Shackled City Adventure Path

[Togath]

After finally finding it's name this morning I had been thinking of buying the shackled city adventure path, but before I did so I thought I would ask and see if anyone had any feedback on how well it's put together and on balance and how smoothly the separate adventures flow together.

I do have some experience with the first adventure, having been one of the players in a campaign using that a friend was running a few years ago, but the party wasn't very well put together so even having played through a few of the encounters I'm not quite sure of it's balance(if I remember right the party was a rogue, with skill points spread out to the point most of her skills had only a +1 modifier from skill points to them at first level, a poorly built bard[it was the first time the player of the bard had tried to build her own character without any help], a gnome sorcerer[with either a +2 or +3 level adjustment template or gnome variant] and me, who was playing a melee focused druid[with both phb2 variants because i was worried about being over powered if I went for the normal druid])

[Vegan Zombie]

My group and I are doing it right now - I like Age of Worms better, but this ones alright. Druids and Barbariens may have RP troubles as most of the game takes place in or around the city of Cauldren.

One note as a DM: the way the appendix and monster stats are handled will leave you doing lots of prep work to organize things. Nothing worse than flipping through 300 pages anytime you need monster stats. :smallannoyed:

Also, make sure you get the map pack so you can print them out!

[Telonius]

At least IMO, the plot flowed much better in Shackled City than in Age of Worms. There's much more of an over-arching narrative. (Might have just been our DM, but Age of Worms seemed like a big bunch of "monster of the weeks" that don't become clearly linked until way too late in the campaign). The setting of Cauldron is terrific, with lots of plothooks and potential backstory links.

I think the biggest problem with Shackled City is that it was made during the change-over between 3.0 and 3.5, and was very clearly written for a party that is low-op. My own adventurers were medium-op, and I spent a whole lot of time rebuilding "main baddies" so they'd last more than two rounds. Some of the higher-level Cagewrights were really egregious, but I think I must have rebuilt 13 or 14 bad guys all told. About halfway through I just threw my hands up and multiplied the mooks by 2 (without giving out any more XP) since the encounters were so easy.

I don't think there should be much of a problem working in a wilderness-based class or race. There are plenty of "outside Cauldron" adventures, especially in the jungles and woodlands. The Striders of Fharlanghn - two of which you encounter in the first dungeon crawl - provide a great opportunity for roleplaying with woodsy types. The main churches involved are St. Cuthbert and Wee Jas, with Kord and Pelor filling a much smaller role in the setting, and the others barely mentioned. If the Cleric doesn't have one of those, make sure there's some sorts of other roleplay opportunities if he's interested in interacting with his church hierarchy. (The Church of Pelor can be easily swapped out for whatever the Cleric worships; nothing particularly Pelor-thematic happens in the plot).

[Togath]

Sounds like a fun adventure path then, and I'm fine with having to rebuild a few villains, as I'm already in the habit of rebuilding bosses for a higher op group of PCs or to include non-core material such as ToM or ToB when I have run premade adventures or dungeons.

[Eronai_Jantig]

I had a lot of fun with this campaign as a player, but be sure to make the planar stuff a bit more exciting. Make sure to add your own thing when it comes to the smoking eye and the like.

[Rethmar]

I agree with Eronai.

I ran this campaign as a player with a group of friends and a great DM from level 1 to 20. Enjoyable, plot-filled fun. Just feel free to make small changes however you think would work best for your party, since players tend to be unpredictable.

[Andorax]

Enjoyed it immensely as well...ran it back when it was in Dungeon issue by issue (and physically speaking, found it a bit easier that way). I'll have to do some digging, but I think I still have various powerpoints I created for different portions of the adventure, so PM me if you have need of them for your own go-through.

The final confrontation was definately memorable, as were many different moments throughout the campaign getting there.