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The maximum level in PFS gets bounced around a bit, but it always varies based on opinion. Figured I break it down so everyone can just refer to it later.
This will be as of Gen Con the absolute theoretical maximum:
Finish your normal career at 12.0
Complete Eyes of the Ten at 13.2
Complete Academae of Secrets at 14.2
Complete Tomb of the Iron Medusa at 15.2
Complete The Grand Convocation at PaizoCon or PaizoCon UK at 16.0
Complete Race for the Runecarved Key at 16.1
Complete Moonscar at 17.1
Complete Witchwar Legacy at 18.1
Of course no one at The GC was 15.2 (the highest I saw was 14.2). So depending on whether or not they had played AoS or TotIM to get to 14th level, determines their max level at 17.1 or 18.1.
Finish your normal career at 12.0
Complete Eyes of the Ten at 13.2
Complete Academae of Secrets or Tomb of the Iron Medusa at 14.2
Complete The Grand Convocation at 15.0
Complete Race for the Runecarved Key 15.1
Complete Tomb of the Iron Medusa or Moonscar at 16.1
Complete Moonscar or Witchwar at 17.1
Complete Witchwar or nothing at 18.1

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Finish your normal career at 12.0
Complete Eyes of the Ten at 13.2
Complete Academae of Secrets or Tomb of the Iron Medusa at 14.2
Complete The Grand Convocation at 15.0
Complete Race for the Runecarved Key 15.1
Complete Tomb of the Iron Medusa or Moonscar at 16.1
Complete Moonscar or Witchwar at 17.1
Complete Witchwar or nothing at 18.1
That's how our home group is looking. Here's how it would look for Joe Caubo's character:
Finish your normal career at 12.0
Complete Eyes of the Ten at 13.2
Complete Academae of Secrets at 14.2
Complete Tomb of the Iron Medusa at 15.2
Die in Race for the Runecarved Key.

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Shouldn't dying just be a 10 minute break at that level?
That should be the case, though it might be complicated by his being the party's primary divine caster. With Kyle Baird running things, I can only imagine that there will several encounters involving disintegration effects in areas with high winds.

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That's how our home group is looking. Here's how it would look for Joe Caubo's character:
Finish your normal career at 12.0
Complete Eyes of the Ten at 13.2
Complete Academae of Secrets at 14.2
Complete Tomb of the Iron Medusa at 15.2
Die in Race for the Runecarved Key.
Interesting. Death is in my future at the table but not Nikolai. NIKOLAI LIVES ON FOREVER!

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I thought there was a different Combination with Ruby Phoenix beginning at 11.2 (Finishing at 12.2)
and then using the Eyes of the Ten Rule of as long as you start it at 12 you were allowed to finish it (as the exception to the Rule about playing outside of tiers)
for example
Finish your normal career at 11.2
Complete Ruby phoenix Tournament at 12.2
Complete Eyes of the Ten at 14.1
Complete Academae of Secrets at 15.1
Complete Tomb of the Iron Medusa at 16.1
Complete The Grand Convocation at PaizoCon or PaizoCon UK at 16.2
Complete Race for the Runecarved Key at 17
Complete Moonscar at 18
Complete Witchwar Legacy at 19

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I can't find the exact post, but I recall Mike saying you can have more than 33xp to start Eyes. However, you had to be able to finish the entire arc (worth 5xp on normal advancement) without hitting 39xp or 14th level.
The only way to fit a module and Eyes in is to begin the module on slow advancement at/or before 12.0 and then begin Eyes(still on slow). You would then be able to switch to normal advancement at 13 to finish whatever was left of Eyes. If you started the module at 33xp you would end up at 34.5xp at the end of the module, and then the first two parts of Eyes would get you to 36xp. This would allow you to switch to normal xp at 13 for the last two parts of Eyes.
You have to set normal/slow advancement at the beginning of the level, so a 11.2 playing a mod to get them to 12.2 wouldn't be able to switch to slow advancement till 13. Which would be a problem since the first part of Eyes is a double length scenario worth 2 xp thus putting the character to 13.1 and unable to select slow advancement till 14. So in this case the character would be forced to skip the eyes series entirely.
the last example is why the rule was included to cut excess xp down to 33xp(level 12.0) before beginning the Eyes series.
ninja'd by pirate rob

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well what I have read ("retirement and beyond" vs Chapter 7) did not look so clear.
(1) Does a new 12th level character can play directly Academy of Secrets (Tier 13) using the +/-1 rules for sanctioned scenarios.
(2) Does a 14th level (let's suppose it is possible) character can play Academy of Secrets (Tier 13) using the +/-1 rules for sanctioned scenarios.

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well what I have read ("retirement and beyond" vs Chapter 7) did not look so clear.
(1) Does a new 12th level character can play directly Academy of Secrets (Tier 13) using the +/-1 rules for sanctioned scenarios.
(2) Does a 14th level (let's suppose it is possible) character can play Academy of Secrets (Tier 13) using the +/-1 rules for sanctioned scenarios.
Yes and yes. Both of those are covered in chapter 6 since AoS is a sanctioned modules. Please let me know what is unclear so I can look at fixing language in the future.

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The unclear language comes in the section about Retirement.
It says that any module you play at 11th level that would take you over 12th level, you lose the additional XP and a prorated portion of PP and Gold.
It also says that you can’t play anything until after you’ve gone through a retirement arc.
It also says that some level 13+ specials may be available for play, but Paizo Con Grand Convocation had a 12+ tier.
Previously you’ve said you could play Ruby Phoenix Tournament on slow play and still finish out Eyes of Ten legally.
The guide doesn’t clarify any of this.

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The wording advising, "Once a character reaches 12th level, she may no longer play in tiered scenarios of levels 1–11, but can play special Tier 12 scenarios and events" sounds pretty clear.
Perhaps if we add a + after Tier 12, and we add modules to the sentence, that would clarify it better?
Also note, "Tier 12 scenarios and events" isn't just referring to Eyes of Ten. It advises any scenario or event that is for characters level 12 or higher.

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Ok, I must have been misreading that.
However, what still doesn't make sense to me is this:
If I can play a module at level 12...
Then why if I start the module at 11th level + 1 or 2 XP would I lose experience, gold, and fame?
Keeping the experience, gold and fame just means I can't play that character in a level 12 retirement arc.

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1 person marked this as FAQ candidate. |

Because we don't want people hitting 14th level during eyes of ten. I will figure out a better way to word it for a future guide.
I completely understand that.
But we are getting to the point where some people will be hitting their 3rd level 12 character. I know I have one level 12 (will be playing through Eyes of Ten sometime this fall hopefully) and another that's at 10.1 (at least 10.2 if not 11th after Thursday Gen Con) who I will give Eyes of Ten GM credit to when I run it for others.
But I have a 3rd that will be level 7 after this Sunday, and potentially could be level 7.1 after Thursday at Gen Con. I expect this character to potentially reach level 12 sometime next late spring or early summer.
That 3rd character doesn’t have a retirement arc to play or get GM credit for. And if at level 11.2 I had a chance to play The Ruby Phoenix Tournament, I’d have to decline or I’d only get 1/3rd credit for it.
Would it be better to say:
To play in a level 12 retirement arc, you must start it at exactly level 12 (33 XP) and cannot play anything else until the retirement arc has finished. Should you complete a sanctioned module that grants 3 XP at 11th level plus 1 or 2 XP (31 or 32 XP), you may reduce your XP to 33 and reduce the gold and prestige awards by 1/3rd for each XP reduced this way. You may also choose to take the full rewards for the module, but you will then not be able to gain credit for a level 12 retirement arc.

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1 person marked this as FAQ candidate. |

The wording advising, "Once a character reaches 12th level, she may no longer play in tiered scenarios of levels 1–11, but can play special Tier 12 scenarios and events" sounds pretty clear.
Perhaps if we add a + after Tier 12, and we add modules to the sentence, that would clarify it better?
Also note, "Tier 12 scenarios and events" isn't just referring to Eyes of Ten. It advises any scenario or event that is for characters level 12 or higher.
Yes I think that the following wording is clearer:
Once a character reaches 12th level, he may no longer play in tiered scenarios of levels 1–11, but can play special Tier 12+ scenarios, sanctioned modules or events

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Hey folks,
A group of friends and I (long time DnD and Pathfinder players) have recently been looking at all the excellent community, support, and structure involved in the society play and have decided to become part of the community. We're very excited to start our new characters next weekend, and have compiled the list of scenarios and sanctioned modules we have between us so that I can organize an order to our play.
The question I wish to ask is to make sure that the adventure line layed out by Kyle for advancing past 12th level is legal for home play for legal sized group of players going through the line for the first time? We do not possess some of those modules, and just want to make sure our understanding that it can be ran out home for credit (once via play, once via GMing) is correct before we purchase all the modules.
Thanks for the help, and we look forward to seeing some of you at Gen Con this year!

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I believe that without any specials, etc. and sticking to standard scenarios and modules, the best you can do currently is:
Finish your normal career at 12.0
Complete Eyes of the Ten at 13.2
Complete Academae of Secrets at 14.2
Complete Tomb of the Iron Medusa at 15.2
Complete Moonscar at 16.2
Complete Witchwar Legacy at 17.2
Bear in mind that you're a level lower than recommended for the last two modules under that progression. A module aimed at level 15 PCs would fill that gap, but such a thing doesn't exist at the moment.

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Thanks for all of the replies folks. Most of the society rules are very straight forward, but the level progression/level tiers are one thing we needed some clarification on. Just wanted to make sure we understood the retirement issues appropriatly. It seems more like basically saying "standard scenario development stops at 12, but if you find 12+ scenarios for your characters you are free to play them, thus "retired" is more a of classification than a rule actually preventing play".
Thanks for posting that up there Kyle, and for the clarifications Kinevon and Paz.

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I'm considering removing the word "retiring" from a future iteration of the Guide since it causes more confusion than clarity. We still are not currently looking at writing scenarios for levels 13+, but there will be occasions when we have specials, such as the Grand Convocation and Gen Con Special, that may include tiers 12+.

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I'm considering removing the word "retiring" from a future iteration of the Guide since it causes more confusion than clarity. We still are not currently looking at writing scenarios for levels 13+, but there will be occasions when we have specials, such as the Grand Convocation and Gen Con Special, that may include tiers 12+.
This seems like a good change. The tier system rules as it is works to limit these characters from participating in the normal release scenarios, so replacing an inaccurate term without creating new complicating language sounds good to me.

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We are going with:
Finish your normal career at 12
Complete Eyes of the Ten at 13.2
Complete Race for the Runecarved Key at 14
Complete Academae of Secrets at 15
Complete Tomb of the Iron Medusa at 16
Complete Moonscar at 17
Complete Witchwar Legacy at 18
Good times.
Admittedly we all have stupid equipment, because we did Eyes of the Ten not realizing we weren't retiring lol... - we did it back in actual season 2 - (and thus bought hilarious stuff)

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Alexander_Damocles wrote:Eyeball opener? Oh yes.Kind of the point. ;-)

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Oh yeah, that poison was mine. :-)
** spoiler omitted **
Then congrats, good sir, you do have a PC kill on your hands. As a direct result of that, Damocles now sports the right consumables and a lowest save of +17.
And Will, Damocles isn't an oracle....he was an Oracle 1/Sorc 8. Smaller hit die matter ;)