Eric Eslinger's page

I've been busy typing out the stat blocks for each chapter in preparation for the start of this campaign (which is tomorrow, woohoo!) and I agree that a PDF would be grand.

HK: could you upload anything you do create and feel like sharing to the resource page, here: http://therpgenius.com/Default.aspx?alias=therpgenius.com/shackledcity

That way we could all benefit from your hard work. A leecher is me!

Just to plug the site (and my own work), I've made comprehensive statblocks from the appendix and SRD monsters for chapters 1 and 2 on the rpgenius site. I'll be posting statblocks in the same format (I like that format, especially printed on big cards that take care of initiative order as well) for the other chapters as I get to them if nobody else does. They really aren't that hard, each chapter takes about five hours to do, working at a slow, interrupted pace while watching football or something.

Even better would be a PCGen file, I agree, so then you could use PCGen to create whatever statblocks you felt like, but I'm not fond of either PCGen or eTools, both in terms of pricing structure and utility received for time spent, for any tabletop play that's not totally computerized.

The Shackled City campaign is under way, but I'm still looking for a game to play in, provided it meets on nights I can swing. If you're interested in playing or running a game, join the mailing list, hosted at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/oscarsdream_east/ and send a message to the group.

Some of the other people in the group said they would be interested in a game that met on the thursdays that the SCAP campaign isn't running. Let's see if we can get a second game a-runnin!

I've allowed my players to pick +LA races, but made up quickie monstrous progressions for them. In particular, there's an Aasimar in the party; I made the aasimar get some bonuses (roughly similar to a +0 LA race) at the start, where the character is CL 1 with a class level. Then, when the character hits CL 2, they don't gain class bonuses (no hit die), but they do get the rest of the aasimar bonuses (more stats, energy resistance, etc). Quick-and-dirty, because I mainly didn't want the other players to get all jealous. But it works okay, I think.

What can I say, but Whoops! I clearly misread the statblock somehow. I have no idea where the regenration came from. And I never realized that dwarfs get urgosh familiarity in addition to waraxe familiarity (is there anything dwarfs can't do?)

On the min-max front, I'm of two minds. I'm not suggesting that Kazmojen do something like take two levels of ranger or a level of barbarian (optimized BBEGs shouldn't, IMO, have cleave, there are far better choices). I also understand the flavor issue, but a clearly suboptimal combat choice in this situation means I would probably give a minor XP deduction for defeating Kazmojen in combat.

How about this for flavor: Drop Ftr3 for Brb1 (changing his alignment to NE). Kazmojen fights with both ends of his urgosh until he drops to 50% of his hitpoints (or just cannot hit anything, or the combat starts to go really south). At this point, he drops the urgosh, rages, and starts his claw/claw/bite routines.

You could work something up where Kazmojen has aspirations of becoming a high-society member of the criminal underworld (or maybe the underdark, depending on how the underdark gets played in the campaign); keeping his berserker tendencies under control is an affectation he has in an attempt to seem more "civilized" among his peers (Pyllrak). This could also work into a situation where the PCs can negotiate with Kazmojen for the time being (avoiding a confrontation). Just a thought.

Hey folks. I was working on statblocking chapter 1, and it seems like kazmojen is very different from what I expected. I was wondering if this is just me missing something crucial or an artifact from his conversion into 3.5 (and reduction in power from the dungeon mag version)

He should be a Dwarf with the half-troll template (from fiend folio). It looks like they got a bunch of stuff wrong with him, specifically, all his attack and damage numbers were wrong (bite should do 1d6 and claw 1d4, they got it backward, he should take nonproficient penalties with the exotic weapon he's wielding), and they have him down as having regenerate 5, not fast healing 5.

Also, he's wielding an urgosh, with as far as I can tell is just silly. He doesn't have TWF or even proficiency with the urgosh, so a waraxe or greataxe seems like a far smarter thing to do. Or is his poor choice of weapon a balancing factor for his suddenly changing from fast healing to regenerate?

Are there any errata posted anywhere? Am I being a goof? Thanks.

I'm working my way through the SCAP hardcover, statblocking the NPCs for my campaign and these are the errors I found so far related to chapter 1, life's bazaar. Some of them are really minor, and only one is cause for alarm.

P350: Damaged Pulverizer Automaton has no listed speed
P360: Goblin adept and Goblin Skirmisher are out of alphabetical order.
P361: The hammerer automaton is not shown as having darkvision 60'
P365: Kazmojen's statistics are seriously at odds with the Fiend Folio description of Half-troll. Specifically:
* He is not proficient with his Dwarven urgosh, so his attacks should be +6, +2/-2 instead of the printed +10, +6/+2. He's really way better off using his claws.
* His bite attack bonus should be +3, not +2 during a full attack routine.
* His claw damage should be 1d4 + 5, not 1d6 + 4.
* His bite damage should be 1d6 + 2, not 1d4 + 2
* He is shown as having regeneration 5, that should be fast healing 5
P374: Pyllrak Shyraat's creature type is "Outside"
P374: The adjusted saving throws for Prickles' quills and howl are not shown (he's 2 HD smaller than a standard howler, so I think they should be 15 and 11 respectively)
P378: Stone Spike has a touch AC of 10 despite a Dex of 8 and being medium size. He does not seem to have a deflection AC bonus, so should have a total AC of 17 and a touch AC of 9.
P380: Thifirane Rhiavadi has the skill Knowledge (arcane), not Knowledge (arcana)
P393: Fellian Shard is shown as having the strength domain, should be travel.
P393: Fellian Shard is shown as posessing a shortbow, but the damage profile in the attack section is for the longbow (1d8). Furthermore, there's no reason for him to use a shortbow.
P393: Fellian Shard has an 8 strength and should therefore have a -1 penalty on his ranged weapon damage rolls.

General:
Appendix IV: Inconsistent capitalization scheme, e.g., "Goblin adept", "Goblin Skirmisher", "Goblin Sneak", "Half-orc fighter"

Issues with SCAP

In appendix IV, the progressing NPC statblocks are placed after the nonprogressing NPCs. There should be a separate appendix for leveling NPCs, with an entry for each of those NPCs in appendix IV that says something like "see appendix V". It's somewhat frustrating to search for, say, Fellian Shard under "F" and "S" before realizing he's at the back of the appendix.

Issues with the Adventure Path

Through Keygan Ghelve, the PCs can get a skeleton key that affords them entry to Almose Every House In Cauldron™. This can lead to some really massive looting.

Alright, two more people. Steve, Seth, I sent both of you an email about the SCAP campaign I'm starting (this thursday, actually). If you didn't get it, drop me a line at eric.eslinger@gmail.com. I'm committed to running the SCAP twice a month, and would be thrilled if there was another game running on the other thursdays.

Okay, so that sounds like four people (including me). If we can get a quorum, I'd be interested in running a game.

If we got really lucky, we could run interleaved games. That's what has worked best for me in the past. Where I DM every other session and someone else runs a completely different game in the in-between sessions. That way I get to DM and play, and don't end up on overload with the prep-work.

Feel free to drop me an email about this, my email is

eric.eslinger@gmail.com

Hi Steve! I'm also looking for a game, I just moved to the north wilmington area. I'm 29 and looking for a very similar kind of game.

I'd also be interested in starting a new group as DM. In particular, I've been really impressed with the Shackled City hardback and was thinking about using that as a baseline for a d&d campaign.

So, if anybody out there wants to join my game or has a table with an open seat, contact me!