A question about the Debt to the Society boon.


Pathfinder Society

Scarab Sages 4/5 RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16

So Debt to the Society is a boon that lets you pay for a Raise Dead even if you don't have the full 16 PP. You then have to pay off PP as you earn them until you have paid a total of 20 PP.

I was just wondering if you had to assign the boon to a character before he died or if you could wait and assign the boon when the character needed the Raise Dead?

Grand Lodge 4/5

If a character dies and you haven't arranged to raise him before leaving the table, when you get your chronicle, he is no longer in play. You would have to be able to apply another chronicle sheet to the character during the session. I think, from multiple other situations where playing a scenario or arc locks the character out of gaining other chronicles, that's unlikely to work.

There might be an exception if you apply the boon no later than the end of the same event where you received it, as ISTR you can apply boons immediately and use them in the same session.

Scarab Sages 4/5 RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16

Yeah, I was talking about having the boon at the table and applying it during the same session that the character dies. I just wanted to make sure the boon did not have to be applied to the character already when he died. Because, you know, one of my other characters might die and and need the boon instead.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area South & West

Expect table variance.

Personally I'd let you assign it to a character only when needed; it's too good a boon to risk wasting it on a character who never needs it,
and this encourages players to spend more Prestige Points on vanities, etc., instead of banking 24 of their first 26 PP 'just in case' (the other 2PP goes on a wand of CLW, aka a happy stick).

Apart from that (and darkwood composite long bows) I've rarely seen people buy much with PP until they get to around 6th level.

5/5 *

I would allow it's application upon needing it as well.

Scarab Sages 4/5 RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I think I will shoot off an email to my local VC about this boon and see what she says as well.

Dark Archive 4/5 5/5

Sorry to necro an old thread, but I'm wondering if this boon can also bring back to life a long-dead PC? Raise Dead has its limits in terms of how many days a PC can be dead in order to work, but time isn't necessarily linear in PFS (characters can be left un-played for years), especially if a PC dies at the very end of a scenario, number of days would be undefined. It would be a nice way to use this boon, as it would allow a single character to be spared regardless of when or how they died. Also, I think the boon works better posthumously then attaching it to a currently living character who might not ever need it. Am I being too generous?

Silver Crusade 5/5 5/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria

When it comes to long dead, reported dead characters, I believe that opportunity has passed.

Regarding the application of boons to a character during play, we might need general rule for that, I am actually in favor of not being able to do so.

Applying a boon after the scenario is essentially done and you just have to deal with the conditions might be another issue.

Scarab Sages 4/5

As much as I'd like to be able to apply this boon mid-game, I don't think it's currently legal. Though I'm guessing many people would let it slide. I have two instances of it. One that I got at a convention, and one I traded for. The one from the convetion I put onto a character that had already had to raise at a relatively low level, and so was low on prestige for the majority of his career. He was also behind the curve on wealth for a while. So having the boon meant I could spend prestige on items/consumables in order to make up for the early losses, but still be able to raise in an emergency. He's also a character with Negative Energy Affinity (part of the reason he died the first time), so not able to be brought back with a breath of life.

My second instance will likely get assigned to my Dhampir character as soon as he has enough fame to make use of it. Depending on where he stands in terms of prestige. An alternative would be one of my characters that has had to retrain several options.

Basically, instead of thinking of it as an assign as needed boon, I'm targeting applying it to characters that are already in a position to make use of it, as insurance for that character if things go badly.

Silver Crusade 5/5 5/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria

And remember that you could also use the boon to get another party member brought back from the dead... not an attractive option, but there are at least a couple of people in my region who would have earned it ^^

3/5

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Pulls up a chair in the back of the room and waits to see what the consensus is.

Grand Lodge 4/5 **** Developer

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The Debt to the Society boon can be applied in the middle of a session. You can carry it around unassigned and apply it a character as soon as she dies.

The boon cannot bring back to life a character who has already been reported as dead.

Shadow Lodge

Linda Zayas-Palmer wrote:
The boon cannot bring back to life a character who has already been reported as dead.

Exactly as I'd expect, seeing as the character would have been reported dead in the system, and I imagine it'd be a huge PITA to change that.

Heck, a GM once misreported a scenario they ran as one I'd already played, and even after changing the scenario reported, the session still has my character flagged for having already played the corrected scenario.

Scarab Sages 4/5

Wow! Fantastic. I'm glad I haven't assigned my second one yet.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

I assigned mine to my #-1, years ago, because I didn't understand how boons worked (was my fourth PFS session I think). That PC has never died though and he's swimming in PP lake. Could I de-attach it?

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