Dracomicron's page

I'm a little unclear on how Rending Talons work.

When you renew a grapple, as a swift action before the end of your turn you can use your talons to rake your target. Your talons function as a basic melee weapon with the analog weapon special property for this purpose, and they deal damage based on their model. The talons can only be deployed properly as weapons when grappling a target or damaging a helpless target, and thus can’t be used to make other attacks.

So do these work like old school bear Rend, where you just automatically do extra damage without an attack roll at the cost of the designated action, or do they simply allow an extra attack with a swift action, like old school feline enemies that get back claw attacks if their front claws hit?

I'm not sure the "basic melee weapon" information makes sense if it's not an extra attack roll; if we include strength and basic melee weapon specialization, it makes these ridiculously more lethal as opposed to a d6 or so of flat damage that I would expect from an augment.

While I see that Tech Revolution isn't legal for play yet, I do know that there has to be some folks chomping at the bits, bytes, and other tech words to start their nanocytes. Let's hear about them!

I am Gustar Cort, a hortus from the Azlanti Empire. I stowed away in some bags of fertilizer brought with my good friend and fellow farmer, a brakim named Lubo Oxa, when he fled the Azlanti Empire with the help of some Starfinders.

The fertilizer wasn't so bad... as a fungal hortus, fertilizer is practically my natural habitat.

Anyway, I knew I had to leave the Empire when I got infected with some sort of experimental Azlanti tech, and my spores started replicating themselves as nanites. I... well my spores... may have absorbed some confidential Azlanti schematics, and you know how much they love their tech being copied.

Luckily for them, I barely understand how to turn on a dataslate, much less perform complicated interplanetary espionage. So the Starfinder Society is helping me learn how to use and control my nanite spores so we can get at that juicy Azlanti tech. In the meantime I guess I'll stand in front of monsters while other Starfinders shoot at them. Most monsters do not like the taste of hortus, so I reckon I might be pretty good at it.

I'm also raising a lil' supenga sprout that I found in an Azlanti greenhouse. I haven't thought of a name for it yet... thinking about... Gustar Junior!

Anyway, nicetameetcha!

I am pleased to be submitting a variation on the evolutionist that more matches the kind of thing I would like to play. I can't claim that this is balanced or in any way playtested, but it represents something that would FEEL better to me. Note that I baked in some of my Reverse Evolutionist ideas.

Transcendent Evolutionist

Stamina Points: 6+Con modifier/level
HP: 6/level
Key Ability Score: Str or Dex
Skill Ranks per Level: 6+Intelligence Modifier
Class Skills: Acrobatics (Dex) Perception (Wis) Athletics (Str) Profession (Cha, Int, or Wis)
Culture (Int) Stealth (Dex) Disguise (Cha) Survival (Wis) Intimidate (Cha)
ARMOR PROFICIENCY
Light armor
WEAPON PROFICIENCY
Basic melee weapons and small arms

BAB: 1/level
Good Saves: Fort/Reflex
Poor Save: Will

Level Class Features
1st Adaptive Strike, Transformation Pool, Flexible Skill, Niche
2nd Augmented Form, adaptation, fulcrum
3rd Weapon Specialization, Transcendent Form, Skill Boost +1
4th Adaptation
5th Evolution Drain
6th Adaptation, Skill Boost +2
7th Transcendent Form
8th Adaptation
9th Flexible Skill, Skill Boost +3
10th Adaptation, Niche Ability
11th Accelerated Evolution, Transcendent Form
12th Adaptation, Skill Boost +4
13th Minor Apotheosis
14th Adaptation, Evolution Drinker
15th Transcendent Form, Skill Boost +5
16th Adaptation
17th Flexible Skill
18th Adaptation
19th Transcendent Form
20th Adaptation, Transcendent Apotheosis

Class Abilities:

1st Level:
Adaptive Strike: (as written, but add:) At 2nd level, as long as you have at least 1 TP in your Transformation Pool (see below), your adaptive strike gains a critical hit effect based on its damage type: arc (electricity), bind (cold), bleed (piercing or slashing), burn (fire), corrode (acid), or knockdown (bludgeoning). Critical hit effects that deal damage deal 1d6 damage, increasing to 1d10 at 7th level, 2d10 at 13th level, and 3d10 at 19th level.

1st Level:
Transformation Pool: Your body overflows with transformative potential, and manifests as a pool of potential energy available during a crisis. You gain Transformation Points when involved in a combat encounter that includes a significant enemy (Core Rulebook 242). During combat, you start with a full pool of Transformation Points. Your starting pool is 5 at first level. This increases by 1 at each of 7th, 14th, and 20th levels, to a maximum of 8.

Gaining TP
At the start of your turn, if you have less than your maximum pool, you gain 1 TP. Once per turn, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to gain 1 TP. Other class features may provide additional ways of gaining TP.

Spending TP
During your turn, you may spend TP as needed to perform impressive feats, enhancing your capabilities in battle.

1 TP – Manifest Adaptive Strike without taking an action
1 TP – Activate 1st level Instinct (see niche, below) for 3 rounds
1 TP – +1 AC (light armor) or +1 EAC (heavy or powered armor) until the start of your next turn (R)
5 TP – +2 AC (light armor) or +2 EAC (heavy or powered armor) (does not stack with previous entry) until the start of your next turn (R)
2 TP – +1 enhancement bonus to one saving throw until the start of your next turn (R)
4 TP – +1 enhancement bonus to all saving throws until the start of your next turn (R)
1 TP – +5' movement until the start of your next turn
3 TP – +10' movement until the start of your next turn (does not stack with previous entry)
6 TP – +20' movement until the start of your next turn (does not stack with previous entries)
2 TP – Gain Climb or Swim speed equal to half your land speed for 3 rounds

Abilities designated with an (R) may be used as a Reaction outside of your turn.

While you can gain considerable abilities by spending TP, there are risks for spending your pool too quickly. If you spend 2 or more points in one round, you gain your niche's vulnerability for 3 rounds. If you spend 4 or more TP in one round, you gain both your niche's vulnerability and drawback for 3 rounds. See your niche for details.

The text says, "Your adaptive strike can’t be disarmed, dropped, or sundered. It doesn’t interfere with your ability to wield equipment, and it doesn’t require hands to wield."

My question is, if I somehow get the Thrown property on Adaptive Strike (say with a Throwing fusion on my fulcrum), can I then chuck my melee adaptive strike at people? What happens to it then? Does it disappear and need to be re-manifested?

Throwing
Source Starfinder Armory pg. 65 Item Level 2 The throwing fusion makes even the most cumbersome melee weapon usable as a thrown weapon. A melee weapon with this fusion gains the thrown special property with a range increment of 10 feet. If the weapon has an item level of 10 or higher, the range increment is 20 feet. This fusion allows you to add additional fusions that benefit thrown weapons. You must be proficient with a melee weapon with the throwing fusion in order to benefit from the thrown special property granted by it. Only melee weapons can benefit from the throwing fusion.

Allowing this would give a ranged option for melee evolutionists who rely on Strength.

Also, now that I have your attention, it would be cool to have an Operative Adaptive Strike for melee Dexterity characters.

I should be going to bed, but I wanted to quick note that I played my first session with a level 1 evolutionist, doing SFS Intro: Year of the Data Scourge.

My PC:

I was The Reverend Horton Hoo, a Hortus Vital Evolutionist with a melee cloud of acid spores as Adaptive Strike; my bonus skill was Engineering, and I chose to take max Strength and put my remaining points into Intelligence to support Engineering and the niche's specialty skill of Life Science. With Dex 10, I took Heavy Armor Proficiency.

My Results:

I tanked a LOT of damage here, taking at least a couple crits. My Hortus Spongy Form DR 5/slashing ability did a lot of the heavy lifting (I would have been downed at least twice without it). Surviving those hits, I was able to use my Instinct and Biotic Invigoration to heal a good number of Stamina (between 1 to 3 per round for four rounds). Even with that healing, though, the party envoy needed to inspiring boost me twice. At one point I got seriously critted in the first round and used a healing serum, which got slightly boosted by my Instinct. In a lot of cases I only got hit because I didn't invest in any Dexterity in order to be more useful out-of-combat. That'll teach me.

I was annoyed the first time I used Biotic Invigoration because it costs an EP; because I only had one at the time, my Instinct didn't fire simultaneously to effectively double my stamina healing.

I actually found myself NOT using my BAB bonus in the hopes of getting enough EP to actually get effective healing from my niche power. The enemies did not have high ACs in this adventure, so it worked out okay; I hesitate to try this tactic at level 8 when there's more variation in BAB.

My comrade was playing a Mechanized evolutionist; in the last fight he vented plasma through his injury, spending 2 precious EP to do 2 whole damage (the enemy saved and took 1).

We agreed that the class feels like the Solarian's less flashy cousin, with the bonuses coming from stocking up on (or using) EP merely papering over the fact that the class is only pretending to be a martial; the combat chassis is basically an envoy... worse, actually (no grenades).

I think my next attempt will be with a level 4 sepulchral pahtra.

Okay, so my problem with EPs is that you're always recalculating your movement and AC based on how many you have, which is counter-intuitive to Starfinder's action economy. The question is, how do we make it so that the player has an active role in selecting bonuses while still ascribing to the developer's clear desire to have there be drawbacks to using too much of your power at once.

Enter the Reverse Evolutionist, who starts with max EP (seriously, though, name it something else).

Each round, the PC regains 1 EP if she is not already at max.

Then, during the round, the player may wish to spend EP to gain various abilities:

1 EP - Full BAB, Crit effect, and manifest weapon without taking an action
1 EP - +1 AC (light armor) or +1 EAC (heavy or powered armor)
5 EP - +1 AC (light armor) or +1 EAC (heavy or powered armor) (stacks with previous entry) and +1 enhancement bonus to saves
1 EP - +5' movement
2 EP - +5' movement (stacks with above)
3 EP - +10' movement (stacks with previous two entries)
2 EP - Gain Climb or Swim speed equal to half your land speed
(plus all uses of EP gained by Adaptations, Focus, or Niche)

All abilities gained last for 3 rounds.

If you spend 3 EP or more in one turn for whatever reason, you activate your drawback for 3 rounds.

There you go, full agency, full acknowledgement of the price for power. You can blow your whole pile of EPs all at once, but then you're getting your drawbacks.

First impressions...

"EP" is going to be very confusing for Evoloutionist/Vanguards.

Adaptive Strike says it can be combined with a move action, but 1st level Evolutionists don't have a +1 BAB and that would not normally be possible. Is that intended? I would just say that it should be treated in all ways like drawing a weapon.

Combat Focus starting with Flashing Strikes seems kinda powerful; full attack is ideal gameplay anyway.

Let's say I have a nuar soldier.

This nuar has the Unarmed Mauler gear boost to give her unarmed strike the Wound critical effect. In addition, she is a 9th level Gloom Gunner with Ominous Power, which gives the Intimidate critical effect to any weapon she uses, in addition to one other critical effect that the weapon has. Finally, she has Lung Puncture, which adds Fatigue for 1d4 rounds to whatever other critical effects she has.

Effect the First
Unarmed Mauler (Ex)
Your unarmed strikes gain the wound critical hit effect and are treated as having an item level equal to your soldier level for the purpose of determining save DCs.

Effect the Second
Ominous Power (Su) - 9th Level
If you score a critical hit with a weapon you wield, you can apply the critical hit effect of the ominous fusion in addition to one other critical hit effect the weapon has.

Effect the Third
Lung Puncture (Combat)
When you score a critical hit with a weapon that deals piercing damage, in addition to any other critical hit effect you would apply, you also impose the fatigued condition on the target for 1d4 rounds.

Can she use all three if she crits with her horns? Ominous Power only says you can stack with one effect, but Lung Puncture seems to be outside the scope of regular order of crit effects.

Also, Ominous Power talks about other critical effects that the weapon has; Lung Puncture is NOT a trait of the weapon; it's an effect that I apply myself that expressly is in addition to other effects (plural). This contrasts the Gloom Gunner trait, because that specifically gives the Ominous Fusion temporarily to the weapon itself with the 5th level ability, Shadow Fusion.

I can see arguments for just two effects, or for all three, but I think it depends on what the intention was with feats like Lung Puncture, Slam Down, and Blood in Their Eyes. Are they outside the regular order of effects and just applied after you do the others, or would they not stack with other effects that add to your critical effects?

Can you use Spellstrike with unarmed combat?

Spellstrike: A spell sergeant trains with weapons as much as with spells, and you’ve learned to combine the two. You can cast spells with a range of touch into a melee weapon you hold. The spell is held within your weapon for up to one minute; if you successfully hit an enemy with the weapon, the spell discharges, targeting that enemy. If you are no longer holding the weapon, the spell dissipates harmlessly. Spell damage and weapon damage affect the target separately. If the spell you cast allows an attack as part of casting the spell (such as jolting surge), you can cast the spell into your weapon and attack in the same turn. In addition, for the purpose of meeting feat prerequisites, you treat your class level as your base attack bonus.

Unarmed Strike is listed in the 1-handed basic melee weapons chart, but the description reads:

Unarmed Strike: An unarmed strike can be dealt with any limb or appendage. Unarmed strikes deal nonlethal damage, and the damage from an unarmed strike is considered weapon damage for the purposes of effects that give you a bonus to weapon damage rolls.

If an unarmed strike can be made with any appendage, the appendage IS the weapon and it isn't a weapon that you hold. Unless it just means that you have to put your hand on your other hand/foot/tail/horns/etc to cast the spell into... yourself. Which, if it's a Jolting Surge... yikes.

The free feat you get at level 2 doesn't even have an unarmed option.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to make a punchcaster that actually punches (synergizing with things like Wrecking Fists), but my reading is that this does not work.

Hey, now that Starfinder Society is entirely based on reported actions, I am finally auditing my sessions and trying to collect my earned boons.

I have found a couple immediate issues; one is the wrong scenario was reported, and another is that it's saying that my character hasn't done the three adventures necessary to download a particular boon, when all three were reported.

I click on "Report a Problem" and nothing happens. I try to open it in a new window and it just shows up as a blank page.

Was reporting problems disabled for Paizocon?

EDIT: I've tried on both Chrome and Firefox.

https://paizo.com/community/blog

So... hey...

Starfinder is getting kobolds with the race cards, due out next week.

I'd... really like to play one in Society.

We've waited a long time.

I'll do what I need to do... check boxes... play high level scenarios... pay achievement points or whatnot.

I wanna play a kobold. Always have, since 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

So hit me one more time.

This afternoon I'd like to discuss Heavy Armor Edge and Heavy Weapon Edge. These are 6th level Knacks for the Nanocyte.

Why?

It only costs 1 feat to get heavy armor proficiency. It's slightly more expensive to get heavy weapon proficiency and specialization, but waiting three extra levels AND spending a Knack on it does NOT seem ideal when you could get the ball rolling with Heavy Weapon Proficiency at 1st level and Versatile Specilization at 3rd. You need something more for this to be worth a whole Knack.

Let's look at these.

Heavy Armor Edge (Ex) You [sic] nanites allow you to move comfortably while wearing thick gear. You gain proficiency with heavy armor, and you treat the bulk of heavy armor you wear as 1 lower.

Star Knight archetype gives Heavy Armor by itself at 2nd level, and you can just buy this as a feat very easily. For this to be worth a level 6 Knack, I'd need a lot more than -1 bulk. Maybe -2 ACP and +1 Max Dex bonus (Guard soldier gets -1 ACP and +1 Max Dex at 1st level). In addition, allow your armor to be absorbed into your Gear Array or deployed as a separate free reaction unrelated to your other Gear Array uses. Basically the Star Lord helmet/Infinity War Iron Man thing.

Heavy Weapon Edge (Ex) You know how to deal damage with big weapons. You gain proficiency with heavy weapons, and you gain weapon specialization in heavy weapons just as if your class granted proficiency. When you gain this knack, you can replace one of your major forms known with that of a heavy weapon. You add your Constitution modifier to your Strength score for the purpose of wielding heavy weapons formed from your gear array without penalty.

Operatives can get proficiency and specialization for shurikens from Shuriken Assassin at 2nd level, and I'm sure there's more I can't think of off the top of my head. 6th level seems like a stretch.

Also, adding Con bonus to Strength for wielding heavy weapons is nice, but it's also super edge case, since a 6th level character will have had more than enough opportunity to upgrade their Strength to the minimum necessary to use big guns. If this is worth a 6th level Knack, I'd say you'd need to add your Con bonus to something else, like damage or the DCs of Explosive or Critical Effect saving throws. Between Swarm Strike and explosive heavy weapons, there's an interesting opportunity to make a character without significant Str or Dex investment for normal shooty combat.

What I'd really want, though, is to make both of these 2nd level Knacks, because building your character around options that aren't available until halfway through your Starfinder Society career is not a good feeling. I feel like most players want their core gameplay loops to be ironed out by 3rd level or so (when specialization kicks in).

I obviously haven't played with the nanocyte yet, but I've been trying to make characters.

Yeah, this is weird and broken.

1. You get (or change) your forms at level-up. You can invest in things of level+1, but your forms will ALWAYS be based on your investment made the previous level. This means that you essentially will never be able to invest a level+1 weapon unless your Santa Claus GM gives you something Level+2 to eat (any gear that nice was probably intended to be used in the scenario). Without being able to "save" our form choices for later, or have some way to change them on the fly, you'll always be lagging.

2. You have to wait until level 5 to start updating your forms. Essentially you're mostly stuck with your level 1 stuff bought with your starting credits until then, and even after that it's pretty slow going.

3. Unintended party consequences. The nanocyte is not going to be a popular PC, because they are gluttonous gluttons ever hungering for higher value items. This affects other party members because it cuts into loot amounts (a little less so, because Starfinder stuff only sells for 10%, but that argument will definitely be made to allow nanocytes to get all the best drops).

4. Unintended plot consequences. "Whoops I ate the priceless tech prototype we were intended to guard. It's harder to ask for permission than forgiveness." You can't "spit it out." As far as I can tell, once you eat something, it's gone.

5. You can absorb something you can't use. That Level+5 wave motion cannon sure provides a lot of nanites, but even though you absorbed it, you can't use it. Kinda breaks immersion.

6. This is just for Society, but tracking investments between sessions is essentially impossible. We can't keep treasure that we don't buy from a chronicle sheet or another legitimate source, so I don't see why we'd be able to keep our investment from table to table if we devour items found in the adventure. Starfinder Society would just make us vomit out the nanites with ipecac or something.

WHAT TO DO?

Well, if we want this to be fair to the nanocyte's party and true to the spirit of the game, we should find some way to standardize what can be invested, and when.

1. We have numbers in the core book about wealth by level, and approximately how much of that wealth should be spent on weapons, armor, the whole deal. Add a new column on the level table to designate the maximum value of the nanocyte's investment.

1a. If you still want to make them eat gear to keep them on the WBL treadmill, that's fine, but allow them to hoover up little stuff until they hit the current level maximum credits. That way, you don't steal the good gear from the rest of the party. Hard to track in Society, though...probably just dump UPBs in there.

1b. Alternatively, divorce the investment from gobbling stuff in-game entirely; make it a static number based on level, but modified by Knacks, Faculties, perhaps feats, etc. You can still absorb items, but it will be for other reasons, such as to swap a trait of one of your forms temporarily (damage type, crit effect, weapon trait, fusion, etc.) or perhaps to heal. This is probably the better choice for Starfinder Society.

1c. Limit the level of the item that's absorbed, but that item fills your form slot. So if you absorb a laser rifle, you now have a laser rifle in your major forms. If you absorb something else but don't have an open slot, you have to lose something. Again, hard to track in Society. It is, however, very much the kind of thing you'd see in a movie.

2. Allow PCs to benefit from their new level with regard to investments before locking in their forms.

2a. Allow newly-earned forms to be chosen on the fly, but make them locked in once selected. If you free up a slot after gaining a level, you can fill it later.

2b. Make the PC choose forms at the beginning of the day like an old-school wizard choosing spells.

3. Allow changing of forms earlier; maybe at any level where you don't get a new form. The types of items you can get are limited enough as it is (cybernetic augmentations are especially sparse). Maybe allow a knack that lets you spend a surge and an RP to change forms on the fly.

Had a great time at Paizocon Online. Thanks to all of the GMs, volunteers, organized play staff, sponsors, and Paizo employees who helped make it a reality.

My understanding is that the specials have debuted at Origins previously. My question is this: With Origins going to online, will that still be happening? I don't expect that the restriction on large gatherings is going to go away soon, for various reasons. The Season 2 Starfinder Multi-Table Special was said to be impossible to run at Paizocon Online (though I was able to successfully play it at Cosmic Crittercon, also online).

I understand that the answer might not be available at this time. I would like the community to know if it is going to be possible when the information is available, however.

Thanks again to everyone!

My copy of the scenario is currently missing starship combat map information about where the water hazards are, as well as the ship starting locations.

Anyone know where they should be?

Now, I do love my Envoys, and I'm glad they got some love in COM, but I'm puzzled about the Combat Expertise alternate class feature.

Though it does not get insight skill bonuses, at 1st level, 5th level, and every 4 levels after that, it gets to use a new skill with its signature attack move to potentially do extra damage equal to the expertise die, and this counts as Skill Expertise for the purposes of prerequisites such as Expertise Talents, chosen from the following list:

Bluff
Computers
Culture
Diplomacy
Intimidate
Sense Motive

Okay. I'm not sure how Diplomacy is that useful in doing more damage in combat, but, you know, it's funny and I like the idea of a "trick attack but for envoys with big guns or swords."

The problem is the list. Regular envoys can get expertise in the following list when choosing Skill Expertise:

Bluff
Computers
Culture
Diplomacy
Disguise
Engineering
Intimidate
Medicine
Sense Motive

Do you see? Disguise, Engineering, and Medicine all have Expertise Talents that a Combat Expertise Envoy simply can't get, and I'm wondering why. I tried to sit down last night to make a combat doctor, and I realized that taking Combat Expertise locked me out of Battlefield Medic and Surgeon.

I thought it might be because it was hard to justify making combat moves with the extra skills, but the really odd part is that Diplomacy is on the list while Engineering is not, despite being a Gadgeteer Operative Trick Attack candidate. Medicine should theoretically be easier to justify than Diplomacy (knowing biology sufficiently being more easily weaponized than just being really polite).

Anyway, thought that was weird. Any thoughts?

This evening I would like to get a clarification on the 5th level Power Boost ability of the Experimental Armor Prototype alternate class feature of the Mechanic class in the COM.

Power Boost
You gain proficiency in powered armor. You can alter your experimental armor prototype to be identical to any suit of powered armor that has an item level equal or lower than your existing armor prototype by spending 8 hours of work making upgrades.

I think it works, but I just wanted to make sure:

Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 204
Item Level 5; Price 3,450
EAC Bonus 9; KAC Bonus 12
Max Dex Bonus 2; Armor Check Penalty -4; Speed 30 feet
Strength 18 (+4); Damage 1d10 B; Size Medium
Capacity 20; Usage 1/hour
Weapon Slots 1; Upgrade Slots 1; Bulk 20
The battle harness is the basic powered armor frame used by infantry units in professional militaries.

I buy some garbage Level 5 Business Stationwear for 2600 credits, and I can convert it to a Level 5 Battle Harness (retailing for 3450 credits) with 8 hours of work. Later I pick up some Elite Stationwear, a Level 6 item. I disassemble the Battle Harness, leaving regular old Business Stationwear, and use the special parts to build my robot armor again. Now I can make Level 6 power armor, but I look at the Spacer Carapace and don't like that it gives a lower EAC, so instead I refer to the Armory's rules on improving power armor:

It is possible (though expensive) to improve powered armor to make it a more effective, higher-level piece of equipment. It costs a number of credits equal to 150% of the armor’s current price to improve the armor’s item level by 1 and takes at least 24 hours for each level gained. Thus improving an ironclad bulwark to 11th level would cost 28,875 credits. The price paid to improve powered armor by 1 level becomes its new current price, so selling an ironclad bulwark improved to 11th level would bring in 2,887 credits, while improving it to 12th level would cost 43,312 credits.

Anyone who could build a suit of powered armor of the new level can improve powered armor to the same level. Increasing powered armor’s item level by 1 increases its bonus to EAC and KAC by 1 each; if the new item level is evenly divisible by 5, then the powered armor’s bonus to EAC and KAC increase by 2 each instead. If you improve powered armor by 5 item levels, its maximum Dexterity bonus increases by 1, its Strength score increases by 2, and it gains one additional upgrade slot. Powered armor can’t be improved beyond 20th level.

So because I can convert my Level 6 Elite Stationwear to an equal level power armor, I should be able to just concoct a Level 6 Battle Harness, resulting in a suit that looks like this:

Battle Harness
Item Level 6; Price 5,175
EAC Bonus 10; KAC Bonus 13
Max Dex Bonus 2; Armor Check Penalty -4; Speed 30 feet
Strength 18 (+4); Damage 1d10 B; Size Medium
Capacity 20; Usage 1/hour
Weapon Slots 1; Upgrade Slots 1; Bulk 20

If I were to find Level 10 Freebooter Armor III later, worth 16,900 credits, I could choose to make an Large-sized Ironclad Bulwark prototype that can barely fit down a corridor...

Ironclad Bulwark
Source Starfinder Armory pg. 78
Item Level 10; Price 19,250
EAC Bonus 16; KAC Bonus 19
Max Dex Bonus 2; Armor Check Penalty -6; Speed 20 ft.
Strength 20 (+5); Damage 1d10 B; Size Large (5-ft. reach)
Capacity 100; Usage 4/hour
Weapon Slots 2; Upgrade Slots 3; Bulk 32
This heavy suit of reinforced metal and polymer powered armor provides superior protection at the expense of mobility. It can mount melee weapons in its weapon slots, rather than only ranged weapons.

or I could stick with my old reliable standby, upgraded to level 10:

Battle Harness
Item Level 10; Price 26,196
EAC Bonus 15; KAC Bonus 18
Max Dex Bonus 3; Armor Check Penalty -4; Speed 30 feet
Strength 20 (+5); Damage 1d10 B; Size Medium
Capacity 20; Usage 1/hour
Weapon Slots 1; Upgrade Slots 2; Bulk 20

Does this seem like it would be okay? My impression is that it is, because upgrading power armor explicitly increases the item level, lower level suits with desirable features (such as a Swim speed for the Personal Submersible, or the defensive benefits against incorporeal creatures of the Celerity Rigging) can continue to be relevant as the player character gains levels.

The weird part comes if you actually use the upgrade rules on your experimental armor to increase the level, then disassemble it... If I upgraded the Elite Stationwear to level 10, then dismantled it so I could use another suit as a prototype, does the level revert back to 6? Or is it Level 10 Elite Stationwear (with no difference to stats from the Level 6 suit, since light armor does not upgrade)?

I guess I'm rambling at this point.

There is so much cool stuff in COM, and so many questions about how stuff works. Let's look at the Qi Adept Soldier fighting style. It's definitely anime-inspired, and I very much want to play with it, but i have questions.

At level 5, you can spend 1 Resolve to get one of three Gather Qi bonuses until you rest for 8 hours, and one of those bonuses is Plasma Blast, allowing you to make unarmed attacks with a 30' range increment. Also, all of your melee attacks do Electricity and Fire damage, and gain the Stunned critical hit effect.

1. Is the plasma damage lethal, or do you need to have another ability (Natural Weapons, Aesthetic Warrior, etc.) to make the damage lethal?
2. Is the damage also archaic unless otherwise modified?
3. Is the Stunned critical hit effect in addition to your unarmed attack's normal crit effect, or do you have to decide between them?
4. Can I use my Natural Weapons or Ring of Fangs bite as a ranged plasma attack with the same bonus specialization damage?
5. Can I emit the plasma from a Tactical Shield I'm carrying to make it lethal and gain the effects of any fusions on the shield?
5a. Is plasma shot from a shield made of a special material considered to be that material for purposes of monster resistances? It probably doesn't matter much, since it's energy damage and doesn't go against DR, but, say, would a Noqual shield's plasma blast do +1 enhancement damage to magical constructs and undead?
6. Can I choose NOT to hit someone with plasma in melee after I spend my Resolve for the day? If I'm fighting a demon with immunity to electricity and resistance 10 to fire, am I just screwed unless I spend a move action and another Resolve to change my Gather Qi benefit to something else, or can I suppress my inner flame and just do normal bludgeoning damage?
7. Do my unarmed attacks attack KAC or EAC...I'd think the latter, because it is all energy damage, but unarmed strikes are normally vs. KAC.

Got all that? Okay, now let's look at the 9th level power, Bountiful Qi.
At this level you can do the 5th level stuff without spending a Resolve, get two of those powers by spending 1 Resolve, or get a buffed version of one of the powers by spending 1 Resolve. The buffed Plasma Blast allows you to add Automatic, Blast, Explode, or Line special weapon qualities.

1. The Automatic feature determines how many targets you can hit by checking the amount of ammo remaining in the gun. A Qi Adept's Unarmed Strike has no ammo capacity; how do you determine when to stop making attacks? By RAW, essentially it does nothing. Is this intentional? Should it work without ammo?
2. The Explode feature requires a radius in parenthesis, like "Explode (10 ft.)." Without a radius listed, it is effectively 0' does not emanate from a map intersection, and, by RAW, it essentially does nothing. Is this intentional? Should it have a particular radius listed? If so, what is that radius?

The 13th level ability, Qi Overflow, is not exciting, but it is straightforward: +1 to all Soldier, crit, fusion, and weapon-based DCs. No questions there.

The 17th level power is also straightforward, but it barely does anything. When you Gather Qi (5th level ability), you can get 1 ability without spending Resolve, two abilities by spending 1 Resolve, or all three abilities by spending 2 Resolve. But... the first two of those are already handled by the 9th level power, so is the intent that the 17th level power's only bonus is that you can now use Extreme Speed, Plasma Blast, and Qi Flight powers at the same time for 2 Resolve? That seems pretty underwhelming, when you can modify your load-out of two powers with a Resolve and a move action already.

The power does not refer to the Bountiful Qi 9th level ability's upgraded powers, either. Those of us who want to be flying at top speed while chucking exploding hadokens everywhere seem to be out of luck. Should Abundant Qi refer to Bountiful Qi instead?

Thanks for reading this. I would desperately like to create Beartleflower, my Uplifted Bear Qi Adept Soldier with the Battleflower archetype, but I need to know how the powers work. Thank you.

I got my copy of COM yesterday (thanks to USPS not losing it the way they lost my AA3), and it is full of great stuff that will take ages to sift through.

This is a general thread for us to point out stuff in relation to what we thought the game needed previously. Paizo has been very active on the forums, monitoring what we are noting about the game, and working out (sometimes unexpected) ways of fixing problems that we've encountered.

For example, I recall myself and others asking for extra stuff to do with Entropy Points... specifically I remember wanting move and attack options... and now even 1st level Vanguards can use EPs to get extra movement or damage.

Personally, I want to crow a little. I noticed that the Biohacker's injections were changed from Restoratives and Counteragents to Boosters and Inhibitors...

Restoratives they are not.

My immediate impression was that "Booster" was the correct nomenclature.

Yeah, I didn't like that, but it wasn't quite as egregious. You could explain it by "countering" an enemy "agent."

Personally I would have called them "Inhibitors."

What did you request? How was it fulfilled?

Hello, I was wondering if Paizo would be running 2-00 at Paizocon 2020. I believe that the new specials for SF are supposed to debut later at Origins, so there wouldn't be a conflict, but I also know 1-99 didn't run at Paizocon 2019.

Is it going to be different now different because 2-00 can be replayed once per tier? I would like to play it again, if possible.

So I have some questions about this boon.

1) If my Personal boon slot is full when I slot this, it instead takes up a non-Starship boon slot for the session. Could I have it take up my Vanity or Promotional boon, both of which I barely ever use?

2) Offensive Nanites: At the risk of starting a multi-page argument about unarmed combat, how do I benefit from this if I don't have a "natural weapon" as a Vesk does? Do regular unarmed strikes count?

Offensive Nanites
You can attack another creature with nanites by making attacks with a natural weapon.
Gift: Anytime you successfully hit a creature with a natural attack you possess, you deal an additional 2 points of piercing damage. If your character is level 10 or more, you instead deal an additional 4 points of piercing damage with your natural attacks.

3) Also about Offensive Nanites, the stain is: You see organic creatures as weak and always attempt to resist spells used on you, whether harmless or not.

So does this just count for spells cast by organic creatures? If an obviously-superior SRO casts a harmless spell on me, do I try to resist it? Do I try to resist a spell I cast on myself?

4) Finally, at any point I can spend 8 Fame to cross Nanite Corruption off, but I can keep benefiting from the Gift in the future if I took the Corruption's Gift feat. Does that still qualify as slotting this boon, and, if so, do I still lower my Resolve by 1?

Corruption’s Gift
Source Starfinder #12: Heart of Night pg. 52
You have embraced your corruption.
Prerequisites: One or more corruption manifestations.
Benefit: Choose one of your manifestations and make its gift permanent. If you’re ever cured of your corruption, you lose the stain but not the gift. You can take this feat multiple times, making a different gift permanent each time you do so. Each instance of this feat counts as a manifestation you have for calculating the save DC for corruption.

Should this be part of the lottery due to the involvement of the RFC guys?

Is there any restriction on using the same characters as used in 1-98? I mean, they're already broken beyond redemption, what else can you do to them?

So I've got two Skitter Shot boons completely filled out, and I need to come up with a new character to get credit for Dreaming of the Future, which I'm running tomorrow at a convention (Anime Detour in Minneapolis).

So I have a super skittermander with a +2 to one stat of 14 or less, and I'd like to take advantage of Empower Weapon and the skittermander's 1/day free Move action with Hyper to do a Full Attack with the +1/spell level AB and +1d6/spell level to damage on both attacks.

One problem: Skittermanders are dumb as rocks. I want a high Dexterity for the purposes of shooting, but I'm wondering how low I can put Intelligence and get away with it. My only other Technomancer is a Junksword melee glass cannon, so I'm not sure what my shooty options are.

I was thinking Int 14 (I could still get Dex 18) but I'm wondering if I'll run into problems with Resolve points. I don't expect to be casting too many spells, but maybe when I get the ability to cast spells through my gun the DCs will make a difference?

I dunno, I mostly stand in the front lines and bonk things with my other characters. Help!

Some scenarios have established situations where PCs may gain Infamy if they perform certain actions. If an infamy action would be in character for their PC, could a GM (for whatever reason, be it RP or some mechanical benefit/challenge) assign themselves Infamy?

For scenarios where Infamy is noted on the chronicle sheet for certain boons, I assume the GM can assign or not assign those points at will, so I'm more interested in the scenarios where the adventure itself says, for example, "If a PC uses lethal damage on this adorable puppy, they will gain 1 Infamy."

If so, would that mean that the GM could also assign themselves Infamy on ANY scenario, as it is listed as an option in their arsenal for dealing with disruptive player characters? It's not like it isn't without fair warning, as the GM is giving themselves the point.

ME: "Are you sure you want to do that? You will gain an Infamy if you do."
MYSELF: "Yes I am sure I would like to do that, and why am I talking to myself?"
I: "I hate all of you."

Thoughts?

I like the fact that the Biohacker can go Wisdom or Intelligence, because it really opens up their build ideas, and allows some interesting multiclass combos with Mystic or Mechanic, but the option needs to be fleshed out more before it is mission-ready.

I ran a level 4 Dwarf Str/Wis biohacker in Beacon Code Dilemma over the weekend, and I was really underwhelmed after playing a Ysoki Dex/Int Biohacker previously. While my rolls certainly didn't help (no attack roll with the painclaw over 5), I think the worst thing was that I wasn't very helpful to the group.

Instinctive Biohackers get their Wisdom bonus to Life Science, Medicine, and Physical Science. That's all fine and good, but one could argue that the sciences should be the Biohacker's baseline. Conversely, the Studious Biohacker gets their Intelligence bonus to Perception, Sense Motive, and Will Saving Throws. That's nuts. They are already good at all of the important Intelligence skills (including Engineering, Culture, and Computers) and get the general purpose adventuring skills of Perception and Sense Motive as well. The Instinctive Biohacker is comparatively mediocre in the applied technical skills and the other Wisdom skills that they would be good at, Survival and Mysticism, aren't class skills!

In the adventure, the Technomancer did as well or better than me at science and the two Operatives did better than me at... well, everything else.

I think my biggest problem was that I had 60% of the skill points of a Studious Biohacker of the same level. Not investing in Intelligence severely hobbled my toolkit. Not having many languages (I speak... Common and Dwarvish...) actually made me feel kind of hopeless when dealing with the multicultural Starfinder universe.

Furthermore, the Spark of Ingenuity for Instinctive Biohackers is kinda garbage compared to the Studious Biohacker. Dazzled is just not very powerful to add compared to being able to mix two different Counteragents for twice the duration (Off-Target is twice as good, Fatigued is that and more, don't even get me started on Confused or Sickened), and removing Dazzled, Fascinated, or Shaken is pretty corner-case, especially since a lot of those conditions only last for a round or two anyway (and Fascinated can basically be removed by observing ANY hostile act OR being shaken as a standard action... adding Fascinated there literally does nothing any ally could not do for free). Further, Treat Condition, a level 2 Theorem, removes Shaken, Sickened, or Staggered several times per day... which means the only thing that Instinctive Spark of Ingenuity is best at is adding or removing Dazzled. Meh.

So... I think they need work.

Scientific Method for Instinctive should be roughly equal to Studious. That means two skills (let's say Medicine and Life Science) and an important Intelligence modifier, something equivalent to a Will Save for Wisdom. The obvious choice is Skill Points per level. Studious Biohackers are skill monkeys that beat Mechanics and rival Envoys, other than in their Insight bonus skills. If you're not going to give them their Wis bonus to Skill Points per level, then we'd need to open the skill bonus to more Intelligence skills, adding back in Physical Science but also throwing in Engineering and/or Computers... and I would still want my Wisdom bonus to languages at first level and/or adding Mysticism and Survival to Class skills for an Instinctive Biohacker. Honestly it makes sense, because the Instinctive Biohacker isn't some lab tech with book learning... they should be out in the wild picking herbs and testing out old wive's tales & legends.

For Spark of Ingenuity... I kinda like the idea of the Instinctive Biohacker being able to heal with Restoratives. So take away the ability to add Dazzled to an injection and simply give the ability to add Field Dressing to their Spark of Ingenuity injections, or at the very least, Fast Healing 1 per 3 Biohacker levels for the duration of the Restorative.

Other assorted Biohacker stuff:

Still don't like the names of Restoratives and Counteragents. Should be Boosters and Inhibitors.

The Custom Scanner should serve as an Advanced Medkit at 5th level.

My dwarf melee biohacker really would have enjoyed a Theorem to inject himself as a Move action rather than a Standard action. Self-buffing could be made, with some investment, a little easier on the action economy so they can shoot up and then contribute to fights better. Basically like an Envoy using Get 'Em! and then shooting. Or perhaps more like Clever Attack where they can self-buff and attack with the same Standard action.

I find myself always taking the Quick Load theorem because the action economy of loading a weapon with an injection, especially in melee, is rough because positioning is king. It should be a baked-in class feature by 3rd level or so.

Similarly, it is hard to pass up Painful Injections for that ever-elusive bonus damage. The theorem needs to be clarified on just what the damage "stacking" means (is it only once per round, once per combat, or once ever?), and what opponents are susceptible to it... does the damage have the "pain" descriptor like a Zon-Kuthon divine blessing attack? Does a painful injections effect hurt undead? Constructs? Basically make the damage clearer and more circumstantial so not every Biohacker takes it to make up for the fact that their specialization in injection weapons is only at half-level.

I would like to see Field Dressing be a little more flexible. If you don't add it to the Instinctive Spark of Ingenuity like I suggested, perhaps make an 8th level Theorem to be able to add it to an injection, meaning that you can shoot healing at an ally with a needler without buying a serum. Maybe make it a Resolve ability?

I'd like for ranged restorative injections to be able to subtract the willing target's Dexterity modifier from their KAC instead of adding it because they would lean into it rather than dodge away from it. This should apply to anyone shooting a healing serum or medicinal, though, not just Biohackers.

I am considering a melee dwarf biohacker for the Society playtest, and the painclaw with a tactical shield is an attractive option for Beacon Code Dilemma. Painclaws have flexible injection slots and the unwieldy property (which will help to differ the question of what Painful Injections' damage "stacking" means). Since hands used with Tactical Shields can be used to reload, I would be able to use the Quick Load Theorem to load and fire an injection, and then still have a move action to raise my shield.

But what if I need a ranged option? The painclaw doesn't really allow me to hold a gun:

The hand wearing a painclaw can’t be used to hold or operate any other weapon or piece of equipment. Donning or removing the painclaw is a full action. A painclaw cannot be disarmed.

So it takes a full round action to put on or take off a painclaw. Do you have to take it off to use the Throwing Fusion?

The throwing fusion makes even the most cumbersome melee weapon usable as a thrown weapon. A melee weapon with this fusion gains the thrown special property with a range increment of 10 feet.

Emphasis mine. I'd say that an unwieldy requiring a full action to put on or remove fits the definition of cumbersome, but does throwing it count as "removing" the painclaw, or can you simply use the fusion's magic to chuck directly from your hand... if the former, could you still throw it as a full action, or would you need to take the full action to remove it, and then throw it?

Next quesiton, if I also have Called on the painclaw and I use a swift action to summon it, does it appear on my hand, ready to be used in melee, or would I need to make a full action to put it on again?

A weapon with the called fusion can be teleported to its owner’s hand as a swift action, even if the weapon is in the possession of another creature. This ability has a maximum range of 100 feet, and effects that block teleportation prevent the return of a called weapon.

Since it's a teleportation effect that brings the weapon to your hand, theoretically it could appear fully attached. Thoughts?

I assume that it would NOT come back ready to use with the Returning fusion, though:

A returning weapon flies through the air back to you after you make a thrown ranged attack with it. It returns to you just before your next turn (and is therefore ready to use again in that turn). Catching the weapon when it comes back takes no action. If you can’t catch it, or if you have moved since throwing it, the weapon drops to the ground in the square from which you threw it.

As it actually flies back to you, I assume you'd have to put it back on with a full action.

I was listening to the Roll for Combat interview with Rob McCreary this morning on the drive in to work and I'm confused.

Rob mentioned a scenario where an ally threw a grenade and hit the vanguard as well as the enemies, and "made him stronger." While this could obliquely refer to the Accelerate Discipline, I generally took it to mean that the vanguard gained EP.

Thing is, allied damage can't give EP right now because the source is not considered a Significant Enemy.

Between Accelerate and Dampen and Fall on the Grenade, the vanguard seems to be meant to thrive in situations where damage could come from allies, accidentally or not. Why not reward them for taking hits for the team?

Further, EP is hard to come by, anyway. Some of the powers prevent you from gaining EP if you use them to mitigate damage (Energize is a welcome exception), but you're unlikely to get EP from attacks whose damage you mitigate, regardless, so why make it outright impossible? If you're still taking double your level in damage after halving it with Flatten Bullets, you probably REALLY need those EP for future hits.

I played a level 8 Vanguard in Society play over the weekend ("Return to Sender"). Here's what I found:

Unless you're fighting a boss, any significant DR (such as Enhanced Resistance) means that you will never get EP from kinetic attacks.

Similarly, I was wearing Spellcaster's Aegis power armor, and almost nothing could even hit me. I did get 1 EP per fight from Boundary because nothing could reliably hit my 30 KAC (31 after gaining that point because of the +1 AC).

The most damage I took was 25 points from an ally's Explosive Blast. Allies are not considered significant enemies, so I did not gain EP.

Other than Energize, the damage-reducing Disciplines are useless at the start of combat, and the start of combat is generally when you need Dampen to protect your allies from the enemy's opening breath weapon or Explosive Blast.

The difficulty of Society games is such that I didn't even need to spend one Resolve point. Out of my 120 stamina, I lost 61 points, INCLUDING the ally's Explosive Blast.

I did get a crit, but I forgot that I could gain an EP by foregoing damage. The thing is, with the crit I took the enemy out in one round, so it wouldn't have been worth gaining the EP anyway. Damage is king; the only way it would be worth gaining EP instead of putting points on the board would be if the base damage was enough to take the enemy out.

Similarly, I had no interest in spending a Move action and a Resolve to gain 1 EP. The powers I could use my points on were mostly devoted to preventing damage anyway. If I had the ability to use my points offensively, i might have been more interested in gaining them, but as it stands the choice between full attacking or move to flank > attack vs. spending an RP to get an EP with a move action that I could better use somewhere else is not really a good choice at all.

All that said, the Entropic Strike feels great. Originally I had been intending to use a Sonic Fist and a shield, but when I realized that the shield would prevent me from taking even more damage, I went with Called Throwing Shadow Chains instead. Having Reach with Entropic Strike is very good, being able to throw them is borderline ridiculous.

Overall, I like the class, but felt like my Entropy Pool did not fill up fast enough to use my abilities, nor did I ultimately have a sufficient reason to use the defensive abilities I took because my Stamina was so high. I think we need to a) start with points and b) power offensive abilities with them.

When Vanguards crit with an Entropic Strike, they can choose not to do the extra damage and instead gain 1 Entropy Point.

We should be allowed know the result of the regular damage before making this choice. So you roll a 20, roll your basic damage. Then, once you know if you take down the enemy or not with that damage, you should then be able to decide whether you take the extra damage or the bonus EP.

This is kinda like how an Envoy with Convincing Liar can wait to learn the result of the Bluff check before rolling her Expertise die and forego the die to reroll the whole check.

I would like this for two reasons. First, it is very thematic; a warrior of entropy should be able to feel the life fleeing from the opponent and stop to collect the entropy before following through with the critical hit.

Second, EP seems very hard to come by; it would very discouraging to be lucky enough to roll a crit, decide to follow through with the extra damage, and then be informed that the creature had one hit point left, meaning that all that extra damage was pointless and you missed out on an EP that you can only get 1 out of 20 strikes.

Barring that, give them an ability to detect an enemy's hit points. Starfinder doesn't really have codified rules on being able to tell how many hit points an enemy has left, so if you can determine that, you're not just swinging in the dark.

Of course, the option I'm secretly hoping for is that vanguards simply get 1 EP on a crit as well as the bonus damage. But that's neither here nor there.

Please clarify this rule:

You don't gain the magic hack class feature at 2nd level. Instead you gain it at 5th level.

Do you completely lose the 2nd level magic hack, or do you gain TWO magic hacks at 5th level?

For every other instance of the word "instead" in the Technomancer alternative features, you get the trait later and then it specifies something else that you lose (at 6th level the cache capacitor is delayed until 8th and you lose a magic hack, and at 9th your Techlore doesn't go up until 11th level and you lose the 11th level magic hack).

This implies that you indeed pick up two magic hacks at 5th level, because it doesn't say that you lose that feature.

Or is there something with the specific wording of "magic hack class feature" that means something different than just "magic hack?"

For every other instance of losing a selectable class ability in that section, it just says, "you don't gain an [operative exploit, stellar revelation, bonus combat feat, envoy improvisation]." It doesn't say "you don't gain the [x] class feature," nor does it say that you "instead" gain the feature at a higher level, though for several at level 9 it says that they instead gain the power at a higher level and lose something else.

I'm of the opinion that magic hacks are not the equivalent of those other traits, because you only get them every three levels instead of every two levels like the others. Making a technomancer lose their first hack completely seems like a bit of an extreme cost for a level 2 archetype ability that is likely not worth what is lost.

Regardless, the language needs to be clearer.

According to RAW, you can only do a full limb replacement, occupying the following augmentation slots: "Arm and Hand" or "Leg and Foot." You can't currently replace just a hand or just a foot.

No spoilers, but there exists the possibility of an influx of Starfinder Society characters who are missing hands or feet. I might have one of them. Assuming some players aren't that enamored of cutting off the rest of their whole arm to get simple hand function back, would it be possible for Starfinder Society characters to pay 100 credits for just a hand or just a foot, to get them back to functional without losing two augmentation slots?

Seems like neither Luke Skywalker nor Ash Williams needed a whole arm replacement after losing their hands. Robot limbs are cool and very sci-fi, but I don't like the idea of getting more robot parts than are strictly necessary.

I would like for this to be addressed officially for Society play (if not put in the FAQ as well).

Thanks for your time!

...or rather, there are no cheap replacements for lost hands or feet without replacing the entire limb. This was somewhat addressed in the Hideaway Limb thread, but I think it merits its own discussion.

My SFS character, Zoggy Grav, tripped on a Hellknight and accidentally got his right hand incinerated, but, to my dismay, looking at the section on prosthetic hands, you can only buy a basic or storage prosthetic as a "Arm AND Hand" or "Leg AND Foot" augmentation. You can't just replace a hand or just replace a foot.

What this does is make it so that, if poor Zoggy wants to get his claw back, he has to go to the doctor and get his whole arm chopped off so he can get an entire prosthetic arm. He is quite attached to his meat-arm and doesn't want to lose any more of it. So he had a goblin weld a wrench onto his forearm armor for the time being.

Alternatively, he could wait a bunch of levels and spend 71,000 credits on a Polyhand.

So, some questions.

Is this state of affairs intentional? Are hand or foot amputees supposed to be punished by losing their entire limb's worth of augmentation slots? This is not a terribly generous way to handle people with disabilities, if I can say so.

I might consider the whole arm replacement if there were some value to doing so, for example if there was a Quickdraw version of the Storage Limb. Why is there no Quickdraw Storage Limb?

Right now a Prosthetic Limb costs 100 credits, a Hideaway Limb costs 150, and a Storage Limb cots... 1,450 credits. The only mechanical difference between a Hideway Limb and a Storage Limb is that you can also install a Speed Suspension or a Polyhand on a Storage Limb. Is that really worth the extra 1,200 creds you're paying for it?

The Polyhand can replicate a tool. What is the definition of a "tool?" It says that you can replicate tools within an engineering kit; how many of the polyhand's 10 slots do you have to use to make up a full engineering kit? How about a specialty engineering kit that gives bonuses to rolls?

Also, a weapon is a tool. Can the Polyhand replicate a weapon? The text states that it doesn't increase your unarmed damage, but could you make, say, a dagger (the hand can extend for up to 18 inches), and then be considered armed? It is, by definition, an adamantine device, so having an adamantine spike on command, Robocop-style, would be pretty fancy.

I realize that some of my issues may be addressed by the Armory book coming out next, but, if I may suggest some humble solutions for FAQ consideration?

You should be able to buy just a prosthetic hand or just a prosthetic foot. Ash Williams and Luke Skywalker both lost hands and got prosthetics that didn't require losing the rest of their arms. Maybe cut the cost to 50 credits.

Simple, level 1 prosthetics should not use up any augmentation slots. It is basically a cosmetic choice, gameplay-wise. I can imagine that some people with real-life disabilities might appreciate the consideration.

The Storage Limb should cost 250 credits. Maybe 350 credits if you count the ability to play nice with certain other augmentations. You should be able to get a Quickdraw Storage Limb for 3,150 (or 3,250 to play nice) credits.

The Polyhand should use a number of its slots equal to the item level to replicate a full toolkit, so 1 for a basic kit or 4 for a specialty kit.

The Polyhand should be able to replicate a weapon of Light bulk that is 18" or less and doesn't have the Reach keyword or use batteries or ammunition. Let's give the resulting weapon Unwieldy as well, so as to emphasize the fact that the Polyhand wasn't designed to be a weapons system.

Okay, that's it for now. I may think of more, later.