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We've only just dipped into Book 4:Vaults of Madness...
(Damn you Greg Vaughan!)
Two more books to go?! We're supposed to finish at 20th level?! Really?
I hope our beautiful Lady Game Master doesn't blow a gasket from running high level play with this group of Swingin' D's!
It's not nearly as fun as playing in it. On the podcast, we often mention our dislike of the power curve and how it breaks the game's back in double digit levels.
We're seeing this fact shine in Serpent Skull.
I absolutely love my character. She is truly awesome, by build and by design.
She will become a foundation NPC in my future Golarion campaign.
I'd like to see the development of a Mini-AP's.
Produce between 4-6 books covering 1st through 10th level there-about.
It would be an excellent place to retire a character or if you prefer, take them into the next 10 levels.
I believe playing a campaign over a long period of time provides that peak potential in RPG play.
I also think that when it is too long, you run the risk of loosing player (or worse GM) interest.
L2G.
G2L.
~@~
This AP is designed to go to level 16 or 17 unless your GM is making modifications.
The lowest level a module went to was 13th, and Paizo heard about, and not in a good way.
Most of them end around level 15. KM went to 17 IIRC.
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Please, post the party makeup.
Nora Mystera (1/2 E) - Holy Vindicator of Desna.
Kashka (1/2 L) - Lion Shaman/Druid
Fin (E) - Dragon Disciple/Archer
Eltar (H) - Fire Evoker
Jarl (D) - Reach/Cleve Fighter
I wonder why my games back doesn't seem to break?
If that was meant to be snarky, I'd replay in kind by saying,
"you must be the best GM ever!" :p
To me, it sounds like you guys are overleveled for the book you're up to. The description for "Vaults of Maddness" says it is for a 10th level party, not a 13th level party. On top of that, you have 5 party members. No wonder you're having an easy time!
Of course, this is assuming that your GM is using the stock encounters from the book.
maybe it tactical....
How do you respond to threats?
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Working extremely well in serpent's skull for us:
Illusionist Gnome 15
Debuffing Witch Halfling 15
Super-Archer Ranger/Horizon Walker Dwarf 15
Rogue Elf 15
Super Buffer Bard Human 15
Everyone is very stealthy, and between the familiars, illusions, hag's eye, good old invisibility, and creative use of spells, we're very seldom surprised.
Since about 3rd level, our tactic has been:
Make contact with the enemy via some expendable resource. Figurines of Wondrous Power, Summoned critters, or (my favorite) Image Spells go out front, and soak up that first attack. We respond with a counter-ambush, going for a coordinated Healer>Bard>Arcanist>Archers>Meleer attack order.
We routinely look like whichever humanoid group we're engaging, and almost always have extra (illusory) mooks hanging around.
We're just into Book 6, but the last 3 adventures have really been fairly easy. There were a couple of tough bits, but we managed to pull through. It helps that we're using hero points, I must add.
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*Shrugs* Meh...as long as everyone's having fun who cares if the group is steamrolling the encounters. Pathfinder is all about having a bit of fun with your mates.
Azmyth are you guys going to discuss Serpent Skull as a whole one day on a segment? My group has hit book 3 and I'd like to hear about your groups experience and what Cherry did to make it work for you guys. Its definitely the most sandboxy game I've ever run and have found that reading/hearing about other groups experience has been a great help.
As for the whole ideal end point for APs I know they'll keep the current structure of 6 books per AP with end point around 15th. I think thats pretty spot as it suits most groups and is just a bit longer or shorter for the others. High level play requires the GM to shape encounters and challenges to the strengths and weaknesses of the group which is hard for an AP to do.
I guess this AP is one of the better ones having stopping points after the books as you could easily stop after books 1 and 3, and I reckon you could tweak book 4 to be a stopping point too.
For my group we've been playing since 2nd ed and have always played our characters all the way to 20th or TPK (whichever came first) and we'll continue to do that no matter where the APs finish. Theres always one last adventure for characters to take and mutter, "I'm too old for this sh1t"
I agree the math of the game gets screwy when you've got expanded options and optimised characters wielded by tactical players. Combat starts to bog down and become lethal grinders or "one-shot I wins" which makes it difficult to keep things challenging and fun. Players have a role to play here by making sure their characters aren't game breakers that kill the fun for everyone else. Its a tough gig being the GM at the high levels, but if you get the players to consider group fun when making their characters and help out with keeping combat rolling along its still fun.
Anyways, my group has hit book 3 and are having fun...what more could we want.
*Shrugs* Meh...as long as everyone's having fun who cares if the group is steamrolling the encounters. Pathfinder is all about having a bit of fun with your mates.
I think the existence of this thread shows that's probably not the case. Not sure where you're going, here.
.. running high level play with this group of Swingin' D's!
Um.. what? Is my mind in the gutter here?
