Hey all, relatively new DM here, Im running my players through Icespire peak (5E) at the moment and they are already almost half way through it so I am starting to think of the future. Deciding between either running Storm Lord’s Wrath (level 7-9), Sleeping Dragon’s Wake (level 9-11), and Divine Contention (level 11-13) which all came as a digital download with the essentials kit. Or are there any better quests out there you'd recommend for level 6+? Maybe something from dmsguild or wherever?
Though I am a relatively new DM I do think I'm doing ok at it, but to do a proper job and to make the world feel more real Ive had to add a ton to icespire peak already, i'm also adding several side quests (that will eventually turn into the main quest after divine contention) that deal with specific players back story's to get them involved more and flesh out a history and make it personal.
So really I just need a skeleton of a pre-made quest (as I am not quite confident enough to go full home brew) that I can then flesh out with some of my homebrew stuff to link it all together.
Id prefer something with more of a RP element, icespire peak is lacking that alot and im afraid that the follow on quests will as well. I would also like something that ties together well (I like the idea of the bbeg shows up early and starts harassing the PC's early so that when they finally face him for real it means more). Also icespire peak so far I feel has leveled the characters far too quickly (4 sessions in and they are 4th level and only one side quest away from 5th) so I feel like now I have to sprinkle some extra stuff of my own creation in there to give them more challenges and to flex my creative dm muscle. And with the size of the follow on quests it feels way to quick to get the players to 13th level if I follow the letter of the pre-made adventure.
Thoughts? Should I run storm lords wrath, sleeping dragons wake and divine contention as a bit of a skeleton adventure adding my own stuff (to include some sort of bbeg that will show up more once I run out of premade quests)? Or is there a better adventure out there for this purpose?
Just as a side not its a party of 6:
A half elf paladin who grew up in the neverwinter wood and worships queen titania of the fey, he's crossing to Warlock with pact with Titania at 6th level. This will be super fun to RP his adventure into the feywild to get in touch with titania.
A tabaxi rogue who has the option now to join the zhentarim (he got busted trying to swipe something from the phandalin mining exchange which if you know the backstory is run by a Zhent agent so she's going to give him some side quests such as eliminate a rival ect. as repayment for trying to steal from her then he'll have to decide if he wants to join or try and make a break from them)
A Goliath Barbarian whos family was killed in a nearby mountain by an avalanche of ice chunks, rocks and snow while he was out on his ritual first solo hunt of a monster to become a man, ironically the avalanche was caused by the white dragon in the area. His uncle who leads another clan will show up and ask if his brothers body was at least given proper goliath burial rites, then will punch the PC when he finds he just left them there under the snow. And thus will be a side quest to go recover and proper bury bodies along with dealing with some monsters that have moved into the area of his old home as well as retrieving a few artifacts his dad may have worn (still trying to decide what magic items to include here) this will take place right before fighting the main dragon before the end of the quest.
An Aarakroka monk whos family was killed in a far off mountain by a green dragon (lot of dragon hate in this party) and he barely escaped and flew and flew for days on end without stopping eventually collapsing near a small monastery near phandalin where the few monks there taught him their ways then sent him to phandalin to find out what the townspeople have planned about the dragon and the orcs coming down the mountain fleeing the dragon, so naturally he joined with the party. Ill probably devise a few side quests for him, one involves a monk 'rite of passage' maybe and a small magic item and a more long term one involving a return to his home mountains way down the road.
A wood elf ranger who grew up in the neverwinter woods and left to go visit the town to see if they knew about the orc incursion into the woods. His is a harder dedicated side quest to make him the center of attention, still trying to come up with something.
A dwarf forge cleric who was in the area looking at some historic sites as well as looking for a possible place to start a temple. This one is tough as its played by a young teen who is harder to get into the RP or pay attention much (the son of the wood elf ranger) so I dont know if I want to do much in the way of a specific quest where he is the center of attention and has to make the decisions.
Probably more info than you guys wanted or needed, just excited to have a good steady group who's enjoying it so far, and really fun to discover that I kind of have a knack for this whole DM thing.