Any class which has Perception, Diplomacy and Survival is doing to do great in this AP. Knowledge: Local also helps a lot.
My personal recommendations:
- Samurai ( Order of the Dragon )
- Sorcerer
- Ranger
- Cleric
- Oracle
- Paladin
- Wizard
- Inquisitor
- Alchemist
My "don't take that" anti-recommendation:
- Gunslinger ( because of no support at all for the class in the AP ).
My players have had magus, ninja, oracle, barbarian and sorcerer. They've all been fairly effective. Paladin and druid should do fine.
Honestly I haven't run into a situation yet where I thought "Oh good that we don't have a X with us".
They all work quite well I think.
Some classes will simply have a better time then others, due to adventure support ( the players guide even mentions that about Gunslingers ) and how the adventure is set up.
You may want to take a look at these pregenerated characters and Imperial Heroes from Legendary Games. We designed them for easy use with the Jade Regent AP. Even if you don't wish to play these characters, they may help spark an idea for you, as they're the type of characters we thought would be good for the AP. All of them already incorporate the background traits from the accompanying Jade Regent Player's Guide. And, they come with level advancement notes for taking them through the entire first chapter of the campaign. GMs can also find them useful just as NPCs to inject into the storyline.
In fact, if you like this product, check out the rest of the series. The Way of Ki provides some interesting options for giving any class a couple of ki-style abilities as they go through the campaign. Meditations of the Mystics does the same for some added Eastern-style mysticism your PCs can use. And there are already a couple of 5-star adventures (The Baleful Coven and Under Frozen Stars) created as side-treks for the campaign. I didn't mean to turn this thread into a product advertisement, but if you haven't found our AP plug-in's yet, they really are worth checking out. Jason and I both wrote part of the Jade Regent adventure path, so the material we're creating through these plug-ins incorporates all our insights into each design.
Just my two cents,
--Neil
Since we're making shameless plugs, I'll offer up Adventure Path Iconics: Path of Jade from LPJ Design. It has eight pregenerated characters specifically designed for the Jade Regent AP. They're designed on a 20-point buy, but have notes on adjusting them to 15-point or 25-point, depending on your group's particular style of play. All of them are ready to play, with appropriate campaign traits and backgrounds for the AP and suggestions for advancement through 4th level. Four of them are human and four are races from the NeoExodus: A House Divided Campaign Setting, for a little something different.
I'm running this and we're a bit into Book 3. A paladin is a good choice for the AP and should give lots of opportunities for the pal to shine both in combat and RP. A druid likewise would be a good choice especially with all the travelling. As the other posters mentioned any of the classes are feasible (as for gunslingers well Ameiko is a gunslinger in my campaign and is doing well).