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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Schmoe" data-source="post: 6481123" data-attributes="member: 913">4 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure PathNote that this review contains spoilers (obviously?).  Shackled City is almost two separate campaigns.  There is the first 3/4's, where the party becomes intimately involved with the city of Cauldron and ultimately its saviors, and then there is the last 1/4, where the party heads off to deal with a heretofore unknown threat.  As the first AP, the first part of Shackled City has some really excellent moments.  There is plenty of dungeon-crawling, so groups who are averse to dungeons should avoid this AP.  Having said that, in the early chapters of the AP, the city of Cauldron provides ample opportunities to branch out with roleplaying, side quests, and character development.  The setting is the star, and this first portion culminates with an excellent siege on the city that allows the characters to really step up and become heroes for the city they've come to know.    Compared to the rest, the latter portion of the adventure seems disjointed and tacked on to the rest of the AP.  This is something that can be mitigated with some work on the DMs part, but the adventures in the end are also somewhat uninspired dungeon crawls.  I have a feeling that a lot of groups might be happier just wrapping up the campaign early and skipping the last couple of chapters.  Overall, the combats are very difficult and were designed to challenge a group of 6 PCs with a solid understanding of the rules.  There are a few encounters in particular that have the potential to be a TPK, including a certain Erinyes archer, and an attack by a team of assassins, so DMs will need to carefully consider the capabilities of their groups, or how the campaign might recover in the face of near or complete TPK.  Taken as a whole, the Shackled City provides a great foundation for some very compelling adventures and role-playing.  There are some places that really seem to beg for a little more attention, but any additional work put in by the DM will really make the AP shine.  Fortunately, there are plenty of wonderful player-created resources out there to embellish the AP, many of which are truly top-notch.  I don't recommend this AP to novice DMs, but then, I probably wouldn't recommend any AP to a novice DM.  For a veteran DM willing to add some of his own personal touches, though, this adventure really has the potential to be a memorable campaign that will be talked about for years.</blockquote>

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