Fairly new to dnd but loving every second. Me and my friends play at the moment over Skype. Me as the dm and my 3 friends n wife as the adventurers. We have recently finished the starter set. I am just looking for an idea of where to start next. They all want to create their own charecters and start a new story. I have heard the esentials kit is a good place to start for newer players after the starter set would you agree?
The Essentials Kit's story line nicely picks up where the Starter Kit left off, so you can stick with the old characters if you wish. You can also create new characters and have the old party as NPCs to help the new characters too.
It’s as good a place to start as the Starter Kit is. Takes place in the same town. So yes you can build canon lore from your Starter Set run. It starts at level 1 adventures, so it’d take fresh characters that can be built to level 6 by the end. However, there are follow up adventures in the Essentials Kit here on DnDB that will take the characters to level 12. By the time you get through that, you should be comfortable enough to make it up as you go to keep progressing the characters as far as you want, until you’re ready to start some new adventure with another new batch of characters.
Thanks for your reply. So is the idea everytime you start a new adventure or a new book you make new charecters? You don't stick with the same ones and get them to level 20 or something? Also would you be able to point me in the direction of the names of the extras for the esentials kit? Thanks for your advice.
It depends on the adventure. Some are written to begin at higher levels. With those, you just bring older characters into the new story. If you look at Tales from the Yawning Portal, that book has different adventures designed for every level of play. Some, like Waterdeep Dragon Heist are written to make fresh characters and enjoy growing them throughout the story. Apparently this is a fairly new mechanic inherent to 5e, that characters gain levels so fast. A product of our times that they power up quickly like video game characters, and so are more disposable because growing another one to that level isn’t so hard. In older editions, having a character survive to level 20 was such an achievement over years of investment that it was a status symbol to have a 20th level character.
Thanks for your reply. So is the idea everytime you start a new adventure or a new book you make new charecters? You don't stick with the same ones and get them to level 20 or something? Also would you be able to point me in the direction of the names of the extras for the esentials kit? Thanks for your advice.
Depends. Some adventures go together more smoothly than others like a big campaign, so it makes more sense to stick with the same characters (e.g.: Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat). Other adventures have completely separate storylines so it makes more sense to make new characters.
That being said, it is not hard rule. On one extreme end, some groups like to stick with the same characters and use them through all or most of the adventures. At the other end, some groups go through multiple new characters per adventure due to frequent deaths or they just simply want to play with something new.
As someone who is now running the essentials kit campaign [dragon of icespire peak], i would absolutely recommend it. Its a good step up from the lost mines of phandelver. Also, should your players enjoy the essentials kit campaign enough they wish it was longer well there wish has been granted. Inside the box is included a code for use on DnD Beyond which will give you a 3 book campaign trilogy called beyond icespire peak. And its completely free as long as you have the code.
Thanks for your reply. So is the idea everytime you start a new adventure or a new book you make new charecters? You don't stick with the same ones and get them to level 20 or something? Also would you be able to point me in the direction of the names of the extras for the esentials kit? Thanks for your advice.
It depends on the adventure. Some are written to begin at higher levels. With those, you just bring older characters into the new story. If you look at Tales from the Yawning Portal, that book has different adventures designed for every level of play. Some, like Waterdeep Dragon Heist are written to make fresh characters and enjoy growing them throughout the story. Apparently this is a fairly new mechanic inherent to 5e, that characters gain levels so fast. A product of our times that they power up quickly like video game characters, and so are more disposable because growing another one to that level isn’t so hard. In older editions, having a character survive to level 20 was such an achievement over years of investment that it was a status symbol to have a 20th level character.
Thanks for your reply. So is the idea everytime you start a new adventure or a new book you make new charecters? You don't stick with the same ones and get them to level 20 or something? Also would you be able to point me in the direction of the names of the extras for the esentials kit? Thanks for your advice.
Depends. Some adventures go together more smoothly than others like a big campaign, so it makes more sense to stick with the same characters (e.g.: Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat). Other adventures have completely separate storylines so it makes more sense to make new characters.
That being said, it is not hard rule. On one extreme end, some groups like to stick with the same characters and use them through all or most of the adventures. At the other end, some groups go through multiple new characters per adventure due to frequent deaths or they just simply want to play with something new.
Yep, as they said, it really depends on the adventures and how they're connected.
For instance, Dragon Heist starts at level 1, you'd be bored being level 12 in a level 1 campaign without the DM bumping up the monsters and npcs to bring more of a challenge. But Dragon Heist goes from level 1 to level 5 and leads into Dungeon of the Mad Mage, which goes from level 5 to level 20, so it makes sense to stick with the same characters and party.
Then again, starting a new character with a fresh take and new abilities is always fun.
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Hi guys
Fairly new to dnd but loving every second. Me and my friends play at the moment over Skype. Me as the dm and my 3 friends n wife as the adventurers. We have recently finished the starter set. I am just looking for an idea of where to start next. They all want to create their own charecters and start a new story. I have heard the esentials kit is a good place to start for newer players after the starter set would you agree?
The Essentials Kit's story line nicely picks up where the Starter Kit left off, so you can stick with the old characters if you wish. You can also create new characters and have the old party as NPCs to help the new characters too.
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It’s as good a place to start as the Starter Kit is. Takes place in the same town. So yes you can build canon lore from your Starter Set run. It starts at level 1 adventures, so it’d take fresh characters that can be built to level 6 by the end. However, there are follow up adventures in the Essentials Kit here on DnDB that will take the characters to level 12. By the time you get through that, you should be comfortable enough to make it up as you go to keep progressing the characters as far as you want, until you’re ready to start some new adventure with another new batch of characters.
Thanks for your reply. So is the idea everytime you start a new adventure or a new book you make new charecters? You don't stick with the same ones and get them to level 20 or something? Also would you be able to point me in the direction of the names of the extras for the esentials kit? Thanks for your advice.
OK fantastic thanks very much. The people I play with are looking forward to making new charecters so I may just have them as npcs in the town.
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It depends on the adventure. Some are written to begin at higher levels. With those, you just bring older characters into the new story. If you look at Tales from the Yawning Portal, that book has different adventures designed for every level of play. Some, like Waterdeep Dragon Heist are written to make fresh characters and enjoy growing them throughout the story. Apparently this is a fairly new mechanic inherent to 5e, that characters gain levels so fast. A product of our times that they power up quickly like video game characters, and so are more disposable because growing another one to that level isn’t so hard. In older editions, having a character survive to level 20 was such an achievement over years of investment that it was a status symbol to have a 20th level character.
There are also a whole load of adventures freely available currently that are worth checking out:
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Depends. Some adventures go together more smoothly than others like a big campaign, so it makes more sense to stick with the same characters (e.g.: Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat). Other adventures have completely separate storylines so it makes more sense to make new characters.
That being said, it is not hard rule. On one extreme end, some groups like to stick with the same characters and use them through all or most of the adventures. At the other end, some groups go through multiple new characters per adventure due to frequent deaths or they just simply want to play with something new.
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/licenses >
Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
As someone who is now running the essentials kit campaign [dragon of icespire peak], i would absolutely recommend it. Its a good step up from the lost mines of phandelver. Also, should your players enjoy the essentials kit campaign enough they wish it was longer well there wish has been granted. Inside the box is included a code for use on DnD Beyond which will give you a 3 book campaign trilogy called beyond icespire peak. And its completely free as long as you have the code.
Yep, as they said, it really depends on the adventures and how they're connected.
For instance, Dragon Heist starts at level 1, you'd be bored being level 12 in a level 1 campaign without the DM bumping up the monsters and npcs to bring more of a challenge. But Dragon Heist goes from level 1 to level 5 and leads into Dungeon of the Mad Mage, which goes from level 5 to level 20, so it makes sense to stick with the same characters and party.
Then again, starting a new character with a fresh take and new abilities is always fun.