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Hey Folks,
Within the next few months we'll be kicking off the Rise of the Runelords campaign. I've had some pretty terrible luck with creating a character that didn't hash well with the activities (heavy investigation, trap disarming, knowledge skills, combat) of the campaign. It commonly resulted in whole AP's of drudging boredom.
Example: Fire Sorc in an adventure with 90% Fire Immune Mobs. Rogue against tons of constructs and incorporeal.
Without heavy spoilers, could someone give me an idea of what classes would play a very strong role in RotRL? Basically a class that would definitely be looked to by the whole party almost the entire time.
Thanks for the info/feedback ahead of time!
One of the things I like best about runelords, is that you fight all sorts of things with different strengths and weaknesses. It is really hard to make a character that would not be useful. At the same time this also means that it is hard to make a character that is strong all the time. You really need to rely on the strength of your party and teamwork to get you through.
Check with your other players and plan your classes. My party found out the hard way that a well balanced group is much more effective than a random group of characters that everyone wanted to play.
Wizard. Though don't have a specialist school that doesn't allow necromantic spells as you have the opportunity to capture several spellbooks, and necromantic spells tend to be favorites for a couple of the foes.
That said, you can pretty much go for any class and have a good run for your money, with the exception of Gunslinger (no gun-specific magic items as the module predated Advanced Player's Guide). The group I'm sending through Runelords includes an Eldritch Knight (Ranger/Transmuter), a Sorceress, a Cleric with one level of Bard, an Arcane Trickster, and a generic Barbarian who is pretty much ruling the battlefield.
Ranger can work wonders. Runelords will have plenty of opportunities to kill off the staples of standard fantasy adventures. Dragons, undead, goblins, giants, etc. I can also say that you should never underestimate the value of Survival in the AP, given that you are not going to simply stay in one place the whole adventure.
A few questions for you first:
1) Are there any party role(s) that you enjoy playing more than others? Any roles your prefer to avoid?
2) How do the other players in your group tend to approach character building? Do they tend towards optimization? If so, do they tend to over-specialize (like you did with the sorcerer)?
3) How many players are in the group and have any of them staked out a niche for the new game yet?
I played the bulk* of the AP as a human samurai and had a blast. Also, I just finished reading through the anniversary edition as prep to GM it. I can say that it's a diverse adventure and the party that thrives is the one that covers as many different bases as possible mechanically and thinks critically about the challenges before it. Not every encounter needs to be fought through and the party that circumvents unnecessary combats through social skills and careful thought will have a lot more resources to bring to bear on the unavoidable combats.
LG human samurai (order of the warrior) - Melee specialist (afoot or mounted), some ranged capability, social skills and knowledges (history, nobility).
LG goblin(!) paladin - Mounted archer, divine support, front line healing.
LN human cleric 1/monk X - Stealthy striker, battlefield control through combat manuevers.
CN halfling with (elements patron) - Debuffs, blasting, utility, battlefield control, scrying. Covered a lot of knowledges and linguistics.
CG human oracle of the heavens - Buffing, debuffing, healing, some knowledges and healing skill.
By level 9 or 10 the oracle and witch were always airborne during combat and the three martial PCs would shred through enemies on the ground.
As for your actual classes question, Barbarian seems to work well based on my group. Ranger with favored enemies Human and giant are good. My parties witch with the slumber hex does rather well a lot of the time, and anything that can fly.
Any sort of arcane spellcaster with the Scholar of the Ancients trait (although Wizard and Sage Sorcerer probably work best, Archaeologist Bard might be cool), Cleric/Paladin/Inquisitor of Desna, Ranger/Druid with a flying animal companion can be useful at a certain point, a martial Dwarf character with the Giant Slayer trait will be pretty effective too
Mind you, my game has a half-orc Barbarian who took Scholar of the Ancients. He goes around out of combat with glasses and loves to read. And was raised in Sandpoint by two loving parents - a female orc (who still embarrasses him periodically) and a male human.
So really, what matters is your imagination and crafting something that you want to play.
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A few questions for you first:
1) Are there any party role(s) that you enjoy playing more than others? Any roles your prefer to avoid?
Straight melee I don't like. Role is so linear.
2) How do the other players in your group tend to approach character building? Do they tend towards optimization? If so, do they tend to over-specialize (like you did with the sorcerer)?
They honestly tend to min max. We've been roleplaying together for 15+ years and 3.5 D&D etc has rolled into Pathfinder. All of the characters people build are designed for maximum performance.
3) How many players are in the group and have any of them staked out a niche for the new game yet?
All experienced players.
I love gnomes, by far my favorite race. Maybe a Bard?
Go for it. Do what YOU want to do and run with it.
Bard is always fun. One of my players right now is the Thunder caller archetype from the legends of Varisia book. It has worked quite well in our campaign.
Hey Folks,
Within the next few months we'll be kicking off the Rise of the Runelords campaign. I've had some pretty terrible luck with creating a character that didn't hash well with the activities (heavy investigation, trap disarming, knowledge skills, combat) of the campaign. It commonly resulted in whole AP's of drudging boredom.
Example: Fire Sorc in an adventure with 90% Fire Immune Mobs. Rogue against tons of constructs and incorporeal.
Without heavy spoilers, could someone give me an idea of what classes would play a very strong role in RotRL? Basically a class that would definitely be looked to by the whole party almost the entire time.
Thanks for the info/feedback ahead of time!
Rangers, Dwarves in particular. Barbarians and Paladins would also do well.
High DC enchanters as Charm, Hold and Dominate Person will have more opportunities to shine than most AP's offer. Fey Sorcerers especially for a variety of reasons.
Bards, particularly Archeologists and Arcane Duelists. Our group featured an Arcane Duelist who was Archery-based and he was very effective as a group leader.
You can never, ever go wrong with Summoners or Master Summoners (assuming your GM allows them). Others will no doubt recommend Wizards or Witches and if you like prepared casters I'm certain you will find much to enjoy in this AP with them - I personally dislike Wizards and don't feel much better about Witches though the Hexes are nice.
Drop me a line if you have a specific character in mind - I can tell you exactly what we ran and how each fared without too much in the way of spoilers.
A few questions for you first:
1) Are there any party role(s) that you enjoy playing more than others? Any roles your prefer to avoid?
Straight melee I don't like. Role is so linear.
2) How do the other players in your group tend to approach character building? Do they tend towards optimization? If so, do they tend to over-specialize (like you did with the sorcerer)?
They honestly tend to min max. We've been roleplaying together for 15+ years and 3.5 D&D etc has rolled into Pathfinder. All of the characters people build are designed for maximum performance.
3) How many players are in the group and have any of them staked out a niche for the new game yet?
All experienced players.
I love gnomes, by far my favorite race. Maybe a Bard?
Thanks for the info. A bard is a great class and an especially good fit for this particularly AP (I'll avoid any spoilers here). Gnomes are always fun and there's no reason why you shouldn't play one.
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Actually, this has nothing to do with the original question, but I doubt I'll find a better place to ever ask this question, so here it goes.
What is it that you like the most about gnomes? I think I could count the number of people who said that gnomes are their favorite race on one hand, so I figure you'd be the person to best explain this to me.
I'll say this because it hasn't been mentioned yet: Read the Anniversary Edition Player's Guide! The guide is very helpful, and gives players a very vague idea of the campaign's various threats. If you use the player's guide to help shape your character, you can't go wrong.
Example: The player's guide said "Be prepared to deal with giants." I wanted to play a super dwarfy dwarf, so I made a ranger with favored enemy: giant, and some giant specific feats. The character fit so well into the campaign world, and let's just say that the giant threat was pretty well handled. Was a lot of fun!