What things are essential for characters to survive the Shackled City Adventure Path?

I think that the most important thing is to know when it's too strong, run and come back later with more preparations.

a 10-foot pole.

A veritable army.

I have 7 PCs, an animal companion and a guard dog.
This isn't an adventuring group. Its an army.

Its great though, nobody has stepped on anybody elses toes amazingly enough, and its all been in good fun.

What about a infernal bane and dragon bane weapon? Alakast covers one of these but there certainly is plenty of demons and dragons floating around this campaign.

What things are essential for characters to survive the Shackled City Adventure Path?

Hit Points. AC. Saves. Healing. Trapfinding. Damage dealing.

I'd also suggest: evasion, SR, DR, teleportation, dragon and demon-bane weapons (as others suggested), and resurection.

I'm assuming this is a player asking, so I won't divulge any major secrets, but I would suggest that you avoid going anywhere or doing anything without a plan. At some points the AP leads you around a bit, and you just have to go with it, but you should not let that prevent you from having a solid plan.

Simply rushing into anything might get you trapped, stunned, surprised, feared, or otherwise caught flat-footed.

Action Points.

Mainly being used to stabilize.

My players appear to be unconsious a lot.

scap.teknohippy.com

A wizard! Not a sorcerer or a multi-class, but a Wizard!

Hi All,

My group started out like Nighthunter’s with 7 players. The group is now down to 5 players and we have seen a change in the group’s capability to manage encounters effectively.

However, as much as numbers have been a factor, I must agree with teknohippy that action points make a huge difference. My group and I use the action points as presented in the Unearthed Arcana supplement and they have really been a deciding factor in my own SCAP campaign.

However, unlike technohippy’s players who use them to stabilize, mine seem to burn action points for spell recall, feat simulation, and saving throw boosts. Boy do they go through them quick. :-)

Regarding Walter McWilliams’ comment concerning needing a single class wizard, I must agree. I have two multiclass wizards (a wizard/fighter and a wizard/rogue) and already by chapter 3 we are seeing the somewhat crippling effects of no 3rd level spells being available. I can only imagine what the next couple of chapters are going to be like. Anyone else smell action points burning? :-)

Good gaming,
Mark

Diplomacy, Gather Information, & knowledge (local (cauldron))

The group I game with really needs a Wiard. They have an artificer but they are expensive and much less capable.

And yes. Action Points. We use a MDT = con. So there are a bunch of KO's. I use the Clobbered rule for "unnamed" mooks so it balances out a bit more.

I have to agree with alot of the above posts about a wizard. This is my second time running the adventure for some players and the first time they had a true wizard and this time they instead have a warmage. The warmages damage potential is awesome but the party can really feel the versatility loss from not having a wizard.

I'm about to start running SCAP and the consensus I seem to get from the message boards is that it is very tough. I currently have 5 players, and since the campaign is designed for 6, they're playing gestalt classes with 32 points for stat-buy. You guys think this is a good equalizer or should I add action points?

I'm about to start running SCAP and the consensus I seem to get from the message boards is that it is very tough. I currently have 5 players, and since the campaign is designed for 6, they're playing gestalt classes with 32 points for stat-buy. You guys think this is a good equalizer or should I add action points?

It's only 1 player difference. I know that the SCAP can be a bit of a meat grinder but I think that 5 gestalt characters may have too easy a time of things.

Just my 2 cents.

Olaf the Stout

a 10-foot pole.

You have no clue how true this is. A 10-foot pole will do worlds to help your group survive. It's all in knowing how to use it.

I'm about to start running this; I have a core group of six players with three more who will show up from time to time. So far, there's a fire genasi wizard and maybe a druid, and everybody else is running a melee character or archer... the guy playing the wizard is kind of bummed that, due to ECL and starting at 1st level, he's going to be playing a bare fire genasi for the first 1,000 xp. I'm letting him use a crossbow so he can have something to do other than control flame. In the long run, I expect him to rule the campaign with a fist made of fire and destruction, so it should balance out.

Faith. And a decent copy of Appendix IV so the DM isn't pissed off about having to flick backwards and forwards in the HC.

Seriously though healing. My lot are currently all human males and are all divine spellcasters. Wiz3/Clositered Cleric3/Mystic Theurge7/Smoking Eye1, Pal13/Saint2, and Ftr3/Clr3/Pious Templar7. They can all heal and even if it isn't much it has made each PC self reliant for healing and offsets the trap damage (no rogue). Has been very useful for wands as well, as they can all use healing wands. It is a major factor for why they have survived with three players, or to use WoW parlance two tanks and a major dpser :)

Has anyone run through the adventure (partially or fully) without much difficulty with one of the core classes missing - Fighter-type, cleric, wizard or thief?

Which core class is the least important?

Do you think the druid and ranger classes are poor choices considering the amount of dungeons and lack of wilderness encounters?

What spell (besides a healing/raise type) should all wizards seek to learn? What cleric spell?

Who is the worst NPC is upset earlier in the game?

Delvesdeep