I'm looking in the guide (season 7) and I don't see text that disallows changes. It must be there, but I'm missing it. Can a player who is using a pre-gen make the following changes?
- Character name?
- Spells, if he/she has access to the full list each day?
- Spells, if he/she is a bard/sorcerer type that has a set known list?
- Gear?
- Gender?
- Class abilities, if they are multiple-choice? For example, can a player who hates a selected rogue talent swap it for one he prefers?
Special: If a player will use a pre-gen wizard for a two-parter or trilogy, can that pre-gen copy spells from a fellow PC wizard? Would it carry over from part 1 to part 2? If not, could it be re-done/re-learned at the start of each part, if the mission isn't on a timer or starts with lengthy travel?
One extra note: I'm not really looking for lists of which things each GM would personally allow. I'm looking for actual text from the guide, FAQs, even just forum posts by PFS leadership. Can anyone quote some text for me, so I am assured of what the hard & fast limits are? I'm intending to print all the text I can find and keep it in a folder with my pre-gens, so I always know what I can legally say yes & no to....
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When playing the pre-gen, you are playing the character that is the pre-gen. If playing a level 1 character, you can use the stats of the pre-gen and do whatever you want with them since you are allowed free re-build, but you technically are not playing the pre-gen at that point and are playing your own character. With that in mind:
Character name?: No
Spells, if he/she has access to the full list each day?: If you reach a new day after the mission briefing, Yes.
Spells, if he/she is a bard/sorcerer type that has a set known list?: No
Gear?: If there is money available, you can make purchases with it for the scenario only.
Gender?: No
Class abilities, if they are multiple-choice? For example, can a player who hates a selected rogue talent swap it for one he prefers?: No
It would not carry over playing a pre-gen. If you are playing a clone of a pre-gen as your own character, then it would for that character.
Sorry, I don't have sources for you, but it's a pretty much common sense argument that goes with what the pre-gens are in the Roleplaying Guide, and why things can sometimes be changed, i.e. at first level you can play a pre-gen or you play your own character using a stat block made to exactly match that of a pre-gen.
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Is it a level 1 pregen? Change whatever you want via the level 1 rebuild rules. Basically, you can say that you templated your level 1 off the pregen. There should be no problem with this whatsoever for a single scenario. Realistically, the player should build their character for session 2 for real.
If it's a level 4 or 7 pregen, no, you cannot change what's on the sheet. You treat them as an established character of that level for the scenario and you have neither the prestige nor the money to retrain anything.
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Only a few of those are directly covered in "official" sources.
Name and Gender:
Paizo Developer Mark Moreland stated here "Since neither a character's gender nor name has any mechanical effect (and I can't think of a time that "reskinning" a man into a woman or vice versa would cause any issues), there's nothing wrong in my book with making this change." That isn't official campaign leadership wording, but its a decent guideline.
Spells: There is table variance here. I know several GMs (including VOs) that allow prepared spell casters to change out spells at the beginning of the scenario. Others do not. Spell selection for spontaneous casters definitely can't change. Note that Ezren and (and I'm sure other arcane casters) come with a spellbook that cannot have spells exchanged. Adding Spells (for your question in the Special) for a Pregen isn't something I've seen come up; assuming that they have the gold to cover it there isn't a reason they can't.
Gear:
"Any equipment that’s listed on the pregenerated character sheet may only be sold to clear their own conditions during the play of a sanctioned event, and any remaining gold does not carry over at the end of the adventure."
This directly covers Gear. You cannot modify the pregen's gear other than buying items with available gold or selling items to clear negative conditions. On the subject of gear, each game played with a pregen is a clean slate; consumables used are restored if you played two back to back scenarios with the same pregen. Likewise, spells added to a spell book would not persist between scenarios.
Class Abilities: Cannot be modified.
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Personally, I'd say no to everything except spells prepared. On a prepared caster I'll allow you to change the spells post-briefing (if it's the Arcanist or Wizard it has to be from the spellbook). Otherwise what's on the sheet is the sheet. Same as the GM running as written, the player does with the pregen. YMMV.
Edit: Yeah, actually I forgot about name and gender, I don't really care if you do change them, though I prefer you don't just because my memory is limited.
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If there's time to purchase equipment, pregens can sell and buy equipment. If there's time to prepare spells, pregens can prepare new spells, with the caveat, from what I've heard, that the pregens are considered to have prepared the spells listed on their sheets that day, and so a new day has to dawn in order to prepare again, along with making any other choices that one makes when preparing spells, e.g. wandering spirits for shamans. (Why Kyra drank a potion of stupid-making that day and prepared cure spells instead of just spontaneously casting them, no idea. Maybe Merisiel kept her up too late the previous night. If I ever play a Kyra pregen in the same game as a Meri pregen that'll totally be my story.) Everything else is fixed, except of course level 1 pregens can be used as the basis for a different character.
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If there's time to purchase equipment, pregens can sell and buy equipment.
That is incorrect.
any equipment that’s listed on the pregenerated character sheet may only be sold to clear their own conditions
In the 6.0 guide, that was in the section about playing pregens; in the latest edition it got moved to the Conditions section.
One thing that I noticed is that in the latest Guide, the wording has changed to add that pregen gear can only be sold to clear their own conditions. In the v6 guide, that wasn't there. I had to check as I'd felt guilty about selling off some of my pregen's gear to help Raise a different pregen a month ago, but luckily it was legal at the time.
I wonder if you sold gear to clear your own conditions could you use any left over gold to help others.
