The Pathfinder Society is an eccentric organization of adventurers, explorers, and scholars with agents spread across Golarion and beyond. While members are expected to be fairly self-sufficient, the organization’s leadership knows that those equipped with the knowledge and gear to face the challenges of the job are most likely to survive to bring back priceless treasures and to fill the Pathfinder Chronicles with tales of their daring exploits.
The Pathfinder Society Field Guide breaks down what it means to be a Pathfinder and gives players and GMs tools to build characters and campaigns around the illustrious organization. In addition, all content within this book is 100% legal for use in the world-spanning Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign.
Within this 64-page book, Pathfinders will find:
An overview of Absalom, City at the Center of the World, where the Pathfinder Society keeps its headquarters
Details on 10 factions within the Pathfinder Society, and the benefits available to those agents loyal to each
New archetypes for Pathfinders of all three branches of the organization: the Scrolls, the Spells, and the Swords
A complete field guide covering threats to Pathfinder agents, as well as suggestions on building PCs prepared to face them
Rules for day jobs and professions, property, followers, and other ways to customize your character
A system for turning characters’ fame and prestige into valuable in-game rewards
Dozens of new spells, magic items, specialized adventuring tools, and more!
The Pathfinder Society Field Guide is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be used in any fantasy game setting.
by Erik Mona, Mark Moreland, Russ Taylor, and Larry Wilhelm
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-305-7
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
Many of the factions included in this book no longer exist, the rest have changed such that much of the content is now nonsensical.
For example the Andoran Faction is now Liberty's Edge, disconnected from the Andoran government, so it doesn't seem appropriate that fame and prestige can earn you Andoran military ranks.
It would be great to see this updated.
Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Pathfinder Campaign Setting Pathfinder Society F
Product- Pathfinder Campaign Setting Pathfinder Society Field Guide
System- Pathfinder RPG
Producer- Paizo
Price- ~$20
TL;DR- A great intro to the society! 93%
Basics- Welcome Pathfinder! This book is a large summary of the Pathfinder Society for the uninitiated. This book is primarily written for those who play in Paizo's living campaign Pathfinder Society (PFS). The book starts with the standard stuff any PFS GM would need like day job rolls and how to spend prestige. Then the book discusses Absalom in-depth describing the history and geography of the place. After Absalom itself, the book introduces each of the factions in the Pathfinder Society giving each one new ways to spend prestige. Next the book introduces the three main branches of the Pathfinders, Scrolls, Spells, and Swords, providing new character options in each. The book ends with a long discussion of opponents of the society and items for Pathfinders to purchase to overcome this obstacles.
Story or Fluff- This book is full of Pathfinder fluff. I picked this one up to learn more as a GM, but honestly, if you want a deep introduction to the society, this is the book you need to read. Each faction and division of the society gets a detailed write up. The book even goes in depth on tricks to handle problems Pathfinders may find on their missions. This might have made the book drag on a bit, but for players who haven't been in the system as long, this may save their lives! 4.5/5
Mechanics or Crunch- While this is primarily a setting book since its in the campaign setting line, this book does have lots of character options. The prestige options alone are worth the price of admission! The extra archetypes, feats, and items, all make this a worthwhile book for any serious Pathfinder player. 5/5
Execution- Paizo knows how to make a geat book. While I felt the book was a bit long, it didn't drag to read as the text had lots of brakes to keep my eyes from glazing over. Well done art also breaks up the text well. I thought it was a bit long, but honestly it's not long in a terrible way as it keeps with the other books in the setting line. 4.5/5
Summary- This is a well done book. It's a bit long as one of the largest sections is a section most experienced players will skim over as they know how to make a character survive most of the horrors out there. Based on the amount of story in this book alone, the average PFS player needs this book to know much more about the society and its background. The new mechanics of how to spend prestige really help make that count more in your games. I'm honestly more excited to play some PFS than I was before this book, so that makes this book awesome in my opinion! 93%
Well, this book ads some flavor and some material which can be found in other books, but it is nicely summed up here. If you already have a lot of source books, than take a first glimpse before you grab it. If you start from core only, this book is nice.
Why i only give 2 Stars?
Because this book is ment to replace seeker of secrets, but it refers to seeker of secrets in some parts! So what? If you want a book to replace another, than do it properly and include all material. Especialy, since this one is also replacing seeker of secrets as core assumption in society play.
If you want to get rid of stuff from the former Version it is OK, but then stop referring to it!
So, what's the first point of reference? It seems to have a lot of information that the Guide to Organized Play doesn't have. (The Guide, for example, has very little information on factions; for example, I have no idea what prestige/fame options are available for each faction.)
The book seems to be out of print as well, which would be pretty unfortunate if there's no newer source for the information within. Yes, I could get the PDF, but I'm a sucker for a well-crafted print book. PDFs just don't do it for me.
Edit: After rechecking, I see that the Guide for Organized Play references the Field Guide repeatedly on just such subjects. So the Field Guide does still appear to be the first point of reference for a great many things.
Hopefully Paizo will make another print run so as to facilitate more new PFS recruits who prefer books to PDFs (and don't want to pay twice for both formats).
We currently have no plans to reprint this book in its existing format. That isn't to say that content from this book wouldn't be reprinted in another format. Last summer, we released Pathfinder Player Companion: Pathfinder Society Primer, which provides newer Pathfinder Society themed content, but doesn't reprint content from this book (just as the Field Guide didn't reprint material from Seekers of the Secrets from 2 years prior).
Now, that said, we have just published a hardcover Campaign Setting book containing a large amount of previously released content in the form of Inner Sea Gods, it's not out of the question that we'd reprint this material in a future book. But such a book isn't currently on the schedule or even in the works, still if it's something you'd like to see, posts such as this are a good way of letting us know.
Well, I for one would love to see all of the information printed in one good hard book. Say all of the information from the Primer, the Field Guide and the Seekers of Secrets all put together in one comprehensive report on the Pathfinder Society. I too like to have the printed versions of things and as it stands I have to purchase three books to get the information to run PFS sessions. The fact that two of them are not in print anymore adds to my frustration.
On page 56, was Aram Zey's Trap Ward meant to have a material component or a focus component? Currently as written it has a material component which means each time it's cast it destroys a set of masterwork thieves' tools. Not sure if that was the intent or not.
I was hunting for a P1 version of the Absalom city stat block, and finally found it in this sourcebook (p. 5).
Then I received a slight shock. The 3.5 version of Absalom's stat block (Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Absalom, p. 3) sets the city's GP Limit (price of the most expensive items available for sale) at 250,000 gp. That's good enough for the acquisition of even expensive items like various magical staves and rings, which is a suitable quality for a city that is such a central hub of world trade, etc.
The P1 sets the Base Value (same function as 3.5's GP Limit) at a measly 25,600 gp. That's roughly just a tenth of the previous value. :o
What gives?!?
E.T.A. Also, the 3.5 Assets value dropped from 3,798,750,000 gp to P1's Purchase Limit of 170,000 gp. Did everyone get a whole lot poorer?
At this point, an adventuring party is better off buying stuff in Riddleport (Base Value 30,400), although the Purchase Limit there is only 100,000 gp and available Spellcasting is 8th level (as opposed to Absalom's 9th level).
Now I'm wondering what Katapesh's P1 city stat block looks like ... Anyone know where I can find it?
Developer
