I have a bunch of new players who are interested in participating in the Pathfinder Society and we thought we'd start with Year 4. I guess I'm missing how things are supposed to work for new players since they have to start with Level 1 characters and it takes 3 sessions to level up (if I'm reading the rules correctly). But S4-01 is for Level 1-4, S4-02 is for Level 1-4, and then S4-03 is for Level 5-8. I just assumed that they'd create some level 5 characters and play S4-03 with those, but reading the forums here shows me that isn't right. I guess if you are a new player, you play a pre-generated character for S4-03. S4-06 is for L7-10, so again it's back to pregens.
I had this obviously false preconception that I could play all sorts of different characters in PFS - a L1 Alchemist, a L5 Dwarven Warpriest, a L7 Sorcerer, a L1 Gnome Barbarian, etc. But you can't do that without playing all sorts of PFS years. How do new players build up characters to play in all of the year's scenarios?
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You don't have to do them in numbered order. That is just the order scenarios came out in each month this year. You'd just skip those and run ones that are an appropriate level range for the characters your players have. The typical order to start new players with is Intro 1, Intro 2, current season intro (ie 4-01).
Your players can comeback to do the higher level stuff once they have characters leveled up to that point.
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There are a few short arcs in each season which play best when done in order, but otherwise, you can pick and choose from whatever is available that matches the level range you need. Note that scenarios in arcs are very rarely consecutively numbered, because they're they're taking turns with other miniseries in the release schedule.
And I will say that, in my experience, playing a variety of different scenarios from different seasons is very common practice. Playing scenarios within the same season will give you a common reference frame for recent history, and playing the current season often makes it easier to find a game because demand is still high for those scenarios. But those are pretty much the only compelling reasons to limit yourself to one season at a time.
Venture-Lieutenant, Indiana—Martinsville
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So, for example, I have fifty characters for PF1 and just getting to my thirteenth character for PF2.
The Pathfinder society had a robust membership and will have rotation of Pathfinders (those who are members of the Pathfinder Society) that will go on tasks and assignments throughout Golarion.
Each season is not specifically intended to be played with just 1 character. Therein, I think, lies the misconception.
That was my point. Not having participated in the Society before, I assumed that I could show up with a bunch of different characters of different levels that were created according to some rules. So if the table was playing S4-06 which is for level 7-10 characters, I'd pull out my L7 Gnome Barbarian and play. But when I looked into it, I realized my assumption was wrong.
So though I understand that the season wasn't intended to be played with 1 character, if you are a new player to the society, I don't see how you get those higher level characters.
I guess the idea of playing other seasons in the downtime helps because that's how you can get other characters and you can mix and match between seasons.
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The only way to get those higher level characters is to play a lot of games to earn the XP to get there. And yes, that means you'll often need to play adventures from a mix of seasons to get enough games at the levels you need.
There are 1st-, 3rd-, and 5th-level pregens available for players who don't have characters of their own within a given adventure's level range. But if a scenario's minimum level is 7th or higher, you won't be able to play it at all unless you've played your own legal character up to that level.
And yes, it can take a while to get characters up to those higher levels if you don't play all the time. I've been playing since Season 1, but I've probably only played around twice a month on average. (It's occasionally more, but I also do Starfinder Society and non-organized play home games.) So my highest level character is 9th, and he's just barely able to qualify for the first couple of level 9-12 scenarios that have been released. My next highest is 6th, and I'm trying to get her up to 7th so I can play some of this season's 7-10's with her instead. (She cares more about this season's metaplot than my level 9 does.) My other characters are 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, and 1st.
I'm mostly been playing the low-level ones recently because our local Venture-Lieutenant (my wife) is trying to get in-person play started up again locally. She's only running stuff brand-new players can play until we have a pool of regulars with characters who can do higher-level fare. She running a mix of Intros, S4 metaplot stuff, and older-season scenarios that she and I missed the first time around, plus a lot of bounties and quests (which gain less XP, but are less of a time commitment, so are a good way for newbies to get a taste to see if they like it).
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Each season is not specifically intended to be played with just 1 character. Therein, I think, lies the misconception.That was my point. Not having participated in the Society before, I assumed that I could show up with a bunch of different characters of different levels that were created according to some rules. So if the table was playing S4-06 which is for level 7-10 characters, I'd pull out my L7 Gnome Barbarian and play. But when I looked into it, I realized my assumption was wrong.
So though I understand that the season wasn't intended to be played with 1 character, if you are a new player to the society, I don't see how you get those higher level characters.
I guess the idea of playing other seasons in the downtime helps because that's how you can get other characters and you can mix and match between seasons.
To get to level 2 you must play 3 scenarios. The same for every level beyond that. There are a lot of 1-4 scenarios between the 4 seasons. There are nearly equivalent 3-6's. There are less 5-8's, though there are more than 6. I think there are around 6 7-10's. And a couple 9-12's now.
It is possible to get a character to level 11 by scenarios alone. It takes playing 30 scenarios.
