The Savage Tide

[lord pringle]

I'm going to be starting the Savage Tide Adventure Path next week and I was wondering if anyone who had run it before had any tips for me.

[CockroachTeaParty]

SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD!


I've got pretty extensive experience with the Savage Tide. I've run it in RL up until just before the end of Chapter 5.

In general, the campaign is fun, exciting, and flavorful, but it's also pretty brutal and unforgiving for ill-balanced or inexperienced parties. Until they get to level 9 or so (the end of Chapter 4), they'll be pretty vulnerable, and between Chapter 3 and 5, they will pretty much be behind wealth-by-level and under-equipped, since they won't have any civilization in which to spend their ill-gotten gains. So use caution during the early segments. Replacing dead characters gets challenging when they're on the high seas.

I would suggest replacing or altering certain particularly notorious encounters. The rhagodessas in the first chapter can be alarmingly deadly; the savage dinosaur in Kraken's Cove is a notorious TPK machine. During chapter 3, consider replacing the flotsam ooze with something less deadly (and more interesting), seriously consider booting the will'o wisp (most parties won't be able to hit it), and beware the black pudding towards the beginning of chapter 4.

In general, it's a good idea to have a cleric in the party, or someone capable of casting Remove Curse and Remove Disease, since mummy rot can annihilate the party with startling ease on the months-long period without access to civilization.

Once the party gets access to teleportation magic, feel free to take off the kiddie gloves.