Name: The Widow
Ancestry: Whisper Elf
Background: Farmhand
Class: Barbarian (Spirit Instinct)
Alignment: Neutral
Religion: Pharasma
We’ll be using standard wealth-by-level to determine starting items/money. You can take either the items + currency or the lump sum; your choice. (Purchase prices will be 100% of the item’s value.)
Updated OP with more intro info including Pathfinder Society ties.
Oh man I just realized April 9 is a whole two weeks away 
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Another thing to keep in mind, just like Raiders of the Lost Ark, some of your characters might be Indiana Jones and have doctorates in archaeology and stuff, but you’ll still need to get the headpiece to the Staff of Ra properly translated from a local expert.
Strangely (?) this module, unlike most adventure paths, assumes that none of the PCs are in fact locals and getting to know the real locals and finding out what they can do to help y’all will be part of the adventure.
What if I do want to be local?
Name: TBD
Ancestry: Elf
Background: Fortune Teller
Class: Bard
Alignment: CN
Concept: Support and Debuff Caster
A fortune-teller who moved into the area some time ago. Most people regard him as just an opportunistic con artist like any other, performing cup scryings, palm readings, and divining sticks auguries. However, a few swear his Harrow readings saved them from disaster. Whatever the case may be, some of the more observant elements in the capital have noticed he has a tendency to pop up in conjunction with the start of major events.
The truth of his presense in the city is murky. He is nominally a Pathfinder Agent, but he arrived in the area well ahead of the recent upheaval, and apparently came on his own initiative rather than following any Society directive. As more agents arrive to investigate the uncovered ruins, he has quietly slipped into their number for his own objectives.
Side note: I hope someone else brings some healing capacity. I’d rather not end up forced to blow most of my slots on Soothe.
Alrighty, I am gonna switch it up and go with something other than Ranger. I was thinking that the party may be lacking with a Champion, Barbarian, Ranger and only a Bard as the caster. Bards aren’t exactly known for being healers (nothing against bards of course). We don;t want to make the poor Bard So I am nixing my Ranger idea and I am going to play either Druid or Alchemist. Looking for some group input here as to what the party would prefer I bring to the group or any thought on it in general. Here are my two concepts one for Druid and one for Alchemist.
DRUID:
Name: TBD
Ancestry: Twilight Halfling
Background: TBD (Hermit? Animal Whisperer?)
Class: Druid (Animal Order)
Alignment: Neutral Good
Religion/Deity: Gozreh most likely
ALCHEMIST:
Name: TBD
Ancestry: Charhide Goblin
Background: Scholar (most likely)
Class: Alchemist (Research Field: Bomber)
Alignment: Chaotic Good or Neutral Good
The thing with Druid is I am having a difficult time coming up with a decent backstory/situation to find a Druid going to the desert and into tombs and such. I am having a much easier time with the Alchemist backgroud. Also, my goblin Alchemist would have much more character flavor.
But I am open to suggestions/thoughts from you guys as to which would be better for the party.
I think a Druid would be best. As we’ve mentioned before, they have as much blasting power as any Wizard, along with Heal and several of the most important recovery spells. Alchemists have to basically pick one or the other (Bomber vs Chirurgeon), but even in the one they pick, they probably aren’t going to be as good as the Druid can be at both. Alchemist needs a little bit of work; at the moment, the math just doesn’t work for them. I’ll be happy to elaborate on that if you want.
A Druid might be in the area to investigate what is causing the elementals to go berserk, given their close connection to the natural world. Or he could purely be following PFS orders to investigate, maybe a novice Druid who is in the Society to get more experience in the world before returning to his druidly duties.
As for Background, don’t forget that it can be something you were/did before becoming a Druid, so it could very well be something mostly unrelated. Farmhand, Herbalist, Laborer, Miner, and Nomad all could be related, and even things like Sailor or Warrior could fit if something happened that changed the character’s life.
Something changed this year… Thousands of tons of desert sand shifted… with valuable oases lost… in the valleys and canyons left behind by the storms, ancient wonders from fantastic myths have resurfaced. A dozen previously unknown pyramids now miraculously rise from the sand.
Could the cause of what drove the elementals crazy be inside one of these unknown pyramids? Shouldn’t the druids who guard the precious oases in the desert find out and make sure it doesn’t happen again?
Ohhhhhh, but you said we couldn’t be local so I can’t be a druid of these deserts guarding the precious oases I have to be a foreign druid.
What if I do want to be local?
DM:
Well, looks like my alchemist idea was shot down again by a bunch of neeeeeeeeeedy players who just have to have some healing and bard that doesn’t wanna heal 
I keeeeeeeeeeed I Keeeeeeeeeeeeed, the alchemist idea was more for if we had 5th and maybe 6th player with either of them playing something with healing…which it doesn’t seem like we will.
So Rando you can put me down for
Ancestry: Twilight Halfling
Background: TBD (Hermit? Animal Whisperer?)
Class: Druid (Animal Order)
Alignment: Neutral Good
Religion/Deity: Gozreh most likely
And I’m off to find a name that is harder to pronounce than it looks
How about: Hey You, Healbot!!!
Is it bad I know the exact context of that 3-second blurb? In any case, I made a non-local local. 
Someone who isn’t from the area but has been there for a while prior to the PFS expedition. So there.
Are you thinking of doing a shape-changey Druid or still going for the animal companion?
No it is good that you know that.
And now I know I don’t have to train medicine on my druid at all what with the competing Medicinists.
I’m going with animal companion Druid. I’m already playing a Circle of the Moon druid in a 5e Tomb of Annihilation game and I want to try out something different with this druid.
But dinosaur! 
I’m planning to focus my skill increases on Performance (surprising nobody), Thievery (unless we get someone who wants to do rogue-y things), Stealth (ditto), and maybe some Deception. Looking at maybe a bit of Rogue multiclass for Skill Mastery at 8, which lets me bump an Expert skill to Master and a Trained one to Expert as well as getting a skill feat.
Keep in mind, we’re using Fantasy Grounds Unity, so make sure you get that downloaded (and updated before we start).
And do we want to go ahead and try the Variant Rule from the GMG about Proficiency Without Level (pg 198)? If we do, they also recommend we do Automatic Bonus Progression (pg 196). That would have a very 5E feel to game. Instead of finding a +1 striking returning starknife (like you did in Hellknight Hill), you’d just find a returning starknife.
By adopting those variants, it’s going to:
- make lower level creatures more dangerous
- maker higher level creatures less dangerous
- flatten combat; lesser chance of both crit hits and failures
- nerf(?) spells; lesser chance of getting crit saves in both directions
- make magic treasure less “important” (and thus less fun?)
- make crafting less necessary
Thoughts?
I know dinosaur! but I’m already doing a lot of dinosaur! in my Tomb of Annihilation game.