Rescue from shield haven prison too hard?

I don't think the adventure is as hard as some of the future ones ahead. (Like that Kobold Diamond Mine one... ugh..) Its just a matter of patience and the ability to time your attacks when you need them to take out the dogs. Like someone else has said, its best not to move to them but have them come to you, maybe you are just a tad unlucky with the dodge cards because I believe they only used one dodge and one pin me down against me. With some good armor, only your wizard should be in a real threat to die within a round and hopefully by that time you could pick off a dog or two.

 

with lot of luck i finished the adventure.
it's a matter of luck because you have to draw attack cards every turn and have to be lucky when the dogs use the various dodge.
I understood that some luck is required in every game but in that adventure we have no strategy... just mere luck.
Think that dogs have too many hp, 6 or 7 would be the ideal.

 

Back in my day we had to complete that adventure at level 4, in the snow, uphill both ways. >:/

The key to Shieldhaven is not luck, it's positioning. The dogs have a lot of movement, yes, but you can still limit their ability get behind you, which is the real problem, with some carefully planned movement of your own. Once you are able to isolate a couple dogs and stop them from getting behind you, they fall easily. I also do not recommend bothering with the Servants or Dog Boys. Those are just a waste of your attack cards.

 

On our hands with no gloves!

 

I went back and levelled up a party to take on this module:

Kayte Whitehart
Level 5 Human Priest

True Strike Spear
Vigun's Blessed Blade
Crafted Healer's Mail
Misenchanted Cloth Boots
Soothing Relic
Novice's Healing Ring
Piety
​

Mili Foesplitter
Level 5 Dwarf Warrior

Blazing Shortsword
Thick Club
Leaden Maul
Jerkin Of Thorns
Dueler's Buckler
Quickling Boots
Untrained Offense
​

The Azure Wave
Level 5 Human Wizard

Staff Of Guttering Flames
Booming Ring
Burning Bangle
Orzo's Excellent Wand
Planar Robes
Soft Boots
Untrained Proliferation
​

It still took a heck of a lot of luck to get through. The dogs ninja'ing across the open spaces then doing redonkulus amounts of damage was a mighty pain. I decided that the squishy card drawing guys needed to die to give me a fighting chance and thus it proved. In the warden's office, the armoured dog managed to get three card draws to enable it to cross the open space, get behind my Cleric then backbite for stupid amounts of damage when I though it was out of actions.

As I say, I did it just to prove that it can be done on level, but man, you need either good gear and/or some lucky dice rolls. I can now tick that one off, I think. Perhaps I'll run that party against the Diamond Mine at some point.