A review copy of “Factions of Phandalin” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using my affiliate links and pledging via Patreon.
Designed by: Revelations Studios, Noah Stavish, Douglas Harvey-Marose, Kera Hildebrandt
On the surface, Factions of Phandalin is a helpful resource book for applying the underdeveloped, Adventurer’s League-friendly Forgotten Realms factions into the starter kit adventures, Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak.
But what you’re really getting is a collection of five large dungeon crawls — one themed for each of the factions, that take place around the Phandalin region, set after the events of either starter adventure.
Five primary factions were established early in 5e’s lifecycle: the Emerald Enclave, the Harpers, the Lord’s Alliance, the Order of the Gauntlet, and the Zhentarim. They’re primarily helpful for new players in establishing the Whys of adventuring: because you work for one of these adventurer-friendly factions!
Other than the organized crime shenanigans of the Zhentarim, we’ve rarely used these factions in our games, but that’s partly the fault of 5e adventure books not doing much with them.
Factions of Phandalin tries to fix this by giving each faction a progression system. By completing tasks and quests associated with that faction, players earn renown, and achieve new ranks.
The tasks are all drawn from the two starter set adventures, such as clearing Cragmaw Castle, capturing the Black Spider, or driving off Venomfang the green dragon.
As players complete tasks and earn renown with their faction, they’ll earn new rank titles, gaining perks such as tool proficiencies, magic items, and hirelings.
The rank rewards are almost uniform across each faction, easy for balance purposes but not as interesting as it could have been.
The best rewards are in the form of faction-specific quests, unlocked at rank three and level five, which players should reach upon completing either starter set adventure.
These quests, while distressingly light on story, provide large, meaty dungeon crawls in a variety of locations, such as an ancient Netherese arcane study, an underground lost city of mud, and a decrepit castle inhabited by a vampire.
The dungeons are filled with cool monster encounters, trap ideas, and layouts.
The old dwarven stronghold of Southkrypt features a patrolling hill giant, and a gauntlet of deadly traps to reach a treasure vault. The vampire’s castle is filled with vampiric rats who burst out of walls and avoid the sunlight. Reaching the lost city of mud requires investigating the city above for shady Xanathar Guild activity.
The dungeons are highly modular, and can easily be dropped into any setting or story.
On the flip side, the storytelling is almost non-existent, with the barest of excuses given to explore any of these sites, and zero epilogue for their completion. There’s also very little opportunity for social role-playing, with most monsters hostile to the party, and no captives to rescue.
There is an optional setup for stringing all five adventures together, creating an interesting, dungeon-heavy post-game campaign for players who want to stick around the Phandalin region. But leveling could be a problem, as each dungeon is designed for 5th level, without any level scaling provided.
The layout and artwork look great without being a carbon copy of official 5e books. Full color maps are included for each of the adventures, some getting two or even three maps due to their size.
I love the map art, and we’re given DM and player versions, making them VTT-ready to drop in. An official Roll20 conversion is also available, if you want all the work done for you!
Pros:
- Ranks, rewards, and tasks specific to LmoP and DoIP for each of the five factions.
- Features five large dungeon-centric adventures.
- Dungeons feature many different biomes and interesting layouts.
- Full color, detail maps for each dungeon.
Cons:
- All five adventures are designed for 5th level.
- The adventures are exceedingly light on storytelling and role-playing.
The Verdict: Factions of Phandalin is less DM-resource book and more post-game expansion for parties looking for more dungeon crawling goodness after Lost Mine of Phandelver or Dragon of Icespire Peak.
A review copy of “Factions of Phandalin” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using my affiliate links and pledging via Patreon.
RogueWatson 