Fnord 1's page

Fresh off your induction into the Society and having completed your basic training as Pathfinders, you find yourself in the office of Ambrus Valsin, a Pathfinder Venture-Captain who is in charge of Grand Lodge daily operations. The Venture-Captain greets you all, and tells you to have a seat before he gets straight to the point.

"All right, Pathfinders! Listen up. I know you are new recruits eager to make names for yourselves in the organization, but first we need to make sure you are up to snuff and won’t get yourself killed out there. I have a number of small assignments for you and your team, and it would be best if you could finish them before the day’s end.

"Every day we get some doe-eyed hopeful or some sniveling bootlicker willing to do anything to join up with the Pathfinders. Most of them are good kids, but not all of them have the salt to make it in a world like this. It’s rough out there and I’m not just talking about the ruins, tombs, and wilderness Pathfinders find themselves in on missions. We’ve got people who look down their noses at us, folks who think we squander our resources, and agents who want to take everything we have collected. This wealth of knowledge and these items of lore make us the most powerful organization on the planet. That said, since we are fractured and widespread, it’s difficult for that power to light on anything for too long. For every friend of the Society, there are two enemies.

"Your first mission, to test your mettle and loyalties, sends you to meet a few people important to the Society living here in Absalom. These are other venture-captains or close allies of our organization, so follow their orders as you would mine. I’ve prepared a list of things I want you to do. They’re not arranged in any particular order of importance, but I want them all completed as quickly as possible. Only report to me once you complete them all. Included in the envelope you hold in your hands is the list, complete with the name of your contact, and directions to the meeting location."

Venture-Captain Valsin hands the closest new Pathfinder the envelope he was referring to, which contains the list of tasks.

There is also a map of Absalom hanging on the wall: map

Meta-chat here.

I am looking to run the three First Steps scanarios for new Pathfinder Society characters.

This will be PFS organized play.

All characters must be PFS legal, and must have ID numbers.

In the spirit of PFS, your character is yours, as long as it is within the rules. I will not be looking at background when picking characters, and I will try to simply select a reasonable group of starting characters to run.

If you are not familiar with pathfinder society rules, please refer to the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for what are legal in organized play are there, and supplemented here.

First Steps is a set of 3 scenarios to be run by brand new first level PFS characters, without any previous XP. I will not accept any characters that have run through any other scenarios, they must be 'new'. At the completion of the third module, retroactive prestige points will be awarded for all three modules, and you will then have the opportunity to pick a faction. You do NOT have to choose a faction before we start, and the idea is that First Steps will help you choose an appropriate faction for your character.

I'd rather not use this thread as a Q&A for things like "What is PFS?" and "How does prestige work?" so if you don't understand that stuff, please read the documentation I have linked to, or the forums, etc. There's plenty of information out there and I don't want to bog down with it here. :)

I'd like to keep the pace reasonably quick, so please do not apply unless you're comfortable with a few things:
- Players are expected to post at least daily.
- If you won't be able to post for a period of time, please LET US KNOW, and either work out another player to make decisions for you, or have me GMPC for you.
- To keep things moving smoothly, the only time I will wait a full day for everyone to post is during combat. Everyone is expected to jump in and roleplay, but if only a couple of people end up taking part in a conversation, they are presumed to be speaking for the group.
- Because prestige is awarded retroactively at the end of the third scenario, you really want to stick it out all the way to the end. Please don't apply if you don't intend to at least try to do that.
- Please don't bring a character you want to go play in PFS any time soon. Three scenarios of PbP could keep your character occupied for a long time, and using the same character elsewhere won't make sense until you're done here.

I will start with the maximum number of legal players (7) so that if people drop out we hopefully keep enough to complete all three scenarios. If we lose too many people, I will recruit replacement characters between scenarios.

After each of the three scenarios, I will reward a chronicle sheet for the completed scenario. If you do decide that you have to leave, that is the time to do so, so that you still get credit for what you have completed. You can then take that character and go do the later parts somewhere else, and get the same credit as if you had completed them all with me.

If you haven't been scared away, please link to your character here if you'd like to apply.

Normally, a creature smaller than size 'small' cannot be used as a flank buddy, because it only threatens the square that it is in.

If I gave a tiny creature a tiny reach weapon, would the reach increase allow it to flank a square that it's adjacent to?

I'm trying to figure out if I can use a tumor familiar as a flank-buddy for a vivisectionist. The tumor familiar rule specifically says the familiar is tiny or diminutive, so I believe I can't make it behave as a familiar race with a larger size than that.

The combat rules state that they "typically" don't have reach and thus can't flank, etc, but what happens if they get reach? I think as long as they have hands, wielding a long spear or whip should be possible, even if they don't actually make any attacks or even have the weapon proficiency to do so with any accuracy.

Zen Archers get point blank master free at level 3 and reflexive shot free at level 9. In general, class features that replicate functionality of feats allow you to treat the character as having the feat for prerequisites. Would I be justified by RAW and/or RAI in skipping snap shot and using reflexive shot + point-blank master to qualify for improved snap shot and greater snap shot, which require snap shot (only with the chosen bow, perhaps)?

Reflexive Shot (Ex)

Snap Shot (Combat)