I'm starting my PC's off at 6th lvl. What bonuses should their starting weapons and armor be? For convenience i'm starting them at +1. Am i under powering them? Will they complain? Well. ok they will always complain, but am i being fair?
Just use the Wealth By Level rules in the Core Rulebook or you can find it here.
According to the guideline (not rule, just guideline) your PCs should each have 16,000gp worth of gear.
So +1 weapons are good, +1 or +2 armor is also about standard.
You could do starting equipment two ways:
You start with the boring stuff, so that when you do find better items, it is more exciting.
Or
You start with a few exciting items (perhaps 1 per PC) that are in 6K -8K gp range, and the rest is just minor stuff. The exciting items could have story or backstory value.
Either way, 6th level is when magical gear really starts ramping up, so expect everything they start with to be obsolete within about 2 levels.
Ring of protection +1 2K
Amulet of natural Armor +1 2K
Cloak of resistance +1 1K
Ability boosting item +2 4K
Weapon +1 2K(+weapon cost)
Armor or shield +1 1K(+armor cost)
Pearl of Power 1st level 1K
Casters will want pearls of power and wands instead of weapons and armor.
PS If this is the first campaign you have GM'd, you might want to start at 1-2 level, not 6th. Note sure what your experience with the game is, but GM'ing seems to get more challenging as the levels ramp up. Why not start from page 1? Also, players won't miss what they have never known. Be stingy at first, and more generous as time goes on- not just with treasure, but with point-buy, allowing non-core material, etc.
The Story is only to be six sessions long, thus starting my PC's at a higher lvl. In my experience the first three lvls of any class are boring as Hades to play. Staring at a higher lvl allows for more challenging encounters, and thus more fun for my players and myself. We've been playing Pathfinder since the week before the Core came out. I've also limited the selection to Core classes only.
Basically the story i want to tell requires PCs at, at least, 6th lvl.
Yeah, you've confirmed what i expected. I do plan on being stingy with the magic items. With the exception of the ability boosting item, you pretty much just listed the starting package i was planning to give them. My story will have them working for a paramilitary organization, where the cool swag they find will belong to their employers, and the good stuff handed out according to rank. In this way i can give the the monsters as many boosts as i want, without worrying about them unbalancing the players once they're defeated.