First time DMing in a while and have some questions.

[jacetms87]

This will be my first tiem DMing in a few years, and my first time ever in Pathfinder, as such I have been reading up on chracter builds the system etc, I was just wanting to know if there are any builds/tricks that I should be wary of.

Players will be starting off at lvl 1 with a 25 point buy, with Standard HP I know it is a high point value but there will only be 3 of them for the council of thieves adventure path ( Thanks PAZIO!!!)

[Jiggy]

jacetms87 wrote:

This will be my first tiem DMing in a few years, and my first time ever in Pathfinder, as such I have been reading up on chracter builds the system etc, I was just wanting to know if there are any builds/tricks that I should be wary of.

Players will be starting off at lvl 1 with a 25 point buy, with Standard HP I know it is a high point value but there will only be 3 of them for the council of thieves adventure path ( Thanks PAZIO!!!)

Welcome to Pathfinder! Here's my advice:

Material on classes is NOT where you should read up first. As far as classes, read only what is necessary (i.e., abilities your NPCs will have). Your players should be responsible for knowing what their own characters can do, so don't feel like you need to read up on all of it. At least, not at first.

You first priority for reading should be the Combat chapter, the Skills chapter, and the Additional Rules chapter of the CRB. This is where the ever-present, universe-spanning rules are, and you need to know how they work.

Know how combat maneuvers work.

Know how death and dying works.

Know how Take 10 and Take 20 work, and the difference between them (people get T10 wrong a LOT).

Know what you can do with Perception - for instance, identifying a potion.

Know what a prone character's options are.

Know how stealth works.

Etc, etc. Know the mechanics of the world.

[Pappy]

Become comfortable with how movement works. Understand what is meant by cover and when it applies. Pay close attention to the pacing of your game to make sure that it flows along at a good rate for your group. Follow Jiggy's excellent advice.

Have a great time, smile a lot, and good luck!

EDIT: Smile a lot, because it puts players at ease at first, then later makes them very nervous. Haha! Good fun.

[jacetms87]

Thank you for the excellent advice, I was going to purchase the GM screen put out by pazio as it has alot of that inforamtion at its disposal and so players cant see my DM dice of doom ;)

I was simpy concerend is there some over powerd shenanagins I have to look out for ( I still have nightmares about divine meta magic and belaful poly morph... thost poor poor npc's)

[Jiggy]

jacetms87 wrote:

I was simpy concerend is there some over powerd shenanagins I have to look out for

Nah, not really.

Now, it is possible to specialize in something to a staggering degree. Thus, if all you ever throw at your players is X, and one of them is specialized against X, it's going to seem broken.

However, if you routinely throw X, Y, Z, A, B, and C at the party, then the guy who specialized against X is going to need help most of the time while feeling like a hero when the challenge of the moment is X.

And that's exactly what you want. :)

[Lincoln Hills]

1. Have pictures of any NPC you expect the PCs to spend any real time with. The adventure has pics of the major NPCs, but you'll find plenty of old fantasy art that you can crop a close-up from. A laptop's great for a color image, but your gaming situation may require B&W print-outs (in which case I'd go with old black-and-white art, since it looks much cleaner after being printed out on cheap paper.)

2. Also, have a "voice actor" for each NPC in mind. You don't have to be a good impressionist - in fact, a bad impression is better. A well-chosen "voice actor" will instantly make the NPC stand out from the crowd (just don't go to extremes - such as Ralph Wiggum or Kermit the Frog.)

3. I advise you to transcribe the following info from each PC's sheet to a little "party record" behind your shield: AC, flat-footed AC, touch AC, CMD, hit points, Fort save, Will save, Sense Motive check, Perception check, and alignment. And leave a little space to jot things like 'has filth fever', 'carrying the Quest Item', etc. This info will allow you to roll Sense Motive checks and Perception checks without the players knowing how well they did... as well as saving throws for the occasional secretive poisoning or unseen-caster-using-charm situations.