How tough is City of the Spider Queen?

[Iron_Chef]

I don't have the books in front of me so I can't check (I am at work) but I find it hard to beleive that Summon Monster VI can't get you a fiendish creature with DR.

Celestial creatures would be even better, 'cause of the smite, but I am not sure if an evil character can summon them.

glass.

I just got that spell after going up to 11th level and can only cast it 3 times per day, max, if I cast nothing else. I didn't have it when fighting the Bebeliths. The damn Roper (I like to call it "Mr. Roper after the landlord on "Three's Company") paralyzed me before I could do anything and would have had my mage for breakfast if my "ruthlessly efficient" cohort hadn't gutted the beast at the last possible second. That's the fourth time she's saved my wizard's life, literally, with seconds to spare. Cohorts rule! I think I need about a dozen more just like her surrounding me at all times, lol. Preferably wielding +5 vorpal blades.

 

[National Acrobat]

I started running this 4 weeks ago, and with a bit of tweaking, it fits well into my campaign. I also gutted some of the plot and replaced it with a plot line from my campaign that allows for some political intrigue. In fact, the thief in the group was sent into the underdark to try to come to some sort of smuggling deal with the drow in the city. The party is unaware of this. With a little imagination, it isn't hard to adapt what you want from the module to fit the campaign. I had to jack the starting levels up from the module's suggestion to fit my campaign, and I took the old wandering monster tables from D3 the Vault of the Drow to make things a bit more interesting.

It still surprised me that a 13th level thief died at the Door with the Slay Living trap in the crypts.

 

[Iron_Chef]

It still surprised me that a 13th level thief died at the Door with the Slay Living trap in the crypts.

We caught that and erased it with dispel magic. Close call.

 

[Iron_Chef]

Sounds like your gaming group needs to take some of the load off your DM.

Hey, I always offer to create cities, maps, monsters, plotlines, NPCs, etc. and he always says "Wow! Great job!" Then he uses maybe 10% of it (if I'm lucky) and junks the rest for no apparent reason... He doesn't even have an explanation for why he makes me waste my time like this, LOL. Drives me nuts. So I don't have that much sympathy for him; I did my part. His strength is running colorful NPCs and my strength is number crunching and world/adventure design. Yet he sucks as a player every time I DM. Is that typical of long-term DMs suddenly forced to focus on playing one character?

 

[Daredevill]

You guys have to remember: different strokes for different folks. My group loves adventures like this. If it were written as some long, political intrigue story, my group would hate it. It sounds more like a poor choice of adventure for YOUR group.

For a hack 'n slash, I found CotSQ very well done, and not "crap" at all.

Political intrigue= boring adventure=campaign killer for my group. No thanks. CotSQ is just fine as is.

Nice work Mr. Wyatt.

 

[bwgwl]

man, this doesn't bode well -- my DM wants to run us through the standard Adventure Path modules up to 10th level and then through City.

if it's that much of a meatgrinder, i'll try not to get too attached to my character.

 

[Mark]

The DM is overjoyed because using City of the Spider Queen means he "doesn't have to think" anymore. So instead of the kind of adventures we want (political, roleplaying, short-term mass combat), we're stuck in hack-n-slash mode with PCs/players who are ill-equipped psychologically AND game mechanically to pull off this adventure.

... the DM's response was "okay, but you're the ones killing your characters, not me."
We really do feel ripped-off by this sudden turn of events...

I think this campaign is going down the crapper quick unless the DM dramatically shortens the module to just the "crunchy bits".

The DM knows we hate meatgrinders, too, so he should really know better than to run crap like this on us. He is going to promote major player rebellion for forcing us to go through this dumb mega-module. Yet he does this to us at least once every campaign, like RttToEE and Heart of Nightfang Spire last year (ugh, though Nightfang Spire was much better---i.e., shorter). We totally rebelled against RttToEE and so he had to trash it. I think we will do the same with CotSQ. It totally blows so far.

Hey, I always offer to create cities, maps, monsters, plotlines, NPCs, etc. and he always says "Wow! Great job!" Then he uses maybe 10% of it (if I'm lucky) and junks the rest for no apparent reason... He doesn't even have an explanation for why he makes me waste my time like this, LOL. Drives me nuts. So I don't have that much sympathy for him; I did my part. His strength is running colorful NPCs and my strength is number crunching and world/adventure design. Yet he sucks as a player every time I DM.

Sounds like your DM needs a break from running, and even playing, D&D with you guys. Try playing another game...not an RPG...for a while unless one of you wants to step up and DM and the current DM can agree to try and be a better player.

 

[Fenes 2]

Such problems should be solved in discussions with all players and the DM. If the group has no fun with a dungeon crawl, then the DM should abandon it, or radically change it.

 

[Tom Cashel]

Why can't WoTC put out intelligent, creative roleplaying oriented political intrigue adventures? Why must mega-modules always suck and be nothing but brain-dead, endless meatgrinders with little to no opportunities for RPing aside from talking to members of your own party?

I'm currently running this module.

It's only a meatgrinder if you insist on fighting everything, and "clearing" levels.

If you use some illusions, some divinations, some trickery, and some stealth, and don't try to fight everything, you won't die nearly as much.

And contrary to many opinions expressed here, there's plenty of opportunities for intrigue and role-playing in this book. Hell, I've got some of it going on with a primarily good-aligned party. An evil party should have no problem finding someone to talk to.

The players have to be willing to try this tack. The DM has to be willing to read between the lines of the module, and extrapolate on the situation that is hinted at. It's set up just like all the classic modules: a bunch of encounter areas with a final goal in mind.

As always, it's up to you and your DM to make it more than that.

And if that doesn't work, tell your DM you'd rather he just find a bunch of pre-made NPCs so he can improvise your overthrow of Mistledale.

 

[Nine Hands]

I don't have the books in front of me so I can't check (I am at work) but I find it hard to beleive that Summon Monster VI can't get you a fiendish creature with DR.

Celestial creatures would be even better, 'cause of the smite, but I am not sure if an evil character can summon them.

glass.

An evil arcane spellcaster should be able to summon a Celestial, regardless of alignment. I know that Clerics have the restriction, if they are good, no evil spells, if they are evil, no good spells. I don't know if Druids are under the same restriction, I'll have to look that up tonight