Advice Needed for a PFS Noob

[Mikael Sebag]

Hey everyone,

While I'm fairly experienced playing Pathfinder in private games, I'm planning on dipping my toes into PFS in preparation for GenCon. I've been looking through the materials and while I originally wanted to play a spellslinger wizard, I see that the archetype is not permitted.

Would a gunslinger/myrmidarch magus/eldritch knight be a viable alternative? Or are society play and advancement too restrictive to make that tenable in practice?

Also, if you would like to offer more general words of wisdom to someone like me—moving from exclusively playing private games to participating in organized play for the first time—I'm all ears. :)

Thanks!

[Tamec]

It is doable, but not for gencon.

You get 1 xp for every scenario, and 3 xp for most modules and adventure paths. The scenarios are roughly 4 hours per adventure, the modules are 8 and the adventure paths are 12 hours. I'm stating all this because you level for every 3xp you earn and you will not be able to get eldritch knight before 9th level.

[Carla the Profane]

Everything you need to know is in here: The Pathfinder Society Guide to Organized Play

[Brevick Axeflail]

Gunslinger/Myrmidarch sounds cool. I wanted to make a sort of FF Gunblade a while back using the Myrmidarch. Just keep in mind that the Myrmidarch can't do Spell Combat with a one-handed ranged weapon. It sure seems like it should be able to, but until it's errata'd you're stuck using melee.

Ranged Spellstrike is still nice.

[Eric Clingenpeel]

Tamec, playing something like Emerald Spire, he could get up to that level by GenCon, but doing normal scenarios, you're right he couldn't. Be that as it may, it is an interesting goal to shoot (pun not intended, but I like it) for.

[BigNorseWolf]

Even if its less than optimal the combo seems good enough to work with some fun flavor. Go for it. The bar for PFS optimization isn't so high that that you must obtain ULTIMATE COSMIC POWER! to be effective.

[BigNorseWolf]

You are a member of the pathfinder society: a lose collection of murderho..erm.. adventurer archaeologists, explorers treasure hunters, adventurers and vagabonds from across golarion. You make a character. Go on an adventure, get a sheet. Get three sheets you level up.

Character creation rules.

20 point buy , so no one in new york shows up with the all 18s that "Their brother saw me roll fair and square in california". No item creation. Start at level one. You can redo your character in between sessions till level 2. Jacks and one eyed kings wild. Start with 150 gold... you know what you have your weapon some scale mail a sling and a rope. Someone else is carrying the rest.

Show up early and have some way of making sure they know you're there for pfs: ask, or if you're the shy type print out the first page of the guide and carry it on a pile of papers.

what to expect when you're expecting a pfs table:

Lets say the game starts at 7

Game starts at 7

6:55 people start to trickle in

Folks eat, gossip, get settled in.

7:15 Geek soduku! People finalize how many people they have for which table. The veterans will then decide who's playing what character, trying to balance out levels, tiers, and party composition. The DM desperately tries to sneak in one more reading of he scenario

7:30: people get going. There's a mission briefing that one person will be paying attention to while most players find dice and minis check character sheets, phones,and chronicle sheets to make last minute purchases. You will get a flurry of 5 or six mispronounced names without much clear idea whether drendle drang is a person you're talking to, a place you want to go, or a particularly nasty curse you want to avoid.

You'll have a chance to ask questions, gather information and make knowledge checks to get some idea of what you're in for.

There will be ~ 4 encounters, usually some mooks for one fight, a trap or three, some sort of a skill or social challange, some sort of strong monster thats usually more likely to kill you than the boss, and then a solo or near solo boss fight. These will inevitably involve some "i'm over here he's over there what are you doing how are you searching how does that rule work" while trying to keep the game moving.

The encounters will test adventuring basics. Can you attack at both melee and ranged. Can you deal with swarms and other unusual creature types. Can you deal with damage reduction and incoporeal critters.

10:30 the boss fight starts! Hurrry!

11:05 The dm hurridly signs chronicle sheets and hands them out with a "go ahead fill them out"

Grab stuff get out the door hang out in the parking lot for a bit to come back to reality then head home.

Have something you can do in combat, have something you can do out of combat: Talky face stuff, knowledge skills, sneaky rogue stuff.

[Sebastian Hirsch]

Mikael Sebag wrote:

Hey everyone,

While I'm fairly experienced playing Pathfinder in private games, I'm planning on dipping my toes into PFS in preparation for GenCon. I've been looking through the materials and while I originally wanted to play a spellslinger wizard, I see that the archetype is not permitted.

Would a gunslinger/myrmidarch magus/eldritch knight be a viable alternative? Or are society play and advancement too restrictive to make that tenable in practice?

Also, if you would like to offer more general words of wisdom to someone like me—moving from exclusively playing private games to participating in organized play for the first time—I'm all ears. :)

Thanks!

Conventions have their advantages, but I have my doubts that they are the perfect starting point for a player that has experience with Pathfinder.

Of course and event like Gencon has plenty of experienced players and GMs, but try to search for a local PFS game to, conventions often have quite a packed schedule, and individual GMs might not be able to give you the time and attention you need.

However if you find and contact your local GM/VL/VC he/she should be able to answer all your questions and point you towards a location/event that has enough time before/after the game and/or is specially offered for new players.

Personally I think Wounded Wisp is a pretty great introductory adventure (even though I prefer to give players a short introduction regarding about the Society and Golarion), but there are plenty of great adventures out there. From the current season From Under Ice, The Segang Expedition and the Scion of the Sky Key triology are very good adventures, and if you find someone local that offers them, give them a try.

[BigNorseWolf]

Definitely echo the sentiment play at least once somewhere thats not a convention. You're going to come accross something thats going to require an explanation (What the hell is a drendle drang? How many xp do i get for killing a venture captain?) and there's usually more time, space, and quiet with a less distracted dm anywhere BUT a convention.

[Curaigh]

Welcome Mikael,
Your concept looks pretty cool, go for it. The level 12 cap in PFS steals some of a prestige class's thunder. Playing from level 1 means it may be a while before you get to see the combo you are building around. But yes, play what you want to play, the nature of PFS will keep them 'tenable'. :)

The hardest part for folks with experience, is the organized play piece of OP. To keep things consistent from a table in Moscow, to one in Seattle to another in Dublin, the campaign leadership standardizes things (point buy, playable races/classes, average hp, non-evil alignments, XP, wealth by level, start at level 1, etc.) As stated PFSGOP is the best place to start. It looks like you have already viewed the additional resources page which should be the second place you go.

Painlord's What to Expect at a PFS Table has some handy recommendations.

Some things differ from a home game. These are detailed in the PFSGOP, but be sure to cover Core Assumption, Additional Resources, Factions, Chronicles, & tiers. Also check out Always Available purchases, Rerolls and Day Jobs. Below are the questions I have answered most often, but you may not need them. Not covered in the PFSGOP is how the episodic nature affects play so I start here.

Episodic

• Each adventure (scenario) should end in 4-5 hours (this can rush some endings);
• The people you play with today, may not make up your group tomorrow;
• You might encounter a villain the week after slaying him;
• Several characters might have the same 'unique' item;
• Like jumping into a TV show mid-season, ask questions, but try not to get hung up on these kind of details;
• Avoid talking too much about scenarios you have done, as others might be playing them in the future.

Chronicles:

• They track your GP, XP, and Prestige Points (PP) (starting XP on second chronicle will be the ending XP on first chronicle;
• These are your official record of character level, gp, etc.
• XP is simplified to 1 per scenario, and 3 XP for each level (playing in tier removes the complicated math involved in standard games);
• Only famous people (PP) get into the best magic shops & resurrection salons;
• You don't get to keep anything you find in a scenario (but get gp for finding it);
• You can buy gear listed on the chronicle (even if you can't get into the best magic shop yet).
• Players can only have one copy of a given scenario chronicle. (GMs can apply a second copy to a second character).
  
• Keep track of which chronicles are on which characters.

Average Party Level & Tier

• As long as your character is in level for the scenario, don't stress about this;
• Really, you can stop reading now;
• If none of your characters are in level, the GM has some characters you can play instead (pre-gens);
• Each scenario is designed for a a range of levels;
• These tiers break into two (or more) sub-tiers and APL determines the sub-tier played;
• The sub-tier played determines encounter levels, treasure and equipment found;
• Sometimes you will be out of tier (playing a higher level character in a lower level sub-tier), if you are still in level of the scenario, don't worry about it (GM will adjust gp accordingly).

[jtaylor73003]

Hello Mikael and welcome.

I will only add that you should also think about how you will heal your character if things get bad, unlike home games you will never know what kind of classes you will be adventuring with. In PFS you get Prestige and once you have 2 Prestige Points the Society is willing to give you an item up to 750gp. This is all covered in the Guide to Organize play. I suggest to all players that you get a Wand of Cure Light Wounds once you can afford to get one.

[glass]

jtaylor73003 wrote:

I will only add that you should also think about how you will heal your character if things get bad, unlike home games you will never know what kind of classes you will be adventuring with. In PFS you get Prestige and once you have 2 Prestige Points the Society is willing to give you an item up to 750gp. This is all covered in the Guide to Organize play. I suggest to all players that you get a Wand of Cure Light Wounds once you can afford to get one.

You might prefer a Wand of Infernal Healing if you have the book it comes from and can't use wands of CLW. But it is generally good advice to get one or the other as soon as you can afford it (which will be after the first scenario if everything goes according to plan), even if you can use neither.

_
glass.

[ElterAgo]

BigNorseWolf wrote:

You are a member of the pathfinder society: a lose collection of murderho..erm.. adventurer archaeologists, explorers treasure hunters, adventurers and vagabonds from across golarion. You make a character. Go on an adventure, get a sheet. Get three sheets you level up.

...

Have something you can do in combat, have something you can do out of combat: Talky face stuff, knowledge skills, sneaky rogue stuff.

I would like to emphasize the bolded portion from BNW.

Not all, but some home groups are perfectly ok with completely dividing things up. This PC only fights in melee. That PC does all the talking. This other PC does all the sneaking. At he just blows carp to pieces with magic. Etc... The PC's are all very specialized.
That level of specialization is not only not necessary in PFS, it can actually be very severe hindrance. A PFS table is usually a random collection of individuals who then need to learn to work together very quickly.
You might not have a super optimized combat machine that can handle all the fighting for you, so you need to be able to do something in a fight. Might be that, none of the guys at the table have a super diplomat bard with +467 in all the social skills, so you might have to help out when talking to others is necessary.

I try and get people to have an answer 4 for questions.
1) What is your primary role/activity in combat? I was planning to hit things with an earthbreaker. That’s good.
2) What is your secondary role in combat, when the primary doesn’t work? What do you mean? It might be a wizard on top of a cliff throwing lightning bolts at you. Oh, I will buy a good strength rated composite longbow. Works for me.
3) What is your primary role out of combat or in social situations? I was planning on ranks in survival so I can track bad guys. Certainly worthwhile in some situations.
4) What is your secondary role out of combat or in social situations? Uhmm… Well I have a little bit of wisdom, so I could put some ranks and a trait toward sense motive to tell when people are lying to us. Excellent. Might even be more useful than the tracking.

I personally, usually also have a tertiary role in and out of combat. But a primary and secondary is usually good enough for a successful career.