Pathfinder Society Preview: Scrolls, Spells, and Swords

[TheMaskedFerret]

In addition to factions, they have added another type of .. Dedication mechanic, as in how much you have invested in the 3 main schools of PFS training...

from https://paizo.com/community/blog/v57...ls-and#discuss

1 Point: By investing 1 point in a school, you have access to that school's item list, and at every odd-numbered level, more options become available for each school. In addition, everyone has access to a list of basic healing and bomb options (a bomb refers to the classic “splash” weapons like alchemist's fire and acid flasks). The starting options for these appear later in this blog.

2 Points: By investing a second point in a school, the PC begins with a bonus Lore skill from a list tied to the school. At 5th level, the PC also gains a bonus skill feat from a list tied to that school, representing the PC's ongoing training.

3 Points: By investing all three points in a school, the PC gains a second consumable item at the start of the adventure, though the bonus item's level must be half the PC's level or lower.

What about if you don't care about the training system? No problem—we asked ourselves the same question when first brainstorming this system, and we realized that we could also address one of the other less-explored aspects of the Pathfinder Society: field-commissioned agents. These are the explorers who have already made a name for themselves by the time they cross paths with the Society and for whom a venture-captain chooses to waive the traditional three years of training before sponsoring that adventurer to join the Pathfinders. A field-commissioned agent (i.e. a PC who invests none of those three points in any schools) lacks the deep collegial relationships that a formally trained Pathfinder enjoys, and that's represented as restricted access to those free consumable items. On the other hand, those agents don't have nearly the same obligations as the other Pathfinders, and that means field-commissioned agents earn more Downtime per level than other PCs.