Leveling The PC's up


Shackled City Adventure Path


Forgive my stupidity,

but is there somewhere in the book i'm not seeing where it gives me specifics on how the game wants the characters leveled up (ie...specific amounts of per/ battle), or is it just standard xp allotted to the characters based on the creatures that they faught (ie. DMG, Characters in party and level weighed against number of creatures they faught and their CR?)


Gimble01 wrote:

Forgive my stupidity,

but is there somewhere in the book i'm not seeing where it gives me specifics on how the game wants the characters leveled up (ie...specific amounts of per/ battle), or is it just standard xp allotted to the characters based on the creatures that they faught (ie. DMG, Characters in party and level weighed against number of creatures they faught and their CR?)

They get XP based on what they fight, and when they accrue enough XP they get to level up. Since SC is a 3.5 adventure things will run more smoothly if you use the 3.5 XP chart.

Assuming they defeat the encounters they always be at the appropriate levels.


Keeping in mind that SCAP was originally a number of Dungeon adventures that were strung together, and that each one had an idea of what level the party should be as they start each chapter, here is a link that should answer your question.

I personally have found that the xp for each adventure is approximately correct. My group (6 characters and their cohorts) skipped Karran-Kurral and are about to walk (fully rested) into the final battle at the tree against Dyr'ryd, Sheb and "The Jester" at 16th level. They are a smart group, well prepared with buffs from good Commune questions, so I expect them to succeed even though they are lower than the expected level.


Thank you both for your help! it is much appreciated


section8 wrote:

I personally have found that the xp for each adventure is approximately correct. My group (6 characters and their cohorts) skipped Karran-Kurral and are about to walk (fully rested) into the final battle at the tree against Dyr'ryd, Sheb and "The Jester" at 16th level. They are a smart group, well prepared with buffs from good Commune questions, so I expect them to succeed even though they are lower than the expected level.

Our party also found the battle at the tree to be somewhat easier than expected, and I believe we were average 15/16th at the time. Good strategy will help any party overcome this one.

Grand Lodge

Not that I've noticed in the book, but the original magazines actually stated "if the party is level X, proceed to the next arc, otherwise do a side arc to help them get to that level." I actually go back and forth on both so that I have the proper reference, and I won't be sending the characters to their death when I was supposed to be "leveling them up" ala a video game RPG scenario.


I decided to scrap the XP system entirely and have preset places along the path where the group would gain a level. My party of 4 gestalt characters has fared pretty well so far with minimal deaths but lots of challenge.

I found that since I juggled things around a bunch and chopped out large sections of the AP (Strike on Shatterhorn anyone?) as well as added lots of material, including a lot of delvedeep's alternative foreshadowing, it was lots easier. I did a breakdown of the adventures and the campaign as a whole and just decided, based on EL and story, where the party would advance level.

They have just uncovered the location of Oblivion and are all level 15. By the time they clash with Dyr'ryd and the tree they will be level 18, and when they kick the backside of Big A, they will be level 20. This whole setup saves me so much work and the players are free to explore the story however they like and not worry if they have fought enough or done enough to gain the XP needed.


after the end of thirteen cages we were level 18. We had particular trouble with the dragon, and by the time we reached the last 2 encounters were no where near optimal.


section8 wrote:

Keeping in mind that SCAP was originally a number of Dungeon adventures that were strung together, and that each one had an idea of what level the party should be as they start each chapter, here is a link that should answer your question.

I personally have found that the xp for each adventure is approximately correct. My group (6 characters and their cohorts) skipped Karran-Kurral and are about to walk (fully rested) into the final battle at the tree against Dyr'ryd, Sheb and "The Jester" at 16th level. They are a smart group, well prepared with buffs from good Commune questions, so I expect them to succeed even though they are lower than the expected level.

I'm curious how your group got here fully rested? We just finished and we did not have the rest option, we were down to minutes till the portal opened and i can't recall anywhere that we could have fully rested?


My group of 6 is having just the opposite problem. With standard XP from creatures fought, they're outpacing the expected levels and are thus underequipped for their level. The entire group was level 4 by the beginning of Chapter 2. They're certain to be level 5 across the board by the time they start Flood Festival.

I don't like the arbitrary approach, "You'll level when I say you level," so I'm trying to find a way to bring their levels more in line with what's expected for each chapter without completely skipping content.

By the way, in answer to the original post, each chapter in the hardbound starts and ends with a black box giving you an idea of what level the party should be and where they should be in the overall story arc.


ArchAnjel wrote:

My group of 6 is having just the opposite problem. With standard XP from creatures fought, they're outpacing the expected levels and are thus underequipped for their level. The entire group was level 4 by the beginning of Chapter 2. They're certain to be level 5 across the board by the time they start Flood Festival.

I don't like the arbitrary approach, "You'll level when I say you level," so I'm trying to find a way to bring their levels more in line with what's expected for each chapter without completely skipping content.

By the way, in answer to the original post, each chapter in the hardbound starts and ends with a black box giving you an idea of what level the party should be and where they should be in the overall story arc.

You might want to consider requiring more xp per level or just scaling down the xp by a percentage. If they are 2x higher then give 1/2 xp. You can always change it if it gets to low. It's interesting to me because we had 5 players through the 1st 10 levels and now we are up to 6 players. We never seemed to steam roll the hard encounters, and if we did, their was usually some lucky rolls involved, a crit that saved the mage from being obliterated.

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