[PF] - Adventure Paths

[Gorfnod]

So I have been looking at the Pathfinder Adventure Paths and although I don't usually run premade games, these look like they have promise. I have become rather busy of late and using some high quality premades would be really helpful. Before I go and invest a decent amount of money though I have a couple questions.

1. Do all of the Adventure Paths start at level 1 and end around level 15? I have heard that all of the sets are 6 books long and are about 3 levels per book.

2. Do any of them center around demons, devils or some other evil outsiders as the main antagonists?

3. Which path is your favorite and why?

4. Are they really as good as the reviews have led me to believe?

I have a low level pathfinder only game that recently started and hopefully this could help to save me some time.

[deuxhero]

Generally Kingmaker gets recommended stats for being very different than most APs (non-linear exploration and kingdom management)

[NeoSeraphi]

The reason that the Pathfinder APs are so great is that each has its own unique add-on to the game that makes it completely different from any other PF game (unless that game uses a similar rules set). For instance, Jade Regent introduced the Caravan Rules, which allow for fast traveling combat and also allow you to let NPCs help in the fight without putting them in any real danger.

Carrion Crown introduces the Harrow Deck aspect, which is a really cool version of Hero Points, involving cards that you hold to grant you bonuses on various rolls and stuff.

Council of Thieves' entire second book is a play that you have to act out with your party members. It's also a completely urban game, which is really fun.

Skulls and Shackles...who doesn't want an adventure on the high seas?

Then there are the personalized Campaign Traits. These just add small mechanical bonuses to your backstory, as long as you fit your backstory to the actual campaign. It's basically rewarding you for roleplaying correctly.

My personal favorite AP is Council of Thieves, which runs from level 1 to level 13. The urban setting is a lot of fun, especially since it's basically a huge LE city that you can enjoy.

The Council of Thieves setting emphasizes stealth, face, and hunter roles, so urban rangers with Favored Enemy (Human) and rogues rule the streets pretty well. In Council of Thieves, you will actually contribute a great deal more to the party as a skill monkey than you will as a caster, because you make a great great great many number of skill checks per day, to the point where if you were using spells to augment them all, you'd actually run out.

I'm playing an impoverished orphan half-elf urban ranger in a CoT game right now and my Favored Enemy (Human) boosts + my Favored Community (Westcrown) boosts pushes me well ahead of the rest of the party, so while they are tougher and have more AC, I am far more accurate (full BAB + high Dex + Favored Enemy bonus) and my skills are off the charts (+13 Perception versus 77% of the population, +11 at all other times, at level 3).

You will not regret spending the money for these books, I promise you. Council of Thieves, all the way.

[Gorfnod]

Strangely enough, Kingmaker and Council of Thieves are the two that seemed to be most interesting to me. The only thing is that I have a player that has already established a background as a demon hunter and thus has selected favorite enemy outsider(evil).

On a completely unrealted note, Seraphi your homebrew is awesome.

[W3bDragon]

I'm currently running Curse of the Crimson throne for my players. We're a few sessions in. Here's my thoughts so far:

Its a very well written campaign, with a lot of potential. I picked it up because, like many others, even though I have plenty of experience DMing, I don't have the time to prepare games anymore. However, its a bit of a mixed blessing. All the preparation is done for you, but you still need to read the whole thing, or at least skim the later parts, then zoom in and really read the details of the first book at least. Also, since the ideas aren't mine, I find it hard for them to stick in my head session after session and I find I need to refresh very often. Its very easy to miss small details that have a big impact on the future of the game.

So in that regard, I've found its perhaps as much prep time as putting together a half-decent game, though with bonus points for not requiring your brain to be ready for creativity when you decide to prepare.

Also, I don't know about the other adventure paths, but in CotCT there is a point early in the game where the DM needs to be a bit creative in handling the plot, or its very easy to lose track. In this sense, its very useful to look online for other people that have ran that specific path and any issues they ran into. It makes things much smoother.

Overall, the pitfalls of running the APs are no different than running any other prewritten adventure, with a bonus for being well written and a caution for needing more prep time than you'd expect.

[NeoSeraphi]

Strangely enough, Kingmaker and Council of Thieves are the two that seemed to be most interesting to me. The only thing is that I have a player that has already established a background as a demon hunter and thus has selected favorite enemy outsider(evil).

Then he's definitely suited to be in Council of Thieves. There are a lot of tieflings in CoT (though they tend to be more Lawful than Chaotic).



On a completely unrealted note, Seraphi your homebrew is awesome.

Why, thank you very much. :smallbiggrin:

[Ravens_cry]

Generally Kingmaker gets recommended stats for being very different than most APs (non-linear exploration and kingdom management)
Yeah, but at least when we played it, once it started trying to force story on us, I was less than enthused.
Just buy the kingdom building rules (http://paizo.com/store/v5748btpy8hy4), it's a lot cheaper and it's just as much fun