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Hello again! I'm back to continue working on my newbie guide! Sorry I missed the last few days. I wanted to give the first thread a bit more time to simmer and my research outside of the thread led to a lot of paperwork, so I wanted to have some time to wrap up section 1 before I submitted it. To make up for it, we're dealing with two topics today: Strategy/Tips and Interparty Conflicts!

Topic 2: Strategy/Tips

The Topic is going to be pretty much entirely mechanically focused. Obviously a rundown on everything you might want to consider in Pathfinder is a bit too heavy for a newbie guide, so let's keep this to some of the more fundamental strategies.

What are some items that you've learned to never leave town without? Creative uses for seemingly innocuous tools? Powerful but overlooked spells for our caster friends? Subtle synergies between classes or feats that you love using?

Topic 3: Interparty Conflicts

We've all been there. Maybe the Paladin gets a bit overzealous with the Rogue, maybe we run into the classic orc children in the back of the cave scenario and everyone starts arguing. Maybe two players just get angry at each other for something out of game and it creates a negative space within the group.

Interparty conflicts can always flare up, but the important part is how we deal with them. When done in character, this can lead to interesting roleplaying experiences, but it can just as easily lead to the group tearing itself apart. How do you deal with interpersonal conflicts in your playgroup? Are there any common mistakes that you see that often lead to these struggles?

Thanks again for all of your assistance!

Hello! For a college project, I am writing a Pathfinder guide. The premise of the guide is a guide for player by players. What have you learned in pathfinder that you wish you had known when you began.

Over the next few days, I'll be posting a topic like this each day, each with a different topic that I'm gathering advice for. If you have advice unrelated to the topic of the day, feel free to share it, I just want to keep things organized for myself. The topics that will be covered are: Character Creation/Building, Strategy when playing, Interparty conflicts (both in game and out of game) and styling the campaign around your player's interests (roleplay vs. rollplay, stuff like that). I'll go into more detail on each topic when I post the thread.

What kind of advice am I looking for? Pretty much any advice, really. The advice can be mechanical, story based, even your own personal house rules that make things run smoother. Anything goes as long as its newbie friendly.

And so we enter the first topic: Character Creation!

What advice would you give to a first time player when they're building their first characters. What system do you prefer for generating stats? Do you use house rules? Do you factor in the rest of the group, or do you think its better to invent your own character independently? What advice do you have for writing your character's backstory? How much of a backstory should a character have?

Also, I will be crediting everyone who posts as a source for the guide. If you do not want to be labeled as a source or have an alternate name you want to be credited under, please say so. Otherwise I'll make a list of usernames. Thank you for all your help!

Alright then. I think I'll try the Empyreal Sorcerer/Druid, theoretically trading some raw offense for the ability to shore of the defenses of the team. Any ideas on how to build this? As I've stated, I'm new to doing magic things, I don't know how to put it all together properly, especially since the only role I figured I'd be familiar with has already been taken

Still technically action economy issues, but it could work, I'm getting good things out of both sides, I can provide support magic as well as controlly stuff, the Druid side gives me access to stuff the Wizard won't have, and Empyreal is slightly less bad since the Cleric spells aren't being made redundant, even if they're still mediocre.

And yes, as I stated in the first post, I do want to play a mage, since I've never had the opportunity to do so before. Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but why do you sound so... resentful about that? Is there something wrong with enjoying caster type characters? Or do you just feel it's a waste of Gestalt's potential to basically just pump up something I could be doing in a regular campaign instead of trying something creative? Sorry if I'm reading too much into things but considering all the pushing towards playing some kind of Gish, I feel like I'm breaking some unwritten rule or something.

The problem with Magus/Sorc is the same one I have with Sorc Pally, unfortunately. I don't WANT to warrior it up, I want to focus on magery. Besides, if we're talking action economy, why not just Factotum as my support? Free standard actions all day, Int to all the things...

I'm a bit iffy on using the Alchemist class, simply because I don't want to have to learn how to cast AND how to alchemize with the same character. That's one of the reasons I was hoping to be some kind of summoner, I could live vicariously through my minions and learn how to control properly while they gave me breathing room. I suppose it could work, but action economy becomes an issue again. The int bonus from Mindchemist is nice, but I'm not sure how to really utilize the rest of the class. I also kind of feel like I should be leaning towards a divine caster, since as was previously mentioned, we should probably have some kind of healing ability at the ready.

And sorry for shooting down basically everything so far, I am painfully indecisive when doing this sort of thing.

25 point buy, and I suppose that's kind of what I'm looking to do as well. Except replace Wizard with another primary caster, since I don't want to do the same thing as the other player in the name of party diversity.

Problem with the barbarian idea, I still want to focus on being a caster, which is why I've been having difficultly finding information on this. Any time I look for mage based gestalts, they always focus on buffing into a melee monster, not finding ways to be better at being a mage.

And I'm iffy on Empyreal sorc altogether. The Wisdom casting is nice, but it's kind of outweighed by the fact that everything else about eh bloodline is mediocre compared to the other options (especially since I would get the bonus spells anyway as a cleric). Should I just grab a class with a bunch of passive effects and play the character as if it weren't gestalt?

Well, apparently the Summ/Sorc is already dead in the water because it turns out that the other player is doing basically the same thing (albeit as a Wizard/Barb), so now I need to revise the whole character. I still want to focus on casting, but now I need to work around a battlefield control/summoner. Any good replacement ideas?

Well to be fair, the animal companions were mainly there because I figured a party of two casters would need some form of front line, at least at lower levels. And also because having two pets is hilarious. Is it really a wise investment of my resources though? I mean, Lunar's spell list is kind of terrible (I suppose I could find a way to make it work, Rage is a caster disable I guess) and all of Sylvan's bonus feats seem geared towards me being an archer of some kind. Is it really worth the investment, or could I do better? Also, is there a way to actually make use of the dual spellcasting beyond having access to both lists, or am I just getting a lot of flexibility (and I guess some neat passives)?

Can I ask for an explanation on that recommendation? I mean, I get the basic principle, divine magic means fewer toes to step on, but I can't help but feel Divine magic is inferior for what I'm trying to accomplish. Maybe it's because I'm unused to operating a caster, but there doesn't seem to be anything particularly amazing on the cleric/oracle spell list for battlefield control, especially not when compared to the wizard/sorcerer list. I suppose I could be buffing up the eidolon better with the Cleric list, but that takes away from what I'm trying to do. Sorc/Cleric just doesn't really mesh well IMO. Sure, the only stat I need is Wisdom, but I can only cast one spell per turn, meaning that one half is always going to be left in the dust, unless I take fast channeling stuff and go Variant Channeling or something, but then I would need Charisma.

Hi, my friends and I are starting up a Gestalt pathfinder campaign, and I'm having trouble deciding what to play. Mechanically, I know I want to play a caster, since I never really have that opportunity, but I don't know what to put on the other side... or what caster to actually go with in the first place. I'm considering something like Summoner/Sylvan Sorcerer focusing on battlefield control, so I can spend my actions neutralizing threats and then have two free fighter-equivalents to actually deal damage to things, but I'm unsure.

The group only consists of one other person, a Wizard/Barbarian, apparently chosen for the BaB and Hit dice, I have no idea what the build is based around.

The main concern with the sorcerer idea is that I feel like the two classes I've chosen don't synergise very well, plus it's kind of redundant to have two arcane casters (although we could just focus on different things I suppose). Also we don't have a very large list of skills. I've considered making my other side Factotum to help with that, but then we lack in fighters.

I have 3.5 transparency for this, so I can use anything from there as well. Any suggestions for good caster focused gestalt builds? I've tried looking around the forums, but apparently caster = gish for gestalt. Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, starting at level 2. Might be important