Starting Shackled City AP and need advice

[JoeGKushner]

The other good thing about a cleric is that there are churches in the city so if you have clerics of differnet churches the Gm can work some funky stuff!

Another fun thing about the clerics is that one of you can play the melee oriented one and the other the diplomatic one. Clerics get crappy skill points but have some good skill selections.

 

[Nightfall]

I guess what I need to know is whether Shackled City is an absolute meat grinder of doom. If it is, I think the paladin is going to edge out the choices.

Meat Grinder = Rappan Athuk, Undermountain and Castle Maure

Much tougher than fighting goblins = Shackled City.

Mostly Shackled City is pretty much a one location and stuff around it. It's tough sure, and in places, extremely deadly. But otherwise, I wouldn't say it's like meat grinder.

Now Age of Worms...that has some grindness to it, especially as you get into the higher levels.

Cleric is a good choice and there is St. Cuthbert I believe in Cauldron.

 

[Wik]

Paladin would be my choice...but then I'm biased towards divine spellcasters/divine types.

Another option is going Spellthief.

Hey now, don't knock the spellthief. Even if he does suck in practical terms, when you actually get a chance to USE him, you'll find that he's actually the most enjoyable PC class out there.

 

[Nightfall]

Wik,

I wasnt knocking spellthief. While I prefer ninja, Spelltheif was...interesting. I more disinclinced with Marshall, 3.5 Samurai, and probably Favored Soul. (I prefer something closer to feel with Mystic that's been retooled.)

But since he was asking about Paladin, I said Paladin.

 

[Wik]

Henh. I get a little defensive around the spellthief... the most misunderstood of the wotc classes. (wasn't it first off the island when glyfair did his "Non-Core Class Survivor"?)

I'm actually the president of the spellthief fan club. We have two members.

To answer the question at hand, from what little I know of adventure paths... they're tough. I think a paladin/cleric hybrid would be a very helpful choice for the player. Another option would be to take Dragon Shaman (if it's allowed): you could heal PCs up to half health before the cleric does his healing thing, meaning that the group would have a LOT more healing capability. At the same time, the dragon shaman has excellent second-rank melee ability - he's a great partner for the rogue, and once he gets his breath weapon, he functions as a great "getter-ridder-of-weaker-guys".

 

[Nightfall]

Not sure I'd recommend using Dragon shaman myself. But that's just me.

Wik,

I'm president for life of Scarred Lands.

 

[Archade]

As a DM, on a scale of 1 to "absolute meat grinder of doom", I rank Shackled City at an 8 ...

It is a very difficult campaign. Not because of Encounter Levels or horrific monsters, but because of things your characters won't expect, or won't be necessarily constantly prepared to deal with.

When I DM'ed Shackled City, I offered flavorful descriptions of "scenes" that were pretty much guaranteed to happen, to give them an idea of what to expect.

Gregor, if you want, and you don't feel it will spoil your enjoyment, I can post those "scenes" here for you.

 

[Gregor]

When I DM'ed Shackled City, I offered flavorful descriptions of "scenes" that were pretty much guaranteed to happen, to give them an idea of what to expect.

Gregor, if you want, and you don't feel it will spoil your enjoyment, I can post those "scenes" here for you.

I dont think it will spoil anything for me and I'll take any information I can gather in advance as I want to be as prepared as possible when we start. Thanks for the offer, I'll take it!

Also, as much as I love my DM, he isnt the best at describing things, especially scenes, so I may refer him to your descriptions so he can get inspired and give us the precious information we need to figure out how to survive the encounters.

 

[Gregor]

So after work yesterday, I went home and poured through my books and considered all the advice I received.

I think I have decided on a human cleric of Pelor with the Strength and Good domains. I think this character can have pretty solid melee capabilities, the domain spells are fairly solid (enlarge person at 1st level....sweet) and with the nobility trait and some PH2 feats, he can have good equipment and a great AC at first level. Further, while he will use most of his spells on buffing himself, he can provide serious battlefield healing - more so than the Paladin.

Here is what I came up with - 28 point buy:

Human Cleric of Pelor 1
Str - 16
Dex - 10
Con - 12
Wis - 15
Int - 10
Cha - 12

Domains: Strength; Good
Saves: F+3; R+0; W+4
Feats: Shield Specialization (heavy); ???
Skills: Concentration 4; Knowledge (religion) 2; Diplomacy 2; Heal 2; Spellcraft 2

What do you think? Any other feat to recommend?

 

[Ry]

Paladin, paladin, paladin. Or Cleric.

There are some really tough encounters, and most towards the end are the forces of evil.