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Sundering the PCs’ precious, precious magic items is brutal. Did I mention precious?

Thank you, Gark and Reverse, for the info.

Thinking of running Book 1 alone as a break between books 5 and 6 of Strange Aeons as that GM has to step away temporarily. Anyone have an estimate on the number of hours Souls for Smuggler’s Shiv took for their party?
We would be four players with a fifth popping in occasionally. Players well versed in the rules, no one goes overboard in powering up.

We are in Book 5 of Strange Aeons and have had 4 deaths (no Hero Points).
First two deaths were permanent, one for role-playing purposes and one because the player had lost interest in the PC-his first Pathfinder attempt. Third death fixed with Raise Dead because Breath of Life casting was disrupted, fourth death fixed by Breath of Life.
We are pretty well designed at level 12 and the fighter/barbarian is super optimized with a tentacle from mutation fighter to carry his shield so he can two hand his dwarven waraxe.

We are 2/3 of the way through Strange Aeons. As long as the players don’t mind horror and the idea of starting with amnesia it is a fun path. Small towns and bigger cities, some dungeons to crawl. Wide variety of monsters. I have no complaints.

Option one, Are you the GM okay with it? Option two, poll the other players.
Is it reasonable for the being to have been encountered or is it way out there?
Grant the benefit of that powerful being’s attention but it also draws the attention of the entity’s equally powerful enemy.

I see the Stag Helm is only 3500 gold and if you worship a certain god the daily ranged flat footed attack becomes three times a day. PFSRD doesn’t list deities, anyone know which deity is associated with this item or in which sourcebook it is listed?

Play a plant creature so they want to eat your vegetable flesh instead of drinking your blood.

Anyone else having trouble with the store site? I go through the AP link, select an individual AP, it takes me back to the general Pathfinder store page.

Prayer is +1 to almost all d20 rolls and damage for allies and -1 for enemies with a wide radius, a 2 point swing. It is better than combining Bless and Bane and there is no save for the enemies’ effect, just spell resistance.
Haste, and next level Blessing of Fervor, are better but it isn’t bad either.
Level 9 or 10, before entering what you expect to be the important final room the cleric Blessing of Fervor’s, Wizard Haste’s, Paladin Bless’s, door opens. First round of combat cleric could use Prayer after moving in for the buff/debuff of both sides if he isn’t designed for dealing damage.

My cleric has been using Ironskin on our barbarian in Strange Aeons for approximately 2 levels, now at level 10. I found it on the online cleric spell list which doesn’t mention the spell’s origin.
There is no reason my human cleric of Erastil should be have access to a Duergar spell so I will start using Bear’s Endurance on him instead. Not as good but more appropriate.

I would suggest this be moved to the relevant Adventure Path thread or at least list it as such before the Spoiler link.

Regarding your comment, I havent faced enough other dragons to know how difficult the encounter was in comparison but facing it with standard (rather than maximized) hit points was not overly difficult.

Dealing damage is still necessary. We wouldn’t survive without the damage output from the barbarian and fighter. But knowing what kind of damage you need is helpful, as is knowing what they will be using against you.

I am halfway through the AP as a player. Monster knowledge checks and research are important but even the fighter and brawler have access to Knowledge Dungeoneering (?third most important knowledge skill). They probably won’t max it out and will have crap Intelligence but they can contribute with it. Is there a brawler archetype with more skill points?

You could play the AP with no Knowledge skills but combat will be harder and getting through the story will take longer in-game because of your poor research abilities. You don’t need a dedicated Knowledge star but ideally two or three PCs would have two Knowledge skills each even if they are not high Int, maximum ranks. Everyone should take at least one Knowledge and the group should try to divide them up and possibly double up on a few.

As you said, Will saves are important. Our barbarian and fighter take turns failing them, hopefully a divine caster can boost saves preemptively or remove the condition in-combat so they don’t have to sit out. Our cleric and paladin use some combination of Protection from Evil, Bless, Prayer, Magic Circle against Evil, and Remove Fear in almost every combat. I haven’t though to use Dispel Magic but I should try that too.

Look at the Player’s guide for campaign traits to help with skills and research in addition to the traits that boost Will saves, there are some good ones. Talk to your group about a teamwork feat to help also.

There are two threads in the overall Adventure Path section that talk about this. One thread describes the APs badly/sarcastically and another does it concisely and clearly.

9th level PCs encounter in the last room of a dungeon in an Adventure Path last night. We have previously been hit with high damage fireballs and ability draining poisonous bites, no big deal. Now we’re facing the boss and his two henchmen.
Bow Magus, Paladin, and my Cleric succed on a will save entering the room and are shaken for 8 rounds. The Fighter and Barbarian fail and are panicked for 8 rounds, unable to participate.
Given our history the three of us probably won’t produce enough damage to win this. Magic circle against evil grants the beatsticks a second save hoping they will both make it but only expecting one to succeed. The fighter saves, we win. The barbarian counts off his panicked rounds, not too grumpy in his boredom. Fight ends before the panic/shaken wears off.
Will effects can range from mildly annoying to player-boredom inducing to party destroying.

Deadly aim = basic Power attack.
You need strength if you are using a composite bow but instead you could add elemental damage to the weapon (flaming, frost, etc). That average 3.5 elemental damage per hit eliminates the need for a composite weapon and strength modifier.
Melee characters suffer from iterative attacks being less accurate also.
Vital strike works on ranged weapons too though.
Throwing weapons multiple times in a turn is complicated.
Crossbows get complicated.
Bows are simple.

It sounds like you’re already trying to have as much ready in advance as possible.
You could try to distribute the pregen character sheets ahead of time so players can study them.
When you all sit down to play start with saying, “We are all new to this system so there will be mistakes on both sides. I am willing to admit my mistakes and be creative in fixing them. Let’s have fun.”
Then start.