Which one would be the best to use for NEW players? There will either be 3 or 4. If there are only three, I may play an NPC to help them along. I am not extremely familiar with the APs however, especially topics like which ones are easy to get into.
Well, pretty much all the APs are optimized for 4-member parties, and can be downscaled to 3 or upscaled to 6.
I think the best choice would be to pick whichever AP sounds the most fun to the GM to run, or for the players to play, or both. Some groups have an idea what an AP is about ("an overland journey to the end of the world to deliver an important person" or "raising your own kingdom"), while others go in blind.
My only caveats would be:
1. Consider picking an AP that is designed for the Pathfinder system -- that is, Council of Thieves or later; you can run the earlier ones, but they're designed for D&D 3.5, so you'd have to convert. (Rise of the Runelords has been updated to Pathfinder system, however.)
2. Perhaps avoid Shattered Star, as it's supposedly sort of a 'sequel' adventure path to Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne. I can't personally verify that, however.
Once you've selected an AP, check out the forums. There are pinned topics with tons of information that may help you out. In particular, I've seen that each AP tends to have a thread pointing out spots where most groups suffer TPKs; each chapter topic has people pointing out errors with logic or statblocks; and there are topics galore on other issues, like how a person might change kingdom building mechanics in Kingmaker if they think (as many do) that it's too easy.
Huh. Good idea. I hadn't considered that, mainly because I'm a legendary buffoon.
I think this would work out pretty well actually... Any tips on running it?
EDIT: After looking into the fact that it's not Pathfinder-set, I feel that I'd rather do one that actually is converted/Pathfinder-ready. I don't want to have to convert things and then find out I missed a part somewhere through it.
I know the party is rather fond of gothic horror/fantasy, so I was originally thinking... what was it, Carrion Crown? That's in Ustalav, right?
|
Carrion Crown is the gothic horror path.
Personally, I suggest the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition for everything. It does get pretty dark and adult in parts, but it covers all the basic D&D territory and it's really nice to have it all there in one book.
What I did with three PCs was just give them all max (rather than rolled) HP. Running an NPC with them can be distracting in combat and potentially weird in roleplaying situations, but go with it if you're comfortable.
Cheers!
Landon
RotR AE is the easiest to deal with for starting players of the ones I'm familiar with. In particular it has very easy starting combats, with monsters that you can play as 'dumb' without breaking verisimilitude. They'll also level fast, as it is on the fast XP track, so they'll get that taste of the reward of leveling up sooner.