redcelt32's page

I have to agree with story point leveling. I know this reduces the XP incentive to explore, but XP leveling can causes problems with level advancement and side plots, which you should have plenty of, given the sandbox style.

Story points help make the AP stay GM friendly and not be even more time consuming than it already is. If the players are annoyed at getting stuck at a level, tell them to advance the story or grow the kingdom to a certain size if they want to level, whatever triggers the next story point.

Maybe I am fairly lucky, but my players are sort of pleasantly surprised when they level, since mostly they are focusd on the kingdom building and in game storyline progression and whether or not they are "leveling" in those areas.

Just one question...how in the world is Happs still alive and free? Did they fail to stop his extortion at Oleg's in the very 1st encounter?

Awesome! This is great stuff RR...keep it coming!

My only real disappointments with the AP are the fact that the player's guide and everything we read gave this buildup about Brevoy and its politics, etc, then did nothing with it. As written, there is very little interaction with Brevoy. Maybe this was because they didn't want to tempt GMs to squash their player's kingdom with Brevoy, but I think it was a huge missed opportunity. I mean, what are the odds we are going to see an in-Brevoy AP anytime soon? Probably close to nil. The other thing was something Tonyz mentioned, the kingdom building rules were very math and formula oriented. I would have preferred more organic and player involvement in the system, and less reliance on magic item sales.

I think this AP gets mixed reviews sometimes because players and/or GMs are sometimes not clear about what it is and is not. This AP requires time to prepare and time to play, and neither should be rushed. Its more of a Noah's ark than a fast sloop. If your group/GM prefers railroady, canned type APs, this is not one of those. This seems to be the main problem some GMs/groups have reported here on the forums. .

This IMO is not an AP for inexperienced or busy GM. If a GM takes the quests, NPCs, background, storyline and uses them as tools and raw materials to make his or her own campaign, then I think they have gotten the most out of Kingmaker you can get.

They are required to go back to their capitol and spend at least 1 week per month there or their kingdom roles are considered vacant. This means that they can either A) adventure 3 weeks and spend 1 week governing in the capitol, then go back to adventuring, or B) adventure, spend 2 consecutive weeks governing (last week of one month, and 1st week of new month) then adventure for 6 weeks. Either way, they are coming back to the capitol regularly once kingom building starts.

It is assumed that all the adventuring takes place in the periods in between ruling the kingdom. Also, a GM could have events take place that require them to immediately return to the capitol (uprising, fire, plague, envoys from another nation come calling, war is declared on PCs kingdom, etc).

Dotting for reference... lots of great stuff here.

Looks fantastic RR!

Just a suggestion, you could have some diplomatic/RPing activity that preludes the war, just to let the players know what is on the line and what they could achieve with each victory. Then they can decide which one to prioritize. Maybe your group already does this alot, but I know this is one of the favorite aspects for my group, discussing treaties with other nations/countries.

House Lebeda isn't thrilled with the idea of being surrounded with Surtovan forces (being Rostlandic), and will remain neutral in the coming conflict if they can achieve a victory at Olegton. House Lebeda could be supplying large quantities of food and siege engines to the forces sieging Restov, which if delayed could hamstring Surtova at this battle. Of course, they might be unhappy about this decision if Pitax decides to "borrow" some of their land!

Mivon promises to deliver relief forces by ship to help break the siege at Restov if they can defend the locks and ensure safe passage up to Restov.

House Orlovksy like you mentioned above, could require all three victories as a condition of moving against the throne.

Keep us posted, this sounds like an awesome turn of events in your campaign.

I would love to have a copy as well. my email is in my profile

Do your players have ties to Rostland swordlords? If not, you could be devious and have Surtova offer to grant the Swordlords the Stolen Lands if they fight with him against the PCs. Whether he is actually going to carry through with this offer or conquer the south himself when the two sides weaken each other is up to you. This would be extremely attractive to the Swordlords.

In response the PCs could either negotiate their own deal with the Swordlords, or bend a knee to Surtova. Unless the Orlovsky family is directly opposed to the Regent and is at a stage where they are prepared to risk civil war, there are really no allies for the players that are powerful enough to make Surtova back off.

The first thing Surtova should do is take the locks, then float a fleet down and form a fortified camp inside the players kingdom to keep them busy until the overland marching forces get their on foot. He will also start sending spies south to join in the "raising of 1/5th of the population" since there will be almost no way for the PCs to monitor spies with that large a buildup. These spies should sabotage the PCs supply lines, taint food stores, burn outlying farms, incite any discontented groups within the kingdom (you don't have any of these in your players kingdom? For shame! :) ) and possibly sabotage the locks if they players have a firm hold on them. They could also intercept communications and substitute their own or just have the messages disappear. All of these will give your spymaster LOTs to do to support the war. :)

This gives the party all sorts of chances to change the momentum of the war, either politically or strategically. If they win the locks, thats huge for them, and could open the door to them negotiating with the pirates of the River Kingdoms for aid vs Brevoy in exchange for booty of sacking some Brevic cities(Pirates! and a chance to use the nifty new pirate books Paizo just released!) If they lose the locks, they will need to lead an assault to get them back. This is a great time for them to call in any allies they have earned along the way.

If the players are very strong militarily, Surtova could make a deal with Lobodka to swing their large fleet south, as well as negotiate with Mivon to move forces up from the south. Mivon wouldn't even have to agree to attack, just draw some of the military forces of the PCs away to guard their southern border. In response, Pitax might offer to help the PCs by attacking Mivon or lending allies, which could make later events in the AP veery interesting.

Remember Surtova has a TON of BP compared to the players and stands to lose his throne if he does not respond swiftly and strongly and most of all win. Losing could weaken his position enough to encourage Orlovsky or the Swordlords to rebel against the throne.

If they players are resourceful and fight hard and well against Brevoy and still are losing, you could have them capitulate and then have Brevoy leave token forces and turn their attention elsewhere, either towards the Swordlords, the Orlovsky family, or because of a plague or natural disaster. This will give the party a chance to regain their kingdom's independence. IMO, the whole series of events should end with an uneasy truce with Brevoy, and a whole lot of hate and discontent between the players and Surtova. This would set up the events beyond AP6 quite well.

Just some thoughts that occur off the cuff to me. I don't know the details of your campaign so some of these may not fit well with what you have done so far, but maybe could give you some ideas.

The main plot foreshadowings that I have introduced so far are

- Zuddiger's picnic found among some books in an abandoned cart. I also added several encounters to my wandering monster tables from the 1st world, whose loot is in nickel coins and whose armor is made of woven living vines. There are two portal to the 1st world in case the party wants to explore a little or investigate further prior to the 6th book, one is a pool and one is a barrow mound in the forest.

- Added a set encounter with an angry group of centaurs chasing down pelt hunters who fled into the Stolen Lands.

- Had a traveling bard sing the song of Armag the twice born that someone added to the forums here (thank you!). The song was popular among the townsfolk of the kingdom's first settlement, so the party gets to hear it a lot.

I am actually doing a little bit of muddying the waters as well...

You know your players better than I, so maybe this idea will work for your group.

In my own group, my players would get frustrated and highly irritated if I put a villian in the story who continously came back to life and continued to stay more powerful than them throughout the story. It would be too reminiscent of bad GM experiences some of them have had in the past, where no matter what you do, the GM won't let you defeat a certain enemy or obtain a certain goal. So in my group, this would just make them want to quit the game unless this "immortal" character and killing him was the main ongoing storyline.

Evem if you stick with this plan, I would suggest having him come back (or maybe a few times), then let the party find out there is a special weapon that can kill him permanently. This way the party can have the satisfaction of side-trekking to get it, and disposing of a highly frustating villian. This also prevents this character from overshadowing the other villians in the story that are of slowly increasing difficulty but don't recur. IMO you run the risk of having this new NPC be harder than really memorable ones later on, like Armag whose nickname suggests HE should be the one with this power.

We aren't to this point in the story yet, but I don't expect any players to die to the spriggans, unless they separate and get unlucky. I am under the impression the spriggans should not be a difficult encounter from reading through the module. So if your group is dying to the spriggans, that might be simple bad fortune or it could be players who don't necessarily form a solid "gestalt" if you will.

If the players are not the type to be extremely efficient and resourceful in combat, you might consider some of Old Drake's suggestions about letting them level and making sure they have appropriate treasure. We don't have enough info to judge the skill level of the players in question, so only the GM can answer that.

Of the two that you mentioned inquisitor is probably the best fit. You might consider a witch though as well, they are very versatile and fit in well in Kingmaker...esp in your group, hedge witch might be good.

More stuff from my game:

I made 1 roll per hex for wandering monsters, 1 for sounds heard at night, and one for tracks discovered somewhere in the hex. These rolls apply until the hex is claimed.

The subtables are meant to add some random flavor to the game and can easily expand to become side trek type adventures (they did IMC).

The settlement encounters only apply if the party has not already explored the hex. These are small groups that can be absorbed into the kingdom or become adversarial depending on how the party handles them.

My encounter table for AP1&AP2:

% Roll Number HNF Encounter

01-08 1d10+5 H Bandits
09-12 1d4+1 N(H) Boars
13-16 2d6 H Hobgoblins
17-19 1d4+1 H Ghasts
20-23 2d8 H Boggards
24-28 1d3 N(H) Faerie Encounter
29-33 2d6 N(H) Elk
34-37 2d4 H Kobolds
38-41 1d3 N(F) Hunter
42-43 1d2 H Hill giants
44-47 1d3 H Owlbear
48-49 1 Var Settlement Encounter
50-51 1 H Shambling mound
52-55 1d4 H Tatzlwyrm
56-60 2d4 H Trolls
60-63 3d6 H Orcs
64-68 1d4 H Werewolf
69-70 1d2 H Will o wisp
71-76 2d6 N(H) Wolves
77-78 1d2 H Wyvern
79-80 1d4+1 H Wights
81 1 H Barghest
82-83 1 H Redcap
84-88 2d4 H Giant spiders
89-90 1 N(H) Grizzly bear
91-92 1 H Manticores
93 2d4 N(H) Shocker lizards
94-95 2d4 H Worgs
96 1 H Dragon
97-98 1d4+2 H Ogres
99 1d4+2 H Ghouls
100 1 H Hydra

Settlements:

1.Farmstead – (CG) vegetables, sheep. Tanner family. 3 sons, 2 daughters, one is stunning, cha 19. Gifted grower, worship erastil.

2.Farmstead – (N, with good tendendies) druid (Lady Irina), 2 druid helpers, Halfling named Knot, and a young boy named Daffyd. Gifted growers, worship gozreh. Grow apple, cherry, and nut trees. Animal companions are raven and grizzly bear.

3.Orindell (NE) - Walled village, temple to Old Ones. Appear normal, but something funny if a sense motive check is made. Party feels uncomfortable while here, like something is wrong, even though all looks fine. Thomas Binder is the headman.

4.Dorim-dor –(LG, with LN tendencies) dwarven settlement, 11 dwarves, 2 humans. Led by Durok Brightbeard, redheaded dwarven warrior. Settlement devoted to Torag, focused on finding a prospective mine and settling down. 1 promising cleric of torag, Olann Roansdottir, is available as a cohort.

5.Brindles (Bugbear) clan (CN, Evil tendencies) – 13, 6 females, 5 males, 2 young. Settled into a natural cavern whose entrance is partly covered and fortified by fallen trees. Ooglash is their spokesman. They mostly want plenty of meat, weapons, armor, and weaker races to bully. They are consummate wood and stoneworkers.

6.Trappers – (CN, with NE tendencies), 3 trappers, will try to steal or cheat the party if given a chance. Excellent woodsmen. Broghan, Dallad, and Richard.

Faerie Encounters:

1.Brownie – Janine, looking for a family, lived with trappers, who didn’t appreciate her and were eventually killed by disease and cold. Will become a redcap if party doesn’t help her.

2.Pixie – Fernando the Magnificent (RPed with a French accent if possible) things the world is wonderful, unshakeably happy and optimistic.

3.Satyr – Koryos, plays haunting pan pipes, wants nothing more than to own sheep and live a pastoral life, is a hopeless idyllic romatic.

4.Centaur squad – traveling from Nomen heights, pursuing invading humans, very aggressive and hostile, consummate archers and lancers. Kidnappers are mage led mercenaries, looking to sell centaur young girl to a wizard for much gold.

5.Hobgoblins – 6 very stealthy rogues snuck over from First World. Carry nickel coins and have woven vine armor.

6.Leprechaun – Sean O’ Riordan, gentlemanly rogue, will challenge the party to a contest if he thinks he can win, like drinking, eating, blinking, or finding a hidden item.

7.Seelie Court Fae. – 6 high fae journeyed over from 1st world, snobby as hell, demeaning, patronizing, and basically a!~&$!*s.

8.Unseelie Court Fae – high lord and his vassals, crossed over from 1st world, fearfully beautiful, with a cruel streak. Oily words, charming (literally), and very very wicked.

Dragons:

1.Green Dragon – Varinazerix – young female looking for a permanent home

2.Black Dragon – Korhanderizym – young male looking for a good hiding place after scrap with elder black.

3.Faerie Dragon – Sir Laughsalot – looking for something fun to do, like annoy adventurers

4.Land wyrm – Simon the Hungry – use wingless drake – passing through on way back to Iobaria after marauding villages in Mivon. speaks draconic, very dumb, very agressive, very hungry, very greedy.

5.Copper dragon – passing through on the way to Medvyed Forest

6.Pseudo dragon – Orian Stargazer, 17 yrs old, very talkative, curious about everything.

7.Wyverns – mated hunting pair, focused on meat for their young, so horses are the target of choice here. If they can each get one, they will fly off and leave.

8.Manticore – very intelligent, animal companion to barbarian priestess of Lamashtu from Numeria. Scouting for future mischief. Won’t hesitate to respond aggressively to attacks.

Sounds:

1. Trolls hooting in the distance. Its either a single male troll singing to impress the ladies (50%) or a pack of 5 hunting for prey and calling to each other (50%)

2. Fey laughter around the party – It moves around a lot and doesn’t seem to be able to be seen. In actuality its ghost sound from a pixie whose hiding.

3. Wyvern keening overhead in the distance – wakes the party up, everyone rolls vs fear dc 15 or they are shaken until 3rd lvl.

4.Wolves – wolves baying in the night, several packs who are hunting the edge of an elk herd, and getting into position.

5.Horses galloping in the night with torches – This is either a local farm commune hunting a rapist (20%), a group of bandits starting a raid (40%), or a group of nasty hunters chasing an elven prisoner (40%).

6.Crashing through the underbrush, grunting away from the camp – It’s a young brown bear looking for snacks.

7.Slow quiet animal noises, footsteps almost like a small horse – it’s a small group of elk moving between grazing areas at night due to being disturbed by wolves.

8.Tatzlwyrms trilling (if along river), or owlbear crashing about (if anywhere else)

 
Tracks

1. Hill Giant Tracks
2. Worg tracks
3. Troll tracks
4. Kobold Tracks
5. Wolf tracks
6. Bear tracks
7. Elf tracks (near woods) or elk tracks (in plains)
8. Tatzlwyrm tracks (near river) or mite tracks (in plains)
9. Evil hunter tracks (on horseback)
10. Trapper and mule tracks (if along river), good hunter (if in plains)
11. Barefoot woman tracks (escaped slave or kidnapped girl)
12. Aberration tracks from Candlemere(spawn from Carrion Hill module) – looks like a very large man walking on his hands, except with claws and 4 legs.

@CaspianM - From what I read, the Swordlords ruled Rostland as a separate kingdom from Issia. When Choral appeared, Issia (Surtova) bent the knee quickly and fairly bloodlessly. Being hothead fighters, the Swordlords resisted completely and had to be decimated by the battle at the Valley of Fire before surrendering. In my mind they went from being the old rulers of a land to being nothing, as Choral would have appointed his own loyal people or Rostland turncoats as rulers over his newly conquered kingdom. When I applied GoT thinking to this situation, it made sense that the Swordlords would band together secretly and build up their military and political might disguised as "private security" for each of their holdings. However when the time was right and these individual security forces were combined, they would = Swordlords' army.

About the hidden prince idea - My initial hesitation to do this was because of creative license. I didn't want to paint myself in a corner if I could think of a good reason the Rogarvian family disappeared that conflicted with having one heir free. My sencond thought was because I was afraid this would devolve from being a campaign about the Stolen Lands into a super heavy political "bug hunt" with the PCs on the run a lot and the entire campaign about Brevoy.

I have thought about running my own campaign after Kingmaker where the "hidden prince" lives as a traveler in the River Kingdoms, and has to gain allies and make his/her way through the River Kingdoms, the now settled Stolen Lands and eventually challenge the rulers of Brevoy for his/her rightful throne. If my current party takes over Brevoy, it will be interesting to have to play against them as NPCs!

Alternatively, I like the idea of buying the Way of the Wicked evil AP and letting the PCs destroy the kingdom they just built, especially because Sarenrae is the religion of their kingdom.

@CaspianM- I agree that if you don't play a fairly heavy political game, that is a very good path to take. Nobles are the only ones who really have the financial means to pay for extensive training and equipment, so it makes sense that they would be the closest counterparts to the PCs. This makes them physically challenging as well as politically challenging.

I did do a small writeup on a few Mivonese NPCs, I will see if I can dig it up for you. I plan to have one come forward and offer his services as a trainer and weaponmaster to the PCs general, who is a noble member of the Medvyed family and will probably accept without thinking too much about it. I can hardly wait to see what the Rostland Swordlord born PC baroness thinks of a Mivonese swordfighting school in her kingdom :)

Mayors (for villages) and Lord Mayors (for towns and cities) are appointed by the local Lord or Baron to rule over a specific settlement in his name. Their appointment can change at any time on a whim,as they have no owned land, unlike a regular landed noble bannerman. Lord Mayors are the final say in law in a settlement, and only send a judgment up to a lord if it is a complicated political situation.

The Lord Mayor is served by a Chancellor, who does most of the actual grunt work of running the town, like negotiating with guilds, merchant houses, logistics, making sure they secure enough supplies and food, etc. Basically what a seneschal does for a castle, a chancellor does for a settlement (IMC anyway). Chancellors aren't part of the law process, but I thought I should mention them anyway. I made the ruler PC in my party start out as a chancellor of a town so they would have a background in leading a settlement.

The Captain of the Guard and Sheriff are appointees by the Lord Mayor and serve at his or her whim.

So far the PCs haven't really appointed any mayors in their kingdom or made any significant stab at law doctrine, still sort of flying by the seat of their pants. Once really cool thing about this is that you can have all sorts of political and RP fun by having conflicts between mayors and merchant houses, outside nations, and priesthoods. These might require the PCs to play mediator and do some serious RPing to end with everyone happy (or at least alive and mildly disgruntled).

Start Kingmaker?

When the PCs in my game sat down to try and figure out what laws to make and how to enforce them, they asked me "what system of justice does Brevoy use?". So, I had to sit down and figure it out. In case some other GMs have similar player who enjoy making their GMs do all the work, here is what I came up with:

Hierarchy of Law Enforcement
-If you live in town and break rules, you answer to the sheriff.
-If you commit a major crime like rape, major theft, murder, etc, you answer to the Lord Mayor.
-If you are a foreigner, traveler, or live outside a town or city, you answer to the local Lord.
-If you come before a Lord Mayor, you can appeal to the Lord of the region the town resides in, but only other nobles would do this. The reasons are two: commoners are more likely to be favored by their local ruler than a distant noble, and the regional lord wants to prevent this "waste of time", so he will usually deal more harshly with the criminal than his Lord Mayor, who is the one he wants dealing with "little stuff" like this.
- A noble or foreign dignitary can theoretically request an audience with the ruling Duke over the Baron or Lord, but these are rarely granted except in unusual circumstances. It is considered a sign of weakness if a Lord or Baron allows a case to get to a Duke’s court, since it is assumed that he was unable to handle it himself in whatever fashion it required.
- If the dispute is between two rulers, regardless of their respective statures, either one can appeal to the King of Brevoy, or in the current case, the Regent. Neither Medvyed, Orlovsky, nor the Swordlords are likely to respect or honor a ruling made by the Regent however, since that would grant him the appearance of too much authority.

Law Enforcement
1. There is no judge, jury, or judicial system, or barristers to speak of. There is a hearing at which the accused has the right to be heard, held by either the sheriff, Lord Mayor, or local Lord. The ruler may call upon other witnesses, experts, or advisors for input into the situation, but only if the ruler chooses to do so.

- Sheriff. Handles drunk and disorderly, disputes, minor thefts, suspicious activity, fines. He will usually be in charge of a garrison of investigators, enforcers, and prisoner escorters. Depending on the laziness of the Lord Mayor, he may also handle more capital crimes.

- Captain of the Guards. Only in larger towns or cities, there is also a captain of the town or city guards. He usually answers directly to the Lord Mayor as well, but is only in charge of stopping violence or handling military situations that threaten the security of the settlement. He works in parallel with the sheriff, who is responsible for handling the aftermath. He has no judgment authority whatsoever. His men also backstop the sheriff for transporting major prisoners or doing big searches.

- Lord Mayor. Handles major crimes or those involving nobles that could have repercussions. Some are more involved and some less involved. Basically has the authority to be judge, jury, and executioner if need be. Typically handles major crimes, or ones involving children, nobles, or major offenses.

-Local Lord. Handles anything that gets appealed to him, but normally only those cases that affect his overall region or involve important personages, like nobles, wizards, priests, or foreign dignitaries. Once again judge, jury, and executioner. They are more likely to thrown people in the dungeons while they figure out a way to leverage this bargaining chit for gold, power, favors, or better trade agreements, etc, than they are to be concerned with meting out justice fairly. They often in fact, hang commoners who appeal to them, especially in cases where it is vs a noble or other major authority. This reduces the number of common appeals they receive to a manageable number. If you come before a lord and want a favorable outcome to your hearing, you should have bargaining power and something of value to them, otherwise you are more likely to end up in the dungeons.

Offenses
Major offenses are torture and/or murder of a child or noble, treason, necromancy, or magical mind control and earn colorful, very painful deaths. Death sentences vary by Duchy:
Orlovsky – dropped from a great height by a wyvern
Medvyed – staked out and covered with blood and left to the wolves or the Brotherhood of the Silver Orb(lycanthropic druids from the Grozni Forest).
Garess – hung in cages from the city walls to slowly starve
Lebeda – torn in quarters by horses
Lobodka – crucified to the bow of a ship until you die.
Surtova – unusually novel and cruel devices like the Pear or the Brass Bull.

Serious offenses like the rape or murder of commoners are punishable either by hanging or or life sentence in a nasty place like mines, swamps, or quarry pits.
Theft, kidnapping, attempting to cheat a contract, blackmail, assault, and the like are usually punishable by maiming, imprisonment, enforced local work crews, humiliation in the town square, and/or heavy fines, depending on the severity and circumstances. Recreational beatings along the way are optional for all of these, depending on the lawfulness of the enforcing agents.

Anything not previously mentioned is considered a petty crime and usually just results in a beating and a fine.

Sentences vary drastically depending on the status of the accused:

Foreigners:
If you are a foreigner or traveling dignitary who is well connected, you are most likely to have your possessions taken, pay large fines, and be ejected from the kingdom, at least temporarily.
If you are a foreigner who is no one special, you could end up either paying huge fines, or just disappearing into the dungeons or jails forever.

Nobles:
If you are a local noble typically redress and fines paid directly to the aggrieved party are due. This means that a noble who wrecks the local tavern in a barfight or who injures a town commoner pays the fine directly to the commoner. Successful Lord Mayors like to make this happen as often as possible, to maintain the loyalty of the commoners and discourage bored nobles from stirring up trouble. If a noble commits a major crime or is important enough, the hearing is moved to the local lord.
If you are not a local noble, chances are you will have to provide a major favor or pay a large fine. If you cannot personally pay the large fine, someone in your family will be expected to pay it or grant favors/concessions to the ruling lord. If you are extremely well connected, you are usually ejected from the region with no penalty or fine.

Commoners:
Those with money and standing are usually treated as minor nobility as far as the law is concerned. Wealthy merchants, longstanding key citizens and families, and military officers fall into this category.

Typically, commoners are at the mercy of anyone in judgment, and they know this. Most will be supplicating, begging, and very humble. Fair hearings usually result in some modicum of justice, though if it involves anyone important or noble, they get preferential treatment. Most commoners have no real money or power, so judging parties have nothing to lose in ruling against them.

In a dispute between equals of any level, you can expect a relatively fair hearing and judgment, since these are easy to mediate and help make the rulers look impartial. It is the only time most of them truly can be fair and just.

In a dispute between nobles and commoners, nobles nearly always win. In disputes between important citizens and a commoner, the commoners lose there too. Basically, if you are a commoner, you are screwed.

If you are a noble and you or your family have money or power, typically the most you will get is a slap on the wrist. Only in the face of severe financial or military consequences is this not the case.

NPCs as Judges

These are NPCs from my campaign, posting here to show different types of personalities and such as examples.

Lord Harte knew he was ruling over a people who had been subjugated, and knew their hearts belonged to the Swordlords. He was as fair as possible, and always sided with the Swordlords over commoners and even nobles. This allowed him to be seen as benevolent and any unhappiness over favoritism was directed at the Swordlords. This was also a key reason he placed Quintus Ravennus as Lord Mayor of his major settlement, his connection to the Swordlords.
Lord Mayor Ravennus rules firmly but fairly over commoners, nobles, and Swordlords alike. While its true that he does tend to take it easier on Swordlord’s relatives, he is known to have a firm hand and never lets any crime go without manual labor taking place. His favorite sentence is having the accused clear garbage from town to the waste pits outside of town. Nothing entertains peasants more than seeing prominent merchants and minor nobles having to carry s@*# through town in stained clothes. Nothing is more humiliating to said important peoples, so needless to say, everyone is unusually well behaved in Tammerling. Foreigners who misbehave are typically chained into hard labor crews, once again showing locals favoritism. Truly vicious or heinous criminals are usually tied up in the town square as a target for thrown fruit, sticks, stones, etc for several hours before they are publicly hanged. Necromancers or mind controllers are rendered unconscious with drugs, have their legs permanently crippled, and are burned at the stake in the center of town.
Baron Kevan Manning rules fairly, and almost never has to weigh in on cases other than those involving nobles. He is very careful in his appointment of Lord Mayors, and all of them are familiar with each other and have a vote is anyone new being appointed to a similar position. It is not uncommon for Lord Mayors to meet among themselves or correspond in matters of serious consequence, in order to reach a consensus across the region. When he does rule, it is either immediate execution by his hand, or major political favors and gold changing hands. He is one of the few lords who feel that nobles get uppity from time to time and need to be reminded of their place. He has been known to rule unfairly against a noble from time to time in favor of a commoner, just to keep them on their toes and out of his hair. Minor nobles from other families are commonly indentured to serve his household for a year if they break rules in his region. Often these nobles end up staying on out of loyalty, because he is known to reward excellence and intelligence in his retainers, regardless of their standing as prisoner or freemen.
Lord Darren Manning rules erratically, and enjoys the absolute authority in hearings a bit too much. He usually drags out hearings as long as possible, enjoying watching others squirm and sweat a bit as they await their verdict. His judgments are almost always either inconsequential when they should be harsh, or brutally harsh when they should be inconsequential. As a result, he is currently causing great unrest in the region he rules.He nearly always decides issues from emotional impulses or favoritism, and his prejudices against Swordlords and commoners is blatantly obvious in his rulings. In any case involving anyone with any greater authority or position he tends to toady up and flatters them extensively, unless they are Swordlords. No one really knows why he feels this way, unless it is leftover resentment from his father’s favor towards military prowess.

I did make up the Swordlord Council, which I posted *Here*, mostly in an effort to keep all my game notes in one place.

Since the ruler of the PC's kingdom is the daughter of a Swordlord and niece to the Lord Commander of the Swordlord Council, I thought I should at least make up the council, since I assumed she would meet and talk with them at some point.

Some of the info for the council refers to specific NPCs in my game that center around a just and powerful Baron of Rogarvia who is vying to become the Duke of Rogarvia and who is also the benefactor of the party. He is being set up and betrayed by his younger brother Darren, who is mentioned in some of the notes. Just ignore this part if it does not apply to your setting. As another side note, Victor Vassari is a good candidate to try to arrange marriage to your PCs ruler, just change the gender if your ruler is a male. This is a great way to draw your party into Brevoy politics via the Swordlords.

Feel free to steal ideas and change things around. Some of these are blatant ripoffs of GoT concepts, like Gregor Clegane "The Mountain that Rides" = Gerrol Torregrossa and Domenic Ghirlandaio is somewhat copied from Sir Loras Tyrell "The Knight of Flowers". If anyone wants the equally ripped off pictures of the council that I showed my players, feel free to ask and I will pass them on.

Council of Swordlords

Sir Richard Iannuchi (Lord Commander of the Council)
11th lvl Weapon Master Fighter – Aldori dueling sword
Brother-in-law to Quintus Ravennus(Lord Mayor of Tammerling), and they converse regularly in efforts to keep things peaceful in both their backyards. Neither of them wish to have conflict so close to home, preferring instead any hostile activites be directed outward and preferably to the North. As much as Sir Richard tries to maintain a peaceful state among the Swordlords, the weight of the armies of Santorini, Torregrossa, and Vasseri counts strongly in council voting, and he must allow some release of pent up energy occasionally in order to maintain his place on the council. Regal bearing, older man in his 50s, still quite capable in battle, a seasoned leader and veteran of many battles and duels. Second best swordsman among the Swordlords, second only to Lord Ghirlandaio, who tends to reserve his for duels
In council, he speaks slowly and only after much thought, and his words carry much weight among the swordlords. He is known as the cool head and always wants to bring every side to bear in decisions made by council. He often relies on wizards and other magical resources to gather his information and strives to carry out his duty with honor and exceptional ability.

Lord Mario Derro (Council Banker and factor, reserved and quiet)
5th lvl Aldori Sword fighter/6th lvl expert (mercantile trade)
Younger lord in his prime with a very large family. Ruggedly handsome, of average combat ability, he is the record-keeper, banker, and factor for the swordlords. Has a very quick mind, but usually hides it behind a poker face. He is a very wealthy lord with many farms and orchards in Southern Brevoy, and has influence with many mercantile factions in the North due to his financial involvements.
In council, he is usual quiet and tends to prefer the status quo, though his vote often falls in favor of where the majority appear to be heading. Occasionally he votes against the trend, but for the most part, he prefers to support solidarity in council decisions and will speak persuasively to bring any angry minority into the fold with the rest once it is clear which direction the decision will fall.

Lady Ariana Santorini (ruthless, strong, mercenary, trusts no one)
10th lvl Tactician Fighter – Aldori dueling sword
Very blunt and passionate woman in her late 30s, with raven hair cropped short. Her standard attire is full battle armor and weapons, often looking as if she walked in off the battlefield (which perhaps isn’t far from the truth). She often hires out as mercenary support for nearby conflicts to keep her troops seasoned and prepared for war, as well as to provide gold for her house. Her manors are all well fortified and well supplied, and in times of dire necessity, the swordlords would likely withdraw to her estate to plan their tactics. She has many specialized battle troops, including sappers, hippogriff riders, and fortification specialists.She is also rumored to have extensive druidic resources and employ druids in various support roles, like anti-fortification, reconnaissance, and healing. Most of her lands are wilderness in return for their support, which includes raising her famed hippogriff mounts.
In council, she tends to approach all decisions tactically with an eye towards which choice would gain better advantage if a war were to start today. While often skewed, the swordlords usually defer to her for tactics and strategy, and she rarely disappoints. She has been rather constant in supporting Lord Iannuchi, but of late, feels Lord Darren is going to strike against them in a cowardly fashion in an attempt to cripple them, and is leaning towards initiating the conflict. The only reservation she harbors about this stance is the respect for Lord Manning, who she has consulted with regarding fortifications in past years. She is rumored to have written him several letters regarding the current situation with his brother, and apparently has received some reassurances, for she has returned to staunchly support a restrained hand in southwest Rostland.

Lord Stefan Mandor (Cavalier of Quality)
9th level Cavalier – Greatsword/lance
Cavalier of high regard, he competes often in tournaments and almost without exception wins handedly at everything he competes in. A paragon of lancework, riding, and archery, he prefers a greatsword to the regular aldori sword for battle, donning the traditional blade only for honor duels. He will always act with the utmost courtesy, honor, and etiquette, but he also treats those less honorable as they deserve, and has little regard for those of less noble birth or combat capability. An extremely large and powerful man, matched with exceedingly quick reflexes, he is resolute in determination and is loathe to retreat, often succeeding due to bullheadedness where others would give up. His heavy cavalry are the strong right arm of the Swordlords military might.
In council, he is not exceptionally bright, and rarely weighs in against the consensus unless it’s a matter of honor or propriety, in which case he is passionately outspoken and will champion the cause until its success. He has recently become incensed by the bungling manner in which Lord Darren has handled what he considers “a most grievous offense of the lowest nature”(the rape and assault of the daughter of a loyal servant by one of Lord Darren's cronies).

Lord Gerrol “Torregrossa” Manolo (consummate battlefield warrior)
Inquisitor (Gorum) 4 / Unbreakable Fighter 8 –Greatsword
Raised as priest of Gorum, this enormous man is the epitome of the War God in battle. Torregrossa, or Big Tower, as he is usually referred to, is an enormous man who stands over 7’ tall and weights so much he must ride a huge stallion into battle. It is said his stallion was granted him by Gorum himself, which is believable, since the black stallion’s shoulder is equal to most horses heads. Anything that will result in battle, the longer the better, and preferably one sided, appeals to Lord Manolo, and he has focused his house’s resources to provide support for his war efforts. His farms produce food that is immediately prepared for use in field support, and his other industries are wood and wagon crafting (siege engines and logistical caravans) and weapon and armor smithing. He is the single most needed Swordlord by the council, as he is often used as an intimidating hammer against their adversaries.
In council, he is normally cool headed and easy going. However, of late he is nearly seething with anger after his efforts to directly control several iron mines was thwarted by Lord Darren, who claimed them directly for the Manning throne, despite the fact that the mines and miners had been established by Lord Manolo for over a year. With Numerian prices driving metal costs skyward, Torregrossa is now constantly campaigning for immediate action against the Barony’s local forces. His normal calm stance and high standing on the council is beginning to sway the others to his way of thinking, especially Lord Mandor. Lord Mandor already felt that Lord Manolo’s complaint was just, but with his own recent conflict with Lord Darren, the council could be edging towards war if his case is not handled carefully.

Lord Domenic Ghirlandaio (Renaissance man and “rockstar” of the Swordlords, last name means wreath of flowers or garland)
Dervish Dancer 6 / Weapon Master Fighter 8 – Aldori dueling blade
Lord Antonio Ghirlandaio, or the Lord of Flowers, is the consummate Swordlord, and is an expert swordsman, poet, artist, and romancer of ladies of refinement everywhere. Extremely handsome of confident to the point of being arrogant, his sword skills are unmatched in Brevoy. He stands as the champion of the council in any honor duels, so needless to say, the Swordlords are rarely bothered with challengers these days. He has little interest in war or battle, but will eagerly engage in a duel to test the mettle of another swordsman.
In council, he usually councils against war and for peace, as his preferred activities of writing overly saccharine romantic poetry, wooing fair maidens, drinking and fighting are hard to do from a battlefield. He is extremely honor-driven however, so if he is persuaded that a matter is obligatory due to honor or a personal offense to his own honor indirectly through offense to the council, he can often can be stirred up to support the cause.

Lord Ivan Vasseri (angry old warhorse)
9th level Fighter – Aldori dueling sword
Lord Vasseri is the eldest of the Swordlords (late 60s) and the only one who can remember the battles that took place over 40 years ago with strong emotion. He was a young swordlord at the time of the last uprising, and harbors a great hate for Issians, despising them with an unreasoning passion. He resents the Manning (Issian) presence in Rostland and has been unhappy since the Blessed Union, constantly pressing for open conflict with the current Lord. Usually dismissed as an angry old man, his words have found fertile ground of late, with the constant offenses of Lord Darren against his fellow Swordlords. He also does not like Quintus Ravennus and resents the fact that the Lord Mayor of Tammerling holds such sway over the Council. It was his idea to colonize the Stolen Lands, and he plans to marry one of his sons or daughters to whoever wishes to expand the presence of Brevoy into these lands. When Torregrossa jokingly asked him what he would do if they didn’t want to marry into his family, he responded that he was sure they would be impressed by his extensive armies, one way or the other.

Lord Victor Vasseri (stand-in for Lord Vasseri, Sr., youngest among the Council)
8th lvl Weapon Master Fighter – Aldori dueling blade
Youngest of the Swordlords and heir to the Vasseri House, he has only been attending the council for a little over two years, being approved as a stand-in for his father, who rarely attends meetings unless an important vote (one approving war with the Issians) is up for discussion. He is ruggedly handsome, well-mannered and well-spoken, and often travels the South with Lord Ghirlandaio. He serves the council as a diplomat and ambassador to other factions in Brevoy.
In council, Victor rarely speaks and spends most of his time observing and listening, though he usually covers his father’s demands of war with the North in a common, monotone manner that the Council has come to regard almost as a ritual rather than a complaint to be addressed. He is highly regarded as an emerging presence among the Council and will carry great weight after death or infirmity takes his father off the council for good.

If the PCs cannot explore ALL of the hex, it does not count as explored (at least IMC). If the hex is split by a river, that means they have to explore both sides of the river.

I was a total pain in the butt to my players about crossing the rivers, only allowing them to cross at the haunted bridge, the natural ford of the Shrike down near where the rivers meet, and at the Thorn River Camp. Once my players got horses, they never bothered with the Rickety Bridge. They do still have to go way out of their way due to the river, mostly because they never seem to get around to building bridges across the river (I ruled they could build a bridge in a hex even if they didnt claim it). Making them respect the rivers helps them appreciate later on when they get roads and bridges, and emphasizes the river as a significant part of the landscape.

Nope, though I imagine Tsar and the like would probably be appropriate.

I am using english/european titles with the proper form of address in parens:

King/Queen (Your excellency)
Prince/Princess(your highness)
Duke/Duchess(your grace)
Baron/Baroness(your lordship)
Lord/Lady(my lord)

For Knightly orders:

Lord Commander (High Commander)
Knight Commander(Commander)
Knight of Quality(Ser)
Shield Knight(Ser)
Knight(Ser)
Squire(Squire)
Page (you there)

Wizards are just various forms of Mr. Badass, and clergy are completely dependent on the order.

To expand on the communications/raven thing some more, I have the noble families and mentors of my PCs communicate with them in their new kingdom via letters sent by raven. I put the main area in Rogarvia they are from about a week's ride from Oleg's, and the raven's give them a sense of time delay in communications. They have sometimes been frustrated by a lack of knowing whats happening right then in Brevoy. It also helps stretch out the game some since it takes time for letters to go back and forth before anything can happen. It slows things down a bit especially when the spymaster or Grand Diplomat is trying to communicate with their underlings remotely and most especially secretly.

It also gives my druid PC (who just got to a level to shapeshift) a very important role... turning into a falcon to attack messenger ravens and intercept enemy messages. He has done this with great success twice now when enemy camps attempted to communicate with their reinforcements.

Communicating between cities, etc in RPGs is something we sort of always handwave as GMs typically, so this is a nice change and adds a lot of flavor to our game.

Plus, if you have any historian/organizer type players who keep everything, they will have a bunch of reference documents. A lot of the letters the PCs get sent have news, odd items, offhand mentions of things, etc that they are finding very useful later on down the line if they go back and check their letters.

With my group, only the inquisitor (who was a monster hunter) and druid (in a party of 9) had even camped outdoors before. Half of the party were nobles, and the other half worked in town before being commissioned to investigate the Stolen Lands. So survival was sort of like a magic trick for most of them and not a sure thing. In the same way, the nobles all started with at least one rank in ride, whereas the common folk PCs had to do ride checks regularly until they took a few ranks in it, representing familiarity with travel on horse.

I think I remember hearing that Xanesha was originally even worse than what she ended up as in the 1st edition of Book2. Given the fact that she was over-CR and a TPK queen even after trimming, I can only imagine how bad she was before that.

Every time I see the name Bastardhall, it makes me think of the Dreadfort from Game of Thrones :)

There are several major issues here politically speaking that just never show up in a typical Pathfinder game. Adventurers are not rulers, and if by chance they are, most often, they are not rulers in an established system of other rulers, so these sort of rules are not normally required. Feedback on these ideas is appreciated and I would love to hear anyone else’s take on how magic interacts with ruling politics.

Rulership in the time of magic
Magic changes many things from the medieval system we all know on Earth. There were several major areas that changed drastically due to magic. When you look at the amount of money available via BP that rulers, even smaller barons, etc would have available, the idea they would not spend some of it to ensure their continued rule is absurd. They would all have protection magic, hired clerics and wizards, magical castle defenses, etc. History has shown us that those privileged to rule, usually took care of themselves and their continued wealth and power first, then everything else. Even a Lawful Good ruler would justify it as expense to make sure the good works of their kingdom were sustainable.
Communication
There are many historical instances of a message getting somewhere or not getting somewhere in time and causing the rise and fall of empires, in particular during wartime. With magic now, high level critical communication is far more reliable, so armies will almost never steal the march on anyone that is not a commoner. For smaller groups or more remote outposts, ravens serve where magic is not able (a la GoT). This drastically reduces much of the tension and challenge that otherwise would be there in the game. For instance, in Game of Thrones, they station a crack team of archers to shoot down any ravens sent out from the castle, and effectively, no one will know what happened at the other end of the kingdom for weeks or even months. In Brevoy, you can pretty much expect it to be like CNN, “news as it happens”.
Transportation
This is less impacted than you would think, mostly because many nobles probably would not prefer to travel by less mundane means. Also, most still had retinues of retainers, guards, and servants to move around with them, so it is unlikely you would see a lord traveling via overland flight or teleport very often.
Magic in Mass Combat
This is one of the areas that magic has a HUGE impact on. Any standing army of merit will likely have a wizard, alchemist, etc and one if not a group of divine healers as part of their contingent. If you put yourself it the position of a battlefield commander, it would be crazy not to have an arsenal of magic available to you. Having a brew wagon with a store of potions and a potion brewer could be the difference between victory and annihilation. Need to see where the enemy is? Hand your scout a levitate potion. Need to know what an enemy’s battle plans are? Hand your scout a potion of invisibility or one of clairvoyance/clairaudience. A scrollmaster with a large supply of goods would also be a great boon. The money to fund most of this could come from the spoils of war, which would be even more greatly sought after than normal for just these reasons.
Aerial combat and denfenses
A major aspect of battle that no one worried about during the middle ages was aerial attacks. No one could fly, and so defenses and strategies never had to allow for this in their tactical planning. Not so in Golarion. Even if your opponents have no flying combat units, you could still be assaulted by drakes, or other magical flying creatures from time to time. Castles would have to defend against such attacks, and so would army units in the field. Even those with minimal aerial considerations would have to be prepared to counter opponents aerial surveillance. Castle turrets should all be covered, ballistas should be able to swivel straight up and around to strike at flying opponents, and archers should become that much more a required commodity.

Lines of Succession
When I sat down to consider the effects of magic on a monarchy, I realized what a nightmare lines of succession could be in a world where resurrections and reincarnation existed. For instance:
The king dies and his son inherits the throne, granting his own elder son heir to the throne after him. Eight years into his rule, someone resurrects the old king. Now what? Perhaps this king remarries and has more children to complicate matters even more.
Or,
The king a just and wise ruler who the people adore, dies, and gets reincarnated as a gnome or a goblin. Assuming he can even prove he is what he is, which he should be able to do with magical truth detection, are his people going to agree to be ruled by a goblin or are they going to burn him at the stake as an abomination?

Here are the established rules I came up with for Brevoy and high nobility (which don’t necessarily apply elsewhere, except for those regarding Pharasma):
- Casting any sort of spell (even a cantrip) in the presence of a a high noble(Baron or up) is punishable by death on the spot. A formal written request must be made and granted to allow this to anyone beyond that noble’s own personal staff.
- All rulers will have significant magical defenses, ranging from teleport blockers on their castles to personal defenses on their person. A typical list of items are:
o Non detection and mind shielding defenses
o Teleport blockers to stop assasins from beaming into the royal bedchamber at night.
o Most of the prominent nobles in my Brevoy all have a personal wizard/witch/sorcerer, usually equipped with an item that offers arcane sight. When anyone comes to visit the noble, they get scrutinized. While nobles would have magical defenses that might block such things, it at least lets you see the stablehand or pageboy who is a polymorphed giant or the sorcerer disguised as a common soldier.
- Necromancy and mind controlling spells are outlawed completely in Brevoy. The dead coming back to life is disturbing to nearly everyone. Mind controlling spells being undesirable should be fairly obvious. Anyone witnessed casting one of these spells or found to be engaging in these activities is sentenced to death. Of course, a truly sneaky ruler might have other uses for these despicable types, and arrange a last minute switch…
- Pharasma rules the dead, and as such, requires that her reign be respected.
o Speaking with the dead is not allowed except when done at the request of the ruler directly to one of her high priests, and even then it should only be in the case of a state emergency of most dire need. Any player foolish enough to try on their own (within Brevoy) should receive a visit from a pyschopomp or one of her other servants. In their own kingdom, you can decide whether this applies or not.
o Raising/resurrecting the dead requires that a priest of Pharasma be consulted and her permission granted before anyone receives either of these spells. All other priests in Golarion know of this requirement and typically will not cast these spells without first consulting with one of her priests. Who receives approval and who does not appears to be random to those not of her calling, and even they do not always understand the decisions handed down by their goddess. In general, more requests are denied than approved.
o If PCs want to risk the wrath of Pharasma by not asking permission, they run the risk of receiving a visit from one of her servants. A GM can sidestep this as far as the party using these spells on themselves (only the PCs, not servants, family, etc) by saying that Pharasma supports the creation of the new kingdom in the Stolen Lands to block the fiendish plot of Nyrissa, which would remove the souls who live there from Pharasma’s judgement.
o The official period of mourning for a fallen ruler is a fortnight, or the length of time that it would be possible for a priest to intervene with a Raise Dead spell. After this time, the scion officially inherits the rulership, regardless of whether that person is brought back afterwards or not (by resurrection for instance).
o Reincarnation is an abomination of of old gods, as it bypasses the judgment of Pharasma completely and alters the lifestream of the recipient. Typically only those druids of the old ways (Green Faith) that dwell in the Grozni Forest would cast reincarnate. Although a particularly nasty plotter (like the ruler’s son) might arrange to have a noble assassinated and then reincarnated to absolutely prevent any chance for him to gain Pharasma’s approval and be raised. A ruler who is reincarnated immediately loses all rights as a noble and is considered a commoner.

These are excellent suggestions Lex.

I try to have a mix of scripted and random encounters, mainly because I like how the story can change by the luck of the dice and how the party runs with it.

Very good point about the hexes and I find myself and my group guilty of doing just that. Might be hard at this point to stop referring to the hexes, especially because the kingdom building aspect of the game requires it and is very much out of RP gaming time. In game, I agree that is hurts immersion.

One thing I did to make the land seem more real IMC was to roll on a table for sounds and tracks as well as encounters each time the party entered a new hex or camped. This way, there is a lot more happening, even if the party doesn't get any encounters, and for instance following troll tracks does make it more likely you will encounter them. It also gave my survival focused inquisitor a fun role to play early on deciphering the tracks. The sounds often times really freaked out my party, and they still have not figured out what the loud, haunting warbling is whenever they are near the Shrike river at night. Wait till they find out it is the evening calls of tatzlwyrms!

LOL, weird timing indeed. I had promised PJ and LeeHanna I would finish my notes up a few weeks ago, and got OBE along the way. I had some free time yesterday at work, so I thought I would finish it up and post when I got home. Could be I was inspired by finishing the 5th book of GoT yesterday too... :)

Love the ideas for the Lobodka family btw!

Spies
Every faction and nobleman in Brevoy with a political bent has spies. They are everywhere, from the washerwoman who is paid to keep tabs on who comes and goes, to the courtesan who overhears battle plans and secret alliances. A major portion of the tension and paranoia that I think makes the Game of Thrones style game so exciting comes from the Spy vs Spy intelligence game. Some ways to build this are to have complete strangers or (even better) enemies know things about the players they shouldn’t and mention these offhand, to show their power. Having some of the players spies attacked now and then is normal, and you should also allow them an opportunity to capture or kill opposing spies from time to time.

Here is my list of factions spying capability listed best to weakest:

-Swordlords (devious minds plus druids and casters among their military ranks)

-Surtova (ruling families required more spies to stay ruling families)

-Medvyed (extensive druid faction within the Grozni Forest)

-Technic League (hi tech gives them the edge)

-Lebeda (outspend most of the other houses to gain information from
many sources in their ambitions to align with the Royal House)

-Mivon (having Pitax and the Swordlords as enemies has forced them to be good in this area)

-Orlovsky (slightly above average spying, most of their info comes from their flying scouts)

-House Garess (average spy network in size and ability)

-River Kingdoms (varies depending on kingdom, but overall average or slightly below)

-Numerian Barbarians (minimal spying talent and desire)

-House Lobodka (don’t believe in spies on principal, if they want info, they capture and torture someone until they talk)

In addition to factions, most leaders, nobles, or influential NPCs have at least one spy somewhere in the mix they can count on to gather information for them. Spies are also used to secretly make contact to coordinate actions of secret alliances, pass notifications of plans that are about to move forward, or to actually initiate secret actions for or against other factions.

The PCs spymaster and spy network should start out ranked somewhere around the River Kingdoms level and progress up to about Lebeda level by the time they are 35-40 hexes. Give them the benefit of the doubt for gathering intel to keep the game interesting.

I assigned three spies to the party spymaster when he first took on the role, one great spy, one average spy and one poor spy. The poor spy is good for basically being a lookout only. The average spy can handle basic espionage, the great spy can actively acquire information or plant information/lies for the PCs. As their kingdom grows, I will add more individual spies to the mix. I make the spymaster tell me which cities/areas/lands he is sending which spy, and I tailor his monthly intel reports accordingly. This is helping to keep the spymaster engaged and actively thinking about what he is doing. If your party prefers less involvement, you can ignore this idea.

Diplomacy and Envoys
After their kingdom reaches about 10-15 hexes, it is unlikely the PCs will directly negotiate with any faction. Instead they will send the Grand Diplomat or one of his envoys to handle their negotiations for them.

I assigned three envoys to the party Grand Diplomat when he first took on the role, and I plan to assign more as the kingdom grows, eventually having enough for each faction (embassies?) . Right now, I require him or one of his envoys to actually travel to the faction HQ to negotiate treaties, trade agreements, etc. In this regard, they can also act like poor spies, noticing things like preparations for war, unrest, economic hardship, etc.

This is actually completely unnecessary, except for the fact that it allows me to introduce envoys from other factions, especially ones that get to be offensive and really really annoying and get away with it. Also, if one of their envoys is killed, it could involve the PCs in Brevic conflicts or politics even if they are trying to stay out of them. For example, if they send an envoy to the wrong faction, or fail a diplomatic roll, they could find his head being sent back in a box.

*Next up: Churches and Arcane factions

“Neutrals” who are desirable allies

Duke Garess
Duke Medvyed
Duchess Lebeda
Rogarvia lesser nobles
Swordlords ,usually individual leaders

Mercenary sources
- *denotes a faction that is particularly used vs normal adversaries (listed after dash)

Swordlord (individual groups)* - Issians, Rogarvian noble houses, possibly Lebeda in future, MIVONESE!)
Swordlords in general want a return to how things were before Choral destroyed their forces and made them bend the knee. The council is still rather fractured, and while they are not opposing each other, have separate agendas. If outrages, mistreatments, or honor offenses are done to neutral Swordlords and their factions, the council could become united and extremely dangerous. The Swordlords have quietly been building their military and financial resources in preparation for “The Opening that Begins the New Order”. Many of their current disputes are led by the more hot headed members who claim each and every political hiccup is this much awaited event. They are usually hired vs Issians, Rogarvian noble houses, and take great pleasure in fighting against Mivonese sellswords, who they consider as false swordlords and cowards who fled in dishonor from the fight vs Choral.

In my game, the Swordlords were deliberately provoked by the false priest of Gorum (in reality an Anti-Paladin of Rovagug) who advised Darren. This caused them to band together and prepare for open revolt, and also caused them to be very ready to assist the party in any conflicts with Rogarvian noble houses or the Royal armed forces.

Mivonese swordsmen* -swordlords, bandits
Mivon is locked in a longstanding state of quiet hostility with Pitax. Half the time these two River Kingdoms are in a state of open skirmishing and half the time they are “at peace”. During some of these extended times of peace, groups of Mivonese often sell their services to Brevic factions. In general, they prefer not to serve the Royal House of Brevoy, though for enough gold or a chance to face Swordlords they may take the job. Any work that is likely to bring them in conflict with the Swordlords of Brevoy is eagerly accepted and usually at a discount rate. Mivon feels their good name and honor are besmirched by the false accusations of cowardice by the foolish Brevic Swordlords.

In my game, the usurper Darren Manning hired Mivonese sellswords to keep order in Tammerling in place of the town guard who were loyal to the Baron and Lord Mayor. He dismissed the town guards, who promptly went south to join the party in the Stolen Lands, creating the initial town guard for their first town/city.

Numerian Barbarians
The Lord of Numeria and his faction worship Gorum. Eastern tribes worship Rovagug. Those tribes who live in areas where there are “Fields of Pharasma” (radioactive areas) and are prone to mutations worship Lamashtu. The Northern tribes are very isolationist but follow the Old Gods of the Kellids (The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young for instance). Any of these tribes will hire out as mercenaries if guaranteed combat and plunder, though they tend to be quite savage and unpredictable and tend to forget who has purchased their services once they taste enough gold or see vunerable areas ripe for plunder.

In my game, Grunthor, an Anti-paladin of Rovagug plots to create a massive civil war in Brevoy by inciting the Swordlords against Rogarvian noble houses. His pawn is Darren Manning who he plans to send running to Regent Surtova once he provokes the Swordlords enough, hopefully resulting in open civil war in the South. He has also sent agents into Medvyed, Lebeda, and has a secret ally with the ear of Poul Orlovsky (who has a similar personality to Wormtongue, guaranteed to piss off the players) in order to plant the seeds that the time is ripe for an overthrow of Surtova. He plans to of course add his own forces into the fray once the battles begin, bringing glorious destruction on a scale fitting his dread god.

Numerian Technic League members (technology)
Possible future involvement or mercenaries for Pitax, so far the party only knows they have a reputation for alien morals and armies of golems, including flying golems (robots!). You can leave this faction out if you hate sci fi in your game or build them into a bigger role if your group likes this sort of thing. I chose to emphasize the Rovagug barbarians instead since the priest in my game is a worshipper of Sarenrae.

Bandits and Barbarians from Iobaria
There are many bands of warlike savage bandits and barbarian tribes in Iobaria eager for a chance to gain plunder and sack settlements. Many of these groups have savage Cyclops , ogres, giants, wyverns, centaurs, and other wild monsters serving them, whether as slaves or allies. This faction is unlikely to show itself until later in the Kingmaker campaign, around the time the Stolen Lands (especially if they have annexed Varnhold) are becoming prosperous and the PCs attentions are shifting towards the Hooktongue Slough and Pitax.

In my game, I plan to have a Noble fey called the Lady of Winter cause and extremely harsh and long winter during the parties second year of Kingdom turns, requiring their attention and allowing me to introduce some cold fey and monsters into the game. During this time, its likely that the raiders from Iobaria will venture eastward, either out of hunger or looking for sport and plunder. Alternately, if the party fails to stop Grunthor from creating a Rostland civil war, they will likely venture towards Restov, probing to see what they can gain by opportunistic raiding.

Grozni forest bandits (Duma)*- opponents of House Medvyed and Swordlords, Royal House of Brevoy, Abadarans/Gorumites
Duma and his bandits are followers of the Old Green Ways (either Erastil or the Green Faith, depending on your preference), much like many of the noble families of Medvyed, including the Duke himself. They are secretly funded and allied with House Medvyed and they have a LOT more numbers than anyone realizes, mostly living deep in the Grozni in secluded villages and settlements. They will play a large part in any military action taken by House Medvyed, and until that time, focus their efforts on plundering and harrying any Royal Brevic representatives, and in particular followers of Abadar and Gorum. They routinely string up any “missionary” (aka royal spies) priests who venture into the Grozni to enlighten the primitives there.

In my game, one of my players is the bastard son of Duke Medvyed and has several friends among this group and can count on aid from them if the party engages in any activities in Brevoy.

Tensions

Ruler of Brevoy vs. Rostland(Swordlords)

The Swordlords of Brevoy have resented the crown of since being forced to bend the knee to Choral. Shortly after the disastrous battle at the Valley of Fire, the current Swordlord council took advantage of the shattered power structure and demoralized leadership and staged a quiet coup to take command of the Swordlords. At the time they were very young, having only one member among the old guard (Vassari), with them mostly being up and coming standouts or family scions. The “new” council swore they would not be ruled by zealous honor defense and hot-headedness, instead using prudence and strategy to plan their future return to rulership of Rostland.

Despite this guiding principle, they still have internal struggles as the Swordlords by nature are a tempermental and honor driven faction, and Lord Ianucchi has had to work hard to keep them from open warfare until a more favorable time. It would not take much, however, to push this tense situation into open revolution. Currently, the assessment seems to be that the Swordlords would eventually lose in a one on one with the the Crown, however, they hope for the other noble houses to rise up and contest rulership, at which point they can either negotiate with the usurper or take advantage of the conflict to regain control of Rostland.

Rogarvia lesser noble houses vs. Swordlords

Most of the more combative factions among the Swordlords are found in Rogarvian lands, and there is no love lost between the council and the lesser nobles of Rogarvia. Manyt of these petty nobles took full advantage of their position of power when the Rogarvia family was in control, and went out of their way to bully, abuse, and steal from the Swordlords with impunity. Now that their protector and benefactor (House Rogarvia) is gone, they have backed down and basically ignore the Swordlords, hoping they will either forget the earlier offenses or continue to fall in line and obey out of habit.

The Swordlords have forgotten nothing, and have been sharpening swords, laying siege plans, stealing enemy castle blueprints, and basically waiting for the day they could take back what they feel is rightfully theirs from the ruling Northerners. In their current state, the Swordlord council is the strongest faction in Rogarvia besides the Manning* Family. They have both benefitted from the quiet alliance with House Manning, the Swordlords got a legitimate power to punish offenses done them, and House Manning got the military muscle to exert their claim towards becoming the next Duke of Rogarvia. Unfortunately, there has been recent interference in these plans, as devious plots against Baron Manning ended with him in a coma due to a failed assassination attempt. This has only caused the situation in Restov is becoming more unstable and volatile than ever before.

*insert any name you like, preferably a noble PC last name.

Rogarvia lesser noble houses vs each other

When the Rogarvia family disappeared, the glue holding this duchy together quickly dissolved. The nobles are among some of the most conceited, entitled, and arrogant in Brevoy (privileged to be bannermen to House Rogarvia), and can’t agree on whether the sun is shining or not, much less any more significant matters. There has been constant skirmishing and power struggles between the houses, with no clear front runner to challenge for the Ducal seat of power until two feuding families House Harte* and House Manning, sued for peace and successfully merged their houses with a marriage of eldest children. With the unfortunate death of the elder Lord Manning at the wedding festivities, his son was thrust into power sooner than expected. The elder Lord was killed in an attempt to re-start the feud between the two families, and only through the cool heads of some young members of both households (aka the PCs) were the hostilities prevented. Kevan Manning initially struggled, and there were many attempts on his life, particularly from House Baltric* who is rumored to be the hand behind the killing of Lord Manning senior. Baron Kevan Manning had to rebuff several assaults on his lands before he could build his power base large enough to hold off any challengers. One of his most fortunate inheritances was the alliance with the Swordlords that his wife’s family (Harte) had made years before, which served to strengthen his position among the other noble families in Rogarvia.
Kevan Manning was seen as a rising star among the nobles, and has been courted secretly by House Medvyed and House Orlovsky in an attempt to gain his cooperation should they openly oppose the crown. So far he has remained undeclared, but has subtly suggested that he and the Swordlords would assist if necessary. He preferred to fight his battles economically and politically, and within the span of a few years, had forged enough political clout to be named “interim” Duke of Rogarvia. Unfortunately, he delayed in one of his finishing touches before staking his claim, which was the reassignment of his brother Darren to one of his colder, distant settlements. Darren plotted against him and Baron Manning now lays in a poison-induced coma, held prisoner with the Baroness and the elder Lady Harte by Darren. His recovery or demise will greatly change the current political landscape in Brevoy.

*Once again choose any names you like, these names came from the GoT module Wedding Knight

Toval “Garess” vs the Garess Noble houses

Toval was adopted by Duke Garess in the aftermath of his son and the dwarves in the mountains nearby disappearing. Saddened by this loss and able to commiserate with Toval in their shared loss drew them closer and after a year or two, Duke Garess adopted Toval as his son and heir. When the Duke dies, Toval will take over, and likely will face some rebellion and objection to his claim of inheritance. The elderly duke has some distant nephews and nieces who plan to contend for his seat, arrogantly assuming that the Throne of Brevoy will support a human over a dwarf.

The truth is that Toval and his clan (The Stonefists) have a long term plan to legitimately gain control of the Duchy. Long cheated and bullied by the Dukes of Garess into poor deals and one sided agreements, the dwarves of the Garess lands began to nurse a deep grudge. The Stonefist Clan (LE) took advantage of the mysterious disappearance of House Rogarvia to move into deeper delves under the mountains, leaving their upper Holds apparently abandoned. The original plan was to manipulate the young heir of House Garess who was fostered with the dwarves into appointing Toval his regent in order to gain support of the dwarves against the “enemies of his house”. However, once the elderly Duke assumed his son was lost and appointed Toval heir, the young scion of House Garess was disposable and soon met a sad fate in the Darklands.

Toval has patiently bided his time, building his own connections and secret alliances in preparation for the day he claims the Ducal throne. His plans have recently been completed and soon, Toval plans to administer a colorless, odorless toxin into his and the Duke’s food, resulting in death for the Duke, and mild discomfort for him, given his natural resistances. The plot to poison the Duke will lead directly back to House Lebeda, undermining their effort to court the Throne, and leaving them vunerable to further accusations. The goal is to create a conflict between them so Toval and his clan can claim some of the valuable southern farmland as part of their kingdom. If possible, he will attempt to ally with Swordlords in the Lebeda lands, and agree to divide the Duchy between them.

Shortly after the poisoning attempt, the Stonefist clan will show up at the Duke’s palace, claiming to be a wandering clan from the Five Kings region looking for a home. The will quickly move into the “abandoned” Holds and assume a battle stance, eagerly anticipating expanding their new lands. If they hear about a mine in the Stolen Lands, a group of them may leave to go and advise/run the mine for the new lords of the area. Of course, they plan to take as much of the raw ore for themselves as possible, seeing the fruits of the earth as their rightful claim. If caught and punished by the PCs, they will call on House Garess for assistance, possibly dragging Brevoy into a war with the new kingdom to the south.

Surtova vs Orlovsky

This is a longstanding feud that will likely never end. The original Duke Orlovsky was the devoted friend and loyal sword arm of Choral the Conquerer. As such, he was given first choice of the lands he wished to rule over, and he chose the rocky lands so akin to their home in Iobaria, which gave them advantage of terrain and height against any opposing forces. The Orlovsky’s have despised the Surtova’s from that very first evening the old Lord negotiated on the beach of the Lake of Mists. House Orlovsky sees House Surtova as oily tongued, treacherous, and wily, honorless cowards who deserve to be trod under the iron boot of true men. As such, they bitterly opposed the Surtova takeover as regents, but were not as well prepared for such an event as the other House, and could not protest too violently, considering the daughter of Surtova was married to the King, and they had a legitimate, if tenuous claim to stewardship of the crown until a new king could be found. However, no election has ever been mentioned since that first day, and Orlovsky knows they will soon need to put up or shut up and make their own claim to the throne.

Orlovsky vs Lobodka

Where the feud with House Surtova is bitter and hatreds run deep, it remains for the most part bloodless , instead relying on political and economic manipulation to combat each other. In contrast, the feud with House Lobodka is quite bloody. The iron ships raid along the shoreline, assault merchant vessels and occasionally make forays a bit farther inland, especially during bad weather or harsh winters. The two sides see each other as natural enemies and will typically attack each other on sight. One time an Orlovksy village negotiated with the House Lobodka to pay an offering in order to prevent attacks on their people. House Orlovsky marched on the village and burned it down, putting all there to the sword. Since that time, there is no quarter given and no negotiating between the two sides, though neither will discuss their conflicts in more southerly courts and venues. While the Orlovsky have few ships of their own, they do possess hippogriff and wyvern mounts that they employ against raiding ships

When our group decided to play Kingmaker, I knew that I wanted to make the feel of the game one similar to my favorite book series, Game of Thrones by George RR Martin. These are the adjustments I made in my campaign to make that happen. Hopefully some of you will find at least part of these ideas useful or interesting.

Bear in mind that none of this is even remotely canon, as the noble houses of Brevoy have been expanded into Dukedoms, with lesser noble houses underneath of each of them for greater political complications and possibilities. The Swordlords have been expanded from a bunch of itinerant dueling swordsmen in Restov into a quiet force equal to any of the standing Dukes. Additionally, the Churches of Abadar and to some extent Gorum also wield a great deal of influence and power, though not quite to the degree the noble houses do.

My party started out in a fictional town of Tammerling, located in the lands of the Baron Manning, a minor Rogarvian noble with amicable ties to the Swordlords. It was actually the Baron who commissioned the party to head into the Stolen Lands, not the Swordlords or Brevoy. The Swordlords approved obviously, since it gave their side more resources and land and places a buffer between Restov and Mivon. Surtova doesn’t really have any involvement in this venture, which allows the GM to involve the Royal Brevic guard either as allies, neutrals, or enemies, depending on the circumstances.

Personalities of the Duchies of Brevoy

House Surtova – very cunning, manipulative, opportunistic, use their wealth gained as a merchant family to open up doors for future advancement. Some of their extended family are secretly pirates upon the Lake of Sea and Mists, and raid in conjunction with House Lodovka. Noleski is fond of his station and the wealth, luxuries, women, and adoration it brings him. His sister has far more ambitious goals, and wants to eventually sit on the throne directly. Her idol is Abrogail of House Thrune, who she sees as a guide for enlightened rule. To assist her in her ambitions, she has fostered and allied herself with a heretical brance of the Church of Abadar that believes in using force and intimidation to maintain order and law (LE). This house is played similar to the Lannisters from GoT, minus quite so much gold.

House Medvyed – straightforward, old school, steady and reliable, strong, worship the Old Gods (Erastil/Green Faith), and rule over lands that are mostly untamed wilderness. This house is played similarly to the Starks from GoT, with a bit more political savvy.

House Orlovsky – proud, fierce, intractable hill people, who are much influenced by their Iobarian roots. They were close allies to the House Rogarvia, and do not look favorably upon the current Regent situation with a Surtovan pretender sitting on the throne. They never miss a chance to remind the regent of his true title, and speak as if the Rogarvians are merely on an extended vacation and will soon return to set things right. They will never give up ground when they don’t have to, and are politically patient and calculating in their dealings. They have a longstanding feud with House Lodovka and have see House Surtova as simpering lackeys. They are a very dangerous enemy and currently the one most in the sights of Surtova. If the Regent can stabilize things in the south enough to act in the North with a free hand, there could soon be a Crown War over the title of King. This house plays like the Scotsmen of the Northern Highlands, a la Braveheart.

House Lodovka – extensive ships, water dwelling folk, quite a bit of piracy and raiding, treacherous when dealing with anyone but House Surtova. This house is played similar to the Ironborn (Greyjoys) from GoT, only toned down a little so it is slightly more weasily and less burn and destroy everything.

House Garess – reserved, tend to stay out of disputes, hold back their allegiance until they can gain the most benefit, interested in what they payout is more than any loyalties. Played a bit like the Freys from GoT, though if the elder Lord Garess passes and his dwarven heir takes the ducal throne, this kingdom could become a bit more assertive and posturing.

House Lebeda - tempestuous, driven, prickly about their honor, in short, much like the Swordlords. The current matron of the House wants to marry her daughter off to Noleski Surtova in return for her support in his becoming king, and plans to strongarm the Swordlords who have domains in her lands into her way of thinking. Ideally, her son will be married off to a Swordlord ruling family, cementing her local alliances as well. Despite her lofty goals, Dame Sarrona has not really thought things through, nor consulted with many of those involved in her schemes. Her daughter is in love with a Swordlord scion already, and plans to keep him as a lover once she marries the king, possibly re-marrying him if something “tragic” were to happen to the king. Her son wants more than anything to adventure and see the wonders of the world, and has very little interest in ruling anything currently. He doesn’t mind ruling, he just wants to sow his wild oats and experience life some before being chained down to a title the rest of his life. He secretly plans to steal away to this new kingdom in the Stolen Lands where there are risks and adventures aplenty, if the bards and rumors are to be believed. This house is played like the Tyrells from GoT, ambitious to align themselves to the ruling power of the realm, whoever that may be. The have their fingers in many endeavors and tend to cover their bases by playing both sides of the fence at the same time, so they come out on top no matter which was the situation resolves itself.

There are several programs that will generate character sheets and that will check this kind of little discrepancies. Ask in general forum for suggestions for the best program for your needs.

Herolab is your friend...and it can be particularly useful for you as a new GM since it validates your PCs builds and makes life a hell of a lot easier when doing things like adding a few fighter levels to a monster. More importantly it can help ensure you create any GM NPCs correctly even if you don't know all the rules.

Check through the archives in this forum and do a search for weather. There are quite a few threads for this, including one where James Jacobs pops in and talks about the climate and what latitude the Stolen Lands are in, etc.

Excellent advice from Old Drake, btw.

IMC, the key to slowing down my players was to interfere with the happy runnings of the kingdom. Weather disrupts trade and harvests, raiders from over the border, be in Numerian, Mivon, bandits, or Brevic factions can all disrupt the calm goings on that players expect to be the norm. If they fail to shore up weaknesses in their kingdom, ie- take enough turns to get things solidified, before going off on an adventurous jaunt somewhere, other groups won't fail to notice. THAT is what the Game of Thrones in about.

Keep sending in spies, some of which the players get to notice. This gives them a great roleplaying opportunity- they can kill them, exile the, do nothing, feed them false information, turn them, etc.

Have other factions send representatives to their kingdom, seeking alliances or beneficial dealings. Sometimes what they want isnt just something a few BP or gold can fix. Maybe a neighboring city wants a beast slain, or a Brevic petty lord with access to steady iron ore wants help against an adversary.

Even within the players kingdom their can be dissenting groups. Maybe someone in a town is unhappy about a choice the player's made, and becomes an outspoken firebrand. How the player's negotiate with him can set the stage for any similar future such issues.

There is an air elemental sorceress in our current game who uses this build with shocking grasp.

You select the magical lineage trait which lets you remove one level off of adding metamagic a particular spell. Take reach spell and now you have shocking grasp that is ranged. If you get two traits, precocious spellcaster nets you one additional level of damage dice tacked on.

This is very effective early, though it requires a full round cast. You can continue to make shocking grasp effective later with intensify spell also.

This does make you somewhat of a one trick pony for a while, but its a good trick unless your opponent is immune to lightning. By the time this isnt effective anymore, you should have a lot more tools in your bag of tricks anyway.

The best ways I have found to stop min/max stat dumping is to require that no one have less than a 10 or 9 whichever in any stat.

Or you can use a stat array, like the elite stat array (15,14,13,12,10,8). Our group sometimes uses the 17,15,14,13,12,10 or 16,14,14,13,12,10 arrays. Less individual, but better balanced that a point buy usually.

What happened to the Rogarvia royal family of Brevoy?

I thought you only rolled saves for items in AoE's if their owner failed their save? Or is that just old school memories over-writing the RAW?

Why? Killing the mount will often mean (both in RL and in game) that you decrease the efficiency of the rider by a great amount. Unless your goal was to take the mount to sell or ransom it it was standard tactic for infantry to kill the cavalry mounts during medieval times.

I agree. If you are a warrior in Golarion and you see or hear about what happens when a mounted lance wielder hits something for 100+ damage with spirited charge, you are probably going to go for his horse. Just because this might be considered dishonorably usually isn't goint to stop an evil foe.

I hear what you are saying TarkXT and agree in theory with what you are saying. However, my experience has been the opposite, in that as soon as the players learn you are putting on the kid gloves to help them "protect their investment", they start exploiting this GM kindness. Soon they start taking bigger and bigger risks, assured that nothing too bad will happen to them, and those games soon break down since there is little risk of death. Plus, I have never had a game where more than one or two players put that sort of investment in. Unless you favor those few players, that sort of game play becomes difficult to manage.

One time in particular an experienced barbarian player in one of my games deliberately brought extra fights to the party when he discovered I was slightly "sheltering" two brand new players who knew nothing about RPGs. I think this sort of investment protection only works well if you manage to keep it from the players, but then again that is just my personal experience.

I am interested in any ideas for dirty tricks evil fey or other small annoying creatures can pull on my party. Occasionally, I like to make them the sort of foes that makes the party stands around and mash their dead remains into mush because they hate them so much. So far tricks I have used with evil fey are:

-improved snatch with a rogueish fey that stole the cleric's holy symbol.

-quickling that raced into camp and spread a bag of horse's blood around, followed shortly by a group of angry trolls it let to the party's camp.

-fey with a very high stealth roll stuffed poison ivy leaves into the players shorts while they slept slightly away from the guard at camp.

All of these resulted in at least one player wanting to stop everything until they hunted down the offending fey. Any other ideas?

So far IMC, our cavalier's horse tends to survive better than the rest of the party that is not the fighter or cavalier. The only time it was ever really in danger was around 5th level when two trolls flanked the horse (the cavalier in my party tends to use it to flank with when in melee rather than do ride by's) and got some rends in.

Three characters have died, but so far the druid's boar AC who gets used as a secondary tank, and the cavalier's mount rarely get their lives seriously threatened.

I think this thread is quickly dissolving into personal preferences. The OP's question was about whether or not a 25pt buy would break Paizo's APs and modules. I think most everyone on the boards would agree that it does affect the CL of encounters and may require some re-working to challenge your players.

There are a couple of counterpoints, in that a 25pt buy might make your characters feel really powerful and they have a great time smashing the AP/module. Alternatively you could have 15 pt buy characters that really really know how to play them well and they will also smash the AP. So the complete answer is mostly, depends on your group.

Just run them through book two a level early. Then don't worry about it, they probably won't survive the end of Book 2, if we are talking about the 3.5 version.

Seriously though, here are your problems, speaking as someone who had to run 9 players thru RotRL. If you aren't an experienced GM with time to invest in reworking the AP, I suggest splitting off of the AP and going homebrew the rest of the way. Otherwise:

1. The AP was written for 3.5 characters, so out of the gate its a little weak for Pathfinder characters, who are a bit stronger.

2. You have gestalt characters which bumps the power level up.

3. The AP was written for 15 pt buy characters and yours are double that.

4. You have 5 players when the AP was based around 4.

Any two of those things you could have just tossed an extra level on NPCs added a few more mooks, and call it a day. All 4 of those, you are going to have problems balancing the AP as is. If you don't have time for a fairly major overhaul of the AP, I suggest going to the Rise of the Runelords forum here on the boards and grabbing the modification for 6 players that is posted there. That will get you halfway there. On top of that, you are likely going to have to bump things anyway, but at least its not such a big jump.

For your own sanity, I strongly suggest you un-gestalt the characters or drop the point buy. Both of these together are going to make for some powerful characters. Either that or gestalt all the NPCs, which might make for a really fun RotRL game actually.

RE: familiars, I was thinking more of witches when I brought that up, but yes you would think being staggered for a round at least would be appropriate.

I think it is appropriate to target spellbooks, mounts, familiars, etc of players as long as it isnt too frequent, it is story or NPC personality appropriate, and it isnt an automatic "screw you". No one wants to feel persecuted or like they are being railroaded into a storyline where they lose something precious with no chance to prevent it because the GM thinks its a cool idea. Its the GMs who are not able to properly challenge the strengths of a character or party that rely on crippling characters with these sorts of personal assaults that get annoying when you are a player.

On the flip side, I hear this outrage among players now about GMs even considering doing anything to a wizards spellbook. I just don't get it. It is one of the downsides of playing a wizard vs a sorcerer. If the game designers never wanted anything bad to potentially be able to happen to a spellbook, the wizard class would be able to store it safely in a pocket dimension only they could access when it wasnt being used.

Same with familiars. Players will often target a familiar first because they are usually weaker and hurt the caster when they die. So turnabout is fair play.

Same with a mount, I have had melee NPCs target my cavalier's horse since he is so much more effective when mounted. And of course trolls think Horse 2.0 (the first one died) is finger licking good, so these type of encounters its appropriate to target a mount.

The main thing IMO is to be sure you aren't breaking the GM/player pact of trust at the table. That results in people having not fun experiences and the game tends to break down.