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I'm curious: why'd you cut Meyanda out?

Meyanda was suitable to show that Hellion is followed and that he can give strength. But I decided to make the interaction with the Iron Gods earlier and more obvious. For this, I replaced her with Hellion, designating him as a villain with whom the characters need to fight. Between the conversations of the players, I heard a phrase that they are ready to unite with Hellion if something suddenly happens. I think that this is due to the fact that I gave Hellion more time to reveal himself as a character.

After a long time since my post about changing some things in the adventure path, I was able to partially bring it to life. This post is a kind of report with my thoughts on the original events and those added by me.

Book 1
Oh, Torch, the town where such a partly strange, but also interesting adventure began.
The main plot line went as planned: the characters began to explore the part of the ship under the hill, in search of a problem with the "Torch" itself and in search of Khonnir Bane, turning to the knowledge of technology to a spy of the technic league, and also spending money in a local casino. In the complex itself, I did not change anything much, except that I replaced Meyanda with Hellion in the body of some android, and who, as in book 2, commented on the progress of the characters. From the remarkable actions of the players, the players made the Dead Man Lamashtu kill himself, saying that this way he would quickly go to his tribe, which would definitely forgive him. The spy of the technic league was not defeated and, having stolen one of the technic things, left the town. I finished the book with the fact that a "revived" Hellion appeared on one of the monitors and said that since what he needed was not given, he would take it himself. I allowed the generator to stabilize, allowing you to take an automatic 20 and a bonus from the hero's point.
Not much changed in detail part of the story, which I liked. This is a story in a small town in which strange things happen, but also things that you can believe in (fear of the people, corruption, bandits). The players really wanted to help the town, which soon became one of the motivations for traveling further along the plot.

Book 2
The changes began with this book. At the end of the last book, Hellion indicated that he would go to the Torch, and in order to be faster than him, the players almost immediately went to Scrapwall. Together with the AI Casandalee in armor. On the way, they met the Keatons (announced as connected to the main villain), met river pirates and Ghost Wolves, to whom they tried to explain that technology is not evil.
Scrapwall itself was not generally changed by me, but I added "liveliness" to it: it is a city, after all, people live there and not all of them were exiled here from somewhere. Someone was born here, which is why sometimes the characters solved some problems of local residents, for example, with dirty water or an attack of rusty zombies. In addition, any society should have some semblance of a market, which is why it was added so as not to leave the players completely without resources. The gang issues were resolved as expected, but along the way my paladin player could deviate from the code by disguising himself and acting like a maniac to enter their base without problems. The same player then used diplomacy to lead the gangs to Hellion's daze.
Towards the end, AI Casandalee left the armor, Hellion "took" it, giving the armor wearer another distorted flashback, hinting that he too used to be "good", but strayed from that path. The next day, Hellion ordered his bandits to destroy the market and the characters went to storm his base.
Hellion's base and the entire complex... caused some problems. The environment and monsters/enemies encountered there are suitable, but both I and the players did not like that sometimes creeps just stand in the way. Just fodder for wasting resources. This is understandable, to give players experience, but we play without experience, and levels are given out at the right moments, so half of the monsters were simply removed.
The battle with Hellion was interesting. Very interesting, considering that the players did not have ranged, so they jumped on him, captured, debuffed him if possible and somehow beat him. After Hellion said that no one understands the danger of what is in the silver mountain and disappeared into his backup body. Kassanadali in one of the system mechanisms says that in order to fix the Torch and find out what Hellion was talking about, you need to go to Starfall. That's where they then went.

Transition from Book 2 to Book 3
This is another journey, in which little and a lot happened at the same time. To get to Starfall faster, the players decided to go to Chased and from there float down the river. In Chased, they managed to buy/sell the necessary things, sit in prison (and get out of there, because Paladin Android moved away from his principles of non-cooperation with evil and agreed with the head of the office in the technic league), fight the kytons (in Chase, their "main base", plus one of the characters has augmentations), then put new ones, finding a group near the monk-engineers worshiping the pantheon, consisting of Brigh, Irori and Zon-kuthon and finally reaching Starfall. I changed Starfall, making it a mix of something close to cyberpunk and a regular fantasy big city: among many wooden and stone houses there can be strange tall iron houses, giving off neon. In addition, trading in technologies is not prohibited. To do this, you need to get permission from the Technic League. There were 2 reasons for this: I do not want to limit the characters in the ability to buy interesting things and, given that Unity is behind the Technic League, the distribution of things under its control will play into its hands. On the streets of Starfall, the characters are caught by the "police", seizing the Paladin Android, in whose armor is located Kassanadali, and take him to one of the captains of the Technic League, who owned him. He forces him to work for him and immediately after signing the contract, the paladin was summoned by the king. The King in my version is under the influence of drugs, but he is not a closed, but an open man, a responsible ruler who is able to understand that everything is not perfect. In addition, Unity has a connection in the Castle, which is why she often communicates with him or with those who consider it necessary. Important: the Black Sovereign knows what Unity wants to do. In public, he is open, kind and valiant, but in fact, in his soul he is broken, because the barbarian tribes do not want to go to the future, his family wants his death and Unity herself, unwittingly for the king, broke him. After some time, Unity tells the characters the whole plot, not talking about real goals, but only that she wants to help people develop. Instead of Kevot-Kul's words about Numerian patriotism, the players are imbued with both the king and Unity. Unity says that the Technic League appeared because it cannot teach, but only give information due to the fact that it is limited and does not remember much itself, and this can be solved if it is possible to find Casandale's body. The Black Sovereign gives them such a mission, giving them access to everything in Starfall, and also sometimes having fun with the characters, becoming a favorite of the players. After some time, they go to Yandevey, where the body was last seen.

Book 3
The events in Iadanveigh reminded me very much of the first book, "The Torch", but simpler, more cheerful. Characters, hung with technological things and partially augmented, fortunately met guards who stopped them from entering, but not without problems (they argued that they came from the king and they can do everything, and the paladin said "I'm a paladin, I won't do anything bad, let me through). I enjoyed describing the village life and its beauty, the wedding in which the players participated. It was a breath of fresh air from the epic before the epic.
The tasks for convening the council were taken and completed. The battle with Yaogai was interesting and colorful: A huge aobomanitsya is trying to hit, grab or eat 2 small characters who are running from him in the garden and fighting back. The task about the spy ... I did not like that it uses stereotypes that work both in our world and on Golarion. In addition, it was strange that there were no other suspicious guests. I added guests from Ustalav and Absalom, who were studying Badwater for some reason. It didn't help much. It was especially funny when Paladin said that the spy was one of the Varisians and that they should ask the locals about it, which would set up all the Varisians as a whole.
While searching for the spy, they find the dungeon ahead of time and almost die from a swarm of bionanites with immunity to weapon attacks, but it's good that the Blacksmith (third party class) had AoE shrapnel, which helped destroy the swarm.
Having completed the task, the players, already with all their equipment, go to the dungeon to search for the body. Since there was an android among the characters, I decided to play on the fact that this is where he came from. The whole scene was tense and even scary. The defective androids looked like Paladin, but heavily distorted, and the android assassin was an acquaintance of the character's past soul, who was trying to fix herself in the forge. Then everything went as planned, only the Gearsmans instead of Unity's order said that they were following Trinity's order (the Union of Unity, Kassanadli and Hellion). Not finding the body and reducing the flow of mutation gases by supplying electricity, the characters went to the Choking tower.
The Choking Tower or abandoned SCP foundation
I have no problems with this part from the narrative or mechanics, but the unusualness of the monsters in the tower and basement (especially there) made my players joke about it being an abandoned SCP complex. Also, frequent traps caused my Slayer to become paranoid and roll perception to every door. In the end, I decided to make the battles specific, because for example the Nanite worm that walks without magic (which they don't have) is very difficult to kill, which is why I added mechanics near the DBD, while someone distracted him, others looked for sources of electricity to hit him. The Daemon, who was in the protective circle, was ignored because of his appearance. But as soon as the paladin realized who it was, he immediately wanted to kill him. One bullet thrown to check what kind of place it was destroyed the circle, causing the daemon to escape and find a hidden room with a teleporter, which he began to turn on to spread the infection throughout Starfall. In an epic battle, the daemon was defeated for a time, the spread of the plague was stopped, and Casandalee was found.

From what I have seen, done and plan, from the story of confronting the enemy and the heating up of forces with the participation of aliens, this story has become about the confrontation of the old and the new in its cardinal manifestations. It is a story and a theme that you can believe in. This is what I like about it, that in the confrontation between an axe and a laser rifle there is something real that society constantly encounters. And the cardinal difference in the sides only enhances the effect.

Pro100Andr wrote:

Plus, I got these ideas after I watched the animated series Amphibia, in which a "wild fantasy world" also collides with technological evil:D

I am amused at imagining Casandalee in the role of Darcy, AKA Dark Marcy, from Amphibia.

For Darcy, I planned some kind of important NPC for the players or a dead player character, so that the players would have the motivation to save both the body and the world, through the visible distortion of the character’s body and behavior.

Mathmuse, thanks for the answer.
Regarding your posts, I saved some for use, but thank you for making links to some interesting ones.
I understand that the ideas I proposed are subjective and may not be entirely suitable. They were formed from my passion as a GM and the players to dilute dungeons with social interactions and stories. Because of this, I had the idea to devote more time to "big" characters, somehow changing them and integrating them into the overall narrative of the story, instead of just appearing at certain moments as hints. For example, I gave the players the opportunity to establish a relationship with Kasandali, making her a sentient datapad that does not remember who she is, but can sometimes help with the discovery of some technological things.
Plus, I got these ideas after I watched the animated series Amphibia, in which a "wild fantasy world" also collides with technological evil:D

There's a lot here.

Since you're already looking that the search for Casandalee doesn't happen, how do you plan to replace six levels of experience/treasure? (Lords of Rust ends at 7th, but Palace of Fallen Stars begins at 13th.)

With Unity summoning the party to Starfall upon Hellion's defeat that will become an issue.

I have no plans to skip books (except perhaps a strong change to Valley of the Brain Collectors, because I don’t really like that everything revolves around aliens, who do not have a key place in the events around Unity). Players will head to Starfall, meet the king, receive certain information and go as planned to search for Kasandalee's body.

edit:
this will allow:
Players will see the inconsistency of Starfall with the promises of Unity and the King to change everything for the good
Unity and the Techic League understand who they need to monitor so that the plans of each of them go as needed and adjust it if necessary

(This will be a long post, so there may be errors in the text and lore that I may not notice right away)
My players and I decided to take a break from the protracted pirate campaign and go to another company that we have an interest in. And starting to prepare, reading the general history and "opinions" of other masters, I noticed some aspects that seem strange to me (some of this can be changed and added):

The spaceship fell about 9000 thousand years ago and during this time all the technology was not completely plundered

How the Black Dominion's psycho guns could affect the artificial almost-deity

Hellion as a villain does not have time to reveal himself

The search for Kasandalee without special motivation may not happen

Things that I do not like from the side of history:
Kevoth-Kul is the ruler of Numeria controlled by the techno league and is very passive.
Unity as an archvillain does not have time to interact with the characters, showing them his absolute evilness.

I have some ideas that change the main canon, but in my perception it allows the events to feel logical:
Unity is not an Artificial God who created Hellion and gave powers to Kasandalee. Unity is part of a triple artificial intelligence, along with Hellion and Kasandalee. Unity is a control and order module, Kasandali is a storage module, and Hellion is a defense module. The Black Dominion's cannons did not drive the artificial intelligence crazy, but only divided it into parts, which is why during the crash it already disintegrated into Unity, Hellion and Kasandali. The module that controlled the ship's mechanisms tries to control everything around itself; the module that collected information about various creatures realizes their value; the module that protected, with its actions, strives to destroy the last fragments of what it was called to protect. This gives Unity and Hellion motivation to compete - to fulfill their duty, which was deformed due to the crash.

The Ship itself fell not several thousand years ago, but about 400-300 years from the beginning of the campaign events. This creates a problem that such an event did not attract the attention of the entire, already almost entirely advanced world, but... until I came up with an excuse for this, this may be a convention. This will explain why all the technology from the ship has not yet been plundered, plus in theory connect Unity with the tribes and Numeria, which is below.
The last lore change I am thinking about is the cancellation of a certain "nerf" of Unity. Unity really cannot leave the Silver Mountain without access codes, but it can control a certain number of robots or even people, strongly cybernetizing them and connecting with them.

At the moment, I am working on the second book, having some plans for the third. So far, the rough plan includes the following:

Replace Meyanda with an android controlled by Hellion and give him the ability to annoy players through cameras, starting in the Habitat Dome zone. In the fight with him, he will mention Unity, which will cause him to explode from the nanites in his head. However, he will immediately contact them from Scrapwall, saying that he will send his army to take what he needs. The heroes will have time to get allies, take back the torch with them, and then go after Hellion in Scrapwall.

After the battle with him, and almost victory, they should receive a message from Unity through one of the terminals, who appears as a lawfull good god, asks to spare Hellion and go to Starfall, where they can personally meet the king and get more information on everything that is happening.

I don't like Kevoth-Kul as a drug-addicted puppet of the Technic League, and so I wanted to change him a little, making him, at the time of the meeting in book 3, more menacing and intelligent. Black Sovereign began to appear around the same time that Unity fell according to the new lore. Unity, through some transmitter, after the fall, introducing herself as some strong spirit, influenced the leaders of some tribes, heating up relations between them, but also reinforcing the greatness of the tribe, which it manipulated. As a result of many years of influence, Kevoth-Kul had a true desire to unite Numeria, trusting Unity and the controlled Techno League, but he did not know about the true motivation, which was not to build a correct society. In the end, Kevoth-Kul appears before the characters as a magically and technologically enhanced (including some drugs) King of Numeria, who truly believes that the right Unity, in his eyes, will make Numeria, and then the whole world, better!

At some point, a dead player character, or an NPC important to one of the players, will be heavily cybernetized and through this Unity will appear to the characters, telling them about her "good plans" and telling them what they should do next. At some point, the Kytons from the Chapel of Rent Flesh will appear near the players, and Unity in a cyber body will try to kill the players itself as soon as they are close to receiving the necessary codes.

Regardless of the outcome, it will order the Gearsmen, controlled members of the Technic League and barbarians to collect all the necessary resources to build a satellite with which it, in Unity's opinion, will be able to enslave the entire planet.

What do you think about these ideas and what else can be added/changed?

My Players To complete a task that will help them solve their story, which is not entirely integrated into the original campaign, they went to the Azlantian ruins, which turned out to be surprisingly restored by someone. There are no living people in them, only still military or peaceful clockwork constructs. Well, also the remains of interesting loot from the Great Ancient Civilization.
In my implementation, as I imagine the first great civilization of humans, they are a techno-magical state with an emphasis on magic and the magical creation of things, such as golems and different magical items. And with this idea, I began to come up with interesting loot that I can provide to my players.

The first thing I thought about was firearms. There is a Gusnlinger in the party of players, so he will be interested in such loot. In addition, people or soldiers who had not mastered magic somehow had to use the benefits of their civilization.
The most suitable solution was to make wands with a changed price as ammunition for such a weapons. Something similar with the Weaponwand spell, but in this case the wands themselves are weapons and treat it as a special firearm. And due to this, its need some special rules

Proficiency: needs Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearms) to use, because it uses firearm mechanisms

Capacity: amount of charges in battery

Range and Penetration: attack works as in spell description

Loading a Firearm: "reloading" this weapon takes standart action due to the complexity of the mechanisms activating spells

Misfires: such weapons are complex in its structure, but contains an even more complex essence. It gains broken condition on 1,2 and 3. After misfire it increse by 2. After second misfire it explodes in area of spell and deal full spell damage or (if spell was a ray) explodes in 10 foot radius dealing half damage. If you have gunsmithing feat, but haven't ranks in UMD or spellcraft you can't restore this weapon.

I want it to be used as a weapon and then make sometimes more then one "shot", but some kind of mechanics are needed to limit the possibility due to the possible power of the spell. For example, do flat checks like in 2E, increasing the difficulty with each attack attempt in the round. I also don’t know what to do in this case with spells that emit several rays in one cast

1 - 3 level spells are one handed weapons, 4 and higher - two handed

I think a few things need to be cleared up:
If by named creature you meant the devil, whose name the character knows, then it has some special effect only on the battle, because the player uses it as an additional, very powerful summon in difficult battles. In addition, from the role-playing side, he understands that he is blackmailing her to some extent and does not use her very often, so as not to feel her wrath and her familiar devils.

Concerning the contract and the possible transaction. The character is greedy for power and influence, and is ready to go to great lengths for this (except to harm his own soul and himself). I have not seen such characters at the table as a player and master, so I wanted to give him just the same strength that I can help him. But the power must also have a downside in the form of some specific troubles that could keep it to me, as a GM, under control with these powers. So I'm ready to go for some experiments.

Sounds like he should have no illusions about where his soul is going to end up after he dies.

So, what's his plan to avoid being just another chump? Is he seeking to become a fiend without dying first? Looking for immortality and enough contingencies that he'll never permanently die?

Immortality or something like that is not his current goal. His goal is power and authority to become the Hurricane King, and then carry out reforms to create laws. Absolute laws

idk about a castle.

how about offering him to bind his soul for a power up?

in return he gets to summon a devil 1/day for an hour. get some spell like abilities and +2 to 3 different attributes (depend on the devil who makes the contract with.)

The main problem is that he is unlikely to give up his own soul. Trading in the lives of others and some items for his own purposes in order to achieve his goals does not constitute any problems for him.

Let's say you are the Great Devil, Pit Fiend, or one of the Archdevils. You know that devils are often summoned to the mortal plane, and this is not unusual. But then you find out that one special person took over the true name of the devil executioner, and so he trades the lives of bandits for gold. Asking for information, you will find out that this person is a LE high-level caster who is a member of the pirate council, has his own base, an island and wants to establish an absolute law in those territories: The same for all and harsh for all those who do not comply with it (like Judge Dredd universe) . Observing similar ideas, why not help such an ambitious person, of course, for your own benefit.

Mechanically speaking, the player is a level 11 Occultist Arcanist with a True name exploit (I changed arcane discovery to a full Arcanist level instead of half). As a character and a player, he says that he uses a lot of things and people as a tool to achieve his goals and I want to give him a "tool" that will consider the player as a tool in his hands.

It is clear from the description that this deal goes beyond the usual "3 wishes for your soul" framework. I can't figure out what interesting Hell has to offer a potential ruler and how much it will ask for. The character comes from Cheliax, so he (like the player himself) has an idea about transactions and is very picky about it, which is why he will notice a clear catch.

Speaking about the law, he jokingly or perhaps not jokingly spoke about the construction of a fortress of law in the port perill, which would be guarded by special hellknights. Speaking of the hellknights, he sees Cheliax as a competitor or enemy, so he will not allow their armies to enter his territory.

He use most universal spell list, so patron with spells looks unnecessary. Maybe some other class abilities, but dont know about that

I think using the UC Room Building rules might be better to construct their own ad hoc building(s).

I love it when the players are invested in the campaign world.

EDIT: Handwave the Spell costs, the party can either create the magic or it can't. Roleplay the influence cost. By the sounds of it they already have 'paid' that or at least most of it.

They have 8 level sea witch Android. She also is abadar worshiper. With Separatist Cleric (NPC) she have dream about making great bank and economy at Shackles.

Its again somekind of post about S&S, but now without actual spoilers, because its so important.

Finally my players won pirate regatta and they they have a island at which they must make a proper welcome of the guests in order to be accepted into the pirate lords. My my problem is that in the book the construction moment is just omitted, just saying that some time must pass. Also my playes LOVES roleplaing in downtime ( they spend half of game sessoim to manage a aclemy store in Port-Peril, using alternative profession skill rules) and before to start explore the island, they wanted to buy resources in advance to build buildings. So far, the rough plan includes the construction of a port and a church with a bathhouse (Captain, he is also a future member of the pirate council, is a cleric of Calistria). At the moment they have 80k of gold.

I know that building rules were in Kingmaker, but I don't know how it will work outside of its original campaign

I think 1 lev dip mysterious stranger gunslinger is enough.

16 level Antipaladin
1 level Thug unchained rogue
1 level Mysterious stranger gunslinger
Stats should be cha->dex->str (intimidating provess and melee weapon alternative)->con->int->wis (but no dump stats as Bonefist has a very high pointbuy.

I would take the Intimidate feats over ranged feats because you hit touch AC and debuff so much with a conductive pistol.
But pick up rapid reload and Deadly aim.

The antipaladin aura i only 10ft which is much better suited for melee weapons. But it is only nessesary if some one is immune to fear effects or you need the -4 penalty to fear checks.

I would change levels of Antipaladin for Gunslinger for story for storywise. Kerdak is scary person, but he is known for his possession and use of firearms. And i think it must be display by gunslinger's deed. He is gunslinger with some negative energy, not antipaladin using a unique gun.

I would properbly change Kerdak Bonefist to an Intimidate build. That would better explain how he manager to remained in power for so long. Cannons are great at intimidating weapons as well and could be the reason, he loves them so much.

So I would change his alignment to CE and shuffle his stats to increase cha. I would give him at least 3 levels Antipaladin for the aura og cowerdice. A dip of Thug and the rest could be anything which benefit from Intimidate, but Antipaladin would do nicely.
And give him a conductive gun and melee weapon so he can with add his touch of corruption.
And let him heal with negative energy because of his deal with Raugsmauda

When he is killed. He will rise again after an hour as a Dreadknight due to his deal with the lich Raugsmauda.
He will go on a revenge rampage killing of the players henchmen and raising them as undead. Before he kills of the party….

I had some interesting ideas for some cannon user with siege mage/siege gunner/EK using spells like reloading hands, named bullet and enlarge person. I was inspires by fight with Screaming Satyr, but than i realized, that dont correctly know siege weapons rules.

3 Antipaladin\1 Thug Rogue and then rest as Gunslinger ( Mysterious Stranger) ?

I think I need make some clarifications in general (its not so much a spoiler). Kerdak Bonefist have a literally bonefist (or bonehand) after his "meeting" with Raugsmauda on her shiip. Raugsmauda is old lich Who long ago wanted to control these lands, and waked up around 200 years ago. I as GM see her as a kinda of patron, who secretly control some Kerdak`s decisions. And most sad thing, that after such story bonefist is... Just 1d6 negative damage from his unique pistol or revolver and negative level on crit. I want make it more interesting and impactful for battle and strory.

About bloodrager... Kerdak's first mate, who fights with him, is scarred rager half-orc, so 2 barbarian like characters in fight seems odd

Greetings all. Today I would like to talk about rebuilding of Kerdak Bonefist, who is the ruler of Shackles, as well as the final boss of S&S AP. Why do I want to rebuild? Because I find his build pretty boring. He is an 8 pirate/10 inner sea pirate with hit and damage feats. This is a normal idea, considering that while he shoots, Tzadok will melee. But for an arch-villain obsessed with firearms, he only has a unique pistol (revolver) without much damage, but with a large hit. On the other hand, I don't want to do special minmax for a huge amount of damage, I just want to make battle interesting. In addition to how classes are chosen for a story, classes create a story and hooks for it.

Let's move on to some of my ideas: Kerdak is obsessed with weapons that use black powder, so he must have Gunslinger levels. 1 level gives firearms profiencies, grit, deeds and gunsmith. 5 levels for more deeds and dex to damage

I thought about Grand Marshal Prestige class due to the concept of a certain sheriff with a firearm. Plus legal judgment interesting buffs in battle. The only thing that confuses me here is that this prestige class does not have a lawful alighment in the requirements, but the concept itself speaks of this. Its conflictibg with NE Kerdak's aligment.

I would also like to show some influence of Raugsmauda on him through a dip for example into a witch or something that gives a small supernatural (like hexes) or magic ability (I thinking that Raugsmauda is Kerdak's patron). Some vide of Deadeye hexer hybrid class from Legendary Games, but Kerdak more martial than some kind of caster.

As for gear... I don't know much about high-level magical items yet, but since Kerdak is the king of pirates, I don't think cost matters.

Speaking without the context of story, then I'm need a tough reckless cursed gunner

What are you think about this idea? What ideas you have?

For a pawn he have more levels than he. Raugsmauda is 14 lich sorcerer ; Kerdak is 18 level ( 8 fighter/10 pirate). Lich template gives +2 CR, but 16 still lower than 18. Maybe Raugsmauda need buff or some rebuilding? 14 is highest in IoS, and its Max player level in AP

Isles of Shackles, says that Raugsmauda is just sailing through the Shackles in his galleon for... who knows what (correct me if I'm wrong). She is the immortal lord of the undead, who killed another powerful sorcerer and almost killed herself for the sake of power over the lands. She, if you believe the story of Kerdak, gave him a kind of chance, leaving him alive and giving a certain mark (a bone hand). And Kerdak eventually became the Hurricane King, that is, conditionally the king of these lands. It can be deduced that Raugsmauda is behind all this, but is it worth leaving some hints of this?

My players met some of the Liches henchmen.

They were buying dead slaves cheap on Rampore Isles and arrived inside a gargantuan zombie whale.
They also met a some shadow shark scouts, which swimmed through their ship and killed a couple of Crew members - turning shadows them self until the players fended them of.
Aashag have I not used yet.

This is a very interesting idea, thanks! My players are now dealing with Milksop (performing the task of the priests of Norgorber) and may somehow see something similar

Finally having resolved all the player and unnecessary story lines, I took another look at the Adventure Path Books and the Shackles book. And when examining the second one, I noticed that in addition to the impending Cheliksians and the ambiguous current ruler of the region, the ancient Lich "walks" along the Shackles, as well as the ancient dragon. From book 5 to book 6 (maybe also consider the end of book 4) there are very large-scale events that they could hardly miss: Lich is connected with the current king of hurricanes Kerdak, and Aashaq for global battles in which you can set a lot of things on fire.

How could I insert these "persons" into the storyline? An early direct confrontation with them will be dangerous for the players, but will show that they are still in the world, as well as that they are quite strong figures.

I also note that the characters do not rely on entities, like Azata and the like. It was rather events on my part that were well-pleased. No one asked for this, precisely in terms of unrequited help, it is rather my regret that I did it.

Although, for example, the current Captain of the ship - Cleric of Besmara, wants to make a pilgrimage to the throne of Besmara after Tessa's mission, just to respect the goddess, but also maybe to receive a pearl and a blessing (the properties of which are not described and I will need to figure out what they will be)

I'm worried about your players falling in league with devils. This adventure path is the opposite of most: for PC alignment it is flexible along the good/evil spectrum and fairly inflexible along the lawful/chaotic spectrum.

Will these characters care when Tessa says Cheliax is planning to invade? Will they care when Cheliax does invade?

If not, you may need some drastic changes. Perhaps instead of the players taking on Tessa's quest to find a spy the players do more pirate work. Use those items and maps on the inside cover of each issue to give your players some treasure hunting quests to level up. That seems like it will motivate Reken.

You should be able to do the Regatta, Isle of Empty Eyes, and the book where they fight Harrigan as normal. Then, in the last book, Cheliax approaches your players. Cheliax has concluded that your players can replace Harrigan in their plans (Cheliax considers your players an upgrade), and Cheliax offers your players positions of power in the new Shackles if the players betray the shackles. If your players agree, the last book then consists of your players attacking Fort Hazard, while the Chelish fleet ties up Bonefist's fleet. In this alternate version, I would have Bonefist take the threat from Cheliax more seriously from a narrative standpoint - in this case he actually assembles the pirate fleet to defend the Shackles.

At the moment, the players are on Tessa's mission and are very worried about a possible invasion. In a recent game, they returned the right item to the temple of Calistria.

My players will not want to ally with Cheliax, they are mostly chaotic or true neutral, and also love freedom. This is only possible with a player who has made a deal with the devil.

As far as I understand, this will not change the main events. Although "personal character quests" brings some changes, they are not significant. I was just wondering if it makes sense for Cheliax or hell to have another "pirate agent". The character was Lawful Neutral, but became Lawful Evil after the deal, remembering only what he changed in his history, not changed recent events.

A long time ago, I already asked questions on this forum about some aspects that I would like to clarify in one way or another. It was a long time ago, about a year or two ago. And during this time, my players have not advanced much, being somewhere in the middle of the third book. A lot of things influenced this, especially some real world events, but not the essence of my post. This post is rather my retelling of very ... sometimes strange events committed by my players and me, their possible criticism or help with something.

To begin with, the ending of the first book was not at all what it should have been. I kind of wrote about it. After the crash, the group went to explore the island, however, after a series of clashes, their HP was minimal, and poisons and diseases ate their characteristics. There were no true healers among them (Brawler, Skald, Investigator). Because of this, they could not go through the required dungeon and retreated to the ship, on which most of them were killed. From all this, I emphasized that you need to throw poisons for stat damage very rarely.

The second book happened much more stable and as it should. As I said a long time ago, instead of the Adventure Path book, I used Plunder and Peril. And the adventures themselves on the ship Princess Magpie took place along the right path, except for some events, and for this I will have to enter some information about the characters of the players.
Xin is an Investigator Tengu raised by a wealthy family in Port Perill. He served as a nanny for their even son, but then became a full-fledged member of the family. He sat mostly in the estate, but secretly getting out of the house was captured and taken to Herrigan's ship. The only character who survived the first book and saw Herrigan.
Reken is a drunken barbarian catfolk who has arrived at White Lily for a drinking feast. In addition, he is the father of Reken, a brawler who died earlier. Many events will then revolve around him.
Hugo is a human paladin with an oath against chaos. Arrived in Shackles for a post regarding law-abiding free captains and guilds to conclude trade with them. The paladin looks strange here, but the player has indicated that his oath allows him to work with the chaotics to re-educate them. But I'll tell you beforehand, then he changed his path to a gray paladin.
Ragnar is a human Viking fighter just traveling around Golarion. The player is our good friend, but he rarely visits our town, which is why his story is not well thought out (but his acting is very good acting)
Dreamer is a merfolk cavalier who brought Xin to the White Lily. He arrived in shackles to seek allies to counter the "sea devils" that might attack his underwater village. He was also positioned as a periodical character, but has recently become a permanent one.

I didn't act out sailing as anything other than what is indicated in the adventure. I used the book Shackles book and after some event the team needed to replenish the team and supplies. And from the nearby island was... the Elven conclave, which is a very closed elven island that worships Calistria and dislikes other races, especially half-elves. I changed the rules there, adding large docks so that non-elves could get out of the ship at least somehow. Investigator used the Disguise self extract to pass as a half-elf (none of the players were aware of the customs of the island) and arranged through high diplomacy to covertly monitor the customs of the temple. The elves took Xin in disguise, leaving Barbarian and Paladin locked up. They began to water and feed the "half-elf" and wanted to start lust actions for further sacrifice to the swarm of wasps. Dissatisfied with the current actions, he began to resist and scream loudly, which attracted the attention of his friends, who saved him, though Reken killed a couple of Calistrian priests in one.

But being chased by evil clerics of the Goddess of Vengeance is not uncommon in both Golarion and Shackles. But further events that were thrown from my idea, as well as my game and some players in the Computer version of WoTR, brought some changes and a degree of epicness, the need for which I doubt. At some point, a vision of Eon appeared to Hugo, who said that he must restore order to these lands, at the same time condemning with a glance, Reken, who ridiculed order, which made him fall into a stupor from the realization of his sins. But then the paladin could not resist and succumbed to chaos, which is why he became a gray paladin. After that, Reken began to believe in certain entities that rule or instruct mortal. And since he was associated with alcohol, he decided to turn to Cayden Caylin, an accidental god. In alcoholic rituals, he spoke of courage, but he himself did not go for it, from which I decided to do that Azat turned to the unfortunate soul of the catfolk, who helped him find swept away, sending him to study monastic arts. After everything, I realized that it was strange that an ordinary mortal could attract the attention of such creatures, and even a chaotic Azata would help in becoming lawfull. At that time, the main thing for me was that everyone liked it.

Due to a series of interesting and unusual events, the ship's officers were thrown off the ship, and Captain Hugo (a gray paladin) was killed during a riot. From this, on the way back, I threw up unusual encounterers to return their fortune and reputation. Among them was a Ctulhu-like monster in a mini-dimension with the remains of Aroden's temple. Looking into the local bestiary, I thought, why couldn't there be magical ancient hunters in the Shackles. In addition, other strange events took place, the relevance and veracity of the history of which I doubt, which I can tell you if you ask. But the event of today's game took my brains and players out (not in a negative way)

Already living only on his determination, Reken, having returned to the ship and becoming a surgeon, went to the magic shop - the ship. He did not have enough money for a tiara for wisdom, from which he asked the Dreamer where he could get money now. And the last joked "Sell your soul to the devil." Reken didn't take it as a joke, said it was a good idea, and then disappeared. Covertly, a relatively strong devil watched his family and him, and seeing an opportunity took him away to draw up a contract. The essence of the contract as per the rules: one soul for 3 wishes. And one of the Catfolk's desires was to change his father's character so that Reken would stop drinking and become lawf on his own. It may not work that way, but it has led to a change in his character and the attitude of his playmates, including players. They were more loyal and kind, The cat itself became really law-abiding without anyone's control and began to try to follow the path of Irori. Only here is what can be added diabolical, I have not yet come up with. I note that myself and the players were surprised and not at all against this and everything that I would consider strange. What do you think about what happened in my game? Can I write more context or stories waht happend to players? Is it critical to use such "strong" creatures in a campaign?

Anyway, can we go back to EK and not discussing about healing in the team of players?

the problem of the paladins is their code if the group does not agree with the parameters that the paladin follows then it could stop assisting them or worse leave them

I placed the hunter for being someone who is not subject to such a strict moral code that

Now if you leave the normal hunter without any archetype, you will have a pet that with only 1 hunter level continues to do a lot of damage. More still you use the feat of boon companion It would increase the statistics of this one

He take oath against chaos and if I understand this code correctly, then it does carry the law, not necessarily aggressively. For this, he came to the Shackles. And as far as I remember, in the original code, he can unite with the evil (in this case, the chaotic) in order to soon show them the power of the law. and if all this does not work like that, we have had the houserule of "reasonable paladin" for a long time

How about arcanist white mage lv3/ hunter feral hunter 1

You will receive arcane magic (arcanist) with spontaneous healing exploit, an a buff from the hunter animal focus on him with unlimited duration an get the druid/ranger spell so more healing spell for the party

Not a bad idea, the White mage needs the spells that EK will provide next, but I think the paladin will be able to handle the heal as well.

I think that a magus will be more functional at level 4 if the vibe you want i swashbuckler spellslinger.

Your main problem with the above build id to hit: BAB +2 Dex +2.
Weapon focus would be better than Fencing grace at this point.

Magus really would be better suited for the initial levels, but the magus is exactly what a battle mage, using both combat skills (as a warrior) and spells with arcanas (as casters). The team already has sources of damage in the person of the barbarian and the cavalier (the paladin is a tank, but he can take advantage of the Smite the chaos). So I think about who is more focused on magic than combat (melee as an alternative in extreme cases or normal on latter levels). For example, I wanted to add resists to the enemies in the final day and the temple, which could only be pierced by magic, since I dont like that the main damage is only physical

Is this a GM-pc?

Be carefull with that - you could end up roleplaying with your self.
If your group lacks some Arcane/divine spells it is better to let them hire a henchman or perhaps let them take leadership.
And if the encounters are too tough, just make them easier instead of optimise all the players.

You are right about optimization. After that crash with the ghoul disease, I decided to remove all sources of stat damage (especially in the final battle in Plunder and Peril)

After a short break (there was no opportunity to play) and some re-compilation of player classes (2x of them were killed by Plugg), I decided to start optimizing my player classes.

The team of players consists of Infiltator investigator, Oath against Chaos Paladin, Barbarian and Cavalier. They were often low on HP and were almost killed by the disease, so they decided to take a paladin

I myself have never had the experience of playing as a wizard or other full caster and I want to get this experience and complement the composition of my players

We are starting Plunder and Peril, so this NPC will be one of the officers on the ship

He will be the fourth level. I am thinking about a build through 1 Inspired blade swascbucler / 3 Blade adept arcanist with transmutation spells, evocation spells and Abjuration spells, like a kind of battle mage. The arcanist has a lower spell progression than the wizard, but I love the idea of ​​having magic weapons with the Eldritch Blade exploit

Str 10
Dex 14
Con 13 ( 14 jn 4th)
Int 18
Wis 10
Cha 12

Toughness and Fencing Grace on 1st level and Arcanist extra exploit (Eldritch Blade or Spellblade) on 3rd

Until the first levels of Eldritch knight, I think it is worth using evocation spells, since it is dangerous to go into melee at such levels and he will focus more on spells

What spells and feats i should take later( except Improved critical rapier, its foe EK Capstone)?

sorry for the long answer. About licking wounds and the fact that some players know the Captain can help, because after what happened, they will only cooperate with those who at least somehow know, and this will speed up the start time of the module, but this will not break the intrigue and mystery of the mutany and treasures?

Pro100Andr wrote:

Regarding the rescue of the surviving players from the island: repairing the Magpie Princess ship takes about a week and I think this time is also important: it gives some information about the mutiny and the captain, and also gives the players a sense of usefulness (on Mans Promise they were slaves), and such an opportunity it will be very bad to miss. But on the other hand, what will the survivors of the island do? Merfelk is a cavalier, he can theoretically bring 1 or 2 NPCs or payers to some settlement

I don’t understand your problem. If Magpie Princess was damaged in the same storm as Man Promise, but arrives a couple of days later to get shelter and make some temporary repairments.

Then the players just need to survive a couple of days and then board Magpie Princess. Then Magpie Princess sail for Lillywhite to get better materials and complete the repairs and the story goes on along the script from there.

The problem is not with the ships themselves or that they broke down. The problem is that while the new characters are busy fixing the ship, the survivors on the island can only wait, in terms of real time. They can try to save Sandara and another NPC, but they have few resources for that on the island. I don't really like it if one of the two groups of players is waiting and do nothing

Indeed, Herrigan is more excited about the ship than the Plugg itself.

Regarding the rescue of the surviving players from the island: repairing the Magpie Princess ship takes about a week and I think this time is also important: it gives some information about the mutiny and the captain, and also gives the players a sense of usefulness (on Mans Promise they were slaves), and such an opportunity it will be very bad to miss. But on the other hand, what will the survivors of the island do? Merfelk is a cavalier, he can theoretically bring 1 or 2 NPCs or payers to some settlement

Hmm, something I did not think about such an easy and obvious decision. Old players will be taken from the island, while new ones will most likely start with a festival (new characters are associated with the dead). But then the question remains about Plugg. He and the Scourge must die, and the friendly NPCs must survive. Maybe they were affected by ghoul fever, or had the cook poisoned the food in some way? I need Herrigan to think by the third book that it was the characters who killed Plaug and captured the ship.

Most likely the message in this post will be big.

A while ago I did another post on this adventure road in which I asked about pairing Book 1 with Plunder and Peril. But after today's game, all these plans have expanded and I do not know how to bring it back to normal.

In short, two players died on the ship from a plugg (both were at low hp), and the third was saved by a fourth player who only recently joined. They also didn't save the survivors from grindelow and some of their loot was taken by the plugg. And the blame for everything is the fact that they hoped for Sindara and did not have a healer among the players (there was a skald, but he only has healing from spells), which is why they were consumed by the disease and they were often not at a high number of HP

As a result, the plugg's ship is about to sail away, and the fourth player, who is a true neutral merflok, with whom the players entered into an agreement on mutual assistance, dragged the survivor to the shore.
My main question is now how to return to what was originally planned: the death of the plugg, the capture of the ship by the players, and then changing its appearance in Book 2 or participating in Plunder and Peril.

Sorry for the long answer. Honestly, I haven't fully explored Plunder and Peril yet, while I'm more focused on preparing the final battle with Plugg. But thanks for the tip, "take away" the ship from Lanteri. This will most likely forge her bond with the characters, making her more prestigious only in terms of Captain status. As I explore in more detail, I will respond in more detail to your other suggestions

Soon I, with the players, will finish book 1, and after studying book 2 and Plunder and Peril, it seemed to me that Plunder and Peril would be much more interesting for me and for my players, with some elements from Raiders of the Fever Sea, for example, a treasure map on the woman's back and the treasures themselves. But how do you start Plunder and peril then? At the end of the first and the beginning of the second book, the heroes seize and repair the ship. Then what's the point in hiring another captain, in the treasure hunt, if they themselves will have a ship (not right away)

About Plugg... Plugg turned out to be a very charismatic character, as he constantly interfered with and waited on the players in different ways, which is why they hated him. They don't like the captain, but not as much as him. And I think if Plagg showed up with the captain in Book 3, the players would have a lot more motivation to stand up to them. But how can this be done then?

The books do suggest how to change things a little if you want to add firearms.

But something to keep in mind (I think it says in one of the later books) that Kerdak Bonefist remains in charge of the Shackles because he has access to guns / cannons so if you include guns I'd suggest Bonefist having access to better guns.

Oh, yes, I somehow didn't pay attention to it, having noticed it only in the third book. Indeed, firearms are very rare, and giving them to Mr. Plug, for example, would be very strong against the players. But if the players want to use such weapons themselves, I will give them such an opportunity.

About firearms: Well, maybe you right. Right now i reading book 2, so maybe later will be information about firearms. just with a pirate theme, I associate with the Pirates of the Coribbean, and there are many who had firearms (not advanced)

About NPCs: I just want to add the ability to hire unusual NPCs so that players can be distracted from battles by roleplaying with them. Fighting and treasure hunting is fine, but I want them to do roleplaying to dilute it

Somewhere in a week and a half I'm going to be GM in the Skull and Shackles campaign from book 1. My players are going to be aquatic elf Kensai, catfolk brawler, human Urogue (Phantom thief) and the last player has not yet decided who will be.

As far as I understand, this campaign (or the first books of the campaign) came out before the Gunslinger class came out. So I wonder if adding a couple of soldiers to ships with weapons (like muskets) will break the aboarding system? It seems to me it's the other way around, it even adds some risks and adrenaline.

From the second book, the heroes begin the sandbox. But almost all the actions of this sandbox are related to ships and water: a dead ghost ship, encounters with other pirates and other ships, sometimes an attack by the Sahuoling. I understand that the campaign is pirate, it is focused on the nautical theme, but it seems to me that sometimes it is worth doing some kind of events on the coable or on land. Yes, the events during the change of the ship and the capture of the cliff take place on land, but isn't that not enough? What if, for example, with a certain amount of fame, the villages in which the heroes sell cargo, will give them quests to destroy any creatures or robbers?

Sooner or later, the heroes will have to hire a crew on the ship. And as far as I understand, this team is mostly ordinary NPCs. Maybe this is suggested in the following books, but what do you think about the possibility of recruiting unusual NPCs (other than those that have been with the heroes since the beginning of the campaign)? For example, in one of the villages there is a temporary free captain (Half Elf Lame Oracle of Battle) whose fleet has been defeated, or a wandering monk (drunken master) who will passively give +2 on saving throws against alcohol.

Depends, what combat-style do you want?

Power Attack, Improved Unarmed Strike and Combat Expertise are the prerequisites for all the "Improved <combat maneuver>" feats, so you could flex into them if needed. You probably don't need all of them though (and you already have IUS).

Besides that ... Extra Investigator Talent? It really depends what you plan on doing. I'm sure there are some bluff/disguiese related feats that are pretty good, but if all they do is give static bonuses you may not need them.

Well, i dont know about social feats, or disguise depends feats

What then about feats?
In this case i think to go
Str 13
Dex 14
Con 12
Wis 10
Cha 12 ( for a little bonus on social skills)

Yes, I dont want be a teams brain. I can help team with knowledge or some other skills, but i think its not main specialization. I think it will work like with that bard build, only if I was there with the team in active time, and while the team was doing different things, I negotiated with the bandits, then here on the contrary, most likely in important events I will transform into others and help team from far away

Yeah, extra attack which is compensated by the studied combat bonuses, and the combat featt, with a full BBA, looks good, but build is not made quite for combat. Combat this alternative - if something goes wrong during espionage

I think first level of Brawler is one the strongest first levels. And i think that compensates Investigator who gainsfull abilities from 4th level.
But about flurry now i have a doubts. Is extra attack and combat maneuver will be very beneficial, taking into account the bonuses from Student Combat?

I assume that the starting character level should be 5. At what level then should i take the brawler's levels?

Pro100Andr wrote:

wow, I had no idea that theoretically with this ability I could be like the Great Old One, thanks for the info. Transforming into a specific person / monster simplifies the task, but I don't think that transforming into great or famous monsters will be useful most often. I think it will be more useful when changing some important people, like nobles, officials and the like.

Just to be clear, even if I am right about that avr is correct, you do need a piece of Yig to transform into Yig. And while it doesn't have a price listed it would NOT be easy to find. Talk to your GM about this, it's totally rrasonable to say it doesn't work.

Quote:

Half Elf FCB is really cool. having a static bonus when roll inspiration (albeit small) is already pretty good. Does this boneus only go to inspiration rolls on skills, or generally to inspiration rolls (for example, an attack or a saving throw)?

Yeah it'll work on any Inspiration, so skill checks, anility checks, attack rolls, saving throws. As long as you spend the inspiration you get the bonus. Or if you get the Expanded/Underworld Inspiration talents you get the bonus without spending Inspiration.

Amazing/Tenacious Inspiration increase the numbers, but Combat Inspiration and Quick Study are the ones you really want if you're going to use Inspiration on Attack rolls and Saving throws.

I think and Expanded/Underworld Inspiration and Amazing/Tenacious Inspiration and Combat inspiration with Quick study are very useful, but considering dipping 1 - 2 lvL Brawler, i think talent progression will a bit slower( but i can always take Etra Investigator Talent).

wow, I had no idea that theoretically with this ability I could be like the Great Old One, thanks for the info. Transforming into a specific person / monster simplifies the task, but I don't think that transforming into great or famous monsters will be useful most often. I think it will be more useful when changing some important people, like nobles, officials and the like.

Half Elf FCB is really cool. having a static bonus when roll inspiration (albeit small) is already pretty good. Does this boneus only go to inspiration rolls on skills, or generally to inspiration rolls (for example, an attack or a saving throw)?

For reference: INFILTRATOR.

(Not to be confused with INFILTRATOR, INFILTRATOR or INFILTRATOR)

So I had a quick look at the archetype. The bonuses are nicely thematic, and you're not losing anything you care about (poison use, looking at you).

For a dip, I'd be hesitant to dip more than 1 level, but a lot of people dip for Investigators since they get very little to help them in combat before level 4. If you're going to 20 I'd avoid the dip if possible, because I think the capstone is pretty powerful, but you will spend a lot more time playing before the capstone than with it.

Personally I think Brawler makes a great dip. I'd probably just go 1 level for martial Flexibility, but flurrying with Inspired Combat will be nice if you get it going. Just remember you probably want an INSPIRED weapon eventually, so if you put feats into a weapon try to make it one that's compatible with that.

in any game in which I played or was a GM, no one reached the 20th level, so capstone looks unreachable

I always creating combat oriented bulds, but recently i was interested in social or magic builds ( like Brazen Deceiver bard)

Recently i looked Investigator archetypes and found Infiltrator archetype and its look interesting: redused disgiuse penalties, and bonus to disguise checks which stacks with extracts bonuses.

The idea immediately comes to mind of a spy who spies on important persons in the kingdom, and secretly eliminates enemies

In addition to disguise, he most likely needs good bluff and diplomacy bonuses so as not to arouse suspicion, but investigator cant freely use inpiration with diplomacy and bluff without a talent

In such build i thinking about dipping 1-2 levels brawler, for IUS, Martrial Flexability and Brawler fury, Martial Training but i dont know will it hurt to alchemy?
in my opinion spy must work silent, quiet and bloodlessly, so nonlethal damage is right way

For buff Bluff or diplomacy i think take a half elf with Skill Focus Bluff. Taking extra feats for disguise maybe right idea , but i think with redused penalties and bonuses from Mimic Mastery disguise checks already have high chance to sucsess

There are smthg special , that i need to know abot disguise and what should I consider when making a build focused on this?