Mummy's Mask
Wrath of the Righteous
Rise of the Runelords
I have ran RotRL and now i am running Shattered Star.
I have played Kingmaker nearly to completion and i have played Jade Regent to completion.
My brother has tried to ran Carrion Crown (stopped at book 2) and a former DM of mine tried to ran Carrion Crown (stopped at book 2).
Before i make my suggestion i have to say to you that to my knowledge only Shattered Star features a sizeable amount of puzzles (maybe two per book) and that with 5 players you will have to make adjustments to the AP, it can't be helped.
If your players aren't new to the PF (or 3.5) system and you are cofident on your abilities as DM, i suggest Wrath of the Righteous. I don't know about puzzles but (from what i hear) it has an excellent story and it's pretty much as epic as you can get. I myself have all the books but i am having trouble finding someone to DM it.
Rise of the Runelords is a classic adventure and a quite good story and it's a very good AP in all accounts. Also it's pretty much a paizo classic at this point. I had a lot of fun doing that and there is A LOT of homebrewed material on that AP.
Jade Regent is one of the APs that have a strong coherent story but it has a lot of "eastern" and "asian" themes, so if this isn't your or your player's cup of tea you should stay clear of that one. Also it suffers quite a lot from the "why don't the bad guys destroy the good guys before they reach them" and a bit from "players aren't the protagonists". The second can be corrected if your players are mature enough, the first requires some suspension of disbelief.
I have mixed feelings about Shattered Star but since i haven't finished it (just started book 5) i don't want to say anything about it other than the fact that it's as old school as you can get.
From what i hear the 3.5 AP Curse of the Crimson Throne has a GREAT story and is a very very good AP, so if you don't mind doing some conversion work (iirc there isn't a total forum conversion, yet).
With the above taken into consideration i suggest:
Wrath of the Righteous
Rise of the Runelords
Curse of the Crimson Throne/Jade Regent
What's wrong with Carrion Crown? Why do people abandon it at the 2nd book?
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there is nothing wrong with Carrion Crown, its just people nit-picking, which to be honest is what 90% of the criticism of 90% of the APs amounts to.
From what i have heard they are a lot of reasons but the one i hear most often is that the players are becoming uninterested about the whole "beast trial", and i don't blame them, from what i have heard it doesn't sound very compelling.
Mummy's Mask, as of the first book, has two dungeons (and a third that comes close) and several puzzles and/or traps. Given the theme, I'm willing to bet you'll see more puzzles making an appearance over time.
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RotR- Great story, great adventure. Classic by most accounts.
CotCT- RP heavy, but overall nice playthrough.
SD- It has gambling, ratfolk, criminal infighting, and Drow. So yeah...
LoF- You can literally start as a slave and save the world.
CoT- Robin Hood vs. corrupt nobility, gangs, and other evils.
KM- Take down the bandits, then found a kingdom!
SS- I know almost nothing about this AP except it seems to have a heavy focus on serpentfolk...
CC- Gothic horror fantasy.
JR- Stop the goblins quickly becomes a quest to save an empire.
S&S- Pirates and colonials. What more to be said? Oh, right: GUNS!
ShS- Find the pieces of an ancient artifact hidden in several dungeons.
RoW- Stop an impending ice age and Rasputin the Mad Monk.
WotR- Epic battles on par with ancient myths.
MM- Other than the Egyptian feel, no clue on this AP.
IG- Not out yet, but it sounds like a mix of Conan, Stargate, 80's heavy metal, and awesomeness.
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From what i have heard they are a lot of reasons but the one i hear most often is that the players are becoming uninterested about the whole "beast trial", and i don't blame them, from what i have heard it doesn't sound very compelling.
My players dove in and had an absolute marvelous time. Sometimes the APs take a bit of selling for the GM. Not the first time, and certainly not the last, that I heard of folks giving up because the adventure isn't tailored for them.
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As mentioned:
Rise of the Runelords is a classic that got a re-release a little while ago to update it to Pathfinder standards. It's a pretty classic adventure where defending a town gradually expands to a region-wide threat. You can also get it in a single large purchase with the re-release.
Council of Thieves suffers from a bit of derailment as the reason the party gets together gets supplanted by a different evil plot. On the bright side, you can put your players through an actual play.
Kingmaker is perhaps the most sandbox-y of the APs. There's a story with dungeon crawls and wars, but a big chunk of the story is exploring, expanding exploiting, and in the end, exterminating.
Reign of Winter takes a single theme (it's cold) and runs with it. From the furthest frontiers of Golarion to alien worlds. You fight everything from alien barbarians to dragons and giant wolves and even tanks.
Wrath of the Righteous is the most straight-up Good-Vs.-Evil conflict of the APs so far. It's an epic holy crusade against the Abyss where, in the end, even Demon Lords may lie dead at your feet.
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From what i have heard they are a lot of reasons but the one i hear most often is that the players are becoming uninterested about the whole "beast trial", and i don't blame them, from what i have heard it doesn't sound very compelling.
The Trial of the Beast is a major side quest from the main story line. So it takes a bit of faith to buy into its premise. Now, I had a fantastic GM run the book and it rates as one my personal favorites because of him.
I don't think I would have pulled it anywhere as close if I were to have GM'ed it.
As for suggestions. Rise of the RuneLords is always good. And since it is one hard bound book, it is fairly cheap comparied to the other APs.
Shattered Star is an "Old School" set of dungeon crawls and a Mega "Hunt the MacGuffin" story.
Wrath is epic. You go to the depths of hell itself. But be careful since character power can grow pretty fast. Be prepared to adjust the modules to meet the challenge of your party.