Faction Guide Factions

This is an ongoing project for adapting the factions and sects of Planescape to the Pathfinder mechanics presented in the Faction Guide. Some of these materials are reproduced from the Faction Guide.

General Faction Rules

The following resources and benefits apply to all factions. A character gains prestige award (PA) by accomplishing the faction's goals. Depending on the significance of a goal, it will be worth between 1 PA (for a minor, but still meaningful task) to 5 PA (for an extremely difficult or significant act that advances the faction's interests). PA can also be lost if the character acts significantly against the faction: revealing secrets, betraying fellow members, allying with an enemy faction, and the like.

Each character simultaneously has two scores: Total PA (TPA) and Current PA (CPA). TPA represents a character's current standing in a faction, while CPA represents favors or markers the character can call in. TPA requirements merely represent minimum values, while CPA is spent when used on a benefit. When a character gains PA, both scores increase by that amount; CPA spent cannot otherwise be regained. Benefits from CPA are intended to be purely for the person spending the CPA — any CPA spent on a third party has its cost increased by 1.

Benefits

Beyond all other benefits, for every 10 points of TPA, the character gains a +1 Diplomacy bonus for all interactions with their faction. In dealing with allied factions, a character gains this benefit as if their TPA score was half, and may buy and sell goods through that faction as if their TPA score was half. If a character's faction allegiance is public, then the initial attitude of a member of the enemy faction starts one step worse than normal, and for every 10 points of TPA the character gains a -1 Diplomacy penalty to interactions with members of enemy factions.

• 1 TPA: +4 to K:Factions and Sects for any checks related to the character's faction or allied factions, and with an hour of research +4 to K:Planes for any checks related to planes where the character's faction has a significant presence (i.e., Arborea for Sensates, Negative Quasi planes for the Doomguard, etc.)
• 5 TPA: Receive passage from a faction stronghold to Sigil or vice versa.
• 10 TPA: Acquire the title of factotum.
• 10 TPA, 1 CPA: Purchase a map of an area of any plane where the character's faction has a significant presence.
• 25 TPA: Acquire the title of factor.

TPA Cost	GP
4	500 gp
9	1,500 gp
13	3,000 gp
18	5,250 gp
22	8,000 gp
27	11,750 gp
31	16,500 gp
36	23,000 gp
40	31,000 gp
45	41,000 gp
49	54,000 gp
54	70,000 gp
58	92,500 gp
63	120,000 gp
67	157,500 gp

Purchases

When in Sigil or a faction stronghold, the following sorts of equipment can always be purchased from a character's faction regardless of TPA: equipment from the Equipment chapter of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook (including equipment made from special materials, such as mithral); +1 weapons, armor, and shields; and 0- or 1st-level oils, potions, and scrolls at caster level 1.

For any other equipment, the player must have a certain minimum TPA to purchase it from the faction.

Weekly Services

CPA Cost	Benefit
1	Mounts (light riding horse, camel, mule, or pony) for the PC and up to one companion per level
1	Work detail of 50 1st-level commoners
1	Skilled craftsman (expert of ½ the faction member’s level)
2	Bodyguard (warrior of ½ the faction member’s level)
2	Caravan travel (crossplanar transport for the PC and up to 20 others; includes a crew of 10 1st-level experts)
2	Squad of 10 1st-level warriors
2	Combat trained ground mounts (light or heavy warhorses or riding dogs) for the PC and up to one companion per level
4	Combat trained unusual mounts (flying or swimming animals) for the PC and up to one companion per level

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).

Spellcasting

CPA Cost	Benefit
1	dispel magic, gentle repose, lesser restoration, make whole, remove blindness/deafness, remove curse, remove disease, remove paralysis, sending
2	atonement (8 CPA to restore cleric/druid powers), break enchantment, cure critical wounds, divination, greater dispel magic, neutralize poison, overland flight, restoration (4 CPA to dispel a permanent negative level), scrying
4	analyze dweomer, greater scrying, regenerate
5	commune, contact other plane, legend lore
7	teleport object, vision
10	teleport
15	plane shift
16	greater restoration, raise dead
18	discern location
20	greater teleport
75	soul bind

Miscellaneous Expenses

• 1 CPA: +4 to one skill check
• 1 CPA: Purchase a single item worth 375 gp.
• 1 CPA: Wealthy cost of living for 1 month - The PC has a sizable home or a nice suite of rooms in Sigil or a faction stronghold. He can secure any nonmagical item worth 5 gp or less from his belongings in his home in 1d10 minutes, and need only track purchases of meals or taxes in excess of 10 gp.
• 2 CPA: Purchase a single item worth 750 gp.
• 2 CPA: Extravagant cost of living for 1 month - The PC lives in a mansion, castle, or other extravagant home in Sigil or a faction stronghold. This is the lifestyle of most aristocrats. He can secure any nonmagical item worth 25 gp or less from his belongings in his home in 1d10 minutes. He need only track purchases of meals or taxes in excess of 100 gp.
• 5 CPA: Retrieval of a dead body to a faction-controlled location; this cost may be increased depending on the location of the body.

Items in excess of 750 gp cannot be purchased with CPA unless explicitly mentioned in the faction description.

Mercykillers

Joining

Joining the Mercykillers is a simple matter. Enlistment is held at the Prison once a fortnight, with applicants only needing to present themselves. After a day of discussion of the Eight Tenets, and a brief check to ensure the applicant has no criminal history, the applicant must swear to each of the Tenets. After this, they are officially considered a Mercykiller.

Gaining Prestige

Tracking down or capturing criminals and enforcing justice is key to assent in the Mercykillers, and anything that advances these can give a character prestige in the faction. In addition, each fortnight's work on duty at the Prison earns 1 PA, as well as each level gained in paladin, antipaladin, or inquisitor.

Resources

Though the Mercykillers have a heavy Sigilian presence, the majority of their duties are focused outside the faction. Their largest stronghold outside Sigil is the city of Vorkehan in the plane of Acheron, but they have many small fortresses and outposts throughout the lawful planes, as well as a few dotting the Outlands. Most large cities outside the Chaotic planes have at least some Mercykiller presence.

• 1 TPA: Study with one of the faction's spellcasters to add to a Mercykiller's repetroire. This counts as library access with regard to learning spells with the electricity or law descriptors.
• 1 TPA: Gain access to the faction's law libraries; with one hour of research, gain a +4 bonus to one Knowledge check with regard to a question of the laws of some society.
• 5 TPA, 2 CPA: Receive training over the course of two weeks to learn greater, more effective interrogation techniques. The mercykiller receives a permanent +4 bonus to Intimidate to influence attitude.
• 10 TPA, 1 CPA: Transcribe a common spell with the electricity or law descriptor to the Mercykiller's spellbook or formula book.
• 10 TPA, 1 CPA: Receive legal assistance from the Mercykillers for violation of the law in pursuit of a criminal, freeing the mercykiller from prison or punishment with no consequences. Each time the character calls upon this resource, the CPA cost doubles.
• 15 TPA: Purchase or upgrade magical weapons from the following list at a 10% discount: axiomatic, conductive, huntsman, merciful, shock, shocking burst, thundering, vicious, vorpal.
• 15 TPA: Gain the option of taking the title of Justicar. She must take on a quest to track down and capture or slay a significant criminal. The Justicar also gains a warrant of binding against her quarry, which functions as a hold monster spell that bypasses SR against the target when the Justicar is within 20 feet. A Justicar gains Diplomacy bonuses or penalties as if their TPA score is double, all CPA costs related to finding her quarry are reduced by 1, and all PA gains for capturing the criminal are doubled. If her target is captured, she must choose a new target or relinquish the title, and if she ever fails in her task (e.g., abandoning her hunt), she immediately loses 5 PA. If another organization or nation legally imprisons the Justicar's quarry in a fashion approved by the Justicar, then her quest can be considered completed, but the Justicar gains no PA for the accomplishment.
• 15 TPA, 2 CPA: Transcribe an uncommon or rare spell with the electricity or law descriptor to the Mercykiller's spellbook or formula book.
• 15 TPA, 5 CPA: Gain one dose of blood of justice.
• 20 TPA, 3 CPA: Gain the temporary service of a lawful outsider of up to 12 HD as if using planar binding. The Mercykiller must negotiate and pay for the outsider's service, though she can spend points from her CPA to have her order pay the price for the service. If the Mercykiller is a poor negotiator, she can pay 1 CPA to hire a charismatic advocate to argue on her behalf.

Feats

Justice Blow

Mercykillers can strike deadly blows in the name of justice.

Prerequisites: Mercykillers 10 TPA.

Benefit: Once per day, a mercykiller may deliver a justice blow to an enemy. As a swift action, the Mercykiller chooses one target within sight to strike with the force of justice. If this target is known to the mercykiller as a lawbreaker, the mercykiller adds her Cha bonus (if any) to her attack rolls and adds her class level to all damage rolls made against the target of her smite. If the target of justice blow is an outsider with the chaos subtype or is the character's Justicar quarry, the bonus to damage on the first successful attack increases to 2 points of damage per level the paladin possesses. Regardless of the target, justice blow attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess. On a successful application of justice blow, the mercykiller recieves damage equal to half her class level (rounded down).

In addition, while justice blow is in effect, the mercykiller gains a deflection bonus equal to her Charisma modifier (if any) to her AC against attacks made by the target of the blow. If the paladin targets a creature that is not known by the mercykiller as a lawbreaker, the blow is wasted with no effect.

The justice blow effect remains until the target of the blow is dead or the next time the mercykiller rests and regains her uses of this ability.

If the character has a "smite" class ability, then rather than once per day this ability instead counts from their total smites per day.

Know Lies

To better determine how justice should be served, the Red Death has learned to know when someone is lying.

Prerequisites: Mercykillers 10 TPA.

Benefit: Sense Motive is always a class skill for you, and you may cast discern lies against any question once per day.

Lightning Justice

Nothing better represents the shock of a Mercykiller's strike than a blast of lightning.

Prerequisites: Mercykillers 20 TPA, Empower Spell, Spellcraft 7 ranks.

Benefit: Add +1 to the DC for all saving throws against spells that deal electricity damage. In addition, you may use the Empower Spell metamagic feat on one spell with the electricity descriptor once a day without preparing it ahead of time, using a higher level spell slot, or increasing the casting time.

Society of Sensation

Joining

To join the Sensates, only one thing is required: a true and genuine desire to experience the multiverse in all its facets. To ensure that any applicants satisfy this condition, a factotum administers a test to see if the applicant has been abiding by such a goal to this point. Any such applicant must contribute five significant experiences, each focusing on one of the five senses, to a recorder stone for inclusion in the faction's Sensoriums. It need not be entirely unique, but it must be an experience the applicant sought out specifically for the sake of experiencing it. Alternatively, an applicant may contribute a single experience with extreme sensory elements of all five senses, but it must fall under the same requirements, it must have been sought out purely for the sake of the experience. A person may try for the test as many times as they wish, but may not apply more often than once a month, to ensure they have had time to collect a proper set of experiences before the next attempt.

Gaining Prestige

A Sensate gains prestige in her faction through seeking out new experiences. She must go somewhere, do something, be something that she has never done before, preferably something that few have done before. For each genuinely new, not-yet-recorded (and not merely trivially distinct) experience that the Sensate brings back for the sensoriums, she gains 1 PA on top of the usual PA for advancing goals. For rare experiences, PA gains are doubled, and for truly a unique, once-in-a-lifetime, or never-before-felt experiences, they are tripled.

Additionally, a Sensate may gain prestige through promotion of the arts, encouraging others to seek out new experiences. For each public performance or artistic showing the Sensate holds, she gains 1 PA; this includes showings she arranges through the Civic Festhall. Finally, a Sensate gains 1 PA for each level gained in bard.

Resources

As one of the largest factions in Sigil, the lion's share of their presence is in that city, though they do have a significant presence in Arborea and its nearby planes. Additionally, most divine realms devoted to beauty or art of any sort more than likely have a Sensate outpost somewhere within their borders.

• 1 TPA: Gain access to the private Sensoriums of the Society, where the deepest sensory stones are kept. After one hour of research, gain a +2 bonus on any one skill check as you use the experiences of others to enhance your own knowledge. This bonus does not stack with the +4 to one skill check for 1 CPA.
• 1 TPA, 1 CPA, bard: By diving through the private Sensoriums, a Sensate picks up any number of random tidbits of knowledge. She gains a permanent +1 to bardic knowledge checks. She may only gain this resource once.
• 5 TPA: Arrange a public showing at the Civic Festhall or other Sensate establishment. On a successful Perform or Craft check (for artistic purposes), you and any others in your troupe may gain triple the usual gold. This resource may be taken no more than once a month. The Sensate need not perform directly — they may instead use this resource as a writer or director, for example. In such a case, they gain gold equal to the highest collected by a member of the performing troupe.
• 5 TPA, 2 CPA: Through training with other members of the faction, a Sensate learns how to better notice and appreciate details in the world around her. After two weeks of training, gain Alertness as a free feat.
• 10 TPA, 3 TPA: Gain the services of an apprentice craftsman (an NPC with class levels equal to half the PC's level and a focus in one or more Perform or Craft skills) for one project.
• 15 TPA, 5 CPA: Gain the aid of up to 12 HD of eladrin for 24 hours.
• 15 TPA, 10 CPA: Gain the services of an expert craftsman (an NPC with class levels equal to the PC's level and a focus in one or more Perform or Craft skills) for one project.
• 20 TPA: Purchase magic items from the following list at a 10% discount: chime of opening, lyre of building, marvelous pigments, glamered armor, hat of disguise, pipes of sounding
• 20 TPA, 10 CPA: Gain the services of a spellcasting craftsman (an NPC with class levels equal to half the PC's level and one item creation feat) for one project.
• 30 TPA, 1 CPA: Gain a reputation as a famous painter, performer, author, or other artistic role. The Sensate gains a +2 bonus to any Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate checks when dealing with anyone that knows of her fame. She must have had at least four public showings through the Society before gaining this resource.

Feats

Broad Experiences

In their quest to experience everything, Sensates often learn at least a little bit on a broad range of subjects.

Prerequisites: Society of Sensation 5 TPA

Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to all Knowledge checks and may make Knowledge checks untrained.

Empathic Awareness

With experience many Sensates begin to perceive more than just their own feelings. Through an extension of their natural senses, the most sensitive and empathetic are able to key in on the impressions subconsciously expressed by others.

Prerequisites: Society of Sensation 15 TPA, Extraordinary Sense (any), Alertness

Benefit: By concentrating upon one creature you can begin to discern their aura. The manner that you read the subject's aura depends on what extraordinary sense you possess; someone with an improved tactile ability may need to touch the subject, while someone with an improved ocular ability could gradually perceive the color of the subject‟s aura visually. Make an opposed Wisdom check against the target's Bluff. If you fail the roll at any time you cannot use this ability on the same target for the rest of the day. The amount of information you glean depends on how long you focus on the subject.

• 1st Round: The mental state of the subject; whether they are angry, sad, excited, joyous, distracted, and so on. This cannot be used to reveal if someone is lying.
• 2nd Round: The cause of the subject's primary emotion; if it's in the area, you know the exact source though not the reason, otherwise you know something elsewhere has the target‟s attention.
• 3rd Round: Whether the subject is good or evil.
• 4th Round: Whether the subject is lawful or chaotic.
• 5th Round: Whether the subject is suffering from some form of insanity or under the effects of an enchantment or illusion spell or effect.

You cannot do anything else while concentrating, and if your contact with the subject is broken, the effect ends. This is a supernatural ability.

Extraordinary Sense

For most Sensates, the normal range of sensory feelings just doesn‟t suffice. Through time, training, and experience the Sensate learns to hone some of their senses into fine instruments that they can use to better know the multiverse.

Prerequisites: Society of Sensation 10 TPA, Alertness

Benefit: Choose one of the following senses to be permanently enhanced: auditory, tactile, taste, ocular, olfactory. Selecting auditory, ocular, or olfactory doubles the range and clarity with which you can use that sense, while improving your tactile or gustatory ability refines those senses to an unnatural degree. No matter what sense is chosen, you have unnatural precision when using it and you are able to perform feats such as focus in on a conversation across a crowded bar room, recognize someone by their unique smell, distinguish the individual components of a liquid, or read a parchment by feeling the ink marks.

Though the complete capabilities of extraordinary senses are left up to the DM, the following benefits are innate in addition to those listed above.

• Auditory: The miss chance granted to targets by concealment decreases by 20%.
• Gustatory: You automatically detect traces of poison in anything you taste, though this may be enough to suffer its effects and you do not necessarily know what type of poison is present. In addition, you are able to identify a potion or other substance with a Craft (Alchemy) roll without the use of alchemical equipment.
• Tactile: You gain a +3 to Perception checks to find secret doors or nonmagical traps when feeling around an area, and a +3 to Disable Device checks.
• Ocular: You can see four times farther than normal in shadowy illumination and twice as well in normal light. If you did not already possess it, you also gain low-light vision.
• Olfactory: You gain a weaker version of the Scent ability. The ability is identical in all respects except that the detection range is reduced to one-third its normal range. Though you can track by smell, all attempts at tracking with this ability suffer a –5 penalty. If you possess the Scent ability your detection range is doubled and you gain a +5 bonus to tracking.

Special: You may take this feat multiple times, choosing an additional extraordinary sense each time.

Sensory Touch

Experience is not a one-way path; we all open ourselves to new states of being through interaction with one another. Thus, most Sensates are taught how to feel the pain of others in exchange for their own wellbeing.

Prerequisites: Society of Sensation 10 TPA

Benefit: Once per day you may transfer a number of hit points of damage equal to your character level from another living creature to yourself at the rate of two points healed per point taken. You may also reduce a creature's level of fear or fatigue by bearing the increase yourself. For instance, you can reduce a panicked individual to frightened by becoming shaken, or someone who is exhausted can be reinvigorated if you choose to become exhausted instead. You can use this ability to bring yourself past the normal limits of fear and fatigue, but taking such an extreme burden knocks you unconscious for at least one hour. Either use of this ability requires a touch attack as a standard action that provokes an attack of opportunity.

References

• Faction Guide
• Factol's Manifesto
• PSCS 3.0/3.5