Which AP should I choose?

[voideternal]

After finishing Carrion Crown, I'm looking for another Adventure Path to DM to my friends.

Here are my considerations:
- I peeked at Kingmaker and Jade Regent, and I want to avoid learning/teaching new mechanics like kingdom building or caravan travels.
- I enjoy both RP and combat. I'd like an AP with good RP so I don't get bored running combat after combat as a DM.
- Most of my friends are combat munchkins. I'd like the AP to be challenging in encounters.

Also, another question: I found Carrion Crown to be pretty low difficulty against my PCs. Am I supposed to be aggressively combining encounters and modifying the pre-written dungeons to make it more challenging?

[Scavion]

You can definitely modify the encounters. If your players are above 15 point buy and well optimized, you will see them trash through the enemies as written.

I really enjoyed Rise of the Runelords. I also have a nice opinion of Shattered Star and Kingmaker though I didn't get to run much of the former.

[blackbloodtroll]

Rise of the Runelords is pretty dark, if that's your thing.

Legacy of Fire is a good challenge, very flavorful, but has a few points that are known for frustrating PCs.

[Talos Valcoran]

If you're not afraid of a bit of 3.5-pf conversion then I'd highly recommend Age of Worms. For the difficulty factor Its hard as bloody nails.

[XMorsX]

Rise of the Runelords would be my suggestion. Also check the Curse of the Crimson Throne and the Second Darkness.

[notabot]

Legacy of Fire, but keep in mind its 3.5 so will require some conversion work. It's not so bad on the basic monsters (you can just use the bestiary versions for everything) but anything with character levels needs to be looked at and converted over.

After that there is Reign of Winter, lots of interesting RP opportunities. Early on the difficulty comes mostly from the environment though.

Using your parameters I don't recommend skull and shackles or shattered star, first because of new mechanics and second because star is 6 modules of primarily dungeon crawling. Council of Thieves is a bit heavier on RP, but often lacks difficulty. The other APs I don't have enough experience with to say much about, but I have read kingmaker and its very easy for anybody interested in optimizing to break. Both in kingdom making and in combat.

[Gargs454]

Runelords certainly seems to have a lot of what you are looking for. Skull and Shackles might be good as well.

Kingmaker does offer a world of role playing opportunity, but it really shines in the kingdom building area which you stated you would prefer to avoid. It might also lose some of the difficulty since the nature of it allows for lots of resting between battles.

[Tigger_mk4]

Personally I think Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne are the two best paths.
(disclaimer...i have only got the paths up to but not including Reign of winter)

The fifth scenario in runelords is a bit iffy , but the rest is pretty good.

Crimson Throne has a good mix of RP and action, and has some really stand out moments, both in and out of combat.

[Chromnos]

If you want to increase difficulty for a group of munchkins, limit players to 15 pt buy (capping maximum starting ability scores at 16 (pre racial) and limiting dump stats to 8 to mitigate min maxing). You may also want to limit players to just one pet (familiar, companion, eidolon) per player and no more than 2 pets per 4-5 person party. You may also want to limit players to no more than 1 multiclass +1 prestige class to help minimize/prevent game-breaking dips. Encourage full class characters and establish primary/standard item drops. Greatly limit access to purchased/created magic items by keeping down-time to a minimum and strictly keeping available items for sale rare (making limited allowances for special considerations -- bonded items and the like). Pre-selecting 1-2 standard items of character level -1 to -3 magic items available for sale at every odd level and overpricing the list of *rare* scrolls, potions, and alchemical items can go a long way in this respect.

From what I've seen, Skull and Shackles and Serpent's Skull provide good out of context challenges for players. These include numerous environmental situations that tilt the playing field, forcing players to be creative and work together rather than rely soully on build optimization. You have to stay on your toes as a game master to make certain evironmental considerations like fog, difficult terrain, excessive heat, and water hazards continue to impose difficulty, though.

Skull and Shackles does provide a section for alternate ship combat rules in one of the later modules. But this aspect is a single feature for a special scenario not an ongoing consideration throughout the AP.

[voideternal]

Thank you all, for your supportive feedback. I will inform my friends of these recommended APs, and I will call a vote. My friends and I really enjoyed Carrion Crown, and I think the next AP will also be fantastic.

Also, thank you for tips on challenging PCs. I will likely incorporate a number of suggestions here in my future GMing experience.