Calibrate's page

I always thought of magic in Golarion as similar to the Internet. I'm amazed how many inaccurate statements people make with Wikipedia or Google only two clicks away. Magic is like common sense, often ignored ;)

Essential role: DM. I have found no games happen without that role. However, beer and pizza guy is also useful.

Are there still Pathfinder Society games going on in Columbus? I've been out for a year or so but looking to get back in. Have a level 3 cleric

Or maybe I should just make a barbarian. The rage I'm feeling right now needs to be channeled somewhere.

Facepalm∞

Sounds like a Barbarian / Cleric build. Name him Face Palmalot and have at it. RPG character development on the fly!

You weren't a threat any longer, so the shadow moved on to bigger, more immediate threats is how I would've viewed it. Don't play the character again, say he was blown up miraculously by Tarrasque or something crazy as backstory fluff for fun.

Personally I love characters with a less than glorious history since it is more realistic and colorful. We aren't all super awesome riding away in the sunset on golden dragons. Donkeys are cheaper.

I find it gives context and enough fluff info that it helps with the intro for the missions. The extras it brings to play are good and really PFS only unless you are using PFS as the backbone to home brew. It's not needed to play but stuff is missing if you don't have it.

Calibrate wrote:

The guide to society play says the chronicle sheet occurs after the scenario ends. It also clearly states you can't be raised after a scenario is over, implying no chronicle sheet before the raise is available. Since the rewards require a chronicle, you cant use money gained from it. My reading based on how it is written in the guide.

I was going to reply to this thread until I looked up the Death section in the Guidebook. When I saw the following, I stepped back as there are some inconsistencies within that section.

Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play ver 4.0, p 18 wrote:

If a PC cannot be raised from the dead during or after the scenario in which it died, that PC is dead and removed from play.

Emphasis added to the part that doesn't seem to mesh with the rest of the section. According to this you can raise after the session is over and chronicles are pasted out. The rest of the description on death seems to indicate that death is dealt with prior to the chronicle though.

Ok I misread part of it, this suggests that you could use the resources from the chronicle

The guide to society play says the chronicle sheet occurs after the scenario ends. It also clearly states you can't be raised after a scenario is over, implying no chronicle sheet before the raise is available. Since the rewards require a chronicle, you cant use money gained from it. My reading based on how it is written in the guide.

I thought I'd comment on the wand vs. asking cleric to heal vs. jerkiness wizard not using fireball string :)

I'm the cleric and healer for our party. I do most of my healing through the wand and channels, mostly channel. I use my spell slots to cast buff or utility spells. I've maybe used spontaneous casting for a cure once.

I chose to take this role and built my character around it. I wouldn't like it if someone told me how to heal (ie cast X on me whenever Y happens) without talking through it with me. However, when the party dynamic suggests that what I'm doing wont work, I EXPECT someone to talk to me about how I'm going to do my role. IE telling me to get a wand of cure light to supplement healing, use prot vs evil, etc.

I think it is situational but I agree that willingness to change roles or adjust strategy, etc because it advances group goals is a must have for all at the table. It doesn't mean the neutral smiling cleric is the best to heal, it might mean Infernal Healing Wizard is the best (or high UMD rogue for all I care).

Likewise I am willing to tank if it looks like the high AC, buffed, Longsword wielding Cleric of Iomedae is actually expected to do Iomedae-ish things. Just don't expect unrealistic stuff (Barbarian healer FTW?)

I have one character (cleric), I was handed a WoCL my first game and told to buy one. Boards said the same thing, by level 2 I had used PA to buy one.

Are you sure? Because I've seen more than one low-level character die, and the player has always been interested in making a new character and "trying again". Players tell tales of dead PCs like they were war stories.

Similarly, I have to disagree with your assessment that the cost of Raise Dead makes people not want to spend Prestige on anything else until they have it covered. For instance, 99% of characters spend their first 2 PP on a [i]wand of cure light wounds

I agree with the OP on this, at low levels it's brutal IMO. If a low character dies, it sucks because you didn't get to enjoy the character and grow...and instead have to start over. The comment on 99% get WoCL indicates a problem exists within game balance, especially at low levels. I'm not suggesting a WoW approach to game balance (ie nerf until no one needs WoCL) but seems like scaled death penalties until maybe level 3 would be appropriate.

During my first game, my cleric was hit twice and driven to negatives both times. If my character had died, I probably would've said PF isn't the right game for me. I think by 3rd level, a player would've made that decision no matter what.

In home brew or house rule games I've played, DMs typically go light on low levels or allow alternatives, such as quest or starting at higher levels to keep in line with others. Since PFS uses tight rules and predetermined scenarios, there is less room for "going easy". It also becomes harder for the post death new character as others are higher level and skew up the difficulty factor, making it progressively harder to keep up.

I'd be curious to see how many reported 1st characters die and the player never comes back. Boards are gonna be filled with people who stick with it, regardless of deaths.

I think everyone is putting way too much thought into it. If a person buys a scenario, is a jerk about it while playing it then yeah kick the person for being a jerk and ruining it as per any other reason to kick someone.

A person should otherwise not be hunted for buying a scenario, if for no other reason than it keeps Paizo bills paid and more good stuff coming. IMO everyone should buy all the scenarios but be good sports about how they use them. If not, get kicked.

I understand the basic idea behind no pvp in pathfinder society, it helps keep the piece and avoid chaos. However, to me it promotes an atmosphere of tolerance towards player characters who shall I say "fudge" on rolls ,character sheets, etc. what I mean is in my 30 years of playing D&D we used the pvp to police each other and to weed out the cheaters or "fudgers". Players must be able to call out other players when something doesnt seem right or at face value is way off the power base. Another benefit of the pvp is that it provides a healthy competition amongst players to build the best and most powerful character possible because you have to just to be able to hang with the group. player conflict has been and always will be a healthy part of roleplayn games, especially D&D (a.k.a pathfinder)and I would love to see that part return to pathfinder society. just sayn....

First off, I call troll.

Secondly, different tack here - as the cleric I am working my butt off keeping the others alive, even the mildly evil but claims neutral guy in party. I'm pushing 1 HP due to lucky crit. BBEG drops, then "neutral" guy tags me for enough to put me out. Either everyone else let's me die, some try to heal and others kill the "neutral" guy or they all kill him but I die because no other heals. Either way, the game is ruined and any satisfaction is wasted.

This is why PVP is a bad idea. I've seen this enough times in old school D&D games that we kicked two players out of our group and ran scenarios short. Not fun for anyone.

Could one of the developers explain the reason for disallowing crafting of magic items in PFS?

I know one of the reasons is some people would abuse the WBL cap by trying to sell crafted items but that could be defeated by not allowing the resale of personaly crafted items.

I feel that the no crafting rule really hurts the arcane casters by limiting their creativity and veristillity.

All items would basically cost less since the time to create and chance of failure rolls could be abused / overlooked. I'm guessing it would mean everyone would take item crafting just to pay for materials only.