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As a newbie Pathfinder, I have only one Chronicle sheet to my name, so I have very little knowledge about what sort of rewards tend to be found from various adventures. As I make plans for various characters' advancement, I'm forced to wonder what level of control I'll have over the items they acquire as they level up.
What I'm curious about is what kind of treasure I'm likely to see on these sheets. The Chronicle I earned has four items on it - three are super generic items which don't benefit any specific class, and one is a scroll. Is this pretty typical? Are there a lot of Chronicles out there that have a bunch of "one spell fits all" enchanted items, and there's a shortage of interesting things like +2 flaming swords and staves of power? I mean, a Cloak of Resistance is good and all, but I wonder if I'll have trouble acquiring specific enchanted items my character needs (what if I want powerful magic armor? Am I out of luck? What about a ring of protection? Et cetera.) Is four items a typical number, or do Chronicles usually have more/less options?
I'm also curious about upgrading items. Let's say I buy a +1 shield. Can I upgrade it to a +4 shield when I have the money to do so? Could I ever give it a special ability on top of it being a +1 shield, if I don't get it on a Chronicle?
I'm excited to learn more about Pathfinder Society and experience more games. Hopefully someone here can give me a bit of insight into the type of rewards I'll be earning as my character completes more exciting adventures!
Please download and read the guide to organized play.
The answers to the above questions are contained therein.
http://paizo.com/products/btpy84k4 - Guide
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First, welcome to PFS!
Second, understand that the items appearing on your sheet are not now owned by your PC. They are instead available for purchase. Gear acquisition is often misunderstood, so let me summarize:
There are three different ways in which an item can be available for purchase. The first (and probably most important) is the "Always Available" list. The Guide to Organized Play (a free download on this site) lists some items (nearly all nonmagical gear, +1 weapons/armor, 1st-level potions/oils/scrolls, and so forth) that are always available for purchase. If you have the gold to pay for it, you can buy any legal item that fits that list.
The second way is via Chronicle sheets. You'll notice some items and their prices listed on the sheets you got at the end of your sessions. Those items are now available for you to buy whenever you have the money to do so. Unless the sheet specifies a limited availability (something like "limit 1" listed after the price), those items are permanently added to the list of things your PC can buy.
Finally, there's your Fame score. Whenever you gain Prestige Points, your Fame score increases by the same amount (i.e., if you gain 1PP, you also increase your Fame by 1). There is a chart in the Guide to Organized Play that lists some price values alongside some Fame numbers. However much Fame you have, you can look on that chart and find a corresponding gold price and can purchase any legal item of that value or less (for instance, if you have at least 5 Fame, you can purchase any item of 500gp or less).
Note that regardless of purchasing power, you can only purchase an item if it's legal for the campaign. Most items from the Core Rulebook are legal, but for other stuff you'll need to check the Additional Resources page on this site to see if it's allowed (and if so, you'll need to own the appropriate book).
Hope that helps!
The Chronicle I earned has four items on it - three are super generic items which don't benefit any specific class, and one is a scroll.
In my experience, at low tier the items on chronicles skew heavily towards potions and scrolls, with the occasional single-use wondrous item thrown in now and then. It's possible that this has changed in recent seasons, of course.
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Please download and read the guide to organized play.
Please read my post more carefully. The guide says nothing about the type of treasure Chronicles award you.
In my experience, at low tier the items on chronicles skew heavily towards potions and scrolls, with the occasional single-use wondrous item thrown in now and then. It's possible that this has changed in recent seasons, of course.
Thanks, you're the first person who read my post and responded to the questions I asked, though I appreciate the other two responding quickly to questions I didn't ask. :P That's kinda a shame. I hope it gets more interesting at higher levels.
I'd initially included a paragraph explaining that I knew how Chronicles worked and how I can buy the items on them, but removed it. Guess I should have left it, heh.
I had two specific questions, which I'll reiterate here:
1. What type of items usually appear on Chronicle sheets?
2. How does "upgrading" an item work?
I have a third question now, raised by Chris's post.
3. How does Fame purchasing work differently from Chronicle purchasing?
I'm afraid I don't understand the Fame system particularly well. My gaming table said the phrase "You can buy a wand of cure light wounds for 2 pp!" about seventy times during the evening, but no other details, heh. I have two Prestige Points now that I've completed my first adventure (and faction mission, woo!), but what else can I get from them? Is Prestige Point purchasing limited to the "always available" list too? Is there an expanded list of stuff I can get for PP, or is it just an alternate form of wealth?
Please download and read the guide to organized play.Please read my post more carefully. The guide says nothing about the type of treasure Chronicles award you.
Chronicles don't award you treasure. Unless you are talking about the gold you receive. I assume since you've played one game you aren't talking about the small minority that do actually give you items.
Perhaps you could explain what I should read more carefully so that I may understand.
I'm afraid I don't understand the Fame system particularly well.
Its explained in the guide to organized play.
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Fame is useful if
Oh wait, wrong Fame.
I think you're confusing fame (fame!) and prestige, which is a completely different film.
Fame is your total prestige earned. In essense, it 'unlocks' more goodies to buy. Think of it like this.
Level 1 Pathfinder with little fame: "May I buy that headband of intellect +2"
Grand Lodge/Magic Shop: "What? Why would I sell it to you? Never heard of you, go away.
Level 4 Pathfinder: "I'm buying a headband of intellect +2. Are you selling?"
GRand Lodge/Magic Shop: "For you? Of course. Heard about that nastiness at the Blakros museum. Good job!"
Prestige is a pool of points you can spend to buy various things, vanities, raise dead etc. You can also burn 2 PP to buy one item of up to 750 GP value, regardless of fame (Fame!). Think of it as trading on your reputation.
Pathfinder with 2 Fame 2 PP: "I need a wand of cure light wounds."
Generic faction leader: "Here, take this one. You've done a lot fo us and not asked for much in return."
Pathfinder with 2 fame 0 PP: "I need a wand of cure light wounds"
Generic faction leader: "I understand you're needs, but you've been cashing in a lot of favors. Got to give a little to get a little. I'm sure you understand."
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1. What type of items usually appear on Chronicle sheets?
2. How does "upgrading" an item work?
3. How does Fame purchasing work differently from Chronicle purchasing?
1. The items NPCs use in the scenario. On average, it's not anything special. Some sheets have really awesome unique items, but of course, there's no "typical" unique item.
2. Check out this thread, appropriately called "How to upgrade your gear in PFS."
3. It goes like this: If it's on the always available list, you can buy it. If it isn't, you can buy it (a) when your Fame score is high enough or (b) if it's on a chronicle. So the chronicle items are good if you want something that your Fame score isn't high enough to allow, but in my experience, that doesn't happen often. In a lot of ways, the list of stuff like healing potions and the like on chronicles is just a leftover practice from the time before Fame rules.
And here are two other threads I found by searching "How does fame work"
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2os9i?How-exactly-does-item-purchase-work-in-PF S#1
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2opmy?Clarification-on-buying-stuff#1
I really hope this helps.
2. How does "upgrading" an item work?
For ease of play in Pathfinder Society, a masterwork item can always be upgraded to a +1 item without paying for the masterwork cost again. Instead, you pay the difference between the cost of the +1 item and that of the masterwork item. This rule also applies to upgrading from a +1 item to a +2 item and so on—you never have to repay the original cost or sell your current item for half to upgrade to the next step. Note that this only applies to items of the same kind—you can’t, for example, turn your masterwork rapier into a +1 greatsword. A mundane item can not be upgraded to masterwork, nor can nonmagical aspects of equipment be upgraded (such as the strength rating on a composite bow).
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OH! That makes so much more sense! I'd thought you needed an appropriate Fame score AND an appropriate Chronicle to get an item.
So, to clarify, if I had like 90 Fame (or some huge number), I could buy just about any item that appears in a legal sourcebook, regardless of whether it appeared on a Chronicle sheet I'd earned? (Exceptions for banned items and whatnot, of course).
That also explains why I was confused about upgrading items. :)
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The reason people pointed out the other stuff about how to buy items, instead of just answering the original question, is that their answers make your original question irrelevant. You can buy pretty much anything, once you have enough fame. That's why it doesn't matter what's on the chronicle sheets.
Edit: Ok, looks like you caught on and posted again while I was writing this. :)
Prestige is a pool of points you can spend to buy various things, vanities, raise dead etc. You can also burn 2 PP to buy one item of up to 750 GP value, regardless of fame (Fame!). Think of it as trading on your reputation.
The full(ish) list is on page 27. (There's also some faction specific things you can spend Prestige on in the Pathfinder Society Field Guide.)
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The reason people pointed out the other stuff about how to buy items, instead of just answering the original question, is that their answers make your original question irrelevant. You can buy pretty much anything, once you have enough fame. That's why it doesn't matter what's on the chronicle sheets.
Edit: Ok, looks like you caught on and posted again while I was writing this. :)
Yeah, the person who explained this all to me in person wasn't particularly good at explaining things.
I'm just waiting for the OP to ask where they can buy a wand of lightning.
:D
Heh, I read that thread. :P
Thanks for the help, everyone!
So, to clarify, if I had like 90 Fame (or some huge number), I could buy just about any item that appears in a legal sourcebook, regardless of whether it appeared on a Chronicle sheet I'd earned? (Exceptions for banned items and whatnot, of course).
Yes. In practice, many things you'll find on your chronicle sheets will be stuff you can already buy because of your Fame score (as noted by Fromper). I think they've been trying to add access to some more unusual or interesting items lately, to make the chronicle access more relevant.
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So, to clarify, if I had like 90 Fame (or some huge number), I could buy just about any item that appears in a legal sourcebook, regardless of whether it appeared on a Chronicle sheet I'd earned? (Exceptions for banned items and whatnot, of course).Yes. In practice, many things you'll find on your chronicle sheets will be stuff you can already buy because of your Fame score (as noted by Fromper). I think they've been trying to add access to some more unusual or interesting items lately, to make the chronicle access more relevant.
What he said. This is for me the biggest problem with most chronicle sheets since pretty much every item a chronicle sheet gives you access to is something you already could have bought anyways.
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What he said. This is for me the biggest problem with most chronicle sheets since pretty much every item a chronicle sheet gives you access to is something you already could have bought anyways.
Man, that's sure different from the impression I was given at the card shop. Good thing I asked the experts! Thanks again, I'm so much more optimistic about being able to make the character I want now! :D
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This is for me the biggest problem with most chronicle sheets since pretty much every item a chronicle sheet gives you access to is something you already could have bought anyways.
This is an unfortunate by-product of the campaign rules for what gets put on the Chronicle sheets. In short, if the PCs recover *any* items which aren't on the "Always Available" list, those items are supposed to show up on the Chronicle sheet.
So, even relatively "common" (but not "always available") items -- such as the near-ubiquitous cloak of resistance +1 or bracers of armor +1 -- show up on Chronicles, even at higher-level tiers, at which any PC who's legally playing those tiers will almost undoubtedly have gained more than enough Fame to just buy such items outright.
As has been noted above, the campaign staff has realized that this has been the case, and have been trying to put more items on Chronicles that players might actually want to purchase (and would not otherwise have access to purchase).
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The chronicles do help if you're completely new to the system and don't even know about all of possible magic items there are. They give you examples of what kind of stuff is out there. And make it easier to choose something, when there's just too much to choose from if you start going trough all of the items available to you because of fame.
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Never: any item that adds to primary stats (str, dex, int, wis, cha). This of course could be the luck of the draw. I had access to 'non-always available' items that are over 10 times what my Fame cap allows (without playing up). My cap was 1,500 and I got access to a weapon worth over 18k. By contrast I have yet to see that belt of strength +2 or headband of intelligence +2 (for 4k) which I'll have access via fame in 2 more adventures.
There is at least one chronicle out there that has those belts and headbands.
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Unless you are really bad at completing faction missions to get the fame, there's only one thing you want to really really really keep track of on chronicle sheets.
Limited-use wands.
Keep track of these so well, list potential purchases of them on your chronicle sheet if you have to. Even if you're a fighter type, consider buying them to hand to your party sorcerer for a better chance of party survival.
The reason being it is much more affordable to buy a higher level wand with 5 or 10 uses than with a full 50 uses.
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Unless you are really bad at completing faction missions to get the fame, there's only one thing you want to really really really keep track of on chronicle sheets.
Limited-use wands.
Keep track of these so well, list potential purchases of them on your chronicle sheet if you have to. Even if you're a fighter type, consider buying them to hand to your party sorcerer for a better chance of party survival.
The reason being it is much more affordable to buy a higher level wand with 5 or 10 uses than with a full 50 uses.
Agreed.
And I've seen stat boosting items on chronicles occasionally, but they really aren't very common.
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As mentioned, what you will see, especially on older chronicles, are those items used or carried by the NPCs that are not on the Always Available list.
So you will see +2 mithril chain, but not +1 mithruil chain, since the +1 mithril chain is Always Available.
Potions of Cure Moderate Wounds, but not the fairly common potions of Cure Light Wounds.
Sometimes, you will see either partially charged wands, wands of higher than minimum caster level, smaller loadouts of ammunition than 50, and occasionally non-standard items in general.
Note that, per PFSOP rules, any wand, scroll or potion purchased is made at minimum caster level, with the minimum stat needed to cast that level of spell. And, when on one of their spell lists, sold as being created by a Wizard, Cleric or Druid.
Example: Wands of Lesser Restoration are sold as 2nd level wands, made by a cleric, rather than as 1st level wands, created by a paladin.
When the spell is at different levels on primary spell lists, you purchase it at the lower spell/CL level, like Continual Flame as a 2nd level Wizard spell rather than a 3rd level Cleric spell.
Ther are various non-standard items available, mainly from newer scenarios, which might be of interest. Those can be very class or player dependent, though.
I have seen a possibly intelligent ring on a chronicle, a cursed item you get to keep, and some of the older Pathfinder Tales chronicles (requiring ownership of a book as well as the free chronicle) sometimes offer access to interesting items.
Example: Wands of Lesser Restoration are sold as 2nd level wands, made by a cleric, rather than as 1st level wands, created by a paladin.When the spell is at different levels on primary spell lists, you purchase it at the lower spell/CL level, like Continual Flame as a 2nd level Wizard spell rather than a 3rd level Cleric spell.
These seem to contradict one another.
Is the Lesser Restoration wand for a Paladin an exception to the rule on buying the wand at the lowest spell level on different class spell lists?
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Example: Wands of Lesser Restoration are sold as 2nd level wands, made by a cleric, rather than as 1st level wands, created by a paladin.When the spell is at different levels on primary spell lists, you purchase it at the lower spell/CL level, like Continual Flame as a 2nd level Wizard spell rather than a 3rd level Cleric spell.
These seem to contradict one another.
Is the Lesser Restoration wand for a Paladin an exception to the rule on buying the wand at the lowest spell level on different class spell lists?
(Emphasis added.)
You assume all items are made by a wizard, cleric or druid (I'm guessing that's what he meant by "primary", since those classes have full spell progression). If a spell appears on more than one of those three lists, then you use the lowest.
Ah, thank you. Glossed right over the ‘primary’ part.
That’s a shame, a Wand of Lesser Restoration would have been a great buy for 2 PP. :)
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I'm afraid I don't understand the Fame system particularly well. My gaming table said the phrase "You can buy a wand of cure light wounds for 2 pp!" about seventy times during the evening, but no other details, heh. I have two Prestige Points now that I've completed my first adventure (and faction mission, woo!), but what else can I get from them? Is Prestige Point purchasing limited to the "always available" list too? Is there an expanded list of stuff I can get for PP, or is it just an alternate form of wealth?
Welcome Morphling!
The reason you keep hearing this is because you could not buy a 750 gp wand until much later if you waited for the gold/Fame. This is probably part of what they were telling you. Hopefully it makes more sense now. Spending prestige is a good way to not force another character to spend their resources keeping you alive, which is just considered good PFS etiquette. :) And yes there is a list of what you can spend prestige on in the Guide (I think someone already answered that, but thought I'd throw it in anyway :)
Good luck