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I am curious. First we had five factions. These factions from my understanding national intelligence services.
We have Andoran, Cheliax, Osirion, Qadira and Taldor. The Andorans were the "good" aligned faction, and Cheliax was the "evil" aligned faction. Osirion, Qadira and Taldor were more or less neutrally aligned.
Now we have Five new factions. There is the Grand Lodge, The Lantern Lodge, The Shadow Lodge, The Silver Crusade and the Scarzni.
From my limited understanding, the Grand lodge is for those pathfinders who wish not to have any split loyalty. The Lantern Lodge is there to help the Tien Xian Pathfinders, The shadow lodge is there to "watch dog" the Decemverate, the Silver Crusade is there for those of a more Lawful Good bent, and the Scarzni from what i can tell is a "Mafia".
I will admit, since i have played city of strangers part 1 and 2, Year of the Shadow Lodge, Heracy of Man parts 1 and 2 ( but not 3), Shades of Ice Parts 1 and 2 ( but not 3), and Shadow's fall on Absolom. But i havn't played Pt 3 of the shades of Ice, Part 3 of the Herecy of man, Sakrorian prophesy, Wrath of the accursed, or mantis prey, The shadow's last stand Pt 1, the shadow's last stand PT 2, I don't know what to make of the Shadow Lodge. I am sure the Decemverate have found some way to seal the rift and bring both sides back together, but I'm not sure how. I guess ill find out when i play the moudle. I am thinking the Shadow lodge are essentially looking at the abuse of power, especiaally if it comes from the decemverate. So Im not sure what to make of them.
So im curios, Have chelaxians left to the Scarzni? Have Andorans left for the Silver crusade?
What do you think? do allot of people find the Shadow lodge intrigueing and join it?
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Elyas, I think your understanding is 100%. Though Cheliax is more about Law than Evil, but they go hand in hand there. I think of them as a certain European power from the mid 1900's to some extent.
They explain how the rift is sealed in 2-26 The Mantis' Prey. It's a good scenario. I recommend it.
I have a lv 12 Andoran Paladin who might have switched to Silver Crusade, except that I like his Andoran background not to mention he was only 2 scenarios away from retirement when the new factions came out.
I have a lv 8 Ranger who is Chelaxian through and through. No change.
Same for a lv 5 Halfling Alchemist from Taldor. I designed these PCs with their factions in mind.
On the other hand, my lv 2 Human Druid from the Stolen Lands (I set his background in the kingdom my home group built in Kingmaker) was Andoran initially. It wasn't a great fit, but it was the best at the time. Since the change, I've switched him to the Shadow Lodge which is a little better fit for him.
All my other PCs were created after the new factions came out.
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All the new factions are of a more ideological bent compared to the nationally based factions we started out with. The first five factions were dedicated towards gaining an advantage in Absalom for their nation. Though there might have been a drift away from that with the last two seasons, and their goals have move more towards just trying to improve the situation for their factions. But it is hard to say given faction missions do not really change the campaign world. The five new factions are definitely more motivated towards using the Society towards achieving their faction’s ideological goals. Whatever those might be.
I would highly recommend playing/running Mantis’ Prey. That scenario will really help you sort things out for you. That scenario along with Shadow’s Last Stand will get you from where we were in Season 2 to where we are now in Season 3. I can explain exactly what happens for the Year of the Shadow Lodge arc. But it would be very spoilerish, and I would first recommend playing the previously mentioned scenarios. If you still have questions after playing Mantis’ Prey, then you can come back, and get things outlined a bit more if need be considering there are a number of things going on that can be tricky to link together.
In my experience there have not been a ton of switches in factions. I switched a number of my PCs around to better fit their personalities, but from what I have seen most players were content to stick to the factions they already had. Either out of loyalty to their faction, not knowing they could switch factions, or just apathy about the whole faction thing. I see more of the new factions with new characters that have been made since the start of Season 3. At least in the Atlanta area I have seen a lot of Lantern Lodgers as well as a smattering of the other new factions. Though there are still plenty of PCs of the older factions running around. I expected the Shadow Lodge to out due the Andoran faction as the most popular faction due to a number of factors, but this has not taken place.
I have a Qadiran that switched to Shadow Lodge since he didn't really fit in Qadira (or any of the other originals). I have a Chelaxian that is staying. Ironically, I created a Shadow Lodge character that switched to Andoran after playing the second part of the First Step trilogy.
I don't think any of the factions are similar enough that the majority of one would go to the other. It really depends on what reason the character originally joined the faction as to whether one of the new ones better fits.
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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The three characters I actively play are all Grand Lodge, but for different reasons.
One is a fighter whose loyalties lie more with his love of baking than with any political agenda. He therefore focuses his "mission time" on helping the Grand Lodge in the hopes that he can soon open a new bakery near it and feed all those hungry pathfinders who must be dying for a good pastry.
Another is a rogue who is, to put it simply, an action man. He's a Decemvirate loyalist in a sense - kind of a "special agent" type of guy - serious, athletic, intelligent and devoted.
The third is a druid whose love of exploration led him to trek all the way from Varisia to Absalom to join the Society - basically because he knew their missions would send him to a variety of different places but with more resources than he'd have been able to procure on his own. So he's basically working for the Decemvirate in exchange for opportunities to travel and explore.
I'm tempted to have all of my good-aligned characters switch to the Silver Crusade, to avoid those "you have to painfully poison this random dude, but it's not evil because I said so (wink wink)"-type faction missions. (No offense to those who like that kind of faction mission.)
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Don Thank you.
I am just curious.
I have 7 characters
11 level Mystc theurge of Pharasma Andoran Faction
8th level Inquisitor of Iomedae Andoran Faction
6/2 Alchemist/rogue of Osirion Faction
5 level cleric of Asmodeus of Cheliax Faction
4th level Magus of Androan faction
3rd level Cleric of Sarenrae of the Qadiran Faction
1st lvl rouge 1st level barbarian Qadiran
I
I put my mystic theurge of Pharasma in the Andronan faction because they were the "good guys and because i wanted to help the Andoran faction win. in hind sight, i think the character would have been a better fit with the Osirion faction or now the Grand Lodge faction I may move him there.
My Magus is an elven defender of Kyonin. I didnt find a faction that felt right, so i dumped him in Androan. I may change him over to the Lantern Lodge.
My 3rd level cleric of Sarenrae in the Qadiran faction, i think would be a much better fit in the Silver Crusade.
My remaining characters, the 8th level inquisitor of Iomedae, the 6/2 Alchemist Rogue, the the 5th level Cleric of Asmodeus and the 1/1 level Barbarian Rogue of Qadira, i think will all keep thier factions.
Now that our prestige points no longer count, i think i would probobly like one character in almost every faction.