Newbie DM

Can you define the awesome gear? Why do they need the awesome gear as opposed to the mundane gear?

>>51863744
low magic, they lack access to healing. im not going to ever give them more then a few magic items.
Adamantine plate, for the dwarf, Returning great axe for the barb, infinite ammo bow for the ranger orc, and a semi intelligent lion shield for the disgraced knight.

>>51863655
Assuming by 'Awesome' you mean magical, doesn't that somewhat fly in the face of a low-magic setting?
Also, why start with it? Why not let them aquire it through adventure?

>>51863781
plus, Bilbo never replaced sting when he came across something with a higher numeric value

>>51863783
it will be by adventure, they will have the opportunity to walk right past it if they make poor choices

>>51863655
Do NOT run Pathfinder as a low magic campaign, the system is not designed for it, not unless you're willing to make some significant alterations to the rules. Running low magic throws the balance out.
Secondly, Pathfinder's balance is predicated on having multiple engagements per session, to force casters to actually manage spell slots, otherwise they can just save them all for the one or two fights in the session and the just throw everything out. If you don't do have multiple little encounters per session then casters (like wizards) are just objectively more powerful than Martials. I speak from experience as a GM and a player.
Third, pray for luck. Campaigns are as much luck as anything else. The first Pathfinder campaign I ran came together well due to sheer luck of players willing to deal with my inexperience and the way the sessions went making my poor writing ability seem much better than it actually was.

>>51863655
Your players will turn their brains off and just use their items to solve every problem. They will also murder any dungeons you have in about 5 seconds.

>>51863655
>and give the player some pretty awesome gear way early for flavor and utility. way expensive.
Bad idea. Rewarding your players too early on is only going to make it harder for you to challenge them later, and if you're a newbie that's just gonna be more stress for you. Making them too strong too early will only let them trivialize and stomp on things that you thought were going to challenge them.

>>51863655
>First time DMing, Pathfinder, Low magic.
>throwing character wealth by level out the window and give the player some pretty awesome gear way early
You know... you probably doesn't understand what low magic means.

Low magic means no full casters, a strong reduction in magic item avaliability AND monster magic. Players will fight stuff that is mostly within their size and scale, so nothing bigger than Huge and no mostly no magic flying, outsiders or supernatural aberrations. It's not expected for players to be able to pierce DR/magic at level 3. Most utility comes from a good use of skills, and mundane tools are important.

What you're trying to do is basically "we are superheroes and are super special, but we won't get trinkets and toys after the first batch".

3.PF is a system that relies on many moving parts to function. If you rip one of those apart and change stuff arbitrarily without deeper knowledge of the system, you'll make a mess that's not funny for anyone.

>>51869212
This guy knows

>>51869212
>3.PF is a system that relies on many moving parts to function. If you rip one of those apart and change stuff arbitrarily without deeper knowledge of the system, you'll make a mess that's not funny for anyone.

This is a bit of an exaggeration. 3.PF is constructed to be versatile, and you can add or remove entire sections without too much trouble, largely because everything is centered around the core mechanic.
There's enough give in the system to try out really strange styles of play, and there's plenty of guidelines, help, and variants to encourage trying things beyond an imaginary "default" way of playing.
While systems like 5e are even more forgiving, there's really an incredible amount of versatility you can easily explore with 3.PF as long as you respect the basics which are outlined in the DMG.

I'm new to running a game, not new to the system. Im just being anal.

>>51864349
There will be multiple encounters, and some encounters will be effected by the choices in other encounters. also, low magic. no casters.

>>51869212
lol, I do, fully understand what low magic means. all casting classes are ban, even partial casters. the little bit of magic I will allow will be special. I understand in a low magic world, a +1 is cool, but my issue is that it doesn't the rarity honor.

>>51874754
>all casting classes are ban, even partial casters
Honestly curious because I don't play much pathfinder. What classes does this leave? Fighter, barbarian, rogue, anything else? Ranger/Paladin/Monk all have some explicit magic or pseudo-casting tied in don't they?

>>51874840
Fighter, Barbarian(normal and Unchained), Rogue(normal and Unchained), Gunslinger, Cavalier, Samurai, Brawler, Slayer and Swashbuckler.

>>51876678
>The 3 classes he listed
>Gunslingers
>Cavaliers
>Cavaliers again
>Fighters with a gimmick
>Fighters with sneak attack
>Rogues with a gimmick
So... 5 whole class options once you dispose of casters, and gunslingers aren't appropriate for a lot of campaigns.

The real question is why wouldn't you just use a system that fits low magic better?

>>51863655
There are many bad systems for first time GMs, but Pathfinder is among the worst.
If you already know Pathfinder, you can do it. But even then, it'll be rough.

The easiest choices are Apocalypse World or Ryuutama. And maybe Torchbearer?
OSR (et al.) also tends to be pretty easy on new referees.


Most things work, actually.
But you really, REALLY shouldn't take your first stab at GMing in Pathfinder.
Worst case scenario: you flounder. Best case: you develop bad habits.

>>51877032
Because I'm not op.

>>51874840
rangers are cool with replacement class features for magic.
the players picked barbarian, cavalier, fighter, and a trapper ranger.

You must be completely ignorant to want to run a low magic campaign in PF.