What are some good APs to use as a starting point, but then abandon the plot after book one?
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First pick is most definitely Serpent's Skull. It's first adventure is not only unrelated to the rest of the AP while doing a good job of bringing the PCs together as a group, it's also one of the very best low level adventures ever published. Greatly recommended.
Other than that:
1) Carrion Crown - the first adventure could easily (perhaps too much so) be severed from the rest of the AP by cutting out the vague hints at a larger conspiracy, perhaps slightly changing the identity of the bad guys and creating a self contained story. This is also an amazing adventure.
2) Second Darkness/Legacy of Fire - both of these have very solid first adventures that could be altered to lead into a campaign completely different from the one they actually belong in. However both are 3.5 era APs and will require convention to PF, so I'd stay away from them if time is an issue.
3) Rise of the Runelords/Jade Regent/Shattered Star/Mummy's Mask - all of these could pretty easily supply what you need in a first adventure if you replace the small part in them that have campaign specific flavor and replace it with stuff of your own - what you'll have left is some very solid, generic fantasy low level adventures. While all of these are fine, they are generally speaking much less interesting than the ones I mentioned before. Burnt Offerings, the first adventure in Rise of the Runelords, is definitely the best of this bunch.
That's it, pretty much. Of the APs I don't mention I think the first adventures are related to the overall plot and theme of the AP a bit too much to serve as an ideal starting point for a different campaign.
However, to give you a more specific recommendation, it might be better to know what kind of campaign you are looking to run. Then people might be able to point out to you not only adventures that can be disconnected from their APs, but adventures that would be good to start your own campaign with.
Also, have you considered starting the adventure with a module? There's Dragon's Demand, that I hear is good, for low levels.
A lot more than I realized until I actually started thinking it.
Rise of the Runelords gives you a great 'base' village and establishes your characters in it. While Skull n Shackles limits you to a definite theme (piracy), the whole world is out there for you to explore with barely a hook set.
Serpent's Skull works very well as Lord Snow pointed out. Ditto with Second Darkness and Legacy of Fire.
Jade Regent and Shattered Star would seem to only fit if you planned on continuing what was set in motion from the first volume but in a home-brew fashion. Probably the same with Kingmaker.
All in all I agree Burnt Offerings would be the best choice, if only for its 'classic' setting and the foundation it gives you to build upon. Serpent's Skull is a solid #2 as it still makes some presumptions about the character's backgrounds.
On the flip side, Wrath of the Righteous and Iron Gods would be poor choices in my opinion.
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Lord Snow's list is great, although I wouldn't use Shattered Star for this. The AP's structure is pretty heavily implied even just in the first adventure. You'd need to make some larger modifications than, say, Rise of the Runelords.
A non-AP adventure can also be great. The Beginner Box has an adventure and a bunch of pawns and stuff. We Be Goblins would be amazing if you were planning on a goblin campaign. Thornkeep or the first few levels of the Emerald Spire could also work.
Cheers!
Landon
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Mummy's Mask. Book 1 finishes without the thread for book 2, and you have a get together and loot tombs 1-3 adventure, and a party who has a healthy sum to start the next leg of their careers to boot.
Carrion Crown. Expel the "must deliver the books to book 2 city" dying wish and you have heroes who just saved a village from a ghost possessed prison.
Given those parameters, I'm definitely going to have to say Serpents Skull as well. One could argue it is actually the ideal use of that AP.
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We should try a Mix-'N-Match thread; pick six books of any APs with no repeats, and arrange them in an order that makes a coherent adventure path.
Jade Regent and Shattered Star would seem to only fit if you planned on continuing what was set in motion from the first volume but in a home-brew fashion. Probably the same with Kingmaker.
I disagree in regards to Jade Regent. Brinewall Legacy has two parts that you can swap out with your own plot hooks. The first is the boats in the swamp. They could find whatever mystery you want there, and you can easily erase some of the Tian Xia trappings but keep mechanics the same. Or, you can keep plot hook to finding some item that a town/keep had hidden in it and was overrun with monsters years ago, and again, replace the final treasure chest with whatever plot device you want. Or keep plot devices completely the same and just go in a completely different direction than the books with how to advance. It's a solid set-up to get some levels and explore of the world and you can change features to make THE PLOT very different than the adventure path.
I can speak to Kingmaker. The first module is about clearing out bandits in the wilderness, and the second module is about creating a kingdom in the wilderness you just cleared out. There are a LOT of wilderness encounters, and there's a pretty decent metaplot, but the first book and the beginning of the second book, combined with the UCAM Kingdom-building rules are great jumping-off points for just about anything short of piracy on the high seas.
Between the Surtovas and the River Kingdoms, you could still have a pirate campaign if you wanted, it would just be about river piracy rather than 'piracy on the high seas'.