Hey there,

I've been reading a number of threads lately about people playing Pathfinder games at conventions where the group ends up with a really strange mix of classes.

One game had 4 rogues!, 1 fighter and 1 monk. Another game had 4 clerics and 2 wizards, lol.

Does that happen a lot at conventions? I'm just curious.

For me I don't think it will matter since I'll be heading to Gencon 2009 with characters covering almost everything: cleric, 2 fighters, wizard. I expect conventions to be somewhat like MMOs in the sense that there is a lack of healers.

Anyway, just wanted to see what the majority of people play at conventions and what I can expect regarding class mix. Maybe see if anyone has any stories they can share.

MMOs aren't always like that. In WoW right now we've got a glut of healers in my circle.

More seriously though, table composition is always a bit wonky at a convention. We had the same kind of interesting tables in Living Greyhawk and I'm sure they'll continue to happen. You work with what you've got on hand.

Playing a cleric or someone with the potential to heal usually does give you a little bit of extra pull when it comes time to muster groups. I like to play arcane types personally.

Certainly at Gencon UK '07 the guys running the Pathfinder Society games (Nick & Josh IIRC) made a point of spreading the clerics out, and to some extent balancing tables in general.

Obviously that still requires people to be playing clerics (or whatever class is in short supply), but it makes it less of an issue if known gaps can be (half-)plugged by a paladin/bard/druid.

Certainly at Gencon UK '07 the guys running the Pathfinder Society games

Callum Finlayson wrote:

Certainly at Gencon UK '07 the guys running the Pathfinder Society games

'07?

Well our regular Pathfinder game has

2 clerics
1 cleric/fighter
1 sorcerer
1 barbarian

first game was a TPK with no healers, not that it would have mattered. Second game had 3 clerics with different focuses. Actually I have come to really LIKE multiple clerics in the game.

Oh and the Clerics all took Toughness multiple times for the extra HP... has made a HUGE difference! Sorcerer has Toughness too I think.

I think working with the table you have is part of what makes these types of "living" games fun. If you have no cleric, buy a bunch of potions or scrolls ahead of time. If you don't need them, then you still have them for the next table where you're lacking a cleric!

FWIW, I don't think I've ever seen another monk at a Pathfinder Society table; I've always been the only one.

I think working with the table you have is part of what makes these types of "living" games fun. If you have no cleric, buy a bunch of potions or scrolls ahead of time. If you don't need them, then you still have them for the next table where you're lacking a cleric!

FWIW, I don't think I've ever seen another monk at a Pathfinder Society table; I've always been the only one.

WelbyBumpus wrote:

I think working with the table you have is part of what makes these types of "living" games fun. If you have no cleric, buy a bunch of potions or scrolls ahead of time. If you don't need them, then you still have them for the next table where you're lacking a cleric!

FWIW, I don't think I've ever seen another monk at a Pathfinder Society table; I've always been the only one.

We have 2 monks in our gaming group in NYC and they have actually played together. 1 of the monks is a halfling and mostly provides comic relief running around with an insanely high AC. The other one plays along side a rogue mostly so he grapples and she sneak attacks a deadly combo.

I mean why else go to a Yankees game?

In our gaming group, we have three people with Ranger levels: Ranger/Rogue (Rogue was for skills, SA, and flavor), Ranger/Paladin (he took it for FE:Human), and Ranger/Fighter/Sorceror (FE: Evil Outsider, and Sorceror for True Strike and long lasting spells). The others are straight classes: one Enchanter, one Illusionist, one Bard, and one Rogue.

The group I played in:
-wizard, cleric, cleric, bard, bard, druid (for scenario #1)
-wizard, cleric, bard, bard, bard, druid (for scenario #2)

Bards, lol.

In SE Michigan we have a lot of clerics, but not many of them are frequent players. I see a lot of fighter-mutts and rogues. Looking at our group database we have:

6 barbarians
3 bards
6 druids
7 fighters
0 monks
3 rangers
0 paladins
7 rogues
1 sorcerer
5 wizards
3 too-many-classes-to-categorize

Here in the Finnish Pathfinder Society active characters roster we have:

7 multi-classed characters
4 rangers
3 clerics
3 druids
2 fighters
2 wizards
1 barbarian
1 monk
0 bards
0 paladins
0 rogues
0 sorcerers

The multi-classed characters are: ranger/sorcerer, fighter/sorcerer, barbarian/fighter, rogue/wizard, druid/wizard, bard/ranger, and rogue/sorcerer.

As a strange bit of regional trivia: We have three full-caster characters specializing in summoning; a cleric, a druid, and a wizard. All of these are currently at lvl 6. I'm sure you can imagine what happens when these three guys attend the same game session. That's right.. 10 minute combat rounds.

As a strange bit of regional trivia: We have three full-caster characters specializing in summoning; a cleric, a druid, and a wizard. All of these are currently at lvl 6. I'm sure you can imagine what happens when these three guys attend the same game session. That's right.. 10 minute combat rounds.

I recall playing in LG during 3.0 an animal domain cleric with a druid cohort that each brought trained animals to the table. My turns (with 10-12 critters) wouldn't take as long as some of the other characters at the table because I always knew what I was going to do when my turn came and I did things systematically.

-James

The players can be quick about it, but still it multiplies the amount of dice rolled, which increases the time spent during turns. These players do know how to play a summoner, so there isn't any extra hassle on that part.

At PaizoCon I ran 1 game with 2 rangers, 2 rogues, 1 Wiz, and 1 Sorc (3 humans, 3 halflings).

The other game had a better mix, but I forget exactly what it was, had ranger, cleric, and 3 other non-arcane casters (maybe a bard). (Sorry guys - busy day!)

Callum Finlayson wrote:

Certainly at Gencon UK '07 the guys running the Pathfinder Society games

'07?

The society group in my area is actually seems a bit strange, to me at least. We have plenty of clerics, but I've only seen 2 fighter other than my own fighter character. And both were 2nd level or lower. We also have several bards, a couple clerics, druids, arcane casters and a couple barbarians.

In 3.5, you tend to see a LOT of rogue characters. especially at lower level. I expect to see that balance out though with the Pathfinder release.

At Gen Con 2009, I found that there were a lot of barbarians, fighters and rogues. There were a few paladins, clerics, and rangers. In 5 scenarios, I didn't see a single wizard, sorceror, or druid. I saw one bard and he didn't cast a single spell in the entire scenario (he was 4th level).

My groups (or should I say the barbarians) pretty much destroyed all of the scenarios, in record time.

I was the only cleric in half of my sessions, 75% if you don't count the negative energy channeling asmodeus worshiper in my very first session. Since I was running a cleric with selective channeling and extra channeling, I think I was quite popular.

The other "real" cleric I met at Gen Con 2009 made a comment that most of the Pathfinder Society clerics he's seen were run by the DMs of local groups, which is true in our two cases. I wonder how universally that applied....