2 questions

[Dafydd]

First off, making a character who is middle aged, do I get the -1 physical/+1 mental from the age?

Second, making this middle aged PC, he did not start his adult life as a pathfinder. Is it possible to take an NPC class at level one, making his second level a player class.

I am making a character who is going through a midlife crisis. He is a gnome (or maybe half elf) whose father forced him into the family business. Now that he is older, he can dump the business on his son and go have his fun. He is going either Alchemist (what is more exciting then explosions) or bard as a reinforcement of his hobby.

I was looking at possible classes to represent his years as a merchant. I came up with Expert and Aristocrat.

[Mystic Lemur]

Nope. Ability scores are not adjusted for age.

Nope. NPC classes aren't legal for play.

Both of these questions are answered in the Guide to Organized Play, which is expected reading for all players and GMs.

[Protoman]

You can do whatever age you want in PFS, PFS doesn't let one adjust stats via natural aging though.

No NPC classes, but just pick up something like rogue as that's already as functional (arguably more so) as an expert.

Or just stick with whatever class you intend on being your main, and have Profession (merchant) to explain your background. That way you can be a middle-aged, later-in-life pathfinder with a previous occupation. With the day job rules you can stay as a merchant between adventuring, or pick up another job altogether.

[Nefreet]

Profession (Merchant), definitely.

If you grab a copy of The Pathfinder Society Field Guide, you can even spend PP to purchase your own business.

My very first PFS character did that years ago. Twice.

[Dafydd]

Alright, so I need to rework the background quite a bit.

Main reason I was thinking the NPC class was I did not want all the rouge "bonuses" and baggage.

Ie, sneak attack is not useful to the guy, nor is trap finding. The standard rouge does not really make a good merchant (unless you get black market connections, which is not PFS legal last I checked). Is there an archetype I am missing that would make rouge more merchant like?

Guess as a last effort, he could just be 2 levels of alchemist, as he was (is now) the VP of potions in the company.

[Nefreet]

My Rogue Merchant disagrees with you, Lol.

And all that Rogue "baggage" can be very useful to your party.

[Irwin, the Gnome]

If he is a Gnome, maybe ranks in Craft (Clockwork) instead of Profession (Merchant)? And you can add your Obsessive Racial Trait to it.

Would also make sense in disarming traps.

[Protoman]

Dafydd wrote:

Alright, so I need to rework the background quite a bit.

Main reason I was thinking the NPC class was I did not want all the rouge "bonuses" and baggage.

Ie, sneak attack is not useful to the guy, nor is trap finding. The standard rouge does not really make a good merchant (unless you get black market connections, which is not PFS legal last I checked). Is there an archetype I am missing that would make rouge more merchant like?

Compared to an expert, a rogue simply has bonus stuff. Which you don't have to use.

Sneak attack? Avoid attacking. What do you do when you wanna do combat? Does the idea of a cowardly merchant fighting dirty in order to balance the playing field appeal to you? If not, don't bother doing it.

Trapfinding? Don't bother looking for traps. Don't have thieves' tools. Almost all of the rogue archetypes give up trapfinding. Heck take the smuggler archetype from Pirates of the Inner Sea. Shows that your character was never that into following his father's rules/business and itching to do bigger things.

[DesolateHarmony]

Nefreet wrote:

My Rogue Merchant disagrees with you, Lol.

And all that Rogue "baggage" can be very useful to your party.

/pedantry

[Nefreet]

DesolateHarmony wrote:

Nefreet wrote:

My Rogue Merchant disagrees with you, Lol.

And all that Rogue "baggage" can be very useful to your party.

/pedantry

Because I dislike it when people use Rouge?

Rouge is a form of makeup, or a color. Not a Class in Pathfinder.

[DesolateHarmony]

Nefreet wrote:

DesolateHarmony wrote:

Nefreet wrote:

My Rogue Merchant disagrees with you, Lol.

And all that Rogue "baggage" can be very useful to your party.

/pedantry

Because I dislike it when people use Rouge?

Rouge is a form of makeup, or a color. Not a Class in Pathfinder.

Sorry, Nefreet. I didn't post that to show you in a bad light. I posted to hold you up as an esteemed example of someone who got it right. I agree with you completely that the french word for 'red' should not be used for the character class.

[Nefreet]

Oh, sorry.

[/embarrassed]

Ah, the joys of context in textual communication.