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When playing with new players i simply ask us all to do a quick intro. In this i get an idea what to expect and i declare what i took them to mean. If they say they are a blaster sorc ill ask if they have fireball or someother evocation, and 90% of the time theyll correct me with exactly what they have. At the end of intros ill run off a quick checkpist of things weve missed and make sure we got them covered. It honestly doeant take that long all in all 5 minutes while the gm sets up.I played Mummy's Mask 1 yesterday with a group of experienced players and still went through a checklist:
1. Do you have a way to attack at range
2. How are you going to heal yourself if damaged
3. What do you do if a swarm turns up
4. How about if we encounter a shadow
5. We are in a city which was nearly wrecked by plague, who bought an anti plague
6. How are you going to see in the darkIts a useful list even for experienced people.
This would totally ruin my gaming experience. I don't want to have a single character who is "prepared for every situation", I don't even want a party that is "prepared for every situation" . I want to have to role play the encounter and see how things wind up. Yes, that sometimes means we fail against whatever the problem is.
I also want certain "focused" characters in my party, example: I'm the weak mage who only has a few spells per day, I want a really strong tough fighter in my party who can get between me and the badguy. if he's not specialized to the point where he can take a lot of hits and deal a lot of melee damage, then he's not good enough at his job and I'll find someone else.
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This would totally ruin my gaming experience. I don't want to have a single character who is "prepared for every situation", I don't even want a party that is "prepared for every situation" . I want to have to role play the encounter and see how things wind up. Yes, that sometimes means we fail against whatever the problem is.
In PFS, it becomes very important for character to be self-reliant though. You never know when you literally have not a single person that can do ranged damage, or can take a hit. The character doesn't need to be a tank if it's a wizard, but it needs to be able to take a hit at least and not have like 8 con (I honestly don't even make characters with less than 14 con anymore..and that's barbarians and wizards alike).
In a home game, it doesn't matter as much, as you can formulate your party together and cover all the bases.
Edit: Also in a home game, you can just make new characters of the same level if all the PCs die. In PFS, this is the total opposite, as you just basically lost the character (or had to pay for a raise dead, given the character has the resources for it).
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Eh, at least Bronze House got pretty ridiculous at parts. Speaking as both a gm and a player.Don't get me started on Bronze House. That was a horribly designed scenario.
WOW!
We had drastically different experiences, then. I felt that was one of the most fun scenarios I've ever played because of how sandboxy it was. Lots of different ways to solve the various challenges.
We never even rolled Initiative once.
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When playing with new players i simply ask us all to do a quick intro. In this i get an idea what to expect and i declare what i took them to mean. If they say they are a blaster sorc ill ask if they have fireball or someother evocation, and 90% of the time theyll correct me with exactly what they have. At the end of intros ill run off a quick checkpist of things weve missed and make sure we got them covered. It honestly doeant take that long all in all 5 minutes while the gm sets up.I played Mummy's Mask 1 yesterday with a group of experienced players and still went through a checklist:
1. Do you have a way to attack at range
2. How are you going to heal yourself if damaged
3. What do you do if a swarm turns up
4. How about if we encounter a shadow
5. We are in a city which was nearly wrecked by plague, who bought an anti plague
6. How are you going to see in the darkIts a useful list even for experienced people.
This would totally ruin my gaming experience. I don't want to have a single character who is "prepared for every situation", I don't even want a party that is "prepared for every situation" . I want to have to role play the encounter and see how things wind up. Yes, that sometimes means we fail against whatever the problem is.
I also want certain "focused" characters in my party, example: I'm the weak mage who only has a few spells per day, I want a really strong tough fighter in my party who can get between me and the badguy. if he's not specialized to the point where he can take a lot of hits and deal a lot of melee damage, then he's not good enough at his job and I'll find someone else.
The primary conceit of PFS--and many tabletop campaigns, although certainly not all--is that you are an adventurer going into dangerous situations with unexpected and deadly challenges. The more challenges an adventurer encounters that she can't deal with, the more likely she is to die. The same is true for us as players--if we design characters that are terrible at almost everything, we're setting them up to fail.
Think of adventuring like a job--you probably aren't going to be great at every part of it, but you're kind of expected to know how to deal all of the usual crap that shows up on your desk or in your queue. That's just part of the job description. Sure, you can get away with being bad at some of it if you're great at other things, if you're too terrible at too much, you're going to get fired.
There's certainly a place for playing an adventurer who's terrible at adventuring--sometimes that can be fun! Terrible adventurers don't tend to live very long, though. This list is like a job description--you can sign up a character who's a poor fit for the job, but don't get too upset if things go horribly wrong for them!
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Or 6 social characters ^_^Lots of different ways to solve the various challenges.may seem like there are lots of ways, but it's a false sense of that in my opinion
its also really more of a solo adventure for a single sneaky char
I'm with you, Bronze House is pretty awesome. The way the final encounter was written is... actually really railroad-y in some ways, though, and I'm not a huge fan of it. When I ran it, I tried to sandbox it as much as I possibly could without departing from the "run the scenario as written" philosophy of PFS.
Anyway, I'd much rather play a unique scenario that swung for the fences and occasionally fell far short, like Bronze House, than a scenario that just rehashed the same old safe tropes over and over again!
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Or 6 social characters ^_^Lots of different ways to solve the various challenges.may seem like there are lots of ways, but it's a false sense of that in my opinion
its also really more of a solo adventure for a single sneaky char
Ours was three social characters, and one who could cast invisibility sphere.
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Eh, at least Bronze House got pretty ridiculous at parts. Speaking as both a gm and a player.Don't get me started on Bronze House. That was a horribly designed scenario.WOW!
We had drastically different experiences, then. I felt that was one of the most fun scenarios I've ever played because of how sandboxy it was. Lots of different ways to solve the various challenges.
We never even rolled Initiative once.
I also had a poor experience in this scenario, particularly the latter half. I was not a fan of the scenario for that "there's only one way to do it" nature of the search is frustrating.
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Not everyone has had the IC/OOC experience of Pathfinders that have 'gone to school'.
There are 'field commissioned agents' out there, and as a result, there are folks who don't have the experience of how to handle given situations given a lack of *IC* experience with them.
The only reason one of my characters, for example, was overly prepared for Icebound Outpost was because they had played From Under Ice a few scenarios before. So when he started pulling out gear everyone just *assumed* that he was hyper-prepared for everything...
There's a natural inclination to 'buff the strength' and 'neglect the weak spots' because the strength is where a character shines, and typically costs more to get it a bit further along.
That being said, as my characters adventure for the Society, they *learn* the lessons of given scenarios and apply them to future ones. *coughs* Didn't expect to have to have *FIVE* Alchemist's fire after the end of one given scenario, though... but *TWO* was just not enough.
As the characters have had different experiences, they have different load-outs... the bard has a dramatically different loadout from the rogue, who is different from the slayer/cleric, etc, etc.
Are any of them 'one-trick' ponies after the first or second scenario? No, but they're decidedly not *optimal* at the 'off-tricks'...
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Eh, at least Bronze House got pretty ridiculous at parts. Speaking as both a gm and a player.Don't get me started on Bronze House. That was a horribly designed scenario.WOW!
We had drastically different experiences, then. I felt that was one of the most fun scenarios I've ever played because of how sandboxy it was. Lots of different ways to solve the various challenges.
We never even rolled Initiative once.
I was at that table. It went totally different than the times I ran it during the Con! Which is the sign of a good scenario, in my mind. But we digress.
Ok, a few points.
I cut a huge amount of slack for a new player. Believe me, I understand that and it doesn't bother me in the least.
I even get that for the first couple levels you are relatively poor. (Still a sling and rocks is free.)
I even sorta get the 'My PC has never encountered that situation' type of thing. I still feel it is sort of silly to think anyone of average intelligence might not ever consider that someone might not be vulnerable to fire or shooting at you from out of reach. But whatever...
What I find irritating is the experienced players, with multiple characters, at various levels that simply refuse do do anything but their specialty.
We had a mounted PC that quite literally would just hold his actions until the rest of the group cleared out enough mooks that he could make a lance charge on the leader. The caster bard and ranged rogue were in melee combat because PC's were dropping and he just sat there 'encouraging' us to take down just 2 more to give him the charge lane.
There is a fighter that has only spent 2 prestige on cure light wounds or infernal healing wands, a single cure potion, and a masterwork agile breastplate. Every other coin is saved for improving his falchion or strength belt. He doesn't carry a sling or dagger. He fails saves all the time. In one scenario he literally made one single attack role against an enemy (yes he one shot it). But due to failed saves he made several attack roles against his allies (confusion). Most of the rest of the time was trying to climb up to the opponents or waiting in case the flying archers came into range. One of the regulars actually bought a bow (that he can't use) to loan to the fighter. He refused to use it.
If you want to specialize, fine. Have a plan to deal!
Aid another, buy a potion of fly, prep some different spells on occasion...
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I usually forego buying bows because there's never anything up in the air that a few chakrams can't fell.
...and that's how I almost met my end when a cr 9 flying archer with over 110 hp and dr 10 started taking names. Dr-piercing arrows and a few bow full attacks saved me!
Still a b%@@% to fiddle with when you got just two hands.
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There is a fighter that has only spent 2 prestige on cure light wounds or infernal healing wands, a single cure potion, and a masterwork agile breastplate. Every other coin is saved for improving his falchion or strength belt. He doesn't carry a sling or dagger. He fails saves all the time. In one scenario he literally made one single attack role against an enemy (yes he one shot it). But due to failed saves he made several attack roles against his allies (confusion). Most of the rest of the time was trying to climb up to the opponents or waiting in case the flying archers came into range. One of the regulars actually bought a bow (that he can't use) to loan to the fighter. He refused to use it.
Recent low level scenario: Mysterious Stranger gunslinger's gun misfires. My skald hands him a longbow and, in order to make him feel more comfortable with the weapon, hands him whistling arrows so that it makes a bunch of noise when he shoots. The gunslinger begrudgingly accepted.
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Venture-Agent, Florida—Longwood
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I have a guy in the runelords game I'm running. He's a 2 weapon fighter (focusing on longsword) with a 15 str and 15 dex. He has weapon focus longsword, so instead of fighting with a longsword and a shortsword giving him a +2/+1 to hit he's using two longswords so he has a +0/+0 to hit, oh and he doesn't have a ranged weapons because it's not a longsword...What about thrown long sword?
But then he wouldn't have 2 longswords to fight with when he closed to melee range...
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Yes your Ifrit has a theme and doesn't want any ice spells, I get it. How about a haste or communal pro evil?
Or even better, how about every other blasting spell with the cold, ice, acid, or lightning element? Ifrit Sorcerers can convert all of them to fire for free.
An Ifrit Sorcerer should never voluntarily learn a fire spell (the elemental bloodline saddles you with a few). Learn other element based spells, convert them to fire as your primary tactic, and fall back on the spell's regular element when confronted with something immune to fire.
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Yes your Ifrit has a theme and doesn't want any ice spells, I get it. How about a haste or communal pro evil?
Or even better, how about every other blasting spell with the cold, ice, acid, or lightning element? Ifrit Sorcerers can convert all of them to fire for free.
An Ifrit Sorcerer should never voluntarily learn a fire spell (the elemental bloodline saddles you with a few). Learn other element based spells, convert them to fire as your primary tactic, and fall back on the spell's regular element when confronted with something immune to fire.
Home Runelords campaign I was in, I had a rocking sorcerer of the copper draconic bloodline. Unfortunately, we never caught onto the fact that our opponent was watching our every move through 'means'.
As a result, after the second or third fight, she switched to electricity mid-fight, and the results were... magnificent. Not too many things are immune to both...
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Venture-Lieutenant, Ohio—Dayton
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I have a guy in the runelords game I'm running. He's a 2 weapon fighter (focusing on longsword) with a 15 str and 15 dex. He has weapon focus longsword, so instead of fighting with a longsword and a shortsword giving him a +2/+1 to hit he's using two longswords so he has a +0/+0 to hit, oh and he doesn't have a ranged weapons because it's not a longsword...
I look forward to hearing about when he faces E in the Catacombs of Book 1.
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I still remember my first edition AD&D wizard throwing daggers at things at low level, because I didn't have anything else I could do with my limited spells per day.
Sling staff, my all time favorite AD&D 2nd edition weapon for a wizard. Is it a melee thumping stick in case things get too close? Is it a ranged weapon for after you used your ONE spell per day? Is it a walking stick? It's all three rolled into one! YES PLEASE!
Okay, that derail being done now... About the one trick pony... At level one this is kind of expected. You just spent all your gold on initial equipment, you have no chronicles, odds are you don't have anything extra for a ranged weapon. Yeah you could get a free sling, but you've got no ammo for it. And if you gather rocks to use, well, that's 1d2 damage or so. And if you're a fighter you may not even have enough for a splash weapon or two. Especially if you're going sword and board.
It's not like you can pick up a melee contingency kit in a Core campaign after all. Which IMO is an awesome item from the melee tactics toolbox. A handful of weapons of various material types and damage types, plus an assortment of splash weapons? All for one low price? Yes please. It's worth it just for the splash weapons, never mind the silver and cold iron weapons.
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Is he prepared for every situation? Not by a long shot. However I like to think that he is prepared for the encounters he has faced in the past, and will continue to learn from new experiences to be better prepared in the future, after all he has 12 Intelligence and 10 Wisdom, it's hard to learn from things that haven't happened to him.I dislike the "only prepared for things he has faced" argument.
1) the character literally spent years being trained as a pathfinder
2) the character spends LOTS of time hanging out with adventurers. Surely they spend much of that time swapping war stories and advice. Your life may depend on it after all
That's the thing, what if you didn't train for years to become a pathfinder? What if you joined the pathfinder society days after stumbling across events bigger then you ever imagined while doing a 'quest' your village sends young adults on every year? A quest that should have basically been a milk run? This could easily be the case if you're character's first chronicle is Crypt of the Everflame, for example.
What if you're a humble librarian, no ambitions to be an adventurer at all, who got sent out into the field by the higher ups after it was discovered you have aerokinetic abilities? You never trained or studied how to be an adventurer or survive hostile situations. The biggest danger you faced before that first field mission is a paper cut and improperly shelved tome. This by the way is how Kahel Stormbender became a field agent. One tavern brawl that turned ugly and required the use of a kinetic ability, and they assumed Kahel was an ideal field agent. He (now she) has been learning the ropes as she goes since then.
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As the characters have had different experiences, they have different load-outs... the bard has a dramatically different loadout from the rogue, who is different from the slayer/cleric, etc, etc.
This, many times this. I have a standard character who did From Under Ice. That character ended up buying a cold weather outfit. This was Kahel's second field assignment, ever. First one was Between the Lines.
Then for Core campaign my monk Xao was a part of Icebound Outpost. Again, third chronicle. First two didn't involve cold environments. So had to buy a cold weather outfit. Using the fact Kahel in standard campaign had discovered "Oh, I can be sent into subzero environments" would have been meta gaming. Which I try not to do. Icebound Outpost taught Xao the importance of cleats when traveling on ice. A lesson Kahel hasn't had a chance to learn.
Then again Xao also learned (from watching a party member) not to put on any magic item found unless someone has vetted it as safe. A barbarian put on a "belt of strength" during one scenario, only to learn it was cursed and dropped their con down to 4. Again, not a lesson Kahel has learned.
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There is a difference between "I've never encountered a Babau Demon, so how would I know it has DR cold iron or good?" and the character being aware that some creatures somewhere have DR cold iron or good. Cold Iron is always available. It's fair to assume the character knows it's good for something. That doesn't mean when they encounter a fae or a demon that they'll be able to identify it or know what its DR is, but it should be enough that they can justify buying a cold iron weapon so that when the Wizard tells them that's a demon, hit it with cold iron, they are prepared.
Similarly, it's safe to assume characters know that flying creatures and magical flight exist, even if they don't know if a specific creature can fly or have never seen a flying creature. Or at the very least, they should know that pits, chasms, and high places exist, and they might have a need to quickly get across/up to one.
Just because a character has never personally encountered a thing, it doesn't mean they need to be ignorant of the possibility that they will.
EDIT: If you prefer crunch to back this up, keep in mind that you can make a DC 10 knowledge check untrained. So just because a character doesn't know "The mountains outside Goka are cold enough that you might freeze to death," it doesn't mean they can't know, "Mountains might be cold. Really cold." or even "Places might be cold." In fact, a lot of times there are DC10 pieces of knowledge you can gain at the mission briefing, even if no one in the group has the appropriate skill. There is absolutely nothing wrong with, on being told that you are being sent somewhere that you've never been before, asking the Venture Captain something like, "I've never been to Irrisen before. What's the weather like there?" Only Sheila Heidmarch would refuse to answer.
tl;dr: ROUSes? I don't think they exist.
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Sheila Heidmarch wouldn't refuse to answer, she'd just say it was nothing to worry about, and she's sure you'll be fine.
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That's the thing, what if you didn't train for years to become a pathfinder? What if you joined the pathfinder society days after stumbling across events bigger then you ever imagined while doing a 'quest' your village sends young adults on every year? A quest that should have basically been a milk run? This could easily be the case if you're character's first chronicle is Crypt of the Everflame, for example.What if you're a humble librarian, no ambitions to be an adventurer at all, who got sent out into the field by the higher ups after it was discovered you have aerokinetic abilities? You never trained or studied how to be an adventurer or survive hostile situations. The biggest danger you faced before that first field mission is a paper cut and improperly shelved tome. This by the way is how Kahel Stormbender became a field agent. One tavern brawl that turned ugly and required the use of a kinetic ability, and they assumed Kahel was an ideal field agent. He (now she) has been learning the ropes as she goes since then.
So, if you're level 1 with 1 chronicle I can MAYBE buy this.
But after that? Not really. After that adventure when it was terribly obvious that you were a complete naif your friends took you to the bar and told you the basics.
"Look Kahel, if it looks bony hit it with a mace. Fleshy, use a sword"
"Always, always, always, always have a ranged weapon, a backup weapon, and at least 1 flask of alchemist's fire"
"You NEED to have a backup holy symbol"
etc, etc, etc.
In real life, when somebody new joins your company don't you go out for drinks/lunch at some point and let them know how things ACTUALLY work at your company? If a newby is having difficulty doesn't somebody sit down and help them? Certainly happened where I worked.
If MY life depends on YOU knowing the basics you can be damn sure that I'm going to take you out to the pub and teach you them.
[aside]A good portion of the characters I meet at the PFS table would NOT actually be accepted into the Society if it was even vaguely as presented in the books (as an elite organization that can pretty much pick the cream of the crop). Or would quickly be kicked out. That is a necessity and side effect of organized play, but pointing out how your character is one of those that really should NOT be allowed in the society isn't necessarily the best way of convincing me that I'm wrong :-) [/aside]
Oh, the above is also pretty much my response to the swashbuckler who is too conceited to learn. They'd be dead or kicked out of the society very quickly
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Sling staff, my all time favorite AD&D 2nd edition weapon for a wizard. Is it a melee thumping stick in case things get too close? Is it a ranged weapon for after you used your ONE spell per day? Is it a walking stick? It's all three rolled into one! YES PLEASE!
I still remember my first edition AD&D wizard throwing daggers at things at low level, because I didn't have anything else I could do with my limited spells per day.
I don't think that existed in 1st edition. My wizard stuck to daggers until he had enough spells per day not to need them. Melee was for the fighter.
Okay, that derail being done now... About the one trick pony... At level one this is kind of expected. You just spent all your gold on initial equipment, you have no chronicles, odds are you don't have anything extra for a ranged weapon. Yeah you could get a free sling, but you've got no ammo for it. And if you gather rocks to use, well, that's 1d2 damage or so. And if you're a fighter you may not even have enough for a splash weapon or two. Especially if you're going sword and board.
10 sling bullets that do 1d4+str damage cost 1 silver, to go with the free sling. There's no excuse for any Pathfinder, even freshly made with only the starting 150 gp in equipment, to not be able to afford that.
That said, there can be story reasons not to have it, but you'd better be prepared to help the team out in other ways against flying/distant foes. My gnome sorcerer has never owned a weapon of any type, or known a direct damage spell (though I'm considering Black Tentacles now that I'm leveling him up to level 8). But he always had other spells he could toss at flying enemies, even at low levels (Sleep!).
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My divine hunter would be so surprised if his holy symbol befell some horrid fate. It's his adamantine holy symbol Shining Wayfinder, after all, and it holds his cloak closed.
"You NEED to have a backup holy symbol"
My inquisitor has a birthmark on his arm in the shape of Norgorber's unholy symbol that he uses for spellcasting. He also has a very fancy silver holy symbol of Pharasma that he pretends to use for spellcasting (50 gp generic masterwork tool that gives +2 bluff to pretend to be a Pharasma worshiper).
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My inquisitor has a birthmark on his arm in the shape of Norgorber's unholy symbol that he uses for spellcasting. He also has a very fancy silver holy symbol of Pharasma that he pretends to use for spellcasting (50 gp generic masterwork tool that gives +2 bluff to pretend to be a Pharasma worshiper).My divine hunter would be so surprised if his holy symbol befell some horrid fate. It's his adamantine holy symbol Shining Wayfinder, after all, and it holds his cloak closed.
"You NEED to have a backup holy symbol"
Funny enough, I didn't have trait space for Birthmark because I needed Deadeye Bowman and felt it necessary to take Friend in Every Town to not suck at diplomacy. That's right, the WIS-based caster archer took a minor in Diplomacy. What up, yo? ^.^
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So, if you're level 1 with 1 chronicle I can MAYBE buy this.But after that? Not really. After that adventure when it was terribly obvious that you were a complete naif your friends took you to the bar and told you the basics.
"Look Kahel, if it looks bony hit it with a mace. Fleshy, use a sword"
"Always, always, always, always have a ranged weapon, a backup weapon, and at least 1 flask of alchemist's fire"
"You NEED to have a backup holy symbol"
Kahel has profession: librarian. And works for the Dark Archive. There's no adventuring knowledge needed to organize and shelve books. Then got sent out on an errand which got dangerous. Fortunately Kahel's experience as a librarian was useful. And we ended up saving one of the venture captains. Why would people have thought "Oh, Kahel needs to learn the basics still".
Also, have you ever played/GMed Crypt of the Everflame? If it's everyone's first session with their character then the party is literally fresh faced kids who are being sent on what should be a Halloween haunted house type 'adventure'. One that becomes dangerously real. Then at after surviving the horrors in the crypt, a Pathfinder agent recruits the party.
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My 1st character(samurai) went through Crypt of the Everflame as his and my 1st pfs game. Boy did I learn alot. So many useful things, air crystals... alchemist'sc fire and wand of cure light. Those items become basic staples for my characterstuff after they have played 1 game.
And soon I will be gming Crypt for new pathfinders! So excited.
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It is a fun module. And it does teach neophyte adventurers many valuable lessons. But not everything they might need to know.
And lets face it, it's hard for new adventurers to understand just how dangerous swarms are until they encounter one and can't do a dang thing against it. "But I have darkvision, why would I need a torch?" "Bah, I don't need flasks of alchemist fire, I've got my great sword." "Aaah! BEES!"
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Crypt of the Everflame is not PFS specific, though. The assumptions about the characters going into it are not the same as the assumptions going into a Pathfinder Society Scenario. It was not written with PFS in mind.
The Confirmation is a better example for expectations. It's opening is designed around teaching the players about the things that the characters should already know. Splash weapons are good against swarms, etc. The training the characters go through before becoming Pathfinders (excepting field commissions, which seems to be how everyone plays their characters) is detailed in the Pathfinder Society Primer, the Pathfinder Society Field Guide, and Seeker of Secrets. The "normal" process is three years of training before your Confirmation. Playing your character as though they have basic knowledge about how the world works, like that they might need an Alchemist's Fire, is not meta-gaming. Even if the characters have not played "The Confirmation," it's assumed that they went through "a" Confirmation, so likely someone provided them with similar information to what Janira Gavix does.
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Kahel has profession: librarian. And works for the Dark Archive. There's no adventuring knowledge needed to organize and shelve books. Then got sent out on an errand which got dangerous. Fortunately Kahel's experience as a librarian was useful. And we ended up saving one of the venture captains. Why would people have thought "Oh, Kahel needs to learn the basics still".
Lets take the real world again. You switch jobs within a company. Pretty much the first thing the company does is make sure you have the requisite skills for your new position, sending you on a training course if necessary.
The excuse "my character doesn't know basic stuff because they're 'special' and its just good character roleplaying to be ineffective" works, at best, for only one or two sessions of PFS play and then just turns into yet another example of why "but its what my character would do" is rarely an acceptable answer.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that your librarian should become a tough as nails cynical mercenary. Somewhat naive characters are fine. But they'd learn to carry alchemist's fire, have a dagger, etc.
Also, have you ever played/GMed Crypt of the Everflame? If it's everyone's first session with their character then the party is literally fresh faced kids who are being sent on what should be a Halloween haunted house type 'adventure'. One that becomes dangerously real. Then at after surviving the horrors in the crypt, a Pathfinder agent recruits the party.
I don't have access to the module this instant but is that PFS ending actually in the module or tacked on for PFS?
At any rate, its a classic example of what would NOT happen in the organization as described in the various books. Getting a field commission is supposed to be exceedingly rare and very, very few of those getting one would be 1st or 2nd level. Characters surviving Crypt really shouldn't be enough (yes, played and run it).
Edit: if I was running a campaign using the society as the backdrop I'd probably make graduates of the academy about 3rd level (certainly at least 2nd) and have pretty much nobody get a field commission before about 5th. I'd also make sure all characters met some minimum requirements. I totally understand while organized play doesn't do that but something like that, in my opinion, far better reflects what the books describe the society to be.
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Steal combat maneuver.My divine hunter would be so surprised if his holy symbol befell some horrid fate. It's his adamantine holy symbol Shining Wayfinder, after all, and it holds his cloak closed.
"You NEED to have a backup holy symbol"
Thankfully, virtually nothing can sneak up on me that would have an interest in attempting that maneuver and I have means of staying away from that sort of problem in combat. The at-will telekinesis is more troubling, particularly since there's a decent chance of at-will greater teleport to go with it.
At least I still have the wooden back-up until I kill the target.
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That's the thing, what if you didn't train for years to become a pathfinder? What if you joined the pathfinder society days after stumbling across events bigger then you ever imagined while doing a 'quest' your village sends young adults on every year? A quest that should have basically been a milk run? This could easily be the case if you're character's first chronicle is Crypt of the Everflame, for example.
What if you're a humble librarian, no ambitions to be an adventurer at all, who got sent out into the field by the higher ups after it was discovered you have aerokinetic abilities? You never trained or studied how to be an adventurer or survive hostile situations. The biggest danger you faced before that first field mission is a paper cut and improperly shelved tome. This by the way is how Kahel Stormbender became a field agent. One tavern brawl that turned ugly and required the use of a kinetic ability, and they assumed Kahel was an ideal field agent. He (now she) has been learning the ropes as she goes since then.
Every agent of the pathfinder society is (or at one point was) a field agent. You dont just get to be a field agent one day. Telling me you are someone who should not be in the society because you are not prepared for it does not make me think you should be in the society. Moreover, your use of a convoluted backstory to excuse making an intentionally unprepared character does not impress me with your desire to to be a team player, in or out of game.
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I don't have access to the module this instant but is that PFS ending actually in the module or tacked on for PFS?At any rate, its a classic example of what would NOT happen in the organization as described in the various books. Getting a field commission is supposed to be exceedingly rare and very, very few of those getting one would be 1st or 2nd level. Characters surviving Crypt really shouldn't be enough (yes, played and run it).
Actually, yes the PFS trying to recruit the players IS part of the written wrap up for the module. When I ran the module for my lodge I ignored it. But then everyone had 3 or so chronicles already (and things had gone seriously south twice). So I ran the module as a venture captain sending the players on what should be an easy milk run at behest of the village's elders, since the last few assignments the players had gotten got unexpectedly dangerous. Thus it was intended as a working vacation.
