Well as Great Guru (He's a DM I am a player can't hurt to kiss butt) has probably already mention I, AJ, am playing the whole party that is going to try the Shackled city AP.
Now most of my 3.5 experience has been as the DM and I don't get to be the player. I see losts of flaws and errors in action my players take and they never try something different. Example, my paladin will be putting the reach of a spiked chain and the trip option to heavy use. Much over looked at my table. Second, I am giving my grey elf wizard Point blank shot, and precise shot for his spells and might actually take up rapid shot to lay into opposing spellcaster. With prepared action for their spellcasting of course. (Another very overlooked tactic) The dwarf cleric of Kord and wood elf rogue I don't have much great plans for but, we will see.
Now as for the playing it isn't that hard being a DM I enjoy running lots of different characters at once and I am working on giving each character personallity. The actual dice rolling has gone smoothly with rolling 4 different colored d20s and just figuring out the top two rolls most of the time. The combat does feel like chess. Two people sitting opposite each other moving their pieces into position. Hold spells and feats up their sleeves.
So I would love feed back on this and any question. We got a session planned tomorrow and will post ASAP about new events.
David Trueheart? Wazzat?
Seriously, the best part is when his characters start talking to eachother. I'm waiting for the CN rogue to quarrel with the paladin :)
Well since I am not posting as regularly as I had hope I will give a basic run down. My party enters Cauldron. My human paladin and the grey elf wizard go off to the temple of st cuthbert to investigate the kidnapping rumors we have heard coming into town. My drawf cleric of Kord (that's unusual, I know I know) and wood elf rogue do the same at the kord temple. With a little metagaming I have my party meet back up near the orphange. Where we rescue brother Ruffus. I get to put the paladin's spiked chain to heavy use. AoOs, trips and even dealt out some nonlethal damage in a show of paladin like mercy.
We, I mean I when I say we, are then hired by jenya and get into the orphange. I even have my CN rogue (is there really any other alignment for a rogue???) mock the head mistress cause she barred his eariler attempt to go in.
We, I, meet Patch a half orc with a secret. He is with the last laugh thieve's guild. My grey elf wizard, who I had talk to the half-orc, tells him about the attack on brother ruffus. My wizard, who is LN, even swears to keep patch's secret from my Paladin of course. I have the elf rejoin the party and info people that Terrum is the target. I even had myself question myself and the wizard's answer was "Call it a hunch or elven intuition, or that I have more knowledge then the rest of you."
People seem to enjoy watching my role play out a arguement with myself. I consider myself quite good at it thank you.
I, I mean we as the party, go to talk to the gnome locksmith. With out tipping the hand about the divination spell pointing to him and in his shop there being a large curtain, I, we again, questioned him without being to agressive. More flies with honey. He write a note while talking informing me of the set of ears and eyes upstairs. We, I, go and rush upstairs and beat down the skulk thanks to Great guru's 1 on hide and my rogue's 20 on spot.
At this point we have called it quit and I (we, them maybe?) recieve exp. I was surprised to find out that talking to the gnome, and not beating him down got me a CR 3 exp award. MY normal group who was mentioned in my first post, whould have tried to beat him with dice instead of their tongues. I am a roleplayer who DM's for rollplayers. :sigh: I am going to work now to wallow in pity.
It's almost disturbing to see how he, or they, talk to each other. You'd think they, or he, would get along better. And so many secrets they're keeping from...uh...him?
well we were able to pick up playing again this sunday. With a little help from the divination spell and gnome mentioning all the trap that awaited us, the party. I talked him into scribes 3 scrolls of open/close. Traps can't hurt if your out of reach. I took the part down into the gnome enclave. I came to see that all the locks and most of the traps were well beyond my skills. Ran into two skulks that dropped my scout and annoyed the others. Followed slowly behind them and ran into a digging machine. As we entered the room there was some cloaked figure leave into another created tunnel speaking gnomish. The machine tapped out most of my resources and we went to find a spot to rest. We traveled south in the dugges tunnel trying to find a dead end to hold up in. Found the illusion room of sunlight and plants. Funny how everyone made the save except the scout, who decided to sit under a tree and enjoy himself. Ignorance is bliss. The spellcasters went to sleep and the paladin and scout took two four hour watches. A skulk, snuck up on the paladin during his watch and got by him, thankfully, the scout noticed him and Great Guru was being forgiving I believe, allowed me to act before my sleeping cleric was killed. At that point I reached level two and we quit to give me time to update my character and us do the work that our wives demanded. Till this sunday.
I figured that yelling a warning and hearing it are free actions, so once the cleric was awake he wasn't helpless. So far, they're mostly fighting the skulks through high Listen rolls. No one hardly ever beats the skulks' Hide with their Spots.