JT One's page

I will say that SCAP was a total meat grinder for our group. Though, the DM did not adjust for our group fo 5 (the hardcover is supposed to have 6).

After discussing things with our DM, he now adjusts the difficulty level of the fights and things are tough, but do-able (as they should be).

Unfortunately, the guys and Paizo cannot write an adventure that is perfect for everyone's group out there - some adjustments will need to be done.

JT

My group consists of 3 rogueish type characters (1 rogue, one ninja, 1 spell thief), a fighter, a druid, and a cleric and they have made mince meat of the first chapter so far (we're just getting ready to go to Parrot Island). Mainly because the player playing the rogue has had some really good tactics and ideas.

This is definately good news ;) At least in the beginning, they are able to function.

I will just have to keep an ear out and see what happens later on down, starting my own threads to avoid spoilers, as I am a player, not the GM.

JT

The Adventure Paths are definitely not cakewalks. Compared to some of the WOTC official modules, they're downright evil. I like that, and my players prefer tough adventures where they are really challenged.

That said, if your players aren't long time veteran players who know how to optimize their characters and use solid tactics, there is a really good chance of player deaths. I haven't started to run Savage Tide yet, but I'm going to have 7 players in my game when I do. I plan to adjust the encounters upwards in EL a bit, but not as much as I would, were these typical adventures.

Our group is composed 100% of grizzled veterans ;) Most of us starting playing in the late 70' in Elementary School, the rest started in the mid 80's.

I prefer more mid level challenges. One problem with Shackled City is we do 1 encounter, rope trick, 1 encounter, rope trick, and so on. The 4 encounters per day is blown out of the water, as we use up so many resources in 1 fight, we rarely even have 2 encounters before resting again. Then, there is nothing in the way of cannon fodder, just BBEG after BBEG. They beat us from 1 end of the dungeon to the other, making us thier b!~~*. We never have a chance to triumph and feel like we were heroes, just gimps along for the ride.

And poor rogues and swashbucklers (hell, any melee class not using a 2 handed weapon!) The amount of stuff we fight that has DR we cannot penetrate, ugh. All those DR 15 undead/construct monsters made any 1 handed weapon useless. Going multiple encounters in a row without being able to contribute even 1 point of damage is not much fun. After experiencing this issue in a huge way in Shackled City, not a single person in our new group has a 1 handed weapon - anyone using weapons has a greatsword, greataxe, etc.

JT

I know that only the first couple installments of Savage Tide are out, so only so much of an answer can be given.

What is the difficulty (monster wise) of the AP? And, due to the pirate/swashbuckler theme - can those types of characters function in it?

I only ask, because our group finished Shackled City a little bit ago, and the difficulty was ungodly. It didn't help that the GM didn't take the time to adjust the fights to match our party, but we had around 50 deaths during that thing (and about 30-40 ressurections) - and this was with the GM obviously fudging die rolls - I think Aushanna missed 12-16 attacks in a row with her bow for example, otherwise it would have been TPK and end of campaign. More than one of us purposely got killed off so we could make a more effective combat machine. And our GM was upset, because by the time this thing was finished, every singe one of our characters were fully cheesed, fully optimized, combat monsters from hell, and we were still getting pasted almost every fight. We did not feel like heroes at all, we felt like the 3 stooges (err, 5 stooges) who got lucky because the monsters kept slipping on bananna peels and busting thier heads open.

Now, we are getting ready to start a "pirate" game. Paizo has a bad rep for making killer modules in our group now :( For fear of being utterly useless, no one is making anything even close to a swashbuckler themed character - and we have 1 guy in our group who absolutely loves pirates. Greatswords and full casters are abound - not even a rogue in sight.

Joey T.

walter mcwilliams wrote:

Has anyone continued the SCAP past the final encounter? If so what did you do.

I actually have plans to do this, but in a different way than you're thinking. After we complete the campaign, I plan on each player writing a brief epilogue on what their characters do after saving the world (assuming they do that, anyways!). Afterwards, each player will keep their character sheets.

Then, later down the road, when we've played through the AoW path and we reach the last, epic battle with Kyuss, I'll allow the players to bring in their 20th-21st level characters from the SCAP to use as allies against the demigod. I remember reading the last adventure for the AoW and it states that the PCs will need allies, so I figure they're old characters will be fun!

Dude,

Ack! AoW spoilers in the SCAP boards? Our group finished SCAP, and I was reading through other's experiences. We are getting ready to start AoW this weekend, and you drop this bomb - the spoiler for the climax of the entire campaign!

AoW stuff in AoW boards please, I don't want to know what happens since I am a player.

Joe T