Suggestions for a Starting Player

[taggart6]

Howdy all,

I recently attended my first pathfinders society meeting and really enjoyed it. It was also my first time playing pathfinders so I used a pregen since I'm still learning the intricacies of the system.

Having gone through the core guide and the society rule book, I feel ready to roll my own character. I'm looking to role a rogue or gunslinger and I wanted some advice on what people recommend for a first time character as well as some general questions regarding the classes and how they work in society play.

For the gunslinger, do the changes to gunsmithing for society play greatly affect how the class is played? You can't craft anything and you can't purchase guns at a reduced price. For those that have played a gunslinger in PFS. does this greatly affect the development of the class? Since your tied so much to a single weapon, it sounds like this would prevent you from being very effective until you had enough money to buy your way in. That has me a little wary.

For the rogue, I'm looking at stealthy attack build who focuses on flanking (back stab) and throwing weapons for ranged scenarios. I'm considering a half-elf which would allow me to multi-class with a monk or fighter to help round out my build. Otherwise, I might do a pure rogue build with a human for the extra feats.

Hopefully I should have my two builds up for further input in the next day or 2. Looking forward to get some feedback on my characters!

[Jiggy]

Welcome to the Society!

Re: Gunsmithing
Check out the Additional Resources page:

Quote:

Gunsmithing does not grant the ability to craft firearms, ammunition, or black powder. Rather, it allows the purchase of bullets, pellets, black powder, and alchemical cartridges (with 1 rank in Craft [alchemy]) at the listed reduced price, but does not grant a discount on the purchase of any firearm.

So yes, you get the discounted ammo if you're a Gunslinger.

You can also upgrade your starting gun, but I'm having trouble finding the reference.

Re: Rogue
Note that anyone can multiclass without penalty; if you've played 3.x, favored classes work COMPLETELY differently. You pick a class to be your favored class, and the only mechanical impact of that choice is that each time you gain a level in that class, you get a "favored class bonus", which is an extra skill rank or hit point. The difference between a human rogue8/fighter4 and a half-elf rogue8/fighter4 is four HP (or skill ranks, or a mix). It really doesn't matter that much.

Also note that getting sneak attack with ranged attacks is EXTREMELY difficult. You can't flank with a ranged attack, which means you'd need them to be without their DEX bonus to AC... which is far easier to do in melee (feinting, Dirty Trick to blind them, etc). So keep that in mind.

General Tips
There are three things to remember:
Be able to fight.
Be able to move.
Be able to investigate.
A well-rounded character will usually do better in PFS than a laser-focused one. Yes, combat is the most frequent challenge. But sometimes someone goes unconscious underwater and you have to drag them out in 1 round or they die. Sometimes you have to get up that cliff, then get back down while being fly-by attacked by harpies. Sometimes you have to uncover the murder conspiracy or black market connections.

That's all I've got off the top of my head. Have fun!

[taggart6]

Jiggy wrote:

Welcome to the Society!

Re: Gunsmithing
Check out the Additional Resources page:

Quote:

Gunsmithing does not grant the ability to craft firearms, ammunition, or black powder. Rather, it allows the purchase of bullets, pellets, black powder, and alchemical cartridges (with 1 rank in Craft [alchemy]) at the listed reduced price, but does not grant a discount on the purchase of any firearm.

So yes, you get the discounted ammo if you're a Gunslinger.

You can also upgrade your starting gun, but I'm having trouble finding the reference.

Re: Rogue
Note that anyone can multiclass without penalty; if you've played 3.x, favored classes work COMPLETELY differently. You pick a class to be your favored class, and the only mechanical impact of that choice is that each time you gain a level in that class, you get a "favored class bonus", which is an extra skill rank or hit point. The difference between a human rogue8/fighter4 and a half-elf rogue8/fighter4 is four HP (or skill ranks, or a mix). It really doesn't matter that much.

Also note that getting sneak attack with ranged attacks is EXTREMELY difficult. You can't flank with a ranged attack, which means you'd need them to be without their DEX bonus to AC... which is far easier to do in melee (feinting, Dirty Trick to blind them, etc). So keep that in mind.

General Tips
There are three things to remember:
Be able to fight.
Be able to move.
Be able to investigate.
A well-rounded character will usually do better in PFS than a laser-focused one. Yes, combat is the most frequent challenge. But sometimes someone goes unconscious underwater and you have to drag them out in 1 round or they die. Sometimes you have to get up that cliff, then get back down while being fly-by attacked by harpies. Sometimes you have to uncover the murder conspiracy or black market connections.

That's all I've got off the top of my head. Have fun!

Thanks Jiggy. I was actually making some edits to my post when you replied. Went over the society guide and some threads and got a batter understanding of how gunsmithing works. I'm still curious about upgrading the starting gun since I'm seeing conflicting viewpoints. I can;t seem to find any reference on it as well.

As for the rogue, flanking would only be for melee. I'm not trying to flank with ranged. I merely wanted some ranged expertise to help round out my character in case flanking is not an option and I prefer not to go directly head to head. I'm also looking to specialize in traps and was hoping to use ranged weapons as a way to set-off difficult traps. Sounds like it might be best to just focus on melee and stealth and leave the ranged to the other classes.

[Jiggy]

Here's some more helpful reading:

Painlord's What to Expect at a PFS Table

Posts for Better PFS Play

[taggart6]

Jiggy wrote:

Here's some more helpful reading:

Painlord's What to Expect at a PFS Table

Posts for Better PFS Play

Thanks.

Also found this in regards to upgrading starting gun to masterwork:

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/pathfinderS ociety/general/archives/gunslingerAndMasterworkWeaponsAQuestion

Looks like you can. I'm assuming I can do this upgrade between PFS sessions and not during a session?

[Jiggy]

Yeah, there's an undefined amount of time between scenarios, so take care of that kind of thing then.

[taggart6]

Jiggy wrote:

Yeah, there's an undefined amount of time between scenarios, so take care of that kind of thing then.

Thanks again. Should have something whipped up in the next day or 2. pretty excited to go with a gunslinger since I've always ben a fan of spell slingers.