u/Essserrr26

Background: First time I am running a campaign. The players are about to encounter a ruffian gang of as-of-now-unkown affiliation, who have cursed a Naiad Queen and corrupted the natural order of a major river she is the warden of. They are trying to obtain a magic item she guards, which they think can help them achieve their goals.

If the players defeat the gang, they can help the nymph queen recover her health and her domain. Since one of the players is a bard, and also picked the polymath muse at character creation without any backstory elements referring to a specific muse (he just wanted to steal with phantasmal minion), this could be an opportunity for him to get a muse, showcase his performance art, and get some boons.

However, since the players are level 2 and the queen is level 7, I am worried about potential balance issues arising. The statblock doesn't give info on what levels the blessing is appropriate for, and it would be an asymmetrical buff.

The rules in the Monster Core say this:

Inspiration [three-actions] (emotion, mental, primal) The nymph queen inspires a single intelligent creature by giving that creature a token of her favor, typically a lock of her hair, though it can be some other significant object as well. As long as the creature carries her token and remains in good standing with her, the creature gains a +1 status bonus to all Crafting checks, Performance checks, and Will saves.
If the nymph grants her token to a bard, and she's the bard's muse, the queen chooses one additional benefit granted by her token: a +1 status bonus to all Lore checks, a +2 status bonus to Performance checks when determining the effects of compositions, a +4 status bonus to untrained skill checks, or a +2 status bonus to Will saves against fey.

The triple buff of crafting, performance and will seems strong because of the variety, and cannot be numerically nerfed. I guess the question here would be whether to give this out as-is, or maybe remove one or two of the buffs.

For the second part with the chosen buff, the fey will not be a big thing in this campaign, and I don't see the Lores coming up in the campaign all that much, since those are very specific and not very visible in their Pathbuilder menus. On the other hand the +4 to untrained checks would be impactful and useful, but may lead to some get-out-of-jail-free moments for the bard, or tread on another player's secondary/tertiary skill investments. The composition performance check is the most logical one, but that one is also questionable since it is a +2 right off the bat.

Has anyone encountered something similar? What would be the best course of action as a GM?

TLDR: GMs with better sense for the game math, should I tweak this (potentially permanent) level 7 buff for a level 2 character, and if so, how?

Edit: Forgot to mention that the bard does not have a very optimised build. He is playing a dwarf, and has a -1 to his charisma stat, meaning he had a +3 at level one.

I saw since starting to get into ttrpgs through Pathfinder a year ago that it is dominated by AP discussion, while many other systems (predominantly D&D) seems to have communities of mostly homebrewers. I want to know if this is accurate or just a side effect of online discourse, and if you have any PF2E-specific viewpoints on APs vs homebrew campaigns.

Background if anyone is interested:

I am about to GM the first ever campaign I've been in, after running a self-written two-shot for 5 of my friends a few months ago. I did look at a few APs' blurbs, but none appealed as much as putting my own solid and fleshed-out but not groundbreaking setting conceot on paper. Additionally, I felt like this would give me more freedom to take it in a direction that is theirs, allow me to put everyone in the spotlight individually, adjust balancing to challenge their specific strengths and weaknesses, as well as give me more creative satisfaction.

However, seeing most people run and clearly enjoy APs has made me question if my decision was right, or if the modules are so high-quality by themselves that they provide a full experience for players and GMs involved.

TLDR: Any thoughts on homebrew vs AP campaigns for PF2E as GM or player?

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