D&D 5E Savage Tide Adventure Path

[pukunui]

Ugh. And Age of Worms was pretty horrid

I couldn't agree more! My group is most of the way through (we're 18th level) and I'm getting so sick of how railroaded this AP is. The first half was pretty fun, but from the end of the arena on, it's just been awful. Tyranny of Dragons allows for more player agency than Age of Worms. I can't understand why so many people regard it so highly.

By the way, when I first joined this group several years ago, they were most of the way through a 4e Eberron conversion of the Savage Tide AP. I missed most of the adventures that actually took place in Eberron (sort of - the DM seemed to be using the standard 3e multiverse rather than either the 4e cosmos or the Eberron one), as my PC only came in after they'd already moved into the outer planes. The fight against Demogorgon was pretty epic - and we had to contend with Vol.

 

[ugulu]

We're still not close to starting but it's giving me lots of time to learn the intricacies of 5e so I'm getting more comfortable figuring out how to convert things like the Huecuva to make it tough but not impossible (finding the sweet spot to convert DR to resistance/immunity is more art than science I think). Sasserine does seem like a great setting that will be underutilized - but am looking forward to jungle survival and time on the Sea Wyvern.

 

[solomanii]

THread Necromancy!

(apologies in advance!)

For the DM's who did convert and play this what did they think? How does it compare to the Ghosts of Saltmarsh? I am interested in doing a pirate adventure for my next 5e campaign so checking out old dungeons and the like for ideas.

Thanks.

 

[humble minion]

Not a conversion, but my $0.02...

My group got to about 14th level in Savage Tide around the time it was released, before real life intervened and the group broke up (we were in the middle of an off-path sidequest at the time). I did (and still do) really like it, but it does have issues.

Agree that Sasserine is a cool setting and it gets horribly underused, and PCs who tie their backgrounds and character goals closely to the city will probably be disappointed The lethality can be an issue. I mostly dealt with that by having a powerful party - 5 PCs, very high points buy, a bonus feat at 1st level, etc etc. Plus I ran regular side-quests to keep my party a little ahead of the power curve. War of the Wielded (from a Dungeon mag around the same time) was a good one, plus encouraging them to hunt monsters on the Isle of Dread etc. They still managed to get half of Farshore wiped out by failing to prevent a trio of vrocks performing a dance of ruin in the middle of the settlement though. Farshore, unfortunately, suffers a bit of the Sasserine disease - PCs get attached to it, spend a bunch of effort defending it, hexcrawling, building it up - and then at around level 14 they'll leave it behind and pretty much never return.

It handles high-level play fairly unevenly, as far as I could tell (we didn't get past City of Broken Idols). I get the attraction of having the PCs sail their pirate ship into the Abyss, but in my experience as soon as they got Wind Walk the ship got left behind (like Sasserine!). The second-last adventure is a pretty broad sandbox that requires a lot of fleshing out by the GM, and the last is a short brutal dungeon crawl (this is a problem with 3e published adventures generally - high-level stat blocks are so big that they eat up page space for everything else!). The variety of enemies is a nice feature. Lots of demons, pirates, jungle monsters, aberrations - one of the complaints about Age of Worms was that it was so undead-heavy that rogues, enchanters etc fell useless. Could use a really good dragon fight, but still pretty solid. There's opportunities for negotiation and intrigue as well as blasting. Paladins of the strict LG might find themselves tested, you'll have to associate with some pretty awful people here and righteously fighting all the bad guys you meet is a recipe for dying early and pointlessly. Something for the GM to remember.

There's some great stuff here, and much of it is mineable. Sea Wyvern's Wake and Here Be Monsters are worth looking at for low/mid levels of your pirate campaign, Sasserine could be a great home base city, and The Maw is a really nice and deadly non-linear adventure location. One thing that it really rubbed in for me is the importance of personalising your pirate ship's crew. PCs aren't going to be sailing the ship by themselves, and they're going to spend a lot of time with these people, they need to have personality.

 

[solomanii]

Excellent, this is useful. Sounds like it has some good stuff and a lot of filler - which I find typical of the Paizo AP - but salvageable.

 

[Pilpock23]

Running this now in 3.5 and our group is just finishing HTbM. It’s been terrific thus far. Like will not do the middle section because it’s a bit too, “Pirates of the Caribbean,” but will return once the group levels up to take on the Abyss section.

 

[solomanii]

Thanks for the info. I am reading through it now, seems more good than bad. Will need to do some surgery but should work fine.

 

[Remathilis]

I'm running a modified version of it right now. This is what I've done so far.

1. I ran the first two modules (No Honor and Bullywug) mostly as written. I shortened the lotus dragon dungeon for time and pacing.
2. I ran a few of my own adventures in Sasserine after that. Some tied back to the modules.
3. I ran the entire Lost Shrine of Tamoachan from Yawning Portal and did the Sargossia encounter separate.
4. I did run some of In Wyverns Wake to get the group to the Isle.
5. Ran a fairly straightforward version of Here There Be Monsters and Tides if Dread adventures.
6. Skipped the rest of the Isle and let the group do some other adventures (Eye of the Leviathan by Goodman, Tamerughts Fate and the Styes from Saltmarsh)
7. Picked up the module line again in Scuttlecove.

I've also been running the game in Eberron.

 

[solomanii]

Hi Remathilis, so which specific adventures did you skip and why? Looks like you skipped or truncated "The Sea Wyvern's Wake", "The Lightless Depths" and "City of Broken Idols"?

 

[Azzy]

Wow! I was ready to be appalled and disappointed by the bit of necromancy (as I tend to be), but it looks like it was necroed for a good reason and started a great conversation. +50 to House SoloManII.

As for the adventure path, I remember subscribing to Dungeon for it and I loved reading it. However, I never had the chance to run it. I'd love to hear more from those that have.