Tips For DMing Shackled City

[Appolo]

Hey OOTS forum! I recently bought the Shackled City Adventure Path, and am planning to run as much of the first chapter as i can at my best friend's birthday party tomorrow. i've read the chapter, and the introduction, but would love to hear some tips to make the experience better. I would really like to have a fun campaign, where everyone has fun. Please, post tips and/or suggestions on how to make this a smooth experience for both the DM and the players. this is my first premade adventure, but i've been DMing for about 3 years.

[Kristoss]

I run that campaign and find it lots of fun.

A valuable resource would be this (http://www.therpgenius.com/) website. The monster statblocks, which are so much easier to use then appendix IV, are particularly useful.

[Tam_OConnor]

Keep in mind, all this stuff is working from the Dungeon version; the hardcover may be different.

The lich cleric in The Test of the Smoking Eye eats rogues for breakfast. My poor, lamented dual-wielder...*sniff* I'm okay... The gnome dungeon in the first adventure. Collapse half of it (if not more) and move the encounters and treasure to the other side. Because that thing is blighted ginormous! Also, don't send bards under the stage. The grick there is a player killer with decent rolls. Also, it is excellent fun to sunder the erinyes' bow in the Kuo-toa temple. But the summoning itself doesn't make much sense. (Why not an aquatic demon and half fill the temple with water?)

As for more general tips...don't force them to follow the adventure path. Be willing to make little sidequests, especially ones in the city that'll make them bond to the huge NPC cast. The adventures seem to be a little disjointed for the first few, so work on the plot hooks to net those delicious PC fish. (I imagine the lead-ins were much improved from the magazine version).

Good luck!

[Alleine]

Make sure at least two PC's can take on flying creatures. We had to rely on a psion(me) for ranged powers(which did too little damage, AND couldn't bypass DR), and the fighter which climbed up a statue twice to jump on the sucker. The wiz went down in the first round due to an unhealthy number of arrows shot with a painfully high strength bonus.
Don't ask me what it was, I was too busy trying not to die to figure out.

There was only one survivor... *shudder*

[Tam_OConnor]

Yeah, that sounds like the Erinyes.Last I recall, there was a statue to whatshername in the room too.
1d8+1d6 fire+5 for level fiveishes? 7-19 damage with a good attack from an aerial foe. It hurts. A lot. Which is why the bow sundering way so satisfactory. It helps if you're soloing the place with a half-celestial paladin (Wings! Self healing! Good saves!)