Sunless Citadle - ran it/been in it? (spoilers)

[Broken Fang]

The other thing is that but for one of the players the others have only been playing 3rd ed for about 6 months. And Most of that time was with a different GM who played major maunty haul...4th level with +5 items! I think I know why they perceive it as being harder than the first time that they played...yep the orc missed again with your +5 breastplate and shield...yep you hit and killed it with your +5 bastard sword. Not much need of tactics in a situation like that.

 

[Bagpuss]

Sunless Citadel is a pretty balanced module for a balanced party, but you don't have a balanced party.

The Shadow and the Mephit aren't too tricky for a party with an arcane spellcaster, or a cleric even with magic weapon. As it is the party you discribe has very little healing and no arcane magic. It doesn't even have effective "tanks" from what you've said. It uses stupid or none existant tactics. So I'm not supprised they had problems.

 

[KnowTheToe]

Low level mods can be the hardest to survive. After all, it only takes 1 big hit to kill a 2nd level spellcaster. Your players just need to check their strategies and rethink their abilities, even min/maxed power concepts do little to nothing at lower levels.

The fight at the end of the module is deadly and without clear thinking, a good plan and good rolls the players will lose. Gently remind your players of their own fragile state due to their low level.

 

[Lazybones]

I'd run total newbies through a warm-up adventure 1st, like Gorgoldand's Gauntlet or the one included in the boxed set. Or put together a little something with a simple goal, a few CR1 or less creatures, and a nice treasure or two (ooh, a potion!). Then you can expose them to the game, the mechanics, and so on before thrusting them into the Citadel. I agree that the official adventures are written more for experienced players (or at least those who can adapt quickly and use tactics and RP).

 

[Kalendraf]

Sunless Citadel is clearly not balanced for a starting group of 4 1st level characters. Many of the EL's and CR's are just too high for them to deal with. Also, many of the EL ratings are not properly listed either, as many should be increased due to terrain or other modifiers that are not taken into account. The adventure seems more balanced for a group of about 2nd to 3rd level.

 

[coyote6]

I ran Sunless Citadel right after 3e first came out, for five players -- two had played quite a bit of AD&D2e, 3 hadn't played any kind of D&D in 7+ years, and I hadn't played any D&D in over a decade. The characters were:

Half-elf ranger
Half-elf rogue
Half-elf sorcerer
Dwarf cleric
Dwarf fighter
Gnome bard (NPC)

They had just the right amount of problems; less, really, since their attributes were rather impressive (I'm so nice, I didn't throw a fit if they rolled up a few sets & picked one ).

The rogue got filth fever from dire rats on the stairs. The entire adventure, the rogue had horrible luck fighting rats. They kicked her ass, basically. The players (and the GM ) still joke about her and rats.

They managed to KO the dragonpriest, with a lucky hit from a battleaxe, some sneak attacks, & a well-timed use of the potion of fire breath they'd found (I screwed up on the potion, too, and only let the sorcerer get one blast of fire breath from it). Having realized that the thing didn't regenerate fire, they poured oil on it & lit it.

The quasit knocked one person in the pit, and fled.

The mephit got off to an impressive start with its breath weapon, but then the sorcerer hit it with a magic missile; somebody else critically hit it, and did much more damage than its DR could stop; and then a ray of frost finished it off. It was sad, really.

They negotiated with the kobolds, clawed their way into the goblins' area the hard way (i.e., through the caltrop hall), freed Erky & immediately started accepting his clerical assistance, managed to subdue Calcryx, & returned him to the kobolds.

They were pretty good about stopping to rest -- they left the citadel two or three times, and holed up in the dragonpriest's area once. They had a suitably tough time with Belak & co, but persevered and survived.

Given that my group switches back & forth between multiple campaigns (plus, I slowed advancement slightly), those characters are now barely getting to seventh level. They are actually back at the Sunless Citadel now -- fighting the kobolds (the queen's 8th level, there's a vampire kobold cleric, a half-dragon kobold rogue, and assorted nasties).

 

[Broken Fang]

Well I think I may have figued out what to fo until the party figures it out...run lower level modules than the parties level. This way the monsters will be less threatening (I hope) for the group. Maybe after some amount of time they will start to get their acts together and determine what roles their characters have in the group and that though fun to make whatever you want it can make for a difficult party.