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We Be Goblins! Comes with pregens made especially for it, and is VERY fun! 
I really like the themes of travel and destiny that are at work in this adventure path. Every game session, I think about themes and set myself some goals for what I want to accomplish from a story standpoint. For our first proper game session, I have several goals: (1) caravans--I want to introduce the idea of caravans right away as I think it is sort of shoehorned into part 2 without much introduction and it is too important to the AP to do that way, (2) destiny--I want to get the PCs feeling that they are a part of important events, and (3) the NPCs--I want to build a connection to them early. To that end, I have used those themes to help me design the set up encounters as follows. I'll post more game notes later, but here is a summary: 1. Intro First, I'll make sure everyone has characters and has selected their free third trait.
2. Caravan Set Up The PCs are accompanying Sandru and Ameiko in a caravan. The NPCs have taken their covered wagon and one supply wagon south down the Lost Coast Road to meet up with a supply caravan from Magnimar. Ameiko negotiated better terms if she met them half way, transferred the goods to her and Sandru's wagons, and brought them back to Sandpoint, bearing their own risk of goblin attack. Secretly Ameiko is hoping for some action. We pick up play with the PCs having just helped transfer the goods to Sandru's caravan and the caravan turning to head north up the Lost Coast Road back to Sandpoint. I'll quickly go over caravans and have the PCs tell me which roles they serve. I won't do full mechanics, but just enough to get them introduced to it so it doesnt seems so jammed in later. The only thing to calculate is the Security check since that comes into play below. 3. Scribbleface encounter Just as the PCs have almost made it all the way by the length of the Brinestump, and actually just as they pass the New Fish Trail, they are "ambushed" by Scribbleface. Scribbleface has just seen, the prior night, the raid of the skeletons on his village. He fires a skyrocket at the front of the caravan to stop them, then he runs out asking for help. Here is some of my text from my notes: Scribbleface emerges: Scribbleface (goblin Wizard 3(abjurer)) then comes running out from the surrounding brush, waiving his hands, and carrying a strange lantern—a bejeweled silver and jade lantern built to look like a coiled dragon worth a substantial amount of money on craftsmanship alone. This is, in fact, the lantern stolen by the goblins in We Be Goblins that was recaptured by the skeletons when they assaulted the Licktoads’ compound. Scribbleface, though outcast, watched over his old village and saw the massacre. He followed the skeletons as they traveled back to their caves. Along the way, one of the mindless skeletons dropped the lantern Scribbleface now carries. He hopes that showing it to the “longshanks” may persuade them that he speaks the truth. He speaks in Varisian or Common, but if anyone can speak Goblin they can converse with him freely. Scribbleface begins 60 feet away from the caravan. "A strange looking goblin emerges from brush. He is dressed in what appears to be robes of some sort and he seems to have some sort of writing covering his face. He has a staff in one hand and a strange bejeweled silver and jade lantern in the other. He is waiving both madly and shouting to you in Varisian: 'Wait, stopping! Please to help me, please! I am your help needing badly!'" PCs can make Appraise checks about the lantern (DC 10, it is obviously valuable and not something one would expect a goblin to have), Knowledge checks about goblins (DC 10, it is very unusual for goblins to speak Varisian), Knowledge checks about the local ambushes (DC 10, there are NO stories of goblins using decoys like this, certainly none speaking Varisian), Spellcraft checks (DC 10, his robes do appear to bear valid, if somewhat shamanistic, mystical symbols, in fact you recognize a common warding rune used locally in the mage armor spell worked into the front of his robe), or Sense Motive checks (DC 15, he appears to be sincere, as much as you can tell). Roll initiative, including for Ameiko. Ameiko Intercedes: Ameiko recognizes the lantern, or thinks she does. If the PCs attempt to take hostile action (and don’t beat her Initiative by more than 10) she shouts: “Stay your hands, friends! Stay your hands! Do not harm him!” If a PC beats Ameiko’s initiative roll by more than 10, he or she can act before she shouts. Of course, that PC is free to attempt any of the above skill checks prior to acting. If Scribbleface is slain, his body can be looted. [edited] He bears a lantern of the jade palace, a bejeweled silver and jade lantern built to look like a coiled dragon. The lantern is lit with a magical light, as per the spell, that shines like a hooded lantern. The light can be willed on or off at the user's speaking of the command word or, if held, by the holder’s mental command. The command word is worked in Tien on the bottom of the lantern: it is the name of one of the first emperor's many wives. It is rumored that many such lanterns exist in a far off palace in Minkai, each bearing the name of one of the emperor's wives. If not slain, Scribbleface proceeds in Varisian, or better in Common. A goblin still, he grows nervous if asked to stand near horses, preferring to speak away from the beasts. “Thank you. I thank you. May we step away from the horses? Too many of my kind have they trampled. It is not normal for my kind to speak with humans, I know. But I need your help. And I am not like my kind. I am outcast even from them. As you see, I speak your tongue. And I write, which is a great sin to goblins. I am of the Licktoad tribe. Though they cast me out and they carve words onto my face, I am still a goblin and they are my people. I live apart from them, but I watch over them. I need your help. WE need your help, though they would never ask longshanks as they call you. Last night, a great evil came upon my village. An army of the dead—large, like you, human dead not goblin dead—marched on my village and many were killed. Many goblins. Even the fireworks could not stop them. The teeter chair destroyed. Squeely Nord himself, slaughtered. The dead looked like men in armor, but they were bones. No flesh. They did not speak, just killed. Then all at once they left. But when they did, they took something with them. I saw several of them carrying things. Treasure, I believe it was. But not any treasure I had ever seen. I followed them for awhile, but I am no thief. One dropped this lantern. This is not goblin make, as you can see. I watched you, watched you come and go. I saw the lizard on your robe, like the lizard on this lantern and I hoped you could help me. I think perhaps your robe means you are a wizard like me. Please, humans, I know it is strange, but will you help my village?” [yes, this requires two mods to We Be Goblins: (1) it is NOT Scribbleface in Vorka's pot, he survives, and (2) the lantern is now magical, something that would have eluded the goblins anyway] Ameiko is intrigued. She wants to see the lantern. Scribbleface lets her. Ameiko then hears from the PCs on what to do. Sandru, too, is intrigued. Unless a different course of action is suggested, Ameiko asks to keep the lantern, she wishes to study it (and show it to Koya and Shalelu) and consider Scribbleface's request. She will return to this fishing road tomorrow in the morning. Scribbleface says he will hide nearby, as he is used to doing, they can signal that they wish to talk to him by using a desnan candle, which he gives to them. 3a. Bar fight Time permitting, you can have the PCs go to the Hagfish per the newspaper and get in a bardic perform challenge with teh Seven Swords and maybe even a bar fight. Those cocky bastards! By the way, the Seven Swords are just 4 first level NPCs--but each bears two swords but one--their leader, who bears just one sword. The swords are largely ceremonial, as only one is a ranger who can dual wield. [b]4. Koya does a Harrow reading I then will have all the PCs gather with the NPCs to discuss the lantern. Koya does a Harrow reading for all the characters. For she has seen great omens in the cards: “This morning when I read the cards I saw a combination not seen in ages. I have forseen the shadows of this day. I knew that it would involve you, Ameiko, and all of you. I have known it, felt it. Events have been set in motion that cannot be undone. It remains to be seen only what part we shall play.” She lays down the Big Sky. “The Big Sky. A card of good, of strength, of momentous change, as when all the slaves of a nation are freed.” She lays down the Juggler. “The Juggler. A card of good, of travel and journey, of destiny and the gods and those who play with the fates. But against these promising heralds is set this—the controlling card that shapes the first two and a dark omen indeed.” She lays down the Cyclone. “The Cyclone. A card of great evil and power. It is an unstoppable and destructive force, unleashed through the plots of evil minds. These movements of the future I can read clearly, like the course of a great river. To that great river each of us is but a small drop. Yet a small drop may be the tears of the gods, and so I may be able see some short distance into the future. Come! Let Koya read your fortune and learn your place in these great events!” Have the PCs draw cards along with the NPCs. Use a deck of regular cards. Tell them you’ve got a “conversion chart” to the actual harrow card to make it seem random and as if the card they draw is actually not predetermined (which of course it is). [I'm not posting what I've come up with for my players in case they read this, but I will later, though I can tell you what I have for Ameiko] For Ameiko: "Ah, The Empty Throne! My child, I wish that I could tell you it is a good card of individual triumph, of success, of ascension. But alas it is reversed! Both power and loss it shows, death and nobility are yours. It represents those who are gone, ghosts of the past that have taught important lessons. Heed their wisdom! I see the traces of this card in this very lantern that you bring before me. I cannot see further than this, for some great mist—perhaps the mist of a great sickness or death—clouds my knowledge. But seek this destiny you must, my dear." Then the PCs in turn draw cards, followed by Sandru and Shalelu and finally Koya. 5. Into the Brinestump The next morning the PCs return to the fish trail, meet Scribbleface and set off to the Warden's hut. 
There's pretty much no way we can tailor the loot in an AP to be "right" for every group. Thousands of people play these things, after all. So instead, we generally skew the treasure an AP gives out to stuff that feels right for the AP in question. GMs should ABSOLUTELY tailor any adventure's loot to match their party, though. That is, in my opinion, one of the marks of a good GM. If an adventure gives out a lot of wizard loot, but you don't have a wizard in the party, but you DO have a witch... make sure the spells you give out work for a witch, is what I'm saying. Or if the only melee weapon character in the party is a halfling fighter who uses spears, you really should make sure a Small magic spear shows up now and then. 
Stardust is correct. Polymorph spells do not change your type. Jason Bulmahn
Your post, though, leads to an important decision you need to make with APs--streamlining. I like to add some stuff to personalize the AP, such as the intro with Scribbleface, and to play to the wants and needs of my specific players which a published adventure can't really do. BUT that said, as often as I find myself adding and tailoring APs, I also find myself having to cut stuff and streamline. For instance, I cut out most of the stuff from the skeleton cave (the spider, the amoeba, etc) and got right to the skeletons. So how do you cut? It should be story based primarily and XP based secondarily. That means you need to have a good idea of where you want the PCs to be level-wise during the various parts of teh adventure. If they meet those goals, then you can cut non-story based encounters. If they havent, you can throw a few extra short ones in to help them level up. For example, the PCs had hit level 2 after negotiating with the goblins at the encampment. That means the level goal for the Brinestump swamp had been met. So I could just "get on" with the story. So I got them quickly through the two shipwrecks (for story), gave them a fun fight with skeletons to foreshadow what was coming, and then got them to the cave. I cut out the other cave encounters because they werent needed for XP (or could be done better as part of a larger encounter). So I got right to the skeleton final encounter. In doing so, I *increased* the number of skeletons and thus the XP value of the final encounter. Consolidating encounters saves time, which is important. You dont have an infinite amount of game time. Several small encounters can take longer and be less fun than one larger one. Drawing the map, doing the book keeping, handling the post encounter heals and treasure searches and all that stuff just takes time. And my game night is about a 4 to 5 hour block at the most. So I have to spend that time wisely. So making the skeleton encounter larger (and doing it in waves and permitting some dramatic stuff in between and healing) will give the same XP value, but make it more dramatic, more story focused (you get NO story value from a spider and an amoeba), and more fun, yet at the same time it will take less time to run in total. For similar reasons, I think I am likely going to have to cut a lot of caravan travel time, but I havent made up my mind on that. I'm going to have to see how it goes. But unfortunately I've identified that part of the campaign as something I might have to trim just to get through the AP in a reasonable time. That said, I will likely narrate the caravan stuff, but do a few key set piece encounters. I strongly believe as the GM, with the length of these APs and with the real world time constraints of play, that you have to take control of the AP like a director would of a movie. It can really benefit your game. Just make sure to always think in terms of fun and story. Clark 
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I would like to request a sticky thread be created (not this one because I can't edit it after an hour), that would, in the first post, give a list of guides in this sub-forum. In the thread we'll discuss which guides to include and which category they should be in - it would be a community project. This is my no means a complete list...its just a start. Also, if you are going to post a guide for this list, please have a discussion thread for said guide in the Advice forum so we can link to it. The guide can be off-site, but we need a discussion thread for it, please. Also somewhere in your guide please reference which books you use (Core, APG, UM, UC, etc...).
Alchemist
Antipaladin
Barbarian
Bard
Cavalier
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Gunslinger
Inquisitor
Magus
Monk
Ninja
Oracle
Paladin
Ranger
Rogue
Samurai
Sorcerer
Summoner
Witch
Wizard
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Arcane Archer
Arcane Trickster
Assassin
Dragon Disciple
Duelist
Eldritch Knight
Loremaster
Mystic Theurge
Pathfinder Chronicler
Shadowdancer
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