While Lost Mine of Phandelver (Starter kit adventure) is generally (if not unanimously) rated better adventure than the Dragon of Icespire Peak (Essential kit adventure), Essential kit has several advantages over starter kit, especially for the starter/DM less player. Today, I am writing my first experience of Dragon of Icespire peak adventure.
Background
This year my new hobby/focus became adventure board games. In particular, I have really enjoyed Arena: the Contest, which later I found out has root in earlier edition of D&D. The creator of Arena: the Contest has recently launched and successfully concluded their third, the biggest kickstarter campaign, Tanares RPG for 5E.
Originally, when it was announced I thought the campaign is irrelevant to me as I have never played and never plan to play Tabletop RPG. However, the solo mode addon, eventually called Game Master less add-on, caught my attention. Initially, just as a curiosity, I have started to read about D&D 5th edition rules.
Unfortunately or now perhaps fortunately, Dragori Games never showed actual play example of how 5e in solo work. This felt a huge black box to me as someone who do not even know how the regular 5e game work. So I’ve decided to give a try myself using various online tools/info and supplement missing pieces with imagination. By the time I made this decision, I had already developed quite a bit of hype myself, but I was also ready to test and look its limitation as an adventure board gamer.
I’ve decided to use starter kit adventure because it sounded the most basic of all adventures. Since my original motivation was just to test 5e as solo player so I know what to expect when the item delivers next year, I have used Tanares RPG for 5 characters.
There are quite a bit of rule learning, but the testing part itself concluded quickly. The game worked exactly as I imagined. I can confidently say that the 5E game can work as an adventure board game with a few supplements e.g. monster AI, spoiler warning/free text/card, tokens/miniatures and maps.
However, there was a good surprise. The solo play of official D&D 5E adventure is actually really fun. Rather than continue playing Arena: the Contenst board game, I find myself just keep coming back to the Lost mine of Phandelver adventure.
During the recent Thanksgiving sales on D&D Beyond, I’ve purchased several D&D digital books including a few adventure books. However, before playing them, I wanted also try out the essential kit adventure. The main reason for this is because it is officially rated to support single player.
Player Character Creation/Selection
Unlike Starter Kit, which came with pregenerated characters to choose from, Essential kit did not come with such and the adventure book says spend first session for creating own character.
I certainly see the power and benefit of making own character in 5e, but I am not at the level yet. I just want to dive right into the game.
For this, there are many options as a solo player even a new one. I have decided to use pregenerated characters from official website, which actually has Starter Kit character sheet as well (if you want to use them).
On the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure, I have been using Tanares RPG for 5e characters. One original class and one being Cleric subclass.
So here I wanted to try something new. I still consider myself a beginner for 5e. The recommended class for new player is a non-spell casting class. So I’ve decided to use a human fighter.
I’ve decided to name him, Mugen.
Sidekicks
If you’re running this adventure for a single player, you can give that player a sidekick as a secondary character. Let the player choose one of the pregenerated sidekicks from the selection of Sidekick Cards. Rules and stat blocks for sidekicks appear in the rulebook. You might need to help the player run the sidekick for the first few sessions. If a sidekick is lost or no longer needed, the character can return to Phandalin and acquire a new one.
Dragon of Icespire Peak Running the Adventure – Running for One Player
One of major reason I got intrigued by Dragon of Icespire Peak (DoIP) adventure is a sidekick system.
The DoIP is written to officially support a single player with one dungeon master. However, the world of D&D is not safe place by a single character, so rather than having two full characters controlled by a single player, simplified character, sidekick, is provided as a companion for the player’s character. This is analogous to adventure board games where often the party require 4 full characters but controlling all may be too much resource management in certain games, so the developer creates abbreviated version of some characters to maintain the game balance while keeping extra resource management minimal.
Sidekicks are nothing but simplified NPC. The DoIP offered 3 types of sidekicks to choose from.
Expert, an agile and exceedingly helpful jack of all trades
Spellcaster, a magic-user who can cast spells to harm your foes or heal you and your friends
Warrior, a martial companion who specializes in striking your foes or defending you and your allies
Each type of sidekick has two variant of background stories, but the actual stat blocks are the same for given type. The recommendation is to use sidekick as to aid the missing part of the party. So in my case with the PC being fighter class, my choice are either an expert or a spell caster.
I liked Shanjan’s background so I chose him as a mage. I’ve decided changed the name to “Jin”.
Phandalin
Now, I have started to read the the adventure book from “The Adventure Begins” section. This gave an overall background story in three short paragraphs.
Then the adventure begun with Mugen and Shanjan in the town of Phandalin. Since I’ve been playing the Lost mine of Phandelver, Phandalin is familiar town for me, and the map is actually identical.
Exploration of the town is nothing but picking the location I want to start investigating and read the corresponding sections text.
Of note, I use FoundryVTT for playing my sessions. For this, DoIP maps scaling may be an issue. There is a great discussion for various solutions on the Reddit. Personally, I like the following answer.
background image scale : 1.1433518005540166
grid size :50
offset : -47/-48
https://www.reddit.com/r/FoundryVTT/comments/l3fp2r/icespire_hold_map_grid_is_the_dnd_beyond_image/
Rescaling of image on the photoshop also worked well, but above solution won’t change file size where as rescaling increased map file size to 30MB+.
I have learned from playing the Lost Mine of Phandelver, digital version works better as a DM less mode because they allow straight jump the corresponding section. In the physical book, while searching for the particular section, some texts from other section jumps on to my eyes results in unintentional spoilers.
Although the actual town map is the same as the LoMP, there are less destinations in DoIP.
Also, the actual town exploration element in DoIP is much less than the LoMP with each location containing far less amount of texts and essentially not much of events.
Using the slight imagination as adventure book did not clearly stated how Mugen and Jin came to the Phandalin, I’ve decided they are just bounty hunter like party, and just arrived to the Phandalin.
After the long journey, they’ve decided to visit the Stonehill Inn first.
The owner of the Inn is a short, friendly male human named Toblen Stonehill.
The adventure book asks to roll a d6 if the PC decides to talk to Toblen. This roll determines which of the Phandalin tales Toblen knows.
*Of note, adventure books lack arts, but having a huge D&D community, you can easily find high quality arts for many things on google. One of the site I keep seeing as one of top search results is Sword Coast Adventurers. These arts are not necessary for the game play itself but my imagination is limited so having visual reference gets me more immersion.
With a roll of 1, Toblen shares following tale with us.
“Once again, the orcs have come down from the mountains to prey on the lowlands! If Neverwinter doesn’t send help soon, the orcs will overrun Phandalin and destroy everything we’ve worked so hard to rebuild.”
Next, I’ve decided to visit Shrine of Luck. Here there was no Sister as she’s out of town for the duration of this adventure.
Rather than going other locations in town, I’ve decided go to the main place where job postings are at this point. Unlike LoMP, DoIP provides quest cards. Though they are made of cheap cardboard, it feels more inline with adventure board game.
At the beginning, there are three quests to choose from.
Amongst these 3, I have decided to take Umbrage Hill Quest. This is because the adventure book states there is no where in the Phandalin that sells Potions of Healing. If the characters are wish to purchase one, they need to go to Umbrage Hill windmill. Since my party lacks a healer, I thought securing healing option is crucial.
The adventure book gives a brief one paragraph description of the quest.
Choosing a quest refers a reader to jump to the specific section in the book.
Umbrage Hill
The section had a quick information about the location stating this is balanced for characters of 3rd level or lower. The chapter/section has 3 subsections, overview, quest goal and a map with each part of location description.
As an adventure board gamer, here I again hoped they had provided art of the location for better immersion. As a solo player, I also hoped they have organized the adventure book such that there is a spoiler warning. So before each potential spoiler, if any type of test is conducted whether player’s decision, ability check, I can stop and think before reading further. However, neither are supported and one drawback for playing these adventures as solo/DM-less mode.
Immediately upon the arrival, Mugen and Jin see a manticore attacking the windmill, and Adabra Gwynn yells for “a little help?!”
Seriously? The very first encounter is not goblin?
As far as Monster AI creation, I’ve used Monsters Know book as a base. Whenever there is a ranged attack, it needs a distance/position specification. The first round Tail Spike is just part of combat sequence and Manticore is ready to get into melee combat the next turn, there is no need for distance specification in this case other than just move towards the target after attack.
However, when using Tail Spike in the situation of outdoor & outnumber situation, Tail Spike will be used to keep the distance from PCs. For this, it needs at least 40 feet distance from the average target who have average 30 feet moving distance. Anything under 40 feet distance have high likelihood of forced into a melee combat by opponent’s next turn.
However, Manticore also will switch to melee combat as soon as it runs out of spikes to shoot. Since the combat is taking place outdoor, flying will be used by Manticore, and that provides 50 feet movement for it. So it can close a gap up to 55 distance foe.
Therefore, I interpreted that the optimal distance Tail Spike combat tactics is 40-55 feet from target.
It is my general style to make Monster AI as soon as I see a new monster in the quest so I won’t be biased. After completion of Monster AI creation, I continued to read the rest of section and the very next paragraph says,
Characters can fight or negotiate with the manticore, which ceases its attack and flies away if given at least 25 gp in treasure or a few pounds of meat.
If it’s not killed, the manticore could return with its mate to make more trouble in the future.
I have started to check what my party currently have. Mugen has 30 gp and 10 days worth of ration. Amazing part of D&D is everything has a detail. The 1 day ration consists dry foods suitable for extended travel, including jerky, dried fruit, hardtack, and nuts. So it sounds like all my party can offer right now is 25 gp but not meat.
If the party are to combat with Manticore, there are two issues. One is the combat will be outdoor and my party outnumbers it, so the Manticore will use the Tail Spike ranged combat tactics, and most likely my party will be slain before it runs of tail spikes. Second, if the miracle happen and the party can take Manticore’s health down, the Monster AI will trigger Flee option. So that will still trigger the second sentence.
After a few minutes of pondering, I’ve decided to just give 25 gp.
Adabra declines to return to Phandalin, but quest still is considered as a success. She gives one potion of healing. She also sells one for 50 gp from this point on.
Now go back to Phandalin. The Townmaster Harbin Wester awards 25 gp. The exact amount Mugen just gave to the Manticore. So overall, this adventure thought to be concluded with just one healing portion achievement.
*I have later found out that DoIP uses milestone leveling up system rather than XP. This means progression of story determines level up rather than actual XP. From XP stand point of view, the party did not defeat Manticore so 0 XP achievement; however, the party successfully completed the quest. Therefore, if I were playing this properly, the party actually leveled up at this point.
Dwarven Excavation
The next quest Mugen and Jin decided to take is Dwarven Excavation.
Similar to the Umbrage Hill quest, the section has first paragraph explaining the quest appropriateness, but this is where playing solo with an adventure book not written to be played had easily could have been avoided spoiler.
The very second sentence of the chapter/section talks about “orc arriving later.”
I wished the book had simply character level rating e.g. Appropriate for <= level 3 and not much else.
This chapter/section is much longer than the Umbrage Hill.
Start reading from the top, Location Overview had good quick background information
The section is followed by the Quest goal section that says the adventurers need only to warn two dwarves, Dazlyn and Norbus.
However, the very next sentence spoils what’s coming including eventual Orcs attack. Its not a major spoiler by any means but I thought it was unnecessary to talk about it here.
Next section is labeled as Arrival.
In this section, the book states “If the characters announce their arrival, Dazlyn and Norbus come forth to greet them. Otherwise, the characters encounter the dwarves in area E3.”
There really isn’t much or perhaps any difference where they met from the story point, but if this were to be meant to create tension on players, I had hoped just slight different formatting as a solo player.
“If characters announce their arrival” and stop. Then this would be a quick yes/no question as a solo player.
However, the major spoiler here is again Orcs arrival.
If the book were written in just slightly different format with DM less play in mind, this would have been completely avoided. Such as, does the player wants to stay and help two dwarves? If no, go back to Phandalin. If yes, then keep reading. This way I would not have known choosing B would resulted in Orc encounter.
Mugen and Jin chose of course to help Dwarves because they are here anyways and may be looking for some potential treasure in this area.
So in the end, for my party scenario ends up as following.
As Mugen and Jin approaches to the entry of Dwarven Excavation, they announces their arrival.
With it, Dazyln and Norbus came forth to the area and greeting.
The provided map for this quest is decent size with DM version having E1 thru E11 areas. At this point, I was not sure if I should be just continue reading adventure book or choose one particular location and jump to the area.
However, the map is essentially single linear path up to E4 area. So I’ve decided to think as four moves deeper into the cave while chatting. This is sort of solo role play/imagination connection of story as current adventure book lacks any connection why two are going deeper part of the cave.
Reading E1 through E3 section in order, there were a bit more detail in E3 section.
The dwarves asked to kill the ochre jellies in E5 area, and as a return offers sending stones.
Before reading any further, I have started to make the Monster AI for Ochre Jelly.
Monster AI creation
The fifth edition Monster Manual claims that oozes “have no sense of tactics or self-preservation,” but I can’t buy the second half of that.
Ammann, Keith. The Monsters Know What They’re Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters (The Monsters Know What They’re Doing Book 1) (p.513). Gallery / Saga Press. Kindle Edition.
Normally, I’d just use Monsters Know interpretation and make some modification, but in this case, the author disagreed with Monster’s Manual.
They have enough bestial cunning to avoid large groups of enemies.
An ochre jelly follows at a safe distance as it pursues its meal
Most of the time, oozes have no sense of tactics or self-preservation. They are direct and predictable, attacking and eating without cunning.
Monsters Manual – Ochre Jelly
Here I’ve decided to go with plain and use Monsters Manual rather than Monsters Know. Since the creature lacks sense of tactics or self-preservation, and extremely low intelligence, the monster never flees made more sense to me.
However, it follows at a safe distance, so movement still uses Safest > Shortest path rather than Direct like a Zombie.
The only special tactics entry is Reaction, Split.
Adventure book specifies temple/excavation feature as there is no light source within i.e. dark and Dust and Debris are considered difficult terrain.
Darkness creates a heavily obscured area. This means Mugen and Jin who have no darkvision become blinded.
A blinded creature can’t see and automatically fails any ability check that requires sight.
Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature’s attack rolls have disadvantage.
Basic Rule Appendix A: Conditions – Blinded
Fortunately, Mugen has Torch so 20 ft distance of bright light, and addition 20 ft of dim light are available rather than blinded.
Vs. Ochre Jelly
Round 1
The game starts by rolling initiatives.
Couple rule check I had to do here. One is how is dim light environment works.
A given area might be lightly or heavily obscured. In a lightly obscured area, such as dim light, patchy fog, or moderate foliage, creatures have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Basic Rule Chapter 8: Adventuring – Visions and Lights
So Javelin attack does not seem to be affected here.
The other is how is swapping weapon work in 5e, which I somehow ignored in most of my Lost of Phandelver play until now.
Swapping Weapon Rule
You can also interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack.
If you want to interact with a second object, you need to use your action. Some magic items and other special objects always require an action to use, as stated in their descriptions.
[…]
INTERACTING WITH OBJECTS AROUND YOU
Here are a few examples of the sorts of thing you can do in tandem with your movement and action:
– draw or sheathe a sword
– open or close a door
– withdraw a potion from your backpack
– pick up a dropped axe
[…]
Basic Rule Chapter 9: Combat – Other Activities on your turn
Therefore, if done properly it does not cost any action. A PC can attack and sheath the weapon. Then next turn draw a new weapon and attack. Now this means, one can’t swap weapon every turn for free because sheath and attack can’t happen for free action on the same turn. Another restriction is that the character could lose opportunity attack if weapon is sheathed.
This is just another element of 5E rule where very fine detail exists and it provides some fine detail level of game balance.
Understanding this, Mugen approaches to Ochre Jelly and throws his Javelin from 30ft distance.
It was hit with roll of 15 and damaged impressive 9.
Jin follows Mugen and uses his Fire Bolt attack. Attack succeeds with roll of 18 and damage is impressive max 10 on d10 roll.
The jelly can only move 10 ft, or 2 squares and have only 5ft melee attack, so it made just two small steps and finished its turn.
Round 2
Mugen throws second Javelin. Another hit with attack roll of 17 and damage roll of 6. Jin’s Fire Bolt finally misses with attack roll of 6. I feel my batting average here is far better than in the Lost Mine of Phandelver. The Jelly makes couple more steps toward Mugen and Jin.
Round 3
Mugen throws the third Javelin and three hit in row with attack roll of 13 and max damage of 9 again on d6 with +3 modifier. Jin’s Fire Bolt was also a hit with attack roll of 18 and another max damage of 10 on d10. The Jelly is now 1 HP left.
Its essentially a sandbag for these two guys but two have to step back as the Jelly can one shot kill either of them if its pseudopod reaches Mugen or Jin.
Round 4
This combat was indeed a great intro to 5e for those who have never played. Mugen successfully finished the Jelly with perfect 4 out 4 hit. In fact, he finished the last attack roll with critical roll of natural 20. This allows damage dice roll twice then plus modifier. So it was totally unnecessary but thematically the highest damage of 11 on 1 HP left Jelly was inflicted and finished it off.
At this point, Mugen used up 4 Javelin out of 5 he had. This is where perhaps solo role play which to me nothing but more than understanding and interpreting background story kicks in.
Its digestive enzymes dissolve flesh quickly but have no effect on other substances such as bone, wood, and metal.
Monster Manual Ochre Jelly
Given this statement, I assumed all 4 thrown Javelin were retrieved by Mugen. Perhaps there were some comical interaction between Jin and Mugen took place while Mugen is trying to clean the slimy Javelin.
Exploration
Now each secret door is investigated. The map shows where each secret doors are.
Doors. All doors are made of carved stone with stone pins for hinges. Secret doors blend in with the surrounding stonework. Finding a secret door requires a search of the wall and a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check. Dazlyn and Norbus have found one secret door thus far, in area E4. The others have yet to be discovered.
Dragon of Icespire Peak Adventure book
Both Mugen and Jin has +2 perception modifier, but a trick I learned from playing Lost Mine of Phandelver is that character can help another to give advantage on skill check. Searching a secret door at one location together seems to be a reasonable help.
This is part of solo play diluting the experience. Without looking at the map, I can’t make a progression of the story. However, looking at the map I can see which door leads to where though still uncertain what exactly is in each section.
Having said this, this amount of spoiler is perfectly reasonable for me and honestly still better than probably most of adventure board games where it might just have text asking to choose A vs. B option and flip a card and surprise.
So being in E5 zone right now, I’ve decied to check North secret door leading to E7.
Working together Mugen & Jin rolls 18 on the first advantage roll and successfully discovered the secret door. Now I read E7 section.
Trapped behind the secret doors, an ochre jelly lurks in the rubble at the south end of this hall.
It indeed turned out to be a surprise. I didn’t expect another Ochre Jelly here.
Hit and run tactics to make sure Ochre Jelly won’t reach neither were utilized in this narrow path.
Both Mugen and Jin had 1 critical hits. There were total 3 missed attacks, but just like the other in 4 turns the Jelly were slain.
Level up
Despite being a punching bag monster, ochre jelly gives impressive 450 XP. Dividing between the two each gets 225 per ochre jelly. With the second jelly, both Mugen and Jin levels up.
Using pre-made character sheets from D&D official site, there is already level 2 sheet for Mugen.
As far as sidekick goes, the adventure book tells what parameter changes when levels up. With my OCD nature, I ended up making mocked version of sidekick sheet.
The main addition here is a new spell burning hands. Jin’s Hit Points still remains vulnerable but at least now two digits rather than single.
*Again, I have later discovered, DoIP uses milestone system for level up. So the party should have started at level 2 for this quest. They would not have leveled up in middle of the quest.
Hall of Greed
Now heading further East. A secret door from E7 to the secret hallway leading to E11 is searched. Using perception check with help, Mugen rolls 22 on the first roll and successfully finds the door. I’ve decided to just straight into the E11 zone.
To reach this room, the characters must clear away the rubble that seals it off, which takes a single character 40 hours. Multiple characters working together can reduce the time proportionately.
After reading this paragraph in E11 section, I ponder a bit. With the Dwarves help, I think it will be 40/4 = 10 hours. I think whatever there is, it seems worth it. So I’ve decided to proceed with it.
Once entering the room, the adventure said
An alcove in the south wall holds the rubble of a shattered statue. An alcove to the north holds a statue of a dwarf with horns, which stares greedily at a glowing green gem in its hands.
Here I had again wished, there was just one extra line or perhaps flag for solo player. Such as “Do you want to take the green gem?”
Unfortunately, there is nothing like that. The very next sentence mentioned if you take the gem, the statue explodes. So it is certainly a spoiler here.
Now based on the personality of character, I figured Mugen will just take it even if it looked risky while Jin may have tried to convince Mugen be more careful. But in the end Mugen ignores Jin’s advice, and just take the gem.
Any creature within 10 feet of the exploding statue must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 22 (4d10) piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Despite Mugen is the one taking it, and even having -1 modifier on the dexterity saving throw, he got lucky and rolled 12. So took only 11 damage and survived. While more cautious Jin despite with +1 modifier on the saving throw rolled 19 and took full 22 damage and became unconscious.
Here I could use Potion of healing and bring Jin right back up. Alternatively, stablize and roll d4 to determine the time for Jin to regain consciousness, which restores his health back to 1 at that point.
Either way, to get back to full health, Mugen and Jin need either short or long rest. But after spending 10 hours of digging, I assume its time for long rest anyways.
So I’ve decided to take the second route. The d4 roll was 4. So it took Jin full 4 hours to regain consciousness. Mugen waited Jin’s regaining consciousness, and two takes long rest from that point.
After the long rest, Mugen and Jin goes around the rest of areas to see if there is any treasure.
First, they check E10 and there was 50gp worth treasure.
Next E9. There was no valuable nor monster. Moving into E8 required another secret door perception check. With roll of 16, another success.
In E8, there again was nothing. Lastly, E6 area was checked with first successful secret door identification after second try. Again nothing of any value.
Now whole area were interrogated, and message were delivered to Dwarves, Mugen and Jin are ready to go back.
Orc Attack
Orcs arrive at area E1 as the characters conclude their business with the dwarves. The number of orcs is equal to the number of characters in the party, including sidekicks.
Orc Monster AI creation is fairly simple given its a primarily melee combatant.
If I were to literally follow what’s in the adventure book and not being creative, 2 on 2 combat starts immediately. However, I believe this is where tabletop RPG game gets interesting when compared to typical adventure board games.
Encountering monsters does not always equates to combat in D&D 5E. The power of various character stats and player and DM imagination opens up social interaction, non-combat way to deal with monsters. This aspect of game is perhaps the most affected by DM-less mode play, but I still believe the experience is and can be richer than any other adventure board games.
In this particular case, as I create Monster AI for orc, Monsters Know book/website spent majority of its paragraphs describe social interaction, parley negotiation with orcs. This is not in the official guide, Monsters Manual. In fact, the one of baby Monsters Manual series says,
Don’t negotiate. Orcs think of truces as foolish words and will break them at the first opportunity.
Zub, Jim; King, Stacy; Wheeler, Andrew; Official Dungeons & Dragons Licensed. Beasts & Behemoths (Dungeons & Dragons) (Dungeons & Dragons Young Adventurer’s Guides) (p.35). Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed. Kindle Edition.
However, orc does have intimidation skill +2. Therefore, I thought the complete Monster AI needs to incorporate at the least this element.
So I ended up creating 2 versions of social Interaction part of Monster AI for Orc. One is essentially full translation of Monsters Know. The other, more plain form only incorporates intimidation interaction part of Monsters Know and adjusted accordingly to fit in Monster AI.
Since I’ve created the Monster AI Social Interaction part, I’ve decided to use it. Specifically, I used MK version.
Driven from their territory by Cryovain, the orcs are looking for a new lair and fight to the death.
It sounds like Orcs have a specific purpose here, so persuasion check will require DC 20. I didn’t think helping persuasion makes thematically sense though that could have negated disadvantage. Since Mugen has higher modifier for persuasion, he gave a try. But with disadvantage, he rolled 12.
Now there is only one more negotiation attempt. At this point, the only possible option is deception. That was even worse attempt with a roll of 5. Expectedly, 2 on 2 combat begins.
Vs. Orcs
Mugen throws a Javelin to Orc. With attack roll of 11 against Orc’s armor class of 13, this was a miss. Now two Orcs charges to the Mugen. Both misses their attack with one being natural 1 i.e. a wild miss.
Now its Jin’s turn. I wanted to use the brand new spell he acquired by leveling up, but realized current position will result in area of effect including Mugen.
So Fire bolt was casted instead. It was a hit with attack roll of 16 and inflicted 6 damage to one of orcs.
Round 2
With a new skill Mugen acquired, Action Surge, he even has more options. I could attack once, and Diengage and move away to create a space for Jin’s following turn Area of Effect spell cast. Alternatively, I could attack twice a single orc for the potential slain of one this turn.
First, I’ve decided to take one attack. This was a hit with attack roll of 20 and damage of 4. This took down the Orc’s health to 5 remaining. At this point, Mugen decided to use his action surge for second long sword attack. This was also a hit with attack roll of 24 and damage of 6!
One orc has been eliminated. Orcs tries to retaliate Mugen for his buddy, but Mugen was able to sway the attack with the Orc rolling only 13 for its attack roll. Jin reposition and cast fire bolt, but it failed to reach Orc with attack roll of 8.
Round 3
I am really impressed by the roll of Mugen so far. He rolled 21 for attack, and inflicted truly impressive 11 damages. The orc is now seriously injured with just one single swing by Mugen.
This time the Orc hit back Mugen with attack roll of 21, but merely 4 damages, not even enough to make Mugen consider moderately wounded.
Now will Jin be able to finish the Orc?
The last fire bolt hit Orc (attack roll 15) and inflicted 7 damages.
Three turns, just a single damage on Mugen. Quite an easy combat for them. Each orcs gave 100 XPs.
Now two goes back to Phandalin and gets 50gp for the reward and up for another quest.
Conclusion
Overall, this adventure seems much more solo friendly than the Lost Mine of Phandelver. Especially as a new player, it is really nice to be able to start with just a single level 1 character rather than trying to adjust the difficultly level and start with level 3 characters in Lost mine of Phandelver. This is only possible with the side kick system.
So far the adventure is really a quest driven with fairly short narratives in each parts. This can be another pros for new 5E players especially adventure board gamer. One can focus more on game play than reading narratives as there are many rules to learn in 5E.
The real sales point of this adventure is though, the value. Physical with dice and digital material together along with 50% discount for digital version of player’s handbook is just an unbeatable value. I am certain to continue playing more myself.
Reference
For adventure,
For Monster AI creation,
- https://www.themonstersknow.com
- Monsters & Creatures (Dungeons & Dragons): A Young Adventurer’s Guide
- Monster Manual
For arts,
For rules,