Given the faction changes in season 6, I'm considering the options for my Zen Archer Monk. I'm curious about people's opinions on the different factions, and how well a LG character would thrive in said faction.
Do LG characters have any real option besides Silver Crusade, and why?
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Honestly, any of them. Factions are as much straightjackets as alignments are. As much as you let them be.
Sovereign Court is aiming to guide rulers through a network of enlightened nobility. Perfect place for a LG character with good diplomacy.
In Liberty's Edge, you may be called upon to do some things that might make you squeamish, but what better place to fight against tyranny?
The Exchange allows its members to spread civilization through trade, and make a buck while doing so.
The Dark Archive catalogs, studies, and watches over potentially evil artifacts. But who watches the watchmen? Someone has to.
Scarab Sages don't scream anything LG to Mr at the moment, but you wouldn't be out of place. With Tahonikepsu's mission to use the knowledge of the ages to guide and advise, it could be attractive similar to Sovereign Court.
Grand Lodge, because if your character isn't suited to being in Grand Lodge, why is did it join the Pathfinder Society to begin with?
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Mind you, with faction missions having gone the way of the dodo, choosing to tell your faction off is a lot less harmful now, but could occasionally cost you a cookie (in the form of a nice boon) but...
Grand lodgesometimes puts morality ahead of the mission. Usually wants to do the right thing (keep the body count to a minimum) for partially the wrong reasons (its bad pr)- but its still doing the right thing.
Sovereign court A lot of intrigue and political manuevering. Lying bluffing and stealing may still be the order of the day.
Scarab sages: Knowledge is rather neutral. Shouldn't be a whole lot that's good or bad here, but they may want you to save the ancient scroll rather than the peasant if you have to choose between them.
Exchange: Money is the root of all evil. Then again dead men don't move the economy (unless you have profession: undertaker) I;m a little worried that with Qadiria being a little flavorless and the scarzini being ratherflavorful the resulting mix will be more "legitimate businessmen" than legitimate businessmen. At best you're supposed to save the gold not the peasant. At worst you may be shaking down the peasant for gold.
Dark archive: While there's nothing theoretically with keeping evil artifacts out of the wrong hands, the darkive only cares about knowledge. I expect some of cheliaxes "I want to be pseudo evil" to bleed over, and you know what they say about those that stare into the abyss...They favor competent guardians over good ones, so you may be working with some unsavory people. (Which should be good training to be a pathfinder)
Andoran: On a good day, heavy on the good. Not always with it on the "lawful" side...
Silver crusade: it was made specifically to be the lawful good faction (since andorans kept murdering peoples heads to the point that andoran faction membership came with a waterproof bag and a scroll of gentle repopse or purify food and drink) You'll blend in here.
Mind you, with faction missions having gone the way of the dodo...
I entered PFS pretty late in the game - can you clarify this? Are faction missions nixed, and factions are for storylines and flavor only?
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Faction missions used to be in every scenario, one for every faction. Now you will only see one or two faction missions in a scenario, while most don't have any. Scenarios now lean towards focusing on specific faction story lines or not at all rather than having the factions added on to the scenarios main storyline.
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Mind you, with faction missions having gone the way of the dodo...I entered PFS pretty late in the game - can you clarify this? Are faction missions nixed, and factions are for storylines and flavor only?
Back in my day, while walking uphill to the game store both ways, You got one prestige point for completing the faction mission, and 1 prestige point for completing the main mission. If you told your faction "no" you lost the point of fame and prestige, which slows your ability to purchase more powerful items.
(I will now be interrupted by an even older codger, who will say that there used to be TWO faction missions per adventure, so half the party would do that and then leave before killing the bad guy)
Now you get 1 prestige point for the main objective and 1 for the secondary objective.
If you tell your faction "No, i won't do that, its wrong!" now you only don't get a boon, which has a good chance of being kinda meh, and/or not fitting your character very well. Even if for some reason this comes up a LOT, you can still get the gear you need.
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(I will now be interrupted by an even older codger, who will say that there used to be TWO faction missions per adventure, so half the party would do that and then leave before killing the bad guy)
What kind of self-respecting murderhobos would leave an enemy unmolested?
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(I will now be interrupted by an even older codger, who will say that there used to be TWO faction missions per adventure, so half the party would do that and then leave before killing the bad guy)
*wobbles out on his cane* Actually, before then it used to be only ONE faction mission per adventure, and you durned lucky if you managed to find one of the rare missions that offered a second prestige point. Fail your single faction mission and you got no prestige for all your hard work...*totters off muttering about whippersnappers these days*
I love what just happened in here.
Back to my main point, I think the consensus is that I could pick a faction other than Silver Crusade (or Grand Lodge, if I'm an especially cheeky LG character,) but it would be counter-intuitive to gaining Prestige. I appreciate the feedback, even though I remain disappointed in the results.
Full disclosure: Discussion with a friend IRL suggests most of my disappointment stems from the alignment restrictions of the monk, and LG characters in general. I firmly believe that there should be more robust faction options than 'Silver Crusade: Because you're LG and we're LG, and nobody else will have you."
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Back to my main point, I think the consensus is that I could pick a faction other than Silver Crusade (or Grand Lodge, if I'm an especially cheeky LG character,) but it would be counter-intuitive to gaining Prestige. I appreciate the feedback, even though I remain disappointed in the results.
You'll still get prestige, as that is now tied to acting like a Pathfinder rather than doing favors for your faction leader. Instead, you will be missing out on chronicle boons, which range from useful to just story bonuses.
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Yeah, playing against type is less painful now than it used to be.
Personally, I have four characters with LG alignment (of 16 total in PFS, plus one in the planning stages). Three of the four are Silver Crusade, but one is Liberty's Edge. If we occasionally still do the older faction missions, he'll occasionally be asked to assassinate someone without a trial, and if he's sure they're truly evil, he'll probably do it. He's LG, but not a paladin.
I also have a chaotic good character in the Silver Crusade, also playing against type. He's a gnome prankster bard, with a day job of Perform: Comedy (+18 at level 4). He heard that the Silver Crusade wants to make the world a better place, so he jumped in. Of course, his idea of making the world better has more to do with spreading laughter than smiting evil.
Sometimes it's fun to play against type.
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And we walked uphill to the Grand Lodge! Both ways
*wobbles out on his cane* Actually, before then it used to be only ONE faction mission per adventure, and you durned lucky if you managed to find one of the rare missions that offered a second prestige point. Fail your single faction mission and you got no prestige for all your hard work...*totters off muttering about whippersnappers these days*
(I will now be interrupted by an even older codger, who will say that there used to be TWO faction missions per adventure, so half the party would do that and then leave before killing the bad guy)
You hear a wavering voice, from offstage, saying something about "DC 25 Diplomacy checks, with my Fighter with a 7 Charisma, and Diplomacy untrained!"
And everyone talked about their visit to the Museum. I think it generated a movie of some sort.... Although many Pathfinders seemed to be of the opinion that the Museum should be razed, not praised.
Myself? No, not razed. Sealed tight, maybe moved into a pocket dimension, but not razed, or burned down or anything like that. After all, who knows what horrors that might release? Just opening a door in that place can spell death or worse.
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And we walked uphill to the Grand Lodge! Both ways
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Most of the time you can get the prestige as long as you follow these guidelines:
1) Do what the VC asked you to.
2) Explore, report, cooperate. If you quickly find the primary mission target, you should probably explore the location further because there's still part of the scenario you haven't stumbled into.
3) Save everyone who needs saving. This is a very common secondary Prestige condition.
4) When in doubt, do the heroic thing. The society may be Neutral, but the people setting secondary Prestige conditions aren't.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone!
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*wobbles out on his cane* Actually, before then it used to be only ONE faction mission per adventure, and you durned lucky if you managed to find one of the rare missions that offered a second prestige point. Fail your single faction mission and you got no prestige for all your hard work...*totters off muttering about whippersnappers these days*
(I will now be interrupted by an even older codger, who will say that there used to be TWO faction missions per adventure, so half the party would do that and then leave before killing the bad guy)
You hear a wavering voice, from offstage, saying something about "DC 25 Diplomacy checks, with my Fighter with a 7 Charisma, and Diplomacy untrained!"
And everyone talked about their visit to the Museum. I think it generated a movie of some sort.... Although many Pathfinders seemed to be of the opinion that the Museum should be razed, not praised.
Myself? No, not razed. Sealed tight, maybe moved into a pocket dimension, but not razed, or burned down or anything like that. After all, who knows what horrors that might release? Just opening a door in that place can spell death or worse.
I have sworn a holy oath to the Inheritor that if I am ever sent to bail out that accursed place again, I shall put it to the torch. From demons to the Outer Dark, the evil infesting that basalt menace knows no bounds.
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I have sworn a holy oath to the Inheritor that if I am ever sent to bail out that accursed place again, I shall put it to the torch. From demons to the Outer Dark, the evil infesting that basalt menace knows no bounds.*wobbles out on his cane* Actually, before then it used to be only ONE faction mission per adventure, and you durned lucky if you managed to find one of the rare missions that offered a second prestige point. Fail your single faction mission and you got no prestige for all your hard work...*totters off muttering about whippersnappers these days*
(I will now be interrupted by an even older codger, who will say that there used to be TWO faction missions per adventure, so half the party would do that and then leave before killing the bad guy)
You hear a wavering voice, from offstage, saying something about "DC 25 Diplomacy checks, with my Fighter with a 7 Charisma, and Diplomacy untrained!"
And everyone talked about their visit to the Museum. I think it generated a movie of some sort.... Although many Pathfinders seemed to be of the opinion that the Museum should be razed, not praised.
Myself? No, not razed. Sealed tight, maybe moved into a pocket dimension, but not razed, or burned down or anything like that. After all, who knows what horrors that might release? Just opening a door in that place can spell death or worse.
<<_>>_<<
What part of "destroying" the place makes you think that it won't release everything that idiot/insane Wizard captured/enslaved, all at once?So, how many Seekers can we get available to deal with whatever your razing the place sets free? And , may I say, I sincerely hope that we can find enough of them...
Either way, I want at least one God Wizard in my party, hopefully more. Maybe a strong Cleric with a few Dismissals available, too. Lots of Dispel Magic.
If they ever decide to have a "Let's destroy the Blakros Museum!" scenario, I suspect it would be the capstone scenario, the one designed for people whose PFS PCs are at 19.2 XP, so they can get to 20th level....
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I have sworn a holy oath to the Inheritor that if I am ever sent to bail out that accursed place again, I shall put it to the torch. From demons to the Outer Dark, the evil infesting that basalt menace knows no bounds.
You hear a wavering voice, from offstage, saying something about "DC 25 Diplomacy checks, with my Fighter with a 7 Charisma, and Diplomacy untrained!"And everyone talked about their visit to the Museum. I think it generated a movie of some sort.... Although many Pathfinders seemed to be of the opinion that the Museum should be razed, not praised.
Myself? No, not razed. Sealed tight, maybe moved into a pocket dimension, but not razed, or burned down or anything like that. After all, who knows what horrors that might release? Just opening a door in that place can spell death or worse.
<<_>>_<<
What part of "destroying" the place makes you think that it won't release everything that idiot/insane Wizard captured/enslaved, all at once?So, how many Seekers can we get available to deal with whatever your razing the place sets free? And , may I say, I sincerely hope that we can find enough of them...
** spoiler omitted **...