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Envoy's Alliance

Hey, hi!
I'm Francis (also known as Ashun)
I played PF2 a few years ago, and now recently a group of friends decided to give it a shot.
While digging around, I found out about PFS, so... I have a few questions about the general game and a few about PFS.
If anyone can help me, by either giving me answers, pointers, or links to my answers. I'd be greatly appreciated.

So, let's begin.

1. Can I post my Pathbuilder sheet here for review?
I don't know if there's anything wrong with it, if there's anything missing, if there's anything extra, etc...

2. "You are encumbered."
I have my familiar carry the lab for me. But I have no problems removing it if it doesn't make sense.

3. How fun/viable is a "crafter"?
I want to be a witch crafter. Brew potions and unguents, mostly healing and support. Is crafting potions good enough for a PFS play? I don't care much about optimization, I just don't want to inconvenience others.

4. On Paizo's Character Settings, how do I fill these?
- Special Abilities. I think that there are too many special abilities for me to put everything in here.
- Location. I don't know, Otari? Absalom? Golarion?
- Homepage URL. Can I put my own link here for a neverending loop?
- Description. Appareance, personality and story?

5. Does a PFS campaign need to be in person in an organized event? Because there are none in the country I live in.

6. If not, how do I join a Pathfinder Society group? I'm really lost.

7. Which Faction makes the most sense for a travelling physician?
Envoys' Alliance, Horizon Hunters or Radiant Oath? I'm a bit more inclined to the Envoys' or Radiant. But I don't know enough about any of them.

8. Any avatar suggestions for a male blue horned changeling that has a blue pet iguana and likes to brew potions to help others?

More questions may arise after these ones.
Thank you so much for taking your time to read and help!
Also, I am sorry if this is the wrong sub-forum, I'm new and really lost.

~~ Ash*


Welcome to the group.

Ashun wrote:
1. Can I post my Pathbuilder sheet here for review?

Usually that is done in the Advice subforum.

Do be aware that whatever you post will get ripped to shreds by people giving conflicting advice on what you should build instead.

Ashun wrote:

2. "You are encumbered."

I have my familiar carry the lab for me. But I have no problems removing it if it doesn't make sense.

Things that familiars are able to do are not well defined. It is up to the GM and table to decide what is actually allowed.

Ashun wrote:

3. How fun/viable is a "crafter"?

I want to be a witch crafter. Brew potions and unguents, mostly healing and support. Is crafting potions good enough for a PFS play? I don't care much about optimization, I just don't want to inconvenience others.

Crafting does not make items cost less money. It makes them take more time to get than just buying them.

There are some cases where crafting is a good choice mechanically. And it is always interesting to do solely for the role-play fun of it.

If you want to craft stuff while adventuring, you will need to get something like Alchemist Archetype or some of the other archetypes that let you craft stuff for free during morning preparations.

Not every campaign will have enough downtime to do actual crafting.

Ashun wrote:
5. Does a PFS campaign need to be in person in an organized event? Because there are none in the country I live in.

I don't think so. You can also join Play-by-Post PFS games, but I am not entirely sure how to do that.

Ashun wrote:
6. If not, how do I join a Pathfinder Society group? I'm really lost.

I am also somewhat interested in that, so hopefully someone like Hmm will come along and answer that.

Envoy's Alliance

breithauptclan wrote:

Usually that is done in the Advice subforum.

Do be aware that whatever you post will get ripped to shreds by people giving conflicting advice on what you should build instead.

Ok!

breithauptclan wrote:

Crafting does not make items cost less money. It makes them take more time to get than just buying them.

There are some cases where crafting is a good choice mechanically. And it is always interesting to do solely for the role-play fun of it.

If you want to craft stuff while adventuring, you will need to get something like Alchemist Archetype or some of the other archetypes that let you craft stuff for free during morning preparations.

Not every campaign will have enough downtime to do actual crafting

I'm fine with it having a cost and taking time, just a bit apprehensive about being a bother to others.

The main idea I had about using this on PFS, is to always have some stuff prepared for future adventures.

breithauptclan wrote:
I am also somewhat interested in that, so hopefully someone like Hmm will come along and answer that.

Same. Sounds fun!

Wayfinders Contributor

Hi Francis and Breihauptclan!

There are a number of ways to join PFS online play, but I've cast the spell Summon Venture Officer so that you can hear from one of the official Online VOs first.

I can always chime in with other details later, but I'm having a busy night. Welcome to the Community!

Hmm

PS I was amused to discover myself name-dropped in this thread!

Dark Archive

Ashun wrote:


1. Can I post my Pathbuilder sheet here for review?
I don't know if there's anything wrong with it, if there's anything missing, if there's anything extra, etc...

Sure, though it can take quite some time to go through a sheet so don't feel it's anything personal if it takes a while for someone to respond.

Quote:

2. "You are encumbered."

I have my familiar carry the lab for me. But I have no problems removing it if it doesn't make sense.

Familiars have some somewhat grey areas, firstly it probably needs Manual Dexterity as an ability to enable this, with that you'll likely see anything from 0-5 Bulk as the option, depending upon your GM unfortunately.

Quote:

3. How fun/viable is a "crafter"?

I want to be a witch crafter. Brew potions and unguents, mostly healing and support. Is crafting potions good enough for a PFS play? I don't care much about optimization, I just don't want to inconvenience others.

Crafting is pretty solid, especially for consumables, that's one of the best uses for it in many cases. If you're not taking any feats then it will likely be a minor saving typically, the more feats you devote to it the better the benefits tend to be, but you're going to be able to contribute regardless, PF2 is pretty balanced like that.

Quote:

4. On Paizo's Character Settings, how do I fill these?

- Special Abilities. I think that there are too many special abilities for me to put everything in here.
- Location. I don't know, Otari? Absalom? Golarion?
- Homepage URL. Can I put my own link here for a neverending loop?
- Description. Appareance, personality and story?

You don't need to fill in any of that sheet beyond name/faction really, outside of Play By Post games, for that i'll leave it to someone more familiar to help.

Quote:
5. Does a PFS campaign need to be in person in an organized event? Because there are none in the country I live in.

Nope, we have plenty of online games and an entire Online Region for Society! Both ones that are more slow paced Play By Post (on forums or discord) and also real time using Virtual Tabletops (such as Roll20, Foundry, etc). If you check out my profile (just click on my name) you can find links to all our PbP and VTT Society lodges, as well as a bunch of guides to help! (Our main lodge for Virtual Tabletop games is on Discord here.)

Quote:
6. If not, how do I join a Pathfinder Society group? I'm really lost.

There's no need for 'membership' or anything, you just go to one of the forums, discords, etc and check out their 'looking for game' posts or channels and jump in when! If you ask for help in whichever of those you prefer then you'll likely find a lot of people willing to offer.

Quote:

7. Which Faction makes the most sense for a travelling physician?

Envoys' Alliance, Horizon Hunters or Radiant Oath? I'm a bit more inclined to the Envoys' or Radiant. But I don't know enough about any of them.

If you're looking to craft, Envoys' Alliance, they have a boon which removes the 4 days of 'pre craft' time from crafting, making it far more time efficient.

Quote:
8. Any avatar suggestions for a male blue horned changeling that has a blue pet iguana and likes to brew potions to help others?

Sorry, no idea!

Envoy's Alliance

Richard Lowe wrote:
Sure, though it can take quite some time to go through a sheet so don't feel it's anything personal if it takes a while for someone to respond.

No worries! I'll post it in the Advice subforum too for other viewpoints.

Here it is: https://pathbuilder2e.com/launch.html?build=361022

Richard Lowe wrote:
Familiars have some somewhat grey areas, firstly it probably needs Manual Dexterity as an ability to enable this, with that you'll likely see anything from 0-5 Bulk as the option, depending upon your GM unfortunately.

Since it was a Iguana, I had it tied to its back. But yeah, I agree in this case I removed it and it's better to ask the GM.

Richard Lowe wrote:
Crafting is pretty solid, especially for consumables, that's one of the best uses for it in many cases. If you're not taking any feats then it will likely be a minor saving typically, the more feats you devote to it the better the benefits tend to be, but you're going to be able to contribute regardless, PF2 is pretty balanced like that.

That puts me at ease. It's nice to know!

Richard Lowe wrote:
Nope, we have plenty of online games and an entire Online Region for Society! Both ones that are more slow paced Play By Post (on forums or discord) and also real time using Virtual Tabletops (such as Roll20, Foundry, etc). If you check out my profile (just click on my name) you can find links to all our PbP and VTT Society lodges, as well as a bunch of guides to help! (Our main lodge for Virtual Tabletop games is on Discord here.)

Cool! I'll join.

Richard Lowe wrote:
If you're looking to craft, Envoys' Alliance, they have a boon which removes the 4 days of 'pre craft' time from crafting, making it far more time efficient.

Oooh. Envoys' Alliance it is then.

Grand Archive

If you're looking at the pbp lodges, be aware that we recently started applying convention. Which means all the GMs started a lot of games simultaneously two weeks ago. At least one of those games was a Bounty (short adventure) that had already ended, but the vast majority are still going on.

So there isn't s lot of recruiting right now. In my (admittedly fairly brief) experience with the Cottonseed Lodge on these forums, somebody is basically always recruiting for something. Except right now. The pbp community is actually unusually active, but the recruiting part is down. It'll pick up again.

Since for pbp here you'll use your character profile for posting, the common practice is to fill it out--but not how it says. I'm posting this with one of my pbp character profiles so you can see. Since some of those sections show up under my name, I've put a quick-reference start block there. That helps me and the GM.

For real-time VTT games, I recommend Warhorn. You can filter for PFS, if you want.

[Url=https://paizo.com/community/forums/organizedPlay] There is a dedicated Organized Play section of the forums.

Wayfinders Contributor

Ashun (Francis) and Breihauptclan, if you would like to try a short Play-by-Post adventure, I think we can get a bounty going so that the two of you can play. It won't be part of the OutPost convention, but I like to get new players playing as soon as possible. Liam is right that there is not a lot being offered now because everyone is playing in the convention, but this can give you a start, and by the time you finish with it, some GMs will start opening other new games as the ones that they were running for Outpost finish.

I will PM you both the details if either of the GMs who are thinking of offering a quick bounty post one. I've asked them to save you seats.

Link to relevant conversation at Cottonseed PFS PBP Lodge

Oh and here is a link to Cottonseed's Discussion tab if you want to discuss how to get characters formatted for Play-by-Post or introduce yourselves to the Lodge.

Wayfinders Contributor

Ashun wrote:

4. On Paizo's Character Settings, how do I fill these?

- Special Abilities. I think that there are too many special abilities for me to put everything in here.
- Location. I don't know, Otari? Absalom? Golarion?
- Homepage URL. Can I put my own link here for a neverending loop?
- Description. Appareance, personality and story?

Formatting on Paizo's character settings only really matters for Play-by-Post characters, and the only fields we care about are:

1) Race
2) Class
3) Gender
4) The Big About Field.

The first three matter because they will show up in your character header in the Play-by-Post forum, so you can list all sorts of information for your GM and fellow players there, like current Hit Points, Hero Points, Armor Class, Saving Throws, Perception and the number of spells or other limited abilities you've used.

The About field is where we post the full character sheet.

I created a PFS PF2 character template that people can use to create the BBC code for your character sheet. (You can also export Hero Lab characters to BB Code if you use that.) But basically, you can make a copy of the template, customize it with your own character's information, and then post each section to the correct fields of the Paizo profile.

Horizon Hunters

If you want to see what the character sheet looks like for a fully filled out character, you can click Bitty's profile.

And here is one of Bitty Blue's Play-by-Post posts where you can see how the character header looks when the game is actually being played.

Wayfinders Contributor

As predicted, the bounty opened. I've pmed a link to both Breihauptclan and Ashun.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Ashun wrote:

Hey, hi!

[PFS and Avatar qustions]

I'm new and really lost.
~~ Ash*

Yeah, PFS is really confusing for new players. You're not alone.

In addition to all the other people giving you help, I have some resources that can help you get acquainted with the quirky Paizo website:

1. An Organized play 101 that walks you through account creation.
2. My Play by Post guide walks you through he mechanical process of character registration, alias, and profile creation (with pictures!)
3. An Avatar gallery of all the avatar images on the Paizo forums. Makes it easier to peruse all your options and quickly locate your avatar off choice on the Paizo website.

Welcome.

Horizon Hunters

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Making progress.

Will have to fill out more details later today.

Wayfinders Contributor

Doug Hahn wrote:
Ashun wrote:

Hey, hi!

[PFS and Avatar qustions]

I'm new and really lost.
~~ Ash*

Yeah, PFS is really confusing for new players. You're not alone.

In addition to all the other people giving you help, I have some resources that can help you get acquainted with the quirky Paizo website:

1. An Organized play 101 that walks you through account creation.
2. My Play by Post guide walks you through he mechanical process of character registration, alias, and profile creation (with pictures!)
3. An Avatar gallery of all the avatar images on the Paizo forums. Makes it easier to peruse all your options and quickly locate your avatar off choice on the Paizo website.

Welcome.

Doug, that is just awesome. Thank you for posting!

Hmm


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Looks like good info on Doug's site. Thanks, Doug. One thing: dark blue letters on a black background (your links) is very hard to read. For me, the only way to see what it says is to highlight it.


Ed Reppert wrote:
Looks like good info on Doug's site. Thanks, Doug. One thing: dark blue letters on a black background (your links) is very hard to read. For me, the only way to see what it says is to highlight it.

On the dark theme? I’ll look at it, thanks. The old plan was to make Dark theme more of a Starfinder feel but I never found time. As a colorblind person readability is important to me.

Edit: yep, they’re really tough to read. gonna fix that tomorrow.


GM Doug H wrote:
Ed Reppert wrote:
Looks like good info on Doug's site. Thanks, Doug. One thing: dark blue letters on a black background (your links) is very hard to read. For me, the only way to see what it says is to highlight it.
On the dark theme? I’ll look at it thanks. As a colorblind person it’s important to me.

I'm color blind too and it's a bit hard to see for me.

EDIT: I see you ninja'd me.


Should be fixed now but you may need to empty your cache to clear out any old CSS.

Thanks for letting me know, Ed Reppert. To not derail this thread further there’s a separate thread on these resources here.

Envoy's Alliance

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Thank you so much everyone!
You all went above and beyond what I asked! <3

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