"City of the Spider Queen" how is it?

[CRtwenty]

Picked up this campaign at my local bargain books store since I'm planning on running a Drow themed campaign soon. My PCs are getting close to the recommended starting level (10) so I might give it a shot.

Has anybody played through or DMed this? What's your opinion? What problems did you run into? At first glance it seems like a pretty unforgiving campaign. Lots of deadly encounters and a whole bunch of traps set up to destroy unwary PCs. Plus since it's in the Underdark and the later 2/3rds of the campaign take place in an area with restricted Teleport magic it'll be hard to get to town and regroup if the PCs run into major trouble. Was this a problem for you guys?

[Yora]

All I really remember about it is that we had quite some fun with it.

The one part that got a bit complicated was the forbiddance spell in the center of the first fortress. I think the adventure is still 3.0 and from what I remember that one was a lot nastier than it is in 3.5e now. Now it simply deals 12d6 damage on a failed Will Save, but since that comes without warning and the PCs might already be injured at that point you'd still have to be careful. If anyone is under 60 hp, you might want to tell them that they feel an aura of great danger comming from the doorway as they approach it.

Also, I think 10th level might actually be a bit low to begin with. Starting at 11th or 12th might be a bit safer, as there are indeed not that many opportunities to resupply.

[Amphetryon]

Please beware of the encounter getting into the city itself. Spoilered below for any who don't want to know what I'm talking about. When I was going through the module as a Player, we found many of the encounters to be somewhat binary in nature, meaning a Character with the right spell could immediately bypass/end the encounter, while a party without such a Character often struggled mightily, and was often forced to retreat; I am aware that there are many folks who see this as a systemic issue in 3.X. I'll note that this was relatively early in my exposure to 3.5, and none of us were particularly keen on optimizing at that point.





The Roper is brutal if the party's not set up right to handle it. It can pretty easily out-grapple a majority of PCs who don't have FOM or aren't built specifically for grappling.

[Agincourt]

If you are playing 3.5 or Pathfinder, one thing to keep in mind is that the module was designed with Haste giving a character another standard action. Under the tactics of many NPCs, the module suggests you start combat with them casting Haste, but that won't really help them since they're primarily spellcasters. You may want to look into another tactic, especially tactics that give another casting. Perhaps replace Haste with spells that are Swift or Immediate actions; those types of spells did not yet exist in 3.0.

[ksbsnowowl]

If you are playing 3.5 or Pathfinder, one thing to keep in mind is that the module was designed with Haste giving a character another standard action. Under the tactics of many NPCs, the module suggests you start combat with them casting Haste, but that won't really help them since they're primarily spellcasters. You may want to look into another tactic, especially tactics that give another casting. Perhaps replace Haste with spells that are Swift or Immediate actions; those types of spells did not yet exist in 3.0.

+1. Good advice.

For what it's worth, I allow a slightly modified version of 3.0 Haste as a 5th level spell in my games. It takes a full round action to cast, and doesn't go into effect until after the caster's turn ends. As such, his entire turn is spent casting the spell, and he doesn't get to act twice until round 2. One side effect is that this results in it being more effective to cast it on someone else in the party, rather than yourself.

It hasn't been an issue as of yet, and they are 15th level now.

One other thing to keep in mind is the 3.5 change to Shadow Dragons. In 3.0 Shadow Dragons (and shadow mastiffs, etc) only received a 40% miss chance. Which means you could still target them and see where they were. In 3.5 they gain total concealment, which means they effectively auto-succeed at Hide checks, so long as they are not in daylight. They are VERY HARD to fight, even if you do have daylight, because they can move from outside the daylight, attack, and leave the daylight again in one turn. They are extremely hard to fight, and nearly impossible to fight if you aren't properly prepared. It might not be a bad idea to plant a scroll of Daylight into some of the treasure just prior to meeting up with the shadow dragon.

[dysprosium]

My group had lots of fun with it too. Though I don't have my campaign notes with me from that group on me so I can't give specific details.

We even ran the illithid prison adventure from that Dungeon Magazine since it was touted as a cool side adventure.

[Bonzai]

It can be a meat grinder if the party doesn't have the right make up, or if they by pass content and come in under leveled.

Lol, to this day, my group refuses to go to the underdark. Not for any reason, regardless of characters or campaign.

[Skrobo]

The first death will be on the mithral door with the auto-reset slay living.
The second on the Archmage by the great chasm.
The third on a scripted patrol because your group will be fed up by then and take everything extremely cautiously, wasting time.
At that point the players will threaten you and quit the campaign.

[Za'hynie Laya]

I DM'd this module for a group of 4 players in the revised 3rd edition rules. Five years after the campaign ended, my players still detest Faerun's Underdark. I made several changes to CotSC utilizing many 3.5 products throughout the adventure (minus Drow of the Underdark, FC I & II, and Exemplars of Evil books). I even ran Dungeon Magazine #94 tie-in module early in Part 2.

By the time the party had penetrated Castle Maerimydra's first floor at the end of Part 3, they became impatient with the constant grind and used their abilities to circumvent most of the rest of the mod all the way to the end of Part 4.

Some of my changes may have been too tough and this was a long adventure to play through anyway. I didn't blame my players for the way they felt. Over all, I enjoyed the time planning and playing...and learned something important about D&D: If the players are not enjoying themselves, why go through the trouble to run them through this?

Oh, and I second Agincourt's reply above.

[Diarmuid]

Another 3.0 to 3.5 difference to watch out for is Blasphemy. It's much tougher in 3.5 than it was in 3.0 and can easily result in a TPK if the monsters who have it use it intelligently.