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This question actually gets asked a lot...usually in the "please make a high level AP" form.
The usual answer is that making high level adventures is difficult to do in v3.5 and lower level adventures sell more.
I wish they would do a higher level AP, too...
But for now I would consider running the first AP starting after the first adventure, HERE. These adventures feel a bit more disjointed to me.
Personally, I'd encourage you and your players to give a low level Paizo adventure a try. They do that better than most, imo.
However, if starting at first level is out of the question, I'd suggest looking at the Second Darkness adventure path. I havent played it yet and you would be well advised to ask someone in the second darkness forum for their opinions. However from what I've heard, several people have commented that the early parts of this adventure path seem somewhat disjointed from the later instalments. It may be that playing through the last four of those would be of interest to your group. (Although you're going to be left with the problem of providing background, it may not be as bad with this AP).
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First, I'd challenge the players to try low levels. The APs really are great and work fantastic at low levels.
If that is out of the question, no problem. Start at 4th level. But keep in mind the entire AP the GM will need to adjust the difficulty of the challenges. That could be a pain.
But really no reason you can't.
in fact if you run Rise of the Runelords (my favorite) you might be able to scale it so that the first two need some adjusting but the last four don't, as in essence you catch up.
Also there's no weapon description for the falchion, unless I am blind.
And if I were to nitpick, calling a two-handed chopping sword a falchion was an error in and of itself. Greatknife would have been more appropriate, I think. But that's neither here nor there.
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Also there's no weapon description for the falchion, unless I am blind.
And if I were to nitpick, calling a two-handed chopping sword a falchion was an error in and of itself. Greatknife would have been more appropriate, I think. But that's neither here nor there.
I am COMPLETELY LOST what this is referring to...
My group, and I'm sure it's not the only one, seriously dislikes the first few levels. I don't think I could persuade them to play in a level 1 adventure. If you look at the adventures WOTC released in the last few years of 3.5e, you'll see that they, too, realized that the first few levels weren't much fun: Red Hand of Doom, Eyes of the Lich Queen, Cormyr: Tearing of the Weave, and Expedition to Castle Ravenloft all started at level 4-6.
So I was wondering, why not start the next AP at level 4 or 5 instead of 1? Sure, I could just skip the first adventure and tell the players about it as backstory, but where's the fun in that?
Respectfully, I hope they keep publishing the adventure paths (APs) starting at level 1. I find the lower levels to offer some of the most interesting and meaningful role-playing opportunities.
That said, I think a page covering "If you're not coming into this AP from (name of previous book), here's some hooks to get your party involved." is text well spent; it would increase the flexibility of every book in the AP, making it that much more valuable.
If you want to use one of the existing APs, then I offer a rather unorthodox suggestion: Levels be damned, play it as it's printed! If your players happen to get a cake walk through the first book, it's not the end of the world. Making them feel like the biggest baddest mofos in the AP is a great setup for taking them down a few notches when the difficulty level catches up.
Another suggestion would be to play it, but use it to practice your ability to wing it. So you play with two rules:
1. The players can never know you're winging it. Don't go looking in a book; if you need a number, an ability, or anything, then make it up/change it up, and hope they don't catch on that you pulled it out of thin air.
2. You can make notes from the AP book, but you may not stat anything else in advance. If the AP says 5 goblins with X, Y, Z stats, then that's what you are allowed to copy into your notes. The decision to up the goblins to 10, 15, 20, 25 ... and the DC level and effect of the poison on their weapons .. you *must* make it up on the spot at the gaming table. (Don't reach for any books, see rule #1!)
Winging low-level stuff is usually safer from an encounter balance perspective. If 25 goblins turns out to be too many, a few fudged misses aren't that suspicious; they are goblins, after all.
It could turn out to be the most fun you've had with "levels 1-4" in a long time.
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I'll also chip in in saying it's really worthwhile playing the first volume if you can persuade your players. In particular the first volumes of Rise of the Runelords and Legacy of Fire have resulted in some fantastic roleplaying experiences for me, and when the RP gives way to the fighting, the relatively high difficulty of Paizo adventures means those lower levels fly by pretty fast.
Having said that, I think it's fair to say that all four APs thus far have used the first book for scene-setting more than anything and don't advance the plot crazy amounts. So it's possible you could read through them, pull out the major plot points that need to be covered and coalesce them into your own version that only covers levels 3-4...
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I'll also chip in in saying it's really worthwhile playing the first volume if you can persuade your players. In particular the first volumes of Rise of the Runelords and Legacy of Fire have resulted in some fantastic roleplaying experiences for me, and when the RP gives way to the fighting, the relatively high difficulty of Paizo adventures means those lower levels fly by pretty fast.
Having said that, I think it's fair to say that all four APs thus far have used the first book for scene-setting more than anything and don't advance the plot crazy amounts. So it's possible you could read through them, pull out the major plot points that need to be covered and coalesce them into your own version that only covers levels 3-4...
Yeah that is very true. If you want to start out at level 4 that really means all you need to do is figure out how to work in the first adventure into 4th level. The second book usually starts somewhere about 4th-ish level anyway.
Perhaps rework the first adventure into some kind of narrative, or compressed series of encounters then get into the game at 4th with the second adventure. From there you would be good to go!