# The Shackled City Adventure Path



## Morrus (Nov 20, 2014)

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## delericho (Nov 21, 2014)

*5 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure Path*

I ran this from start to finish some years ago, and it still ranks as one of my best-ever campaigns. (Perhaps worth noting that I ran the magazine version - the hardback adds an extra chapter early on.) The campaign is very dungeon-heavy and very combat-heavy, but is very well done and worth checking out even just to mine for material. I do have two criticisms, although neither is really fair: 3.5e really starts to drag at high level, so a campaign from 1-20 does show up this problem; and as the first of the 'modern' Paths this is somewhat primitive compared with more recent ones - even by the time they did "Age of Worms" they had realised the value of providing complementary material to the adventures themselves.


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## Zaran (Nov 21, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure Path*

This AP was actually made for DnD 3.5  .  It takes the PCs from 1st to 20th level.  The interesting thing is pretty much keeps the PCs in one area until the start going into the Outer Planes.  It always gave me a Sigil type vibe .  Probably because of how huge the city was and the uniqueness of it.  I don't remember much of the plot but I do remember it was fun.


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## Remus Lupin (Nov 22, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure Path*

I really enjoyed this game. I played as a Wizard and had a really good time.


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## Dr. Strangemonkey (Nov 22, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure Path*

Note: I do not actually remember if the volcano explodes.It's a great idea for a mega-adventure locale and highly adaptable to whatever larger game or setting you want to run it in. We used Iron Heroes for it, worked out fine. Among the larger group of my gaming companions tales of this game are still told.


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## Jhaelen (Nov 27, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure Path*

This is the very first Adventure Path. As such it had a few issues, but all in all, especially in the extended and updated hardcover edition, Paizo did a great job. Due to its popularity, you can also find a ton of fan-created additional material, side-quests and general improvements. It features some of my favorite adventure sites/dungeons and npcs/villains and it's sufficiently generic to be usable for all kinds of D&D settings. The first few modules lack a bit of coherence, but since everything's set in or around the city of Cauldron which is described in sufficient detail to serve as an interesting base for an entire campaign, that didn't bother our group much. Since it's a bit reminiscent of a classical mega-dungeon setup, you may not like it as much if you aren't into that kind of thing at all.


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## Lwaxy (Nov 28, 2014)

*5 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure Path*

Dungeon-heavy and battle intense, it has some plot twists and turns you likely won't suspect and requires some thinking along instead of ust following the plot. GM also has the options to adust the timing to run other small things along the side if he so wishes, as the story does not rush the PCs along. Love it.


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## Dragovon (Nov 29, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure Path*

I've played this once and run it twice.  I really enjoyed most of it, but it needed a bit more foreshadowing as the BBEG isn't really even acknowledged until nearly the end.


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## Starfox (Dec 11, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure Path*

I ran this as a player converted to Mutants and Masterminds sword and sorcery. It was a bit of a slog. Maybe something was lost in translation, and maybe our party's general lack of curiosity undermined things (my character had an Int of 6 or so). Having befriended some NPCs early on, I felt these got lost later in the adventure path. Still, the city and other scenery was lovely, and some of the situations it set up were very cinematic.


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## Schmoe (Dec 30, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure Path*

Note that this review contains spoilers (obviously?).  Shackled City is almost two separate campaigns.  There is the first 3/4's, where the party becomes intimately involved with the city of Cauldron and ultimately its saviors, and then there is the last 1/4, where the party heads off to deal with a heretofore unknown threat.  As the first AP, the first part of Shackled City has some really excellent moments.  There is plenty of dungeon-crawling, so groups who are averse to dungeons should avoid this AP.  Having said that, in the early chapters of the AP, the city of Cauldron provides ample opportunities to branch out with roleplaying, side quests, and character development.  The setting is the star, and this first portion culminates with an excellent siege on the city that allows the characters to really step up and become heroes for the city they've come to know.    Compared to the rest, the latter portion of the adventure seems disjointed and tacked on to the rest of the AP.  This is something that can be mitigated with some work on the DMs part, but the adventures in the end are also somewhat uninspired dungeon crawls.  I have a feeling that a lot of groups might be happier just wrapping up the campaign early and skipping the last couple of chapters.  Overall, the combats are very difficult and were designed to challenge a group of 6 PCs with a solid understanding of the rules.  There are a few encounters in particular that have the potential to be a TPK, including a certain Erinyes archer, and an attack by a team of assassins, so DMs will need to carefully consider the capabilities of their groups, or how the campaign might recover in the face of near or complete TPK.  Taken as a whole, the Shackled City provides a great foundation for some very compelling adventures and role-playing.  There are some places that really seem to beg for a little more attention, but any additional work put in by the DM will really make the AP shine.  Fortunately, there are plenty of wonderful player-created resources out there to embellish the AP, many of which are truly top-notch.  I don't recommend this AP to novice DMs, but then, I probably wouldn't recommend any AP to a novice DM.  For a veteran DM willing to add some of his own personal touches, though, this adventure really has the potential to be a memorable campaign that will be talked about for years.


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## ShadowDenizen (Dec 30, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure Path*

I think *Schmoe* hit the nail right on the read for the most part.Cauldron, teh default setting fort he path, is really the star of the show.  The AP does a good job of showcasing the city and it's inhabitants. and players can really feel invested in it's welfare. (I'd recommend A) Picking up the compiled AP Book if you can; it's really an excellent and updated version of the AP, and the map-booklet and large map of Cauldron are really helpful resources during the game, and B) Looking online at some of the wonderful fan-created props and notes for the campaign.)That said, this AP does have it's faults.  IT's a bit dungeon-heavy (particualrly in the later stages), and the "Big Bad" does sort of creep up on the players.  When I ran it, I tried to foreshadow some of the extraplanar wackiness that was to come, and my players STILL were often stymied about how things all connected toghter.  If I were to rerun it, I'd likely end it before that bit of the AP starts to take off.


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## Netherstorm (Dec 31, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure Path*

I ran this a few years back. The deal with this path is that there are a lot of cool scenarios and dungeons, but as a whole the story does not tie together well at all. The bad guys needed to be foreshadowed much better, and the plotline was far too convoluted. That said, the city is awesome (get the hardcover - the poster map is very useful) and the good adventures are really good. I honestly believe that the kuo toa dungeon of Bhal Hamatugn is the best dungeon I've ever run. I also think that "The Smoking Eye" is an absolutely inspired scenario, and the adventure entirely set in Cauldron is a classic.


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## JLant (Jan 1, 2015)

*4 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure Path*

Love the World of Greyhawk goodness but does feel a bit tacked-on.  Not such a fan of the graphic design.


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## kevin_video (Jan 20, 2015)

*4 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure Path*

The first installment of this adventure came out during the days of 3.0, but later supplements were 3.5 ed. You can tell the immediate difference between the two. If you can get your hands on the printed, updated 3.5 version with the additional adventures, do so. If not for your players, then for yourself. Probably one of the more annoying aspects of the original release was the lack of transition between the adventures. There were such large gaps that it told the DM to find other side adventures for the PCs to do, and then come back to it when they were the appropriate level. Um, no, that shouldn't be how it works. Thankfully the complete updated version get rid of all of that, and transitioned it much better. For that reason, this isn't a 2 or 3 out of 5. That being said, this would be a 5 for me if it wasn't for the fact that some of the encounters are crazy unbalanced for casual build PCs. If you're not optimized, you're going to have a tough time.


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## JLant (Nov 4, 2017)

*5 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure Path*

Of the beaten path locale but nice detailing and WoG lore.


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## Enrico Poli1 (Apr 5, 2018)

*3 out of 5 rating for The Shackled City Adventure Path*

This is the first Paizo Adventure Path (3.5 rules), back then when they published Dungeon Magazine. It's written for a party of 6 characters.
There are some great moments in the series (one above all: when you have to attack all the evil masterminds of the city gathered together for a meeting, before they find you. TERRIFIC fight!), but in the end I remember this AP as dull and mostly boring.


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