PFS Factions, Blight Druids, and Gnomes.

[Crossroads Demon]

I have built a Blight Druid for Pathfinder Society play. I have read through some lore, mostly the Shadow Lodge (I know it is going away), Andorean, and Grand Lodge factions. Most of the others I am having difficulty reconciling with gnomes or druids (mostly druids).

So the questions are:
First: From the viewpoint of experienced Pathfinders, what should one expect from the Grand Lodge in terms of missions? Shadow Lodge? Andorean?

TL;DR:

My blight druid is, in my mind, a specialist in helping areas that have been, or are likely to be, victims of natural disaster, alchemical mishaps on glorious scales, or generally blighted areas. She views the vermin that help the recovery of such areas with awe and respect. Her favorite vermin is the common fly. How deep would the mountains of poo be without these little ravenous wonders? Who else would want to take on such a role?

She does not like death, but she appreciates the decay that leads to rebirth. She doesn't like disease, blight, or famine, but she loves looking for the cures to these woes.

Second: I am also looking for world lore events to tie my character's life to. Specifically ground shaking natural disaster, magical mishaps, alchemical accidents or the like. Gnomes live for a long time, so the event doesn't need to be current, though if there were such a monumental event in a Season 0, 1 or 2 module, I would like to tie in there if possible.

Finally: Thank you all for the responses I expect soon enough, and I apoligize if this belongs in advice. I debated back and forth, but since I am only asking for PFS input on PFS factions and events, I thought it best to ask where I expect PFS is the rule, not the exception.

[Rei]

Andoran is a difficult faction to work with if you're lawful. My roommate plays a high-level paladin, and in older seasons where Silver Crusade PCs work for Andoran, she often has to ignore her faction mission entirely - though obviously since the nature of faction missions will be changing, this, too, will probably change quite radically. Andorens are good guys on the inside, but they're also guerrilla fighters and more than willing to break laws for freedom and the "greater good". However, I don't necessarily see them as a bad fit for a blight druid like the one you describe: there could be a connection between freedom of intelligent beings from slavery and freedom of nature from natural and unnatural calamities.

I've not played a lot of Grand Lodge (most of my pregen efforts have been in modules) and I have no Shadow Lodge PCs, so someone else can probably give more of an estimate on how those work.

[Mergy]

Don't forget that Grand Lodge also includes Osirion missions for the first two seasons. Expect a lot of Knowledge checks, especially in the planar and arcana regions.

[Undone]

Rei wrote:

Andoran is a difficult faction to work with if you're lawful. My roommate plays a high-level paladin, and in older seasons where Silver Crusade PCs work for Andoran, she often has to ignore her faction mission entirely - though obviously since the nature of faction missions will be changing, this, too, will probably change quite radically. Andorens are good guys on the inside, but they're also guerrilla fighters and more than willing to break laws for freedom and the "greater good". However, I don't necessarily see them as a bad fit for a blight druid like the one you describe: there could be a connection between freedom of intelligent beings from slavery and freedom of nature from natural and unnatural calamities.

I've not played a lot of Grand Lodge (most of my pregen efforts have been in modules) and I have no Shadow Lodge PCs, so someone else can probably give more of an estimate on how those work.

Paladins can commit unlawful acts willy nilly and receive no consequences provided they are good unlawful acts.

Quote:

Code of Conduct: A paladin must be of lawful good alignment and loses all class features except proficiencies if she ever willingly commits an evil act.

On the topic of the blight druid the top 3 faction mission skills are in order

Diplomacy
Slight of hand
Intimidate/bluff

Unless I'm mistaken. Many faction missions are a single glorified skill check while others are very simple (Bury bodies). It all depends on the scenario. My druid is silver crusade because I wanted unambiguously good missions which the table would probably be able to help on. (So far we've had every table be willing to help because it's convincing people of something which by all rights is pure good.) It's not so odd that you'd have a goodly aligned druid who feels the compulsion to do good even if it's focused on animals.

I'd recommend the shadow lodge and ask about the other faction missions after an adventure so later when you've played rivalries end you can swap factions to whatever you feel most comfortable with.

[Crossroads Demon]

I will look into my pot of druid goodness!

I did not learn Sleight of Hand and as I recall you cannot make slight of hand untrained.

My Diplomacy is good for level 1 (+10). (+2 Cha, +3 Familiar, +1 Trait, +3 Class Skill, +1 Rank)

Bluff and Intimidate are at the my base stat (+2 Cha), which will be bad considering small sized characters get a penalty to Initimidate when dealing with larger types.

Maybe I should tweak a little to take those into account.

[Fromper]

Don't worry about sleight of hand. It comes up for faction missions occasionally, but so do all of the knowledge skills, and you can't use those untrained, either. Every once in a while, you'll get a mission you aren't qualified for. Most of the time, you can get an ally to help you out with it.

If you want to play against type, you could go with a faction that doesn't fit your character particularly well, and just say that it's because the character is from that country. For instance, I have a gnome in the Taldor faction, because he was born among the gnomes and other fey in the Vurduran Forest, on the border between Andoran and Taldor. When he left the forest to go see the rest of the world, he found himself in the human portions of Taldor.

[Bbauzh ap Aghauzh]

Or if you hate Taldor for whatever reason, Qadira or Cheliax would be options.

But ultimately if you can't find a faction that specifically fits your character, all characters are members of the Pathfinder Society. So Grand Lodge is the default faction.