Good ECL for Salt Marsh [DMG 2]

[Maerok]

What is a good ECL for players in around Salt Marsh in the DMG2? Most of the book's nifty material seems to regularly encompass somewhere between 8 and 12 (10 as an average), which would leave some of the pregenerated characters as still tough along with some of Salt Marsh's strongest of NPCs.

[Fax Celestis]

I ran a campaign of mine through Saltmarsh for a while, where they came in at ECL 6. It worked fine at that level.

[Caelestion]

Of course though, the BBE priest and the even bigger BBEG would whoop the arses of an ECL 6 party.

[Renegade Paladin]

Of course though, the BBE priest and the even bigger BBEG would whoop the arses of an ECL 6 party.
Pretty much, but that's why you try to get some semblance of a campaign direction going in the city, so that they don't randomly wander in on said BBEGs ten minutes after hitting town. :smallwink:

[Caelestion]

Heheh. That is true, though of course, you want them to wander in upon the disguised priest early on, but not find out what they really are until later!

[Galathir]

I am using a variant of Saltmarch for my campaign and, if things go as I expect, they are about to set foot in it for the first time next session. They are currently level four, but I plan on using the city as a frequent base of operations. Sure they aren't ready to fully explore all the options at level four, but hopefully throughout the campaign as they level up, more and more options will unfold. They don't have to fight and kill the BBEG in the first hour, but maybe they will start to hear rumors of him and his operation.