Best D&D Campaigns With Very Little Combat

Highlights

Dungeons & Dragons offers campaigns and adventures that focus on stealth and diplomacy instead of combat.
Some adventure modules, such as The Wolves of Welton and Murder at the Dour Dryad, emphasize problem-solving and investigation.
Adventures like A Little Bit of Thievery and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist cater to morally ambiguous characters and offer a balance of exploration, role-playing, and combat.

Dungeons & Dragons is a game that often focuses on combat, but there are a lot of campaigns and adventures that use stealth and diplomacy instead of fighting. Sometimes the party wants a break from the usual hack-and-slash dungeon to test their Charisma or Sleight-of-hand skills.

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There are plenty of adventure modules for D&D, from both independent creators and the Wizards of The Coast, that are designed and created with that intent. Campaigns with little or no combat include murder mysteries and covert hesits, among other creative and often equally dangerous activities.

7 The Wolves of Welton

A Single Session Trope With A Twist

wolves_of_welton official cover art winghorn press

Publisher: Winghorn Press
Authors: Winghorn Press Staff
Original Release Date: January 16, 2016

The Wolves of Welton is intended as a single-session adventure, a new take on the "quota kill" quest, common in role-playing video games. There's some combat involved, but there's more to the local wolfpack than meets the eye, and players have to use brains as much as brawn to unravel the mystery.

The village of Welton is being plagued by an extra-vicious wolf pack this winter, and to add to their troubles, the local mage who would usually deal with this problem has disappeared without a trace. Not only does the party have to discover the secret of the wolves but also the how and why of where the missing wizard has gone.

6 Murder at the Dour Dryad

Investigation, Persuasion, And Role-Play

Murder at the Dour Dryad cover cropped Limitless Adventures Press

Publisher: Limitless Adventures
Authors: Andrew Hand and Michael Johnson
Original Release Date: May 23rd, 2017

There's been a murder at the local tavern and the party has to use skill checks and role-play to help the inept but well-meaning Night Watchman find the culprit. That means looking for clues, questioning witnesses, and tracing the killer's steps to and from the murder scene.

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Not every party will be keen on the kind of restrictions that they have to follow while helping the Night Watchman because enforcing the law also means following it. That means no lockpicking, rough interrogations, or breaking and entering. Characters have to rely more on dialogue and friendly persuasion, and some might be more suited to it than others.

5 A Little Bit of Thievery

A Heist-Based Adventure For Beginners And New Characters

A Little Bit of Thievery official art Cat Rocketship cropped

Publisher: Ten Red Crows Press
Authors: Ten Red Crows Press Staff
Original Release Date: February 26th, 2015

The descriptive subtitle of this campaign is "a larceny-based adventure for morally ambiguous level one character." That explains what this adventure is about as well as who it's intended for, so it's not a campaign for Paladins unless they're Oathbreakers.

Classes that tend towards the "morally ambiguous" side of the spectrum as a general rule include most other races; Rogues, Bards, Monks, Sorcerers, Wizards, Barbarians, and Warlocks. Other classes like Clerics and Druids can also be included depending on their choice of diety or Circle. Clerics of Shar and Shadow Druids, for example, would fit well into this campaign.

4 Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

A Treasure Hunt In The Year Of Three Ships Sailing

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Authors: Wizards of the Coast Staff
Original Release Date: September 18th, 2018

This is the first adventure module in the Waterdeep campaign, and it focuses on the search for a hoard of treasure underneath the famous Sword Coast metropolis. There's some combat involved, but it's the kind that's ideal for level one to five characters, and the Dungeon Master chooses from a seasonal rotation of bosses that range in difficulty.

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Experienced players like this adventure for the lore and setting, especially those who are enjoying the fan-favorite Gale of Waterdeep from Baldur's Gate 3. New players like it because it balances exploration, role-playing, and investigation with fighting and combat, so they get a bit of everything that is D&D in a single adventure.

3 Journey to the Jade Isle

Players Solve A Mystery At Sea Using Their Wits

Journey_to_the_Jade_Isle_Preview Limitless Adventures

Publisher: Limitless Adventures
Authors: Limitless Adventures Staff
Original Release Date: 2018

At first, it seems like Journey to the Jade Isle is about traveling to a new place, but it's really about the events that take place during the trip. There's been a murder at sea, and given the situation, the options for combat are minimal.

This is a versatile adventure that any DM can use when the party is traveling anywhere by ship and needs something to put the time into perspective or flesh out other parts of the story. Journey to the Jade Isle also stands on its own as a single-session adventure.

2 Sunless Citadel

A Classic Adventure With Balanced Combat Options

sunless citadel wizards of the sword coast cover art

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Authors: Bruce Cordell
Original Release Date: 2000

A popular adventure campaign that's designed and intended for first-level characters, the monsters of the Sunless Citadel don't have to be any bigger than kobolds and goblins because the real challenge is discovering its location in the first place.

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The party starts to hear rumors about the Citadel while staying in the small town of Oakhurst and follow every lead they find to discover the exact location. Information can be found and uncovered in a variety of ways, most of which don't have to involve combat, and even when they do, it's the stealthy kind.

1 The Assassin's Knot

A Vintage Murder Mystery Unique To D&D

The Assassin's Knot Wizards of the Coast official cover art

Publisher: TSR
Authors: Lenard "Len" Lakofka
Original Release Date: 1983

The Assassin's Knot is one of the earliest adventure modules produced as modern audiences now know them, and it's still one of the best. From a DM's point of view, it's a versatile and straightforward adventure that's designed for characters from levels 2 to 5.

As the title implies, this story is about an assassination and the subsequent investigation to find the killer. There's no dungeon or big boss fight, making it even more unique for its time. The previous adventure in this series, The Secret of Bone Hill, is also an ideal adventure for beginners and level one players but is more combat-focused.