I've recently bought Rise of the Runelords on Fantasy Grounds to DM for my regular group after our last campaign ended. They are all new to Golarion, and they really liked the idea of the adventure path when I pitched it to them, so I decided that this will be our next campaign.
However... I've heard A LOT of people saying that while the campaign is pretty balanced between roleplaying, exploration and combat in the first books, that is not the case in the later ones. Our last campaign ended early because we were playing Out of the Abyss (5th Edition adventure) and it just became a slog after a while with just combat and loneliness in the Underdark, which works kinda like a megadungeon, and I don't want the same to happen here when we get near the end of this AP. Do you guys have any tips on how to balance RP and combat a little bit better, especially in books 4 and 5?
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The issue may be one of perception.
The early books focus on Sandpoint and Magnimar, and the PCs can take time to travel around and meet people. As the campaign advances, the stat blocks take up more and more space, so it is harder for the AP to include role-play scenarios. Also, as the AP progresses, there have been more and more chances for specific NPCs to have their role in the campaign to change (die, become an enemy, become a cohort, etc.), so the writers can't assume they will be available for a specific role-play purpose.
What I mean is, most of the later role-play can't as easily be prepared by the writers ahead of time. So it will be up to you and the players to create role-play opportunities. The opportunities are there, in my opinion, just not called out as Events or Quests like they were in earlier chapters.
Also, while there is a need for dramatic tension, I think people forget to add downtime - and that downtime is when the PCs can travel back to friendly places and role-play interactions with NPCs.
My party found lots of fun RP in book 4 with the fractious and unhappy npcs in Jorgenfist. It also helped that I rolled some unlikely encounters on the random encouter chart for their journey there. You may consider fudging in some social random encounters. I just got lucky.
Book 5 is a megadungeon, and there's no getting around that. However, many DMs on the board here have pointed at the potential for RP between the PCs and the denizens of the different wings in their games. It may take some foreshadowing to get your players in the right mindset to treat going there like an exploration rather than an invasion. In fact, a few of the wings (Gluttony, Sloth, and Lust) favor talking over fighting first.
Book 6 is where my players did the least RP (I'm thinking of Xin-Shalest and the Pinnacle of Avarice in particular), but I chalk that up to campaign fatigue and their assumption that they couldn't teleport out and back once they got there. I used the journey to Xin-Shalast to tie up the backstory subplots and personal goals for the PCs, which fit nicely within the frame of the AP plot, and sated their desire for RP.
Just build natural connections in the world as you play it. Books four and five are a long way off. The best way to alleviate concerns about late game play is to read all six adventures before you start. This gives you a better idea of the characters, organizations and locations that will be in play throughout the adventure path. Then you, the GM, can sit back and help build the relationships needed to keep your players engaged until the end.
Just build natural connections in the world as you play it. Books four and five are a long way off. The best way to alleviate concerns about late game play is to read all six adventures before you start. This gives you a better idea of the characters, organizations and locations that will be in play throughout the adventure path. Then you, the GM, can sit back and help build the relationships needed to keep your players engaged until the end.
This. Help the PCs build connections early on, and provided that those NPCs survive long enough, they'll have plenty of opportunities to role-play later in the game.
One of my PCs, a paladin of Abadar named Tordek, paid a druid in Magnimar to cast resurrection on Katrine Vinder. She came back a bit changed, but he then hired her to be the nanny to the two children he had adopted after their parents were killed in the goblin attack during the Swallowtail Festival. This, of course, leads him to want to talk to different NPCs for different reasons, leading to new and interesting RP opportunities as the story progresses.