Pathfinder society character creation questions

[LiquidVelocity]

Hi,

I'm making my first Pathfinder Society character, but never played any of the adventure paths that I assume are the basis for Society play. I have a couple of metagame questions as I'm designing the character.

1) Do I need to min/max my character to contribute in Society play? I'm interested in putting a couple of points in CHA or some other characteristic for RP purposes. Should I just not bother with that and RP the leader type with a CHA of 8? :)

2)I'm thinking of a character with a past history of a desert ranger. But in the adventure paths, what is in the desert areas that could be favored enemy other than humanoids? Are dragons or outsiders or some other desert type creature found in the adventure paths? I'm fine with the enemies not showing up every session, but I don't want to never see them either. Any suggestions?

[FanaticRat]

1. No. So long as your character is competent at doing what they're supposed to do, it's fine to move stats around as you like. So, there's nothing wrong with deviating from an optimized build to like have stuff like charisma on a class that doesn't typically use it, like having an alchemist or gunslinger who can actually talk to people, but don't dump INT if you're a wizard or STR if you're a STR-based fighter.

2. No idea. Also, PFS has its own little scenarios, not APs.

[Pirate Rob]

Hey there and welcome to PFS!

1) PFS is not so mechanically challenging as to require optimized PCs. Build your character however makes you happy.

2)Undead are pretty common and can appear in the desert. The upcoming season is called Year of the Demon so Evil Outsiders could be a good choice although my Golarion lore isn't really strong enough to tell you about them and the desert.

I'm not quite sure why you are asking about adventure paths, most of PFS play happens through it's scenarios although there is some additional play via modules and adventure paths.

While some people like to complain about the pregens being suboptimal they do make a good baseline for what PFS expects, and can be found here.

[Rusty Ironpants]

As far as a common favored enemy in Golarion deserts I would say that Gnolls are a common humanoid found in those areas. However I cannot say that I have seen many PFS scenarios that feature Gnolls as enemies. so that would probably not be the best choice.

Osirion (egypt analogue) deserts also probably feature a fair amount of undead so that might be a good choice.

[Starglim]

Vermin and elemental outsiders also occur in deserts. The ancient Osirians and the Jistka built a lot of constructs. Dragons of different breeds can turn up anywhere. You could justify various different choices depending on your idea of the character.

I agree that humanoid (gnoll) won't come up very often.

[Alexander_Damocles]

Things I have run into in the desert regions of Golarion:

Humans (lots)
Evil Outsiders (few)
Undead (fair number)

Undead hunter works nicely, as does hunting the various humans that serve the big nasty enemies out there.

More importantly, welcome to the society! Hope to meet you at a game day or a con in the future!

[LiquidVelocity]

Thanks, all. That really helps out. Looking forward to my first session.

[Robert A Matthews]

For the most part, you shouldn't have to min/max. The only thing I've played that made me feel that min/maxing was pretty much required is Thornkeep. Some people will say that Season 4 requires min/maxing, but that is only because it is designed for tables of 6 instead of 4. It depends on party makeup usually, a scenario that is easy for one party can nearly wipe the next party. Build a character that will be fun for you to play, and fun for others at the table to interact with.