Community Thoughts on Player Controlled Pre-gens


Pathfinder Society

1/5

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Alright this question was posed to me last night after a local PFS gathering and although I handled it in a way that I felt was appropriate but I was curious what the rest of the community thought about the issue.

So the situation stemmed from a S happens moment when the BBEG crits the paladin of the party with 2 nat 20s and puts him well below his Con score. The player didn't have enough prestige or cash on hand to bring the character back so its recorded as dead.

However, at this point another player suggested the party sells off all of the pre-gens gear to buy a raise dead spell for the paladin. Now I know the rules state that you can do this in the instance of the pre-gen dying but what about to save another character?

My thoughts are this: The pre-gen is brought in to allow someone without a level appropriate character to play and should be viewed as a character in their own right and are not just a slush fund for the party to use at their whim.

At the same time I see their point of view to an extent in that a pre-gens stuff all goes away at the end of the adventure and no one ever has to worry about tracking it and the parties at the store usually decide to use the pre-gens consumables before their own which I have allowed in the past and no one really wants a character to die to just a fluke of luck even though it happens.

So I am curious what the community thinks about this issue and about pre-gens in general. And should I have allowed them to sell all of the gear for the raise dead?

Grand Lodge 4/5

Was this a three person table with a Pregen playing as fourth or was this someone playing a Pregen because they did not have a level appropriate character?

1/5

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

It was someone who did not have a level appropriate character for the adventure. They were running the 4th level Samurai pregen.

1/5

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2pezy?Death-pregens-and-the-43-GtPFSOP#4

Mike Brock's official statement: Can't do it

4/5

There is a distinct difference between using the pregen's consumables (an action that a reasonable character would allow in certain circumstances) and selling off all their gear for a raise dead (an action that the vast majority of characters would not undertake). In my opinion, you should have the right to tell the players that the pregen would not go for that.

Pregens are effectively stand-in adventurers, not piggy banks, and they should have the expectation of adventuring again another day. While they might be willing to sell one or two pieces of gear along with each other party member, many of the pregens have particular motivations that may not go along with the pillaging mentality. Erasmus and Mel both come to mind here - Erasmus for specifically having a quote about "she owes me money" in Occult Adventures, while Mel would not be willing to give up his comforts.

Edit: Well, I see there's a MB post about this very issue. Carry on.

Scarab Sages 3/5

No, that is explicitly disallowed. I remember when Mike Brock made it explicit because our local lodge was having issues with pregens being used this way abusively. Every tier 5-9 or 7-11 table would have a level 7 pregen at the table, and the math was worked out already for how many characters could be raised and restored off the pregen's gear. As long as you had a pregen and no TPK at the table, there were no reprecussions or consequences to death, disease, etc.

1/5

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Thanks for the link. I tried to run a search for it last night and all I found in the admittedly short period of time was a reference to the pregens gear being able to be sold if the pregen died to revive that character I believe. I feel a lot better about ruling the way I did then.

1/5

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Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber

It's also spelled out in the PFS RP Guilde Guide, under the section "Conditions, Death, and Expendables".

PFS RP Guild Guide, p. 23 (emphasis added) wrote:
However, any equipment that’s listed on the pregenerated character sheet may only be sold to clear their own conditions during the play of a sanctioned event, ...

A pregen can sell its gear to raise himself/herself, but not others.

I've screwed that one up before, which is how I know that line is there. 8^)

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