Convince us to pick an adventure path


Pathfinder Adventure Path General Discussion


Title sais it all, really. We usually just play homebrewed campaigns and stories, but have been talking of trying one of the adventure paths out. We like a good mix of roleplaying and combat.

Tell us what to pick and WHY.

Thank you.


It really depends on what your group prefers.

Do your players enjoy urban adventures?
Try Council of Thieves

Classic Fantasy?
Try the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition out next month or so.

Huge wilderness adventures?
Try Kingmaker.

Pirates?
Try Skull & Shackles.

Long Quests?
Try Jade Regent.

Gothic Horror?
Try Carrion Crown.

Exploring the unknown?
Serpents Skull.

As to why you should try them. They are well written with excellent storylines and they all feature plenty of opportunities for both role-play and combat.

They are written for 4 players with 15 point builds, but require extensive work to run for a group larger than 6 players. If you have more than four players, I strongly recommend sticking to the 15 point builds, as higher builds AND more players compounds the amount of work necessary to maintain the challenge for the PC's.


Pick curse of the crimson throne. It has an excellent story and a great mix of encounter types (although perhaps your group wouldnt like the 5th instalment).


Curse of the Crimson Throne is the best out of the adventure paths I've played. Lots of intrigue and it can be edited to be better for hack-n-slash groups.


Pathfinder has really encouraged a new look at the old "module" system. One of the adventures is prefaced with an explanation of how the author looked through old issues of Dungeon magazine for the best and most popular, and WHY. Many of the adventures have traditional elements, but are very cool departures from the "room of monsters", including many dynamic scenarios.

Here's what i'm running for my group:
-Hollow's Last Hope: the players all grew up together in the small town of Falcon's Hollow, and have to save it from an infectious disease.

- Crown of the Kobold King: The players rescue local kids from a kobold tribe (connects to HLH).

- Tower of the Last Baron: PC's are recruited to aid the Andoran army in a siege, that could lead to a most volatile political situation.

- Homebrew: Return Glintaxe to the Dwarves- a leftover from the Crown of Kobold King, but it introduces them to the Dwarven Nation, culture, etc. (so I've got some writing ahead of me, but lots of reference material.)


Weslocke wrote:

It really depends on what your group prefers.

Do your players enjoy urban adventures?
Try Council of Thieves

Classic Fantasy?
Try the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition out next month or so.

Huge wilderness adventures?
Try Kingmaker.

Pirates?
Try Skull & Shackles.

Long Quests?
Try Jade Regent.

Gothic Horror?
Try Carrion Crown.

Exploring the unknown?
Serpents Skull.

And what if we like all of the above? :)

Thanks for the input so far. Seems curse of the crimson throne is getting most "votes" so far. Keep it coming.

Sovereign Court

Be aware that Curse of the Crimson Throne, Second Darkness, Rise of the Runelords and Legacy of Fire are all designed for 3.5dnd rather than pathfinder.
Rise of the Runelords is the only one being updated and that update is not out yet. The rest do have some online conversion work done but will still take a bit more work than PFPRG Adventure Paths.
Some groups will be fine with that but I thought it worth pointing out.

Some additional thoughts:

These are all campaign elements that will attract some groups and put of others, perhaps they will help you to choose.

Jade Regent involves characters travelling from the 'west' to the 'orient' and ends with a lot of japanese-esque fantasy. It is also andventure where the point is to put someone else on the throne.

Council of Thieves, because of the urban setting, leaves a lot for the GM to do, designing side-quests and incorporating the life of the city into the adventure.

Serpent's Skull... I have not read.

Carrion Crown, plays heavily on the genre and is very episodic from one book to the next (the vampire book, the frankenstein book, the ghost book, etc.).

Kingmaker is quite player-driven (they design kingdom and adventures in wilderness are sandbox) and more collaborative. Creates more opportunities for players to abuse the subsystems.

Skull and Shackles (so far) is not designed for heavily-lawful characters and is not paladin friendly. It also relies upon groups working together, even if they are evil or neutral characters.


Rise of the Runelords is the only one I've run. It's awesome: a mix of dungeon, wilderness, horror, action, mystery, and intrigue, with a lot of role-playing thrown in.

It's set on one of the more "classic fantasy" areas of the PRRPG campaign world, so old-schoolers should feel right at home.

I do have six PCs and allowed a 20-point buy, so they're a tad overpowered for the game as-written. But, since I had to convert it from 3.5 to PFRPG, beefing up encounters hasn't been much extra work at all.

I'd probably recommend waiting to buy the 10-year anniversary edition, which is scheduled to come out in July. For one thing, it will be cheaper buying the hardcover than the six PDFs of the original, although the APs do include a lot of very interesting supplemental material.


Most of the old modules and AP's have errata on the PFSRD that has been updated to PF rules. Which helps a ton.

I am playing through Curse of the Crimson Throne right now and I love it. It is based in a great city, not too good as to have no danger and not so evil you can't imagine it actually exists. Solid history and development give the city a real grounded history. Existing organizations give some great options for the PC's to become significant in the city and the region (so many city adventures you feel like just one of a thosand adventurer's not so here).

Liberty's Edge

Pick Shackled City, truly the most epic of the APs. After that, Crimson Throne and Carrion Crown are the best.


Coridan wrote:
Pick Shackled City, truly the most epic of the APs.

I prefer Age of Worms and Savage Tide to Shackled City and I think they're equally epic. However, they're probably the least convenient adventure paths to buy.

Out of the more recent (post-Dungeon) adventure paths, I'd recommend Rise of the Runelords or Curse of the Crimson Throne. Legacy of Fire and Carrion Crown are pretty good, too.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Carrion Crown so far had the most amount of RP'ing of the AP's I own and have played. It is however very episodic, you got the keep the thing connected.

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