[5E] What adventure next?

[Callum]

The group I'm running through Lost Mine of Phandelver will shortly finish it, and I'm wondering what to prepare for them next. I've asked them for feedback, and the only comments I've had are that one player likes puzzles, and story-lines that aren't predictable, while another would like anything that would lead to her bard writing a legendary song about it! Bearing that in mind, what adventure would you recommend for my 5th-level PCs?

[Zacchaeus]

Tomb of Annihilation. Curse of Strahd, Storm Kings Thunder would be my picks.

[Trenloe]

Stork Kings Thunder...
One of my favourites.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e8/a5/e2/e8a5e2c5aad6facbce4e32a9fb0353af.jpg

[Zacchaeus]

One of my favourites.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e8/a5/e2/e8a5e2c5aad6facbce4e32a9fb0353af.jpg


Oh, FFS! :)

And LOL

[dmbrown]

That is what I did and it worked well. There is an example in Storm Kings Thunder how you can get the characters from Phandalin to Triboar by delivering something for Linene Graywind from the Lionsheild. Hopefully none of my players read this forum, so what I did is combine Lost Mines of Phandalin, Storm Kings Thunder and Rise of Tiamat into one big campaign. My group is currently towards the end of the Storm Kings Thunder and the way that I've been running it is the ancient blue dragon Iymrith has been manipulating the Giants, breaking the Ordning which has caused the Giants to wreak havoc all over the Sword Coast and North weakening the Giants and Humanoids a like and setting things up for the return of Tiamat.

I also used the FG versions of Encounters in the Savage Cities and Savage Frontier to fill in some gaps while playing Storm Kings Thunder. Below are the links to them on DM's guild.

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/221005/Encounters-in-the-Savage-Cities-Fantasy-Grounds

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/213754/Encounters-in-the-Savage-Frontier-Fantasy-Grounds

[LordEntrails]

Hmm, lots of ways to go. I took my party from LMoP to PoTA. We had a lot of fun. I ran it pretty close to a sandbox. Just timed when I dropped events and rumors so they wouldn't get too far out of line. But always made sure they had more than 1 path to follow.

I've also recently been reading the Beyond Icespire adventures (Storm Lord's Wrath, Divine Contention, and Sleeping Dragon's Wake) and though they are written for new GM's they do have plenty of content that can keep the party in the Phandelver area.

Of course Dragon Heist works fairly well too. It's easy enough to level up for your party. I just very strongly recommend you use the Alexandrian Remix and add additional content for your higher level party.

[Callum]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I had been looking at Storm King's Thunder, as I've heard that it's pretty easy to go from Phandelver into that - however, I'm worried that it might be a bit combat-heavy. This group consists of mostly brand new players, and they aren't into optimisation. They also like a good mix of exploration, roleplay and combat. Curse of Strahd probably offers that, and I love the setting, but it's quite a change in tone and location from Phandelver. Tomb of Annihilation is probably the most puzzle-y, and I also like the use of classic elements, but it's again quite a shift in location and style.

Do any adventures offer an even balance between exploration, roleplay and combat, along with puzzles to solve and a story-line that's not predictable?

[Zacchaeus]

Tomb of Annihilation is the closest to your criteria list. It's all about exploration; there's plenty of opportunities for role-playing and as you say there are puzzles. And there's combat.

Storm King's Thunder also has a lot of role-playing opportunities but there aren't many puzzles to solve really. Although there's a lot of combat the Party often have allies on their side which beefs the party up a bit.

[NoahLeach]

look in tales of the yawning portal. It has lots of adventures and there is definitely an adventure for 5th level PCs.

[superteddy57]

Moved thread to 5E forums.

[Callum]

Tomb of Annihilation is the closest to your criteria list. It's all about exploration; there's plenty of opportunities for role-playing and as you say there are puzzles. And there's combat.

Thanks again, everyone, for all your advice. I'm pretty much sold on Tomb of Annihilation. I just have one more question - do you think my group will be significantly disadvantaged by not having a rogue in the party?