I'll be moving to a new state soon and am thinking that playing some PFS would be a great way to get acquainted with the local gaming scene. I haven't played society before and have a few questions on what type of character would complement a typical PFS group.
1. What niches are typically left uncovered at PFS tables?
2. How often do you find yourself thinking "If only we had a ..."?
3. As a (new to PFS) player how should I divide my resources between being useful in combat and out of combat?
From what I've heard, the answers to questions 1 and 2 vary wildly from region to region.
Cleric
Cleric
Any particular type of cleric?
Someone with social skills is always useful, as is a character with knowledges...
1. What niches are typically left uncovered at PFS tables?
2. How often do you find yourself thinking "If only we had a ..."?
3. As a (new to PFS) player how should I divide my resources between being useful in combat and out of combat?
1. Depends on where you are. When I played it was anything that could do damage. Usually its best to be versatile I think.
2. I heard it a lot, but people who said it I wasn't fond of nor what they said. Play what you want. Its much easier on yourself to play what interest you than trying to mold yourself to pick up groups.3. Depends on the class. Try to be versatile, but remember there will always be combat. Bring a variety of adventuring supplies and the like and you should be good to go for the lower levels until you decide for yourself.
I've found that skillmonkey ranger builds are always useful, as they cover a lot of niches, can use wands of CLW, and are really effective in combat.
Personal Favorite is the Urban variant, since he gets trapfinding like the rogue, and Disable Device as a class skill (and can disable magical traps), which, imo, is well worth giving up favored terrain.
Control. Control is the most powerfull thing you can do in PFS. If you can take monsters out of the fight for a few rounds you made the fight easy. It is rare I see builds dedicated to using control effects on the enemies. Also every controller I have seen can double as something else. Sorc=face, bard=too many to list, cleric=healer, monk=tank. So having two controllers does not hurt a party just makes it extra easy.
Melee/ heal/ buff/ bad touch clerics. Never one around when you need one.
I don't see a lot of wizards, probably because the lower levels are a horrible time to play one.
I don't see a lot of wizards, probably because the lower levels are a horrible time to play one.
I play mostly casters. My local group back when I played lacked them. Color spray ended a lot of encounters and a backup crossbow is always useful. With level 1 rerolls you don't even have to go through the first level with one.
Speaking of which, don't worry about your first choice. Your able to remake you character as many times as you want until you play him at level 2. Can get introduced to people over the course of that time.
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Summoners are another good choice for gap-filler. They're generally powerful, very versatile in combat, can be party faces if nobody better's available, have all Knowledge skills as class skills, and while they can't heal anyone but their Eidolon (aside from the infernal healing spell, which was legal last time I checked), they can protect their party in a different way by spitting out monsters.
Two other good choices are Inquisitor (Paizo's good-but-not-perfect stab at a priest/rogue hybrid) and the Alchemist (who, as a rule to which there can be exceptions, can do most anything with the 3 most notable exceptions being mind-manipulation/illusion, summoning monsters, and social interaction).
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1: Skills are often uncovered, and some people forget to pack their own healing. Some people who seek to fix the above problems forget to bring combat ability (ever sit down at a table with a healbot cleric and a skill monkey rogue? I have, as a result my WITCH had to tank an encounter, and she was actually better at healing and skills than the other two combined).
2: Bard. No really. Everytime I almost hit I wish I had one. Every time we need a knowledge roll but don't have that particular one. Every time we need to roll really well to get a social encounter out of the way... And they give extra spell support which is super nice since they have minor healing and solid arcane spells.
3: Being bad in combat gets you and potentially other party members killed. Being bad outside of combat makes non combat encounters take more time or possibly fail faction missions. I would say a balance of 2/3 combat ability, 1/3 out of combat ability (as if you could actually divide that up lol) I would say have at least 1 good social skill, 1 good knowledge, whatever your class is supposed to be good at, the ability to not drown, and if you have the points, 1 skill that is so random most people won't have it but it might come up (profession sailor actually comes up semi frequently for instance).
I would say for a pick up game where you are unsure of other players you should pick a hybrid class/versatile class. Examples are the inquisitor, the witch, the magus, the alchemist, the cleric (especially the evangelist archetype), a well built bard, the druid, and the summoner. The other classes are very much specialized/lack important skills and you can't count on the other party members of filling the missing pieces.
By far the best character (IMHO) you can make for a new group you know nothing about is the evangelist cleric. You give up some important features for even better things. You are one of the best buffing characters possible, and you are full caster (and 3/4 BAB). Grab a good domain, build for buffing, and use a ranged weapon to support the party after you are done buffing. This character doesn't really heal that well, but you can just carry a 2 PA cure stick for that (and when you get your channels you might as well pick up a alt channel ability for even further party support, protection is a solid choice).
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I have only ever seen two Inquisitors played and one is my own. I also feel like they fill in a lot of gaps with their ability to be so versatile, picking up melee/ranged/tanking/healing with their judgments if you build them right. While they won't outshine anyone at any of the above tasks, they do a damn good job of staying relevant and picking up any slack in the party.
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Out here in our group it's arcane casters and range. Currently we've been begging for something that can hit anything flying of the ground with something other then a chair or someone with some arcane power.
That being said it does vary wildly. My best suggestion would be to contact your new regions venture captain and maybe see if he can give you any advice on what the scene will look like in the area you're moving to.
According to the perusing of a large number of threads, PFS is all about dungeon crawls with little room for role-playing. This could just be the masses that like to hate on role-play or skillful characters and focus solely on maxing out damage. I would suggest trying it out and seeing what the needs of where you are will be.
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According to the perusing of a large number of threads, PFS is all about dungeon crawls with little room for role-playing. This could just be the masses that like to hate on role-play or skillful characters and focus solely on maxing out damage. I would suggest trying it out and seeing what the needs of where you are will be.
And that would be false. There are plenty of chances to role play in PFS...however it should be noted that there WILL be combat. A lot of the I make gimp characters because I am a "role player" crowd dislike this aspect of PFS as they would rather not have any combat at all. You can role play, be skillful and still be quite good at combat. None of these things are mutually exclusive.
