Broccolihead's page

I really enjoyed watching the X.T.R.E.M. adventure. That would be a fun AP, have them roleplay interviews and fans, pick who is endorsing them. I really like the Xcrawl design to adventure, but the modules don't convert well to the starfinder setting.

Im interested to see how this will impact Akiton and all that fuel they have.

I did two separate polls to determine what people's favourite planet was on reddit (Absalom, Eox, Akiton, Triaxus and the Sun). I feel like I would definitely vacation on the sun, seems warm and exotic.

When I want the theme of survival on an adventure, I tell my players, "this dungeon is resource poor, we will be tracking ammo and encumbrance". Otherwise I dont track ammo unless the players enjoy it.

I've also utilized usage dice before. at the end of combat i have them roll a D4 for low capacity batteries or a D6+ for higher capacity ammos. if they role a 1 or 2, the ammo is expended. This can also be invoked any time there is a natural 1 to simulate the shooter wildly loosing their cool and shooting off rounds.

Your articles are always so good!

My main question is if this magic Jack would allow a technomancer with levels of biohacker to inject biohacks through spells. Are there any hacks that allow technomancers to synthesize poisons?

As traders, it might make more sense that they have and sell these strange weapons. Currently I don't have access to a full description of a wonder grenade, but an alchemicle wonder grenade might be a glass bottle shaped like a grenade, filled with a swirling, multi colored liquid. When it is thrown and shatters, it has an area effect such as a fireball or silence spell. You can't really duplicate it because by opening it, you set it off.

For example:
1-Fireball, treat as explosive blast spell.
2-Silence spell for a half an hour in a 40 foot radius. Centers on the surface or creature it shatters against.
3-Summons an angry, dire, badger. Convert from Bestiary. Attacks nearest thing. Vanishes when combat ends, it is slain, or rendered unconscious.
4-50 points healing energy starting with nearest creature. Will harm undead.
5-Glue bomb. Holds or at least slows all things in a 40 foot radius.
6-Break enchantment. Breaks all enchantments on nearest creature or object.

You've pretty much got the idea, wonder grenade often does weird wacky things that can't be replicated by a spell, it could be good bad or neutral. Think wildmagic sorcerer table, deck of many things or loot box of wonder (which is a free starfinder pdf i suggest checking out).

So not terribly clever or in depth, I've wanted some aspect of wild magic to my witchwarpers, and they certainly need some more fun options. Take a look at this suggestion and throw any pro tips at me.

Wonder Grenade: lv 8 paradigm shift
As a reaction, when a grenade would be thrown within the reach of your infinite worlds ability, you may use a spell slot of 1/3 the grenades item level rounded up or higher to instantly change the effects and radius to those of a wonder grenade.

This is offensively and defensively dubious, but possibly a good tactical option.

What beautiful art!

The closest thing I can come up with is "The Hollow Cabal" references Roselight's art scene alot, and profession artist helps the PC's gather information. This city would provide RP for the artist.

Visionary would have ties with the Barathu peoples, possibly a continuation of the artist.

The veteran character could have ties with the Knight-Errant
Krelo Danesh or the stewards even ( but imagine the look on Danesh's face!)

Intellectual could have a connection to one of the many labs in the AP. The others are kinda evident, traveler and entrepreneur. I would even say that if the entrepreneur has experience with cybernetics, the implants in the AP would catch their eye.

Not every PC needs to magically be connected to the specific events of this AP, it seems forced even though they were specifically chosen.

So there is really absolutely nothing coming out of the backgrounds as written? (Haven't had A chance to read the whole AP thoroughly, yet)

My assumption at first was that the backgrounds are used to help a character have a tie to politics. This is a false assumption because anyone can haves ties to Erem, they don't have to be a politician.

"Erem is a popular and compelling politician, so you might consider choosing the PC with the highest Charisma bonus, a PC with the icon
theme, or the PC who has been the most diplomatic during the campaign. Alternatively, you can select a gruff and laconic PC as an interesting counterpoint,"

So no, there is nothing coming out of the backgrounds. I searched the PDF for all the backgrounds given and the term background. I was expecting something like the pathfinder campaign traits to tie the characters in, but there is only one PC tie in and it is unrelated to the galactic gumshoes party creation backgrounds that explicitly said that they would be used in the AP.

I don't like that having armor pretty much indefinitely protects the players from the environment. What ever happened to man vs nature? I don't really have a house rule for this yet, I just ignore it.

Also, "If you want to upgrade an existing weapon to be more
effective, you can do so by selecting a weapon of the same
type and category with a higher item level. You then pay the
price of the new weapon, minus 10% of the price of the original
weapon."
If my players are directly upgrading an item they have of the same type but different level with their own skills, they don't need to break it down for UPBs, they subtract its base cost from the higher level item. They already have all the good pieces to it and if they wanna tote around something that is 4 levels too low until they get something better that's on them...

My players were expecting something to result from these stipulations placed on them. Maybe the original author could expand on their concept for it

It doesn't really look like there are many faculty options if you're a shealth-primary character. All but one of the faculties presented favour having Cloud or Gear as your primary, but even Discorporation doesn't especially benefit sheath characters.

I separated the forms and knacks based on which array they depend on primarily. Discoporation, Infestation, and Redirection all kinda force the cloud, Obliteration forces Gear, and only Infestation marginally supports Sheath. Luckily, the nanocyte isn't forced to only use one faculty. There are very few knacks for the sheath as well, not really any versatility to it.

I tried to make my nanocyte Sheath focused, because it looked like the worst build (ie, prolly gonna be the least test played) They are a defensive healer that punches stuff. Still kinda reliant on the cloud...

The Chimera Mystery sets up the characters as needing to choose from one of six backgrounds which concludes with "Later volumes further detail the use of the PCs’ roles."

I know book 6 introduces Erem, but I haven't seen any other material making use of this part of the first adventure. I am aware that the modules have different authors. Can anyone point me to the spot in the adventure path that makes use of this feature?

When creating nanocytes above level four, the characters accumulates forms and can "upcycle" one form. What I've done is hopefully the correct math to determine the item levels for major and minor a character could have optimally by changing their lowest level form to their level plus one.

Lv5 major 2,4,6,6. minor 2,2,3,4,6
Lv6 major 4,6,6,7. minor 2,3,4,6,7,7
Lv7 major 6,6,7,8. minor 3,4,6,7,7,8
Lv8 major 6,7,8,9. minor 4,6,7,7,8,9,9
Lv9 major 7,8,9,10,10. minor 6,7,7,8,9,9,10
Lv10 major 8,9,10,10,11. minor 7,7,8,9,9,10,11,11
Lv11 major 9,10,10,11,12 minor 7,8,9,9,10,11,11,12
Lv12 major 10,10,11,12,13 minor 8,9,9,10,11,11,12,13,13
Lv13 major 10,11,12,13,14,14 minor 9,9,10,11,11,12,13,13,14
Lv 14 major 11,12,13,14,14,15 minor 9,10,11,11,12,13,13,14,15,15
Lv15 major 12,13,14,14,15,16 minor 10,11,11,12,13,13,14,15,15,16
Lv16 major 13,14,14,15,16,17 minor 11,11,12,13,13,14,15,15,16,17,17
Lv17 major 14,14,15,16,17,18,18 minor 11,12,13,13,14,15,15,16,17,17,18
Lv18 major 14,15,16,17,18,18,19 minor12,13,13,14,15,15,15,17,17,18,19,19
Lv19 major 15,16,17,18,18,19,20 minor12,13,13,14,15,15,16,17,17,18,19,19,20
Lv20 major 16,17,18,18,19,20,20 minor13,13,14,15,15,16,17,17,18,19,19,20,20,20

If it's wrong lemme know. I can't help as fast as Item cost, but these are the MAX levels your forms may be. Feel free to keep them all at level one if you wish.

How frequently can the tenth level thousand stitches be used? It doesn't mention anything about a nanite surge, so you would heal at least 20hp that round, them potentially do it again?

Out of combat, reactive repair would recover 120 stamina for the cost of a nanite surge. In combat, this is a 4 hp buffer, added with thousand stitches and you would be mitigating about 30 points of damage (a round?). In top of that, if you are protecting a specific ally, and second facility is infestation, you are warding off attackers because of concealment and potential bleeding from hungry nanites if they stay in your area. I feel like this could save a teammates life.

The variety of weapon damage outputs on those lower levels is really slim, chances are you will not need to change anything because the extra one you pick up at level three, and you are always welcome to use the weapons you pick up adventuring or buy...

Originally when i was reading the ability, I read it as breaking down equipment and adding an additional 10% to make a cumulative resource pot. You would be growing it little by little each time you find new equipment to break down.

Perhaps you could run it on a upb tier by the level of equipment used. All level 1 used sets your upb at 400, level 2 is 800, etc. the numbers are arbitrary, and you need a new piece of equipment each time you change one of your forms. This way, you sacrifice a weapon at third level, fifth, and every time you are given a new major or update forms

It's amazing to see how much there paizo community feels like a family and how your audience can feel so connected to a business. I for one am certainly going to miss the work Amanda has produced in Starfinder, I'm sure her future works will help bring back that nostalgia feeling for everyone.

And hopefully maybe there is still hope for an X.T.R.E.M. AP :)

Arc damage is not affected by specialization or any other bonus damage effects, to my knowledge. Since it doesn't roll to hit the secondary target or grant a saving throw, this is probably for the best; otherwise you could do nonsense things like shoot the AC 5 ground next to an enemy with a Static Arc Caster and do significant damage to the AC 30 Deathboy standing nearby.

The arc is just to apply the polarity effect because the enemy is being hit with the electricity damage from the weapon. The extra damage would come from the cleave, when you do actually hot that enemy with the gloves, that attack would have the polarity applied to it, not the arc.

Also, now i want to electrocute the ground to hit heavily armored foes.

This setup requires a soldier with electric arc gear boost. The question is, does the arc damage from the gear boost apply the polarized effect, so that when i cleave to hit the bad mamajama struck by my arc, I may do additional polarity damage?

The voices tho!

Nanocyte sounds like Venom. The cerebric fungi are able to generate fungus computers, i wonder if a biological spin in the abilities would work. I'll have to try one in my group's Threefold Conspiracy game we are starting up.

I'm honestly super disappointed with the Barathu art. There are three new pieces of art, but they all look identical to the standard Barathu we have seen several times over, aside from one being conjoined. Same shape, same colors, same tentacles. For a race whose whole gimmick is self-modification and specialization, I wish the art was more creative and unique. I want to see more Barathu like the second picture in Alien Archive.

The hag on page 59 is adorable though, I'm not sure that's what they were going for. It's not in the adventure contents so I hope it's not spoilers or anything.

Tudine looks like "The Future of Tomorrow", i like it. I agree that the Barathu are uncannily "Barathu" like I haven't read the adventure yet but perhaps they are meant to look like that, suspicious!

**SPOILER TOWN**

Broccolihead wrote:

I'm assuming the part of them mentioning the details of event 1 are exposition for the GM. What is everyone's interpretation of this event, how did it go over with your PCs?

I am treating it as GM material as well, though discoverable to the PCs through investigation. Page 4 of Deceivers' Moon says: "Victims have no memory of the gray abduction and can’t recall what happened during this period of missing time."

How did this work out for your group? What were the speed bumps and the highlights? What did they catch onto quickly?

So while reading through the adventure, event one seems to indicate the PCs are specifically lucid and being interacted with in this encounter.

This is spoilers. The abductors specifically tell them that they are being deceived, then the event plays out as if the PCs are starting to realize something is wrong and there is a gap in time. If they already know they were abducted, what is the point of setting up the clues about what happened? Later on, they are hypnotized by a physician to recall the events, I'm confused as to wether the PCs are supposed to guess what happened or have a direct answer and role play ignorance.

I'm assuming the part of them mentioning the details of event 1 are exposition for the GM. What is everyone's interpretation of this event, how did it go over with your PCs?

How about a non- Newtonian terrain hazard? If they move across it quickly there is no detriment, but if they stop to take standard actions, everything becomes difficult terrain. weapons don't do much but cold and fire grenades change the consistency in their radius for an amount of rounds equal to their item level (cold removes liquid properties and hot removes solid properties).

If they get tripped, they become submerged, and must take their whole turn slowly standing up. They get DR/1 against piecing/slashing bludgeoning that round and still need to move out of the difficult terrain. What makes it really fun is when one of the PCs trip and an enemy trows a cryogrenade!

Sounds like it has a really nior Sin City vibe to it, I might have to repaint my terrain grey scale with red highlights while I'm waiting.

I'm wondering where the adventure explicitly gives the location of the black site to the players. There are two NPCs that can point them in the right direction, but that assumes the players let them live, which is a dangerous assumption.

The Phantasy Star series is an important science fantasy game that I incorporate into most ttrpg's that I run. It's the idea that this evil comes back every millennium and humanity hasn't learned or changed. There's bits of lost technology and it blends Magic seamlessly. In one of them they thought they were in a medieval kingdom, but it was the biome off a Generation ship.

Heavy Metal is a really good gonzo science fantasy. I also like the art of metal bands. The night begins to shine is a really good episode of a really bad cartoon, teen titans go. If you like vaporwave and outrun style art, and cybernetic unicorns check it out

Kung Fury is worth watching. The Viking era has laser Raptors and Valkyrie with Maschine guns. Also time traveling hitler. It's a short film, check it out

Soulfire is applied to weapon crystals, solar flare can use weapon crystals

Weapon fusions that cannot be used on small arms say melee only. Soulfire does not say this.

Thus, solar flare meets both of those requirements to have the soulfire ability.

I like monsters that aren't using weapons and character abilities, I could just make NPCs. I also think some lower tier mobs are important.
*swarm stirges
*heavy metal devils (low level mosh pit devils to higher level rock and roll legends.)
*brain slugs, already mentioned in society
*that really sick vaporwave robot unicorn Pegasus thing
*space giants that ride on top small ships like motorcycle gangs.

Haunts from carrion crown were amazing, having glitched AI or gremlins, dimensional instabilities or hespers that cause problems. For example, a computer that makes solid holograms of its crews last battle, etc. Having monsters that are not necessarily combat encounters, like undertale, would be amazing.

By that logic the prohibition on applying a fusion that can't apply to a small arm is completely meaningless because no fusion is ever applied to the solar flare at all. It's all applied to the crystals.

That prohibition is there for a reason. it means something.

The way it is worded with small arms only applies to fusions such as throwing weapon, it applies to melee only, so it is not compatible with small arms. Soulfire says weapon crystals only, not melee only.

It's this part that makes soulfire not work...

Bolding Added wrote:

Any solarian class features (including stellar revelations and zenith revelations) that specifically affect melee weapons (such as the flashing strikes class feature) function with your solar flare, even if they normally work only with melee attacks. Anything that specifically affects solar weapons (such as solarian weapon crystals) affects your solar flare in the same way, though it can’t gain any weapon special property, critical hit effect, or weapon fusion that can’t be applied to a small arm.

Soulfire is a fusion that is applied to solarian crystals, not any form of solar weapon. Because solar flare can use weapon crystals, it can use weapon crystals with the soulfire fusion. You don't apply soulfire to anything that isn't a solarian crystal, so literally speaking it cannot be applied to solar flare OR solar weapon. You can apply it to the crystals both of these abilities feature.

Convergent Evolution & Intelligent Design make for strange bedfellows but the resulting bastard offspring is named Convenience.

I just feel like if I wanted to play Iron Claw, I would have picked up that game system. These options are more appealing to my players because they have some familiarity. I mostly just feel disappointed because my players keep thinking earth exists because "where did all the humans and animals come from" It makes it harder for my group to get immersed in the Pact Worlds. I bought the interface zero for them to give them a game world with more of these themes. That's just my group though. They are expert contrarians

Its weird to me that they have so many races that are humanoid earth animals. Why would space otters even exist? It would be more concise if they just had an uplifted template and stopped making anthropomorphic versions of everything to add to their race quota.

Armory Pg 126:

"A grenade becomes a hybrid grenade when a technological
casing houses magical components that can be activated like
any other grenade."

So... nobody is telling me i can't. A soldier can become an arcane assailant, its not like the mysteries of magic are forbidden to them.

the "grenade expert" ability of a bombardier soldier follows the same rules without the use of a spell slot. I would allow soldiers to use hybrid grenades in home games, is this legal for starfinder society?

yeahgday wrote:

Hello,

I've ordered this and I can't download it. I volunteered to GM at a convention in 2 days time, and this scenario was allocated to me, so unfortunately this is kind of urgent now. I've also started a thread in customer service. I'm just hoping someone at Paizo takes notice.

Scenarios typically drop the last Wednesday of the month. Check your downloads now. Mine is there.

I'm having the same issue with the two scenarios in this subscription. It shows that i paid for them and directs me to a sadly vacant downloads section. Also the customer service line does not work...