Which Adventure Path to go with?

[Kae'Yoss]

Personally, I'd go with the new Pathfinder adventure path; Burnt Offerings is a swell adventure with great production values. True, it's not out yet, but the first book covers roughly 1st-3rd/4th level and is mostly self-contained.

Also, note that different adventure paths make different assumptions about party size, when using any of them.

I can only second that. Pathfinder rocks. I haven't played it yet (will start to run it soon), but read the first installment, as well as the player's guide, from cover to cover, and some of the second installment (the book itself is still not here, but I already have the PDFs which you get for free as a subscriber), and really like everything I see.

 

[Treebore]

The PAthfinder AP, and I do own all Dungeon versions fo the AP's, is the only AP, after only two issues, to have me tempted to run the whole AP. The other two AP's I only stole pieces and parts from.

Pathfinder is turning into a tight, well written, and intriguing adventure path that has me anxious to see whats coming.

When an adventure gets me that way, its worth running. For me.

Paizo has set a very high rung for WOTC to beat PAthfinder with their Dungeon venture.

Plus, as a charter subscriber, I get both a PDF and a PRINT version. Shipped to my door and computer.

Yeah, I see WOTC losing this competition.

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

Age of Worms is awe-inspiring.

28 deaths to level 7 inspiring. I had to run filler adventures to get PC's up to the minimum level.

1. My groups standard 'strategy' is "Do what seemed best at the time."

2. Un-optimised characters. By unoptimised, I mean "Not all of them were full clerics."

3. Average rolling on the dice was about a 7. This does not help.


Age of worms is good, though there's a bit of 'huh?' between some of the adventures. But only play it if your PC's start off fully loading themselves on potions, alchemists fire, tanglefoot bags and the like.

 

[RangerWickett]

I love the visuals in Pathfinder so far (though I've not received my second issue yet). But c'mon, fighting in the carved out fallen head of an ancient colossus, which has turned into an island over the centuries? That's slick.

Of course, there is also the third party candidate.

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[R_kajdi]

Thanks for all the feedback. As to the suggestions for the other adventure paths (Pathfinder/Burning Sky) those are both out because they aren't complete. I want the whole thing in front of me to be sure that I'm cool with where it is going before I start. Savage Tide, for instance, is certainly cool at the end, but you never get a hint that the final point is about the death of Demogorgon until much later in the path. The fact that the DM is blind to the plot of the adventures is one of the reasons I can't see running any of these adventures until the whole thing is out in the open.

From what I'm hearing, the Age of Worms is a character grinder. That's unfortunate, because plotwise it seems like the better set of adventures, since Savage Tide seems to hang its hat on a bunch of D&Dism (Demogorgon, Planar Travel) that are hard to appreciate for the new players I have here. Also, the third or fourth adventure (the ship travel one) seems a bit weak, if only because it drags out the part of a campaign you usually gloss over (huge overland trips) I do like the idea that the fights are challenging in the "play smart" way, rather then the usual "optimize character" way. Has anyone here played any of the Savage Tide adventures, and if so do they have any suggestion as to the tought places in the path? Also, my plan is to overlevel the characters a little if needed, so they may be a level higher then required at certain point in the path-- do you think that may be enough to mitigate some of the difficulty issues?

 

[DragonLancer]

Age of the Worms is the best of seen. I'm DMing it at the moment and while in some places it is very tough, it's not the slaughterhouse that some make it out to be.

 

[R_kajdi]

Age of the Worms is the best of seen. I'm DMing it at the moment and while in some places it is very tough, it's not the slaughterhouse that some make it out to be.

The question I have is, does your group do a lot of typical experienced adventurer maximizations-- like lots of alchemical items at low levels and typical cautious adventurer mode irregardless of characters? Not knocking that play style (it gets results) but I don't expect to see that out of this group very much. Whispering Cairn seems like a death trap to the unoptimized party from what I've seen. At low levels, swarms pretty much rock an unprepared party pretty bad.

 

[takasi]

I've played in Shackled City, ran Age of Worms and Savage Tide and am about to start Pathfinder.

I recommend playing the War of the Burning Sky. All of the players in that group have also been in the Paizo paths, and prefer WotBS (through the first three adventures at least).

But if I had to pick a Paizo adventure path to run again, it would be Savage Tide. The story flows better, it ties to many classic adventures, there are better villains and there is more freedom to explore. It's also the more balanced of the other two. I can't speak for Pathfinder yet; I've read through it, but I haven't played it out.

 

[Wolfwood2]

The question I have is, does your group do a lot of typical experienced adventurer maximizations-- like lots of alchemical items at low levels and typical cautious adventurer mode irregardless of characters? Not knocking that play style (it gets results) but I don't expect to see that out of this group very much. Whispering Cairn seems like a death trap to the unoptimized party from what I've seen. At low levels, swarms pretty much rock an unprepared party pretty bad.

The swarm was bad. It came closest to killing us of everything in the Whispering Cairn. I might suggest swapping it out for another monster.

In fact, that's a tactic you would be wise to keep in mind throughout Age of Worms. Sure the big bosses/fights are all specially statted and junk, but many encounters can be made easier by swapping one monster straight out of the monster manual for another monster straight out of the monster manual.

I don't know how it is for you, but for me the hardest part of running games is coming up with actual story. What happens next, what are the NPCs up to, what's everybody's motivation? Tweaking monster stats is easy.

An example. Near the end of the Three Faces of Evil, my paladin PC gets dropped to negatives (from full) from three scorching rays cast off scrolls by three low level mage acolytes. But you know, they could just as easily have had scrolls of some other second level spell that's not quite as dangerous as three touch attacks against touch AC 10 for 12d6 total damage.

 

[DragonLancer]

The question I have is, does your group do a lot of typical experienced adventurer maximizations-- like lots of alchemical items at low levels and typical cautious adventurer mode irregardless of characters? Not knocking that play style (it gets results) but I don't expect to see that out of this group very much. Whispering Cairn seems like a death trap to the unoptimized party from what I've seen. At low levels, swarms pretty much rock an unprepared party pretty bad.

They are experienced players, some of which I've known for almost 20 years. I would not peg them as all that cautious and they certainly don't stock their backpacks for every contingency (though a handful silver arrows are kept for the odd encounter).

The swarm in Whispering Cairn is nasty, but the party did not lose anyone to it. They fled the cairn, planned and came back. Actually that sums my players up quite well - encounter, fight, possibly flee, adapt and come back.

The only area in which they have had problems and a loss, was the Spire of Long Shadows. The intitial encounter at the entrance gave them grief and the

Spoiler

Overworm devoured

one of them. Otherwise they have had no real issues at all.

Different groups will handle the threats in different ways. From running AoW I've not found it as lethal as all that.