Icewind Dale: Rime of The Frostmaiden (D&D Adventure Book) (Dungeons & Dragons)

I have read or DM'd every 5e adventure published by Wizards of the Coast. I think Icewind Dale is excellent, not quite as good as my favorites, but close. Spoilers below. The basic story: eternal winter has settled on ten towns in a valley called Icewind Dale, caused by an evil goddess of winter named Auril. The first two chapters are a bunch of little mini quests around the towns and the dale, and the best ones are really really good. For example, there is a goblin fortress run by a gnome who has disguised himself as a goblin boss; the PCs can help him escape from his own increasingly restive followers. These quests do a great job of bringing the ten towns to life, as each one has unique little personalities in it and lots of local color (some of it very dark, like human sacrifice). They mostly do not have anything to do with ending winter or anything seriously important. In the third and fourth chapters, the PCs discover that a duergar warlord has built a mechanical dragon that he's going to use to burn down the towns. The PCs have to choose between taking out the warlord versus saving the towns from the dragon, which has flown off to go fry some townsfolk. Excellent warlord lair, excellent theater of the mind stuff to save the towns from the dragon, excellent strategic dilemma. The fifth chapter is a trip to Auril's Island to take her out. The last chapters are a sort of long coda that has nothing to do with ending winter or saving the towns: there is a trip to an ancient, ruined city of mages buried in a glacier; the PCs can enter a time machine there and go back in time a few thousand years--which is a very odd ending to the whole story. There is also a scroll by which one can summon a tarrasque, if so inclined. I haven't DM'd this part of the story yet, so I am less confident in predicting how well it will go. Pros: there are just a hundred little touches that make the ten towns come to life. My players are about halfway thru the story as I write this, and they REALLY care about saving these towns and about their reputation there. This reminds me of other fully imagined worlds in the best WOTC products, such as Waterdeep and Menzoberranzan. And the little quests and even the random encounters (which are the best random encounters I've ever seen) are mostly superb. I also like it that it is less linear than some of the stories; my players feel like they have real choices about what to do next, in fact they're not even sure yet what the major quest is going to be (this is because there are in fact three big quests: save the towns from the dragon, kill Auril, explore the lost city). For the most part, the adventure is easy to DM: the players choose to do X mini encounter, and you can read about X and run it with little preparation, and at least in my case it has gone very well. Cons: for the story to work, the players have to do the warlord first (because he's appropriate for 5th level PCs), kill Auril second (7th level), and go to the lost city (10th level) third--and it turns out it's tough for the DM to make sure they do this in the correct order. The book has NPCs tell the players: "time to go do this," which is a little heavy handed. There are ways for the DM to foreshadow these things to steer them a bit less blatantly, but it is a bit of work. And I'm not sure yet if the lost city part of this is going to feel important, as opposed to kind of an old school dungeon crawl for no better reason than exploration itself. Some players like that, some may not. Verdict: it's not quite as good as my favorite 5e adventures (Strahd and Out of the Abyss) but it is similar in creating a fully imagined world, which is what I value most in these big 5e books. I put it slightly below this top level--it's about as good as Waterdeep, which I loved, and perhaps a little better than Storm King's Thunder, which was inconsistent and clunky but had great moments. And I like it better than Tomb of Annihilation (which for some reason I don't like as well as everyone else), Princes, and Tiamat. Really impressive that Wizards can keep coming up with new & fresh flavors of high fantasy, though I worry what they'll do now that they're running out of fantasy novels to steal from. Great job Chris Perkins & Co.

Can't wait to get a group for this! Solid for beginners and experienced d&ders!

Love this module. A great classic adventure!

I am running a first time campaign with some of my friends and the level of detail and complexity in this book is astounding. I have truly enjoyed getting to read this book, let alone run it as an adventure for my friends. I find myself re-reading it some nights just because of its captivating story. The weave of connections between the towns and people in those towns is great and I cannot wait to play out each session, knowing that this book has my back as a DM.

After cracking open this adventure book I have to say that I was blown away by the gorgeous art that really gives such a sense of place to adventure’s setting. The maps throughout the book are also delightful and the book comes with a full poster map attached to the back page. I have not had a chance to read through this adventure but the dozens of new monsters including some creative mind flayer variants and tons of arctic creatures are some of the most interesting that I have seen. Also the villains and NPCs described in the book are so interesting that I don’t even care if the adventure itself is well organized or put together or not. I feel like a creative DM could just create a campaign around the monsters, villains, and creatures described in this book just based on their sheer appeal. But just skimming through the adventure it looks like it will pose a very interesting sandbox style campaign focused on exploration and survival in this harsh climate. There are also secrets and intrigues that players can start with that create new encounter opportunities and plots to unfold around them. Very cool. I can’t wait to dive deeper into this massive tome. But it is already my favorite 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons book yet!

Interesting plot and good old lore sauce icewind dale offers icy conspiracy experience like crystal shard

O material é de ótima qualidade, possui ate uma textura diferente nas costas do livro que não vi em outros livros de D&D. Possui artes incríveis e é uma aventura muito bem escrita. (Tem um mapa que aparentemente pode ser destacado do livro com uma parte pontilhada, mas não tive coragem de tentar) Envolvente narrativa que te leva do lvl 1 até o lvl11 ou 12. Possui chefões icônicos, e tem um dificuldade relativamente alta se bem mestrada. Estou mestrando essa aventura e considero a melhor da quinta edição de D&D.

Extremt snabb leverans. Fint förpackat

So far reading through sound very interesting campaign

Package was just some carton box with the book in it, without anything wrapped around the book. There are also massive lines of usage on the cover. Next to that its fine though