Aelreth's page

Just make samurai Jack a brawler. If his versatility and flexibility is the only hang up...just making him a brawler solves a lot of things.

Instead of going for monk/fighter...just go with the brawler class. Quite possibly the winding path renegade to get some of the monk abilities.

It gives you access to all the feats and cover easily the Jack trained in all kind of fighting styles around the world, as he can just switch to the style that he needs.

A Brawler is not proficient in all weapons, a Fighter is proficient with all weapons. Jack literally spent his child hood traveling the world being trained in every known form of martial combat. A Brawler punches people, a Cavalier uses mounted combat and challenges, a Paladin uses Divine Powers.

A fighter uses pure martial skill, Jack uses Pure Martial Skill. Does not matter if he is using his favorite sword, a spear, his hands, what ever. Jack is a master of All martial combat. What versatility Jake shows is mostly of an acrobatic nature, mainly his jumping. So Fighter, and a small dip into Monk to explain the few none fighter skills he does have (acrobatics and stealth).

I could also see Jack being a non magic Ranger, but Jack is defiantly not a Brawler.

Sword Saint could work, but that is not how I see Jack honestly. At his most impressive moments Jack simply wades into an entire army of enemies, weapon already drawn, and he just starts slaughtering them. Or he is in a dual with a single opponent or a small group. Except for some very impressive acrobatics (dip into monk) Jack just dominates his foe with power and skill. Which means combat feats and probably fighter features, and fighter levels would give him more combat feats to further dominate.

Considering that Jack has trained all over the world since he was a child, and mastered multiple weapons and forms of combat, combined with his spiritual Monk training, I would honestly just make Jack a Fighter/Monk, probably a Mythic one at that. Monk for the Skills/saves/Unarmored(he can wear armor but prefers to go without) and has been seen to fight foes with nothing but his hands, but prefers his sword. A Fighter to show all of the techniques (Feats and weapon training) he has learned over the years.

Monk abilities explain his acrobatics, his preference to be lightly armored and proficiency in unarmed combat.

While Fighter (maybe a non magical Ranger) and all the feats it grants explain his ability to just dominate in a straight up melee. He himself is never seen to use any supernatural abilities, just RAW physical prowess. He has not magical abilities (so no magus/paladin) and rarely rides a mount (so no cavalier). Jack is just a guy with a sword.

His Sword is defiantly a Major Artifact. Seriously the thing was forged for his father by the three gods Odin, Ra, and Shiva working together, if that isn't an artifact nothing is.

There is an older book called Sorcery and Steam for DnD 3rd edition. Since the book is about turning your game into a Steam Punk adventure it has rules for guns, cannons, bombs, and alchemical gun powders. But it also has a bunch of other cool toys to add.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/498/Legends--Lairs-Sorcery--Steam?it=1

I played a Chaotic Good Goblin Rogue once. My previous character had died while the party was in a dungeon, fighting goblins, so to make things easier the GM let me make a goblin that the party found tied up while they were still in the dungeon. The party paladin did detect evil, found I was not evil, so they released me and I decided to follow around the nice Mr. Paladin for saving me. I made sure to talk in a weird goblin way, and was generally a very eccentric crazy person, do to being a crazy little goblin. Was one of the funnest and funniest characters I have ever played.

I end up being the GM more then I get to play, simply because of experience. I have introduced a lot of people to playing Table Top Games, so I end up being the GM since they are just starting. Which means that unless one of them decides THEY want to try to GM I never get to play.

Before I say anything, Game Master digression is the first and last rule. What every they find funny, logical, amusing, etc, is what goes in the end.

I am unfamiliar with the neh-thaggu, so I can only fall back on comparisons (mind flayers, etc), but there have been plenty of brain eating monsters over the years. Usually the monster's special ability entry should say something along the lines of 'can only be raised back from the dead with X' spell, or 'requires a Miracle or Wish Spell' to fix what ever was done to the dead person.

But as for putting a DIFFERENT brain in, unless you were doing some kind of flesh golem experiment, this should just not work. You would need to use a regeneration/wish/miracle spell to first replace the missing brain, THEN raise dead. Hell you can not just sew a different arm on and call it a good day, let along a brain.

Cayden Cailean

Yes being the God of Drunken Heroes is an awesome thing, but you forget what else he stands for. He is the God of Freedom, he fights against slavery, tyranny and oppression. He fights for what is right not simply because someone says it is, or because of tradition, but simply because it is right.

Plus I can be drunk off my ass while doing serving him :D

The first chapters of Rise of the Runelords (Burnt Offerings) or Skulls and Shackles (The Wormwood Mutiny).

You would have to find the updated version of Burnt Offerings since they originally made it for 3.5. But it IS a fun if standard adventure.

The Wormwood Mutiny lets you be pirates (most people would like that). It starts the players out on a ship limiting the chaos they can get into, has a LOT of early focus on role play (if they like that), plus they have a clearly defined goal of just survival. Limiting them from running around in circles trying to figure out what to do. I have run Mutiny multiple times and everyone seems to like it.

Since I am assuming everyone is new to this game I would recommend staying away from gestalt characters, just makes things more complicated.

But what you CAN do
1: limit the number of enemies in an encounter. If you are using a premade/module/etc make all of the fights smaller so you are not outnumbered as badly.

2: Avoid encounters the party can't deal with due to not having an ability. Since there are only 2 PCs you will need to change or out right remove some things. If no body can find and/or disable traps then take away traps. If the party does not have a way to fight swarms then don't let them fight swarms. Things like that.

3: Potions and/or wands of cure. Since there is less HP to go around, the party will need to heal more often so throw in a few potions or wands of cure.

4: GM PC, mercenary, friendly NPC, etc. This is one of if not the only situation were adding a GM PC might be actually appropriate. Or if they might take a liking to one of the NPCs they meet, let them join the party and help. Let them take the LEADERSHIP FEAT, hire a mercenary. Adding another character can help out a lot.

4.5: Let them control multiple characters. Let them play multiple PCs instead of just the one.

WHAT you need to do largely depends on what your friend is making. If they are making a Rogue for example then you want to stay away from anything that requires a Ref save. Fellow spell caster, avoid Will saves, Warrior, avoid Fort saves. But once you know what they are making then the fun can begin.

Time stop is obviously an excellent choice to buff your self (quickened spells for extra wins) but some cheap ways to win would be

Dominate Monster (9th level so high will save) low will save enemy, then have them walk through a Gate to the Elemental Plane of Water/Fire/etc. They are now stuck and taking damage, drowning, etc.

Time Stop, then multiple empowered Delayed Blast Fireballs, set them to go off once the time stop ends, explosion. Use if their Ref save sucks.

These are just SOME examples of cheese, but what you do largely depends on what you are fighting.

Considering we haven't actually SEEN the new Technomancer yet this is going to be mostly guess work. But IF I had to make a guess, substituting in the Wizard since we don't HAVE the Technomancer stats yet.

1. 8th level Druid vs 8th level Wizard. Both are going to have access to 4th level spells. But the Druid is going to have more HP(d8 vs d6), higher will save (since druids use WIS) probably a higher AC(armor vs none), and more class abilities(wild shape, etc). While the wizard COULD win with the right build and prepared spells, the druid will probably win more often. I am also assuming this is a general wizard build and not an anti-druid build.

2. At 20th level, assuming the same restrictions are in place (no prep work, just random encounter in the wilderness) you still have a similar situation. Both have 9th level spells but the Druid has more HP, a higher will save, and more class abilities. Again a Wizard COULD win, but my money is on the Druid.

3. THIS is were the Wizard is going to win. While a Druid can probably do something creative with their prep time it is WIZARDS that thrive in it. With a wider selection of spells and prep time to actually pick out just the spells to win a fight. Combined with potential item creation, minion summoning/creation, etc. With prep time involved I would put my money on the Wizard. Hell a true Technomancer would probably just go full Evil Scientist and make a doomsday weapon.

The problem with this is that while we know what a Wizard can do, we do not currently have stats for the Technomancer yet. Nor do we know new items, special abilities, etc. So this is ALL conjecture.

the X-Wing (Star Wars) is my favorite single pilot ship
The Defiant (Star Trek) is my favorite battle ship
The Galactica (Battlestar Galactica) is my favorite Capital Ship

Aelreth wrote:

Quote:

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2tqjf&page=3?Your-most-favorite-spell#117

I have said this before but I will say it again. SHATTER!

Enemy chasing you, shatter the ceiling to cause a cave in!

Cornered in a Building? Shatter the floor so your enemy falls through the hole, make a hole and jump down to flee, or blast a wall (and as many walls as you need to) to run away.

Do you hate traps, how about puzzles? Does your Game Master love traps and puzzles? Are you stuck in a dungeon full of puzzles, traps, and the dreaded PUZZLE TRAP? Use your Sonic Screw Driver (Wand of Shatter) to solve (BREAK) all of the puzzles and/or traps that have been placed in front of you!

Only issue I'd see is that items (floor, ceiling, and trap/puzzles included) that weigh more than 30lbs. aren't affected, nor is anything magical.

As for my favorite spell: Form of the Dragon. What's not to love about turning your pet lizard into a flying, titanic, fire breathing, monstrosity, that's ready to eat the entirety of anyone in your way :P

While the ENTIRE door could weigh more, the lock itself wouldn't, nor would the hing holding the door to the wall. So you don't target the entire door, but select a part that you can effect. Same with walls, traps, etc. You select a gear in the trap, a single iron bar in a cage, etc. GET CREATIVE!

Titles: The War Mage, The Arcane Warrior, The Arch-General, The Burner of Fields, The Chess Master

Alignment: True Neutral

Portfolio: Tactics, War, Magic,

Domains: War, Magic, Knowledge, Destruction

Holy Symbol: A Chess Piece (which piece denotes rank) with a Sword going through the center, surrounded by magical writings.

Clothing: A combination of armor (preferably made out of steel) combined with a red cloak and/or robe.

Appearance: Depicted as a clean shaven man of the worshiper's own race, of average height. Usually depicted wearing a breastplate (although other armor is not unheard of) with a sword in one hand and a spell book in another.

Favored Weapon: Scimitar (Calvary Saber)

Centers of Worship: Geb and Nex

Holy Text: The Art of War Magic

Heralds: A series of Animated Intelligent Magical Weapons.

Relations with other Religions
Nethys is the closest thing to an ally, due to him appreciating the use and spread of magic in one of the largest endeavors by mortal kind. Gorum is less of an enemy and more of a rival and a challenge to be over come. Most of the gods have at one time or another enlisted The War Mage to their side at one time or another.

Ethos: Any brute can win a battle when the contest is a simple brawl in the field. A true tactician and master of the arts of war however, can manipulate wars and battlefield like a game of chess.

Worshipers: Mostly Battle Mages and Necromancers leading large un-dead armies. But anyone that finds themselves on the battlefield who hopes to turn the tide of war in their favor. Wither it be by casting a few spells intelligently or luring your enemy into a battlefield of your choosing and springing a trap. His worship is most widely spread in Geb and Nex. But personal prays are offered on all battle fields before and during battle. Where almost all mages will offer a quick prayer before battle hoping for some inspiration to see them win the day.

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2tqjf&page=3?Your-most-favorite-spell#117

I have said this before but I will say it again. SHATTER!

No spell has ruined my plans more as a Game Master and no spell has allowed me to ruin a Game Master's Plans more then Shatter!

Want to give your Game Master a stroke? Take Craft Wand, make a Wand of Shatter, call it your Sonic Screw Driver. Then proceed to use Shatter to use every problem you can.

Locked door? blast the lock, blast the hinges, HELL Blast the door!

Enemy chasing you, shatter the ceiling to cause a cave in!

Cornered in a Building? Shatter the floor so your enemy falls through the hole, make a hole and jump down to flee, or blast a wall (and as many walls as you need to) to run away.

Do you hate traps, how about puzzles? Does your Game Master love traps and puzzles? Are you stuck in a dungeon full of puzzles, traps, and the dreaded PUZZLE TRAP? Use your Sonic Screw Driver (Wand of Shatter) to solve (BREAK) all of the puzzles and/or traps that have been placed in front of you!

Aelreth wrote:

While the actual source material itself is rather vague on ranking the power of various gods, this is how I usually think of it. If you disagree that is fine, this is just my thought on the subject.

At the bottom you have your Demon Lords and other CR 25-30 creatures. Pretty much anything that can grant spells but still is "mortal" enough to have actual stats.

Then you would have your accended who have, relatively speaking, only been gods for a short amount of time. Those who passed the Star Stone for example have only been Gods for less then human history. But you also have to include Gods like Besmara who "was a powerful water spirit with an affinity for manipulating sea monsters". All of these Gods have reached a level of power that defies having any kind of stats. But are still relativly minor in the grand cosmos.

Above them you have Gods like Abadar(cities), Torag(dwarves), Gorum(war), and Shelyn(love). Pretty much just any gods that either a) is credited with creating a whole race, or b) handles a very wide but still mortal concept. After all, if there were no dwarves, Torag couldn't be the God of the Dwarves. With out mortals you would have no cities, war, love, etc. Meaning no Gods to manage the affairs of those portfolios.

Beyond them you have the like of Asmodeus(Hell) and Sarenrae(Angles). Asmodeus who rules over all of Hell, and Sarenrae who stood against Rovagug. These gods go unchallenged by other gods.

At the VERY top you have gods who are the masters of a fundamental force in the universe. This is were Gods like Nethys (Magic), Gozeh(sea and sky), and Pharasma (life/death/fate) reside. They control fundamental parts of reality itself. If they had names I would through the gods of Gravity, Radiation, and Electromagnetism in this catagory.

Now I realize this is in NO WAY perfect OR complete. But it IS a starting point.

One thing to point out, Nethys is only the god of magic in relation to Golarion. He was a human wizard who managed to research a 'make me a god' spell only a few thousand years ago in Osirion. One of two beings to ascend without the starstone from a purely mortal form that I know of, the other being Irori (and both human, go figure). He isn't the personification of magic. That's most likely an unnamed god who is far far older than he is.

Also, I'm really curious about Charon. Supposedly one of, if not the first, daemon. And while the Four Horsemen technically rule Abaddon as kind of a council, he's got seniority and potentially the most power due to being the only one around since the beginning. Was it him or the Oinodaemon that threatened Pharasma into giving them souls? It's not clear and I'm just really curious if the Horseman of Death is more than just a demigod playing with a title above his station.

Honestly, I had forgotten about Nethys' backstory. But until I have another God to put in his position this is were I personally place him. Each Game Master is free to place him differently. Granted with how inaccurate legends and stories about Gods can be I personally view and will continue to use Nethys as THE God of Magic.

As for creatures like the Four Horsemen (who rule the Daemon), I would put them on a similar (but NOT equal) level as Asmodeus. Like Asmodeus they rule over a very large group of outsiders that influence all of existence on a cosmic scale. But each of these scales is in itself very large and varied in of itself. Part of the issue with my grading system but it is only a starting point.

Like I said this system is FAR from perfect and I just use it as a starting point and a frame of reference. Honeslty it has NEVER come up in a game I have hosted or played in.

My favorite spell of all time is easily SHATTER!

Locked door, SHATTER!

Enemy has a cool weapon, SHATTER!

Trapped on the second floor of an Inn? SHATTER the floor and jump down the hole. Or SHATTER the wall and leave!

Cornered in said in by an Enemy? Shatter the floor beneath your enemy and have THEM fall down the hole! Oh, you are on the first floor? Shatter the ceiling and hit them in the head with rubble.

Game Master if overly found of trap puzzles and you aren't? Use Shatter to 'solve' and disable these 'puzzles'.

Make a 2nd level wand of Shatter with 50 charges. Call it a "Sonic Screw Driver". Then watch your Game Master bang his head against a wall as you proceed to use your Sonic Screw Driver to solve all of your problems.

I remember the first few times I tried to host a table top game. I had a note book filled with maps, NPCs, a quest outline, the works! It was a disaster. Later I just started 'making things up as I go'. THAT ended up being rather fun for the group. They got to go on adventures, I wasn't "invested" in the party trying to follow this quest I had planned out. Everyone won! Plus I didn't have to spend a s&@* load of time trying to plan out crazy details.

You are probably better off with Shield then Mage Armor. Shield blocks Magic Missle while Mage Armor doesn't. The only plus to Mage armor is you could cast it on others but it DOES NOT stack with what ever armor they are wearing. And assuming your party is also 3rd level they will have +4 or better armor already.

You want to know Mage Hand. I would recommend getting ride of Light since you can just carry torches.

Don't get Craft Wonderous Item. Crafting Magic items requires you to cast certain spells while spending days and lots of money on the item. As a sorcerer your known spells are so limited your mileage for this feat will be lacking. If you want to make items play a Wizard or Cleric.

Enlarge person is a good buff to throw on your friends. Just make sure you know all the effects. Weapon damage increase, AC penalty,+Str and -Dex, reach.

Vanish is ok, but I would recommend something you could do to mess with the enemy. Magic Missle is always a decent choice. Color spray would be great if you were 1st level but you are starting to reach it's limits. Ray of enfeeblement lowers enemies STR making it a good debuff. Grease can be fun (either make enemies drop weapons or slip on the ground).

As for item, look into either AC boosting items (ring of protection, Bracers of Armor), or wonderous items to increase your CHA.

Metamagic can totaly be worth it. Sadly at low levels you can't actually USE any of the metamagic feats. You can take them to prepare for higher levels though. What you take depends on what kind of spell caster you are making.

Flyby attack, Power Attack, Improved Natural Attack(Bite),Vital Strike. Assuming the dragon can cast 1st level spells learn True Strike. Bite counts as a primary attack so power attack gets a bonus and you get to use 1.5 your STR bonus for Bite Damage

1-Cast True Strike and keep your distance.

2-Flyby Power Vital Strike Bite, Then Fly Away.

3-repeat

Some other examples of 'save or suck'

Level 1 wizard/sorcerer spell Color Spray has a 15ft cone. Any 1HD creatures that fail the save are not ONLY stunned, but are also blinded AND knocked out. Letting everyone else kill them at leisure.

Level 1 wizard/sorcerer spell Sleep. Put up to 4HD of enemies to sleep, enough said.

At higher levels you also get spells such as Webb (traps people), Hold Person (stops a person), suggestion (nasty), Finger of Death (Dead), Charm Monster/Person.

The PLUS side is that when these spells work they work VERY well. The down side is that when they don't work then you are screwed. PLUS the majority (not all) of these spells fall under enchantment, Illusion, or Necromancy. Meaning that against undead and constructs you are pretty much useless.

All in all they can be VERY effective, but they are also easy to counter.

Cleric (OR a class that can Channel Energy)

Carrion Crown introduced Haunts. The easiest way to deal with a Haunt is to use a Cleric's channel energy.

You WILL be fighting a lot of undead. If you are willing to use a feat a cleric can take Turn Undead which lets you use channel to scare undead. Or just Channel Energy to hurt the undead. On top of all the nasty effects undead can inflict on you, clerics can cast lesser restoration to fix all of the ability damage and other nasty effects the undead will be doing to you and the party.

The party has a very squishy wizard and two not so squishy but still not a tank characters. As a Cleric you can buff your self to be the Tank if need be.

Be a CLERIC

It is honestly a draw between two, Edward the Necromancer (Human wizard/necromancer), and Skeet the Goblin Rogue.

Edward, travels around with either the skull of his dead brother, OR (being a necromancer) with the reanimated skeleton of his dead brother. He is adventuring around trying to either truly resurrect him or failing that, turn him into some kind of intelligent un-dead. During his adventures though he continues to talk and have conversations with his brother, even though his brother is dead (or a mindless skeleton and can't talk). So I have a crazy necromancer that thinks he can talk to dead people just trying to bring his brother to life.

Now Skeet is a goblin I made during a play through for Rise of the Rune Lords. The party was still in the first chapter and we were clearing out the goblin tribe. Some bad rolls happened, and my Monk died. So I had to make a new character. Since we were in the Goblin camp anyway I asked the GM if I could make a goblin (I had to be CG but that was fine) so I could easily jump in next session. So next session the party finds me tied up, The Paladin uses detect evil, sees I am not evil and frees me. I then start following the Paladin around and treating him as my master. So the party now has a crazy Goblin Rogue (his stealth was INSANE) following the party and practically worshiping the Paladin :)

As a player do NOT forget about the basic adventuring supplies and abilities. I have lost count of the number of times I have used +50ft of rope and a grappling hook. Having Alchemist's Fire lets you set things on fire quickly. 0 Level spells which appear at first to be useless are in fact some of your more useful abilities.

The Game Master is also playing the game, even if he is not a PC. Go easy on them so they don't get burned out. If you are constantly frustrating your Game Master then they are going to quite and then their wont be a game.

The Game Master can not "win". You are all playing the game together, getting a TPK or doing other things to beat down the players is just frustrating.

As a Game Master, don't be afraid to say NO, but you also shouldn't say YES to everything. If the player asks to do something and they are just asking for 1 thing, then there is might no harm is saying yes. But you always need to consider the long term ramifications of what every the player is asking.

There are a few reasons in my experience for the abundance of Players to Game Masters.

1-The first being that they are inexperienced and don't want to host until they know the game better. This mostly applies for players just learning to Role Play but it IS a reason people do not Game Master.

2-They want "to play" and feel like they are not actually playing if they are Game Mastering.

3-Not enough time to do the prep work OR are not willing to do the prep work to host a game.

Now 1 is pretty common, especially if you are constantly trying to teach people who are completely new to table top games. Which is a reality I find myself in a lot. If you are lucky some of these players will take to it and will then show some interest in Game Mastering.

While few players will say it (or are even aware of it) a LOT of people are only interested in being the adventurer in a game. Sometimes these are players that are only playing because someone else is playing. Such as spouses or friends who are only playing because of another friend invited them.

Other times these are players that even though they COULD host a game, would rather make a character and play then make the adventure. From their perspective being the Game Master is not actually playing the game. They enjoy making a character and going on the adventure, but making the adventure does not appeal to them.

Sadly number 3 IS a reality of life with real life commitments conflicting with hobbies. Now SOME of them are just not willing to invest the time and energy, even IF they can/could to hosting a game.

When it comes down to it, there are a lot of people who enjoy being a player character but have absolutely no desire to be a Game Master.

Wizard hands down. Not only are you usually the smartest person in the party. You do not have alignment restrictions like a druid or cleric. you also are not limited to spells known like with a sorcerer or an oracle. And your spell list is MUCH broader then a Witch. Want to buff the party, make a Transmuter, want to mess with the enemies heads, Illusion or Enchantment, want to blow s*&+ up, Evocation, want minions to do everything for you while you take a smoke break, Necromancy or Conjuration. The Wizard, with enough planning, can do everything.

Plus from a Role play perspective they are one of the more flexible classes. They can be devout or faithless, Law abiding citizens or anarchists. I don't have to worship Nature like a Druid, make a deal with a Patron like a Witch, or join a church like a Cleric. You only have to determine how you first learned magic and BAM, everything else is completely open.

While the actual source material itself is rather vague on ranking the power of various gods, this is how I usually think of it. If you disagree that is fine, this is just my thought on the subject.

At the bottom you have your Demon Lords and other CR 25-30 creatures. Pretty much anything that can grant spells but still is "mortal" enough to have actual stats.

Then you would have your accended who have, relatively speaking, only been gods for a short amount of time. Those who passed the Star Stone for example have only been Gods for less then human history. But you also have to include Gods like Besmara who "was a powerful water spirit with an affinity for manipulating sea monsters". All of these Gods have reached a level of power that defies having any kind of stats. But are still relativly minor in the grand cosmos.

Above them you have Gods like Abadar(cities), Torag(dwarves), Gorum(war), and Shelyn(love). Pretty much just any gods that either a) is credited with creating a whole race, or b) handles a very wide but still mortal concept. After all, if there were no dwarves, Torag couldn't be the God of the Dwarves. With out mortals you would have no cities, war, love, etc. Meaning no Gods to manage the affairs of those portfolios.

Beyond them you have the like of Asmodeus(Hell) and Sarenrae(Angles). Asmodeus who rules over all of Hell, and Sarenrae who stood against Rovagug. These gods go unchallenged by other gods.

At the VERY top you have gods who are the masters of a fundamental force in the universe. This is were Gods like Nethys (Magic), Gozeh(sea and sky), and Pharasma (life/death/fate) reside. They control fundamental parts of reality itself. If they had names I would through the gods of Gravity, Radiation, and Electromagnetism in this catagory.

Now I realize this is in NO WAY perfect OR complete. But it IS a starting point.

So, I think it would be AWESOME to see a Pathfinder Movie/Cartoon based off of say, Rise of the Rune Lords. But, it seems that unless Paizo gets approached by someone who either a) has a good track record, or b) produced a good teaser trailer, Paizo probably is not going to spend their time, energy, or money pushing to get something made.

That said, considering that all the adventure paths are already split up into 6 chapters, you COULD pick one of the adventure paths and make it into a 6 part movie series. RISE OF THE RUNE LORDS, Chapters 1-6! I would want to watch THAT!

The most important thing to learn is how to improvise. Sooner or later your players are going to do something unexpected. Learn to roll with it and just keep going. This will probably involve making up some rules that the books either don't specifically cover, or you just haven't read yet.

Second thing is to try and get your hands on at least one book with pre-built NPCs. Game Masters Guide is a good one, it has a whole chapter just full of random NPCs covering everything to the village idiot to a King. But there is also the NPC Codex and Monster Codex which are full of pre built characters with class levels ready to die at the hands of your players.

I personally think the Worlds Greatest Sword Master would be best fighting with his weapon of choice against another Martial character in a duel. He isn't the greatest Monster Slayer, the greatest general, etc. He is a guy with a sword fighting another guy with a sword.

That said I think a contender for best swordsman alive would be an Elf Fighter. Considering they can live to be about 1,000 years old he would have plenty of time to practice his skill to perfection. Just waiting for someone to challenge him to a duel for the title.

Elf Fighter(Weapon Master)
Skills would be in Intimidate and Sense Motive
Feats
Lv1-Weapon Focus: Elven Curved Blade
Fighter 1(F1): Weapon Finesse (Elven Curved Blades can benifit from this)
F2: Power Attack
Weapon Guard(+5 CMD/disarm and sunder)
Lv3:Dodge
Weapon Training: +5 attack/damage
F4: Weapon Specialization: Elven Curved Blade +2 damage
Lv5: Mobility
Reliable Strike(4/day)
F6: Vital Strike
Lv7: Spring Attack
F8: Greater Weapon Focus: +2 elven curved blade
Lv9:Improved Critical(double critical range of Elven Curved Blade)
Mirror Move: +5 AC vs Elven Curved Blade
Lv11: Improved Vital Strike
F12: Greater Weapon Specialization: Elven Curved Blade: +2 more damage
Lv13: Critical Focus: +4 to confirm crits
Deadly Critical(3/day): improve critical damage multiplyer by +1 with Elven Curved Blade
Lv15: Bleeding Critical: 2d6 bleed on crits
F16: Greater Vital Strike
Lv17: Blinding critical
Critical Specialist: save DC's of critical hit abilities increase by +4
Lv19: critical Mastery: apply 2 crit effects
Unstoppable Strike: standard action to make one attack a touch attack.

+5 Elven Curved Blade
to hit= +20(BA)+2(weapon focuses)+dex-6(power attack)+5(magic)=21+Dex
*Unstoppable Strike can make this a touch attack.

Damage=1d10(base)+5(weapon training)+4(weapon specialization)+18(power attack with two handed weapon)+3d10(Vital Strike)+5(magic)+Str=4d10+27+Str

Crits= 15-20x2(3/day x3), +4 confirm, 2d6 bleed, Blind Fort DC 34(dazzled 1d4 if save)

Maximum Damage for a single attack on a Crit is 7d10+27+Str+2d6 Bleed+Blind.

Blind combined with Spring Attack would allow him to literally dance around his opponent once he blinded them.

There are a few things I am looking forward to for the PC races. Androids/Robots are the first to come to mind. Then some kind of enlightened psychic/magical Race (Vulcans, Asari). Plus your classic Imperial Warrior Culture (Klingons, Turians, Mandalorians). But with all of Space you could easily just throw in what ever aliens you want and call it good.

As for Monsters I am looking forward to seeing what their version of the Borg/Tyranids/Zerg are.

Are gods willing to prevent murderhobos, but not able? Then they are not omnipotent. Are they able, but not willing? Then they are malevolent. Are they both able and willing? Then whence cometh murderhobos? Are they neither able nor willing? Then why call them gods?

These are the things that haunt our age.

The problem with your statement is that in THIS world some of the gods are supporting the Murder Hobo. If say Iomedae wanted to stop said murderhobo directly, she would be directly opposed by Norgorber. Since Murder is kind of his thing. So the Gods are limited to working through their servants. If the gods started jumping into the material plane then they would be opposed by another God(s). Which would probably lead to the material plane being destroyed. That is why the gods need their cults, orders, etc. Because that is how they effect the material plane.

There was a 3.5 DnD book 'Exemplars of Evil'. In the book it as a Blue Dragon queen called "The Thunder Tyrant" who is an Ancient Blue Dragon that has a bunch of half breed eunuch children serving as her elite soldiers.