I've been DMing shackled city since may for a party of six, and looking at the power level of some of the Cagewrights (especially Dyr'Ryd) it seems that cleaning out the cagewright's base is going to be walk in the park. Have any of the other DMs come to this conclusion and what changes did you make to the NPCs?
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I've been DMing shackled city since may for a party of six, and looking at the power level of some of the Cagewrights (especially Dyr'Ryd) it seems that cleaning out the cagewright's base is going to be walk in the park. Have any of the other DMs come to this conclusion and what changes did you make to the NPCs?
I'm about to start this chapter and to me it seems quite the opposite. While the Cagewrights are not, individually, on par with the players, I think the fact that the PC's will need to complete the entire adventure without resting is going to play havok with a normal group. Sure, if the PC's confront Dyr-Ryd at full power, he's a push-over. But by this point in the adventure they will have likely faced several powerful NPCs, Moltenwing, elementals and outsiders. Remember, if the PC's stop to rest, the ritual completes. The other question I'd have is, how soon after Foundations of Flame will you be running Thirteen Cages? In my case, I started the adventure immediately, giving the PC's only enough time to rest and recover hit points, but not enough time to gain new spells, or craft/buy items.
However, if you do find the Cagewrights lacking in menace, there are two suggestions I'd make. The first is to simply add a few levels to some of the Cagewrights. A level of wizard or cleric here and there will make a noticeable difference. The other option is to include more allies in the form of gated in, or bound demons. Perhaps Dyr-Ryd has more of his demodand bretheren with him. I personally find that a larger group of enemies tends to be more effective than simply boosting the power levels of a single foe. If you are worried about characters with dismissal or other effective way of removing outsiders from play, perhaps include a few constructs as well.
I believe the Cagewrights were able to craft a shield guardian as a gift for Thifraine (or was this only in my campaign... it's all a blur at this point), it might make sense for there to be additional construct guards within the Fiery Sanctum.
Well, I gave them until the day after Foundation of Flame to stop the ritual (though they don't really know this)but immediately after completing Foundation they killed Moltenwing, then rested. So the cagewrights now know that they are coming, so they will probably pull most of their personnel back to the area around the tree, so the PCs will be tripping 2 or 3 encounters at once with little to no rest time in between rooms. That should work.