So this is the current ideas that my players are having:
1) Gunslinger
2) Spellslinger
3) Two-handed or two-weapon melee
4) Summoner, probably a synthesist
5) Druid (Jungle), mounted
6) Druid, he has no idea what he wants yet from the druid
7) ???
I'm concerned with the gunslinger not being able to craft bullets. I also don't know if they have enough damage soakers. They have no one to deal with traps at all.
All of this can change as they read through the Player's Guide, but are there things that may be better or things I should be aware of if they still have their hearts set on certain classes? I don't want to tell anyone they can't play a particular character but if it won't work well then I want them to know ahead of time.
Gunslinger: be really careful about this one. Not being able to craft bullets in the middle of the jungle is huge for someone who is so incredibly attached to her equipment. Once you get off Smuggler's Shiv, his becomes possible. But until then it can be a nightmare. I had a gunslinger in my own campaign, and simply let them work with an infinite supply of bullets. Admittedly it took some of the "equipment is difficult to find" aspect out of the game. The gunslinger could admittedly run a longbow: This is like playing a warrior but it could still work.
Spellslinger I admittedly don't know what this is. Are you talking a blaster unit or are you saying the wizard archetype with guns? If you're talking about the gun unit you run into basically the same issues as the gunslinger. Possibly more because your wizard can't pick up a bow with any real proficiency. Blaster characters do just fine though. I should warn you that AoE spells become less and less attractive the more allies you have to blow up. You've got six.
Two-handed or two-weapon melee Is anything good at two-weapon melee? Normally that's a rogue thing I think? Either way it's not very useful here: You'll be able to rely on the synthesist for flanking but otherwise will find it a little more difficult to hit than you'd like. Two handed will rock though: lots of big weapons to find lying around, heavy damage will dominate a lot of monsters early level.
Summoner Summoners are awesome. Synthesists strike me as very good but also rather broken. Spellcasting plus a clear ability to rock in combat makes the summoner a very plain choice and an excellent option for the campaign.
druid Druids are made for this. The campaign has a ton of terrain for the jungle druid to take advantage of, and the spellcasting will constantly put you in a good place. Mounted will work: a lot of the environment is in the open, and the Mwangi Expanse is the one place where a dinosaur mount isn't inconceivable.
misc find Serpent's Skull has relatively few traps to worry about, relatively speaking. Synthesist, fighter, and the companions of the summoner and druids will make for excellent damage soakers.
That said, has no one considered playing a bard? You'll find various knowledge skills to be of huge use when in the wild away from civilization. And with 7 people (10 including these companions!), bardic music shoots up from useful to absolutely incredible. Bards don't seem like a "nature" class, but trust me you'll definitely want the utility, it's been invaluable for my group so far.
Do worry about a reliance on equipment. A fighter should be able to function with any two handed weapon at first, including a club. If anyone relies on a very specific sort of equipment, they'll find themselves in a ton of trouble down the road.
We are playng: a druid, a sorcerer, an inquisitor and a monk. No trap finder or full Bab character. We are doing ok
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Gunslinger: be really careful about this one. Not being able to craft bullets in the middle of the jungle is huge for someone who is so incredibly attached to her equipment. Once you get off Smuggler's Shiv, his becomes possible. But until then it can be a nightmare. I had a gunslinger in my own campaign, and simply let them work with an infinite supply of bullets. Admittedly it took some of the "equipment is difficult to find" aspect out of the game. The gunslinger could admittedly run a longbow: This is like playing a warrior but it could still work.
Agree with Shimnimnim on this one. I'm playing a gunslinger in Skull & Shackles and while out at sea stuck on the ship it was either a) not use the primary class ability you're built around or b) some hand waving is going on. We went with "b".
You can assume your gunslinger is spending much of his crafting time for powder and bullets hunting down the necessary components. Burning wood and crushing it into charcoal, gathering up animal guano, scraping sea salt off the rocks and picking up scraps of soft metal on the beach from the (many) shipwrecks around the island. Kind of cheesy when the coins he's found magically disappear as he crafts, but at least it lets him use his main class ability.And agree on most of the rest. Books 1, 2 and even most of 3 you can get away without having any sort of a main damage soaker. Book 4 will start to get tough and then books 5 & 6 will hit ya. The bad guys there start hitting HARD and you'll really want some dedicated front liners. But - as Shim said - your synth summoner and fighter can probably fill the bill.
Caution the mounted druid that he'll either want a small druid on medium mount (as was the Halfling cavalier in my game) or a mount with the "narrow frame" feat. Book 4 is almost all dungeon crawls and a large bit of Book 5 as well. Large creatures will be a bit sticky.
Traps they'll take a bit to the face but it's not a game breaker if they can't find them. (No instances spring to mind anyway...)
Finally (once again) I'll agree with Shim's great advice that if you can push them towards anything, try to get one to be the group's Knowledge guy. You're discovering a lost city after all. Lots of places for a Knowledge guy to shine and for the group to pick up a lot of the AP's backstory.
Thanks for the advice. I was worried about the gunslinger the most. The spellslinger is the wizard archetype that uses guns. We were figuring that his ability to cast spells through the gun would make up for the problem of being low on ammo. Thanks for the advice on traps. I thought I read that there were a lot of traps but if that's not the case or if they are easily dealt with through other means then I'm not going to worry about it.
The ability to cast spells probably will not make up for being low on ammo, honestly. A first level wizard gets 2 spells per day and have 4 forbidden schools. He lacks cantrips and cannot scribe scrolls without taking a feat. You're trading a lot for a firearm. Which is cool, really, because a firearm is cool and boosting your spell DCs is rad. But at low levels I expect the wizard to spend a lot of time running away and being scared of stuff. I mean we're talking 3-4 levels of not having a store, which means a lot less magic versatility.
It is doable though, and will probably pay off big time later on.
Still going to push for a bard or evangelist Cleric. Or sensei monk if you still feel you need someone who can soak some damage.
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The Gun characters will probably be okay. I was just throw some random bullets into treasure hoards here and there. All the random shipwrecks would make a good place for a bullet hoard here and there, or maybe just the materials to make bullets. The Old Pathfinder ship on the Gray Island could work as well. Make finding bullets a carrot to look for shipwrecks. I would keep them low on ammo, so they are concerned about running out. However, just before or sometimes just after they ran out, I would drop some bullets and/or gunpowder.
Once you get off the island you can buy supplies from your faction, so ammo shouldn't be a serious issue any more. You are never really alone in the jungle per say.
The classes that really struggle in this AP are anything that relies on mind-affecting attacks. There are a staggeringly large amount of creatures immune to mind affecting. We had a witch, melee bard, fighter/rogue, and blasting cleric. The witch was severely limited on the things she could hex. Witches are pretty BA though, so she did alright over all. An enchanter wizard or a spell focused bard would be hurting though.
Bards and clerics aren't really something they are interested in. One guy keeps talking about possibly playing a cleric or oracle but he's the one who wants to play the summoner. He's still not sure and said he will decide based on what everyone else is playing.
I was going to be a player in this AP about a year ago and I was going to play a sorcerer who focused on the Power Word spells (using some SSG material) and I really hated that I couldn't do anything other than hit things with my quarterstaff or shoot them with my crossbow. My only non-mind-affecting attack was ray of frost. It really made for a challenging and often non-fun adventure for me. We ended the game after two sessions because I had to end a friendship with the GM (turned out he is physically and verbally abusive to his wife and in order to maintain my sanity and avoid beating the living crap out of him I chose to end the friendship instead; she has no intention on leaving him and I can't play savior for her).
So by the time we got everyone together, they all had different ideas for their characters.
We have a human paladin, elf alchemist, elf rogue, human two-weapon fighter who will be mastering the quarterstaff, human cleric of Mhar, and a human life oracle. There's going to be one more joining us in a couple weeks and he's the gunslinger. He may change his idea after the revelation that he may have a hard time crafting bullets.
That being said, the oracle was created so that one guy's girlfriend could join us. She always thought that the games were stupid and he told her that he didn't want to hear her complain until she's had a chance to play. The plan was to have her for the one session and she wouldn't come back (her words). Before the 3 hours of gaming ended, she was asking where to buy dice and if she could keep playing her character or if she has to have a new one for the next session. She really loved it and she picked it up quickly.
Looks like we created a new gamer!