New to Society and looking for character ideas


Pathfinder Society


Hey guys,
So I am new to society, I played my first time yesterday with a pre-made character and want to make my own, my only problem is I have a bad habit of making 'optimal characters', aka what can do the most damage. I like being able to do big damage and be useful in combat, but I don't want to do it at the cost of my skills and to be able to take part in the social experiences present in a lot of the modules. I also think being able to do fun and interesting things with the character is key, not everything has to be about combat. Does anyone have some good ideas of character classes, builds or just fun ideas that balance combat and the skill aspects that they are willing to share to help me make a decision. Thanks.

Sovereign Court

I think the Magus might be the class your looking for. Decent skills, combat versatility and utility spells.

Either that or be a human fighter, and have semi-decent intelligence. Lore Warden fighter has good skills, and also good CMB abilities.

Sovereign Court 4/5

It might be helpful, based on what you're saying, to start with a background, rather than a build. Rather than starting with "I want a dwarf barbarian", try something like this:

Look at the factions in the Guide to Organized Play, and see if any one in particular catches your eye. Maybe do the same thing through the Inner Sea World Guide/Inner Sea Gods (or the relevant sections of the wiki), and come up with a reason for a character with that background to be in the Society. Maybe your Scarab Sage Pathfinder from Nex is hoping to uncover ancient magical secrets. That'd probably be some sort of arcane caster. What would he or she look like? What about a Shelynite from Taldor?

Or, if you're really struggling, write down races, classes, and factions, that sound appealing to you, pick one out of a hat, and get moving from there. One of the nice things about Society play is that you can retrain the character before you play him at level 2, and you can create as many characters as you like.

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

I will note that Knowledge Skills and Diplomacy play a big part in many Pathfinder Society scenarios. Bluff can also be extremely useful. Most of the scenarios I've played have had a good mix of different skills that would be useful.

I will second the suggestion that you come up with a rough character background or idea first. There are so many options now, it is much easier to make a suggestion that fits if we have a rough idea of what you want the character to be good at.

5/5 5/55/55/5

Maydris wrote:

Hey guys,

So I am new to society, I played my first time yesterday with a pre-made character and want to make my own, my only problem is I have a bad habit of making 'optimal characters', aka what can do the most damage.

Big difference between optimal and does a lot of damage, especially in PFS which can be a lot more goal oriented than most campaigns.

Quote:
Does anyone have some good ideas of character classes, builds or just fun ideas that balance combat and the skill aspects that they are willing to share to help me make a decision. Thanks.

Anything that has a strong base for a class and can get you to 6-8 skill points per level, and match the skills up with a good stat should just about do it.

Perception and diplomacy are almost 80% of your skill checks. Once you get those two covered the diminishing returns are pretty heavy.

Your character is a member of a world trotting organization of murderho.. erm.. gentleman explorer archeologists. You also get sent out on a LOT of ancillary tasks, not just raiding the tomb but trying to get permission or funding to raid it.

How generalized/specialized is a trade off. If you can only do one thing well then you won't have any fun/will be the load when that thing doesn't work in the scenario. If you're so well rounded that you have no point, then you will routinely be overshadowed by people in their specialization, for example a fighter with a +4 diplomacy in a group with a diplomancing sorcerer is nothing more than a +2 bonus to their roll. If you can't regularly hit DC 15/20/25 checks depending on your level then your chances for success are so low as to be worthless.

Grand Lodge 3/5

Bwahahahahaha! That's one of the reason as to why I let the squishes do the talkin'! Aside from that, dog, I heard tha tongue of yours slip, and I is agreein'. Sure, some o' us may be in the likings of smash first, stea.... err, gather later, it be quite helpful if one don't specialize in a single subject. As for I, ehh, I may not do the most damage, but I gots me tools tha can help others in bad sitiations....

Seriously though, just build a character that would have fun with, interacting with others and the world. My dwarf Battlerager tends to be quiet unless he believes something is up, my Dervish Dancer Bard HATES insects with a passion, and my new Innkeeper Telekinetisist shoots things with his mind. All three offer different experiences, as they all have different mind sets and skills. Are they optimised? Oh no they are not, but they are fun, and who wants to play the perfect character without flaws?

Liberty's Edge 1/5

Inquisitor of Gorum? 6+ int skill points per level, social skills are class skills, with a bonus on sense motive and intimidate. You get 6 levels of spells and you get to walk around and hit things with a greatsword. Real versatile character that can do a respectable amount of damage, especially at level 5+.

*

Welcome Maydris

Another good place to start is the traits, both those in the APG (& available as a download) and those from the faction. My mater-jeweler dwarf came from the 'fashionable trait'. My Red Mantis Assassin assassin came from the 'arcane vendetta'.

Also try not dumping any stat. You can still have decent scores, but if none are dumped you can fill in a lot of random rolls. What does a 14 Con 17 Int. wizard look like?

Or if optimizing is part of the fun, try optimizing something other than damage. Grappling is a popular alternate as is healing. Try optimizing dirty tricks, non-lethal damage, exotic weapons or even elf
(The aforementioned jeweler has taken 2 feats that let him be 'more' dwarf :)

2/5

I say build a fully optimized character that specialized in something like melee. If you want to take it further optimize him into just one weapon. After about 3 levels completely switch up what he does. Like become ranged, cmb driven, or skillful. This way you can both evolve your character as well as not being OP, but if push came to shove ( like to avoid a tok) you can just switch back to your optimized tactic.

I did this with my paladin and I've been 100% content with how much of an rp character he's become.

5/5 5/55/55/5

A few optimizy tricks.

There are a lot of traits that let you add one stat instead of another to a skill check. These let you dump stats that you don't use much (charisma on a lot of builds, strength on a few) with pretty much no downside. These let you dump some stats to increase your others with little downside: this is especially good if you need a third or fourth good stat on a high skill Barbarian, fighter or monk.

Lorewarden is THE pfs fighter. More skill points, and combat manuvers are especially good against PFSs humanoid heavy enemies list.

A high int score will, in the long run, get you more skills and abilities than the associated stat(especially charisma) You can usually get a 14 int for fewer points than upping your primary stat by one.

Dark Archive 5/5

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I always come up with a concept first, then worry about the stats and everything else.

For example, my Brobarian Hepa. He spawned from three things. First, the Honda Fit commercial with the two bros rock climbing. Second, watching RWBY. Third, the Hawaii 5-0 theme song was playing in the background. All of that mixed together to make a surfer bro who is very happy and loves his friends and anyone who could possibly be his friend. He's not the brightest bulb in the room (My mother always said that 'Trouble is simply opportunity that might possibly kill you.'), but he is big and strong, and aware of his limitations. I was initially going to go Fighter, but the idea of a Barbarian standing in the middle of a battlefield shouting "COME AT ME, BRO!" was too good to pass up. Now that I had a good solid concept, I started making the character.

Hepa is a human because I couldn't think of this concept working for any other race. Half Orcs were a close second, but they don't have the same 'Golden Retriever Puppy of Death' feel to them that Hepa kind of radiates. I sold back my Int to 7 because Hepa really is dumb as a bag of rocks. 17 into my Strength, boosted to a 19 with my human bonus, then a 12 into Dex and a 14 into Con.

Power Attack and Furious Focus for my first level feats, and a Scythe as my weapon because RWBY. Skills gave me a bit of a pause, but only for a moment. Hepa is a bro who grew up living on the beach, surfing and cliff diving. Without a doubt he has Climb and Swim. With my last remaing skill point (Thanks Human!) I put it into Intimidate. He has no perception, sense motive, diplomacy, nothing. He can climb and he can swim, as he is fond of pointing out.

The traits were blatant optimization choices. Well Hidden for the Will Save bonus, and Armor Expert for Mithral Breastplate.

That's Hepa. He is a big puppy, very excitable, prone to misunderstanding things and raising his hand to ask questions, and he has a very unique way of speaking (Excuse me, I have this stick that when I am hurt if I am poked with this stick I am no longer as hurt as I was before I was poked with the stick and if you could hold this stick and poke me with it when I am hurt so that I will not be as hurt as I was before you poked me?)

Optimization is fine, but have a good solid concept before you start optimizing. It makes the character a LOT more fun to play, and to play with.


For the slight description you gave, inquisitor may be the class you want.
Decent at combat - the judgements and bane can get that up to very good at combat. A domain or inquisition can make this even better.
Pretty dang high skill count as well as bonuses to some of the key skills. A domain or inquisition can make this even better.

If you can give more details about what you want to be good at, we can give more detailed build advice.

I want to be a fast hard hitting brute with a great big club, yet everyone seems to like him.
vs.
I want to be a heavily armored unstoppable tank that has an encyclopedic knowledge of anything related to combat.

Both fit what you said in the opening, but will have very different builds.

Community / Forums / Organized Play / Pathfinder Society / New to Society and looking for character ideas All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Pathfinder Society