Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide

3.60/5 (based on 14 ratings)

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Within the pages of the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide you will find everything you need to bring your own character to life. Whether you are new to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, or a pen & paper roleplaying game veteran, the answers to your questions about the Roleplaying Guild are right here!

Last Updated: August 9, 2018

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5/5


5/5


Seems fine.

4/5

I wanted to address some comments from prior reviews, but then I realized that most are for the older versions (1 through 5) of the document. So, yeah, I guess maybe the older versions were not printer friendly, but I just printed the new season 6 document on a black & white laser printer and it seems fine, and readable. The PDF displays on my tablet OK, too, though my tablet is new and fast. I guess older ones might struggle with it.

Regarding the removal of tieflings as a playable race, I believe that's just fallout from season 5. That is, we just played through a huge story arc about a demon invasion, and I believe that all outsiders and otherworldly/extraplanar types are now on "the outs" with Pathfinder Society. That will change for story reasons I'm sure in another season or two, but for now at least it makes thematic sense.

As for the quality of the modules for season 6, that probably needs to go into the reviews of each individual module, but I have to admit that I really like it so far. The fights in 6-01 were much harder than I expected, and a PC died. I thought that was cool for it to be so dangerous, though I understand some will hate that. In 6-02 I loved the social interactions with previously-unknown Technic League. And the big boss fight was very scary and had a secondary fight that really surprised us. I again found it fun, though I understand a table full of players who have zero adamantine weapons will find it too hard and probably all die. Also, regarding 6-02, we had a hugely fun time with our skills, but see the next paragraph for why it was fun for us and not for others.

The only thing I don't like about season 6 is the introduction of a new feat, without which you cannot use your skills to interact with technology. It's basically a "feat tax" to be good at all the season 6 modules. Nobody in PFS near me is following that rule, even though it's mandatory and even though anyone not following it is in danger of being ousted. Doesn't seem to matter; everyone from top to bottom hates it, so it's completely gone. If any official employee from Paizo were to ask, we'd nod and say it's there. At the table? We don't even *ask* if a player has the feat. Does that upset management? Oh well, they introduced something bad, and the community rejected it while they weren't looking.

So overall season 6 has been great and the season 6 guide seems fine. But we killed the bad stuff, and we like brutally hard fights, so your mileage may vary.


2/5

The fact that it's not only not printer friendly, but looks like it's going to waste even more ink than the previous one is not good.

Personally, while I do like some aspects of the theme, I'm not digging the art at all, especially in regards to how disappointing Season 6 play has been so far.

Like the other Season 6 products so far, the layering and graphics look like they are messed up somehow, which makes the loading time on my tablet wonky and take too long for some reason. Granted, it's free, but still, I just don't think the quality is there.

So far, the only real improvement I do like is the added line that states a group can decide to play up or down if they fall exactly in the middle of two sub-tiers. But other than that, not really impressed.


Are you kidding me??????

1/5

You're allowing master summoner, wayang and Nagaji and you got rid of Aasimar and tiefling?!?! Come on!


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Sczarni

1 person marked this as a favorite.

IMO there is no reason to make new classes to the extent that paizo has gone. Honestly, you want to make a samurai, make a fighter give him a katana and some cool looking eastern armor and take feats and traits that compliment the class or take a rogue and take exotic weapons proficencies and stealthy feats and call him a ninja? If paizo was really interested in allowing people to customize thier characters why not expand the feats, traits, equipment, archetypes ect... to define who thier characters are instead of handing out a book that gives everyone the same cookie cutter experience of being a samurai or a ninja or a gunslinger and limiting the imagination of the player. IMO making more classes doesnt allow your character to become any more unique, all it serves is to water down the class selection and hamper the average player's ability to customize thier character and make them unique.

anyway thats mostly the reason why I stick to the core classes. All I am looking for is something in society play that was there before and is not now (rules for posions in society play).

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

For those looking for poison rules, those are being moved to the FAQ (and will likely stay exactly as they were in the last iteration of the Guide. I'm in Indy already, and thus can't get them up until next week. In the meantime, please use the most recently published rules on the topic.

As for the rogue, that was an unfortunate error. While listing each and every class and their respective hit dice it probably overkill to begin with, we'll add the rogue to the table for starting hp and hp per level. In the meantime, use the same data as the rest of the d8 HD classes.

Sczarni

Awesome thanks for the quick response.

Liberty's Edge

OK, ten factions? An adventure I'm running this weekend only has the original 5 for their PA rewards. None of the adventures I bought for Society events I'm running have the newer 5 factions. What do I do now if a player shows up belonging to one of the unrepresented factions? Is there Errata for the Adventures?

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Lanorien wrote:
OK, ten factions? An adventure I'm running this weekend only has the original 5 for their PA rewards. None of the adventures I bought for Society events I'm running have the newer 5 factions. What do I do now if a player shows up belonging to one of the unrepresented factions? Is their Errata for the Adventures?

See "Adapting Previous Seasons" on page 24.

Liberty's Edge

Mark Moreland wrote:


See "Adapting Previous Seasons" on page 24.

Ha! I'm a idiot. Skipped right past it. Thanks for the response.


What happened to Play, Play, Play?! How are we supposed to make Dragnmoon's head explode? ;-)

edit: I just HAD to be the first to point it out.

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Kyle Baird wrote:

What happened to Play, Play, Play?! How are we supposed to make Dragnmoon's head explode? ;-)

edit: I just HAD to be the first to point it out.

I was wondering when someone would notice this rule had been eliminated and incorporated into other areas of the guide. Kudos to you, sir!

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

HP fix to rangers unless rangers no longer get D10?

I'm adding that the url to the faq has faqs instead and leads to a dead link. Let me know if this isn't the right place to post this
working link
http://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/faq
link in document
paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/faqs


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Gerrik wrote:

IMO there is no reason to make new classes to the extent that paizo has gone. Honestly, you want to make a samurai, make a fighter give him a katana and some cool looking eastern armor and take feats and traits that compliment the class or take a rogue and take exotic weapons proficencies and stealthy feats and call him a ninja? If paizo was really interested in allowing people to customize thier characters why not expand the feats, traits, equipment, archetypes ect... to define who thier characters are instead of handing out a book that gives everyone the same cookie cutter experience of being a samurai or a ninja or a gunslinger and limiting the imagination of the player. IMO making more classes doesnt allow your character to become any more unique, all it serves is to water down the class selection and hamper the average player's ability to customize thier character and make them unique.

anyway thats mostly the reason why I stick to the core classes. All I am looking for is something in society play that was there before and is not now (rules for posions in society play).

I don't quite understand your complaint.

Ultimate Combat DOES expand the feats, traits, equipment, and archetypes available-- rather considerably, as I understand it-- as well as adding an entirely new base class, and two new alternate classes. The claim of a "cookie cutter" experience for a Samurai, Ninja, or Gunslinger doesn't hold water, either, as these classes all receive a number of archetypes, as well. Sure, a fighter or cavalier could make for a passable samurai. But how would an archetype for a Samurai have been any better than the alternate class we received?

I really don't understand how having less options would make things more unique.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Mark Moreland wrote:
Kyle Baird wrote:

What happened to Play, Play, Play?! How are we supposed to make Dragnmoon's head explode? ;-)

edit: I just HAD to be the first to point it out.

I was wondering when someone would notice this rule had been eliminated and incorporated into other areas of the guide. Kudos to you, sir!

And made less "exploitable"!

Does the head not exploding dance


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Am I having a senile moment, or does the text on page 24 under Average Party Level not agree with the example?

In the example, 28 divided by 6 equals 4.66. It then says to round up to 5, and then add 1 for the sixth player, arriving at a final APL of 6.

However, just a few sentences before that, it specifically says to round that fraction of a number down. So, in the example, the APL should actually be 5.

Is this a typo, or do I need to go back to rudimentary math and comprehension?

Grand Lodge

Making my first character for Pathfinder Society, and I was reading an earlier version of the guide just a couple of days ago. I recall the faction section listing which classes are good for whichever faction - but that seems to be gone now.

Is this on purpose, that there are no recommendations, even though there's still the text "Some classes are harder to play in some factions than others." ?

Sczarni

"I don't quite understand your complaint.

Ultimate Combat DOES expand the feats, traits, equipment, and archetypes available-- rather considerably, as I understand it-- as well as adding an entirely new base class, and two new alternate classes. The claim of a "cookie cutter" experience for a Samurai, Ninja, or Gunslinger doesn't hold water, either, as these classes all receive a number of archetypes, as well. Sure, a fighter or cavalier could make for a passable samurai. But how would an archetype for a Samurai have been any better than the alternate class we received?

I really don't understand how having less options would make things more unique"

My complaint is not about the expansion of feats, traits or equipment, i think that is great to an extent! my complaint is why is it nessesary to come out with alternate classes like the ninja when the mechanics for making a ninja are already in the book. But most everyone min/maxes anyway, so where as before most people play lets say a rogue,
then ultimate combat comes out with the ninja class, which is basically a rogue with hmm lets see a freaking ki pool and telents that put the original rogue to shame plus they can use much better weapons than a rogue, why the hell would anyone play a rogue anymore? now you have 30 new players all playing ninjas and suddenly youre not so special anymore. That is the cookie cutter experience IMO.

in addition adding classes makes it more difficult for GMs and players to keep up with the game, so now instead of having to remember how the 11 base classes worked, you then have to remember those plus the 6 out of the APG, plus the magus from ultimate magic, and now another 3 from ultimate combat. remembering every mechanic for 21 classes is damn near impossible, and everyone knows how having to look up everything hampers play. All I am trying to get at is that there is a lot of new content and quite a bit of it is blatent fluff.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber

Just read it (4.0 vertion) and love it. Keep it up Paizo

Liberty's Edge

Lanorien wrote:
OK, ten factions? An adventure I'm running this weekend only has the original 5 for their PA rewards. None of the adventures I bought for Society events I'm running have the newer 5 factions. What do I do now if a player shows up belonging to one of the unrepresented factions? Is their Errata for the Adventures?
Mark Moreland wrote:


See "Adapting Previous Seasons" on page 24.

I have the understanding that the previous adventures were going to be revised to include the new factions. Is this still the case, and if so is there any sort of time-line set out for this?

Just curious as I have several players wanting to utilize their new factions, but are bummed because their missions are the same as the other corresponding factions at the table. They are looking for that sense of uniqueness.

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Baraccus wrote:
Lanorien wrote:
OK, ten factions? An adventure I'm running this weekend only has the original 5 for their PA rewards. None of the adventures I bought for Society events I'm running have the newer 5 factions. What do I do now if a player shows up belonging to one of the unrepresented factions? Is their Errata for the Adventures?
Mark Moreland wrote:


See "Adapting Previous Seasons" on page 24.

I have the understanding that the previous adventures were going to be revised to include the new factions. Is this still the case, and if so is there any sort of time-line set out for this?

Just curious as I have several players wanting to utilize their new factions, but are bummed because their missions are the same as the other corresponding factions at the table. They are looking for that sense of uniqueness.

We currently have no plans to go back and revise three years' worth of scenarios. If your players only want to go only on missions made natively for their faction, they should play only Season 3 scenarios. Obviously, this cuts down significantly on the number of scenarios available to them, but we do not have the resources to make that level of revision to over 75 scenarios from Seasons 0-2.

Liberty's Edge

I could imagine the work involved. At least now I can go back to my players with the official response right from the top. I appreciate your quick reply.
Thanks Mark.

Sovereign Court

The last two pages should not feature the water mark on top and bottom of the page. At the moment the last page lacks this watermark. The reason for the need to remove them is simple; they are on top of the character sheet. If I wish to print out character sheets tailored to Pathfinder Society and hand them over, I'm hesitant to do so if my name and email address are visible there.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Deussu wrote:
The last two pages should not feature the water mark on top and bottom of the page. At the moment the last page lacks this watermark. The reason for the need to remove them is simple; they are on top of the character sheet. If I wish to print out character sheets tailored to Pathfinder Society and hand them over, I'm hesitant to do so if my name and email address are visible there.

We don't control the presence of the watermark on a per-document basis—it's not placed on the last page of *any* multi-page file, and changing that to the last two pages would not be ideal.

We'll see about putting up the PFS character sheet as a separate, non-watermarked download. (In the meantime, you can match up the back of the PFS sheet with the front of a standard sheet, as I think the only difference on the front of the sheet is the PFS logo.)


Just a note that the website text still states v3.0. Perhaps take it out and state that the latest version will be downloaded?

Contributor

Nylanfs wrote:
Just a note that the website text still states v3.0. Perhaps take it out and state that the latest version will be downloaded?

Updated the product description—thanks for pointing that out!

Sovereign Court

FYI for the next update.

It seems a sentence got garbled from 4.0 to 4.1.

page 15 from 4.0 wrote:
Changing your faction costs a number of Prestige Points equal to 3 times your character level. Changing your faction does not alter your Fame score.
page 15 from 4.1 wrote:
Changing your faction costs a number of Prestige Points equal to 3 times your character level, but does not alter your faction does not alter your Fame score.


New version now up! The changelog will be along sometime later, as we are crunching for Gen Con.

Liberty's Edge

On page 6 under "Finding a Game", it states the following:
The easiest way to find a local game is to visit paizo.com/pathfindersociety and click on "Find Events in Your Area". From there, you can search by zip code and radius of travel to find events that have been registered in your area.

I can find no link for "Find Events in Your Area" on the page. The closest link I found was entitled "Get Involved", but that page did not have a place to enter a zip code.

The Exchange

dropping classes and whole class selections half way through a campaign, after our characters were created, mini's were painted, and backgrounds were written up, is the whole reason my original gaming group broke up.


RedDogMT wrote:

On page 6 under "Finding a Game", it states the following:

The easiest way to find a local game is to visit paizo.com/pathfindersociety and click on "Find Events in Your Area". From there, you can search by zip code and radius of travel to find events that have been registered in your area.

I can find no link for "Find Events in Your Area" on the page. The closest link I found was entitled "Get Involved", but that page did not have a place to enter a zip code.

We've since updated the page to include some elements that are mentioned in the guide. You can also navigate to Events by clicking "Events" in the grey sub menu at the top of the page.


I tried to download twice but my computer went into an endless loop of Internet Explorer pages every time I tried to open from the downloaded file. Any suggestions?

Shadow Lodge

Do you have a Zip File opening program? If not, check for WinZip or 7-Zip, which should be free.

On the Paizo product screen, hit "Get PDF", or whatever that says. Go to "My Downloads" <up top, near the right>, and search for the "Pathfinder Society 4.2 Guide to Organized Play" <or something similar to that>. Click on it, and then push OPEN. The screen shoud refresh, and scroll back to the product. It should say something like "personalizzing file, click back in 10 seconds". Just wait a little, and reclick it, hitting OPEN again, and wait for it to download the zipped file. Open, anf under whatever PDF reader you have, hit File and "Save a Copy".


Rock on! 7-zip did the trick, thanks.

Digital Products Assistant

The Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play has been updated to version 4.3.

Shadow Lodge

What are the chances we could get a lite version of this without the art? Both 4.2 and now 4.3 are too slow on ereaders and waste a lot of ink.

Silver Crusade

Is it still true that players cant use the craft profession anymore to create magic items? Also is it true that players can't play catfolk race in pathfinder society? I was told this by a player in our session other night and this would keep my scribe cleric from making cure light wound scrolls if its true.

Liberty's Edge

Both are true (no magical item creation allowed and all the core rules races only plus tengus/aasimars/tieflings- or if you have a special chronicle allowing a different race, you can use that). You could just "buy" cure light wound scrolls at the normal price though or even "purchase" a 50 charge cure light wounds wand for 2 prestige points.


Is the artwork in the Guide from other sources? I really like the various pieces and am wondering where they are from. Especially of the various characters that are shown.

Any clues?

Grand Lodge

Yes, many of them are. Which are you referring to in particular?

Digital Products Assistant

The Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play has been updated to version 5.0.

Shadow Lodge

Cool, cool.

Grand Lodge

Man, I had to search and search for the new playing out of tier rules.

Digital Products Assistant

The guide has been updated with minor editorial changes. Additionally, the character sheet and inventory sheets (with a fillable version) is now available as a download in the product description.


The FAQ says that GMs need Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, Pathfinder Society Field Guide, and Bestiary. But the Guide to Society Play says "a GM should have access to all books in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game line of hardcover rulebooks, whether a physical or electronic copy."

Which is correct?


dmwcarol wrote:

The FAQ says that GMs need Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, Pathfinder Society Field Guide, and Bestiary. But the Guide to Society Play says "a GM should have access to all books in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game line of hardcover rulebooks, whether a physical or electronic copy."

Which is correct?

The Guide was JUST updated to a new version, so it is the most relevant one.

The Society Field Guide has been removed from Core Assumptions, and the GM's can use all electronic info (i.e. PRD) for prep.

I assume the language in the FAQ will be updated at a later time to match the new Guide.

Digital Products Assistant

The fillable Inventory Tracking sheet has been updated to fix the tab order and text centering issues (as well as change the font from Times New Roman). The regular sheet has been updated to fix an issue where some of the text at the top went missing.


dmwcarol wrote:

The FAQ says that GMs need Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, Pathfinder Society Field Guide, and Bestiary. But the Guide to Society Play says "a GM should have access to all books in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game line of hardcover rulebooks, whether a physical or electronic copy."

Which is correct?

That sounds problematic. I'm not even sure which books are hardcover rulebooks.

If that's enforced, I will not start GMing for PFS.

It raises the financial bar a long way.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

All of the hardcovers are made available in electronic form on the PRD. Right now these are the hardcovers:
Core Rulebook
Gamemastery Guide
Advanced Player's Guide
Advanced Race Guide
Bestiary
Bestiary 2
Bestiary 3
NPC Codex
Ultimate Campaign
Ultimate Combat
Ultimate Equipment
Ultimate Magic
And the just released Mythic Adventures


Ok. I didn't have access to the Guide right then and was reading that as parallel to players actually having to own the books/pdfs.

No worries then.


Just an FYI--y'all misspelled "Corvallis". ;)

Dark Archive

Just wondering when the document will be updated. It should have been updated last month.


Chris Ballard wrote:
It should have been updated last month.

Why is that?

Dark Archive

They have been updating it every six months.

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