RPG Review: D&D Essentials Kit

Loaded with incredible content, the D&D Essentials Kit is the perfect boxed set for both brand-new and experienced dungeon masters alike.

The box is the same size and of a similar style to the D&D Starter Set. The adventure within, Dragon of Icespire Peak, is a direct sequel to the adventure from the Starter, the modern classic, The Lost Mine of Phandelver. This kit is designed to be picked up and used after you complete the Starter, but also works alone. Rather than continuing to compare it to the Starter, let’s look at what we’ve got under the hood.

The set comes with a complete set of transparent red dice, including 4d6, and TWO D20’s! This has been something people have spoken about for a while. 5e requires 2d20, and yet previously, official dice sets have only had one, so it’s nice to see two here. They’re the standard transparent red you’d see in a dice cube at any game store, so will fit right in with your other sets if you want to get more.

There’s also a very nice set of cards which come on sheets, scored so that you can easily split them up. The cards have a wide variety of uses. There are a few which break down the order of combat, a set of condition cards so you can toss your players a card to explain to them what happens if they’re, say, frightened or paralyzed, intitiative cards numbered 9-1 so that you can hand them out to players when initiative is rolled, a stack of quest cards for the adventure, an extensive deck of magical items, and a really fantastic set of cards which show characters faces on one side, and their personalities and other information on the other side. The cards look liek they’re too wide to be sleeved, though I may be wrong. They are all able to fit into the small unfoldable box inside the kit, so you can store all your treasures.

The dungeon master screen is really fantastic. On the DM side of the screen, it is the same as you’ll find in the reincarnated screen, but the whole thing is slightly smaller, folding down into a square, though it still has 4 panels. On the player side is a gorgeous piece of artwork featuring an adventuring party venturing out of a forest and into the icy wastes to confront a white dragon. It’s beautiful and evocative, and exactly what you’d want to see on a DM screen to inspire your players toward adventure.

Before we get into the adventure, let’s talk about the Essentials Kit Rulebook. This book isn’t staplebound, but has a nice thin binding. It’s paperback, and the spine has no text on it, so if you put it on your shelf outside of the box, you’ll just have to remember what it is. I wish it was labeled, but alas. The book has all the basic D&D rules inside, including character creation, which wasn’t featured in the starter set rules. It has the four basic races: Human, Dwarf, Halfing and Elf, but instead of featuring the four basic classes of Rogue, Fighter, Cleric and Wizard, it ALSO has Bards. I get the feeling that someone at WotC really pushed for them to add the bard in there. The rulebook also features Sidekick rules, allowing you to have a Spellcaster, Expert, or Warrior accompany your hero. There are rules for levelling up and everything, but it takes up all of two pages. I wish we had gotten something like this in the PHB or at least the DMG, but it’s nice to see here. If your party is struggling, or if you’re playing with fewer than the ideal number, you can use sidekicks to help you out along the way. The back of the rulebook has a detailed list of the various conditions, so the rulebook, even closed, will be quite useful to you.

The adventure, Dragon of Icespire Peak, is very open ended, mostly presented as a set of locations you can go to. Around Phandalin, various people will provide you with different quests you can go on. If your players have previously played Lost Mine of Phandelver, they may have heard of them. I definitely recommend reading over this adventure before running Lost Mine, so that you can begin planting the seeds. The adventure has a lot of great detail about the town, and good DMing advice along the way.

The map is double sided, one side featuring the village of Phandalin, the other a hex map of the region, stretching down to the Mere of Dead Men, and up to The Crags above Mt. Hotenow. It’s perfect for laying out on the center of the table for the players to study and plan their next move.

I definitely recommend the Essentials Kit for EVERYONE playing 5e. There’s enough content here that you’ll find something you need even if you think you already have everything. Definitely check it out.

Wizards of the Coast provided Dice Monkey with a copy of the D&D Essentials Kit for review.