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My girlfriend and I will be joining our first Pathfinder society game next week and I came to you folks seeking wisdom. While we both have a lot of home game experience, neither one of us has ever played in an organized play event before and I'm not entirely certain if everything we know about the game functions the same. I did download and read the free societies book that explains the rules and such, but I was wondering if...
-Are there any play styles that would work for a home game that can't/shouldn't be played in societies? For example, the god wizard or the guerrilla rogue or the pokemaster?
-Are there any classes that one should generally avoid? Not because you think of them as a poor choice for whatever reason (such as the general dislike for monks and rogues) but because something about their class just doesn't fit into the way adventures work. For instance, I don't imagine that a lot of the adventures grant gear for the Gunslinger class (beyond loot that might be useful to any ranged character). Would this greatly reduce the usefulness of the class?
-Are there any classes that are preferred? Like, gosh, those Bardic Knowledge rolls are incredible in societies and they help a lot or you fight a lot of Smite Evil targets, so Paladins all the way!
-Or am I overthinking everything and they work pretty much the same as the home game, just with different exp and loot rules?
(I appologize if this should be in the advice section. I figured since it was about Society, it would do better in that section.)
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Okay, let's back up a bit. Some of these questions can be answered with a read of the free Guide to Organized Play, Season 5 and by looking at the Additional Resources list for PFS.
Have you done both of these things?
Here is a link to the free download for the Guide to Organized Play
Here is a link to the Additional Resources List
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My girlfriend and I will be joining our first Pathfinder society game next week and I came to you folks seeking wisdom. While we both have a lot of home game experience, neither one of us has ever played in an organized play event before and I'm not entirely certain if everything we know about the game functions the same. I did download and read the free societies book that explains the rules and such, but I was wondering if...
-Are there any play styles that would work for a home game that can't/shouldn't be played in societies? For example, the god wizard or the guerrilla rogue or the pokemaster?
-Are there any classes that one should generally avoid? Not because you think of them as a poor choice for whatever reason (such as the general dislike for monks and rogues) but because something about their class just doesn't fit into the way adventures work. For instance, I don't imagine that a lot of the adventures grant gear for the Gunslinger class (beyond loot that might be useful to any ranged character). Would this greatly reduce the usefulness of the class?
-Are there any classes that are preferred? Like, gosh, those Bardic Knowledge rolls are incredible in societies and they help a lot or you fight a lot of Smite Evil targets, so Paladins all the way!
-Or am I overthinking everything and they work pretty much the same as the home game, just with different exp and loot rules?
(I appologize if this should be in the advice section. I figured since it was about Society, it would do better in that section.)
Welcome :)
As Lamontious stated... some of your questions and hopefully some you haven't thought of can be answered in the free guide ... to get it .. click on the pathfinder society link on the left ... then click on products ... there should be a link to the guide (don't worry it's free). It'll then show up in your downloads section (click the link at the top) and you can download it ....
the FAQ can be accessed in the downloads section as well.
The biggest and more widely flung rule of the society is to not be a jerk. My general rule of thumb on concepts ... if I have to ask if it's going to be ok for society play, then I should probably tweak the concept a bit to the point where I'm not asking I know it'll be ok -- don't offend is one such thing to take into consideration.
The FAQ is going to give you lists of books and either what is or isn't available ... to be honest for your first character you might want to keep it simple and stick to the core and the APG .. but if you wanna splatter the character all across different books you're more than welcome to, just keep in mind that to play the character at a society game you need to have all the books that your character uses... it's your back lol
As for what to play .. play something that is going to be fun for you .. take a look at archetypes (as long as they are allowed) and let your imagination run wild :)
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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-Are there any play styles that would work for a home game that can't/shouldn't be played in societies? For example, the god wizard or the guerrilla rogue or the pokemaster?
The only play styles that don't get much traction are ones that similarly are the cause for disdain in homebrews. I'm talking about the selfish, backstabbing, conceited kinds of characters that PCs in general would hate to adventure with. As long as you keep the whole "we're all in this together" mentality with your character, anything that's legal goes.
-Are there any classes that one should generally avoid? Not because you think of them as a poor choice for whatever reason (such as the general dislike for monks and rogues) but because something about their class just doesn't fit into the way adventures work. For instance, I don't imagine that a lot of the adventures grant gear for the Gunslinger class (beyond loot that might be useful to any ranged character). Would this greatly reduce the usefulness of the class?
It depends on your area. If you have a lot of low level gunslingers, another gunslinger will probably cause some eyes to roll. Similarly, if you have a wizard heavy group, another arcane caster probably isn't the best thing to compliment what's already there. My advice would be to contact some people in the area (hopefully the store coordinator) and see what they have a lot of--then do something else. I only advise this because you have a good understanding of the system and are going to have fun playing various roles. If, however, you really like playing rogues, by all means make a rogue, even if there are a plethora of them in your area.
To answer your other question, class specific gear is rare in general. I actually don't know of any rewards that are class specific that you wouldn't be able to purchase normally anyway.
-Are there any classes that are preferred? Like, gosh, those Bardic Knowledge rolls are incredible in societies and they help a lot or you fight a lot of Smite Evil targets, so Paladins all the way!
Early on, healing is greatly appreciated. In the later levels, support spells and classes in general is also appreciated. Since PFS caters to a lot of new people (people new to RPGs in general too), tendency is for a lot of damage dealing folks in the early tables. So being able to enhance their potential to deal that damage goes a long way to being well appreciated. This of course assumes that's what happens in your area--who knows, you might have a huge influx of clerics and what they really need is more gunslingers! As before, I'd ask around and see.
-Or am I overthinking everything and they work pretty much the same as the home game, just with different exp and loot rules?
It's like a home game with a rotation on who GMs and who plays. You get to experience wildly different locations from week to week and expand your gaming experience with each table. Ultimately, play what will make you happy.
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Welcome to PFS! :)
-Are there any play styles that would work for a home game that can't/shouldn't be played in societies? For example, the god wizard or the guerrilla rogue or the pokemaster?
For starters, make sure that the content you want to use is legal by checking out the Additional Resources page; some of the logistically-difficult options are banned outright. For instance, there's usually a time limit before the venue closes or whatever, so doing things like summoning lots of critters at once can slow the game down and be an issue. As a result, things like the Master Summoner are banned.
Other than that, as long as you're not a limelight-hog in how you use your character's abilities, you're probably fine. :)
-Are there any classes that one should generally avoid? Not because you think of them as a poor choice for whatever reason (such as the general dislike for monks and rogues) but because something about their class just doesn't fit into the way adventures work. For instance, I don't imagine that a lot of the adventures grant gear for the Gunslinger class (beyond loot that might be useful to any ranged character). Would this greatly reduce the usefulness of the class?
Actually, you have quite a lot of gear access in PFS. As is explained (though not necessarily very cleanly) in the Guide, there are three lists of things you can buy:
1) The "Always Available" list, which everyone can always buy when they have the cash (the list is in the Guide).2) Items on chronicle sheets, having been found during a session (you don't automatically GET these items, you just gain the option to BUY them; this preempts the situation of people fighting over who gets Item X).
3) Items whose total price is under the cap set by your Fame score (there's a chart in the Guide). The raising of this cap via Fame tends to outpace your likelihood of saving up cash, such that by around 5th level you can buy almost anything you have the cash for.
Thus, there are no classes who are going to get gear-screwed, as you can buy what you need for the most part.
-Are there any classes that are preferred? Like, gosh, those Bardic Knowledge rolls are incredible in societies and they help a lot or you fight a lot of Smite Evil targets, so Paladins all the way!
That'll vary by region/community, but by and large you can play what you like. Do keep in mind that versatility is rewarded more in this campaign than in some, as you can't guarantee your party make-up. I.e., you might need Diplomacy but have no bard, you might need Knowledges but have no wizard, you might need... you get the idea. Have a main schtick that you're pretty solid at, but have ways to contribute in other situations, just in case you're the only one who can: invest in a couple of academic or social skills, carry some situational consumables (what if there's no casters to blast swarms?), bring your own wand of cure light wounds even if you need someone else to activate it, etc.
Basically, play what you want and be prepared for everyone else to do the same. :)
-Or am I overthinking everything and they work pretty much the same as the home game, just with different exp and loot rules?
The main differences, IMO, would be these:
• Fairly easy gear access (as described above)
• Can't count on a balanced party, which rewards individual versatility
• Have to make concessions to the time slot
• You'll probably have multiple GMs, so avoid gray areas of the rules
• Since the campaign is about PCs who are field agents in the in-world Society, use a concept which fits that model.
Hope that helps!
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Tip 0: RELAX. Its an official organized sanctioned game with paper work but its still a game DOn't worry and have fun.
-Are there any play styles that would work for a home game that can't/shouldn't be played in societies? For example, the god wizard or the guerrilla rogue or the pokemaster?
Summon spams tend to be frowned on a bit as they take up a lot of time.
-Are there any classes that one should generally avoid? Not because you think of them as a poor choice for whatever reason (such as the general dislike for monks and rogues) but because something about their class just doesn't fit into the way adventures work.
Paladins can be a little tricky, given different dms ideas of lawful good, adherence to their code, and the fact that pathfinders break more laws before breakfast than cheliax makes in a year.
For instance, I don't imagine that a lot of the adventures grant gear for the Gunslinger class (beyond loot that might be useful to any ranged character). Would this greatly reduce the usefulness of the class?
Pathfinder society is VERY magic mart. You work for a faction who can generally get you anything you want as long as you have the gold for it. If you want a +1 small fiery shocking pistol you can buy one without having to pray you skin a gnome gunslinger.
-Are there any classes that are preferred? Like, gosh, those Bardic Knowledge rolls are incredible in societies and they help a lot or you fight a lot of Smite Evil targets, so Paladins all the way!
gosh, those Bardic Knowledge rolls are incredible in societies.
Being able to act outside of your area of specialization is greatly beneficial in pfs because
1) you have no idea what whacky adventures the society is going to send you on. You can be trudging through the mawangi expanse picking up dino dung one week and at a fancy dinner party the next.
2) You have no idea what the society is sending with you. They can send the Taldane fop with you to the jungle one week and then send the druid with you to the fancy party (where he promptly turns into an otter and gamboles about in the punch bowl)
-Or am I overthinking everything and they work pretty much the same as the home game, just with different exp and loot rules?
Yes and no.
(I appologize if this should be in the advice section. I figured since it was about Society, it would do better in that section.)
Probably :) . Those munchkins would be telling you how great craft wondrous item is...
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Greetings!
First off, I don't have a huge amount of PFS games under my belt and all of them were in Tier 1-5. So take my answers with a grain of salt!
-Are there any play styles that would work for a home game that can't/shouldn't be played in societies? For example, the god wizard or the guerrilla rogue or the pokemaster?
Two playstyles come to mind. The first: Anything that relies heavily on another class being present, like "I'm only effective if someone casts 'Enlarge Person' on me!" - though even that can be fixed with a wand. So you should be fine on that front.
The second: A selfish d*ck. Now, there is nothing wrong with a little bit of selfishness, but remember the core values: Explore, report, cooperate. Nobody likes a character who refuses to help/heal an ally because "It's his own fault and that's what my character would do". Nothing against inner party conflict, but keep that in mind.
-Are there any classes that one should generally avoid? Not because you think of them as a poor choice for whatever reason (such as the general dislike for monks and rogues) (...)
-Are there any classes that are preferred? Like, gosh, those Bardic Knowledge rolls are incredible in societies and they help a lot or you fight a lot of Smite Evil targets, so Paladins all the way!
Personally, from the few adventures I have play, Cavaliers always seemed like a suboptimal choice, at least medium sized ones. The reason: You have to go into buildings. Not in every scenario, but it's something that happens quite often. My rogue played 7 scenarios now and only 2 of them had battles in the open. The rest was combat in caves, severs, buildings and the like. Now, this might be a coincidence, but it's still there, or might change in higher levels or with a halfling cavalier!
Have fun and join the Silver Crusade (because we rock),Blackbot
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32
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I would encourage you to put some thought into the roleplay aspects of your character - research the world of Golarion some and build a rudimentary backstory and personality for your character. It doesn't have to be detailed, but if you know your character's alignment, deity, faction and region of origin, that'd be a great start. A personality to tie all of those together is even better.
I would also encourage you to build a character that has capabilities both inside and outside of combat. If you can't make skill checks, you're going to be rather bored for half of the adventure. If you can't contribute to combat, you'll be bored for the other half.
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One thing to consider before it blindsides you.
Your character is a member (or at the very least is contracted out on a startlingly regular basis) by the pathfinder society, which is both an in game and out of game organization. Have some rational for why your character would want to work for an organization of muderhob..erm.. adventurer archeologists bent on discovery.
The most common (in world) pathfinder underwent 3 years of training to be a pathfinder. The society also does field commissions for extraordinary finds or remarkably talented individuals who've picked up their skills through experience. In my experience most PCs choose the later option.
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Bringing up a second small question: Is there a guide out there which brings up the more unknown rules or customs of the society? Stuff you don't read directly but rather has been specified in different locations here, like the "Spellcasters (with spellbooks or an equivalent) can learn any spell for 1.5x the inscribing costs" or "It's polite to have a wand of CLW as soon as 2 PP are available to preserve other players' resources" stuff?
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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As others have said, I highly recommend characters with versatility. You never know what skills and abilities you'll need, and you never know who else you will be adventuring with, so it's good to cover several bases.
Remember that your character is an agent of the Pathfinder Society. That means that searching for magic artifacts, rediscovering forgotten lore, and finding ancient treasure should be something they want to do AND are good at. So I'd shy away from builds that are low on skill points, because you want to have some Knowledge and other skills (especially Linguistics, Diplomacy, and Perception). That goes double for Paladins, because Pathfinders frequently have to lie, cheat, and steal to get the job done. If you want to play a Paladin, I recommend having a back-up character of the same level, and ask the GM ahead of time if a Paladin would fit into that adventure.
Also, if you want to play a mounted character, either make them Small-sized, or self-sufficient without the mount. Getting to fight while mounted is rare.
Remember that you can change everything about your character at first level. So after your first few games, think about what other characters you played with, and think of what roles they're missing.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Bringing up a second small question: Is there a guide out there which brings up the more unknown rules or customs of the society? Stuff you don't read directly but rather has been specified in different locations here, like the "Spellcasters (with spellbooks or an equivalent) can learn any spell for 1.5x the inscribing costs" or "It's polite to have a wand of CLW as soon as 2 PP are available to preserve other players' resources" stuff?
The former is a rule and is in the FAQ. The latter is a tip/social custom and you mostly just have to learn it from people and/or experience.
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Well, not, it's not really in the FAQ. The FAQ talks about the methods of copying other players' spells and using scrolls. There is a short sentence saying:
In the rare instance of a wizard charging a fee for the privilege of copying spells from their spellbooks, this fee is equal to half the cost to write the spell into a spellbook (see Writing a New Spell into a Spellbook). Rare and unique spells do not change the fee in PFS.In the rare instance of a wizard charging a fee for the privilege of copying spells from their spellbooks, this fee is equal to half the cost to write the spell into a spellbook (see Writing a New Spell into a Spellbook). Rare and unique spells do not change the fee in PFS.
But if you don't crawl the forums you are not aware that this "rare instance" doesn't mean "Whenever you encounter a wizard who is willing" but rather "Whenever you please to do so between scenarios". Yes, most people on the forums know this, but not everyone has the time to crawl the forums for such clarifications. And I'm sure there are other clarifications which people on the forum just know, but a newbie (like myself) would be very excited to read about.
And even social customs might be something interesting to a new player. Not mandatory to know, but still interesting.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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In my experience most PCs choose the later option.[jaded]In my experience most PCs seem to think they keep meeting random adventuring groups in taverns or something, barely aware of the existence of the Society.[/jaded]
Reminds me of the flavor text on this fly card from Saga of the Storm.
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Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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Something to keep in mind is that often the game has a set (real world) time limit. And combat is slow. So if your character design is "nothing can hit me, and I do 5 hp a round, we will kill him eventually." That is hard to make work in PFS without breaking the time limit / simple GM fiat.
Also, since you are basically being set up with whoever shows up that night, stealth builds tend to be limited. Basically, in most situations, it doesn't matter if you made your stealth, what matters is the lowest roll in the group.
PFS usually is strategically offensive. Thus any character whose concept is strategically defensive is going to be limited in usefulness. For example, master trappers, who rely on setting traps and then luring the enemy into them are limited. You are almost always fighting on the enemy's choice of ground.
It is very good to have a stable of characters, so if you show up to a table and there is no healer, or no face, or no knowledge skills, or n front line brick, you can fill a gap.
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My girlfriend and I will be joining our first Pathfinder society game next week and I came to you folks seeking wisdom. While we both have a lot of home game experience, neither one of us has ever played in an organized play event before and I'm not entirely certain if everything we know about the game functions the same. I did download and read the free societies book that explains the rules and such, but I was wondering if...
-Are there any play styles that would work for a home game that can't/shouldn't be played in societies? For example, the god wizard or the guerrilla rogue or the pokemaster?
Anything which requires working with the DM to allow or fit in is generally a no-go in PFS. In addition to what othes above have pointed out.
-Are there any classes that one should generally avoid? Not because you think of them as a poor choice for whatever reason (such as the general dislike for monks and rogues) but because something about their class just doesn't fit into the way adventures work. For instance, I don't imagine that a lot of the adventures grant gear for the Gunslinger class (beyond loot that might be useful to any ranged character). Would this greatly reduce the usefulness of the class?
Not really. The caveat is that in PFS by design you will likely be playing with many DMs who have very different ideas about various things. While PFS tries to level everything out and be uniform there is table variation. It is unlikely to be necessary but don't be afraid to avoid playing certain characters or at all under some DMs.
-Are there any classes that are preferred? Like, gosh, those Bardic Knowledge rolls are incredible in societies and they help a lot or you fight a lot of Smite Evil targets, so Paladins all the way!
PFS is very skill heavy. It used to be heavy on obscure skill checks but that has been toned down in the last year to a certian degree. More skill points is better. Non human characters with 2+Int skill points/level who can't afford to invest in a really high Int often really hurt for skills by the standard of the campaign. Remember that you can pick up class skills via traits which helps a bit.
-Or am I overthinking everything and they work pretty much the same as the home game, just with different exp and loot rules?
Pretty much just like this. Some house rules to get used to just like a home game. The meta-conceit of the campaign is that everyone is a Pathfinder, so read up on the in-world PFS. YMMV on how strongly different people expect you to shoehorn the pathfinder aspect into your characters.
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I recommend you play whatever you want to play: go ahead and experiment with different characters. If the character doesn't work for you, shrug and create a new one. If one of them really clicks, play that one all the way to retirement.
For me, this versatility is the best part of PFS. Since each scenario is episodic, you're not committed to playing the same character every week for the next three years.
A couple of suggestions:
If you and your wife plan to play together at the same table, consider teamwork characters. You don't see a lot of these in PFS because of the table randomization, and there are teamwork feats for just about every class. There are also a lot of archetypes that dovetail really well (Street Performer Bard with Ninja or Rogue, for example). You and your wife have access to a whole realm of builds that most PFS players don't.
As you start getting some experience, try to get a couple of different characters available. A lot of us try to have at least one or two characters in every tier. More options increases the chances that you will get seated at a table together.
Welcome to PFS! Have fun!
So how did it go?
What you decide on?