I have a group that just finished the Curse of the Golden Spear. A third party series of 3 modules set in an oriental environment. It a horror try to survive and escape kind of story. It is really pretty good. I highly recommend it (though I think most encounters need to be buffed up a good bit).
So I have a break while someone else GM’s his Carrion Crown campaign for a bit. But I need to start thinking about what to do for the group next. So I’m looking for suggestions. By the way, I am only talking about purchased adventures. Feedback has not been positive when I made my own adventures from scrap plus I just don’t have that much time right now. So here is the situation.
Have a group of 5 players. On any given session, usually only 4 show up. Used 20 point buy. No evil allowed. They have a brigantine ship (but if it is not needed for the next adv they are likely to sell it). The group is learning to do a much better job of optimizing and working together. Though I still wouldn’t compare them to some of the death squads I’ve seen in other groups. They are a bit behind in WBL. But I can allow them to get a better value for selling their extra stuff to make up for that if needed.
Half-Orc archer paladin 9 (I would call this one pretty optimized for combat – DPR is very high)
Drow ranger 1 / gauntlet witch 8 with healing patron (kind of a high AC tank actually, meant to be switch hitter from melee to spells)
Gnome sorc 5 / red dragon disciple 4 (fairly standard fire blaster sorc with a lot of AC magic items)
Elf wizard 9 universalist (guys is fairly new to PF so this PC doesn’t really have any specialties)
Dwarf fighter 5 / shadow dancer 4 (sneak up and melee with war axe, respectable damage)
Group has some problems with decisiveness (though they are getting better), so I think real ‘sandbox’ type adventures like King Maker will not be a good fit for them. I don’t think they want a complete railroad. But if there is too much freedom to do anything, they tend to dither or rush off in 10 different directions. Also, I am not the most experienced or expert GM in the world. So things that require a lot of invention or on the fly improvisation on my part tend to go kinda flat.
So any suggestions for published adventures beginning at around 9th or 10th level given the above background?