Would like to know
I'd say the original Rise of the Runelords run. The anniversary edition is a little easier, mostly because the hardest stuff you can predict a bit better. In the original, there were quite a few surprise TPK moments.
I haven't played or even read all of them, but the two I am most familiar with (Legacy of Fire and Kingmaker) are WAY easier than the original ROTRL — and that's counting the nasty book 2 boss from the former.
At level one, the Pugwampi in Legacy of fire are amongst the most deadly, IMHO.
Can we count Savage Tide?
I pulped quite a few players when I ran them through that meat grinder.
It can also depend on how you define "difficult."
Kingmaker can be surprisingly difficult both to run and to pay, due to the Kingdom rules.
Kingmaker's first part can be deadly if the random encounter table is against you.
The first carrion crown was pretty hard lost a couple PCs. Although that might have been the DM, that was how he got his jollies. The next ones have been easier. (I.e. different DM.)
Would like to know
The one with the best GM.
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The original Rise of the Rune Lords. Multiple TPK encounters. The Anniversary Edition does smooth things out a bit, and lower the PC death ratio.
Kingmaker is mostly a cakewalk with its one encounter per day exploration mechanic. We took to calling it Cakemaker.
You might want to check the individual AP messageboards. They all have a dead PC thread. Might help you get a gauge of which is toughest on PCs.
I want to say just about every AP had a nasty encounter or two that could cause things to go badly (sometimes party comp plays a big role in it). A certain imp, a certain hag, and a certain lamia come to mind.
i'm currently running Serpent's Skull. We're about 1/3 of the way through book 3. Book 1 was brutal in places, book 2 had one really tough encounter, and one PC death. Book 3 had a PC death on the first random encounter. We have had PC's into unconcious during nearly every session. All that being said, the party only has an Alchemist for healing, so the difficulty is not a total surprise.
Anything written by Richard Pett tends to hate your players.
Anything written by Richard Pett tends to hate your players.
Yeah! Book 6 of Kingmaker, our PC's had a relatively easy time of it up till then.
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Let's see if we can build a Richard Pett Hates Your Ability to Breathe AP.
Book 1: The Wormwood Mutiny
Book 2: The Skinsaw Murders
Book 3: Escape from Old Korvosa
Book 4: Forest of Spirits
Book 5: ???
Book 6: Sound of A Thousand Screams (oddly fitting by this point)
There. The AP most likely to destroy you. You dont need a book 5. Book 5 is filled with your tears and written with the congealed ichor of your sorrow.
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Let's see if we can build a Richard Pett Hates Your Ability to Breathe AP.
Book 1: The Wormwood Mutiny
Book 2: The Skinsaw Murders
Book 3: Escape from Old Korvosa
Book 4: Forest of Spirits
Book 5: Into the Nightmare Rift
Book 6: Sound of A Thousand Screams (oddly fitting by this point)There. The AP most likely to destroy you. You dont need a book 5. Book 5 is filled with your tears and written with the congealed ichor of your sorrow.
Now that has a nice balance to it, and is indeed filled with your tears and written with the congealed ichor of your sorrow.
I'm pretty sure my party can handle Sound of a Thousand Screams when we get to that book.
The old A1 through A4 series were incredibly deadly. I mean heck you start the last one with zero gear.
There was the old C2 that iirc had fire breathing regnerating hydra somehow stuck in a small room that also always managed to surprise and ambush the party.
The old drow and giant series modules were almost impossible if you weren't sneaky.
Really I think most of the 2nd ed stuff was much more difficult. Deaths were almost constant and even tpk's were not unusual.
I don't know about the others, but I can vouch for the first book of Carrion Crown being nuts. We've had 8 sessions and 3 deaths so far.
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From those ones I've either read or played, Legacy of Fire seemed the toughest. Sure, it started as an odd monty haul thing where they dropped a handful of awesome magic weapons, way better than anything you can find later on, into your hands, but the challenges quickly started to outpace the party as well. It's a high magic adventure with a lot of powerful creatures involved and it never lets you forget the fact.
Serpent's Skull has been so-so in terms of difficulty. There was a lot of variety to the opponents during the first 4 scenarios, but nowadays they have have become pretty token since the main enemy is already well known and so are their allies. That tends to cut down on the surprise factor that often gave a critical edge to the monsters and left our group stumbling in the dark. Having a healing-focused cleric also helps. I had to reroll back some of my fear of certain outsiders, since, for instance, Death Ward nullifies their combat effectiveness entirely. Clerics can be a funny thing.
Rise of the Runelords was insanely difficult at parts, particularly the bosses. Then our melee dudes caught up with the opposition. Hard to gauge the actual difficulty of the later scenarios, since our GM gave us ample time to craft stuff before the final pushes and had half the party go shopping in Absalom, since our resources quickly outgrew Magnimar's offerings. Mithril full plates, boots of speed and tasty Osirian cuisine whee!
Kingmaker seems really easy, until you start to hit the more dungeony parts in the middle. Again, lack of healing resources, info on the opposition and whether or not the party has time to craft are probably the deciding factors here.
I've had limited experience with some of the adventure paths, and while the toughest fight-for-level encounters I've seen so far were early in Rise of the Runelords. The easiest time I've had has been Kingmaker, because of the easy pacing.
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I've run Legacy of Fire in Pathfinderised form. It's later adventures are insane and unless your players are well oiled machines with very little in the way of "poor" choices for caharcter survival in outer planes against high magic creatures, then you're toasted.
If you don't have access to healing in the form of innate character ability, then you're in serious trouble as two of the modules occur in places where you just can't go and purchase expendables. Instead you are reliant on the random drop, and they are few and far between.
If we go back to Pre Pathfinder days, Age of Worms is an absolute killer as well. One of the best campaigns I've ever run in fact. If you can find a copy of it floating about somewhere, it's worth getting and converting over.
I've read Runelords all the way through but never run it. As mentioned above, many of the boss encounters are set to be "oh my god" moments for the players.
Hope that's helpful.
I'll vote for Age of Worms, with dishonourable mentions going to book 1 of Kingmaker and book 2 of Rise of the Runelords.
Let's see if we can build a Richard Pett Hates Your Ability to Breathe AP.
Book 1: The Wormwood Mutiny
Book 2: The Skinsaw Murders
Book 3: Escape from Old Korvosa
Book 4: Forest of Spirits
Book 5: Into the Nightmare Rift
Book 6: Sound of A Thousand Screams (oddly fitting by this point)There. The AP most likely to destroy you. You dont need a book 5. Book 5 is filled with your tears and written with the congealed ichor of your sorrow.
Now that has a nice balance to it, and is indeed filled with your tears and written with the congealed ichor of your sorrow.
** spoiler omitted **
I have Marvel Super Special #1, printed in actual Kiss' Blood.
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Funnily enough, we just finished Serpent's Skull and I was reminded of this thread.
I take back what I wrote about Serpent's Skull so-so'ness. That was one heck of a final boss encounter. If my had not had an unholy amount of resistances and defenses, it would been over very quickly. I especially liked the hyper-regeneration. Forget about Karzoug, this is where it's at!
Gratz to the scenario writer, we were afraid, very afraid.
I'd want to run Serpent's Skull some day, both for the challenge (heard it's tough for a DM) and for the chance to play the final boss theme of Silent Hill 3 at the table when they do fight the last boss. Amusingly enough, the title of the track is also very fitting for the situation in question. Also, I'm going to need ideas for what kind of music to play when the group finally gets to the final battle in Kingmaker. It's only three books away from now, once they (hopefully) finish Rivers Run Red next session.
Kingmaker's first part can be deadly if the random encounter table is against you.
At level 3 a shambling mound attacked our camp at night and out party fighter was in trouble, I was playing a cavalier that was part of the order of the dragon... a halfling by the name of Sir Keleb Wargenfoot... was the first time I cried at a character death...