The Shackled City Adventure Path Hardcover

[Nightfall]

Heh, I think I actually liked SC the best. Cauldron is just an awesome city. I really liked the fact that Cauldron was the centerpiece throughout the AP. The players really felt like it was their home and it was cool how much it changed.

Yeah but some of us like to move around.

Jeff,

yeah I was a little shocked by that comment as well.

 

[airwalkrr]

All characters except for the Bard died two or three times during the campaign, but each was raised or resourrected (true). I think the loses were acceptable, and some where sheer bad luck (It became a common experience for us that we always fail our best saving throws, which for the fighter usually also meant failing saves against instant-death effects)

The only character who never died was a bard in a campaign as tough as the shackled city???

And people say bards suck...

 

[airwalkrr]

With a five person group he had two near TPKs, one with two survivors, the other with only one. (The bard, ironically... there always has to someone to sing of the heroic deaths afterward.)

Wow. The evidence just keeps piling on.

 

[Nightfall]

Air,

I blame it on good dice rolls.

 

[Camris]

My players have found it very fun so far.

I think it's the way that the city functions like the Enterprise does in Star Trek; the home base the players always come back to after a hazardous mission, the personalities that grow to know them over time, the politics and so forth.

The individual adventures are kind of uneven and after the first couple of adventures it's been very hard to challenge my players with the encounters as written:
Me: "Make a reflex save vs. empowered fireball; DC 18."
Bard: "I roll a 41."
Me: "%@#$%@#^"

They players are at 15th level and are gazing at the shaft leading down to Oblivion. I have had to resort to adding 10 class levels to the opponents and epic monsters to give them an even fight. Powergaming bastards.

One valuable lesson I have learned is that money makes magic items way to easy in 3.5. Two characters took item creation feats, and used leadership to attract cohorts also with item creation feats, resulting in a magic item creation factory. Next campaign it will not be so easy.

 

[Nightfall]

Camris,

That's why you should try Age of Worms. Less chance of them producing their magic items so darn quickly.

 

[airwalkrr]

Air,

I blame it on good dice rolls.

Or loaded dice. For a character to survive a night of adventuring could be attributed to good dice rolls. But an entire campaign? Either the dice were loaded or bards don't really suck as much as people think.

 

[airwalkrr]

They players are at 15th level and are gazing at the shaft leading down to Oblivion. I have had to resort to adding 10 class levels to the opponents and epic monsters to give them an even fight. Powergaming bastards.

10 class levels!!! WTF? Dude, this campaign kicked our asses around after we reached about 10th (admittedly we had only four players). What kind of campaign do you run? Do you just let the PCs pick their abilities from every book in existence with no kind of control so that they come up with ridiculous synergies that obviously weren't intended by "crossing streams" of publishers? Of course, I did hear of the guy who claimed his group was so heavily powergamed that using CORE RULES ONLY they killed Kyuss in one action in the Age of Worms. That really blew me away.

One valuable lesson I have learned is that money makes magic items way to easy in 3.5. Two characters took item creation feats, and used leadership to attract cohorts also with item creation feats, resulting in a magic item creation factory. Next campaign it will not be so easy.

On that, I agree wholeheartedly. This makes the Level Independent XP Awards from Unearthed Arcana a good system to use, as it results in an actual opportunity cost for item creatio. An XP expenditure means you are permanently behind in XP, whereas in core rules, XP expenditure or loss is merely a setback. Or you could use Craft Points from Unearthed Arcana and limit their crafting by requiring craft points to be spent on each item. I often find ways to limit magic item creation to a reasonable level in my campaigns.

 

[Nightfall]

Or loaded dice. For a character to survive a night of adventuring could be attributed to good dice rolls. But an entire campaign? Either the dice were loaded or bards don't really suck as much as people think.

They suck enough for me not to use them in parties of less than 3.

The laws of probability must have been on the bard's side that time.


Air,

They killed Kyuss in one ROUND?! Dude, I'd like to see what dice THEY were using...

 

[Yair]

I'm DMing the first adventure for the second time. The first time, I had a three-player party that breezed through it. Yes, that's right, no deaths or anything, with just three player (with good tactics and characters, and high ability scores). The second time I'm having three-to-four characters, and there are lots of deaths. I'm a brutal DM.

I like SC a lot, but haven't played it through yet so can't say on how it progresses further except that it seems like its going to be great fun and I really like having the whole campaign in one book. There are a few things (like some stats, and too large dungeons) which are problematic at times, and you would definitely wish to improve the adventure with the aid of the boards and RPGenius; but generally I like it a lot.