James Priebnow's page

And a paladin never occurred to me. That would work well, as long as that negative energy channeling cleric isn't actually evil.

It didn't occur to me about using the breaking of the wall itself to be the trigger for mythic.

I'm picturing the leader having an amulet that is his badge of office. The PC's need to use it to open the gate (some kind of alignment detection spell prevents evil people from just opening the door). The PC's kill the paladin, take the amulet, and use that to force open the door. The gates explode in a burst of light leaving our villains forever changed.

Thorn could not have foreseen that kind of power going to anyone (that isn't him of course). That could further explaining his actions later.

Once the Minion rules start up in Book 2, you could create a "Recruitment Action." The organization makes a Connections check, no consequences for a normal failure. Crit fail -1 secrecy. This should not be a hard check most of the time (depending on the size of the area, you are more likely to find like-minded individuals in a bigger city). Or skip the roll and say the minions found someone promising after a few days of searching.

One I've used was the new PC stumbled on the minions, followed some back to the party's lair, and found the other PC's.

Before Book 4, Thorn could assign someone new to the team. A transfer from another knot can work as the party rarely if ever sees the other knots. There is a spot in Book 2 where another knot is wiped out off camera. The new PC could be a survivor who made it to Farholde or maybe trapped inside the Horn.

It also depends on how far along they are. Around book 3, they should be able to get a Raise Dead themselves or through an ally.

And in regard to Thorn granting that power. The way he is depicted in later books would prevent me from involving him in any of the party's trials.

Adding it in book one seems off to me. Completing the ritual in book 2 would be a fitting place to start. If you must use it in book 1, the lantern archon gestalt could be rebuilt as a rank 1 creature. Its destruction and the desecration of that temple would then be the act that unlocks mythic.

Useful touchstones for trials (if you're mythic at the end of Book 1)

I have not run Books 5 yet, we start it next week. I'm sure there are good spots you could add trials or modify encounters I overlooked. Remember, these are not supposed to be just challenging. Mythic Trials should feel different from other fights. Unusual circumstances, direct divine (or more likely Infernal) intervention, or powerful magic should be present. Adding a rank or tier to the existing cast that our villains cut down goes a long way to letting the players know "Hey, this isn't a normal paladin."

I'd like to bring up books 4 and 5 of Way of the Wicked. There are rules for becoming a lich and how to deal with the balance issues that WILL occur if you have a mixed party (some living, some undead).

That is an interesting recipe (above in Falcar's post), and certainly could be used in game. Most of the items aren't expensive, but they are tough to get.

If you have reach, either naturally of from a reach weapon, you can flank as long as you have an ally directly across.

As there is no "facing" in Pathfinder, the long lash would allow you to threaten all squares within 10 feet of you.

So about the ninja / rogue thing. As the ninja is an alternate class of the rogue, what class features does the character have access to? I know there is some overlap, and since there are rogue talents that unlock the Ki Pool and Ninja tricks it seems unnecessary to house rule a further exception.

That looks right. Unless you tag someone in the Surprise round where they start flat-footed of course. Hopefully you have a buddy helping you set this up. There are some rogue talents that synergize nicely.

Otherwise its round one - Dazzling Display to cause Shaken
Round two - Shatter defenses to add flat-footed
Round Three - Deadly Stroke

It does not allow an extra attack. When you activate the Smite, you choose the target which is the swift action. From that point forward you gain the bonuses to hit, damage, and AC against that target. This lasts until the target is dead / destroyed, the paladin rests, or (if they are high enough level) decides to Smite something else.

My group is almost done with Book 4. As Banesfinger noted above, there are places where the plot gives you room for downtime. Book 4 has a plot element based on the phase of the moon (as the PC's don't think about that you can set it to give them more or less downtime). Book 5 mostly moves too fast for downtime. Book 6 from what I've read there is room, but you may also need to read up on Kingdoms and War.

The biggest single spot is Book 2 during the ritual. There is no reason the party can't do all manner of terrible things to Farholde while building up. The rogue wants a Thieves Guild, go for it. They have 7 months to kill.

You should review the Minion Rules from book 2. These come up in all later books to some extent. Those rules are described as optional but do work in the context of the adventure path. Swapping that out for the difference types of goods and organization building can work, but will require some math. (I'm going to try some of that myself now that I'm thinking about it).

As someone running Way of the Wicked, I don't think a Cleric of Asmodeus is unusual at all. Most of my players can make that paralysis save. Checking for it every time you hit or get hit means they WILL fail eventually.

Not sure I need it currently. But when my group was working through Kingmaker this would have been great. Maybe I should give kobolds a bigger role in my next game.