5 Challenges You Have To Deal With in Every Pathfinder Adventure Path

Though I've been playing Pathfinder for years now, I've only completed a handful of the campaigns Paizo has produced. At time of writing I've crossed off Curse of The Crimson Throne, Mummy's Mask, Carrion Crown, and Rise of The Runelords, and while there's plenty more for me to do, I wanted to weigh in on something this week. Because every adventure path I've played (and every homebrew campaign too, if I'm honest) will have certain challenges you need to plan for. Having the counter to the following situations is often the difference between victory and defeat.

So without further ado...

#1: Flying Enemies

The sorceress has what? Oh son of a bitch...

As someone who loves nothing more than playing a melee bruiser with a great weapon, this is one I've felt the pain of more times than I can count. Whether it's gargoyles that swoop down out of the darkness to slash at you before flapping away again, or a necromancer that hovers up out of convenient smashing range, you are going to have to deal with a lot of flying enemies in any Pathfinder game.

My experience is that these threats can start as early as 2nd level (with small enemies like imps and quasits), but that by level 4-5 it's going to become fairly common. By the time you hit double digit levels, you should assume that every lieutenant villain can probably fly, and that every big boss is going to take to their air as soon as the party enters their lair.

How To Deal With It

The easiest way to deal with this issue at lower levels is to make sure you've got a spell/wand up your sleeve, or a crossbow slung on your back. Even if you're not playing a character who's specialized in archery, being able to send an arrow up at a manticore or a dragon can make a big difference.

Alternatively, you need to have some means to get yourself airborne. Whether it's having a party member cast fly on you, keeping a potion in your bandolier, getting a magic item like boots or armor that gives you a flight speed, or playing a race like aasimar, strix, etc. that can gain a flight speed through a trait or a feat, anything that puts you on equal footing with the enemy levels the playing field. This option is harder, and more expensive, but a lot more viable if you're a melee brute who wants to charge into battle sword-swinging like a Renaissance painting of a war in heaven.

#2: Damage Reduction

The golem doesn't seem to register that you actually hit it.

There are few things more frustrating than building up a character who packs a wallop, only to come up across an enemy that can shrug off your mightiest blows like they were butterfly kisses.

Again, this is a threat that will vary depending on the game in question. You can deal with this as early as 1st and 2nd level (again with tiny flitting nuisances like quasits or with undead like skeletons), but it grows far more common by level 4 or 5. From demons and devils to werewolves, living statues, and other hard-to-hurt creatures, damage reduction is one of the primary defenses you're going to have to overcome.

How To Deal With It

At early levels the most common form of damage reduction you're going to run into is against bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing weapon damage. So your best bet is to have one of every kind on-hand, just in case. Weapons that deal two kinds of damage, like a morning star or spiked gauntlet (bludgeoning and piercing), or a dagger (slashing and piercing) are ideal in this situation. If you're doing a lot of ranged attacking, Clustered Shots is a feat that will save your life as it allows you to deal all your damage from your iterative attacks, and just remove the DR once rather than on every hit.

When you start getting into more specific damage reduction that requires things like silver, cold iron, magic, certain alignment, etc., that's when things get tougher. If you're in a game with a lot of evil enemies, the easy fix is a paladin (since smite ignores all of a target's damage reduction). And while you can invest in materials like adamantine, silver, cold iron, and so forth for your weapons, there's actually a trick a lot of us overlook.

As page 562 of the Core Rulebook points out, the more powerful your weapon's enhancement bonus is, the more forms of DR it ignores. If you have a +3 weapon, it ignores silver and cold iron DR. A +4 weapon also ignores adamantine. A +5 weapon ignores alignment-based DR. While getting a +5 magic weapon isn't easy, classes like the paladin, magus, warpriest, etc. who can enhance their weapons with bonus enchantments during combat can most easily take advantage of this particular strategy.

#3: Energy Resistance

It's what kind of elemental? Ah shit...

This one varies a lot more than some others on the list, but my experience is that it starts becoming a real issue around level 5 or so. Because while there are going to be plenty of enemies who are just human bandits, or orc raiders, or goblins, that 4-5 range is when you start dealing with summoned devils, native outsiders, elemental creatures, and so on, and so forth. By the time you hit higher levels you're dealing with dragons and fiends, and that's when we have enemies who are immune to certain elements, rather than simply being resistant.

And that can put a big cramp in your style.

How To Deal With It

The first option is to pick an element that the fewest possible enemies are immune/resistant to. Sonic damage is one that rarely crops up, while fire and cold are perhaps the most common, quickly followed by electricity. Acid is hit or miss, but the deeper underground you go, the more things will be resistant or immune to acid as well.

A more functional approach is to ensure you have some way to switch the elemental damage you're flinging around so you can key it to the fight you're actually in. Elemental bloodline sorcerers, as a prime example, can swap any element in a spell to their bloodline element, which gives them some wiggle room. Alternatively, simply filling different spell slots with different elements ensures that you've got a wider bag of tricks to pull from. If you're a class that can add enhancements to their weapons, like the ones mentioned previously, it's best to change-up the formula based on what enemies you're actually dealing with.

Lastly, remember to keep other options on-hand. Debuffing spells can often reduce an enemy's defenses, allowing the rest of the party to gain the upper hand in a fight where your duties as an artillery piece won't get the job done.

#4: Ability Damage

Yes, Samantha, three wisdom damage for you.

The bane of combatants and cleric-less parties everywhere, ability damage (and its omega-form, ability drain) are going to come at you sooner or later. If you're in a game with a lot of undead you could be dealing with this at fairly low levels. Damage starts getting converted to drain somewhere around levels 11-13, and it might come from poison, spells, special abilities, or any of a slew of other things.

But while we all hate it, it's going to happen. So we'd best be prepped for it.

How To Deal With It

The simple answer is to make sure you've got a cleric, an oracle, or someone else in your party that can cure that damage/drain when it occurs. Lesser restoration isn't too bad as far as cost, but actual restoration can get pricey if you're constantly getting in front of serious trauma that ticks down your Strength, Constitution, or even your level!

Alternatively, make sure you have defenses in place to either negate this hit in the first place, or which allow you to ignore the negatives.

I mentioned a lot of these in 5 Ways To Sidestep Hits in Pathfinder (Without Magic), but they can be literal life savers in these circumstances. Devils that can deal Constitution drain with a touch attack can't land that blow if your swashbuckler parries the hit. The necromancer's enervation isn't going to land if the fighter has the Ray Shield feat. The poison arrow that would deal Dexterity drain has no effect on the hag bloodline bloodrager who's immune to poison. And the dhampir can just shrug off negative level penalties as if they aren't there at all... at least until the effects kill them.

Unless you're in an undead-centric campaign, you probably don't need to build your character around avoiding this kind of harm. It is going to crop up, though, which is why you need to be prepared to deal with it when it eventually rears its ugly head.

#5: Mind Control

Who knows what dangers lurks in this campaign? The Shadow knows...

This happens in every, single adventure path I've played through. The party walks into the villain's lair, the villain casts their first spell. The fighter, barbarian, ranger, etc. suddenly decides the rest of the party is their enemy, turns and begins doing their very best to kill their allies. It's one of the most frustrating situations you could deal with, because it has all the negative emotions attached to PvP, but it's initiated by the bad guys.

The baby version of this is when players are hit by spells like confusion which can leave them sidelined for the fight. One of the more common versions of this is a vampire's dominate ability (a CR 9 creature), but more potent enchantments and compulsions will become an issue typically around level 11-13 or so. And it's something you've got to be prepared to deal with.

How To Deal With It

Again, the easy answer is to play a paladin. This class is a force of "no," and one of their biggest advantages is their ability to ignore mind control and enchantments at higher levels, and to ignore fear effects fairly early on. They also bolster the saves of their allies with their aura, which can be a huge boon.

That said, the next best thing to playing a character with their own personal immunities is to make sure that you always have a protection from evil (or whatever alignment you're facing if evil isn't applicable) spell ready to hand. Whether it's a wand, a potion, a spell-like ability, or a mass cast from the cleric, warpriest, abjurer, etc., this spell is a literal life saver. In addition to the small bonus it gives to your AC and saves, and the fact that summoned evil creatures can't physically touch you, it means you're immune to outside mind control effects if you get the shield up soon enough. Even if you don't, and the fighter is starting to turn on the party, you can hit them with the spell to grant them another save, and a bonus to help mitigate the damage.

Other than that, dispel magic is always a good spell to have on-hand, and if you want to bring in elements of a wizard's duel you could try to counterspell the caster. That gets into who's got the higher initiative, though, and that may not be a strategy you want to use if this is only an occasional threat that you want to prevent with an easy-access, low-level protective spell.

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