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I would throw in faction too but yeah that does seem to be how it is.

If your character has learned something from one scenario, or through pathfinder training, then you should represent that by putting points into the appropriate knowledge

I didnt participate but I thought pfs sanctioning was part of the kickstarter package deal for emerald spire. I dont know if the timing was specified but it seems reasonable for people to be asking the day of release about pfs sanctioning in that case.

Thank you. Thats what we did but we wern't sure.

When a scenario reward instructs you to draw a random card of some type do you draw from the base box and then select a card of the same level from your class deck like a normal upgrade? Or do you draw a random card of that type from your class deck?

I absolutely hate the power creep that archery has become. My Eyes of the Ten outing went horribly due to it.

Im almost entirely sure I played in the same eyes group.

All in all archery is probably a bit too easy, its just been given too many legs up (seeking, weapon blanches, deadly aim, cluster shot, rapid/multishot, snap shot, often early access improved precise shot). But two wrongs dont exactly make a right. Archery being strong doesnt mean we need to proliferate the overpowerdness. Leave pummeling charge out as it stands.

Maybe this mechanic wasnt meant to be representative of the lore but...

If you dont have area venture officers contact mike brock directly. From his posts I get the idea they are almost desperate for acg vls. It might not get you stuff in time but it would help for the future

Have you contacted your area venture leadership? The PACG VL gets 2 sets to promote play

If you take the "dead" condition from someone and then heal them above negative con when the subdomain ability expires they will again gain the "dead" condition. Healing someone who is now at negative con would have prevented them from gaining the dead condition but it does not explicitly end or remove the dead condition itself.

Say the user of the subdomain ability is level one and uses the ability on an ally who was inside a stinking cloud and became nauseated. During the one turn respite the formerly nauseated character leaves the cloud. When the subdomain ability ends and the nauseated condition is set to return the character still gains the nauseated condition despite no longer being in the place that originally gave it to him. That he is now in a position which wouldnt have given him the condition in the first place doesn't negate the condition and is not the same as ending or removing the condition.

The discussion youre talking about at the bottom of page 8 in the best legal tips tricks and items thread

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2r9pt&page=8?Best-PFSlegal-itemsspellsfeats tidbits-that-no#384

Retraining to add 1 hit point takes 3 days, costs gp equal to 10 × your level × the number of days required to retrain, and costs 3 prestige

They are led by a group of ten, the decemvirate, and so wouldn't have a monolithic alignment outlook.

Level one pregens contribute basically nothing to a raise dead. Its a long shot but you can try posting in one of the boon threads. Someone might have an extra aasimar boon and be willing to send it over.

I think you might have the wrong forum, this is for discussing society play. Spell errata would not come from the society developers.

(For PFS as Im aware the other elemenatals are not in fact legal. OP probably just means that since summon monster doesnt specify in non-pfs games youd be able to pick whichever elemental, whereas elemental body specifically lists choosable forms and their benefit and would require errata or another spell to add the other elementals even for non society play)

I know one scenario with a negative boon at the end on the chronicle indicating you get captured and tortured. To me, that implies that if they want to say you get captured instead of killed it will be made explicit.

Pfs has a strict run as written mantra and I see a lot of gms afraid to go out of bounds, which would include alternate punishments. There's a reportable option for players died. There no such option for players were looted of gear and left to recover.

Myself I have spared low level groups as the enemy was specifically fighting to escape or was on some sort of time crunch. Sometimes, though, you get wrecked so totally that you just have to accept that you are done for.

Perhaps you can see if you can pool your resources to raise one character. If you didn't know you had that option the GM might be willing to revisit the death. It doesn't sound like you will have enough but I say always do the math and be sure.

I think the bigger question is that even if the GM were wrong to focus the one player does that mean you retcon the death? Do you undo the tpk on a later fight because they were down one? Where do you draw the line on these things? They were all level one characters, unless one of them spent 700$ for an android boon I say you have to let things go.

I was gonna write a guide but I got lazy, maybe I still will but my initial impressions:
Aeon: Worse than regular summons, cant even use for sacred summons. Edit: I forgot the theletos added to the lvl4 list is also Cr7, not that great for a Cr7, but outclasses any of the standard Cr3 summons for the spell level. The akhana at 9th has 1 raise dead SLA and 2 restorations, abuse away.
Agathion: Gives leonal at level 8 while summon good monster gives it at 9, pretty alright but the lower level monsters arent worth it
Angel: Adds manadic/movanic devas which you get from the feat but add good aligned options at levels there wouldnt be any otherwise for sacred summoning
Archon: Adds legion and shield archons which the feat adds, neither are great but no other lawful good options those levels for sacred summons
Asura: Adds a CR 7 summonable with SM4 so... theres that. Aghasura is probably flat better than bone devil at same level offensively but is huge
Daemon: Pretty much the only way to get neutral evil things so if thats your thing it adds a lot of options. Leukos and Piscos at lvl7 both seem usable, lvl9 has true sight energy drain and 3 enervations, meladaemon at 8th with horrid wilting, 3 quickened magic missles, waves of fatigue. Decent overall- some options have auras and gazes, careful of friendly fire
Div: Nothing stands out, mostly for flavor (but not at all bad)
Inevitable: adds 2 options the feat doesnt (at 8th and 9th), Zelekhut at lvl7 has true sight one of the earliest options I know, kolyarut at will enervation and 3 quickened suggestions, marut is CR 15 might be the highest or tied for highest Cr summon available, pretty good overall
Kyton: Not many options but the 9th level interlocutor has breath of life
Protean: Naunets at 6th can get through some material DRs, Imentesh at 9th is bad cr for the levl (Cr 10) but has permanent freedom of movement if you need that. With 4d6 sneak attack if you can summon it into flanking against something with bad ac it could actually probably do okay. Not a lot of added options from the ring and the feat adds the immentesh at 8th level instead
Psychopomp: None of the options are too combat focused and you get the same summons from the feat but get catrina at 4th instead of 5th (still pretty bad)
Qlippoth: All have horrific appearance, watch for friendly fire or turn it off. Shoggti at 6th have touch attack 1d4 wis damage, augnagar at 9th is huge with 30ft reach.

All the 3rd level options added are basically the same, only useful for commune but that has 10 min cast time.
Barring a few outliers (adhukhait asura) or for the purposes of sacred summons none of these would really be must have items, or they can save you a feat on summon good/neutral monster. Most of the time the options just dont compare to the equivalent level summoned animal with the appropriate smite going.

I don't like the wait 'em out tactic as a player because it relies on assuming the bad guy won't just escape. And by that I mean it relies on the players knowing the scenarios never call for the enemies to escape.

A lot of old faction side missions were basically asking the pathfinders to act as you described. There is now one secondary mission per scenario, some of which are drawn from the old missions and might ask for anything from hieroglyph rubbings to an undamaged monster pancreas. In the newer missions your players should read their faction letters and be on the lookout for ways to further their faction goals in order to complete faction missions.

Beyond that the players dont get to keep other odds and ends. Assume it gets turned in and if a benefit comes of it, its on the chronicle sheet (like killing dragons usually opens up the purchase of dragonscale armor, noted on the chronicle)

If they get to be excessive I would probably have their venture captains (in game) send them a note that their mission reports are clogging the system as they take the Society's appraisers and anatomists an inordinate amount of time to sort through and perhaps they should endeavor to be more discreet and selective.

Okay, thanks. I wasn't sure if it was an intentional design decision or just some had been updated and others hadn't. I guess if theres two powerful ones to keep each other in check either runelord couldn't just conqueror all the others. That or despite being personally powerful the mythic runelords domains were not as militarily powerful (although it sounds like Xander had the best of both). Its hard to extrapolate power level from the wiki (like it says the few surviving accounts of Belimarius' rule were of perfect efficiency, so I'd have thought she was a power player)

Also, who invaded Sorshen?

Probably a dumb question-

Why are sorshen and xanderghul so much more powerful/mythic? Just been at it longer?

From a certain recent scenario involving mass combat we can see exactly what the default class for a pathfinder society field agent is assumed to be, and it's not barbarian. So the field agents are supposed to be murderhobos theory doesn't pan out.

Probably not. There is the human spell bestow insight which would allow you to do a skill with a bonus as though you were trained. It does require the caster to have at least a rank in the skill but doesn't require you to haggle over stats for the person performing the skill or stretch the aid of the prestige purchase. Instead you have to find a suitable caster.
The more general answer is that if something is core to your character concept you are best being able to do it yourself.

If the miss chance from displacement is the same as that from total concealment its hard to define its effect as "the miss chance granted to targets by anything less than total concealment." Its not less than, its equal to.

Additionally the exception to displacement acting as total concealment is irrelevant to the situation. The general application of the displacement affect in which "the creature benefits from a 50% miss chance as if it had total concealment." So the effect is as if total concealment for all effects other than targeting (and being subject to true sight).

I don't believe there is a faq and I don't believe one is needed.

Item access and boons are two more possible rewards.

I dont agree that there should be multiple paths to everything. I'm sorry, I don't want to be able to talk Krune into giving up that whole evil runelord thing, I want to smash him.

Multiple ways to earn prestige in a scenario also just sounds like prestige inflation to me. I very much want PFS scenarios to be more pathfinder-y and less murder hobo-y but, not even counting things like design time or word count, I don't think this is the best way.

I dont feel a strong draw to any of the new factions. Having just played The Paths We Choose today I will wait until I read the scenario to see how the factions we didn't play pan out before I make any final decision but I will probably just "opt out" of the faction system by switching all my characters to Grand Lodge.

(Part of that might be a location specific predilection for people to reduce your characters personality to your faction. You are Taldor so you have to act like this)

Evolved summon monster will be game changing to the extent it adds to table time. I also see it as a potential point of contention regarding what evolutions can be added to what summons. I mean, I intend to use it and pre-incorporate the evolutions but you know everyone won't. At least the way it stacks it gives multiple 1 point evolutions and doesn't give access to higher evolutions.

"Management" doesn't have monolithic control of PFS. The PFS experience is defined by the people who play it, and if you don't seem to care for them what can anyone really say?

If you are playing PFS the usual line is to expect table variation. It is not wise to build a character concept around an edge interpretation of something as you run the risk of having your character concept shut down at each table. There are also usually limited time slots and having to constantly make a case for everything your character does is likely to impede play. Personal thoughts on your specific questions:
1) If the ability specified that you got the claws permanently that would override the clause that abilities end when your blood rage ends. Since they specify nothing they default to ending when the blood rage does
2) A chakram is listed on the ranged weapon chart and is therefore a ranged weapon. Pretty much anything can be used as an improvised melee weapon, the chakram has much reduced penalties for doing so but is still not a melee weapon
3) This one actually has developer clarification if you want to look it up. Clerics and clerics only of the respective gods can use the alternate summoning rules. I don't know offhand what god it is that grants that particular summons but yes the additional resource lists the alternate summoning as allowed.

A developer has clarified that you wouldn't. He said using weapon finesse (which replaces the ability score) and fury's fall (which adds the ability score) dont stack and the situation is pretty much the same. The post is from a while ago but I dont know that its been overruled.

If pfs continues to tie in with the adventure paths this season will be worth sitting through to see the tie in with the Hells Rebels announced ap.

Having a lot of skills is helpful for a support character, especially knowledge skills. If you want something bard like look at the new skald class. The arcanist has an archetype to bump the bulls strength style spells to be +6 in addition to the regular sorc/wiz stuff.
And of course its hard to go wrong with a cleric.

You might not find superstitious worth it without being able to pump it with favored class bonuses. It's bonus to will saves will only be 1 higher than the song itself and doesn't stack with heroism.

There is more than just the no pvp rule at work. Many other situations are covered better by the "dont be a jerk" rule.

A lot of the exploits people wont take use charisma. The spell resist one lasts for cha rounds, the temp hp one gives hp of your level+cha. The only one I saw that seemed worthwhile was that if you pick a wizard school with uses per day it was cha based. You probably dont need much CHA but I wouldnt go with a 7 either.

Theres an elemental archetype to use d8s for one of the elemental blasts (which get cha to damage). It wont be optimal but I could see it working.

I have a bard who had the masterpiece. I still invested in knowledges so its no big loss but in general rebuilds should err on the side of being generous.
A small issue I have is that knowledges are often the only way for the gm to give players some of the pages of background in a scenario that they might not otherwise get and anything that encourages knowledges is a good thing in my book.
My main issue, however, is that of all the things to ban they pick this. Oh well, looks like there is some room on that double barrel gunslinger train.

If you count dips nature and lore. For cha to ac and sometimes focused trance. I see more characters with those than I do all other oracles combined.

I feel like the hunter is going to depend a lot on how the skirmisher trick thing actually works out. As is I think the hunter needs a little something extra but a liberal interpretation of that ability gets into kind of ridiculous territory. I was also hoping for some more really tailored teamwork feats.

I think the arcanist does look borderline too strong because of its ability to cherry pick powers.

I mostly play pfs and I think they banned a lot of the really bad stuff but that cavalier archetype that gives swashbuckler abilities looks mighty powerful.

I thought the warpriest was supposed to get some buffs to blessings but I dont see any major changes.

Bloodrager bloodlines still seem pretty disproportionate in power.

I like the feats to give some evolution abilities to other classes. The evolved summoning is probably my favorite thing ever. The summoning rings are also a neat idea.

Anyway I think there is a noticeable power creep issue but I also have like at least 4 new character ideas after an incomplete run through of the book, so Im pretty pleased with the book as a whole.

Few quick questions after a skim through:
Elf arcanist favored class bonus, typo? Or how does it work.
Can the skald inherently rage cycle since rage song doesn't give fatigue? I gather that's what their action economy for rage song doesn't progress like a bard.
Is there no chaotic good summing ring? My first and most beloved pfs character is a cg sacred summons cleric summoner. My excitement seeing the items was only matched by my disappointment. (Also do they only seem to give access to the monsters from the summon good monster feat?)

Yes, you can use the wand as long as you dont trade out spells via an archetype. To see whats legal check the additional resources page, it was recently updated pre-gencon.

You can buy a bow later, or use prestige. A MWK darkwood composite longbow +2 STR comes in under the 750 value limit for a 2 point prestige purchase. I would get a healing wand first, then the bow, and make the bow adaptive later. Until you have the feats for it you will probably only use it if you have no other choice.

A lot of the newer scenarios do not feature a lot of undead, but we dont know what the new season holds. Unlikely to be undead though. The older seasons feature undead frequently, so if your area plays them evenly you should find a use for undead favored enemy. However, human is universally good and probably comes up in literally every scenario ever. You will be competent enough without your favored enemy bonus that you can choose undead for concept reasons, but know that you might run several scenarios in a row where you dont get to use your bonus at all. You can use your second trait to add to the concept, I believe the trait is just called undead hunter and is about your family being famous for hunting undead.

Perception is important sure, but so are will saves. I almost always recommend the half elf alternate racial bonus to will saves.

The ye old 24/7 magic item emporiums are open to NPCs too. Although, now that we bring up that knowing about magic items should require some mechanical representation I think the season 6 guide should require PCs to make intelligence checks before they make purchases. You will be limited to purchases on certain tables based on what items your character knows about. For real though, some things are better if we don't overexamine them.

On the larger subject, the game does assume that magic items are part and parcel of your character. Them being so integral is why people get so upset that they could be targeted. But, as part of the character they shouldn't be assumed to be in some sort of off limits territory to bad guys. Just like any other tactic its the way things are handled that determines the good from the bad. If a GM goes off tactics to have at will invisibility demons trail you, wait till you sleep, and then steal your best stuff and teleport away that is jerk territory. But, if a demon is going to teleport away from a fight and can safely pick up a weapon you dropped for action economy reasons, well, why wouldnt it?

Whats considered "being a jerk" is malleable. When faction missions were still going people considered certain GMs to be jerks because they *gasp* might actually fail you on a faction mission! Perception isnt everything. If a character dumps strength to 5 they are vulnerable to shadows and its not being a jerk to have a shadow hit them if they are a viable target. Its not being a jerk to do something (tactically and NPC appropriate) to someones uber weapon that they spent 75% of their wealth by level on. And its definitely not being a jerk to assume NPCs operate under the same operational metagame considerations PCs do to make the game run smoothly.

Ill still play one of these eventually but probably not until after a bloodrager and a swashbuckler. Concept wise this was the class I was most looking forward to but unless the teamwork feats to be released give it that extra *something* I just cant shake the feeling that the class is missing something integral.

I think being compared to a druid and an inquisitor are high bars to set and on the one hand Im glad we didnt get into power creep territory. On the other hand I feel like resist energy at level one as the "big draw" is just... so underwhelming.

I think the bleed ability represents more than actual bleed damage. The rogue talent and alchemist discovery abilities both translate into bleed for mass combat. The only bleed I remember comes from the howlers quills, an ability the golems actually don't seem like they would be immune to.

Iron will. Getting to play your character is a pretty big plus in my book.

Please remember that the main rule for players in PFS is "don't be a jerk" which includes wrecking encounters such that other players don't get to contribute. It's better to have some versatility rather than to over specialize to the point where the GM has to ask you to not use your schtick.

If the writers decide to make a seemingly obviously evil enemy chaotic neutral I can only assume that is for mechanical reasons (smite and protection from evil). Whatever the reason it's not up to me to change. I don't have a specific npc example in mind but I could probably find a few CN NPC rogues waiting to ambush the party (what I would call evil intent). It has never actually come up where I've seen someone try to smite someone who detected as evil but actually wasn't but the possibility is there.

Edit: What the appearance of using the detect evil SLA is might vary by GM but it does provoke so we figure it has some giveaway in social situations.

4 stars to be able to buy a 10 charge wand.

We have enough paladin players around here that we run it by the rules. In social situations we also generally say using it is an obvious act and likely to cause a scene. What I see people forget the most is that creatures with evil intent detect as evil potentially leading to a lot of ineffective smites. Well, that and something being evil isn't license to simply go all murderhobo, although I'm not sure that is forgetting so much as willful ignorance.

Put your nose to the grindstone running games and you can use the GM boon to buy a partially charged wand.