Increasing the PFS angle instead of replacing it?


Shattered Star


Hey guys,

Starting to prep for a Shattered Star game here and I nocited something: I've read a lot about people who dislike the PFS element in Shattered Star and sought to replace it with a more freeform approach. Now, is there anyone here who not only used the PFS background for the players but even improved on it? Because I like the idea a lot, and I can immediately think of a number of ways on how to add new sidequests, inter-faction conflicts, and so on.

It's not that I want to include every PFS aspect ever, for example I think the inclusion of Fame and Prestige in the Player's Guide to be a questionable decision, but nevertheless there are tons of ideas to steal from other PFS sources.

What's your take on this?


If that's what floats your boat, then go for it. There's a use for the society points at the start of Chapter 6, though, so keep that in mind.


Good to know, thanks for the heads-up. How are they used, if you don't mind me asking?

My basic concern so far was that with settlements like Magnimar or Kaer Maga the players won't have any huge problems buying all equipment they need, very expensive/exotic stuff notwithstanding (not necessarily, at least), so having potential PFS resources at their disposal on top of that worries me a bit.


The Faction Guide outlines a gp value of item availability through their Society contacts that scales by level. I'd adhere to that chart for what the player characters can purchase and leave it at that.

Alot depends on your campaign's house rules regarding magic item crafting and the Leadership feat as there is normally no concern on a tight time frame in game time. This combination of 'creative looting' and Leadership/item creation Feats can quickly lead to a Christmas Tree escalation. You'll wind up in either an arms race, which escalates XP acquisition rate, or needing to nip it in the bud. I recommend nipping in advance of character creation.

The biggest concern other than 'we can just buy whatever we want' regarding magic items is "creative looting". The dungeons feature numerous high-value doors and similar objects that you'll want to note values for ahead of time as the script doesn't account for this particularly well, IIRC. Granted, they'll need to spend a fair bit of time and use a series of pulleys, strong ropes, ant haul, muleback cords, Lennies (cheaply hired strongbacks/porters) and horse-drawn wagons to get the biggest items, but it can be done, especially after doing a 'clean sweep' of a given dungeon.

Regarding the expenditure of prestige points in Chapter 6:
They can attempt Fame checks (d20 +fame score) to encourage the low-level scrubs that will be about and around to skedaddle away from the nasties attempting to slaughter them in droves. They can further spend prestige points to bump these Fame checks. If they are successful enough - and they should be - they get a nice XP bump. If you're wanting Shattered Star to take them all the way to and a bit past 20th, then you'll need your own Chapter 7. I'm working this angle for my group, but this requires home-brewing.

Another trick to keep some degree of control on magic item acquisition is to determine which of the spellcasters in the city/cities in question are able to accommodate the characters' designs. The most capable NPC I know of is the 15th level Wizard that runs the city's Golemworks. He's a busy man - but he is by definition an item crafter with at least 3 desirable item creation feats (Arms and Armor, Wondrous Items and Constructs). I recommend determining in advance how much of his time he is willing to spend, if at all, on providing such services instead of making his beloved golems. The other NPCs you'll need to consider are detailed in the Magnimar guide as well as several are listed in the beginning of Chapter 6, in addition to whomever is detailed during the first five chapters.

They don't mention any alchemists in the AP, but there are several in Magnimar unless you decide otherwise. If they get as creative as my players, you'll want to know if any of them can alter poisons and their general dispositions to the PCs and to the Pathfinder Society. A satchel full of drow sleep poison (say, 12-13 doses) packs a hell of a wallop as as inhaled poison, and doesn't cost all that much past level 9 or 10.

Kaer Maga has similar considerations, but they'll have to undertake the efforts to make those trips.

A few things to remember is that there are some potentially very nasty encounters. If they don't set up at least a basic cache and/or stash some of their prestige points aside, they'll have little to no recovery options in the event of a TPK. The prestige points, at a certain point, are definitely available to provide each character an "I died. I got better. " option. 37 prestige points can provide a "body retrieved and raise dead", if memory serves. I don't recall the prestige point costs for being similarly reincarnated.

Hero Points can go a long way too, if you're inclined to use the system.

Chapter 1:
There is a CR 4 ambush waiting for the 1st level party. Use with extreme caution as this can easily result in a TPK. I substituted a different, but still CR 4, encounter after they had the chance to advance to 2nd level. It's one thing for the players to screw up on reconnaissance. It's another for what should be a sure-fire ambush to NOT wipe them out, laden with loot and worn out from their experience with nearly all of their assets depleted.


Thanks for your elaborate answers.

I had a chance to browse through all chapters of the AP and I noticed the use of Fame/Presige in the last part. Also got a few ideas on how to deal with my worries about an abdundance of equipment/services, but your idea regarding Toth Bhreacher is great!

Right now I am digging through some wikis and free PFS materials to get an idea about the current political landscape within the Society, and how one could use the factions to spice up some of the sidequests or random encounters in/around Magnimar.


We've not played Society material since Season 0 and a smidge of Season 1. Which should make your take on it with the changed landscape more dynamic.

Chapter 1:

I'd probably change at least whom the 'girls' are working for to one of the competing factions that thinks less-than-highly of the Society and isn't terribly particular about how they go about thwarting them. ;)


Hey Antariuk.

That's what I'm doing, playing up the factions. During character creation, each player picked a different faction so that throughout the adventures, they can report back to their faction leader what they find and secretly do missions for them.

Each player also have a second character in the same faction because when the whole group cannot play that night, the remaining players switch to the "B team" and do Pathfinder Society scenarios linked to Varisia/Thassilon/Runelords/etc instead.


That sounds neat, Andros! so you would say the idea worked out for your game? You don't happen to maintain a campaign log or something like that? :)


My idea does work and the faction missions (and some modified ones) do provide very interesting roleplaying opportunities so that it's not only dungeon crawling and killing the monsters. It also gives a chance for the pLayers to shine on their own.

I don't have a log to show you but my main tool is a Mind map to weave everything together.

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