Adventure path with the heaviest Gods focus


Pathfinder Adventure Path General Discussion


I love the gods of the inner sea and find reading about them fascinating. What is the most god filled AP of high quality?


I would most likely say that it's Wrath of the Righteous, though as I'm in the middle of running it, I personally, would have a few issues calling it a high quality AP. I believe it would have been better without the mythic ruleset, but that is a conversation for another time.

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That's an interesting question. I lean a bit towards Curse of the Crimson Throne, but I'll give a more-general review of all the APs and let you draw a conclusion as to which one you're looking for, since there's a few that approach it from different directions, and none of them have deities as the full-centerpiece. Bear in mind that this is running off of my memory and may be missing something.

Minor spoilers about every AP:

Rise of the Runelords includes one adventure where the PCs are up against a divinely-transformed worshiper of Lamashtu, one where a notable opponent (but not the main opponent) is the leader of a cult of Norgorber, and one where another worshiper of Lamashtu is a notable opponent (but again not the main one).

Curse of the Crimson Throne has the major plot-artifact connected to a draconic champion of Zon-Kuthon. It also has the PCs working both with and somewhat-against Kuthites with various objectives, visits one of the pillars Zon-Kuthon drove into the world to weaken Rovagug, and it has a Cult of Urgathoa as the main opponents in one of the adventures (featuring a brief moment of divine intervention from Urgathoa herself). There's also some involvement of Desna. It's also a *fantastic* AP; the only downside is that it's in 3.5 rules.

Second Darkness does not have any notable divine involvement that I recall, though the main opponent is a servant of the Demon Lord Abraxas if you're counting Demon Lords.

Legacy of Fire has a cult of Rovagug as a major early adversary and also involves one of the Spawn of Rovagug. I sort of also remember some Nethys-related side-adventure bit.

Council of Thieves includes a play that heavily involves Asmodeus. Mammon also features strongly if you are counting Archdevils.

Kingmaker includes a bit of early involvement revolving around Erastil. Cultists of Gyronna make an opposition-appearance. Late on there's some involvement by The Eldest if you are counting them.

Serpent's Skull revolves around Ydersius and is the only AP to have a non-demigod divine being / its servants in the major-opposition role. Serpent's Skull, while not *bad*, is one of the APs that I'd put a bit lower down the quality ladder than the rest, though.

Carrion Crown has some Urgathoans in the opposition, but their presence is more tangential to the larger presence of the Whispering Way philosophy. Shub-Niggurath plays a strong role in one of the adventures (which also includes stuff relating to the Demon Lord Dagon). There's minor appearances by Hell-Duke-worshiping vampires.

Jade Regent doesn't involve any deities heavily that I can recall. One of the PCs' allies is devoted to Desna, though, opening up some opportunities there.

Skull & Shackles involves a priestess of Besmara as a potential notable PC ally. Beyond that, Geryon features some with the opposition if you're counting Archdevils.

Shattered Star involves a multifaith abbey, but I don't recall any particularly strong divine involvement in the actual main plot. I sort of remember a heretical branch-off Kuthite priest being a potential PC ally.

Reign of Winter does not have any notable divine involvement that I recall. Szuriel-related stuff makes an appearance in one module if you're counting Horsemen, but it isn't main-plot-centric.

Wrath of the Righteous has strong divine involvement from Iomedae (including an actual direct appearance by her), and most of the PC allies are crusade-related. Desna also has some involvement. The main opposition is the Demon Lord Deskari. The Demon Lords Nocticula and Baphomet also play very large roles. The AP uses the mythic rules. It's of epic scope and I like the overall plot, but I issue a bit of warning that it gets mechanically-wonky if the PCs optimize their mythic bits at all.

Mummy's Mask has some notable appearances by the church of Nethys. This includes the exploration of a ruined church devoted to him.

Iron Gods includes some involvement of Zyphus and minor involvement of Desna. It also notably has some divinely-empowered AIs, though they aren't full gods.

So the APs that I think include full-deities (as opposed to demigods and quasi-deities) in the most-central roles are Curse of the Crimson Throne, Wrath of the Righteous, and Serpent's Skull. Of those, I think Curse is the best quality-wise, followed by Wrath, then Skull.


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Wrath of the Righteous is the most God-centric of the APs. To be honest? Don't use the Mythic Rules. Instead, give the players regenerating Hero Points - perhaps 3 Points plus one per Tier. It will make things much simpler for the players (who don't need to keep track of a whole new series of abilities) and avoids becoming overpowered. Likewise, don't use the mythic powers of the enemies - any mythic foes should get Hero Points as well, and you can also just use the passive Mythic abilities that are already written up to simplify things.

Given there are several artifacts also included in the game, any weaknesses among the players for not allowing Mythic can be compensated for with those artifacts.

The Exchange

I'd say Curse of the Crimson Throne is every bit as god-centric as Wrath if not more, it's just a bit more tame in tone because it's not mythic. But Curse prominently features one god, and another is very important for one of the single adventures, and a couple others have minor roles to play in the story (For example the church of Abadar has a presence in the first couple of adventures, and in an eerie dungeon crawl in the fourth adventure they encounter some lore about a forgotten deity named Lissala)


Depends. Do you want an undercurrent of focus or an overt focus?


Icyshadow wrote:
Depends. Do you want an undercurrent of focus or an overt focus?

Overt, but either if done well.

Apparently Throne has a lot of takers. I'll look into that. Same with Wrath. The snake one looked interesting as well.

I thank you all and would love more advice


Someone said Crimson Throne has a downside by being a 3.5e Adventure Path. I'd call that a good thing.

And yeah, Wrath of the Righteous is pretty good too, but the problem is managing the Mythic rules for that one.


Carrion Crown does have one major divine event in it...

Book 3 Spoiler:
In a completely optional event in Book 3, the party can activate an ancient artifact and receive a vision from Desna, from which they (a) get a preview of the end bosses from every book and (b) all gain a +1 inherent bonus to wisdom. It combines being completely optional with being huge if it happens.

If you are new to Pathfinder, then I recommend Serpent's Skull. Wrath involves Mythic rules (which are going to overwhelm a new GM) and Crimson Throne is 3.5 rules, meaning you'll have to do a lot of work converting NPC opponents over to Pathfinder unless you're comfortable with your PCs just trampling everything =P

OF course Serpent's Skull has its own issues. Books 1, 5 and 6 are fantastic, but Books 3 and 4 are pretty weak, so be forewarned.

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