Pathfinder 1E Pathfinder Adventure Paths

[Crothian]

So, is there any controversy over any of the other adventure paths, or is it just CoT?

The least popular seems to be the one with the Drows, Second Darkness. I';m not sure there is anything really controversial about any of the AP's but each of them has flaws and strengths so it would be easy to just list their negatives.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Council of Thieves gets some underserved knocks. Hell, even Second Darkness is not without its merits, thought there is some plot direction from the elves in that AP which is unpalatable to many players and GMs alike.

(Easy enough to change, really.)

For my part, I think the laurels tosses on Kingmaker have got out of control in that the AP receives comparably few darts (even when it deserves them). I think sometimes there is a lack of balance to the glowing reviews for Kingmaker pronounced by many players and GMs. Certainly, in my own experience, there are several things about Kingmaker that I am increasingly becoming unhappy with.

Which is not to call it a bad AP; simply, that it's not a perfect AP by any stretch.

 

[Scott DeWar]

Which is not to call it a bad AP; simply, that it's not a perfect AP by any stretch.

And I will add that perfect never happens. It is unachievable. I give such hi accolades to Kingmaker because of the organized aspect of an un known frontier. That and the party is greatly connected to the town.

 

[tylermalan]

Are there any particular quirks to any of the APs that you can think of? Anything that really breaks the norm for a regular D&D game of adventuring and killing monsters?

 

[Crothian]

Kingmaker you build a Kingdom. It has few dungeons and nothing really that large. I would also say it has not been very challen ging combat wise. We are only in the third book but rarely has the group been in mortal danger. That doesn't mean there hasn't been challenges nor does it mean it hasn't been fun.

 

[Volaran]

I would second Crothian's note.

In Kingmaker, your characters are exploring and settling a very large area.

The 'dungeons' such as they are, are fairly small, and you will otherwise be having outdoor encounters, or random encounters.

Because the encounters are built with the standard difficulty in mind, but you will not normally be encountering more than one or two at a time, players may feel very comfortable using most of their resources at the first sign of danger. It is meta-gaming, but it is also true. This is more dangerous on the random encounters, where you may encounter creatures severely more powerful than the party.

As such, if you do think your characters are having too easy a time in Kingmaker, it may warrant some GM modification.

 

[IronWolf]

As such, if you do think your characters are having too easy a time in Kingmaker, it may warrant some GM modification.

The one encounter or maybe two if the wandering monster rolls come up make the encounter challenges a bit easy for an experienced party. I usually boost the HP of the critters in most encounters, sometimes add an opponent when appropriate. It can be to tough of finding the right line between not being a cake walk and being too overpowering if a dice roll or two go poorly for the party.

The mini-length dungeons do tend to be a little tougher and wear on the party a bit more. Even some of those have been on the easy side.

Our group is fairly experienced and I think that makes a big difference as well.

I recently read about a TPK from Rivers Run Red that the party I GM for waltzed through - the big difference being in our case everyone made their save and in the TPKs case all but one failed their save.

With all that said Kingmaker has been fun so far.

 

[Scott DeWar]

With kingmaker, you can also add an encounter or two if the players get too big for their britches.

 

[Zil]

Well, I love to run horror games and that's actually the type that I'm running now (set in Golarion with Pathfinder rules). This game is gothic horror, but the group likes all kinds of horror. They also like campaigns that make you think, campaigns with a storyline with a twist, and DON'T like straight-up dungeon crawls. Hmm... maybe that's not specific enough?

The first Pathfinder Adventure Path (Rise of the Rune Lords) had a few adventures with horror elements near the start of the series including a small twist. As others have said, the latest series, Carrion Crown, is dealing specifically with horror themes.

 

[tylermalan]

Is Rise of the Runelords... wonky, like a lot of "first in the line" products sometimes are?