Characters

In Pathfinder Society games, you can either use a pregenerated character or create your own character.

Creating a Character

The process of creating a character follows the guidelines in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, with a few additional campaign-specific benefits. Character Creation (also see below) contains step-by-step instructions to help you create your own Pathfinder Society character and explains the aforementioned benefits. Read these rules carefully, as they ensure that characters are suitable for the organized play campaign.

Resources: All of the ancestries, backgrounds, and classes from the Pathfinder Core Rulebook are available to you when creating a character. Some ancestries and options from other books may need to be accessed with Achievement Points before you can use them in organized play. (See also Character Options.)

Pregenerated Characters

If you don’t have time to create a new character or want to try out a new character class, you can use a pregenerated character, also called a pregen. The Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild offers free pregenerated characters based on Pathfinder’s iconic characters, available at paizo.com or from your local event coordinator. The following rules apply when playing pregenerated characters.

Choose a Character to Receive Credit

Before the game, you must choose which of your characters to assign the credit for playing this adventure to. (If you haven’t created your own character yet, you’ll assign it to the first character that you create.) Credit from a 1st-level pregenerated character can be assigned only to a 1st-level character. Credit for playing a higher-level pregenerated character must be assigned to a Pathfinder Society character of a lower level than the pregenerated character.

Negative Effects

During play, your pregenerated character may be afflicted with negative effects such as a curse, a disease, or even death. The pregenerated character must clear and resolve these negative effects before the end of the adventure; otherwise, they affect the Pathfinder Society character that’s receiving credit for the adventure. A few adventures, such as Origins of the Open Road, have special rules for pregenerated characters that provide alternate means to clear negative effects.

• After applying Pathfinder Society character resources, you can use the pregenerated character’s funds to pay for these spellcasting services. If sold to pay for removing a negative effect, a 1st-level character’s gear is worth 7.5 gold pieces, a 3rd-level character’s gear is worth 37.5 gold pieces, and a 5th-level character’s gear is worth 135 gold pieces.
• The character can use the gold and Fame that she has earned on the Chronicle sheet for the current adventure to help pay for removing negative effects.
• If more resources are needed to pay for the cost of removing negative effects, players at the table can contribute some of their own gold pieces, but they are not required to.

Apply Credit

You may apply a pregenerated character’s Chronicle sheet to one of your Pathfinder Society characters once your Pathfinder Society character reaches the level of the pregenerated character used to play through it. For example, if you played a 5th-level pregenerated character, you would apply the credit once your character reaches 5th level.

• Apply the Chronicle sheets for eligible adventures in the order in which they were played. For each one, add the rewards earned (Experience Points, gold pieces, Fame, boons etc.) to your character, along with any negative effects that weren’t removed from the pregenerated character. This character is also now able to buy any items listed on that Chronicle sheet.
• If you apply credit for multiple adventures at once, your Pathfinder Society character might advance multiple levels. The character’s level cannot exceed the tier range of any Chronicle sheets applied to them.
• You can apply credit from a higher-tier adventure to a 1st-level Pathfinder Society character. When doing so, you gain only the gold appropriate to a 1st-level character. You do not benefit from any boons until your Pathfinder Society character reaches the minimum level listed on the Chronicle sheet, unless otherwise noted.

Downtime: Pregenerated characters can use Downtime.

Before the Adventure Session

At the game table, introduce yourself to the other players and the Game Master. Take this time to determine which character within the adventure’s subtier (range of levels) you want to play—this can be a character you created or a pregenerated character. The GM will also pass around a sign-in sheet to record your character’s name, level, faction, and Organized Play ID (if you don’t have an Organized Play ID yet, your GM can assign you one). During this time, you also need to decide whether you are using Standard Advancement or Slow Advancement. (Slow advancement lets you play more scenarios with that same character before you reach the maximum level; standard advancement helps you level up and become powerful more quickly).

Negative Effects

The Pathfinder Society has resources to take care of its members, and many of the possible negative effects an adventurer can be subject to during an adventure are assumed to be taken care of during Downtime. The exceptions to this are death, permanent petrification or polymorph effects, curses, and permanent negative conditions (Core Rulebook 618–623) acquired during the course of the adventure. These negative effects must be cleared at the end of the adventure or the character must be reported as “dead,” unable to continue adventuring in Pathfinder Society organized play. Most of these negative effects can be cleared by spending Fame for the appropriate service on Table 2: All-Factions Boons. Other PCs may use their spells, feats, class abilities, or consumables to assist you in recovering from such negative effects, but they aren’t required to.

Option Rarity and Access

Some options within the game will have a listed rarity. The categories of rarity are common, uncommon, rare, and unique. Common options from the Core Rulebook are always available for use. Uncommon options typically require a specific condition to be met to take them; this can include taking a specific feat or class feature, acquiring the item during a game and gaining it on a Chronicle sheet, or meeting another access condition (see below). Rare options are incredibly difficult to find or obtain and are generally not available for use in character creation or leveling. Unique options are the rarest of all, with only one existing in all the world, and will almost never be available as player options. Be sure to check Character Options for more information on the availability of options.

Access: Some uncommon options have an entry labeled “Access.” If you satisfy the access condition by being from the specified region, a member of a particular organization, or meeting some similar requirement, that option is common for you. All characters created for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play are members of the Pathfinder Society organization in the world of Golarion, so they gain access to options that require membership in the Pathfinder Society.

Purchasing Equipment

As you complete adventures, you will gain more wealth that can be used to buy any common item that is no more than 2 levels higher than your current level. Uncommon items may be granted by Chronicle sheets or through other special boons. Characters with the appropriate crafting feats may also be able to obtain formulas for equipment that they can create during Downtime.

Leveling Up

In Pathfinder Society, characters level up after ever 12 Experience Points earned, instead of every 1,000 Experience Points. Leveling up your character otherwise works normally.

Character Creation

This page details the steps for creating a character for the Pathfinder Society. These steps mirror those in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook with a few additional Roleplaying Guild-specific rules and benefits.

Ability Scores

Generate your Pathfinder Society character’s ability scores using the method detailed on page 20 of the Core Rulebook. Your character may also take two additional ability flaws to gain one additional ability boost as described in the Voluntary Flaws sidebar on page 26 of the Core Rulebook.

Ancestry

Select your character’s ancestry. The ancestry choices offered in the Core Rulebook are always available. Other ancestries may available as Achievement Point boons or through Character Options.

Languages

Your character gains some languages based on their ancestry, but might speak additional languages depending on their Intelligence or class. All Pathfinder Society characters are literate and speak Common.

Cultural Languages

Human: Humans can speak Common, as well as any other modern human language associated with their ethnicity. Humans gain one additional common language or regional language of their choice. The cultural languages listed below (along with their associated ethnicities) are good choices.

• Common (Taldan)
• Erutaki (Erutaki)
• Hallit (Kellid)
• Kelish (Kelishite)
• Osiriani (Garundi)
• Polyglot (Mwangi)
• Shoanti (Shoanti)
• Skald (Ulfen)
• Tien (Tian)
• Varisian (Varisian)
• Varki (Varki)
• Vudrani (Vudrani)

Bonus Languages

A character with a high Intelligence score can select bonus languages from the list of modern human languages above or the bonus languages listed in the source for the character’s ancestry.

Background

Once you’ve chosen your character’s ancestry, it’s time to select their background. All of the backgrounds presented in the Core Rulebook starting on page 60 are available for use. Other backgrounds will be available through the Achievement Point system, or for completing scenarios in prior seasons of the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign (See Legacy Backgrounds). Backgrounds from other sources will generally be available so long as you own a valid copy of the source, though some exceptions may occur; these exceptions are noted in Character Options.

Class

All of the classes presented in the Core Rulebook are available to characters. Pathfinder Society characters begin at 1st level, though some boons available through the Achievement Point system may allow a character to start at 2nd or 3rd level.

Hit Points

Your character’s Hit Points are determined by their ancestry, class, Constitution modifier, and level. Each ancestry gives a certain number of Hit Points, as detailed in its entry. This amount is added to the Hit Points granted by the character’s chosen class and their Constitution modifier. At each level after 1st, a character gains the number of Hit Points specified in their class entry.

Skills

Each class grants a starting proficiency ranks in certain skills at 1st level. Characters with a high Intelligence score are trained in a number of additional skills of their choice, as described in their class entry. Review Chapter 4 of the Core Rulebook for the details of how to assign skill increases and the benefits they grant.

Feats

Each class grants feats starting at 1st level and at most or all levels thereafter. A character must be the same level as or a higher level than a feat to select it. There are four different types of feats a character gains: ancestry feats, class feats, general feats, and skill feats. Ancestry feats are determined by your ancestry and can be found in the same section as your other ancestry statistics. Class feats are your most powerful feats; they are determined by your character class and presented in the same section. General feats are feats that any character can take, and are located in Chapter 5 of the Core Rulebook alongside Skill feats. Skill feats affect a skill in a particular way, usually giving the character more ways to use that skill; some skill feats are available only to characters whose proficiency rank in the skill is expert or greater.

Additional feats can be found in other books, as detailed in Character Options.

Starting Wealth and Equipment

All characters in Pathfinder Society begin with 15 gold pieces (150 silver pieces) that can be spent on starting gear. Chapter 6 of the Core Rulebook has a wide array of useful starting gear. Page 289 of the Core Rulebook includes class kits, prebuilt selections of gear tailored to each of the core classes. You can also spend your wealth to purchase any common item of your level or lower, including common items without a listed level.

Alignment

Select one of the following alignments for your character (Core Rulebook 29): chaotic good, chaotic neutral, lawful good, lawful neutral, neutral, or neutral good. Players may not play evil characters. When choosing an alignment, be sure it satisfies any alignment requirements for your character’s class.

Religion

Characters can worship any deity listed in the table of gods on page 437 of the Core Rulebook or any other source listed in Character Options , so long as their alignment matches one of the deity’s listed follower alignments. Champions and clerics must choose a valid deity, though other classes can worship one of the faiths and philosophies presented on page 440 of Core Rulebook or another legal source. Characters can also be agnostic or atheist.

Some characters may revere deities they do not worship. Revering a deity means that your character may do things like wearing the deity’s holy symbol, attending the deity’s religious services, or performing other acts of obeisance that aren’t rewarded with spells or divine powers. For example, many druids revere Gozreh a deity of nature, but their primal magic is granted by Nature itself and does not come from Gozreh. A character may revere as many deities as they wish, but can worship and receive power from only one.

Age

Characters must be at least young adults (see the Physical Description section for your selected ancestry in Chapter 2 of the Core Rulebook), as particularly young characters can change the tone of some of the game’s threats.

Finishing Details

Now it’s time to fine-tune your character’s appearance and personal history, including their region of origin,

preferred gender pronouns, and other particulars. Make a few notes on your character’s appearance that you can use to describe your character. Read through The World of Pathfinder Society for information on the campaign setting and consider using it to inform your character’s background.

You’ll also need a miniature or pawn to represent your character—Pathfinder uses a standard 1-inch grid to determine movement and tactical positioning in combat, so you need a physical representation of your character to use on the grid. Paizo produces a wide range of Pathfinder Pawns and also works with Reaper Miniatures and WizKids to offer a wide variety of gaming miniatures, so you can find just the right figure for your character.

Pathfinder Training

Each Pathfinder Society character receives 3 networking points to represent the connections they have made in the three Pathfinder Schools: Spells, Scrolls, or Swords. They can invest these points among the schools, or can forgo these points and instead be a “field commissioned agent.” Each of these choices bestows different benefits as described below in Pathfinder Training.

Factions

Finally, choose a faction for your character to join. The factions represent different approaches to being a Pathfinder and priorities during missions. Joining a faction costs a boon, but your first such boon is free. Currently, four major factions and two minor factions are available.

Major Factions

The four main factions are summarized below. Detailed descriptions of these factions, as well as benefits of membership and faction goals, can be found in Factions.

• Envoy’s Alliance: Being a Pathfinder is dangerous work. Travel comes with its own dangers, traps seem to be everywhere, and just about everything seems ready to kill aspiring Pathfinder agents. Envoys’ Alliance aims to bolster the Society’s ranks and represent its members, making the Society ever stronger, better trained, and better supported.
• Grand Archive: Archaeology is a destructive science, and adventurers tend to be more destructive than most. If the Society is to uphold its mandate to study and preserve the past, then documentation and academic rigor are key. Yet members of the Grand Archive do not limit themselves to Absalom’s libraries; these bold explorers voyage to the most exciting sites to chronicle the past and share what they learn with the world.
• Horizon Hunters: The Horizon Hunters faction is home to those who carry on the proud tradition of ascending the highest peaks, plumbing the darkest depths, and seeing what lies over the next hill. And as sweet as it is to discover a lost ruin or unknown vista, it’s all the better to tell wild tales about the experience and revel in the admiration of peers—particularly if your deeds are immortalized in the Pathfinder Chronicles, a widely distributed record of the greatest Pathfinders’ achievements and discoveries.
• Vigilant Seal: While the Pathfinder Society’s motto is “Explore, Report, Cooperate”, members of the Vigilant Seal have their own three-part motto: “Protect, Contain, Destroy.” Members of the Vigilant Seal seek to ensure that ancient evils uncovered during their expeditions are properly dealt with—they protect ancient sites, contain possible threats, and destroy dangerous evils that can’t be safely contained.

Minor Factions

The two minor factions are summarized below. Detailed descriptions of the factions, as well as benefits of membership and faction goals, can be found in Factions.

• Radiant Oath: Pathfinders have a track record for thwarting evil, lending a helping hand, and presenting the Pathfinders as upstanding folk wherever they go. For the Radiant Oath, this benevolence extends beyond incidental assistance. Instead, the faction sees the Society’s broad reach as an excellent vector for assisting others the world over. Those who join the Radiant Oath swear simple vows to assist others, expanding on these promises the more they serve the faction.
• Verdant Wheel: Nature enthusiasts of all stripes—from grizzled trackers to bright-eyed ecologists to tenacious druids—gravitate to the Society for opportunities to witness natural wonders, catalog new species, and better protect the world’s pristine realms. The Verdant Wheel has a particular fondness for sensing patterns and cycles, such as that of creation and destruction, as exemplified by new growth sprouting from a fire-ravaged field. Yet even those intent on preserving that which exists can find a welcome home here.

Pathfinder Training

Although drawn from diverse backgrounds and regions, the vast majority of Pathfinders undergo approximately 3 years of training at the Grand Lodge, in the process learning the key skills they need to survive on the road, explore dangerous sites, and understand their discoveries. The deans of the Society’s three schools +oversee this training, each promoting particular techniques tied to their respective schools: the Scrolls, Spells, and Swords. Kreighton Shaine (CG male elf loremaster) is the Master of Scrolls, who instructs his pupils in history, languages, sciences, and academic esoterica. Sorrina Westyr (N female oread priest of Nethys) is the Master of Spells, who lectures on magical basics, overcoming supernatural hazards, and the proper handling of artifacts. And finally, Marcos Farabellus (CG male human commander) is the Master of Swords, who guides initiates through endurance drills, teaches the finer arts of infiltration, and ensures each Pathfinder has enough combat training to stay safe in dangerous lands.

Each Pathfinder initiate must attain a certain level of proficiency in all three schools’ teachings in order to graduate as a field agent, yet most specialize in one of the schools’ curricula and build life-long professional contacts with like-minded scholars. Over the course of their career, a Pathfinder regularly receives gifts from colleagues in the form of potions, scrolls, experimental alchemy, and more—in practice, this provides PCs one or more consumable items at the beginning of each scenario. In return, the field agent’s expected to return the favor by contributing labor, teaching expertise, lab assistance, or more between missions, reinforcing these professional relationships.

Consumable Items: The universal benefit of this training is creating a network of colleagues and contacts who regularly provide you consumable items. At the beginning of each adventure, your character receives a consumable item of their level or lower from a list of options; they have access to the items of the appropriate level in Table 1: All-Schools Items as well as the options on the tables for any of their chosen schools. If not used by the end of the adventure, the item is returned to the character’s contacts.

Assigning Points

When creating your character, you gain 3 networking points to distribute among the Scrolls, Spells, and Swords schools. These represent the amount of effort and attention your character dedicated to those schools while training as an initiate. Once assigned, these cannot be changed except through retraining (a process that takes 14 days to reassign all of the networking points and their associated benefits). The benefits you gain from each school depends on the number of networking points you invest in it, and the benefits are cumulative.

1 Point: When selecting your free consumable item at the beginning of the adventure, you can choose one of the items on the school’s list of options.

2 Points: You become trained in one of the Lore skills associated with that school, listed below. At 5th level, you gain a bonus skill feat selected from the list below.

• Scrolls: For the Lore skill, choose from Accounting Lore, Library Lore, or Scribing Lore. For the bonus skill feat, choose from Assurance, Automatic Knowledge, Multilingual, or Streetwise.
• Spells: For the Lore skill, choose from Academia Lore, Architecture Lore, or Herbalism Lore. For the bonus skill feat, choose from Arcane Sense, Assurance, Quick Identification, or Recognize Spell.
• Swords: For the Lore skill, choose from Gladiatorial Lore, Scouting Lore, or Warfare Lore. For the bonus skill feat, choose from Cat Fall, Experienced Smuggler, Forager, or Hefty Hauler.

3 Points: When selecting your free consumable item at the beginning of the adventure, you gain both one item of your level or lower from the options available, and you gain a second item whose item level is no greater than half your level (minimum 1).