Other Significant PFS Changes for Season 5

Besides the ITS, from my reading of the new Guide there are a few other significant changes happening with Season 5.

Faction missions will be going away. Instead you will play to your factions season goal and the mission goal. I am not sure mechanically how this will work. Starting 8/15/13, this applies to all previous season scenarios as well.

GM stars now supply a bonus to rerolls granting a +1 bonus for each star. You must show a copy of your PFS membership card to receive this bonus. You can print a copy of your card online from your My Pathfinder Society page. You still need a shirt or folio to qualify for a reroll.

The way that Average Party Level (APL) is calculated has changed again. Divide the total number of character levels by the number of characters in the party. You should always round to the nearest whole number.

• For scenarios written in Seasons 0 to 3, when the APL is in between subtiers, a party of six or seven characters must play the higher subtier. Parties with four or five characters must play the lower subtier. In the fringe case where there are no players that are high enough to have reached the subtier level (such as a party of six 3rd level characters), the group may decide to play down to the lower subtier.
• Seasons 4 and 5, scenarios are designed for six characters and contain instructions on how to adjust the scenario for four-character parties. When the APL of a table is between two subtiers (like APL 3 for a Tier 1–5 scenario), a party of four characters must play the lower tier without any adjustments for party size. A party of five to seven characters whose APL is between two subtiers must play the higher tier with the four-character adjustment.

This leads to the next change; gold. The Max gold earned per scenario has changed. If your character is playing out of tier, either up or down, they will receive the average gold of the two subtiers. That means a 3rd level character playing in a tier 1-5 will receive the same gold playing either subtier.  This is being done to address some issues with wealth balance and play up/play down bullying.

EXAMPLE 1: If a party of 6 characters (levels 2,3, 5,5,5,5) played a subtier 4-5 the 2nd and 3rd level characters would receive the average gold between tier1-2 and 4-5. The 5th level characters would receive the normal tier 4-5 gold.

EXAMPLE 2: If a party of 6 characters (levels 1,1,2,2,3,4) played a subtier 1-2 the 3rd and 4th level characters would receive the average gold between tier1-2 and 4-5. The 1st and 2nd level characters would receive the normal tier 1-2 gold.

Lastly, all conditions gained during an adventure, except for permanent negative levels, ability drain that does not reduce an ability score to 0, and conditions that provide no mechanical effect, must be resolved before the end of the session; if these are not resolved the character should be reported as ‘dead.’ This is a softening on the position taken a few weeks back regarding a forum discussion about Baleful Polymorph.