder? It really heightened the tension for my players, and they really went out of their way to make sure it didn't reach 0.
PS: I also look forward to also watching 'Grace World Builder'!
Ahh, I do highly recommend that, but I think we left it out here. I got caught up in the reminiscing and forgot a handful of tips! 😬 And yesss, we are all excited for more GWB! :)
If the module needs to be changed that much, why is it even in a beginner's kit for new players? I'm glad I came here, because I found those encounters for lvl 1 ridiculous and thought "will they all die in lvl 1 or am i supposed to balance the things out for new players?"
I remember when we lost 2 party members to a banshee due to some bad rolls
Banshees are no joke! My those character rest in peace, unlike the banshee...
Oh and be careful of that wererat bite. We now have a rat-gnome that is looking for a cure for lycanthropy. Time to improvise!
Why cure it? Lycanthropy is pretty awesome!
I agree. It's positives definitely outweigh its negatives. But if it's a cure they seek, then a cure they shall find.
This is brilliant! I’m the DM and my party is 3 quests and the main Cryovain showdown from finishing DoIP. This has made me want to have a whole night (wine & cheese party) where we talk in detail about each quest we did and what we enjoyed/I could improve on for the next campaign.
Ps. What is your next campaign? Have you had a thought about what you’ll do next?
Thanks Bob!
Yes! I highly recommend debriefing the campaign if not discussing a bit after each session to learn what your players liked and didn't like. Next campaign is a little up in the air for us. I'll be making some guides for the DoIP expansion quests, then we had planned to move onto Waterdeep Dragon Heist, but life kind of got in the way of that, so we may do something smaller like Lost Mine of Phandelver
Bob World Builder Sounds great! I have LMoP so that would be a great help. Looking forward to seeing them!
Wholesome
That microphone looks bigger than my entire apartment! lol :p (I know it's just the perspective or whatever)
If you're able to sneak up and cut a dragons head off I would say that's a worthy end. They would certainly need to make stealth checks and have hazards etc. I think they have decent passive perception right?
What do I do if they managed to convince the dragon to come out do I just make it fly away
I know it’s pretty open but what’s the min and max amount of hours a module can take?
When dealing with Gnomenguarde, I guess Grace used the right gnomenclature. 🙄
There is no video about "Falcon's Hunting Lodge". or at least i cant find it
That location is not really a quest like the others, so I did not make a video about it
@@BobWorldBuilder oh ok
Omg, is that really the size of the mic!?
I think dragon of icespire peak is a better starting dm adventure than lost mine of phandelver
I can't get over how big that microphone is.
Haha, it’s a big microphone, but it’s also closer to the camera 😆
whatzisfang is a true tyrant!! ;)
Feared across the land!!!
Cute couple!!!!
😊
Axeholm is The best to me.
I'm not a huge fan of D&D youtubers, I feel like most of them are shit. But this channel is interesting.