Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus
Welcome to Baldur’s Gate, a city of ambition and corruption situated at the crossroads of the Sword Coast. You’ve just started your adventuring career, but already find yourself embroiled in a plot that sprawls from the shadows of Baldur’s Gate to the front lines of the planes-spanning Blood War! Do you have what it takes to turn infernal war machines and nefarious contracts against the archdevil Zariel and her diabolical hordes? And can you ever hope to find your way home safely when pitted against the infinite evils of the Nine Hells?
Authors: Adam Lee, Bill Benham, M.T. Black, Dan Dillon, Justin Donie, James J. Haeck, James Introcaso, Chris Lindsay, Liane Mersiel, Shawn Merwin, Lysa Penrose, Christopher Perkins, F. Wesley Schneider, Amber Scott, James Sutter
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Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus Reviews (5)
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Mad max on the highway to hell is what i expected. what i got was a one-track story with uninspired maps and players just wanting to get out of hell without caring why they were there. If you plan to run this module, use The Alexandrians notes on how to restructure this campaign into a hexcrawl instead of one long fetch quest. Pros: - initial adventures in baldurs gate and the small dungeon. - cool theme - infernal machines - devils Cons: - the adventure is structured as a railroad and players have very little freedom to diverge from the path. - the adventure is very slow burn until you get to decidedly the best part, which path to choose which decides the rest of the adventure but then back on the railroad you go. - fetch quest - maps are bland - requires VERY strong hook or players just want to get out of hell - contracts - players arent dumb enough to make a deal with a devil - mad max portion of the game is a long way in before the cool stuff
Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus is a bold and ambitious adventure that takes players from the dark alleys of Baldur’s Gate to the war-torn wastelands of Avernus, the first layer of Hell. Designed for characters starting at level 1 and progressing to level 13, this campaign offers a unique mix of intrigue, moral dilemmas, and full-throttle action. The adventure begins in Baldur’s Gate, a city teetering on the brink of chaos, before plunging players into the fiery depths of Avernus. The story revolves around the fallen city of Elturel, which has been dragged into Hell, and the players must navigate the infernal battleground of the Blood War to find a way to save it—or make a devil’s bargain and claim power for themselves. One of the most distinctive features of this campaign is its Mad Max-style vehicle combat, with players able to acquire and modify war machines that roar across the blasted hellscape. This adds a level of chaotic fun rarely seen in D&D adventures, though it requires a DM willing to embrace a looser, more cinematic style of play. The adventure is rich in thematic storytelling, particularly for groups who enjoy moral choices and consequences. From dealing with infernal contracts to deciding how much corruption they’re willing to accept, players will find themselves grappling with some weighty decisions. The setting itself—Hell—feels genuinely oppressive, with its ever-changing landscapes, dangerous fiends, and looming sense of hopelessness. That said, Descent into Avernus is not without its flaws. The Baldur’s Gate section feels somewhat disconnected from the rest of the adventure, and while it’s meant to set the tone, it can feel rushed or unnecessary. Additionally, the campaign can be overwhelming for both DMs and players due to the sheer amount of lore and moving parts, especially in Avernus, where navigation and pacing can become tricky. For groups that thrive on high-stakes adventure, morally complex decisions, and a touch of heavy metal energy, this campaign is a fantastic experience. However, it requires a Dungeon Master who’s comfortable running sandbox-style adventures and willing to tweak certain aspects to keep the pacing tight. Pros: ✅ Unique setting in Hell, offering a fresh take on D&D adventuring ✅ Vehicle combat with customizable war machines adds a fun, chaotic element ✅ Strong moral themes and player-driven choices ✅ Epic storyline with high stakes and cinematic moments Cons: ❌ Baldur’s Gate section feels disconnected from the rest of the adventure ❌ The open-ended nature of Avernus can be difficult to manage without strong DM planning ❌ Heavy reliance on lore dumps that might overwhelm some players Final Verdict: Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus is a high-octane ride through a unique and thematically rich setting. While it has some structural issues, the adventure’s strengths—moral complexity, wild war machine combat, and a compelling villain in Zariel—make it a memorable campaign. For the right group, it’s one Hell of a ride.
I have been running this module for the last ten months in my home game. It's incredibly evocative in tone, but the details are quite the mess, and extremely hostile to unwary GMs. That said, I've been running it successfully, largely by doing several things: 1. Replaced key NPCs with player characters. I gave several archetypes to the players and encouraged but did not require they be selected. As a result we have a firbolg Hellrider PC who replaces Reya Mantlemorn, and we have a Hollyphant PC who replaces Lulu. 2a. Worked with the players to create motivations: multiple times in the book the GM is encouraged to coerce, sometimes forcibly, sometimes at threat of PC death, to get PCs to "follow the story". I'm sorry, but that's bulls---. Simply having a conversation about *why* a character might care about the fate of X does wonders for smoothing out how to move things along. 2b. Related to above, but this is just a more general GM tip: you don't need the entire party to share identical goals! Just non-contradictory ones, or ones that aren't contradictory quite yet (if you're encouraging PvP). 3. Take your time in Baldur's Gate: I know GMs who literally skip everything in the early chapters and start in Avernus, and that's fine, but we took our time in Baldur's Gate and it really paid off. 4. Supplement and fix: I can't recommend Justin Alexander's "Remixing Avernus" blog series highly enough; it's essentially an entire book fixing the campaign as it was published. You don't need to take everything (or anything) that Alexander provides, but you almost certainly need to respond to the concerns he's addressing. He also links to multiple other third party sources to flesh out different parts of the campaign if you want to focus more or less on them. 5. This is probably the most idiosyncratic to me, but I've been running this using the new Daggerheart system instead of D&D, and while that has added a little work to me in the way of stat block conversions and the like, overall it's been a great decision and I have no regrets on that.
I love this module! The beginning of the adventure contains some of 5e's most exciting and challenging dungeons. The middle section - including Elturel and Avernus - has a number of fun and interesting encounters, although I typically mix and match these to structure the adventure more like a sandbox than the linear paths presented in the module. The conclusion is very satisfying and gives players a chance to see the alliances they forged and the decisions that they made pay off. The connections to BG3 are lots of fun, and I like to throw in a few extra ones, as a special treat. 10/10, would recommend.