Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Adventures Ranked
/
Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition has released many pre written adventures covering everything from deep dungeon delves to political intrigue. From fighting demons and devils to riding dinosaurs. There is no shortage of what these adventures cover. Today we will be ranking each of the adventures for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.
As of right now there are 16 standalone adventures for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. This includes the two adventures from the starter sets.
There are other books in the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition lineup that will not be covered in this list. These books are source books and setting books. Examples of these books are The Players Handbook or Explorers Guide to Ebberon.
Sure some of the setting books have adventures in them, but they do not meet the standalone requirement we have in place here. So let’s get started.
16. Hoard of the Dragon Queen
This book was among the first released for 5th Edition. Hoard of the Dragon Queen is the first installment of the Tyranny of Dragons series. Currently this can be purchased as a single piece with The Rise of Tiamat.
This book feels like a classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure, but it also feels like the edition was still getting used to it’s new walking legs with some of these early entries.
There are large swaths of this book that are barren adventuring back and forth from one area to another and can feel almost fetch quest like.
If you have a ground with a dungeon master that is able to better fill in this travelling it might be helpful.
That being said if there are positives to say about this book, it travels the sword coast pretty effectively so if there are additional things to do between locations this campaign would improve.
You can actually take a look at our full review of Hoard of the Dragon Queen here for more information.
At the end of the day, there are many adventure options that you can select over this one that players and the dungeon master will get more mileage out of.
15. The Rise of Tiamat
Rise of Tiamat is the second installation to the Tyranny of Dragons series in the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition early series. This adventure continues the story of Hoard of the Dragon Queen.
The biggest weakness for this story is the fact that though it may not require the first book in order to play, I feel that it’s necessary to do.
The overall feel of this module is more well done with higher stakes and a pretty cool overall theme that players and the dungeon master will enjoy together.
Before their are other adventures that also involve dragons that can be purchased even from early in the Dungeons & Dragons release cycle, Rise of Tiamat just doesn’t have a reason to reach higher on the list.
14. Princes of the Apocalypse
Princes of the Apocalypse to me promised so much, it was a step out of the direction that Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat and did feel unique.
The story is a a little wider than any new player to Dungeons & Dragons might expect as being involved with the Temple of Elemental Evil series.
The Dungeon crawling in this campaign is not the greatest which was disappointing since the Temple of Elemental Evil has been grounded in previous editions to Dungeons and Dragons.
That being said, if you are looking for an end of the world, hunting down cults and fights than this campaign book might just still fit for you.
I personally feel that there are better options out there now days for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition that you will find further up in the list.
You can find our full review of Princes of the Apocalypse here.
13. Baldur’s Gate Descent Into Avernus
Baldur’s Gate Decent into Avernus has been an adventure module that has been slowly tumbling down the best published adventures list.
There are a lot of cool things about this adventure. From riding around in the Mad Max style vehicles called war machines, to conversing with demons.
But I run into several issues with this adventure. The biggest one is that my players just don’t care to play this one and I can understand why. When we first heard that the theme was going to take us to Baldur’s Gate, I and may people were excited. Unfortunately, this title on the adventure is a misnomer as next to no time is actually spent there.
I would recommend the Waterdeep Dragon Heist adventure if you were looking for a city adventure.
If your player ground wanted to explore the 9 hells of Dungeons & Dragons, this book might still just be the right fit for you.
If you want to know more about Baldur’s Gate Descent Into Avernus, check out our full review on it here!
12. Out of the Abyss
I had high hopes for an adventure through the Underdark. This adventure feels like an escape from horror and certain doom but makes a turn towards the end where it turns into a strange adventure involving demons.
This campaign setting is lengthy and will take characters from level 1 to 15. So get ready to spend plenty.
This book contains a lot of stats for creatures of the Underdark and the demon lords that are met during the course of the campaign.
The campaign has a madness gimmick that is actually kind of interesting. As players become more insane, they begin to have negative consequences happen to their character.
This campaign requires someone with some experience to run the game. It can be pretty complicated and it takes a lot to keep track of when it comes to tracking NPC characters and knowing where in the Underdark the players actually are.
The beginning of the game is also really difficult for early level or new players to the game. It’s for those reasons that this book is ranked down here. It' just is not accessible for many players of the game and other survival games later on achieve this better.
That being said, for players that are very experienced in the game, I would not be surprised if this would rank higher.
11. Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage
Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage released after the “prequel” Waterdeep Dragon Heist. Though it does not require the previous adventure to complete, this adventure benefits from having it preceeding this one.
There are many efforts to make this mega dungeon have more to it than just a massive dungeon crawl that will take many groups months to complete. There are attempts at role playing in this adventure that try to break this up.
I would say though that this is a fantastic adventure for dungeon crawling groups.
One thing that puts this adventure in a pickle though is that players that come from the Dragon heist adventure are going to experience a significantly different feel to the campaign, almost jarringly so, and if this becomes the new adventure, the players need to enjoy it because it will go on over 20+ floors.
You can check out our full review on Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage here.
10. Ghosts of Saltmarsh
The first Adventure Module to appear in the list that is a series of adventures. Ghosts of Saltmarsh loosely are attached each other but are a series of sea fairing adventures that take place in world of Greyhawk.
Personally, I feel that the other entries that contain several adventures are just more well executed and contain more useful areas and dungeons that can be thrown into any campaign pre written or not.
See the problem with the adventures in this book is they are pretty grounded to the Saltmarsh setting and some of the adventures are actually really short as well and might not be worth time to pull out and use in other campaigns. This is something both Candlekeep Mysteries and Tales From the Yawning Portal just do better.
But if you are looking for some seafaring mechanic rules and new items and monsters that fit that theme this book may have more use.
It’s just to bad that this adventure took the path a more setting book than an adventure module.
9. Dragon of Icespire Peak
The more recent starter set under the name D&D Essentials kit came with the Dragon of Icespire Peak adventure. This adventure will spark memory of the Lost Mine of Phandelver.
This adventure though sharing similarities does not execute at the same level of Lost Mines so if you had to pick one set over the other I would recommend the later. Unlike the previous starter set, this adventure takes a little more work to get the adventure to piece together with the Dungeon Master.
The story itself does not feel as memorable as Lost Mine did and for that reason if one had to be picked over the other, I would Pick Lost Mines of Phandelver ever time.
But with that being said, this campaign book is still a great time and if this is what someone offered to run for me in a group I would not hesitate in starting it.
There are still good memories and well balanced combat encounters in this campaign setting. The theme is not earth shattering which is rather refreshing from many of the other campaign settings out in the catalog right now.
But most importantly, the ending feels fulfilling and worth my time. The overall campaign is short but a good introduction to the game for new players and new Dungeon Masters alike.
8. Tales From the Yawning Portal
Tales From the Yawning Portal until recently was my favorite book that contained multiple adventures. This book contains a bunch of classic adventures spanning multiple editions of Dungeons & Dragons.
Some of these adventures are White Plume Mountain, Sunless Citadel, and even Tomb of Horrors. I thought it was an amazing idea for Wizards of the Coast to have a way for players to play these fantastic classic adventures in the newest edition of the game.
These dungeons are also really easy to place into a non prewritten campaign despite being loosely connected to the Yawning Portal Inn in Waterdeep.
If you are looking for a series of dungeons to add to your collection, I can whole heartedly recommend Tales from the Yawning Portal.
You can find our review on Tales From the Yawning Portal here.
7. Candlekeep Mysteries
Candlekeep Mysteries is the 3rd release of an adventure anthology book in the Dungeons 5th Edition catalog. This book contains a whopping 17 adventures.
Sure some of them are really short, but if you are looking for a plug and play book for a campaign, this is the one to get.
If players are looking for a central theme in this campaign setting, you will not find it here.
What I really like about this adventure book is that it truly feels like buying one book that has 17 unique feeling adventures in it. If that is what you are looking for than there is no better book in the Dungeons & Dragons catalog that will fit than this one.
Some of the stand out adventures are Candlekeep Deconstruction where a group wants to launch the mansion into space or the Mazfroth’s Mighty Digressions which actually has the players going to Baldur’s Gate. Crazy!
6. Icewind Dale: rime of the Frostmaiden
One of the more recent adventures added to the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition game.
It takes place in the area of the Sword Coast called Icewind Dale and players will start in one of the towns that are a part of the 10 towns of the area.
The intro to this campaign settings is a little rocky, but overall the campaign explodes into some really cool mystery solving of the Frostmaiden.
The book offers a lot of really good things for piecing together a separate campaign for dungeon masters. especially since the opening of the book feels relatively detached from the actual story of the campaign.
But the survival horror that the game creates is what makes it unique. It does not take itself to seriously which I felt was both important and refreshing keeping the tone dark and worrisome while still landing a couple laughs.
If you are looking for a cool northern survival campaign, nothing fits better so far than this one.
5. Storm King’s Thunder
Storm King’s Thunder was a fantastic adventure where the stakes felt high, the world travelling is well done and the dungeons are challenging.
One thing that I really enjoyed about this campaign setting as a dungeon master was the split of story to 3 different locations. This adds some re-playability to the game.
One of these locations actually is Bryn Shandar which is located in Icewind Dale, a location and whole new campaign adventure module released years later.
I feel that this campaign setting book excels at handling the traveling up and down the swords coast better than what was seen with the Hoard of the Dragon Queen module.
Being a campaign that involves giants, this campaign is also really fun if you have miniatures to back up the combat settings.
I highly recommend this campaign to any group that is looking for a well done world traveling campaign that also want to deal with political discourse and battles with giants.
You can check out our full review of Storm King’s Thunder here!
4. Lost Mine of Phandelver
The very first campaign setting that was released for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.
Lost Mine of Phandelver when someone asks what Dungeons & Dragons is exemplifies the game. This adventure is everything Dungeons & Dragons should feel like and is a perfect introduction to the game.
There is a mix of real challenge but also a good story with this campaign that came with the starter set for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.
Players are hired to protect a caravan but when trying to find the person that hired the group are lead into caverns and dungeons alike.
The game is very easy to run and will keep the attention of the players. But what makes this such a high ranked campaign is that it can be set in any campaign setting.
The events and locations are memorable and this campaign fits in super easily with most other campaign books that have been released for 5th Edition to this day.
So don’t knock this campaign adventure just becomes it comes in a box for a starter set. Give this game a play through and be happy that it comes with all the other goodies that a starting set comes with.
3. Tomb of Annihilation
What a whacky adventure. Tomb of Annihilation is an adventure that really does what it wants. This adventure includes Dinosaurs which initially turned me off from this setting.
But as the years went on, I heard more and more good things about this adventure and finally bit the bullet and played through it.
And it was awesome! I was not expecting to enjoy this campaign setting so much and perhaps my experience will be different from others, but the jungle adventure leading into the dungeon at the end made each session feel unique and new.
There was constant uncertainty of what has yet to be explored of the jungle of Chult.
One feature that I felt was really cool was the timeframe that was put in place with the The Death curse which will cause characters to lose 1 HP per day, so that means that there is a time limit in place to getting to the end game.
Though that feature does not need to be used, it’s pretty unique to this book.
You can check out our full review of Tomb of Annihilation here.
2. Waterdeep: Dragon Heist
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is a fantastic adventure that oozes the feel of what a Dungeons & Dragons game should feel like. With awesome and deep character factions and guild in the city that is Waterdeep.
Unlike other books that decide to place a city name on the cover like Baldur’s Gate Decent into Avernus, this book takes place solely in the city of Waterdeep as players hunt for treasure and align with higher ups in the city.
This campaign offers great rewards for the low level starting position of players while also having rich role playing opportunities through the entire campaign.
Though the role playing aspect shines in this adventure, the combat is also really well done. A group that want’s to fight their way through everything will have a challenge on their hands.
There is re-playability with this setting as well as the split in this book is based on the season that the campaign is taking place in leading to new locations based on what time of year the DM has picked the events to occur during.
Finally, with other books such as Waterdeep Dungeon of the Mad Mage as well as Tales From the Yawning Portal, this book makes those two feel much more grounded to the area that Dungeons & Dragons is exploring.
This book deserves to be played with your group! You can find our full review of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist here.
1. Curse of Strahd
Curse of Strahd to this day remains my favorite adventure for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. This expansive off the rails adventure is thick with theme and feels different from all the other campaign settings and themes released.
There are so many things to do including a fantastic Death House intro that has proven to be a nice bonus to the book. The campaign has been so successful that it received a reprint with the Curse of Strahd Revamped version that tweaked and adjusted parts of the book while also coming with extra goodies.
The realm of Barovia itself is a gothic horror themed town that players will first arrive by that has a cool view of the massive castle Ravenloft.
The climax of the campaign takes place in a massive dungeon like crawl of Ravenloft itself that is welcomed after a large portion of the campaign being more out in the open or on the road through the misty forests.
Players and and dungeon masters alike will have a blast with this campaign and deserves to be in any dungeon masters collection.
You can find our full review on the Curse of Strahd adventure module here.
Conclusion
There are many adventure modules in the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition catalog that will cover just about any play style you can think of and is being added to at an increasing frequency every year.
We hope that you found this list both entertaining and informative when looking for your next Dungeons & Dragons adventure. Be sure to dig into our full scale reviews of each of these modules as we continue to release them! If there is other Dungeons & Dragons content you want to see us go over comment below and let us know.
