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Just stumbled onto this thread. I'm also considering doing a modified Rise of the Runelords, with the potential threat of multiple Runelords. My party has just hit Magnimar, so there's still plenty of time to add some bigger ideas.

Story Archer, how did your campaign go?

I'm not terribly experienced at linking to other threads, but this is a Thread from General Discussion where they talk about ideas for an ambitious campaign involving many Runelords. You might like the ideas. The General Discussion thread, when I searched, had a number of hits when looking for runelords like Krune, Sorshen, and Alaznist. Happy hunting!

Wow. This is perfect thanks!

"I think they're going to be a bit surprised, and possibly disappointed, when they eventually discover it's really just about Karzoug."

I imagine they'll feel a tremendous sense of relief when they learn they only have to deal with one--Karzoug's tough enough :)

This is true! It'd probably be mean to make my party fight more than one awakened Runelord, but getting them to work against more than one set of Runelord followers might be more manageable...

Although my players don't know anything about the overall narrative of Rise of the Runelords, they are aware of its title. Specifically, they've very much noticed the fact it says 'Runelords' (plural). I think they're going to be a bit surprised, and possibly disappointed, when they eventually discover it's really just about Karzoug.

I'm already playing a heavily, heavily edited version of the campaign to better suit my players... so this got me thinking, what would happen if you embraced the plural title, and included more than just Karzoug?

Maybe Karzoug's increasing power causes something of a chain reaction in the ancient Thassilonian ruins, as old magical artifacts hum back to life, and ancient schemes move into motion.

You could keep this small of course. Perhaps the followers of another rival Runelord (I'm especially intrigued by Zutha personally) are at work in Varisia too, also trying to return their lord to power. This presents the players with something of an interesting challenge - do they take on all the groups at once, or play them off against each other?

Alternatively, you could go big with this too. What if two Runelords awoke at once? Could Varisia withstand a war for territory between the armies of two Runelords?

Has anyone tried anything like this before? Interested to hear the biggest, craziest Rise of the Runelords ideas that you have!

There's a fairly big theme of disease outbreaks and epidemics running through the campaign I'm running, and I'm looking at the gods associated with this.

What are people's thoughts on the relationship between Urgathoa and Ghlaunder, and particularly their followers? Their domains overlap somewhat - do you think they'd act as allies? Or rivals?

This is exactly what I was looking for - thanks Belabras!

I've started reading the Pathfinder Tales books partly as a way to better understand some of the locations I plan to use as a GM, and to give me adventure hook ideas. I imagine I'm not alone in doing this? Though the blurb on the books tells you a little, I thought it'd be handy to collaborate on a GM guide to each of the novels, explaining what they could be useful as a source for.

Minor spoilers ahead!

I'll start us off with the two I've read so far...

The Redemption Engine - This is a pretty superb introduction to Kaer Maga (Varisia), which covers most of the city's more unique features and groups (including the Caulborn). In particular members of the Iridian Fold feature a fair amount, who haven't been discussed that much elsewhere. The book also features a tour of two of the Lawful-aligned planes - Heaven and Hell.

Blood of the City - As you'd expect from a novel set in Magnimar (Varisia), there's plenty of material on the city here. There's also some interesting insight into the Shoanti.

Lords of Rust. Because it's Lords of Rust.

Would you say that's the best adventure from the Iron Gods campaign?

We're just finishing up Burnt Offerings, but so far I've added...

- Introduced The Terrible Tup (the bonus Runelords NPC from Hell's Rebels 4), initially just as a temporary NPC, but he became one of my player's favourite parts of the game. He ended up being an ally who helped the players take on the goblins, but only because he was seeking revenge against Ripnugget himself. He was useful for some (dark) comic relief.

- More foreshadowing for the inhabitants of Thistletop. Once she became aware of them, Nualia sent Lyrie and Orik out to investigate, and potentially sabotage, the players in Sandpoint. Lyrie gifted our party's spellcaster with a cursed ring she could activate with a spoken keyword, so she could take him out of the fight when they eventually met.

- Expanded background on the goblin tribes. In our game, Ripnugget had managed to unite 3 small tribes under Nualia, each with their own leader and distinct markings. I used the stats for a goblin vulture rider (Monster Codex) for one of the leaders, and had them carry out aerial hit and run attacks against the players across a couple of adventures.

- Expanded the hunt with Foxglove. The players and Foxglove became the only survivors from an attack by the Sandpoint Devil (though only managed to escape by sheer chance), and the rest of their hunting party was wiped out

- Added a side quest - the increased goblin activity had forced Scarnetti to move his logging operation into a different area of the woods, which disturbed a yellow musk creeper's habitat and put his men on a collision with the local fey. The players had to decide whether to accept Scarnetti's considerable bounty and clear the forest of fey, or defend the fey from sczarni thugs

- Made Nualia a childhood friend of one of my player's characters, who had also been a bit of an outcast growing up in Sandpoint

I've been wanting to run Souls for Smuggler's Shiv as a standalone (or possibly as a launchpad into some of the elements from Skull & Shackles), so glad to hear it comes recommended

I've seen a bunch of threads about the best adventure path overall, but less about individual chapters. Now we're looking at the release of the 111th adventure path book (Dreams of the Yellow King), which would people pick out as their favourite book so far and why?

Also, are there any books that you'd recommend as a standalone, without playing the entire adventure path? Especially for slightly more casual groups for whom an entire adventure path campaign might be too much to realistically finish.

I'm asking this question as my group is about to finish our very first book (appropriately enough it's Burnt Offerings).

Love the adventure path idea LazGrizzle. The main thing that draws me to adventure paths is that they each feel distinct - so wild west influences would be interesting to see.

One of my players wants to play an Ancestral Harbinger Bloodrager - has anybody had any experience with these?

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/hybrid-classes/bloodrager/archetypes/paizo- --bloodrager-archetypes/ancestral-harbinger-bloodrager-archetype

I'm wondering how effective they'd be. I'm a pretty new DM so I may be missing some obvious advantages, but it seems like the monsters of Summon Monster 1 wouldn't be a huge help in combat by Level 5?

Thanks for the quick replies everyone - that's been really helpful!

Apologies if this has already been asked, but I couldn't see it. I'm a new DM about to run their 2nd game and there's something about CR I'm confused by.

Why do NPCs with class levels often get such high CRs, despite only being a single character? For example in the NPC Codex a level 3 cleric is listed as CR 2, a level 9 fighter is CR 8 etc. They seem to follow a rule of having a CR of -1 their class level, but wouldn't a group of four Level 2 characters make quick work of a single Level 3 villain as they'd outnumber him?

I'm was hoping to throw in a rival Level 2/3 Cleric into an encounter vs my Level 1 party on Sunday, but can't figure out how much it'd overwhelm my party.

Hunter is fine as is.

For some thoughts on hunter, check out this thread:
Hunter Thread

Great, thanks Kryzbyn! Yeah I like the look of the class personally, but we're also very new to Pathfinder so I thought I might be missing something

Resurrecting the thread!

My group is just about to start Runelords and I'm already looking for ways to incorporate Kaer Maga as I think my players will like it. Has anybody else else used the city in their Runelords campaign in the 5 years since this thread started? Where in the story did you use it?

One of my players is really keen to play the Hunter, on account of the way it fights as a team with its animal companion, and the fact it fits neatly with their character concept.

I've heard several reviews though stating that the Hunter is a weak class that doesn't compare favorably with either the Druid or the Ranger. I was wondering what people think are the classes main issues? And more importantly, what would be needed to improve it? (A custom Unchained version if you will)

More BAB or combat feats like the Ranger? Access to an ability like wild shape? A tougher animal companion?

Agree with what others have said here. Understand the need for Paizo to test the waters, but it's a shame if Jade Regent was the means they used to do this, given only the second half of the story was in Tian Xia. I'd love to play a campaign with everybody playing fully Tian Xia characters from level 1... wandering ronin, drunken masters, Irori monks, geisha sorcerers, kitsune tricksters, over ambitious kaiju hunters, spirit forest druids, yokai summoners, etc.

I think one of Pathfinder's biggest strengths is the diversity of its world, so I'm 100% in favour of anything that helps this to grow

Updating the old 3.5 editions to a new HC seems to make a lot of sense, though I can see why they wouldn't want to collect the adventures paths after that.

I'd definitely pick up Legacy of Fire, and probably Curse of the Crimson Throne, given I've heard such good things.

I would absolutely buy this. Huge amount of potential to do something really unique.

1) Casmaron HC - I'm most interested in Vudra personally (Vudra Gazetteer?), but a HC that covered the Casmaron continent would have so much variety in it - Iobaria, Vudra, Kelesh etc. Alternatively a gazetteer for each of these areas

2) Dragon Empires HC. The gazetteer had so many interesting ideas in it, but they need room to develop. I know my group would love to do a Tian Xia campaign

3) Southern Garund - SO much potential here

No plans.

Adventure Paths are a lot of work, but one of the things that makes them easier and doable is being able to use an established setting as a common starting point and support structure. The Inner Sea region is an Adventure Path's skeleton AND it's skin. Doing an Adventure Path set in another setting that doesn't have a lot of support would be like a person who had a few arm bones and a patch of skin on the belly, but was otherwise a shapeless pile of muscle and guts. That type of person needs a LOT of work to not die, and an AP set entirely off of the Inner Sea region would require a similar amount of work. At this point, we could PROBABLY do one set entirely in Tian Xia, but given the numbers we've seen on our Tian Xia products, that's a risky move.

That's a shame to hear, but understandable. Personally the reason I didn't go as much for Jade Regent was because it wasn't fully set in Tian Xia, and I really like my campaigns to each feel like their own little distinct corner of the globe to get fully immersed in. I would absolutely be all over a full Tian Xia campaign, especially if it tapped into the wuxia tradition too. Similarly, I'd love to see more set in Casmaron.