Hero Lab portfolios


Shackled City Adventure Path


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Whew, this took quite a bit of time. I have created Hero Lab portfolios for every single encounter in the Shackled City hardcover.

Shackled City Encounters

Installation Instructions:

Extract the files. Copy the Shackled City.user and 3.5 monsters converted.user files to the Hero Lab Pathfinder data folder. You can find this folder by opening Hero Lab, selecting Pathfinder, then clicking on Tools -> Explore Folders -> Game System Data Folder.

Notes:

- I don't currently have a full list of all the sources required for all the portfolios. Suffice to say, there's quite a few, and I'm pretty sure you'll need at least all the Bestiaries (except maybe 4) and most, if not all, of the core line. You will also need Shadow Chemosh's adjustments, which are available at http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/community-creations/hero-lab.

- The Shackled City hardcover was written for DnD 3.5, which has a different way of calculating CR (A human fighter 1 in 3.5 was a CR 1, whereas in Pathfinder it is CR 1/2). Due to this, I added a class level to a large number of the NPCs.

- I did not convert the Pathwarden prestige class, as it was, frankly, too much work for my talents with the Hero Lab editor. Instead, I generally used the Pathfinder Delver prestige class from Seeker of Secrets.

- I converted the gods in the book to Golarion gods, as follows:

St. Cuthbert -> Iomedae
Kord -> Kurgess
Wee Jas -> Nethys
Pelor -> Sarenrae
Olidammara -> Cayden Cailen
Moradin -> Torag
Yondalla -> Chaldira Zuzaristan
Garl Glittergold -> Nivi Rhombodazzle
Fharlanghn -> Ketephys
Hextor -> Achaekek
Blibdoolpoolp -> Dagon
Vecna -> Kabriri
Nerull -> Norgorber
Erythnul -> Kostchtchie


Holy smoke...great work. I had been making similar conversions using TOS+...can only imagine the amount of time invested. Thanks for your contribution!!


This is pretty awesome, But I don't have Herolab.
Has anyone put the conversions to paper?

I'm start to see some issues with using the 3.5 versions of the monsters with Pathfinder charecters


One of the great things about Hero Lab portfolios is that they're simply compressed files that can be opened in WinZip or similar software. Every portfolio should have 3 copies of each statblock in it - a text file, an html file, and an xml file.


Alientude...

This is freaking awesome...thank you.
My Pathfinder adventurers have been smoking my 3.5 monsters.

I'm assuming you have been running these stats...

Do you find the CR's to be comparable?
Are these CR's for a 6 member party?
Were any monsters too tough or STILL too easy?

How did it go?


I ran it with 4 players ranging from very new to very experienced, using a stat array of 15 14 14 13 12 10. We also used hero points. Overall, the campaign was difficult for the players, mostly due to some encounters that are just not balanced at all. Going chapter by chapter:

Life's Bazaar - The grell is stupid. I made it far less powerful than the 3.5 version, and it's still overpowered. I'd just take it out. I'd also drop at least one level from Kazmojen, as he's ridiculously powerful.

Drakthar's Way - Since the party had to retreat from Kazmojen the first time they fought, I had Lord Orbius rescue Terem as they fled, and Pyllrak bought the other 3 children and took them into the Darklands. I completely replaced this chapter with their desperate attempts to track Pyllrak down and return the children.

Flood Season - A very easy chapter for the party.

Zenith Trajectory - Gotrrod very nearly TPK'd the party, but they just barely managed to drive him off. They were routed at the hands of Aushanna (the advanced template has no business being on her), of course, but nothing else was really a challenge; even Dhorlot the Dragon-Father went down easily.

The Demonskar Legacy - Dugobras, the fire giant smith, was amazingly effective. That was an epic battle. The hags were just a complete joke, though. Nabthatoron nearly TPK'd the party (improved trip + combat reflexes was obscene).

Test of the Smoking Eye - I cut out the random dragon, as there's frankly too many dragons in this path. This was a fun chapter. Myaruk's (the lich) tactics are lousy, though, as the summons he can cast were no threat to the party.

Secrets of the Soul Pillars - The assassin party is way too nasty. The pre-buffs they get just make them too good, especially since the AP wants you to have them attack when the party is likely not in their adventuring gear. Fetor's opening round tactics (quickened lightning bolt + lightning bolt) were devastating. Vittriss Bale was a good, hard fight that would have been a whole lot worse if the party hadn't had multiple death wards.

Lords of the Oblivion - The battle with Thifirane was fun. I ended up completely changing the dungeon leading to Lord Orbius, as I wanted the party completely surprised about his true identity, and the original dungeon makes that impossible. That fight was very epic, as well.

Foundations of Flame - I was looking forward to this chapter, as it's so different, and it fell flat. Most of the encounters were very easy, and magic makes most of the events simple to overcome. Instead of Kravijack, I used Thifirane (who had escaped their first encounter) plus some mercenaries. I also ended up skipping on the Hookface battle, as again, too many dragons.

Thirteen Cages - Most of the Cagewrights were unimpressive. Moltenwing was a very difficult encounter. The encounter with Ardeth Webb and Nulin Wiejeron was a complete joke - they were amazingly ineffective. I added the spellweaver from chapter 11 into the battle with Dyr'ryd, and that made the encounter a blast that ranged over the entire Tree room and pushed the party to their limits.

Strike on Shatterhorn & Asylum - I combined these two chapters, as Strke on Shatterhorn is so out of place and dull. Due to the way the party interacted with NPCs, I used Lord Aslaxin as a worm-that-walks Cagewright magus who lead a counterstrike against the party along with several Cagewrights from Shatterhorn. On Carceri, Dark Myrakul was a joke, and I had Adimarchus immediately plane shift to Occipitus and fight the party there. It was a suitably epic end to the campaign.

If I had to make one change to the way things played out, I would have completely rebuilt the Stormblades. The one time they fought my players, the Stormblades were beat down so heavily that the concept of them as a successful rival adventuring party was kind of ridiculous. Luckily, the players did hate them, except for Zachary Aslaxin II, who came off as reasonable.

It was a blast of a campagin, but it needs heavy work to make it the best it can be. I ended up changing more and more of the encounters the farther into the campaign we got, to make sure things stayed interesting, effective, and not overpowered, but that's something I end up doing in every campaign.


My party will be entering the Kopru ruins next session. Your T-rex skelly looks VICIOUS!!


We are just finishing up Flood Season and we had the opposite problem. They are getting crushed. I was right about the T-rex. 4d6+20 was just WAY TOO LEATHAL. I nerfed it to 4d6+10 and they still had issues.

The conversions have been working out great though. Thanks again.


My players were scared of the T-rex skeleton, and were sure it was going to be a TPK, until they noticed a quirk in how I drew the map and darted into a small niche in the wall of the cavern. The T-rex was too big to fit through, and as a skeleton, too stupid to get away, so they just chipped away at it with ranged attacks.

Glad the portfolios are helping out.


Ha! Mine did the same thing. I described the door into the chamber as only 7' tall. They stood in the doorway and shot it with acid splash cantrips until it disintegrated. I gave them extra xp


Alientude, sir. You have just made my day. I plan on running Shackled City for my group after Christmas and sat down today to begin the heavy slog of converting everything. You have just made my job so much easier. I'm going to still be sifting through the forums for ideas (like how you said to nerf Kazmojen a little bit further) and tweaking here and there, but good glory did you ever help! Thank you SO much!

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Hmm, need to grab these and get them set up in my HeroLab...


So far they are working out great. Pathfinder characters are still OP as hell though. It's a bit annoying. My group didn't want to play 3.5


Thanks so much for this, running this for my cousin and his kids who have never played before... this will save me a lot of grief!!!


Any idea how to fix this?

The following sources are not present for 'Street thug #1', which may cause problems during load: 'The Great Beyond', 'Heart of the Jungle', 'Inner Sea Bestiary', 'Inner Sea Magic', 'Into the Darklands', and 69 others
Critical information not found in data files: Source 'Shackled City'
Critical information not found in data files: Source 'ShadowChemosh's Adjustments (v2.5)'
Critical information not found in data files: Source '3.5 Monsters converted'
Pick 'abDRCIrMag' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '80'
Pick 'abDamRedTL' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '84'
Pick 'abSTDmReBG' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '86'
Pick 'abSTDmReGM' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '87'
Pick 'abSTDmReMS' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '88'
Pick 'xxDRGold' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '703'
The following sources are not present for 'Street thug #2', which may cause problems during load: 'The Great Beyond', 'Heart of the Jungle', 'Inner Sea Bestiary', 'Inner Sea Magic', 'Into the Darklands', and 69 others
Critical information not found in data files: Source 'Shackled City'
Critical information not found in data files: Source 'ShadowChemosh's Adjustments (v2.5)'
Critical information not found in data files: Source '3.5 Monsters converted'
Pick 'abDRAdaGoo' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '79'
Pick 'abDRCIrMag' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '80'
Pick 'abDREvandS' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '81'
Pick 'abDamRedTL' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '84'
Pick 'abSTDmReBG' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '86'
Pick 'abSTDmReGM' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '87'
Pick 'abSTDmReMS' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '88'
Pick 'xxDRGold' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '703'
The following sources are not present for 'Street thug #3', which may cause problems during load: 'The Great Beyond', 'Heart of the Jungle', 'Inner Sea Bestiary', 'Inner Sea Magic', 'Into the Darklands', and 69 others
Critical information not found in data files: Source 'Shackled City'
Critical information not found in data files: Source 'ShadowChemosh's Adjustments (v2.5)'
Critical information not found in data files: Source '3.5 Monsters converted'
Pick 'abDRAdaGoo' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '79'
Pick 'abDRCIrMag' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '80'
Pick 'abDREvandS' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '81'
Pick 'abDamRedTL' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '84'
Pick 'abSTDmReBG' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '86'
Pick 'abSTDmReGM' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '87'
Pick 'abSTDmReMS' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '88'
Pick 'xxDRGold' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '703'
The following sources are not present for 'Ruphus Laro', which may cause problems during load: 'The Great Beyond', 'Heart of the Jungle', 'Inner Sea Bestiary', 'Inner Sea Magic', 'Into the Darklands', and 69 others
Critical information not found in data files: Source 'Shackled City'
Critical information not found in data files: Source 'ShadowChemosh's Adjustments (v2.5)'
Critical information not found in data files: Source '3.5 Monsters converted'
Pick 'abDRAdaGoo' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '79'
Pick 'abDRCIrMag' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '80'
Pick 'abDREvandS' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '81'
Pick 'abDamRedTL' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '84'
Pick 'abSTDmReBG' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '86'
Pick 'abSTDmReGM' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '87'
Pick 'abSTDmReMS' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '88'
Pick 'xxDRGold' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '703'
The following sources are not present for 'Jil', which may cause problems during load: 'The Great Beyond', 'Heart of the Jungle', 'Inner Sea Bestiary', 'Inner Sea Magic', 'Into the Darklands', and 69 others
Critical information not found in data files: Source 'Shackled City'
Critical information not found in data files: Source 'ShadowChemosh's Adjustments (v2.5)'
Critical information not found in data files: Source '3.5 Monsters converted'


By the way I added those two files to my game system data folder. All other files were extracted into my dropbox folder


One other thing, planning to run this on Saturday, but even the thugs in the very first encounter of the campaign seemed overpowered with 24 hp against players who might have around 10 or 15 if they are lucky. I'm sure the cleric can cast hold person on one though so that evens it out a little.

Isn't a CR4 encounter too high for 4 first level characters?


First thing I'd try to fix those errors is going to Portfolio -> Strip Missing Sources. I did it on mine and it looked to work correctly after that.

As for the first encounter, it's not really a CR 4. There's 3 CR 1/2 street thugs which works out to a CR 2 encounter, and then Jil (a CR 6) is included in there, but she's not really part of the encounter. It really should be labeled as a CR 2 encounter. Also, I'm not sure where you're seeing 24 hp for the thugs - they have 15 hp as far as I can tell.


Thanks a lot for this, my group recently changed this AP over the pathfinder and this was a massive help. I am new to Hero Lab though and I was hoping for a little help. Many of the encounters load fine and I can print the monsters statblocks without an issue. However some seem to load incorrectly. They load with 0 to all stats, AC 10 and 0 hp. I currently have the core pack loaded and have up to bestiary 3 in addition to the 'Pathfinder Pack' from the community addons loaded. I also get the errors Bremen mentioned above almost exactly. Any ideas?


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Here's an updated link for the zip: Link

Fair warning that it's been many years since I looked at this, and Hero Lab has gone through a whole lot of changes that might cause some problems with the files. I don't expect to have time to look into any issues that might come up.

Sovereign Court

This is awesome, thanks for sharing.

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