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Without too many spoilers, The Shores of Heaven is a bit of a weird scenario Lorewise. The NPC it revolves around comes from an earlier, higher level, adventure, that in itself is the middle part of a trilogy of scenarios, which loosely tie into the season 5 plot.

It is also a bit of an outlier gameplay wise, and make sure you have some time to prep it.

The Goblin scenarios (Frostfur Captives, Rise of Goblin Guild) are pretty good gameplay introductory scenarios. People get into the mood a bit easier beating up goblins, and both those scenarios are actually fairly interesting to play.

Chaining the Hao Jin Tapestry adventures could be fun for the slightly more advanced group. Rats of Round Mountain is a pretty memorable 2 parter if they make it to 7-8 to cap it off.

And/Or the Aspis Concortium scenarios. They get clowned on a lot, but the mix of scenarios they appear in is actually pretty good.

I ran this low tier yesterday and it was generally well received. I'll warn that even though I expected this to run short, because of a failed bluff + failed diplo to recover in the Guildhouse, the game added another hour as different avenues were explored.

The shenanigans involving this also incurred quite a few delays... going to shop for magic disguise scrolls only then to roll a 2 on the disguise check and not get past the bouncers was a particular highlight. Then came the sneaking mission, where they noticed the trap but couldn't discern what it was, and because they came in through the hatch they couldn't reach the prisoner without triggering it, so they abandoned her.
Then after they killed the demon they went in loud anyway.

I ran into a bit of issues on how much to give away about special mechanics like the ones in talking with the wizards (where only bluff works, and it gets more difficult as time get on), and then different mechanics talking to the druid. (Where the table commented that Bluff/Intim. was a bit odd for the part about his son, which I struggled to straighten out.

They were pretty scared about the demon, but once they realized that even though it's a whirlwind of attacks it has very limited damage potential it quickly became just annoying. And that's with a skald who gave all weapons good alignment.

So they ended up with 5 delays at the end, which made an already dangerous final encounter brutal.

The manyshot deadly aim against a human does 2d8+2x(2+4+4), so 2d8+20, which is just zany at level 3-4, and then the rapidshot and iterative can potentially add that again. I knocked one guy unconscious in the suprise round with a hushing arrow crit (although I'm not completely sure it does damage, but 2 other GM's locally agreed that it probably would), and another unconscious and one to 3 hp in the first round and there was still almost no damage on the main boss.

In the end they sundered his bow after armor spikes killed the constrictor as it constricted, but with 1 or 2 die rolls different it may have been a TPK.
Especially because the charmed croc was mostly comic relief, running into one of entangle traps and then having to bite itself free, then being stuck on land with its slow walkspeed.

One comment on the encounter design would be "better use of traps"

Too often traps are nothing more than a "CLW wand charge loss" because they very rarely kill someone, and nothing happens if you trigger it that affects the scenario.

If the trap triggering alerts the next encounter, perhaps making them buff and/or stealth, or if the trap is part of the encounter, people will actually care about the rogue more.

The simple example is a certain end boss who gloats at you from behind a pit trap. Charge him and fall into it. (But be sure to give such a boss enough athletics to jump it)

I also really like it when enemies take advantage of the room they are in for combat. Hidden passages, height advantage, a stash of emergency supplies, alarm spells, doors that can easily be barred from one side, a hole in the floor where you can drop some alchemist fires through...
Most factions would know a chance of a raid exist, and prepare in some way. That sort of thing makes fights a lot more memorable.

I know the particular rogue in question, and also the party EotT will be played with, including me:

- A paladin who hits like a truck and is pretty tanky
- An arcanist with a conjuration focus, focused on battlefield control (me)
- A cleric of Urguthoa who spreads disease to disable foes very quickly
- The gnome rogue in question, melee built

I don't know the exact build, but I know she's about to do her first adventure at level 11 this week. It's a straight rogue build with at least 1 archetype that trades out trapfinding for something, but I can't quite recall.

Now the real bad news is what almost everyone knows about pathfinder: Spellcasters improve way quicker than melee. And at level 12 that has definitely happened already. And you're the only one unable to cast spells.

I obviously don't know what we're facing, but my high level pfs experience is that there are 2 kinds of fights that tend to go really differently:

Humanoid(ish) opponent fights
The rogue generally should do ok with this. Stealth is usually quite good because perception is usually not skyhigh, nor do they usually have special visions, these opponents tend to stick to the ground most of the time, and they usually don't hard counter rogue abilities. Positioning is important, and tricks to move faster help a lot.

Big Bad Monster fights
This is where the problem comes in. There are many flavors where rogues get in trouble:

1. Flying
I would advocate potions of fly over other solutions. You can't rely on the casters to help you out in combat because often times there are many potential problems to either solve or prevent, and the rogue not being able to help out may not be near the top. And there are no fly spells that are longer than minute per level. Pots of fly are cheap enough at this level that you should have some. Consumables are way better than many players realize in general. I have 22k saved up, and I'm considering spending 10k of it on a ridiculously stacked handy haversack. Have one in your wristsheaths perhaps, so you can swift take it, standard quaff and still position with your move.

2. Reach
Getting into flank here is tough, especially because CMD checks are so large that tumbling is near impossible even if you fully invest in it. There are also a lot of grabs out there.
There are lesser talismans of freedom that allow you to prevent grappling at 900 gold at a time.

The other way around these two is ranged attacks. My first advice would be, see if you can get UMD to 19.
A wand of ray of frost turns your sneak attack into a touch attack, and I know you recently picked up a chronicle with a 7th level schorching ray on it. If you fire that, your first ray will sneak attack too, if you can get close enough to sneak. If both rays hit with 1 sneaking, that's 8d6+6d6 damage. And there are ways to do that ((greater)invis, sniper rules, tiny hut, darkness (you're a gnome!), the goz mask/fog cloud trick)Even without precise shot your dex+bab will make it almost a guaranteed hit.
Even so, still have a backup bow with arrows. there are arrows out there that help. A tanglefoot arrow is a tanglefoot bag at much greater range, a smoke arrow can break line of sight in small corridors and prevent a spellcaster or enemy charge, you can get lucky with a dye arrow and mark an invisible creature, there are cheap arrows to counter any damage reduction except alignment.

Furthermore, these types of monsters usually do a ton of damage, and taking these hits can be Bad. Rogues don't have easy armor class boosters.

I will contact all of the team before EotT, but one of things I came up with is an offer that anyone who buys a spellstoring armor or buckler will get frigid touch in it from me. This is a 4k investment that essentially prevents the first full attack of an encounter (at least if I have spellslots to refill it), because once you get hit, you automatically stagger your opponent.

3. Immune to sneak attack
(Incorporeal, oozes, elementals, swarms) this is where you probably shouldn't engage directly. Your damage is too low without sneak attack. Help the team out. This is again where consumables come in, and UMD too if you can get to 19.
There are level 1 wands out there that solve a problems.

A very important part is that you don't have to win every fight personally, you're in a team. It's more important to not lose it.
And the way to not lose is to be prepared for Bad Status Effects.
People get into trouble from bad status effects way more than from hp damage. Mindcontrol, fear, confusion, paralysis, stun, nausea, stagger, poison and disease are all potential Real Problems, and if you can reach into your back and produce counters for that, you are helping out more than if you are doing an extra sneak attack.

The alchemical remedies list has so many counters on it. Many of the 1 use talismans are also excellent. A quickrunners shirt is very good to solve a positioning problem, and they are very cheap. (1000 gold pieces to take an extra move action instead of a swift action, once per day)

And if you don't have something to do that round, think about how to make the next round count. Drink a cheap potion. A 50g pot of reduce person improves your AC and hit by 2, and your stealth by 5 for a minute. Especially with the paladins many attacks, a tanglefoot bag (or tangleburn) is +2 to hit for someone else, nearly guaranteed. A Ghast Retch is a guaranteed -2 to attack rolls, damage rolls and saves on most enemies.
First Aid Gloves seem expensive, but literally save lives.

A pathfinders career is pretty short. You have, if you win all of them, maybe 20-25 combats left when EotT starts. Consider this when weighing consumables versus permanent upgrades. Especially if you consider how much money you get. A 10-11 is 7k per mission, a 12-13 is considerably more.

Resilient Sphere is a pretty good offensive spell for any multi-enemy fight.
You have to be able be fighting large creatures or smaller and it does have SR and teleport abilities work through it, but otherwise it almost always traps someone, on a reflex save.
What's extra nice about it is that it's also a defensive ability if you need protection, and a possibility to disable the dominated or confused frontliner if needed.
It's a force effect, so it imprisons incorporeals too.

The humble magic missile remains a good choice against incorporeals. 5d4+5 isn't a lot, but it's autohit and nosave. It's damage is the same as a 10d6 nonforce effect.
A rod of toppling can help boost the MM and is hilarious, though the way CMB scales this only works vs medium or smaller.

If you know for sure you're facing undead, Halt Undead isn't bad at all. Up to 3 targets, medium range.

Boneshatter works on objects, and thus on undead, targetting their usually bad fortsave.

Vampires are tough tough foes if played to their full (100 different) abilities. If you know you're facing them, you may want to be prepared to counterspell them.

Vampires are strong for their CR.
And the large group of spawns presents a unique danger: Dominate Person spam.

If you group can learn, and gets the option to negate the dominate, then it could be a fun/challenging fight.
If you throw them in unprepared, they will probably all end up dominated as thralls due to having potentially 9 will saves / round, and whenever someone doesn't make it they fight for the other side.

An extra note is that the Vampire Sorceror as written on the srd is pretty nasty because the vampire template greatly enhances the sorcerors DCs and spells / day. The RAW vampire can be Greater Invisible and attempt to drain, or just rain scorching rays, or punch negative levels against flatfooted. I've seen people struggle against them for sure.

If you decide to build your own vampire (Say a vampire anti-paladin(8)) things get really bad though.

I use Perrams spell cards to have all my spells at hand. http://www.thegm.org/alpha/

And then just write down on paper what I have in my current slots.

The descriptions are 99% accurate as far as I found, with the only thing missing is that it doesn't list if a spell is dismissable. (Leaving me to claim someone was stuck in a Resilient Sphere for 11 minutes.....at least he was safe from the rest of the combat, next time don't get dominated)

A kazoo of fog - like a horn of fog, except less effective and more annoying. It fills your square, or a single square adjacent to you, with fog that gives concealment, which dissipates after 1 round.

Cutting Board of Cleanliness - Selfcleans and doesn't absorb any smells.

Pool Noodle of Amazing Buoyancy - This pink wobbly..... thing..... is magically imbued to support up to 300 pounds of weight in calm water.

Animated Deck of Monsters - These playing cards have simple moving animations of some of the most dangerous monsters in the world. If a character studies them at the start of the day for 10 minutes, he gets a +2 to the first knowledge check to identify a monster that day.

Gnome Voice Candy - A bag of colored hard candy. If you suck on one, your voice changes pitch drastically for 1 minute.

potion of exquisite plumage - For 1 hour, your whole body is covered in an amazing array of colorful feathers.

Tankard of Mediocre Ale - This tankard fills with 1 pint of mediocre ale at sundown. It is not refrigerated by itself. Still, it's better than nothing!

Mechanical Coal-miners Canary - this tiny construct in a rather unwieldy cage will squeak for 1 minute when it detects poison (As if casting Detect Poison At-will), then cease to function.

I've had 2 games where my familiar was the best social character on the table.
Tiny flying angels (lyrakien azata) are pretty bad undercover agents though.....and a +5 to diplomacy doesn't really cut it anyway at level 9.

One of the most important things about any campaign, is a session 0

That's where people talk about the setting, what they are going to play but also very importantly, about the expectations of the campaign.

Some people want to dungeon crawl into hero-dom
Some people want to play in a clockwork universe (and probably want to break it)
Some people want to build a world with social intrigue and tough moral choices
Some people want to play "edgy" characters (Evil, sexist, slavers, racists, I've seen them all, "Chaotic neutral isn't evil but means can do whatever I want and I want to rob and murder this noble because he's kinda a dick") and you probably want to not have any of the last categories unless it's a very deliberate choice that anyone agrees with.

Usually this is a game you play with friends, or to make friends.
But it's only fun if everyone plays the game they want to play.

A GM has to set expectations and boundaries, and players need to make clear what they want. The earlier this happens, the better the experience is for everyone.

I play a brawler1/hunter X as melee flanking buddies. (An ape)
What I found is that my animal companion outshines me by so much that it's mostly my role to be sure the ape gets into position, with outflank/pack flanking. (I have a reach weapon) The Brawler1(Wild Child) is to be able to dump int, and the 1 level of martial flexibility can be very helpful (I've used to get Blindfight, and there even is a feat that lets you damage swarms)

Things to consider:

Helm of the Mammoth Lord will give your mount an extra attack. You need to feat an item slot onto it. Starting S9 this will be an option listed in the PFS guide, so it no longer requires you to buy Animal Archives.

Escape Route (Teamwork) while mounted is cheesy but incredible.
Since you are always adjacent to your mount, you never provoke AoOs
Also remember that you can switch your latest teamwork feat as a hunter a few times per day.

Consider Planar Focus feat, which is ok before level 8 and great after it, which adds 2d6 fire damage to all your mounts natural attacks, and gives you flexibility to deal with many environmental effects (levitate, burrow, swimspeed)

I found that Chameleon Step is the most useful Skirmisher trick. Double movement speed in a single move action is a big surprise to almost any foe.

There are 2 downsides to leaning on animal companions as damage monsters:

1) Their will save sucks. My ape has been fascinated, confused
2) Low HP. If it does get hit, it is not very sturdy. You can choose Totem Beast as a feat, and switch even more of your power into your mount, to get a second (third at 8) animal focus.

Another cheesy, though, expensive trick is to buy Mithral light barding. Because it has an ACP of 0 it doesn't negatively impact your animal companion. (It takes a -0 on attack rolls as a penalty for wearing armor it isn't proficient with). This frees up a feat in exchange for gold.

There are 3 basic ways to take advantage of a hunter:

- Ride your animal companion as a mount, either as an archer or a charge build. To do this at level 1 you usually have to play a small race.
- Have it be your melee buddy
- Have it be your screen while you're an archer

Roc: Amazing for Flying on, especially as an Archer. If you are outside. Inside dungeons, it's going to be a lot of effort to deal with flight paths, Fly skill checks. It has high armor class and 3 attacks, so it will do well at lower levels attacking enemies and surviving.

Tyranossaurus - level 1-6, these aren't amazing. But Powerful Bite is strong, at level 7 it will lay down some pain. Still, in pure damage pounce/rake is usually better:

Allosaurus/Warcat - The Warcat wins slightly because of the rake, but they're very close. Amazing for riding on as a small creature. Once they hit level 7 they hurt a ton

On my own hunter I chose to use Eye for Talent for extra strength, because getting animal companions to hit at low levels can be a struggle. Then I used the 4HD stat increase to give them 3 int, at which point they qualify for most feats/morale buffs.

A flank buddy build works out way better with a reach weapon, I found.

Yeah this was pathed out as an Arsenal Chaplain. While Arsenal Chaplain is basically a hindrance for the first 4 levels (Not getting to pick your blessing and only getting 1), for an archer it pays off in the end. You get extra hit/dam bonuses at 5 and 10, and you get to buy gloves of dueling which really helps your +hit/dam going forward from level 8 or so.

Effectively at level 10 you're ahead 4/4 hit/dam at level 10 for just 15k gold, have quicken blessing as a free feat (even if it's on a mediocre blessing), and all you lost is a channel energy you won't use much in combat, because your fervors are too rare anyway, a tiny amount of damage (1d8 vs 1d10 at level 10+ only), and a swift action to increase your AC which you won't be using, since you will be casting better buffs as swift actions.

At level 6:

Strength: +2
Divine Favor +3 (One extra from faiths favored)
Deadly Aim: +4 (You just hit 4 BAB)
Weapon Training: +1
+2 Weapon: +2
Point Blank Shot: +1

=+13 damage per arrow. If you manyshot, the first attack roll is 2 arrows, so 2x (1d8+13) = 2d8+26

Manyshot at level 6 is far superior to Weapon Spec, it's essentially a whole extra attack.

The cheesy move to really put you over the top is Channel Vigor at level 7.
Haste, OR +4 to hit, OR +6 to Will or Fort. it's just zany.
It's from the Inner Sea Gods, and there is a spell "most usually associated with" Irori.
In PFS it's legal for everyone, outside of PFS, talk to your GM.

Now don't worry too much about perfect feat selection, because archers are powerful in Pathfinder, and Warpriests are among the best archer classes. (Being able to heal (swiftly on self), use scrolls for (lesser) resto and circumstantial cleric spells, medium armor and dex for decent armor class are all very nice extra's on top of high damage output.

Yesterday my hunter saved the day the by casting Entangle on his own party in the middle of food market because everyone was fascinated at the same time.

Getting slapped around by angry vegetables certainly is one way to snap out of your daydreams.....