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Im looking for a Springfield, Missouri group that meets somewhere on Wednesday 10am-8PM or Thursday 10am-6PM to play.

Im interested in different RPG games, but I am a power gamer at Dungeons and Dragons.


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Ive already basically made this same thing 4-5 times on Facebook, so why not be a masochist and make it here too?

My greatest concern with the Pathfinder 2 playtest right now are the changes to magic, and the lack of support for Martial classes. Magic Classes have fewer spells per day overall, fewer spells per tier, Bonus Spells Per Day have been completely removed, individual spells have been changed to have fixed effects that down grow with Caster level. Oh and Spontaneous Casters now have to learn the same spell multiple times at different tiers while they have a limit on their maximum spells known.

Special abilities like Magic are really the crutch to keep me going through stories and taking all the game challengers.
5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons did similar, but the Martial Classes there seem better at lower levels at least.

So I looked at Martial classes to see if they got anything new and interesting.
Martial classes havent gained anything great to make them more interesting. I think theyve actually gotten weaker. There are no new Stances, manuevers, or "Epic Martial Moves" like dispatching an enemy in one hit, and even the old ones like Monk's Quivering Palm got nerfed(it only works on a critical now?)

So I really dont know what there really is to do in the games. I always just looked forward to gaining new powers, especially spells. Without those things...what is there?

I dont think Pathfinder 2 is aiming for people like me as a demographic. Who is it aiming for?


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Heres a list of problems Ive written down. Not absolutely comprehensive.

#1 Spells per day are Reduced and Fixed. This is just a flat reduction in what players have access to. Not a benefit

#2 Removal of Bonus Spells Per day. Just a negative, not a benefit.

#3 Changed and now Fixed spell effects make many spells useless, even Jokes to have them remain on spell lists.
They dont increase in range or area of effect, how many people they effect, or duration. Its just a negative.

#4 Tier 10 spells and slot. Only unlocked through a Class Feat to just gain access to ONE Tier 10 slot, and the Tier 10 spells were previously tier 9s. Not beneficial.

#5 Concentration. A negative mechanic added to limit how much players can do. Not beneficial.

#6 Heightened spell effects vary in terms of effectiveness and I see many are so weak that it puts the important of the entire Heigtened mechanic into question.
Also its little use for Spontaneous Casters as they have to "buy" each slighlty different version of a spell eating up their finite number of spells known.

#7 Spontaneous Casters have moved backwards in flexibility. A major boon in Pathfinder was the Racial Favored Class Bonus.
Some Races could go beyond the normal list of Spells Known. 20 more spells known was large benefit.
A Prepare class like the Wizard, Cleric, or Druid would know or at least learn every spell on their list.
Spontaneous spellcasters can learn a maximum number and no more. If and when updates come out they will lose access to any new releases.

#8 Redundant Free Ability bonuses. There are additional Free Ability bonuses for each Background, Race, and Class.
Its unnecessary to give so many "free bonuses" to every choices instead of just adding 3 more Ability Score boosts to for "general" character ceation.

#9 Starting VS Leveling ability scores. At the begining you have many Ability Scores boosts. As you level you gain more.
However you can gain a Maximum of +4 to each ability score. You can start at 18 and end at 22. There isnt much growth.

#10 Confusing Vague language. Untrained, Trained, Expert, Master, and Legendary being used for each category required either memorization of terms or frequent checking.
Also too many things called "Feats". Class Feats, Ancestry Feats, Skill Feats, General Feats.

#11 Ancestry "feats". Characters used to get all these when they made a character. Not a beneficial change.

#12 Reduction in number of General Feats available and number each character gains. Not beneficial.

#13 Class feats. Many of them were abilities that the classes recieved for free and could gain more. Youre getting more choices but less overall.

#14 Resonance. You have to keep track of a new resource and"pay" to use items now.
Items with limits like charges now have an additional restrictions on how many times you can can activate regardless of how many charges or lack thereof.

#15 Action system. Limited of three actions per turn, unless they are Free Actions. Some actions use up all actions, like spellcasting.
This will be broken in various ways so that players dont dont have to repeatedly count down or argue over what is "free" or takes an action.

#16 Spell Focus. Spellcasting characters have to find ways to keep equipment from interacting poorly with limited number of actions, like taking off and putting a shield back on taking 2 actions

#16 Multiple Attack Penalty. Same -5 per additional attack in the same turn as old Full Round Attack Actions.

#17 Attacks of Opportunity are now Fighter Class only?

#18 Druids dont seem to be to cast spells while in Animal Form anymore.

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Benefits.

Bards are now full tier 9/10 spellcasters, sweet.


Im not really a Roleplayer. I play roleplay games as I like to tinker and improve on designs like someone would alter a car design. In Pathfinder quests, story, and the like are challenges to acquire experience, gold, items, and the like to keep progressing. Its like a job in game and out.

Playing in groups can be difficult even with people you know as you can change to behavior to not offend people, constantly putting up a mask. New groups are more difficult as trying to make a good impression, while still hoping to have fun. With all the trouble and anxiety I just want to play the game friends, not one or the other.

Personally I hate railroading, decisions being made meaningless by rolling dice, and the like as that leads to Powergaming even when I dont want it to. Want to negotiate? Hope you have enough additions to Diplomacy. I find that hypocritical to encourage roleplay and then tell people to rollplay.

Ive never played Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, but Ive heard of and looked up some plans that would be interesting to try out and quite stronger than Pathfinder would allow. It might be a better game for me.
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My question is should I go looking somewhere else for more powerful character that would be worth all the trouble? Im far less experienced in other tabletop roleplaying games.


Ive had a Paizo account for 2 years. Ive been inactive for several months as my Pathfinder/Starfinder/Pathfinder Adventures group moved. I tried to login recently and found out I couldnt. Then I tried Request Password and put in my then and current email and it said No Account Linked to this Email. I put in a customer service email and it hasnt been answered since. I then entered a new account hoping to just input my old Organized Play code. It wouldnt let me as I didnt have an invitation code from 30 months ago, just my Organized Play ID.

I accidentally asked for a new ID and now I cant even try to input my old ID in now.

Please help. I do not want to lose all my progress due to whatever happened with my email being disconnected somehow. I think it was the Paizo site update.


I really like the Arcanist as it has a lot of possible customizations through Arcane Exploits.

The largest weakness of the class is its dependence on two major ability scores, Intelligence for spells and Charisma for class abilities. Charisma is the least beneficial mental ability score, and spreading out abilities scores is both expsneive and put you at risk of not being effective in either.

A major drawback is any of the Arcanist archetypes is they trade off the Arcane Exploits for hit-and-miss abilities. Those along with many existing Arcane Exploits are usually dependent on expending Arcane points from the classe's Arcane Reservoir.

Limited Arcane points is another major weakness as unless you cannibalize your own spells for more points you can quickly run out. Even if you do there is a limit on how many times you can do it per day. Plenty of abilities that can become useless.
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There are several very useful Archetypes.
Brown-fur Transmuter specializes in using and sharing otherwise self-only buff spells.
Occultist can trade Arcane points for an equal level Summon monster.
School Savant gives extra versatility with one more spell prepare per day, but also can give some very useful magic school abilities.

Twilight Sage is the only archetype that actually gives a steady source of gaining more Arcane points to use abilities. It comes at a heavy price. After Consume Spell became limited per day it changes the balance between the archetypes.
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The Twilight Sage is not the most powerful but all the other archetypes are heavily dependent on limited Arcane points. Is it must-have to power all the Arcane exploits?


I am having problems with chronicles sheets and reporting.

1 I have chronicles sheets that were not reported by the Game Masters some as old as 2016. Its difficult to correct this as GM Paizo.com usernames they post under is different from their signature, which is different from their actual name. Its difficult to track anyone down. What do I do?

If I have a chronicle sheet but cannot get it correctly reported can I discount it from my personal logs?

Or if I do have chronicle sheets can I still count what is actually on the page as part of my allowed resources? I am worried if I do so I will be audited.

2 On Paizo.com the scenarios played only show that hey were played, not any results. Is there a way to keep more detailed online records?


Ive played about 50 games in Pathfinder Society, 3 in Starfinder Society, and about 30 in Adventure Society.

I do not do well in them. In the Pathfinder Adventure I actually managed to complete a whole the Skulls and Shackles adventure path. In Pathfinder Society I have a lot of level 1 and 2 characters.

There are many problems basically trying to keep everything balanced but without the homebrew possibilities to have freedom.

#1 Prestige. Prestige is a campaign resource used as either a shortcut to purchase items but is more useful for things otherwise unavailable in the Pathfinder Society Campaign, namely retraining and character resurrection. Prestige cost for anything is massive and the gain rate is a trickle.

#2 Lack of options. No crafting, no negotiation unless combat encounters allow it which seems to be no way to avoid fights, no ways to earn "extra" gold or prestige, or just keep items found.

leading to the following:
#3 Fragile Flower syndrome.
Its not possible for my teammates to resurrect me as Breath of Life and Raise Dead are only gained level 9 and 11, respectively.

Also according to the Society rules they cant go to a temple and have a higher level npc Cleric do it.

So gameplay has to be low risk.

#4 Race to the finish line.
Rewards are based on scenario competition, though there are some secondary objectives but never anything awesome like a free +1-5 Flaming Longsword, just one more prestige point. Trying to be non-linear is unrewarded.
Unless you make a character capable of doing everything youre going to be doing a lot of nothing. Games are more often about completing in the shortest time so maybe do another one on the same day.

#5 Forced min-maxing of characters.
I want to make interesting characters but the Adventure scenarios range between heavy skills or heavy combat. Depending on class its easy to be in a situation where I am useless because i didnt bring the right character for the scenario. Theoretically I could create a character able to do well in multiple roles. In practice I still need high AC, hit bonuses and damage for combat, and high skills points most likely from the class itself, and after that maybe I still have room for some fun.
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Win every scenario, get as much gold and prestige as possible, save prestige for emergency resurrections.

The Campaign is an uncomfortable place between roleplaying and roll-playing. Its harder than an average homebrew but doesnt have typical videogame aspects like simple resurrections if you ever die or shortcuts to have large amounts of money and equipment.

Im stuck trying to make sure every scenario I play A doesnt have my character killed, B get all the rewards, and C try to find some way to have a perfect character that can do everything in every scenario so Im not a load.

Everything I hear about homebrews Im not able to play sound amazing. Laid back, friendly, and free. Just the amount of possible options to get around every problem so the game doesnt have to be perfect.


I dont know if Starfinder actually has maximum stats. I look at both the profiles of both the Technomancer and Mystic and see "30-31". I dont know if that is actually possible.

#1 Starting characters can have up to 18 in a stat. This is specifically in the rules AFTER calculating Race and Theme bonuses. So no 20 in a starting stat?

#2 Ability Score Advancements at level 5, 10, 15, and 20 would each grant +1 for +4 total. So 18+4=22

#3 Statistic boosting Personal Upgradesare one each of +6, +4, and +2 to different statistics. Put the +6 in the existing stat so now its 22+6=28.

So is Paizo presenting an impossibility in the Core Rulebook? I dont see the D&D staples of stat boosting Belts, Headbands, Manuals, and Tomes.


Im interested in pursuing both classes and the Archetypes However, I dont have a lot of experience as dedicated Cleric/Druid casters as Im mostly familiar with 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons. There were no domains, Clerics had more stacking buffs, and Druids had fixed statistics in animal forms.

Both the Theologian and Storm Druid improve domain spell usage but go about it only superficially similar.

For the Theologian Cleric you basically turn your domain spells into regular spells, so say "hello" to Arcane Clerics. You lose one domain but if you pick the right one it can be worth it. Fire Domain can grant Fireball, which is very useful by itself and customization with metamagic to make a Blaster Cleric, and its Ash Subdomain gives Disintegrate at spell tier 7. You sacrifice little.

The Storm Druid loses Animal Companion as an option, no Natures Ally as Spontaneous spell and is limited is to just 2 domain choices, but they do become Spontaneous. This is much more tricky as the Weather and AIR domain arent great for blasting and dont have as many Arcane Spells. I can theorize its more about have 1-2 spontaneous spells available just in case you need spells such as Obscuring Mist without preparing. You sacrifice a lot.

So how accurate is that and how do I use them properly? The Storm Druid is the real stumper.


I have a friend who plays a homebrew game using Tabletop Simulator on Steam. He goes to college and his finals are almost over. I want to present him with something his wants. He tells me he wants an unusual character, a Self Replicating goblin.

Mechanically I thought about 3 general ideas.
One is using Swarm as a Player Character.

Number two is to have a level 1 but high hit point character that divides into smaller and weaker when attacked.

Idea number three is to combine both ideas so the "prime" goblin eventually becomes the horde of tiny goblins.

Its my first time trying to make something custom like this. Ideas to help on this are appreciated.


My time is USA Central time.
I work from noon to about 9-10 o'clock 4-5 days a week so my schedule is not favorable to typical afternoon or in person groups. The best way I have found is online meetings. I have the Tabletop Simulator on steam and I know how to use Raidcall and Teamspeak.

If you use different systems for play and communication please teach me.

I dont have a great deal of experience outside the Pathfinder Society campaign and that is a railroad. Im more into the gameplay then roleplay, but I want to actually see some roleplayers. I cant really do plan out what other people are going to do in a session but I can make tactical plans.


Im interested in both what people considers Power-Gamers and what your personal experiences with them are.

I imagine Munchkins being countered by having powerful common enemies or plot related handicaps to keep their characters from simply marching through an enemies.

I imagine Game Masters work with them in the story but also incorporate elements so its not all about fighting so other players can roleplay and explore the world being built.


From The Pathfinder Society Additional Resources:

"any advanced firearms on Table 3-4 (advanced one-handed) and advanced firearms on Table 3-5 (advanced two-handed) and are not permitted in Pathfinder Society Organized Play."

"No character may purchase a firearm unless she possesses the Gunsmithing feat and firearms are never considered Always Available; a character must possess enough Fame to purchase any firearm not found on a Chronicle sheet or granted by a class feature; All ammunition except metal cartridges may be purchased."

"Gunsmithing does not grant the ability to craft firearms, ammunition, or black powder. Rather, it allows the purchase of bullets, pellets, black powder, and alchemical cartridges (with 1 rank in Craft [alchemy]) at the listed price, but does not grant a discount on the purchase of any firearm. Resold items gained through this feat are worth half the actual cost paid, not half the regular market value for the item. No PC can purchase a gun without this feat, even if they possess the Amateur Gunslinger or Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearm) feats."
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Okay I thought Pathfinder Society rules killed firearms by #1 banning Advanced Firearms #2 removing the ability to craft your own ammunition and #3 Changing it so you always have to pay full price. But a PFS buddy of mine showed me a build making em think "maybe it could work" Until I double checked all the above.

Each Firearm "shot" takes 1 dose of Blackpowder that costs 10 gold and 1 Bullet that takes 1 gold. Together that costs 11 gold per attack.

Alternatively you can purchase (but not make) alchemical cartridges. The basic Paper cartridges costs 12 gold.

With the cost per attack being 11/12 gold you would burn through a great deal of your early earnings. Normally you are supposed to be able to craft ammunition by having Gunsmithing feat for 10% the cost in materials of regular and 50% on alchemical cartridges

Arrows come in a set of 20 per 1 gold, 10 crossbow bolts for 1 gold, and 10 Sling Bullets for 1 silver.

Another player pointed out there is the Bolt Ace which is much easier to use with a more practical Light Crossbow and its ammo costs being less than 10% of what a Gunslinger pays per shot with a blackpowder weapon.


Okay instead of criticizing a flaw with the linearity of the pathfinder Society Ill ask if there are actual ways to earn and do more without being limited by scenarios packs and fixed rewards.

Like is there a way to craft useful magic items under the house rules of the Society campaign?

How about using a charisma skill to negotiate for larger rewards from quests? Craft and sell or use their own equipment indecently from the Society. Go searching for things in hidden places. Or pickpocket people.


Ive only played one game and i dont have a rulebook just one I borrowed for a short time. I can check the rules online, Thank you Paizo, but actually understanding how to get the best out of a character without guides is a problem.

#1 defense. Defense seems really simple and overcomplicated. There are different damage types but different armors have pretty much equal in terms of Energy and Kinetic armor class. I think with certain upgrades you can be resistant But I dont see something with 100% fire resistance and -1 bullet damage.

#2 weapons. Small arms(which should include shotguns, submachines and carbines) isnt terrible but it looks like he bottom of the barrel in terms of offense.

Unless you start with better weapons types I think must classes have to use feats to unlock weapons that dont tickle.

#3 spells. Spells seem pretty downgraded compared to earlier pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons. Fewer/lower tiers, overall fewer per character, few spells per known and some keys ones missing like Polymorph. I need to see an FAQ about Miracle and Wish as i think they make other tier 6 spells redundant or Miracle and Wish are actually horrible. Being forced to relearn 1-6 different tiers of the same spell is padding to make players waste valuable spells caps. I dont know if any spells actually improve based on character level.

I dont know if there will ever be Tier 7-9 spells and specialist equivalents like the Cleric. Until then Im hoping.

#4 Skills. It looks like the number of skills have been reduced and the classes have relatively high skill points per level. I dont know enough about the new skills to compare them, but the combat ones are still must-have and the non-combat skills are probably stuck to specialist classes.
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Im worried that Starfinder is going to do something negative by trying to over-correct on the perceived flaws of earlier game versions. I dont want guns to be weak or spells to be useless because of overs-specialized role. If its not broke down fix it.

I know its a waiting game for new rulebooks to add new things like Sniper Rifles that out-DPR rifles.


I cannot really play in the Pathfinder Society as every problem is with how average its particular rules want me to be. I want to create my own equipment, it says no. I want to pick the more interesting archetypes, it says no. I want to earn more rewards than anyone else, it says no. I dont think I can do anything exceptional if my hands are being tied by all the house rules opposing all my actions and plans.

Best regards I can think of the Society is as a training tool for while waiting for full use of the official Pathfinder game potential in an open minded group.

But are there any other campaigns or groupings? Finding a group not in the Society seems nearly impossible. I think the Society just eats anyone not part of the collective.


I am looking for a group that doesnt use the Pathfinder Society campaign ban list. Pathfinder is the game I am most familiar with. I would be willing to play other games like Shadowrun.

My time is USA Central time.
I work from noon to about 9-10 o'clock 4-5 days a week so my schedule is not favorable to typical afternoon or in person groups. The best way I have found is online meetings. I have the Tabletop Simulator on steam and I know how to use Raidcall and Teamspeak.

If you use different systems for play and communication please teach me.


I started physical tabletop games almost 2 years ago and Pathfinder Society Campaign was something I was able to do for nearly a year before work changes made it hard to do once-per-week games. Even when I did there was always the problem is a list of things I wasnt allowed to do because of the pathfinder Society Campaign. I followed to rules but didnt have any fun. I just kept hoping at some point someone would make a regular Pathfinder group so I could make my own decisions without character and action railroading.

Pathfinder has all sorts of official and unofficial rules but instead of using friendly and reasonable agreements between players or in other words House Rules there is a widespread organized campaign that bans not 3rd party material but also a lot of officially released Paizo material.

To me having lower level caps(because of adventure packs), restrictions of classes, archetypes, feats, etc, and linear progress in experience, money, and equipment just ruins things. I can see there are benefits within the gameplay however those could easily be houseruled in but you cannot houserule OUT the drawbacks of the Pathfinder Soceity and still be in the organized campaign.

What I really dont understand is the point of teh restrictions in a non-competitive campaign. If players were fighting each other then trying to make things balanced would at least be understandable. Instead its just hurting freedom for certain players and their choices, so its prejudice.

I didnt do anything to cause the ban but Im still negatively affected by it. I sincerely want to play Pathfinder, just not with all the bans.


Looking at older dungeons and dragons materials I see some spells are different from current Pathfinder. Spells like Harm, Slay Living, Implosion, and Disintegrate rather than do some amount of damage have very powerful and scaling effects.

Harm reduced target Hit Point to 1.
Slay Living could kill anything unless they passed a test.
Implosion can crush anyone who fails a save and concentrate to do it each turn for several turns.
Disintegrate could destroy anything that didnt pass a test.

Those are some of the "Save or Die" spells are hear about but they are much more limited in Pathfinder.

Would you allow players to use older and less limited spells? Would you allow NPCs to use them as well?


Basic things is that it seems impossible to optimize characters with only a single class deck. Most characters are specialists requiring certain traits to use their powers. Most cards of one-offs so having multiple copies isnt possible within a single deck
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Zarlova is a Cleric character is a egregious example in Pathfinder Society as her Theurge role allows and specializes in using Arcane spells in addition to Divine spells. Arcane spells are not in the Cleric class deck.

Its particular problematic for any arcane or divine spellcaster as they need to have one or more attacks spells in their hand every turn somehow or else your stuck unable to win against even the weakest enemy. Thats in addition to the massive difference between up to date of obsolete attack spells.

I dont know how some characters can even work like Ezren the Wizard with up to 11 spell cards but only One Disintegrate.

By comparison the difference between a +1 longsword and the +2 longsword is quite small.
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So is it possible to stack class decks to have multiple of the same card?

Outside the Pathfinder Society I would think t would be OK, as it would be costly to buy the same deck or adventure path boxes many times to stack up on a handful of cards.


Thanks to a fellow player I heard about this character and examined his abilities. One in particular allows him to use his Divine Skill in place of any skill.

It does have limits, such as Varril not having the Arcane Skill and so Arcane spells are automatically banished without any skill to substitute his Divine skill for.

For closing locations and finding items that would be very useful as a jack-of-all-trades. However there is a potentially crippling flaw in the battle performance as the character doesnt have much in the way of Melee, Ranged, or spells for attack.

My question is as part of a combat check and using weapons can you replace the relevant skills with the Divine or are weapons incompatible?

I thought about it and I think its intended to so that you can use weapons in conjunction with the ability so it becomes "reveal this card to use [divine] skill +[whatever]". Its fair as you do have to pay a cost to do so.

Im looking for confirmation as this one detail determines whether the character can even fight.


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I hear alot about the class, so I made a character. I havent used it in a while as I didnt think of ways to get past the negatives.

1 Equipment is a big problem as Im in regular form the majority of the time. Best I can use is a Dragonhide Breastplate. Mithril would improvre that but it cant be used. Weapons, well Ive got a scimitar.

2 I dont know how in WIld Shape to have a High AC score as you lose your armor and you need Amulet of Mighty Fists to give your natural weapons the equivalent of weapon enhancements. AMmulet of natural Armor is very useful but you cant use multiple magic items in the same slot.

3 I cant find any buff spells comparable to Clerics' Divine Favor/Power or Wizards Heroism or Haste. I dont think there is anything close in offense spells to Fireball. Best I could think is to become a summoner specialist using up feats for it.

4 animal companions are very useful early on and get stronger at level 4/7. Long term they suffer as they dont have any class abilities, magic, ways to get extra attacks, low HP and so on.

I know of the spell Awaken but I dont know all the details. I think it makes your pet into a more complicated character that you can control somewhat with being able to take class levels being a major gain.

Right now I am underperforming as my Animal is doing alot more than my PC.


It has been a long time annoyance that I cannot edit any posts over one hour old. This causes problems. Threads change as they progress so after any number of posts they will different from how they started. Some are small, some are large.


Well a major problem with multiclassing is that spells dont benefit from all you character levels. This means picking any classes but one weakens your overall spells. That is in addition to not actually gaining as many spells known and spell slots overall.

With spells petering out because you wanted to be creative and pick any class but spellcaster its just an arbitrary penalty and unnecessary.


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I like the idea of a higher level Inquisitor, compensating raw stats with multiple stacking buffing abilities to make itself better than a Fighter while still having utility with plenty of skills.

#1 Lack of weapon proficiencies is major problem. Heavy mace, Morningstar, or Longspear are limited. Martial proficiencies are highly desirable and Inquisitor doesnt have them. For martial classes Greatsword is basic power weapon with plenty of damage. Lucerne Hammer is very good Reach weapon with multiple damage types. Nodachi also has multiple damage types and high critical threat chance.

#2 Lack of feats for anything except a melee build. Archery build is iconic and offensively it works well in combination with all the buffs to make a Ranged DPS character. Actually getting all the ones required takes quite a long time and getting others like Improved Initiative, Iron Will, and others makes it quite feat starved.

#3 Choice of race. Inquisitor is an MAD class. Strength/Dex are important for offense, Wisdom necessary for spells. Charisma is the only dump stat though some suggest dumping Intelligence. Personally I favor a Half-orc for Darkvision, Sacred Tattoos(in combination with Fate's Favored trait), Human Favored Class Bonuses(usually the best) and of course the custom stat choice.

#4 Spells. Being a reduced tier 6 divine spell user results in many limited spells. There are plenty of useful buffing spells, but minimal offensive spells. Tier 1 spell slots seem reserved for Divine Favor.

#5 Alignment and Deities. Deity Alignment seems inverse to how effective the bonuses are. There are plenty of domain powers but most are negligible bonuses that dont stack and/or you cannot benefit from because of one-round durations.
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The things I would want in this class are
#1 all martial weapon proficiencies.
#2 spells that are useful besides buffs
#3 Domain powers that are actually useful
#4 Fighting Style without feat starving


I dont think Ranged Builds are generally viable because of how many penalties your have that require taking feats to "fix" unlike a melee build where its all positives(except two-weapon).

Any character I try to make it effectively useless without, at the minimum, Precise Shot and Improved Precise SHot to actually be able to hit as well as a basic club.

There are classes that can be Ranged built better like the Zen Archer Monk for plenty of free feats, such as shot-cutting at level 6 to have Improved precise Shot unlike most classes that take until 11. It also has no use for Rapid Shot and Manyshot saving 2 feats right there. if Only the Unchained Monk could combine with the Zen Archer.

The ONLY thing I know that can help is a certain Trait called Deadeye Bowman, and its not Pathfinder Society legal.

So is there any way to get past this or are ranged weapons just circumstantially useful like wide areas.
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Feats I know of for the build

Must-haves: Point Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Rapid Shot
Point Blank Master
Manyshot(not for guns)

Maybe: Clustered Shot
Deadly Aim
Weapon Focus(required for some feats)
weapon specialization(required for Point blank master)
Snap Shot
Improved Snap Shot
Combat reflexes

Advanced: Martial Weapon proficiency(firearms)
Gunsmithing
Rapid reload

So can anyone but a Fighter, Avenger Vigilante, or Zen Archer work?


Several special materials require or have the Masterwork price by default. It affects their price but only means they are in fact Masterwork which is glossed over.

In the special materials they say the Armor Penalty is reduced up to -0 so I would say all the Armor Penalties stack, including from Armor Training class feature.

Generally I would say the Armor Check penalties reductions would stack. The real question I have is in regards to Mithril. It counts as Masterwork and has it included in the price so you dont have to buy Mithril+Masterwork. Mithril reduces the armor check penalty and so does Masterwork.

So would Mithril armor have a (3+1) -4 reduction to the Armor Check Penalty from the special material and being Masterwork stack?


While its an awesome part of fiction for people to be able to dual-wield weapons in reality its less effective. Using both hands ona single weapon is more effective rather than divide your strength and concentration.

Ingame the Two-handed fighting style is easy to use as it starts off quite good. Pick something like a Greatsword and you have very solid damage. Two-wielding is harder as you must have a particular set of equipment, feats, and just plain be able to make full attack actions to have a point.

It seems one-sided in favor of the two-handed weapons. So when does the Two-weapon fighting style match up or surpass?

Two-weapon Fighting is the most fundamental feat and even using two light weapons you still have a -2 hit chance, low damage per hit, and requires full attack actions. Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, and Greater Two-weapon Fighting grant additional attacks but its still not even. Double Slice increases damage to your off-hand attacks so now you effective have 100%+100%=200% strength value to attacks compared to a two-handed weapon which has 150% strength. Eventually if it can be afforded than multiple magic weapons being dual wielded can actually double the damage bonuses so two +3 weapons vs a +4 single two-handed weapon.

Is it possible for two-weapon fighting to actually be practical? It would require multiple bonus feats to at least have Two-weapon fighting 1, 2, and 3 to be relatively even.
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Shields offer a relatively small bonus in exchange for a large loss in damage. There are feats that could make a shield more useful but also require the Two-weapon fighting style feats to work.
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So between them Two-handed weapons seem the most practical. It doesnt require feats so they are useful powerups.

Two-weapon fighting style is awesome but impractical. You would have to take many feats and have specific powers like Pounce to be able to use multiple attacks at any time.

One-hand and shield can be useful but isnt that effective.


In my PFS group people are unhappy that Im not getting into melee with my Sorcerer, Bard, or other support type characters. So I thought about making something like a Fighter. But no, wait, how about something like a heavy shield attacker as people say I am "turtling".

1 I know several feats, most crucially Two-weapon Fighting to allow a light shield to be used as an off-hand weapon for Full Attack actions for a -2 penalty. Another is Improved Shield Bash, which is crucial as it allows you to benefit from using shields as weapons and still receiving the bonus. Shield Master is a major feat for dual wielding a shield but comes rather late to be useful.

2 I have a reliable series of character choices using a Half-orc to make a well rounded and tough character. Humans are useful but I prefer the combined bonus feats of the Half-orc as opposed to one feat a Human gets.

3 Class choice a Fighter would be my first thought, but which kind? My two greatest problems using a Fighter are the obvious, no magic and no skills. a Vigilante of the Avenger specialization has far more skills points but doesnt get armor training. That can be partially solved by using Mithril armors and sticking to a breastplate rather than a full plate armor.

4 In Terms of equipment I have some ideas from basic things to. Start out with either a Heavy Spiked Shield for offense and defense or a one-handed weapon and a Light shield to dual wield. Amulet of natural Armor, Ring of Protection, and Cloak of Resistance are pretty basic.

I thought I saw somewhere from a feat that you can use two shields and get the benefit from both to your AC?


One character to be a one-person-army to win every fight and get all the way from level 1 to 20.

Thats not to say help wouldnt be appreciated or accepted.


Im trying to make RPG characters level 1-20, but those dont work so well in the Pathfinder Society. PFS benefits more from Multiclassing so just having a bunch of stacking class features is more important than working towards having True Resurrection or Wish.

Some of the early advantages I can think of are:
1 Martial Weapon Proficiency. To use a Greatsword/Nodachi or Lucerne Hammer.
2 Animal Companion
3 Crowd Control and Cure Spells(for wand)
4 Flurry, preferably with weapons

The Hybrid classes would be decent in PFS as they have spells and equipment proficiencies, but they are all much worse in spellcasting. That makes them seem like long-term failures.

A Hunter by itself would be pretty self-sufficient in PFS.


Two-handed weapons have raw strength that seems essential early in the game. Its easy to one-shot early enemies rather than trade blows. Other fighting styles exist in two-weapon and Shield+One-handed weapons but those have handicaps in damage and/or hit chance.

An Alternative, especially for caster classes is to stick to one-handed weapons. Weapon Finesse allows dexterity to be used instead of strength for hit rolls, but not damage. There are a few class features that allow the damage to also count, but not picking a two-handed weapon does far lower damage. Raising critical chance is one thing, but unless every hit is a critical Its unreliable gambling.

So is there a way to either use a powerful Two-handed weapon with Weapon Finesses or rack up a one-handed weapon it terms of damage?


Pre-generated characters at levels 4 and 7 dont seem much use to me as it means you risk a custom character dying without actually being able to gain Experience, Money, or Prestige.

In the Pathfinder society Rules (2014) page 36 section 5 says you can "apply the chronicle sheet" to a low level non-pregenerated character. Its quite clear about reducing whatever gold is earned to only 500 maximum. It doesnt say anything about experience. Ive played few higher level scenarios and the experience is high enough to quality for more than a level gained for each scenario.

Ive avoided higher level scenarios because I thought I would gain low gold but high experience, the reverse of my goal.

A PFS group member mentioned that the experience would also be reduced if I use in in this way. Is that true and if so where can i find the FAQ or source?


I am looking for scenarios that i can run through on all my characters rather than once-per-player in the Pathfinder Society Campaign.

I know the Wounded Wisp.

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