I can't speak to the Strange Aeon's AP in specific, but the Pathfinder Devs had said that 4 PC's with 15 PB's is how the encounters were planned for all AP's.
I've played or GM'd a number of other Pathfinder AP's and have found a rather significant difference in 15 vs 20 PB, especially in the hands of experienced players/PC-crafters. My group goes with 15 PB as we found 20 PB ended up making the challenges too un-challenging for our liking.
My group is four 20 point buyers. They're not munchkins by any means but they have a great deal of system mastery. Because of this, I often have to combine encounters or up the difficulty in certain places. Despite this, I would likely do everything the same way again. Only because I think 15 point buy punishes classes that are already less powerful and does little to affect wizards and other less-MAD classes.
I went for 15 point buy, just because of the "Cthulhu flavor". This is a campaign where I think part of the deal is that the PC feel like they are "just a regular guy facing impossible threats".
It's also a change of pace from my last 3 campaigns (Iron Gods, a Rise of Runelords/Shattered Star mashup, and Way of the Wicked), which all of them used 25 point buys and hero points.
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20 point buy, 6 players allowed at the table. 7 in the pool the average game night is 4-5 players. I tend to bump the crs by 1-2 at least even on the nights with less players (often pairing single monsters).
I tend to give boss monsters the Agile Simple Mythic template and add interesting minions or environmental dangers.
For example the Tatterman had the Agile template; a mist filled area and a dream labyrinth of random separating walls.
Everyone in the game is an old hand though.
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We are doing 15 point buy, however we use the automatic bonus progression which kinda scews things. This is the first time using it and decided to do so due to the nature of the campaign. Thus far, we are in book 3 and are doing well, we have had plenty of casualties. Three alone in book 1.
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This is a campaign where I think part of the deal is that the PC feel like they are "just a regular guy facing impossible threats".
Check with your players beforehand. I play "just a regular guy" IRL, and want to be awesome when I'm using my limited game time.
It's also a change of pace from my last 3 campaigns (Iron Gods, a Rise of Runelords/Shattered Star mashup, and Way of the Wicked), which all of them used 25 point buys and hero points.
The group I'm in uses as 32 point buy (!) but that's partly because the DM pulls no punches, uses some ... "player disadvantaging" house rules, and reincarnation/true resurrection/raise dead are not available.
We are doing 15 point buy, however we use the automatic bonus progression which kinda scews things. This is the first time using it and decided to do so due to the nature of the campaign. Thus far, we are in book 3 and are doing well, we have had plenty of casualties. Three alone in book 1.
** spoiler omitted **
The fact that -redacted- rolled a 1 is crazy. On top of that they must have had to pass the DC 41 will save (from the gas radius) and rolled the 25% to act normally to get the full round coup de grace before -redacted- woke up on its turn. That's luck!
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This is a campaign where I think part of the deal is that the PC feel like they are "just a regular guy facing impossible threats".Check with your players beforehand. I play "just a regular guy" IRL, and want to be awesome when I'm using my limited game time.
That's fine, but 15 point buy isthe expected point buy for APs anyways, and even with 15 point buys you still play a wizard that commands the power of the universe, a cleric with powers that surpase those of Christ, or a fighter that, given time and levels, will grapple rhinos and survive jumping the Niagara Falls. Unless you can teleport and ask for limited wishes, resurrect people and Air Walk, and survive a,direct hit from a cannon, there's no worry that your character's life will be mistaken with your RL. The 15 point buy just make the game a little bit grittier, specially at the begining, and make the players more cautious, because every encounter is more dangerous. They are still Pathfinder heroes, but given the Horror nature of the advebture, I think a little bit of "omg, we hear a noise in the closet. Should,we open it? What if it's a ghoul? Last one nearly killed Bob" is a better mood than "hey! Noise in the closet! Yay,more XP!". We have a lot other AP for that
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Thanks for all of the advice everyone. I am leaning towards 15 PB with the caveat that my players have no issue with this. Likely they won't they like fun and a challenge, but don't extrapolate those things purely from stats. Plus I won't from on them dumping stats if they like, as I always give the disclaimer I won't feel bad if they get stat damaged/drained to 0.
The fact that -redacted- rolled a 1 is crazy. On top of that they must have had to pass the DC 41 will save (from the gas radius) and rolled the 25% to act normally to get the full round coup de grace before -redacted- woke up on its turn. That's luck!We are doing 15 point buy, however we use the automatic bonus progression which kinda scews things. This is the first time using it and decided to do so due to the nature of the campaign. Thus far, we are in book 3 and are doing well, we have had plenty of casualties. Three alone in book 1.
** spoiler omitted **
Nah, didn't have to worry about it due to an amulet of adaptation. Players be afraid of the yellow mist in book 1, and the idea of something using some sort of gas based poison or the like is not going to kill someone in our group. Necklace of adaptation is considered standard in our group. T_T they learned that also from me throwing a dust of sneezing and choking while doing our Rappan Athuk game. And with how much pathfinder adventures usually include an aquatic encounter or a darkness encounter player's prepare for it.
Order of the Amber Die
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I am in the planning stages right now, but will likely have a party of 4 experienced players. I wanted to see how every felt about that party size for this AP and if you went with 15 or 20 point buy? Do you think it was too easy at 20 PB, too hard at 15?
We're playing the iconics with a 15-point build, and it's been challenging, but we're not necessarily under-powered. We've also made up a little ground by choosing the Dual Talent alt racial trait and taking the Shake It Off teamwork feat, which (thanks to data tracking) has made the difference in making 45 successful saving throws against 37 different effects thus far.
As for the standard PCs in the group, sometimes modules give you the opportunity to recruit an NPC, which we definitely did early on in Strange Aeons. We developed a strong relationship with Winter Klaczka, and she's still with us going into module four. At times it's even been rough with an extra character in the group, but having a single-classed cleric has definitely made situations more manageable along the way.
For more details about our campaign, check out our posts on the Paizo Blog as well as our Facebook and Dropbox!