Hello all. I've recently taken note of PFS and am interested in joining in on the fun. if anyone has any pointers on where to start or any other suggestions i would love to hear them! I have played pathfinder for a while with my friends and have always been the gm. this has given me good knowledge of the rules, but have never had anyone to correct any mistakes i make, and i would love to be a PC, but none of my friends are interested in GMing.
second, if anyone likes to look at character builds, this is my idea for my first character. if anyone would like to give me suggestions (and make sure that it is PFS legal) i would love some feedback
Str: 10 dex: 12 con: 12 int: 20 (using racial bonus)
wis: 10 cha: 9
feats:
human feat: extra hex (evil eye)
1st level feat: extra hex (cackle)
Familiar: fox (mostly cause i like foxes, if there is a much better one, ill consider it)
ancestors patron
My (rather unoriginal) idea is to make my primary focus on debuffing the crap out of any enemies, and have a secondary focus on buffing my party.
still trying to figure out starting spells and what languages will be most useful
Thank you all so much! looking forward to giving PFS a go.
also, forgot to mention, i have never used traits, and dont know any good ones, any suggestions here would be awesome
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Well first off, welcome to the institution.
Where are you? If you're near a city you can look at the list of venture critters. If you're out in the boonies your best bet to find a game is to say "hi i'm in X area anyone know if there's a game there?"
You should read the guide to organized play Its a little detail oriented but neccesary.
What to expect, lets say the game starts at 7
Game starts at 7
6:55 people start to trickle in
Folks eat, gossip, get settled in.
7:15 Geek soduku! People finalize how many people they have for which table. The veterans will then decide who's playing what character, trying to balance out levels, tiers, and party composition. The DM desperately tries to sneak in one more reading of he scenario
7:30: people get going. There's a mission briefing that one person will be paying attention to while most players find dice and minis check character sheets, phones,and chronicle sheets to make last minute purchases. You will get a flurry of 5 or six mispronounced names without much clear idea whether drendle drang is a person you're talking to, a place you want to go, or a particularly nasty curse you want to avoid.
You'll have a chance to ask questions, gather information and make knowledge checks to get some idea of what you're in for.
There will be ~ 4 encounters, usually some mooks for one fight, a trap or three, some sort of a skill or social challange, some sort of strong monster thats usually more likely to kill you than the boss, and then a solo or near solo boss fight. These will inevitably involve some "i'm over here he's over there what are you doing how are you searching how does that rule work" while trying to keep the game moving.
The encounters will test adventuring basics. Can you attack at both melee and ranged. Can you deal with swarms and other unusual creature types. Can you deal with damage reduction and incoporeal critters.
10:30 the boss fight starts! Hurrry!
11:05 The dm hurridly signs chronicle sheets and hands them out with a "go ahead fill them out"
Grab stuff get out the door hang out in the parking lot for a bit to come back to reality then head home.
What you should know
Your character is a member of the pathfinder society: the out of game and in game group of murderho..erm.. gentlemen explorer archaeologists. This is the excuse to have you all together and adventuring without cramming you all together without descending into cannibalism a bit of backstory you should think about when it comes to your character. WHY are they with these people? "They're paying me" is an acceptable answer, but not necessarily the most fulfilling.
Go on a pre made adventure. Finish it. Get a chronicle sheet. Usually you get 1 xp. Get 3 xp, level up. Wash rinse repeat.
Confusing things: Tiers and subtiers
A level 1 fighter adventuring with a level 11 fighter would be dead before seeing the first boss. Adventures have ranges that you need to be in to play them. Typically they range from 1-5, 3-7, 7-11. Within that, the DM averages the level of the party and decides on high or low tier, so for example if you're all new and playing the 1-5 , You get a couple of kobolds. If there are enough level 4s and 5s in your group, you'll be fighting kobold fighters and a shaman.
You'll pick it up fast enough, don't worry if you're confused. The guide is... forget forest for the trees its looking at bark. Play a game or two to pick up the big picture.
Character creation: Character creation rules.
20 point buy, so no one in new york shows up with the all 18s that "Their brother saw me roll fair and square in california". No item creation. Start at level one. You can redo your character in between sessions till level 2. Jacks and one eyed kings wild. Start with 150 gold... you know what you have your weapon some scale mail a sling and a rope. Someone else is carrying the rest.
General character advice: Make what you want, but if you're not sure what you want build in some versatility. Keep in mind that PFS groups are a semi random collection of what the person sending you on the mission can find on a moments notice, wake up in the bar, or draw their name out of the hat... IE, whatever players sit down at the table with is whats going on the adventure.) You might have four wizards or an all tank party or an all sneaky person party. PFS is like a box of chocholates mixed nuts you never know what you're going to get
In PFS you're supposed to have access to the material you use. Without knowing what books you have (or are willing to buy) its hard to say. If you don't have any additional materials you can use the web traits enhancement here For free. reactionary (+2 init) is always good for abuffer or debuffer.
Specific character advice: you're not making any charisma rolls with a 9 charisma anyway. Go for the 7! In for a penny in for a pound. I happen to be a fan of 14 con scores.
this is one thing i saw but was confused on, so to play a witch (or magus, or alchemist etc..) i need to actually own the advanced players guide, and cant just get the info off of say www.d20pfsrd.com. is this correct?
i'm fine with that if it is, but i would just like clarification
ps, i think your right, i might drop my cha down to 7.
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this is one thing i saw but was confused on, so to play a witch (or magus, or alchemist etc..) i need to actually own the advanced players guide, and cant just get the info off of say www.d20pfsrd.com. is this correct?
Short answer yes. Partially because paizo needs to sell books and partially so the DM can look and see what your abilities do and you never know how accurate a website is.
You can have the physical book
Buy the PDF and bring a tablet or something
Buy the PDF and print off the page you need.
Thanks so much for the starting info, i might foll up a core character ( i own the core book) first to see how i like the PFS format, before buying anything else, and i hope it works out, i would love to get a little more time for pathfinder.
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I can't agree enough about the con thing. You can get by with a lower con if you're a more experienced player, but people get really attached to their first character, and it sucks to have that character die early before you have a plethora of other characters to take their place. That's why I always emphasize a 14 point con if at all possible.
It helps me to think of PFS as just another home game with a different set of house rules and a constantly rotating cast of players and GMs. I still love my home games, and I run one and play in one, but PFS fills my travel and spur of the moment play needs. Also, I get to learn from a large variety of different play and GM styles.