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A couple of years ago, when I was first introduced to Pathfinder Society, I borrowed a friend's core rulebook to check out the rules and see if there were any character concepts that caught my eye. Like I'm sure many players did, when I came upon the list of Golarian gods, I read entry for Cayden Cailean and said, "Holy crap! There's a god of beer!"
I immediately decided I needed to make a paladin for this god.
Then I saw the alignment restrictions for worship, and realized that Cayden Cailean cannot technically have paladins.
I had a sad. :(
So I built a 1st level tactician fighter, because I support the idea of smart fighters [raises mug to Roy Greenhilt], and also because it gave me Diplomacy as a class skill. Byron claims to be a "paladin" of Cayden Cailean. Sure, it doesn't say so on his character sheet, but "paladin" is often synonymous with "holy warrior" in fantasy games, and it's a really meta distinction. He wears the big red tabard proudly, and leads a prayer before the first sip at the pub.
Now I've finally gotten Byron's third XP (convention staff doesn't get too many opportunities to play) and have been having a tough time deciding the next level. Inquisitor lets me a be a holy warrior without the alignment problems, but that still feels too uptight for a Cayden worshiper. The only thing I can imagine The Accidental God getting stroppy about is slavery, and I haven't seen any freedom or abolitionist archetypes.
So I open the floor to suggestions. How do I sneak of paladin of a chaotic good god past the PFS rules?
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I'm not sure if it is PFS legal, and it will take you a few levels to get there, but I believe the Chevalier is what your are looking for.
If that isn't an option, then a level of Bard would fit; Cayden Cailean does have bards as clergy in his service.
Cayden Cailean's clergy is comprised primarily of clerics, though a smattering of druids and bards can also be counted among their number. In the rare instances where any structure exists, the church favors a loose hierarchy. Typically, priests are free to spread the ideals of their faith as they see fit; the priests of the Lucky Drunk are often barkeeps, freedom fighters, or adventurers traveling alone or as part of a group. Matters of ceremony and high society are often held as secondary considerations to such individuals, and the clergy reflects this by limiting its formal dress to a simple brown tunic or robe and a red stole bearing the holy symbol of its patron. Many members also include a tankard as part of their formal garb, for luck and as a matter of practicality.
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How about just straight up cleric? Cayden has a couple of domains that would be useful to a melee fighter. So you could take a one level dip just to get the domain powers, or you could stick to cleric going forward, and make fighter the single level dip (which is often a good dip for a cleric, just to get heavy armor proficiency, and the extra HP and bonus feat).
Also, remember that you can rebuild your character in PFS until you've played him at level 2. So if you need to rebuild your stats or something to make whatever second class work, you can do that.
It's still puzzling to me that the Inquisitor class description says "any alignment." At minimum, shouldn't chaotic be forbidden?
No. There isn't something about the class that demands lawful behavior. They can do some dirty jobs, lie constantly, and work for chaotic deities to further their cause. Part of the point is working outside of the law sometimes. In particular there's a heretic archetype.
Anyways, I've always thought a barbarian would make a great paladin of Cayden. Lots of synergy with drunking, hardy, easily roleplayed as emotional, and the constitution to drink and drink and drink. Dwarven Barbarian 'paladin' of Cayden sounds fun imo.
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I'm not sure if it is PFS legal, and it will take you a few levels to get there, but I believe the Chevalier is what your are looking for.
Looks like the only thing from Second Darkness that is legal is the Liberator prestige class. Interesting, although I don't know how a 0 skill rank counts a prereq. :)
It's still puzzling to me that the Inquisitor class description says "any alignment." At minimum, shouldn't chaotic be forbidden?
Someone obviously hasn't played Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. :) More seriously, Inquisitors appear to be more concerned with the results than the method.
How about just straight up cleric? Cayden has a couple of domains that would be useful to a melee fighter. So you could take a one level dip just to get the domain powers, or you could stick to cleric going forward, and make fighter the single level dip (which is often a good dip for a cleric, just to get heavy armor proficiency, and the extra HP and bonus feat).
Also, remember that you can rebuild your character in PFS until you've played him at level 2. So if you need to rebuild your stats or something to make whatever second class work, you can do that.
Cleric is another class I'm debating. I know about the ability to rebuild before my next session, I've just never been the mechanically inclined player. The only thing I'm attached to is "smart sword & board fighter".
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There was a thread on this a few months ago looking to do the same thing. In the end there are a few option for getting a follower of Cayden Cailean. In all the options that fit will with the idea are the following. There might be some I forgot to mention.
Bard (Just a dashing finesse rogue. With the right build very effective at passing off as a champion of Cailean.)
Caviler : Huntmaster (A hard mercenary warrior with a Cailean hound as a trusted companion.)
Fighter : Lore Warden (A smart fighter with more then just a few tricks.)
Inquisitor / Cleric (A true divine caster that follows the drunk god.)
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Here are a few more ideas that I think fit well:
Bard. Consider the Daredevil archetype. All of the abilities seem to gel pretty well with a Cayden Cailean concept.
Fighter. Similarly, the Cad archetype. You lose medium and heavy armor proficiencies, but I think Cayden himself was a likely a cad.
Cleric. Certainly a good idea. It provides a divine connection with Cayden Cailean that the other classes don't offer. Also, it gives medium armor proficiency.
Barbarian. Drunken Brute archetype.
If you are looking for a freedom fighter/abolitionist, consider going with a halfling. There are several good halfling traits and feats that work well for that concept.
The 10-level build I would probably consider would be something like:
cleric 1/fighter (cad) 7/bard (daredevil) 2
or
cleric 3/fighter (cad) 7
or
cad 5/daredevil 5
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Take a 1-level dip into cleric (Cayden has solid domain choices... Azata subdomain would be nice for your concept, even with just the level dip) but stay focused on fighter. You should be able to qualify for the divine scion prestige class from Inner Sea Magic after 5th level. This provides you martial ability combined with divine spellcasting, plus the spiffy domain specialization ability at 3rd level of divine scion.
Domain specialization will grant you a spell-like ability and a sacred bonus on certain rolls... if you want to mimic a paladin, you can take specialization in the Good domain to detect evil at will and gain a +2 sacred bonus to Will saving throws. (Charm and Strength are also available to divine scions of Cayden Cailean, and provide nice bonuses.)
EDIT: Since the channel energy of this build would be weak anyways, take the variant channeling of the Bravery/Valor portfolio. It'd allow you to emulate something similar to the paladin's aura of courage by providing your allies rerolls against fear effects.
I don't know if you picked up Ultimate Campaign, but one of the backgrounds for Barbarian is that when he was called for divine servitude like a paladin, it filled him with righteous zeal that comes out in battle as his rage.
Chaotic Good reckless Holy Warrior of the Drunken God? You can even go Urban Barbarian if you want to be a little less reckless and may be better if you just want to dip.
I'm totally going to roll a character with this background when we get back to Golarion from Forgotten Realms.
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I don't know if you picked up Ultimate Campaign, but one of the backgrounds for Barbarian is that when he was called for divine servitude like a paladin, it filled him with righteous zeal that comes out in battle as his rage.
Chaotic Good reckless Holy Warrior of the Drunken God? You can even go Urban Barbarian if you want to be a little less reckless and may be better if you just want to dip.
I'm totally going to roll a character with this background when we get back to Golarion from Forgotten Realms.
Nothing from Ultimate Campaign has been added to the additional resources list for PFS, unfortunately.
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Monk, Drunken Master?Unfortunately, you can't be a drunken master follower of Cayden Cailean. Followers of Cayden must be within one step of CG. Monks, even drunken masters, are Lawful. :(Depends. Would it conflict with the Martial Artist archetype?
According to HeroLabs, it would. Too bad.
It's still possible to be a non-lawful monk, it just requires Blood of Angels. The Idyllkin Aasimar has a trait, Enlightened Warrior, which allows you to play a NG Monk, which could then worship Cayden Cailean. You'd just have to play an Idyllkin (+2 Con, +2 Cha), or possibly have the adopted trait (Adopted by Idyllkins huh?).
Nothing from Ultimate Campaign has been added to the additional resources list for PFS, unfortunately.I don't know if you picked up Ultimate Campaign, but one of the backgrounds for Barbarian is that when he was called for divine servitude like a paladin, it filled him with righteous zeal that comes out in battle as his rage.
Chaotic Good reckless Holy Warrior of the Drunken God? You can even go Urban Barbarian if you want to be a little less reckless and may be better if you just want to dip.
I'm totally going to roll a character with this background when we get back to Golarion from Forgotten Realms.
If a character is just using the background generation tables to decide their character's background, I doubt it'd be an issue since they wouldn't gain anything mechanical from it, however they would still have to restrict themselves to legal traits only.
Nothing from Ultimate Campaign has been added to the additional resources list for PFS, unfortunately.I don't believe Kairos was suggesting using any mechanic from Ultimate Campaign. Rather, Kairos was simply mentioning a character concept. There are no restrictions on sources of inspiration.
Yes, it is entirely fluff, there are no mechanics involved at all.
UCam has done me a great service of breaking paradigms I had for each class and opening me up to having a Barbarian as something other than a guy in a loin cloth or fighters as guys or girls in plate swinging weapons for money. It's also a great resource for the person in your group who has the same background for their character every campaign.
And Dylos is right, I do believe it makes you able to take certain traits or feats from UCam, but you (can just/may have to) ignore them.