So I'm planning to run this AP, and though I've DM'd a couple times before, this will be my first time both running a published campaign and running a PF game (my other two times DMing were for a 4e game that lasted all of one session due to my inexperience, and a 5e campaign which fell apart due to issues outside of the campaign itself). So I'm trying to figure some things out, haha.
1) I'm allowing my players to use the 20 point buy, and there are 5 players total: a draconic bloodline sorcerer, a kitsune trickster rogue, a drunken master monk, a skald, and a player using Kobold Press's white necromancer. They're a fairly squishy bunch, but I did realize after reading a bit I probably may have had them start out too overpowered if they're using the 20 point buy and also having 5 players. Do you guys think there's any encounters I might have to adjust for that? Should I go back on what I said and have them all use 15 point buy instead? The campaign hasn't started yet, so I can technically tell them to partially remake their characters, though I'll also feel bad for that lol
2) I've had the players all tell me bits of what they'd like to include in their character's backstory, things I could play with, and things they definitely did not want. All have been fairly good about giving me bare-bones skeletons, with one player basically allowing me full reign (though he did throw suggestions around for what I could do) and most of the others giving me a little bit of early life shenanigans with lots of holes and agreed to allow me creative liberty to tie them in to the story. Question is, how interconnected (or not) should I make their backstories? I have one PC planned to be related to Lowls, another PC possibly being their basically-adopted sibling (their backstories lined up so coincidentally well I figured I might as well), and another possibly having a one-sided crush on the Lowls-related PC and that being tied to their motivation to work with Lowls. Similarly, I have a character who worked with Weiralai, and one who was sold by a slave by her- and was captured by the other PC. The captured PC may also have been experimented on by one or more of the other PCs as well. Is this a terrible idea/should I go back to the drawing board?