Hi everyone,
I'm a totally brand new GM and very excited to run my first game ever. We are also totally new to Pathfinder (and other RPG tabletop games in fact for the players). I personnaly played a bit as a player at d&d 3.5 only by post and still is low level character.
I would like your insights for the party composition, the players gave some guidelines and let me in charge to build all characters. We don't plan to do any multi classing for the all AP, we are beginners and want to keep everything simple for our first time:
* Ranger dwarf with giants as favored enemy and Archery style.
* Paladin half elf
* Wizard human specialized school conjuration, Opposing Schools: Necromancy, Enchantment
* Cleric human (for this one I'm a bit lost in the domains and options, I would like to have the cleric as the principal healer of the group but not just a walking band aid, I would like him/her to be able to drow her mace and take part to the fight)
Are these race/class combos correct? Will a such party survive the AP? Advices?
Thanks!
Not knowing anything more than race and class it looks like a traditional party that should be able to cover most of the expected "roles" that an AP is written for. I'd have the Ranger put ranks in Disable Device (and, if you're using traits, take the one that makes it a class skill).
For the Cleric, you can open up some good RP opportunities for the first book by making him/her a Cleric of Desna.
Desna offers the Travel, Liberation, Luck, Good, and Chaos Domains to choose from. I really like Travel and Liberation personally (though Luck is quite good too).
Use the traits in the RotRL Player's guide to help come up with backgrounds.
Any time you have someone playing a Paladin the GM and Player should talk about their expectations of the class and their code, how strict the GM is about it, and the sort of behaviors that they consider over the line.
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Any time you have someone playing a Paladin the GM and Player should talk about their expectations of the class and their code, how strict the GM is about it, and the sort of behaviors that they consider over the line.I never actually thought this was necessary. I've been GMing for a long time, and never once even considered sitting down and discussing basic Paladin concepts with a player, I just assumed it was all well-known to everyone.
And then one day, the Lawful Good Paladin in a group I ran helped rescue Aldern from the Goblins, and then proceed to shake him down for a cash reward on the spot.
After being extremely confused, I asked "You do know what 'lawful good' means, right?"
It turns out he did not, in fact, know what it meant.
*blink*
Going along with what Ninja of the Rye was saying, you may want to use some traits to make sure you fill out skills, and increase their abilities early. The ranger for example is going to have to wait a long time to use his favored enemy bonus if he starts with giant. He could start with Goblin, or human so he would get some more use out of it early then suggest giant for his second one.
For the wizard I would go universalist, just because if he has never played before, he isn't going to know what kind of spells he is really going to like. He might get sad if he decides he likes enchantment spells but they are harder to cast for him.
For the cleric, one of Desna with the travel and luck domains is my favorite. Bonus to movement speed, can ignore some rough terrain, later can hop around the battlefield. And Bit of luck is a great buff for your ranger or paladin. Plus good fortune helps those bad rolls. Also remember in Pathfinder all clerics are proficient with their gods favored weapon.
Now I would recommend 2 other things.
1: Limit your players(and any changes you would make to the AP) to the Core rulebook, and maybe the Advanced players guide. Less options will help them get a grasp on the rules.
2: I would run a module before you start the AP. While Runelords does ease you into the adventure nicely, it would really help work out the kinks, teach you and your players all the rules of pathfinder, and they would learn if they really like it.
Ranger and paladin are good.
Wizard.Id go universalist,Its much simpler
Cleric.Go Desna or Sarenrea (for the weapon mostly)
This is what I would do.
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Be careful with conjuration. Summoned monsters can eat up a lot of time at the table. I'd suggest generalist or invocation for ease of play.
For casters, new players tend to find sorcerers easier than wizards and oracles (from the Advanced Player's Guide) easier than clerics. Either is probably fine at lower level, though.
Any cleric can pretty easily be built as a secondary fighter. You probably want to with that party, honestly, or everyone will be hiding behind the paladin. Just give them a decent Strength and Constitution and some armor.
That party looks about middle of the road to me. They should be able to make it through the AP as long as they don't push themselves too hard.
Cheers!
Landon
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I'm going to disagree with the other posters on your cleric.
Choose someone with the healing domain: new players are prone to get in trouble and the boost in healing is very useful.
I quite like clerics of Sarenrae with healing and fire: fireballs are a bit of fun for a cleric and very easy to play with.
As for the wizard: conjuring is more complex but if your player can master it then it is a very powerful option. Taking three feats (spell focus conjuration, acadamae graduate and augment summoning) leads to a very potent caster at level 5+
Your dwarf already has a bonus against giants. The general advice in any adventure on Golarion is to take humans as favoured enemy if you're not sure. Giants is a good choice for later in the adventure.
To be honest, Giants don't even need to be a 2nd choice. They are encountered at level 7-8 initially, so if you're going via roleplaying reasons, you're probably better off with Humans or a similar enemy initially... and then after you've started Book 2 you should encounter the perfect second choice. If you want vague spoilers (as in species you will face), click the Spoiler buttons.
That second choice actually is suitable for most of the rest of the game as you'll encounter them periodically (if not in as great a number as in Book 2).
Indeed, if I were to offer suggestions for the four Favored Enemies, I'd say this:
2. Undead (+4)
3. Giants (+6)
4. Evil Outsiders (+2)
You could go +4 for Humans, for that matter.
Thanks a lot for your answers! I really want to do things right so that my players will have fun and be able to get through this adventure.
For the Wizard, if I make a universalist I will lose the extra spell slot, isn'it better to have an extra spell/day?
Here is the draft of the build for the dwarven ranger which I hope will be a good archer and able to jump in the melee:
STR 14
DEX 16
CON 15
INT 10
WIS 14
CHA 8
7 skills points (6 + 1 as favored class): Climb, Know (Dung), Know (Nature), Perception, Survival, Stealth and Disable device (gained as class skill with trait). I plan to add as soon as possible in the levelling handle animal.
Feats: Point-Blank Shot,
Studded Leather Armor to minimize the penality
Composite Longbow, Dwarven Waraxe
1se Favored enemy: Goblin
Favored Terrain?
How does it sounds?
I'm working on the Paladin now.
Thanks again guys!
Favored Terrain?
You'll get some milage out of Underground (caves and dungeons) in this AP, plus it's kind of iconic for a Dwarf. After that, I'd look at Forest and Mountains, then possibly Cold. Others will have different opinions.
I have an alternative solution to a Wizard: Human Sorcerer. The Advanced Player's Guide expanded on this so that your Favored Class Bonus could be, rather than a bonus hit point or skill point, a bonus spell known (of one level lower than your maximum casting capability). While this means from levels 1-3 you'd only get level 0 spells (and you can always opt for the skill points and/or hit points for those levels instead!) once you start getting 2nd level spells normally you can start getting extra 1st level spells and on up.
In addition, there are Feats that allow Sorcerers to either learn one additional spell of their highest level, or two of a lower level.
The extra spellcasting capability is better in many cases than the versatility. Though you can also just wait a month (or get permission from the GM for a switch when it comes out) and play an Arcanist - they memorize spells but then cast them like Sorcerers.