A commonly-held belief is that D&D (and, by extension, PF) is at its best during levels 1-6. Any chance we'll see an Adventure Path that tells a complete narrative over six levels?
Maybe not in Adventure Path, but maybe in other things like modules.
I would posit that many APs do indeed tell a "complete narrative" in books 1 & 2 with very little change.
Rise of the Runelords, Second Darkness, Legacy of Fire, Kingmaker, Serpent's Skull (make "Saventh-Yhi" buried treasure instead of a city), Carrion Crown (make Count Schloss into Addrissant), and Skull & Shackles all run great just doing levels 1-6 and then stopping.
Your wish is already granted. :-)
Every time I hear somebody talk about the "sweet spot," it seems to be a different level range...
Anyway, The Price of Immortality (consisting of Crypt of the Everflame, Masks of the Living God, and City of Golden Death) takes PCs through the level ranges you're looking for.
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Actually, "sweet spot" is a term I seem most commonly applied to levels 3/4 to 10/13, the point where the PCs are competent but not overburdened with powers and options.
You might be thinking about E6 in you OP, which is well and good.
levels 3 to 9 for me (and then retire in your castle etc ala 1st ed AD&D name levels)
Once you start getting instant kill spells like Disintegrate, it becomes a very different game.
For me, the change comes when wizards start getting spells that can get them (and the rest of the party) easily past challenges.
DM: "The entire cavern before you has collapsed and is now a white-hot lake of fire! The only way across are several rickety-looking pillars. Who dares to go first?"
Wizard: "I teleport the party to the other side. Next!"
Also, I tend to easily get overwhelmed with having too many class abilities and feats, and start forgetting about them all (this is also why I can't play any kind of caster). Once I get past about 8th level, I lose interest.
You might consider the various Falcon's Hollow and the Darkmoon Vale PF/gamemastery modules (Hollow's Last Hope, Crown of the Kobold King, Revenge of the Kobold King,Carnival of Tears, and Hungry are the Dead) able to be strung together into a series that resembles an adventure path from 1-8 or so. Admittedly, they're all 3.5, but they all take place close to each other. With a little juggling, you could also throw in Tower of the Last Baron and Treasure of Chimera Cove as they're not too far away if you wanted to mix things up even more.
The only other thing that comes to mind was Green Ronin's 3.X Freeport Trilogy, which covered 1-6ish IIRC.
the game starts to lose me when players get 4 arrows a round, fly past a lot of stuff, have skills high enough to do most anything, and if they die, so what we can raise
above 9th for me its stops being sweet, and more like work!!!!
the game starts to lose me when players get 4 arrows a round, fly past a lot of stuff, have skills high enough to do most anything, and if they die, so what we can raise
above 9th for me its stops being sweet, and more like work!!!!
Harder to do with premade stuff, but in an Homebrew, nothing stop you (if you are the DM/GM) from banning spells and feats.
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the game starts to lose me when players get 4 arrows a round, fly past a lot of stuff, have skills high enough to do most anything, and if they die, so what we can raise
above 9th for me its stops being sweet, and more like work!!!!
My players really like that stuff. They've played in several 3.5 Epic campaigns, like starting at 30th level or so.
I've run several of the AP starters as one shots with pickup groups. The Second chapters work about as well.
Souls for Smuggler's Shiv is almost the perfect single Module for levels 1-4.
Once you start getting instant kill spells like Disintegrate, it becomes a very different game.
This amuses me. Primarily because it's also a very different game when maximized twinned split ray disintegrate spells are not an instant kill :)
Edit: Forgot the most important metamagic!
My sweet spot is 3-6, but for me it's even more important that the rate of advancement be kept low. Fast advancement tends to shatter my grip on the characters, in terms both of personality and my ability to play them effectively.
We deal with this by a mixture of inserting other modules into the AP sequence, starting the PCs a bit higher level (3rd or 4th rather than 1st) so that advancement can be slower, and trying to reduce the level needed for the later episodes by cutting them down. For example, we are going to do the last episode of Kingmaker at 13-14 rather than 17-18. Of course then you have to rewrite a lot of the scenario....
You can alternate the first couple modules of Council of Thieves and Savage Tide and it meshes surprisingly well. You could probably do the same with Council of Thieves and Second Darkness 1-2, or even Curse of the Crimson Throne 1-2. For more rural games, Kingmaker can easily incorporate Rise of the Runelords 2 and/or 3, or the stand-alone "Fellnight Queen", or Carrion Crown 3. And I'm sure Serpent's Skull 1 would go into Skull and Shackles no problem (as a prequel, maybe?)
Interesting
could you take the second mod of a bunch of APs and make them into a mini campaign, where you start at say 3rd and finish at 7th....gain half a level per mod?
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Interesting
could you take the second mod of a bunch of APs and make them into a mini campaign, where you start at say 3rd and finish at 7th....gain half a level per mod?
You maybe could, but it would be some hard work to adapt -- the AP chapters are designed so that each one gets harder as it goes on, since each expects the party to be around 7th level by the end.
You maybe could, but it would be some hard work to adapt -- the AP chapters are designed so that each one gets harder as it goes on, since each expects the party to be around 7th level by the end.Interesting
could you take the second mod of a bunch of APs and make them into a mini campaign, where you start at say 3rd and finish at 7th....gain half a level per mod?
if your really clever you can combine them all into one super module, and so play bits n pieces from them all, switching modules as and when!!!