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Pathfinder 1E Have you played or run Paizo's Adventure Paths?
- Thread starter MerricB
- Start date
Shawn_Kehoe
First Post
Pathfinder is a bit of a conundrum to me. I love the first volume - it's great stuff. But with many unused issues of Dungeon on-hand, including two other Adventure Paths, I'm not sure if I can justify the $20 per month for Pathfinder. Even if I didn't adopt 4th Edition immediately upon release, I doubt I would stick with 3.5 long enough to see both of Pathfinder's 3.5 adventure paths through...
Wik
First Post
We just ran the STAP. We're currently at the start of "The Lightless Depths", although things have slowed down now that we're all back in school (Guh! College!)
The first three adventures of STAP were AWESOME. "No Honor" was perfectly set-up for us - we never had a problem on Parrot Island, and the 5 foot dungeon was probably a good thing for our group. Both times, they went through the dungeon without resting.
"Bullywug Gambit" was tougher. Kraken cove killed one PC, although it was more the fact that he was being run by another player at the time. And the fight inside Sassering was AWESOME. WE changed it a bit, and had a fight with the BBEG that scaled through the streets of sasserine, before winding up as a duel on ancestor island that was pretty cool (especially because the whole fight was provoked by PC actions)
"Sea Wyvern's Wake" got a lot of mods by me, but it made for an adventure that we all enjoyed immsensely. I liked how it allowed the PCs to rest after each encounter - it meant that you could throw these huge, set-piece encounters against the PCs. Plus, Avner Meravanchi triggered a huge fiasco on one of the islands, that is our set piece in the game. (I need to find a way to get Avner back into the party - he really improves the game!)
"Here there be monsters" was pretty good, too. The dual BBEGs near the end were tough, but didn't kill us. We did lose a PC, though.
The next adventure, whose name escapes me, was sort of a letdown. It was just too easy to get the necessary points for defending Farshore. And a lot of the encounters seemed too mechanical - except for the Phanatons. They were done well enough to encourage a player to retire his Goliath Fighter and play a Phanaton Warmage.
Who died in a catch-up adventure I ran just before "Lightless Depths". Killed in one round. Poisonous Arrows. Funny stuff.
The first three adventures of STAP were AWESOME. "No Honor" was perfectly set-up for us - we never had a problem on Parrot Island, and the 5 foot dungeon was probably a good thing for our group. Both times, they went through the dungeon without resting.
"Bullywug Gambit" was tougher. Kraken cove killed one PC, although it was more the fact that he was being run by another player at the time. And the fight inside Sassering was AWESOME. WE changed it a bit, and had a fight with the BBEG that scaled through the streets of sasserine, before winding up as a duel on ancestor island that was pretty cool (especially because the whole fight was provoked by PC actions)
"Sea Wyvern's Wake" got a lot of mods by me, but it made for an adventure that we all enjoyed immsensely. I liked how it allowed the PCs to rest after each encounter - it meant that you could throw these huge, set-piece encounters against the PCs. Plus, Avner Meravanchi triggered a huge fiasco on one of the islands, that is our set piece in the game. (I need to find a way to get Avner back into the party - he really improves the game!)
"Here there be monsters" was pretty good, too. The dual BBEGs near the end were tough, but didn't kill us. We did lose a PC, though.
The next adventure, whose name escapes me, was sort of a letdown. It was just too easy to get the necessary points for defending Farshore. And a lot of the encounters seemed too mechanical - except for the Phanatons. They were done well enough to encourage a player to retire his Goliath Fighter and play a Phanaton Warmage.
Who died in a catch-up adventure I ran just before "Lightless Depths". Killed in one round. Poisonous Arrows. Funny stuff.
allo
i've attemped to keep things simple by way of extensive house rules (see my signature). i don't know how it will work, because we haven't reached high level yet.
i've run the following (heavily modified) aps:
shackled city- i consider this paizo's "practice adventure path," and while i really enjoy the plot, i'm not sure if i will ever run it.
age of worms- recently started this, just finished "whispering cairn," and enjoying it so far. excellent storyline.
savage tide- will run this after age of worms. again, great storyline.
rise of the runelords- will run this after savage tide.
the writing of the adventure paths keeps getting better and better. great job, guys.
messy
i've attemped to keep things simple by way of extensive house rules (see my signature). i don't know how it will work, because we haven't reached high level yet.
i've run the following (heavily modified) aps:
shackled city- i consider this paizo's "practice adventure path," and while i really enjoy the plot, i'm not sure if i will ever run it.
age of worms- recently started this, just finished "whispering cairn," and enjoying it so far. excellent storyline.
savage tide- will run this after age of worms. again, great storyline.
rise of the runelords- will run this after savage tide.
the writing of the adventure paths keeps getting better and better. great job, guys.
messy
Lonely Tylenol
First Post
I've run through the Age of Worms once to the end of Hall of Harsh reflections, and then the group broke up for various reasons. I'm now starting it again. The first time I ran the adventures, I used the "scaling the adventure" sidebars to compensate for having a party of 6 characters. My experiences are:
Whispering Cairn: my favourite adventure in Dungeon ever. With the excellent dungeon crawl and the Diamond Lake backdrop, it feels like you could start thirty different campaigns off that one adventure. I love running this adventure. Scaling went smoothly.
Three Faces of Evil: I made it work, but it took some doing. Part of the problem is that once you're in the dungeon, you can't really leave, so the various enemies don't come looking for you when you wipe out their neighbours, or else you'd run out of resources. I think what someone said about this being a 4th edition-style adventure is true. It seems to be designed for a party that doesn't have to stop to rest after every second or third encounter. Fortunately, I'm playtesting some house rules that should play right to that, so we'll see how it goes. Scaling not so great. The extra levels on the enemy spellcasters made those fights last a little longer, since they had more ways of keeping the PCs from thrashing them. Also, putting extra power on the martial characters seemed to really turn them into killing machines.
Encounter at Blackwall Keep: I actually like the way that the PCs get a chance to clean the clocks of a horde of slightly-too-weak enemies at about the level they get access to Fireball, etc., in a situation in which the PCs have a terrain advantage. Then they fight the same enemies in a situation where the enemies have the advantage. Scaling a little wonky, but successful.
Hall of Harsh Reflections: The proposed plot is kinda loopy. Lots of good fights, though. Invisible Stalkers FTW. The first boss battle was anticlimactic. The PCs just dispelled his crap and walked all over him. Next time I'm giving him some minions, just to get in the way for a few rounds. Second boss wasn't as scary as I had hoped, but still a pain in the butt. I seem to have been playing with a group optimized to hose enemy spellcasters. Scaling went sort of well. Probably not really worth the effort in the end.
Whispering Cairn: my favourite adventure in Dungeon ever. With the excellent dungeon crawl and the Diamond Lake backdrop, it feels like you could start thirty different campaigns off that one adventure. I love running this adventure. Scaling went smoothly.
Three Faces of Evil: I made it work, but it took some doing. Part of the problem is that once you're in the dungeon, you can't really leave, so the various enemies don't come looking for you when you wipe out their neighbours, or else you'd run out of resources. I think what someone said about this being a 4th edition-style adventure is true. It seems to be designed for a party that doesn't have to stop to rest after every second or third encounter. Fortunately, I'm playtesting some house rules that should play right to that, so we'll see how it goes. Scaling not so great. The extra levels on the enemy spellcasters made those fights last a little longer, since they had more ways of keeping the PCs from thrashing them. Also, putting extra power on the martial characters seemed to really turn them into killing machines.
Encounter at Blackwall Keep: I actually like the way that the PCs get a chance to clean the clocks of a horde of slightly-too-weak enemies at about the level they get access to Fireball, etc., in a situation in which the PCs have a terrain advantage. Then they fight the same enemies in a situation where the enemies have the advantage. Scaling a little wonky, but successful.
Hall of Harsh Reflections: The proposed plot is kinda loopy. Lots of good fights, though. Invisible Stalkers FTW. The first boss battle was anticlimactic. The PCs just dispelled his crap and walked all over him. Next time I'm giving him some minions, just to get in the way for a few rounds. Second boss wasn't as scary as I had hoped, but still a pain in the butt. I seem to have been playing with a group optimized to hose enemy spellcasters. Scaling went sort of well. Probably not really worth the effort in the end.
Kheti sa-Menik
First Post
I like the idea of the adventure paths....and a lot of the adventures. But they start good..well, not a big fan of Age of Worms...but ST and SC start strong with good stories, cool adventures.....then degenerate into some extraplanar, superpowered, overblown farce.
The big bad can't be something on this plane, like a human warlord or some such, it has to be some demon/devil/evil god from elsewhere.
The big bad can't be something on this plane, like a human warlord or some such, it has to be some demon/devil/evil god from elsewhere.
zoroaster100
First Post
I ran Shackled City through 20th level and it was a lot of fun. It only required some relatively minor modifications to flow smoothly, and the other DM's running the adventure provided plenty of ideas and work for such modifications on the Paizo message boards.
The_Gunslinger658
First Post
Howdy-
I played about half way through the Shackled City AP before real life got in the way. From what I can recall, I thought as a player of course, that most of the adventures were fun. I played two charcters in that one, A C/N wizard who fireball'ed a bunch of villagers while trying to kill an umber hulk. That character ended up dying later in the game.
I then played a L/G Elf Fighter/ Champion of some Elf god who's name I can not spell
He ended being my last character for the group I was with and real life interfared.
Right now, I just started the AoW campaign with a new group of players, and actually I can use one or two more players, so if anybody is on the northside of chicago and interested in a friday night AoW campaign game, send me an e-mail at: stalingrad838 at yahoo dot com
As for are game, I have four players, the Campaign is set in the Forgotten Realms with the Village of Laughing Hollow subing for Diamond Lake and Waterdeep as the "Free City". Before I launched into the Age of Worms proper, the first adventure had to get the players together and giving them a reason for being at the village of Laughing Hollow.
The characters were sent by their respective guilds or clans to help Father C. Bronson a claric of Helm(in place of Heronious) to help deal with orc and goblin raiders. They were met by the Capt Lee Marvin, a Paladin of Helm at the Able Coaching in and then given intructions to go to the Engalls Farmstead where reports of goblin had been sighted nearby.
The players march to the engall's farmstead and their they meet up with Pa engall's a moonshine runner and his family. The characters manage to kill one of the scouting goblins and find a map to the goblin encampment, so they follow the map to find a dozen drunken gobo's dancing around and what not, the gobo's had found Pa Engall's hiddin moonshine buried near their encampment. After a perhaps one sided clash, the characters dispatch the gobo raiding party, there were only 12 or so gobo's and the players had help from an NPC or two, they come across the entrance to the Wispering cairn.
They got as far as the 2nd or third alcove where they encounter the wolf pack and find the indigo lantern. This is where I stopped the game and hope to pick it up again on the 28th of september.
As for the AoW module, the only thing that was kind of irritating was that; if your character was not from the Village, there was no guidence from the module for the DM to come up with why non native players should be there. So I guess thats why they pay us the big bucks to come up with stuff on are own huh?
Scott
I played about half way through the Shackled City AP before real life got in the way. From what I can recall, I thought as a player of course, that most of the adventures were fun. I played two charcters in that one, A C/N wizard who fireball'ed a bunch of villagers while trying to kill an umber hulk. That character ended up dying later in the game.
I then played a L/G Elf Fighter/ Champion of some Elf god who's name I can not spell
He ended being my last character for the group I was with and real life interfared.Right now, I just started the AoW campaign with a new group of players, and actually I can use one or two more players, so if anybody is on the northside of chicago and interested in a friday night AoW campaign game, send me an e-mail at: stalingrad838 at yahoo dot com
As for are game, I have four players, the Campaign is set in the Forgotten Realms with the Village of Laughing Hollow subing for Diamond Lake and Waterdeep as the "Free City". Before I launched into the Age of Worms proper, the first adventure had to get the players together and giving them a reason for being at the village of Laughing Hollow.
The characters were sent by their respective guilds or clans to help Father C. Bronson a claric of Helm(in place of Heronious) to help deal with orc and goblin raiders. They were met by the Capt Lee Marvin, a Paladin of Helm at the Able Coaching in and then given intructions to go to the Engalls Farmstead where reports of goblin had been sighted nearby.
The players march to the engall's farmstead and their they meet up with Pa engall's a moonshine runner and his family. The characters manage to kill one of the scouting goblins and find a map to the goblin encampment, so they follow the map to find a dozen drunken gobo's dancing around and what not, the gobo's had found Pa Engall's hiddin moonshine buried near their encampment. After a perhaps one sided clash, the characters dispatch the gobo raiding party, there were only 12 or so gobo's and the players had help from an NPC or two, they come across the entrance to the Wispering cairn.
They got as far as the 2nd or third alcove where they encounter the wolf pack and find the indigo lantern. This is where I stopped the game and hope to pick it up again on the 28th of september.
As for the AoW module, the only thing that was kind of irritating was that; if your character was not from the Village, there was no guidence from the module for the DM to come up with why non native players should be there. So I guess thats why they pay us the big bucks to come up with stuff on are own huh?
Scott
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