Most of the traits are from the Advanced Player's Guide, and IIRC, there are also some in the Guide to Organized Play.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Traits are small bonuses that generally are associated with the background of your character. In Pathfinder Society, each character gets two traits, which must be of different types. The types of traits are somewhat associated with what they do. Examples of types of trait are, Magic, Faith, Combat, Religion, Faction, Race, and Social. If you're building a character with only the Core Rulebook for PFS, your choices for traits are restricted to those listed as Faction Traits associated with the Faction you choose for you character in the Guide to Organized Play and the traits that can be found in the
Character Traits Web Enhancement. (That link is a .zip download of a .pdf.)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Lets try it this way. What kind of character are you making?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Traits are minor abilities that are meant to give a little spotlight on the character's personal beackground. Generally, a character gets to choose 2 traits, which must come from different lists.
These lists are: basic combat, basic faith, basic magic, basic social, regional, race, relgion, and campaign traits. In PFS, you can't take any campaign traits, but there are faction traits instead.
Where to find them:
- This free document, which are also the traits found in the Advanced Players Guide
- Ultimate Campaign
- Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide It's free (and you'll need it anyway for information on PFS play), and you'll find the faction traits in there.
- Several traits are spread out between lots of sourcebooks, but for a start, you're fine with the above (you don't even necessarily need Ultimate Campaign to have a good selection).
Examples of types of trait are, Magic, Faith, Combat, Religion, Faction, Race, and Social.
To add on that - you'll note that one type of traits are referred to as 'Race Traits'. These are a group of traits of which you may select one, if you are of the race for that trait.
This *is different* than "Racial Traits". Racial Traits are inherent traits that your character gains from being a particular race. They are automatically gained by being that race, though there is (to add to the confusion) a group of 'Alternate Racial Traits' that you can use to customize your character's racial ancestry somewhat. For your first character, it may be best to ignore alternate racial traits for the moment.
So, Race Traits != Racial Traits. These are two different things and I've seen this be a stumbling block for new players more than once.
Lets try it this way. What kind of character are you making?im making a dwarf barbarian
Birthmark you gain a +2 trait bonus on all saving throws against charm and compulsion effects. for +2 to will saves vs the nastier will saves will be handy to your party when the bad guy tells you to kill them, and its a cool thing to have a giant hammer tattoo on your forehead.
Reactionary: +2 to initiative is a life saver for barbarians to rage for extra hit points.
Armor expert can take some armor check penalty off of your movement related abilities.
Shop around. Your character is first level, so you can change your mind later if you want. There's SOOO many of these things that traits take me as long as the rest of my character combinedsometimes.
|
Lets try it this way. What kind of character are you making?im making a dwarf barbarian
Do you have something specific in mind for the character? Was the character an orphan? Parents have a deity background?
I suggest taking a look a the free document linked by Andrea. I have found looking at the traits have helped me flesh out my character ideas.
There are lots of options. Keeping it simple and only using one source at this time will make it easier.
Welcome to the game! PFS is a great game and I am sure both of you will have lots of fun.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
This has been super helpful. Also my wife and I are both brand new to RPGs and we are going to our play our first time at an event on thursday but we both have crazy social anxiety (how we started dating I'll never know) any advice to make sure it all goes smoothly
Check your private messages :)
I've been working on a character creator for quite some time now - it'll be open in a week or two. But, I just sent you two codes for early access, in the hopes that it might help guide you in character creation for your first game.
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
This has been super helpful. Also my wife and I are both brand new to RPGs and we are going to our play our first time at an event on thursday but we both have crazy social anxiety (how we started dating I'll never know) any advice to make sure it all goes smoothly
Many of us in this hobby have varying degrees of social anxiety. Hopefully it will help to understand that other people at the event are probably feeling the same way as you.
Advice:
- 1. Show up a little early.
2. Find the organizer.
3. Introduce yourselves as new players.
4. Ask to have your characters looked over to make sure they are legal.
5. Ask if there are any recommendations for your characters or their equipment that you might not have thought of.
6. Be comfortable with the idea of playing a pregen character for just one game if the changes you might need to make to your own character are substantial (arriving early can help obviate this).
7. Introduce yourselves to the GM and other players at the table.
8. Ask the other players questions about their characters (this is the best way to get RPG players to like you).
9. Listen carefully to the GM during the scenario introduction. Take notes if you need to.
10. Ask questions.
11. Smile.
12. Have fun!
Explore, Report, Cooperate!
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
If you're shy about asking for the pathfinder group, walking in clutching a core rule book with a lost expression on your face willusually get you pointed to the table.
The DM will be the one feverishly reading something like a student who didn't study for a test.
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.
What you should know
Your character is a member of the pathfinder society: the out of game and in game group of murderho..erm.. gentlemen explorer archeologists. This is the excuse to have you all together and adventuring without cramming you all together without descending into cannibalism a bit of backstory you should think about when it comes to your character. WHY are they with these people? "They're paying me" is an acceptable answer, but not neccesarily the most fulfilling.
Go on a pre made adventure. Finish it. Get a chronicle sheet. Usually you get 1 xp. Get 3 xp, level up. Wash rinse repeat.
A level 1 fighter adventuring with a level 11 fighter would be dead before seeing the first boss. Adventures have ranges that you need to be in to play them. Typically they range from 1-5, 3-7, 7-11. Within that, the DM averages the level of the party and decides on high or low tier, so for example if you're all new and playing the 1-5 , You get a couple of kobolds. If there are enough level 4s and 5s in your group, you'll be fighting kobold fighters and a shaman.
You'll pick it up fast enough, don't worry if you're confused.
Classy move, Tabletop Giant!
Welcome, Sam. I wish you and your wife luck starting in this great hobby. Some of the best times I've ever had have been around RPG gaming tables, and the PFS campaign has tons of great people supporting it and supporting newcomers (as you've seen in this thread).
Factions:
Since "i'm a pathfinder" doesn't say much about your character when you're ALL pathfinders there are different ideas about what the pathfinder society is and should be doing
Dark Archive- Catalog and study dangerous artifacts. Not evil since AR 4113. Hire and make contact with librarians that will survive the process. Boons help knowledge and give you scroll access.
The exchange- Make money by trade. Meet new and interesting people and sell them stuff. Boons give you some pretty nice discounts.
Sovereign court: Unite the nobility of the inner sea and foster a sense of noblesse oblige. Boons make you more MI 6 eyish.
Silver crusade: Knights in shining armor *dentene smile* Boons heal and make it easier to NOT kill everything that you meet.
Liberty's edge. Root out corrupt authority figures, free the slaves, and ensure FREEEEEDOOOOOOM! for the inner sea. Membership comes with a free waterproof bag for slavers heads if you decide to go all john brown.(most of them do) Boons give you minor followers and help you and your party resist being mentally or physically bound.
Grand lodge: House Hufflepuff, loyal to the society as a whole or non aligned. Boons help you with adventuring skills
Scarab sages: Collect and preserve history for the betterment of mankind, especially in Osirion (aka not egypt). Boons help you come back from the dead easier, and you can even reincarnate your character kind of.
You don't need to pick one till you get to level 2 its more to be aware of if people bring it up than to memorize it now.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Some other things to consider right before the game starts:
1) When introducing your character to the group (in or out of character), try to focus more on the role you fill rather than your character class or build. "I'm a cleric" could mean you're a healer, a tank, a blaster caster, a summoner, a battlefield control specialist, etc. You could focus on buffing yourself to do more damage, on supporting and buffing the rest of the party, or on debuffing the bad guys to make them do worse. And so on. Think about what your character does well and what you want your character to do.
2) If your character needs help from the party, just politely ask for it. Common requests from characters are "I need a flanking partner" or "Can anyone cast Mage Armor for me?" or "Please don't get in front of me so I can charge." Most of the time, the rest of the party will have no problem with it. Occasionally, your request might conflict with someone else's, and you can find a compromise. (For example, I have a tripping character who has to be careful if the rest of the party has ranged attacks, because prone enemies are harder to hit at range.)
3) If you as a player need help from the party, just ask. If you have trouble hearing and need to sit closer to the GM, if you and your spouse share supplies and need to sit together, etc. If you feel like you'd like another player to help you with rules and advice, the GM can assign someone to answer questions (I just recommend that if you're going to be "side talking" with your adviser, don't sit next to the GM, keep your voices low, and make sure to keep an eye on what's going at the table.)
4) Remember to have fun!