Pathfinder Society: First Impressions & Brainstorming Characters

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As I mentioned on Monday, I played my first session of Pathfinder Society last Saturday. I've been wanting to try out Organized Play for awhile now, mostly to give me a chance to actually to play the game instead of just running it.

The group consisted of five players, with at least two of us being new to Society play. Like the other new player, I decided to use one of the pregenerated characters (Valeros, Pathfinder's iconic fighter) the organizers had brought with them. Our party consisted of my human fighter, a human cleric, a halfling bard, a half-orc barbarian, and a half-orc brawler and the scenario we played was The Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment, an adventure from Season 3 of Pathfinder Society. While the scenario had a slower pace than I expected from a Organized Play scenario and it took a few minutes for the party to get on the same wavelength play-wise, it was great to be able to play again and I definitely will play more Society in the future.

However, I don't want to continue using a pregenerated character (even though I do like Valeros a lot). So, I'll have to make my own character, but I'm not entirely sure who that character might be. Thankfully, I have a few ideas floating around I head.

The first idea is for a Paladin character belonging to the Taldor Faction. The character would be the youngest son of a Taldan noble family who chose to dedicate his life to the faith of Abadar, the god of law and wealth. He joined the Pathfinder Society with the hope of bringing new-found glory to his beloved homeland. The second idea is for a Bard character belonging to the Andoran Faction, with a story similar to Valeros'. He grew up on a small, Andoren farm, hearing stories about brave adventurers throughout his childhood. Just before he reached adulthood, the Bard ran away from home and made the sojourn to the nearest Pathfinder Lodge. The final idea is a Wizard belonging to the Grand Lodge Faction who grew up in Absalom and attended the famous Arcanamirium and joined the Pathfinder Society with the hope of learning ancient secrets lost due to the passage of time.

Due to the nature of Pathfinder Society, I want to keep these characters' concepts rather simple where I can easily encompass the goal-based aspect of Society but still have some freedom roleplaying them. Also, I know I can have as many Pathfinder Society characters as I want, but I want to focus on one for the moment. Most likely, I'll either go with the Bard or the Wizard. This is mostly to get all my thoughts in order.