Okay, seriously n00b question and I apologize if this is not necessarily the right place for this...
I've honestly not played D&D in some time, though i still buy the books and Dragon now and then for kicks. I decided to start a brand new campaign using the Pathfinder material pretty much on a whim, because I <3 Dragon and was p!ssed at WotC/Hasbro for canceling your license.
So, I'm not really 100% clear on some of the basic assumptions/terminology here. Are adventure paths in general (or the Pathfinder series in particular) designed pretty much to start brand new characters at 1st and take them up to whatever from there, or do they assume players/characters who have been together for some time?
Oh, and I was wondering as to the extent of new magical bits you guys intended to introduce in these books. Are you relying entirely on the SRD stuff, or will we see a healthy selection of new spells/magic items/psionics/whatever? And if so, how much of it will be there at the start, and how much will only slip in later?
If there's a "dumb-a$$" board I should be reading to answer questions like that, feel free to direct my attention there.