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I have two questions. I noticed when looking at my pathfinder organized play character online, I noticed there was a total of prestige point for Andorran. Are all of these points tallied from all of the Andorran characters?
I seem to remember there was some mention of the various factions vieing for influence within Absalom. Does the accumulation of these prestige points make a difference in the grander scheme of things?
My second question is this? Relatively speaking how large of the factions. Is the Chelaxian faction 30% of the pathfinder organized play characters, and Andorran another 30% while the remaining 40% of characters fall to the other three factions?
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I am sure that all the faction points are tallied together at some point, but I don't think that total is viewable anywhere. The only totals that I know of just are the totals for a single character or for a single event.
It is correct that the various factions are each trying to influence Absalom and it could be that accumulation of prestige points may cause things to happen, but from previous statements it doesn't seem like there will be a point where a single faction will beat or show dominance over the other factions.
If I recall correctly, it has been said that they will not release the how large each faction is.
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I have two questions. I noticed when looking at my pathfinder organized play character online, I noticed there was a total of prestige point for Andorran. Are all of these points tallied from all of the Andorran characters?
I seem to remember there was some mention of the various factions vieing for influence within Absalom. Does the accumulation of these prestige points make a difference in the grander scheme of things?
My second question is this? Relatively speaking how large of the factions. Is the Chelaxian faction 30% of the pathfinder organized play characters, and Andorran another 30% while the remaining 40% of characters fall to the other three factions?
Originally back in Season 0 there was a plan for the factions to be competitive. At the end of the Season, all the prestige award (PA) points would be tallied up and the winning faction would be announced. For one reason or another it was decided that this was not a good idea, but the legacy system still tallies the PA points. As a GM/organizer I can see all the points spread over the sessions that I have run personally. In my area Andoran is way out in the lead, but that's just my area. I've got over 1,000 PA points under my GM belt, but that's one jigsaw piece in the overall puzzle. With so many people creating so many characters now, it's impossible to say how large each faction is. I can tell Andoran is popular since they have acquired 38% of the total PA handed out in the scenarios I've run. Qadira is in 2nd place with 21%, Osirion has 18% and Cheliax & Taldor have a measley 11% each.
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Thank you both for your replies.
I have played in one convention in Vermont called Carnage on the Mountain. last September. Also for the last month and a half I have been in Durham NC, playing in the local Pathfinder society. At the Vermont convention, my impression was that the two largest factions were Cheliax and Andoran. Down here in NC, Taldor and Andoran seem to be making a strong showing.
BlazeJ, I might hazard a guess that the people of Paizo wanted to keep the game cooperative rather then competitive, and that might be why they decided to down play the factions.
Doug Doug, you seem to be in a much better position to guess at the faction sizes
I wonder if it is possible , say to tally all of the registered characters, and find out which faction has the most points, and which faction has the most agents. But Blazej you mentioned that this was information that they were not going to release. Perhaps they don’t want any faction to look unattractive.
Thanks
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Perhaps they don’t want any faction to look unattractive.
Thanks
I think this is the main reason given when they changed things. Disappointing because the shifting of balance is what originally got me interested in Society. I've never been very interested in Organized Play before, but whatever, I'm having a blast with it now, both playing and GMing.
However, I'm hoping that when Josh announces the 'overall plot of things' that factions will have some kind of influence on the way things go, even if it isn't huge or super obvious. (Not that I want it completely hidden, that would suck as much as no influence at all.)
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Taldor ~ 5%More people would join Taldor if they saw the awesomeness of our backhanded high-five.
In our group, for some reason, Taldor has not been well accepted. However, after I created the first Cheliax character, everyone seemed to follow suit. I think because of the idea that you could play a non-evil character evily (is that even a word?).
On a separate note:
If you take a trait from the Cheliax Companion book, do you have to be Chelaxian? Or Taldoran to take a trait from the Taldor Companion book, or etc., etc.?
I was under the impression that unless the trait specifically said that it was a faction trait, you could be of any faction and still take it. The difference being that maybe your characters background is that they grew up in Cheliax, but have seen the error of the leaderships ways and are now a freedom fighter for Andoran. But since they grew up in Cheliax they could have a trait from the Cheliax Companion.
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If you take a trait from the Cheliax Companion book, do you have to be Chelaxian? Or Taldoran to take a trait from the Taldor Companion book, or etc., etc.?
Correct, however you can only choose one "extra" faction. I.E. to get a regional trait you need to have lived there. You qualify for your faction's region and if it's in your backstory one other region. So a Taldor from Qadira. Or Varisian working for Cheliax, etc. Hope that helps.
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If you take a trait from the Cheliax Companion book, do you have to be Chelaxian? Or Taldoran to take a trait from the Taldor Companion book, or etc., etc.?Correct, however you can only choose one "extra" faction. I.E. to get a regional trait you need to have lived there. You qualify for your faction's region and if it's in your backstory one other region. So a Taldor from Qadira. Or Varisian working for Cheliax, etc. Hope that helps.
Is this mentioned in the PFS Guide? Or anywhere else? I must have missed it if it was. Would be handy to have a reference for when I tell my players. Always good to have a reference when quoting a rule.
Well, your character could have lived in all five faction countries, but would it really matter since you can only have one regional trait anyway.
Well, your character could have lived in all five faction countries, but would it really matter since you can only have one regional trait anyway.
You could, however, combine a location-specific race or general trait to skirt this rule since not all the traits in the regional sourcebooks are "regional traits." Doing so would be of questionable legality.
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Is this mentioned in the PFS Guide? Or anywhere else? I must have missed it if it was. Would be handy to have a reference for when I tell my players. Always good to have a reference when quoting a rule.
Here's your quote from Josh. Hope it helps.
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Is this mentioned in the PFS Guide? Or anywhere else? I must have missed it if it was. Would be handy to have a reference for when I tell my players. Always good to have a reference when quoting a rule.Here's your quote from Josh. Hope it helps.
This quote talks about "Affinity", not about the Pathfinder Companion books. I get the affinity thing, you are from that area. But my question is for all the traits found in a particular PF Companion. Are they limited to only characters of that faction or race? I don't have my books handy ATM. As soon as I can, I'll give an example.
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As soon as I can, I'll give an example.
Example:
Accelerated DrinkerSource Cheliax: Empire of Devils 18
You know how to drink a potion efficiently, such as by not using your hands, tossing it in the air and catching it in your mouth, or opening it with your teeth. You may drink a potion as a move action instead of a standard as long as you start your turn with the potion in your hand.
Do you have to be a part of the Cheliax faction in order to take this trait? I would say no, you don't. Other than the fact it comes from the Cheliax sourcebook, it doesn't have any other requirements and is labeled as a Basic Combat trait.
A second example:
Ambassador (Sarenrae)
Source Taldor: Echoes of Glory 13
Your natural abilities at mediation and compromise manifested at a young age. For as long as you can remember, you were always more able to solve disputes and carefully settle violent disagreements than others. You gain a +2 trait bonus to Diplomacy checks.
Would you have to be of the Taldor faction and a worshiper of Sarenrae in order to take this trait? Again, I would say no, you don't. Even though this trait is found in the Taldor sourcebook, the only requirements is that you are a worshiper of Sarenrae, and its a Religious trait (you wouldn't be able to take another Religious trait).
Am I correct in my thinking?
Am I correct in my thinking?
I believe so, yes.
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When I read your first question, I assumed you were talking about regional specific traits. Each trait (or heading within the book) will give you the requirements. In both the cases you gave me there is no requirement to have "affinity" with the country in question. However here are some examples of traits that *do* require affinity.
Desperate Focus
Source Cheliax: Empire of Devils 19
You’ve often found yourself in situations where a lack of focus can lead to worse than a lost spell. You gain a +2 trait bonus on concentration checks.
Vagabond Child
Source Taldor: Echoes of Glory 13
You grew up among the outcasts and outlaws of your society, learning to forage and survive in an urban environment. Select one of the following skills: Disable Device, Open Lock, or Sleight of Hand. You gain a +1 trait bonus on that skill, and it is always a class skill for you.
So yes you do have the correct idea. Just remember you only get two affinities, that of your faction and one other (where you grew up, which might be the same as the faction or not even a faction at all e.g. Katapesh).
So yes you do have the correct idea. Just remember you only get two affinities, that of your faction and one other (where you grew up, which might be the same as the faction or not even a faction at all e.g. Katapesh).
Not exactly correct on having to have grown up in a region to take a regional trait from there, from the Character Traits Web Enhancement:
Regional Traits: Regional traits are keyed to specific
regions, be they large (such as a nation or geographic
region) or small (such as a city or a specific mountain). In
order to select a regional trait, your PC must have spent
at least a year living in that region. At first level, you
can only select one regional trait (typically the one tied
to your character’s place of birth or homeland), despite
the number of regions you might wish to write into your
character’s background.
So, if you take the Additional Traits feat at a higher level, you could pick another regional trait, at least in normal play. This should also apply to PFS play as the Guide only talks about starting traits, though I do not think I have ever seen a question about this before.
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So, if you take the Additional Traits feat at a higher level, you could pick another regional trait, at least in normal play. This should also apply to PFS play as the Guide only talks about starting traits, though I do not think I have ever seen a question about this before.
Actually... no. You can only have one trait from each category, ever.
Additional Traits
You have more traits than normal.
Benefit: You gain two character traits of your choice. These traits must be chosen from different lists, and cannot be chosen from lists from which you have already selected a character trait. You must meet any additional qualifications for the character traits you choose—this feat cannot enable you to select a dwarf character trait if you are an elf, for example.
Emphasis mine. Plus I was talking about affinities anyways, which while closely related/tied to regional traits, isn't the same thing.
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So, this puts me back to a thought I've had for some time now. Is there a definitive list of traits somewhere? And does it have which trait category each is under? For some I believe could be construed under more than one category. What are the definitive category's?
Combat
Faction
Faith
Magic
Racial
Regional
Religion
Social
Campaign is the other trait category, though Faction traits count as Campaign traits and to date no Campaign traits from the APs have been allowed in PFS. Sometimes traits of different types provide identical or overlapping bonuses, so it's possible to mix and match them to get a lot of the same effects. In general, though, you're not going to find a Social trait that provides an initiative or to-hit bonus, or a Magic trait that has nothing to do with magic. You may, however, find a Regional, Racial, or Campaign trait that covers one of these bases and frees up the other type for something else.
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So, this puts me back to a thought I've had for some time now. Is there a definitive list of traits somewhere? And does it have which trait category each is under? For some I believe could be construed under more than one category. What are the definitive category's?
Combat
Faction
Faith
Magic
Racial
Regional
Religion
Social
It's not official, but Karui Kage has a great compilation here.
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It's not official, but Karui Kage has a great compilation here.So, this puts me back to a thought I've had for some time now. Is there a definitive list of traits somewhere? And does it have which trait category each is under? For some I believe could be construed under more than one category. What are the definitive category's?
Combat
Faction
Faith
Magic
Racial
Regional
Religion
Social
a great big +10 to the site! VERY useful!
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Technically, Cheliax and Andoren are just slightly different flavours of Taldor, like Crystal Pepsi or Cherry Coke. So Taldor wins.Taldor ~ 5%More people would join Taldor if they saw the awesomeness of our backhanded high-five.
They even speak Taldane as thier national languages, not to mention the everyone speaks Taldane as one of their languages. Clearly our Taldane culture is superior.
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We've recently had a flood of Andorens
Total for Andoran 62
Total for Cheliax 11
Total for Osirion 37
Total for Qadira 57
Total for Taldor 17Qadira used to be the clear leader in our group.
The influence of mighty Taldor shall grow now that Rolf has joined your ranks, he has already seen to it that everyone that teams up with him knows the superiority of Taldor. Not that he would let his personal loyaities interfere with the Pathfinder Society missions of course. Just ask anyone, but not those upstarts from Andoran of course don't ask them.
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Hello Andrew, You probably know me as Fatum Aeditus Venificus. I seem to remember when I was GMing Assault on the kingdom of the impossible, (which I had fun doing) your character got a little irritated, when Taldan was referred to as an inelegant language by a certain bandit lord. I remember your character expressed his irritation with the edge of his axe.
Well it would be interesting to get a sense of how many agents each faction has, based on the registered characters. But I suppose that isn’t information that is going to be released. I’m sure the good folks at Paizo want to make sure no one faction looks unattractive.
It would also be interesting to get an inkling of the prestige points accumulated by each faction, and see if some shifts are made in published materiel.
But I suppose, since we are playing a cooperative game, it might be better to down play the competitive part.
Thank you everyone for your thoughts this has been an interesting thread to read.