Factions

Total and Current Prestige Award

Just as a character has a maximum hit point value when fully healed and a current hit point value when injured, that character has a Total Prestige Award (TPA) and a Current Prestige Award (CPA). TPA represents the character's overall reputation within a faction. CPA represents how much influence the character currently has within that faction in terms of favors owed to him and his ability to influence others and make use of the faction's resources. Characters may spend CPA to acquire goods or services (see Spending Prestige), which means that a character's CPA is usually less than his TPA, just as an adventuring character's current hit points are usually less than his total hit points. CPA can never be higher than TPA.

Spending Prestige

A character's CPA total reflects the goodwill, political capital, and personal favors she has built up through service to the organization. While a character's TPA can provide certain titles and privileges, most tangible benefits of faction membership are acquired when a character spends his CPA on temporary boons, favors, aid, spellcasting, or other services. Regardless of whatever honorific titles a character has earned through his Total Prestige Award, the cost for obtaining boons remains the same—an exalted Vision of the Fifteenth Step of the Church of Razmir must spend 1 CPA to have a remove curse or dispel magic spell cast on his behalf, just like a new initiate.

Once a character's CPA is spent, it is spent permanently; it is not recovered automatically like lost hit points or ability score damage. The character can, of course, earn more PA, which adds to both her TPA and her CPA, but spent points are gone.

Characters may not spend CPA during combat, and for the sake of simplicity you may limit characters to spending CPA once per gaming session (this keeps players from saving up their PA in large amounts and spending it all at once, making an adventure too easy). It is possible for a player to spend his character's PA even if the PC is dead; in essence, this represents the PC having made prior arrangements with his faction to perform certain actions on his behalf, such as recovering his dead body and returning it to a specific location or having it raised.

The monetary equivalent of 1 point of PA is approximately 375 gp, though characters should normally only be able to spend PA on services, not physical goods. PCs may not pool their earned prestige to obtain items or services, or for any other purpose, even if they are members of the same faction.

As a general rule, PA is designed to be spent by characters on themselves; PA costs increase by 1 when the benefit is to other characters instead of to the member of the faction.

A character's ability to spend PA is dependent on his being in contact with other members of his faction, and unless noted otherwise, most factions tend to have agents, contacts, or headquarters in settlements that are at least the size of a large city. To reflect the difficulty of contacting a faction agent in a smaller settlement, PA costs increase by 5 in communities smaller than 5,000 people. This change, of course, can vary by organization; for the Green Faith, for example, the opposite is true—PA costs increase by 5 in communities larger than 5,000.

Pathfinder Society

Faction Resources

1 TPA: When in the Grand Lodge library, gain a +5 circumstance bonus on one Knowledge check, or +2 in a normal lodge library. The check takes 1 hour, reflecting the need to reference the appropriate materials. This bonus does not stack with the +4 bonus on one check listed below.

1 CPA: Transcribe a common spell (one listed in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, or any spell the GM feels is common in the world) from the library into a wizard's spellbook or similar. This benefit does not require a Spellcraft check or any additional transcribing costs. Spontaneous casters can instead retrain one spell known.

5 TPA, 1 CPA: Become familiar with an uncommon or rare spell (at the GM's discretion) from the Grand Lodge library, allowing a bard, sorcerer, or similar spellcaster to select it as a spell known at the next available opportunity.

5 TPA, 1 CPA: Retrain one character trait or feat. The character must still obey the normal retraining rules, but is in addition to any normal retraining.

5 TPA, 5+ CPA: Gain a contact in a particular city. The character can consult with the contact for local gossip, news, and advice; this benefit grants the character a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks to gather information, Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nobility), and Knowledge (religion) checks regarding the contact's city made within that city. The character must wait 24 hours for the contact to provide the desired information. For an additional 10 CPA, the bonus from the contact increases to +4. A character may have contacts in multiple cities, but multiple contacts in the same city provide no extra benefit. If the contact dies, the character can spend CPA to find a replacement contact.

10 TPA: Purchase faction spellcasting (see below) at 1 CPA less than normal (minimum 1).

10 TPA, 3 CPA: Hire a specialist (any NPC whose level is equal to half of the PC's) for 1 week.

15 TPA, 2 CPA: Access a special section of the Grand Lodge library for 1 week and gain a +10 circumstance bonus on any Knowledge checks. This bonus does not stack with the +4 bonus on one check listed below.

15 TPA, 10 CPA: Hire a master specialist (any NPC whose level is equal to the PC's) for 1 week.

20 TPA: Gain free passage on caravans and merchant vessels that are friendly to the Pathfinder Society.

20 TPA: Purchase any magic item worth up to 10,000 gp value from a Pathfinder lodge at a 10% discount.

20 TPA, 1+ CPA: Access a hidden cache of supplies in a wilderness area. These supplies consist of survival gear such as dried food, clean water, spare weapons, rope, sunrods, spell components, and other nonmagical equipment . Spending CPA on this resource represents finding a cache within 2d6 × 10 minutes from the character's current location; the character does not need to plan ahead for this cache or know of its existence (it is, in effect, a plot device for acquiring emergency items). A typical cache contains up to 375 gp worth of these goods, and many times they are found near sites the Pathfinders planned to explore at some point. This resource always incurs the +5 CPA increase for being outside of community of at least 5,000 people.

30 TPA, 5 CPA: Have a Pathfinder team scout out a location, informing you of potential threats or things of interest. You also gain a +5 to any skill check that would be relevant to their scouting.

40 TPA, 1 CPA: Gain a reputation as a famous and successful Pathfinder. The character is in effect a celebrity adventurer and is well known in several countries (though whether this is fame or infamy depends on the history and personality of the character). This reputation grants the character a +2 circumstance bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate checks when dealing with someone who knows of her fame. Many Pathfinders with this level of prestige go on to become venture-captains (though the Decemvirate selects venture-captains based on qualities other than prestige).

40 TPA, 1 CPA: Purchase any magic item worth up to 40,000 gp value from the Pathfinder Grand Lodge at a 10% discount. Item can be safely delivered if not in the Grand Lodge in 3d6 days.

Note: This is not an exhaustive list

Faction Spellcasting

The Pathfinder Society has divne and arcane spellcasting up to level 6 CL 12, and alchemical casting (including infused extracts you can take for 72 hours) up to level 5 CL 13. The base cost of spellcasting, excluding material components, is at 75% of the normal cost if purchased with CPA (the normal formula is 10*spell level*caster level GP). You can also have them purchase casting outside of the Society with CPA at 150% of the normal cost, excluding material components.

Other Services

Weekly Services

1CPA Mounts (light riding horse, camel, mule, or pony) for the PC and up to one companion per level

1CPA Boat travel (freshwater or coastal transport for the PC and up to 10 others; includes a crew of four 1st- level experts)

1CPA Work detail of 50 1st-level commoners

1CPA Skilled craftsman (expert of 1/2 the faction member's level)

2CPA Bodyguard (warrior of 1/2 the faction member's level)

2CPA Ship travel (deep water transport for the PC and up to 20 others; includes a crew of 10 1st- level experts)

2CPA Squad of 10 1st-level warriors

2CPA Combat trained mounts (light or heavy warhorses or riding dogs) for the PC and up to one companion per level

Note: Services requiring NPCs or animals include appropriate gear for their class and level and all living expenses for them. For double CPA cost, these NPCs serve for up to 1 month. The character is expected to return any NPCs or mounts and their gear to the faction when finished with them. If the PC returns less than 50% of the mounts, gear, or NPCs acquired, she loses 1 TPA (and 3 TPA if none are returned).

Other Services

1CPA +4 to one skill check

1CPA Purchase a single item worth 375 gp**

1CPA* Wealthy cost of living for 1 month

2CPA Purchase a single item worth 750 gp**

2CPA* Extravagant cost of living for 1 month

5CPA Retrieval of a dead body to a faction-controlled location

* Cost of living covers 1 month and is detailed on page 405 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. ** Characters can't spend multiple PA for more items costing more than 750 gp.