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I've never bought one either, and never had problems, but my characters generally multiclass. This gimps their BAB but generally gives them nice saves. (Especially multiclassing with Core Monk -- that's like a +2 Cloak all by itself.)The exception is the cloak of resistance. I've got 12 characters and I've never bought a Cloak of Resistance. I've had characters die, but I've been lucky enough that none of them died due to a failed save (it's always an AC problem or a bad tactics problem or a bad luck problem). Lots of bad guys wear cloaks of resistance, so it can be easy loot for you when the popular opinion is that a Cloak of Resistance is a must-buy!
Sooner or later, my money is on sooner, your unboosted saves will get one of your characters. I'm not a huge fan of the cloak being the primary save boosting magic item but that is the way it is.
Both as a PFS player and GM I see players without cloaks burning rerolls on what they think are failed saves far more than on anything else. The +2 cloak at only 4k is one of the best buys at mid levels you can make.
I've got two higher level characters without cloaks, but one is a Protection domain cleric who gets a resistance bonus from that, and one is a Monk who loves his Cloak of the Hedge Wizard, because he has a vow of cleanliness and at will Prestidigitation saves him some anguish (Shield 1/day doesn't hurt). He'll start investing in stacking ioun stones for a resistance bonus soon, though, especially since he's going unchained.
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There are two really good reasons to have a CLW wand.
(1) Because you're not playing with a regular party, you may end up at a table that is short healing resources. (I was really happy to have a 2nd level character who had one playing the first level of Thornkeep, as without it probably nobody in the party would have survived. I probably burned 20-30 charges getting a group of level 1s plus my level 2 through that, and I don't regret it.) Maybe there will be a cleric with lots of channels, maybe there won't. Be prepared. By the same token, bring alchemist's fire in case there are no wizards with area spells, bring torches in case nobody can cast light, etc.
(2) Because you might get stuck at a table with players who think that there's something wrong with you if you don't have a CLW wand. You can skip a lot of arguments and self-righteous posturing by just having the damn thing. It's worth 2PP or 750gp not to have to get into an argument at a table about how you're not carrying your own weight because you don't have the one item everybody needs.
That's it. Those are the reasons to have it. I do not accept the argument "everybody must supply his own healing". If you really accept that argument, then what about the martials who use up their Oil of Bless Weapon in order to be able to take out the outsider before somebody dies? What about the scrolls of Communal Darkvision? What about pretty much any expendable that somebody uses that isn't a wand of CLW? Everybody, together, should be contributing these things. That doesn't mean that everybody, invidually, must have them all, and any time their one character benefits from it, they must have been the one to pay for it. It's a group working together.
But, because of (1), and as this thread shows, (2), you will save yourself a headache by just having the damn CLW wand. It's become a badge of Pathfinder Society membership above the wayfinder because of community browbeating.
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There are two really good reasons to have a CLW wand.
(1) Because you're not playing with a regular party, you may end up at a table that is short healing resources. (I was really happy to have a 2nd level character who had one playing the first level of Thornkeep, as without it probably nobody in the party would have survived. I probably burned 20-30 charges getting a group of level 1s plus my level 2 through that, and I don't regret it.) Maybe there will be a cleric with lots of channels, maybe there won't. Be prepared. By the same token, bring alchemist's fire in case there are no wizards with area spells, bring torches in case nobody can cast light, etc.
(2) Because you might get stuck at a table with players who think that there's something wrong with you if you don't have a CLW wand. You can skip a lot of arguments and self-righteous posturing by just having the damn thing. It's worth 2PP or 750gp not to have to get into an argument at a table about how you're not carrying your own weight because you don't have the one item everybody needs.
That's it. Those are the reasons to have it. I do not accept the argument "everybody must supply his own healing". If you really accept that argument, then what about the martials who use up their Oil of Bless Weapon in order to be able to take out the outsider before somebody dies? What about the scrolls of Communal Darkvision? What about pretty much any expendable that somebody uses that isn't a wand of CLW? Everybody, together, should be contributing these things. That doesn't mean that everybody, invidually, must have them all, and any time their one character benefits from it, they must have been the one to pay for it. It's a group working together.
But, because of (1), and as this thread shows, (2), you will save yourself a headache by just having the damn CLW wand. It's become a badge of Pathfinder Society membership above the wayfinder because of community browbeating.
I've bought and used countless scrolls - darkvision, daylight, dispel magic and others - without ever once worrying about it. I have also asked the party to supply their own material component when they want that communal stoneskin spell.
And I don't get how you can argue that it's ok to not have a wand of CLW and in the same breath say it's ok to DEMAND as a player and GM that I heal you or be rendered unplayable.
You have the right to make your choice to play your character but I don't have the right to make mine?
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As a long time rpg player who is new to PFS I appreciate this list but have to admit to not being entirely sold on it yet.
Time may prove me wrong but it seems to me that if every player builds to be able to fight melee and ranged, Carries their own heals and builds to fight swarms. That this is defeating the whole party aspect and watering down classes.
I am new here and may be proven horribly wrong on this and am just overly influenced by past gaming in other systems but every player being able to do everything seems anti team to me
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That this is defeating the whole party aspect...
That's kind of the whole point.
Suppose I show up with my fighter/barbarian, you show up with your fighter, Bob shows up with his TWF ranger, and Jim shows up with his barbarian.
If none of us has a ranged weapon, or a means of flying, we are going to be completely up a creek when we run across a nest of harpies.
If none of us bother to bring splash weapons (because that's not my job), then we will need to heroically run for our lives screaming high-pitched battlecries of fear from that swarm of spiders.
And if none of us bring a wand of cure light wounds, then we will need to make sure that our hp are sufficient to last us through the whole scenario.
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As a long time rpg player who is new to PFS I appreciate this list but have to admit to not being entirely sold on it yet.
Time may prove me wrong but it seems to me that if every player builds to be able to fight melee and ranged, Carries their own heals and builds to fight swarms. That this is defeating the whole party aspect and watering down classes.
I am new here and may be proven horribly wrong on this and am just overly influenced by past gaming in other systems but every player being able to do everything seems anti team to me
Hello, and welcome to the institution!
The thing is in PFS you can never be sure what kind of party composition you're going to get. You're going on the adventure with whatever characters sit down at the table with you so you have to prepare for the worst and make your surprises pleasant.
You can't leave out the wand because you're downright unlikely to have someone capable of keeping you healed up. (Healing has become a difficult/suboptimal option over the years, and healing is often considered boring, so you probably won't have a healer)
You can't leave out ranged because your party could consist entirely of a barbarian with an axe, a sword and board fighter, a magus, a monk, and a melee druid.
That same group could also have trouble with swarms. On a different night you could have 6 support characters and no front liners. (almost had this happen in a special)
You go into the dungeon with the team you have: not the team you want. You can pick your nose, but not your adventuring companions, so you have to pick your gear accordingly.
PFS makes it very easy to be prepared to do a large number of things well enough
Wands are "Freeish" : you have extra cash in the form of prestige points to get the wand.
You can buy alchemists fire, usually gets you through swarms, since they catch fire and take extra damage from it.
A sling costs nothing, weighs nothing, and you can use rocks to shoot it for half a point of damage less (1d4 vs 1d3) nd a -1 to hit.
If there's a specialist you let them handle it. If there isn't you have to step up.
C'mon this is Pathfinder Society!
As long one person makes it out alive (albeit most likely cursed somehow) the mission is successful :-)
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Last week I was GMing a table with a mix of new PFS players and some experienced PFS players, including my wife.
After one combat, one of the new players said, "Oh, we don't need to use our wands, the cleric can just channel," and pointed to my wife (who plays a monk/cleric).
My wife said, "Sure." Rolls a d6 => "Everyone gets one hit point back."
The new player said, "What?!?"
My wife: "Yeah, it's 1d6 divided by 2. I have two more of those for the day. Should I channel some more?"
Me: :D
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Wands of Infernal Healing FTW.None of that for me, please. I would caution others against it as well.
The spell taints your body with evil. Doing so enough is likely to cause your descendants to suffer for your choices -- the infernal energies permanently tainting their magics.
Teiflings gotta come from some where, lol
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TOZ, I actually like your suggestion of just stabilizing the character and then toting them around on a shoulder. "Oomph, this guy is good with a sword, but he sure is heavy!"
Fortunately I've never run into this problem. Every character I've run across who didn't have a means of healing themselves was run by a new player who didn't know that they could get a wand of cure light wounds for 2 prestige. In every case, they acquired one as soon as that was explained to them.
Locally, everyone I've played with is very generous with their healing wands. But if I played with someone who repeatedly refused to contribute to the group's health care plan, I might stop healing them too. I would probably stabilize the character though. It is actually a better lesson that way.
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TOZ, I actually like your suggestion of just stabilizing the character and then toting them around on a shoulder. "Oomph, this guy is good with a sword, but he sure is heavy!"
I find it gives an in-character punishment and reason why the character then goes out and buys a wand. ;)
Most of my characters don't grab a wand until 2nd or 3rd level if they can help it. I much prefer to spend 750 on the wand rather than 2PP, as that delays my ability to pay for a raise dead. It doesn't come into play often, since most of my characters get GM credited up out of the low levels. So tired of 1-3 play.