The D&D Essentials Kit is a brand-new boxed set for new D&D players—sort of like a premium starter set. In addition to an adventure that spans levels 1–6 titled Dragon of Icespire Peak, it also includes a poster map of the northern Sword Coast, a sturdily bound rules booklet, and a set of cards for magic items, sidekicks, status conditions, and quests found within the adventure. Not to mention a set of dice and a slim DM screen that, while not quite as sturdy as the standalone “Dungeon Master’s Screen Reincarnated,” is still useful for new DMs.
Oh, and it also contains a code that gets you the Dragon of Icespire Peak adventure free on D&D Beyond, as well as a coupon for 50% off the Player’s Handbook on D&D Beyond. What can we say, we’re proud to have our name on a box set. The adventure is fantastic—designed by Chris Perkins and Richard Baker, who wrote not just Lost Mines of Phandelver, but many, many other D&D adventures over the years, like The Forge of Fury. It’s “quest board” gives players the ability to acquire sidequests in a somewhat video-gamey but highly player-motivated fashion. It feels fun and self-directed, and it culminates in a tremendously satisfying dragon fight.
Sidekicks and Solo Campaign Play
However, this adventure contains a new ruleset that may be of interest even to veteran D&D players: one-on-one adventuring. People have been clamoring for one-on-one D&D adventures—that is, an adventure played with one Dungeon Master and one player character—for a very long time. It’s a fun way for D&D-loving couples to bond; just ask Todd Kenreck, our beloved video host and creative manager, and his wife Meagan. It’s also great for people who have only one or two D&D-playing friends at their school or job, but still want to play a D&D campaign anyway.
The Essentials Kit accomplishes this style of play by granting the main character a host of NPC sidekicks to round out their party. It ends up making a single-player game of D&D a lot like the D&D computer RPGs of the 90s, like Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Planescape: Torment. Given that Baldur’s Gate III was just announced, I’d say that comparison is pretty apt! There are three types of sidekick known as the expert, the spellcaster, and the warrior. The spellcaster can choose between a healer or mage specialization, and the warrior can choose between an attacker or defender specialization. The sidekick rules presented in this adventure give a leveling progression for the sidekicks to advance up to 6th level—the same level that the main character will be at the end of Dragon of Icespire Peak.
Each sidekick type is represented by a single stat block, and leveling instructions are provided for each sidekick. While the sidekicks are based off of classes like cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard, they aren’t quite as skilled as their player character counterparts. For example, warrior sidekicks gain the Extra Attack feature at 6th level, while fighters gain it at 5th level. Because of this, the main character will always shine a little bit brighter than the sidekicks. I like this; it keeps the whole party leveling at an even rate while keeping sidekicks from overshadowing the main cast.
Overall, these sidekick rules are fun. They remind me of the D&D computer RPGs, and of more recent tactical RPGs like Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics. It lets my character be a hero and a tactician simultaneously, directing units with personality around the battlefield to support my own personal strategies. The charming character portraits on the sidekick cards provided in the Essentials Kit boxed set really sell this feeling by making the sidekicks feel more like authentic characters than an assortment of stats—being able to hand them out as cards with those portraits displayed front-and-center helps keep their “realness” in focus at all times.
Even more, these sidekick rules are eminently usable in games that aren’t one-on-one, too! A game with only two or three players could let the characters find a sidekick that rounds out their party. Likewise, an enterprising DM could even use sidekicks in games in which the characters acquire an ally or hire a mercenary that travels and gains levels with the party for some time.
Alternative One-on-One Guidelines
With all that said, you may not feel satisfied with this answer to the question of “how do I play a solo D&D campaign?” You may not want to tactically command a bunch of NPC sidekicks around. You may just want to go on a heroic adventure on your own, like in the tales of Perseus or Theseus from Greek mythology, or like video game heroes like Link (The Legend of Zelda), Kassandra (Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey), or the player character of The Elder Scrolls games like Morrowind or Skyrim.
If you’re a DM trying to run a one-on-one game of D&D without involving sidekick NPCs, consider how significantly the game changes when there’s no longer a party of adventurers to help each other. The weaknesses of any particular class become significantly more pronounced; a fighter’s inability to deal area-of-effect damage like a sorcerer or wizard can be a big problem in fights with lots of minions; a rogue’s inability to tank damage like a barbarian becomes a problem in forced combat scenarios; a wizard’s inability to disarm traps or open doors stealthily like a rogue makes it hard to explore ancient ruins—and the list goes on.
Try to compensate by these weaknesses by focusing on challenging your hero’s strengths—while throwing in a few obstacles that gently challenge their weaknesses. In combat, consider using optional rules such as Healing Surges, Climbing onto Bigger Creatures, and Cleaving through Creatures, to give your campaign a more heroic feeling. This will help elevate your sole hero’s actions and, in the case of Healing Surges, give them a better chance of survival in case the dice go awry.
Finally, as a DM running a one-on-one game, be sure you keep a close eye on the encounter building math. Encounters that will challenge a party of four will wipe the floor with a single hero, so don’t go too big too fast, especially if you’re used to “eyeballing” encounter difficulty. Pay attention to the math until you’ve developed your instinct for creating appropriate single-player challenges, using either the encounter-building tables in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, or the D&D Beyond Encounter Builder.
Are you running Dragon of Icespire Peak? Are you running it solo? Let us know what you think of it in the comments!
James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, the DM of Worlds Apart, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his partner Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.
On the home screen of D&D Beyond, click on the "Sources" button. From there, select "Dragon of Icespire Peak". It then takes you to a summary/menu of the whole adventure. One of the first options is the "Running the Adventure" option. The 3rd part is called "First Session: Character Creation".
The other solution is to look at the "Sidekicks" bar, which gives details on their stat blocks, and relative abilities.
(I'm not entirely sure if this is what you were looking for, but I hope it helps anyway)
I meant for the character creation process directly in D&D Beyond, not in the adventure. It has options that are not free, such as Eldritch Knights and Valor Bards, and background like Entertainer. None of that was unlocked. There is also a lot of missing stuff in the adventure, like the sidekicks artwork and text that I wish was digitally there so I could copy and paste it to my players.
Any missing content from Dragon of Icespire Peak is actually from the Essentials Kit itself. We're only able to offer you content directly from the adventure right now.
Additionally, the boxed set has a coupon for 50% off the Player's Handbook, not a free digital copy of that book. You'll still have to input that coupon code for the Player's Handbook and purchase it from the Marketplace.
Will we see blank sidekick character sheets in the future for download with some of the pre generated stats maybe like a 5x8 format.
Yes the three opening quests seem like certain death to a 1st level character and sidekick, I found that odd.
I agree. I'm a little confused about that as well.
I really like the idea of lower-size groups.. and running duets is great! Finding even 3 people to play can be a pain sometimes.
Suggestion (for dndb): Add a section to each "Encounter of the Week" that outlines how a DM would/could change the encounter to fit "1 on 1" or "1 on 2" games.
Another (for wotc): Update LMOP - streamline it after years of play testing - and while you're at it throw in some "1 on 1" bonus content in there. :)
As for running Essentials one on one. We did the opening scenario with the Dwarf archaeologists. Single player, 1st level half orc paladin, with a spell caster side kick. Two Ochre Jelly, CR 2, really? This is supposed to encourage new players just getting started?
The instructions are literally a tiny blurb in the grand scheme of things its not worth a purchase until they flesh it out more.
I dont see the point in physically releasing this kit September 3rd when Summer is over. I wished to get it for my son so we can play while he is on summer vacation. Target was out of them immediately so there is no way to purchase it currently. Poor planning on WOTC part, in my opinion. At the very least, make them available digitally on D&D Beyond for the summer so we can take a look at and use the one player rules.
There really aren't any "one player rules" or "small party rules" in the Essentials kit. There is a single paragraph that suggests that small groups can use Sidekicks to beef up their party size. There are a few pre-generated sidekick stat blocks to choose from included in the book.
You can use the basic rules included here on D&D Beyond to create characters and adventures of your own, and you can use the Sidekicks Unearthed Arcana to create your own Sidekicks. The Sidekicks Unearthed Arcana is available from WotC as a free download.
https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/sidekicks
This would also be relevant to my interests.
Apologies if this has been asked already, but how can we get this outside the US? I would like to get the physical product, but Target in Australia isn't stocking it. Are there plans to ship it to gaming stores after the 3rd of September?
"As for running Essentials one on one. We did the opening scenario with the Dwarf archaeologists. Single player, 1st level half orc paladin, with a spell caster side kick. Two Ochre Jelly, CR 2, really? This is supposed to encourage new players just getting started? "
100% This. Overall, the set is great. But when it comes to the single player part, the beginning quests are ridiculously hard for a party of one player and one sidekick. In one of them, there is a manticore that gets three attacks each turn, while it has 68 HP. In the book, it says that the players can negotiate with the manticore, but that should be their choice, not something they have to do because they will literally not have any chance in hell of defeating it.
Excellent. I am aware of that UA. Thanks for the info. The seems to be getting press and pub for these supposed rules that now youre telling me are a single paragraph. Huh.
Anyways, thanks for the info. I feel better about it now and will employ the sidekick UA rules. Have a good summer, Aldero.
These balance issues are what happens when you try to balance between a newbie player with 1 character and a sidekick, and a party of 6 characters.
With the adventure be on DnDBeyond?
Yes. It's available right now on D&D Beyond if you purchase the Essentials Kit at Target. There is a code included in the kit to unlock the content here on D&D beyond for free. It will be available for purchase on D&D Beyond September 3rd.
imo, all the current books and adventures should have a code to get those books and adventures on dndbeyond...
Licensing to target is lame. None of the stores near me preordered extra so the shelves are bare with no reorders on the book. While the gaming stores who support the community would be moving cases for you by now.
So the players are stuck waiting wo access to the new tool extensions.