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Nicola The Necromancer's page
36 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists.
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Valfen wrote: Outstanding work ! Tremendous help in trying to answer simple questions like "Bullet Barrage or Laser Accuracy ?", for example.
I admit I haven't played with every level/weapon combination yet, but it's also quite interesting to see Deadly Aim being more often than not close in DPR with regular attack mode. You basically trade accuracy for a chance of higher damage, which would mean the Feat is aimed more toward punching unexpected DR (or high risk/high reward gambits) rather than straight DPR increase.
It seems to be most useful with small arms and operative weapons. Guess where you hit somebody matters with a ,22 and not so much with a 50 Cal.
Sniper Rifles are basically elephant guns. Longarms are assault rifles.
Don't you get to select an extra class skill for the drone - which can be stealth.
Um, can't the drone full attack if you feed it a move action? So with haste you get two full attacks?
It's powerful, but it isn't always the most user friendly.
If you resort the melee and ranged weapon worksheets it will break the vlookups used for DPR calculations. To fix this resort by item number.
Put numbers in the green boxes (and the racial AC adjustment if you are trying to figure out the best armor for your character).
The boxes for weapons and armor are setup to give you a drop down menu.
In the upper right their are boxes for adding in modifiers to hit and damage. These have spots for both flat bonuses and rolling addition dice (for example, a Envoy adding expertise bonus to hit). Ranged and Melee have different boxes, which means you need to enter global bonuses twice.
ON the left side you have the following values:
Level: Required to properly computer CRs
Base Attack Bonus: Required to properly compute to hit / specialization damage
Str Bonus to Hit: For Melee weapons
Str Bonus To Damage: Independent of bonus to hit since soldiers can do 1.5*Str with the right ability.
Melee KAC Penalty: Set to zero.
Ranged KAC Penalty: Set to zero.
Opponents Resist: Only enter if you want to find DPR against an opponent with resits
Opponents Fast Healing: Use this number to estimate DPR against a forcefield, but be careful as it's more complicated than this when multiple PCs are attacking the same foe.
Melee Weapon: Select your weapon from the drop down.
Ranged Weapon: Selection your weapon from the drop down.
Armor: Select your armor from the drop down.
Dex Bonus: Required, enter your Dex bonus.
EAC Racial Bonus: Only used for PC armor calculations
KAC Racial Bonus: Only used for PC armor calcuations
Each cargo mod holds 25 tons. The maximum weight limit for a truck in the US is 40 tons (truck and cargo), but 25 tons of cargo is about right for a smaller modern shipping container. A modern Panamax ship carries 5000 of these containers and some of the largest container ship carry over 15,000 of them.
For comparison, a Caravel had between 50 to 60 tons.
Roman ships had a cargo capacity between 100 and 150 tons with the largest going up to 600 tons of cargo.
A Cog, probably, had a cargo capacity of around 100 tons.
A Spanish Galleon had a cargo capacity of around 500 tons.
The largest cargo ship in starfinder has ten expansion bays, which you could fit with 5 shuttle bays bring the total number of cargo holds to 15 or 375 tons.
By contrast, pathfinder ships are very fast. 1d6+2 days in system or 1d6 day for a basic drift drive. With an advanced drift drive you could pull 1d6/2 in system or even 1d6/4 (though limited to large ship). Given the speed of shipping, it might make sense to simply swap docked shuttles so that the ship does not need to hand around to load and unload cargo.
Put another way, maybe cargo hold capacity should scale with the size of the ship.
I think what we have is a bad case of a spell that adds damage on your attack on your next round, a technomancer ability that takes a move action, a mechanic ability that takes either a standard or a move action and me talking about some rules that are hard to find in the SRD late at night.
Yeah you can both reload, overcharge and fire all in the same round.
So optimal damage looks something like: Overcharge Drone Weapon
Overcharge and Fire Character Weapon (probably a sniper rifle).
Drone fires overcharged shock caster.
My only concern is that combat drone dex is not great.
The technomancer on the other hand really seems optimized for a Sniper Rifle. Boosting with empowered weapon eats a spell slot and gives a bonus to hit that is not going to be useful with an area attack.
Jurassic Pratt wrote: I hear Armor Comaprisons are the worst kind of prisons. I hear that 9:00 on the west coast might be way to late in other parts of the country.
Yeah I just looked it up AC 5. Don't know why I was thinking it was AC 15. Some of those damage calculations above are going to be wrong as you should just use the straight specialization adjusted rolled damage number for DPR.
11.5 save for half doesn't sound too bad at level 5.
You could reload but it would cost you overcharging for a round (unless you were under a haste spell).
It seems like there is some type of optimal arrangement here that involves a combat drone and a Vesk mechanic using Improved Unarmed Attack with his natural weapon (yes I know the rules are unclear if this works) to free up money for the drone and the 16, 16, 11 stat array.
Overcharge the shock attack from the drone, attack with either a long arm or sniper rifle, then have the drone kick in an AOE at the end of your turn (I think the rules say the drone goes last out of the two of you).
Nixitur wrote: The issue with Shock Caster is that NPCs have quite high saves.
For example, on level 10, with a level 10 Shock Caster and +5 Dex (start with 16, up to 18, +2 PU), the DC is 20 and a CR 10 Combatant will save on an 8. Barring any bonus damage except for Specialization, you're going to do:
7/20 * (2d12+10) + 13/20 * (2d12+10)/2 = 15.525 DPR
You're only gonna miss on a 1 and crit on a 20, so they balance each other out if it does no damage when missing.
Sonic Rifle, LFD is a level 10 Longarm which, according to your calculations, would do 14.7 on a single attack to a CR 10 Combatant (hit on 8). Yes, the Shock Caster does more damage, but probably not two feats and some Strength increases worth of more damage.
Interestingly, against single, low-CR opponents, it actually becomes worse by comparison. AC grows much faster than save bonuses. In this case, to hit a CR 8 Combatant, you need only roll a 5, so 3 less. But to save, the Combatant has to roll a 10, so just 2 more as compared to CR 10.
As a consequence of this, Sonic Rifle, LFD does 17.85 DPR on a single shot in that case. Shock Caster Aurora does 16.675.
On the flipside, it surprisingly becomes better against single, high-CR opponents (14.375 vs 11.55 DPR) which seems counterintuitive for a weapon built around splash damage.
Although if you can reliably hit multiple opponents, your DPR shoots up substantially, especially if you can bolster the damage with stuff like Overcharge. So, it's good against groups of any CR and single high-CR enemies. The ammo consumption is pretty rough, though.
Of course, any comparison of explosive weapons and normal ones has to consider that bonuses to attack rolls are pretty easy to come by (Weapon Focus, Get 'Em, Harrying Fire and probably other things I'm forgetting) while lowering an enemy's saves is fairly rare. So, this might shift the numbers in favor of Longarms.
By the way, small error, at least on Google Spreadsheets: The Full Attack column checks for "A$71=0", but A$71 is FALSE or TRUE....
Are you rolling against the constant AC of 15 to hit a grid intersection?
0 and 1 are binary for false and true, so if =0 means if false. It works on the ODT version of the sheet though I don't know if that would hold true for excel.
I suspect that the shock caster might do best in the hands of a mechanic with overcharge and weapon focus.
pithica42 wrote: Wait. Isn't the max damage with magic missile + harmful spells 17.5?
2d4+2 (2 missiles) + 1d4+1 (3rd if cast as a full action) + 2.5 (harmful spells).
I'm not trying to be pedantic, I'm just trying to make sure I'm reading the rules correctly (or not). I haven't played or run yet, so everything is still abstract in my head and I'm trying to use numbers to solidify how all this stuff works now.
Average damage is 2.5 per d4. Max damage is not particularly useful when rolling multiple dice. Also harmful spell damage is level/2 round down.
Hum against a CR foe.
Sniper Rifle an Empower Weapon with a 2nd level spell does DPR of 16.8 at level 5.
Without the bonus from Empower weapon it does only 8.4.
Laser rifle in the same situation does 9.6 DPR on a full attack.
And with use of a spell on a single attack a laser rifle does 15.2 DPR.
Just casting magic missile does 12.5 max.
So it seems like Sniper Rifle + Empower Weapon is good when dealing encounters that include a limited number of higher CR combatants.
When it comes to dealing with a bunch of mooks:
A full attack with a laser rifle against CR-2 combatants is going to do 13.2 DPR.
Using the blast fusion with a laser rifle will do 3.9 * number of creatures.
Sniper Rifle will do 10.5 DPR.
And 4.55 * number of targets with the blast fusion.
With Empower Weapons and Blast Fusions
Laser Rifle Does 8.057 * Targets
Sniper Rifle does 8.92 * Targets
None of these weapons are going to one shot a 40 HP CR-2 Combatant at level 5.
A progression from Longarm -> Versatile Specialization -> Shock Caster might be interesting.
A shock caster will do 8.05 * Targets DPR at level 5 with a save for half damage.
A shock caster empowered by a level 2 spell does 16.65 save half * number of targets.
Those DPR numbers might be wrong as I'm assuming a miss on a shock caster does not reploy. With a 10ft radius, if it acts like a grenade and still goes off, the DPR could be much higher (up to 18.5 DPR/save half).
At level 7 the technomaner's version of a fireball does 31.5 DPR (34.5 with harmfull spell), again save half.
Malk_Content wrote: Metaphysician wrote: Though given that superior armor-based solutions are only marginally more expensive, I tend to think that the Space Suit is only ever going to be found amongst the absolute cheapest, poor or penny pinching operations. If you see people wearing space suits rather than even basic space gear? Your either on a colony just this side of total failure, or in a neo-victorian people eating factory. I dunno if you are an system scale mining company those credits add up. Can't imagine the space accountant authorizing 70 extra credits per employee on the off chance some will get into combat in which that 70c of protection likely won't even save them. Armor also protects against radiation. This may help to explain why space stations are just fine with folks walking around in full armor.
You could simply get a nullspace chamber, put a bunch of batteries or a generator in it and handwave the entire thing.
Um, just to point out that while weapons can fall behind, Starfinder Armor is already almost paper. If you let it fall behind, a major opponent can really go to town on a full attack.
pithica42 wrote: I'm going to dig through the data later, so ignore this if it's obviously answered in the doc, but I'm curious...
Why go with the Sniper rifle over the longarm for the shooting technomancer? I've only looked at the charts in the CRB so far (my Alien Archive is still in shipping), but I remember thinking that the damage wasn't that much higher to warrant the loss of the chance at a full attack. Are they that rarely possible to pull off with the technomancer?
I mean, if we're talking a small DPR hit, I'd probably still want the option.
Level 5 Laser Rifle (Level 6) Weapon against a CR+2 foe (Dex Bonus 4):
Base Roll To Hit: 12
Standard Attack DPR: 6
Full Attack DPR: 7.2
Laser Sniper Rifle (Level 5), same scenario
Base Roll To Hit: 12
Standard Attack DPR: 7
If the AC goes up by 1 for any reason, the Sniper Rifle outperforms full attacking.
Just cast magic missile (3): DPR 10.5 or 12.5 with harmful spell.
At level 10 (Dex +5)
Level 9 Laser Rifle
Base Roll To Hit 14
DPR Standard Attack: 8.2
DPR Full Attack: 8.2
Laser Sniper Rifle
Base Roll to Hit: 14
DPR: 11.2
Just Cast Magic Missile (3): DPR 10.5 or DPR 15.5 with harmfull spell.
Blow a second level spell slot on empower spell and that level 10 sniper rifle attack goes to 21 DPR.
So basically, in certain situations, especially at higher levels, Sniper Rifle does more damage than a longarm.
You could still argue that the longarm is the better weapon as it does more damage to less opponents, and you probably want to be casting against the big bads.
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LibreOffice ODT Doc
Includes Melee and Ranged Weapons except for thrown/bows, grenades and missile launchers. Also Solarion weapons/crystals have not been added yet.
This version of the sheet creates a DPR table with the dice roll you need to hit something. It highlights the results you need to hit a Combatant Array NPC at CR-2, CR and CR+2. This should help home in on DPR numbers that would show up in actual play.
It also computes what a combatant NPC would need to hit PC Armor seems paper thin. It keeps NPCs from going to town for multi-attack but resists and, to a less extent, forcefields are going to be a big deal.
This new data has caused me to change my recommendations for what type of weapons 3/4 BaB classes should use.
Basically, unless you have a class feature that requires a move action, you should go longarm.
ExoMechs, should use their built in Longarms Prof and save two feats.
DroneMechs, should go Sniper Rifle.
Envoy, should go Sniper Rifle.
Operative, should go with either Small Arms or Sniper Rifle, both of which are class feats.
Mystic should go Longarm.
Shooting Technomaner: Sniper Rifle
I'm becoming more and more convinced that there is a blasting technomaner build that uses a Witchwyrd, Harmfull Spells and a lot of magic missiles.
Just a thought, the Starstone is the physical nexus at which worshipers energy leaves the material plane for the outer planes. The closer a gods followers are to the stone, the more power that god receives from them. A local deity with many followers in the system where the stone is located can have the same power as a galactic spanning deity who's followers are farther away from the stone.
Because of this, various deities have done everything possible to get their followers close to the stone. OOC this explains why every planet, even the gas giants, in the core system is teaming with intelligent life, while other systems might only have one planet inhabited by one intelligent race. In the core system, it is worth the expenditure for deities to create/ship in exotic life forms that can live on non-terran worlds. In other parts of the galaxy, this type of life arises only rarely and then from natural evolution.
I would suggest the following "rules" to help explain the cannon setting:
1. The Starstone must always exist.
2. The Starstone must always be accessible.
3. No deity shall attempt to seize the stone by force. No showing up with armada's of your followers.
4. The Starstone must be guarded. Those who fail the test of the Starstone have their souls destroyed by the stone. Only the strongest must be able to reach the stone so that weak do not obliterate themselves.
5. The Starstone must always be possible.
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XL Sheet
When compared with a character with starting Dex 16 increasing Dex every chance and using Dex as a SECONDARY characteristic for augmentation the best available heavy armor generally gives +1AC over the best available light armor at any level. For a character with Dex primary heavy armor and light armor provide EXACTLY THE SAME AC. This gets a bit wonk at level 17, but most games are not going to get to level 17 (I suspect the reason is to allow 17 level players to top out into 20th level armor).
It is very important to upgrade your armor at every level. With armor you are trying to keep hostiles from being able to hit you on a 13 or less, the point at which full attack becomes useful. When armor level = character level, a Full BAB with best stats will tend to need around a 10 to hit and everyone else a 12.
At about level 7 there are two armor paths you can take.
One is buying armor above your character level.
The other is to try to use energy resists and DR to soak incoming damage. The best laser sniper rifle does 3.25 per 5% chance to hit. Resists are far better at mitigating damage than AC (though with one grain of salt, I don't think you want a vorpal or wounding weapon full attacking you).
It looks like the designer intended DR their to be a tension between laser weapons for which resists go up to 15 and personal shields which can block everything but laser hits. Since shields take a standard action to turn on, I just don't see it happening.
The increased KAC means that using a projectile weapon is equivalent to taking about a -1.5 on your to hit roll. I've ran some numbers using 20th level weapons and the damage may be worth it, for high level weapons that are rolling a bunch of dice.
Per the rules, do these work in a vacuum or thin atmosphere?
WhiteWeasel wrote: FiddlersGreen wrote: They're doing it wrong.
FUSILLADE wrote: As a full attack when you are wielding four or more identical small arms, you can fire them all simultaneously to duplicate the effects of an automatic weapon. You use all of the ammunition in all the small arms used, and you treat this as an attack in automatic Mode. Add all the ammunition expended from all of your small arms when determining the maximum number of creatures you can hit. automatic weapons wrote: When you make a full attack with a weapon in automatic Mode, you can attack in a cone with a range of half the weapon’s range increment. This uses all the weapon’s remaining ammunition. Roll one attack against each target in the cone, starting with those closest to you. Attacks made with a weapon in automatic Mode can’t score critical hits. Roll damage only once, and apply it to all targets struck. Each attack against an individual creature in the cone uses up the same amount of ammunition or charges as taking two shots, and once you no longer have enough ammunition to attack another target, you stop making attacks.
Oh, I see, they don't make 60 attacks, but rather they could have up to 60 simultaneous targets as they can only make one attack against each target as stated by automatic. So it's kinda like Face-Off, but in a cone. Still good for crowd control, but not surprise one-shotting the boss good. You realize this is a game where PCs can control tactical (and strategic!) nuclear weapons. I'm just waiting for somebody to call in a nuclear strike on the boss.
Patryn- wrote: Have you considered adding melee into this? I was hoping somebody might get inspired and create a nice website that could output DPR tables.
Melee will come shortly but Str bonus to damage, the ability to do str and a half with the right soldier ability and Solarians all complicate things.
I was thinking I might do an armor comparison first.
Right now I'm really not happy with how the current sheet is handling kinetic damage. Since KAC is between 1 and 3 points higher than EAC, its the same as taking a -1 to -3 to hit. It's not completely a trap, but the current table is making projectile out to be better than it actually is. Outside of maybe a corner case with a Solarian, full BaB does not want to do it, as it's trying to push a full attach. 3/4 BaB really is better with a Sniper Rifle unless you are looking to do some Mook blasting -- or are an ExoMech and saving yourself some feats by just rolling with longarm.
Gilfalas wrote: Nicola The Necromancer wrote: Str and a feat. I think overcharge with a shock caster or perhaps a plasma cannon could be very interesting, but perhaps campaign specific depending on how much damage you can do to the terrain / bystanders. It takes the exact same number of feats to get Heavy Weapons on a Mechanic as it does to get Sniper Weapons.
As for Str, it is pretty darn easy to get the needed Str by level 5 if you go Mercenary. Only for an exocortex mechanic. Drone mechanics don't get longarms. I tend to think the drone is the better choice, if only because you can send it first to set off traps and absorb fire.
A level 11 Crossbolter does 1.6 / 5% chance to hit a sniper rifle does 1.4 / 5% chance to hit. Let's say the crossbolter is on an exocortex mechanic that has +3 effective BaB over his drone friend. Lets also say that ExoMech has a 55% chance to hit.
A cross bolter has 1.6 / 5% chance to hit (+1 for crits). That's 19.2 DPR.
The sniper rifle 1.4/5% but only a 40% chance to hit (lower BaB). That's a 12.6 DPR.
The Drone Mech's drone, probably has the same chance to hit. A level 9 laser rife is 1.025 chance to hit. That's 9.255 DPR. Together they have a 21.8 DPR, which is higher that the ExoMech (and the Drone is easier to res if it dies).
If ExoMech instead Full Attacked with a Machine Gun his chance to hit would drop to 35%. Machine guns have a full attack of 2.65/5%. Damage rises to 21.2 DPR, which is still slightly less than the DroneMech.
A Laser rifle on a drone
Jasque wrote: Did you take into account the unwieldy property? I'm viewing the spreadsheet on my phone, so please forgive me if the answer is obvious. Yes, though there is a possibility that it might be accidentally showing on some of the sniper rifles.
Since you're multiplying by a constant to get DPR, just ignore any of the constants that should not be there and you'll be fine.
Nixitur wrote: Oh wow, that's a fantastic resource! Thanks for all your hard work.
I have one question, though.
Nicola The Necromancer wrote: Mechanic: Sniper Rifle Why not Heavy Weapons for the Mechanic? They're just as unwieldy and do more damage. Or is it just because they require 14 Strength?
Str and a feat. I think overcharge with a shock caster or perhaps a plasma cannon could be very interesting, but perhaps campaign specific depending on how much damage you can do to the terrain / bystanders.
The unwieldy heavy projectile that focuses on damage is better than a sniper rifle. I'm just not sure it's a feat, a str requirement an ammo headache and a higher level (thus more expensive) worth of better.
MagicA wrote: SO what do you mean by when you say
You should make a full attack if you need a 12 or less to hit. At a 12 the benefit of full attack is marginal.
I got a bit confused when translating to a D20
Quote:
D20 Roll Needed to hit Chance to Hit
20 5
19 10
18 15
17 20
16 25
15 30
14 35
13 40
12 45
11 50
10 55
9 60
8 65
7 70
6 75
5 80
4 85
3 90
2 95
1 Auto Miss
What I should have said is that you should always full attack is you need to roll 13 or less on a D20 to hit the target. At 13 though the benefit is fairly limited unless you have crit enhancing effects on your weapon.
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Spreadsheet
* In the core plus Diasporian Sniper Rifles. Does not include needlers or launchers.
Damage in Starfinder is extremely linear. Since a weapon always has a 5% chance of doing damage, 5% of the average damage forms the x intercept. Since a crit where a 20 is a natural hit does double damage, the 5% damage number also describes the slope of the line. In English, subtract the number you need to roll to hit something from 20 (20-DC) then multiply that by the number listed for the type of attack to get damage per round.
Things You Should Know:
You should make a full attack if you need a 13 or less to hit. (Splitting a 40% chance to hit in tow 20% chances and doubling your chances of a critical). At a 12 the benefit of full attack is marginal.
Soldiers should make a triple attack if they need 14 or less to hit. (Splitting a 40% chance to hit into 3 15% chances plus increased chances to crit).
On average, a laser sniper rifles will do more damage than full attacking with a laser rifle if you need an 11 or greater to hit. This means there is a fairly substantial number of circumstances where a laser sniper rifle is better than the longarm.
On average, a laser sniper rifle will do about the same damage as full attacking with a laser cannon or expensive projectile longarm when you need a 12 or more to hit.
Deadly Aim is really only worth it if you are using small arms (so Operatives basically).
Important Fields:
Character Level: This sheet assumes the character using the weapon is either level 3, 5, 10, 15 or 20. This makes it easier to compare weapons but means that comparing lower character tier weapons to higher ones can by misleading. A character level 10 weapon might get +10 to damage from specialization while a it's level 5 counterpart is only shown as getting +5.
DA Break Even Hit %: This is the base chance to hit that you need to have for deadly aim to actually add DPR. This can also be a bit misleading. A character that full attacks needs to subtract 20% from their base chance to hit, then check to see if they have made the deadly aim break even. I suspect this is normally not worth the feat since it just hurts your attack roll to overkill a mook.
Standard Attack, Deadly Aim, Full Attack, Full Attack + Deadly Aim, Triple Attack (-6), Triple Attack + Deadly Aim: DPR = (20-DC)+1 * Field
To compute DPR subtract your chance to hit from 20 (20-DC) then add one to account for the chance of a double damage crit. Multiple by the field that corresponds with the attack you are using. This is your chance to hit.
What Weapon To Use
Envoy: Sniper Rifle. Envoy class features call for either a move action or a standard attack.
Mechanic: Sniper Rifle (for the character, Drone should have Longarm or Heavy Weapon). Lots of overcharging with move actions. Btw the drone is probably better than the exocortex.
Mystic: Longarm. At least at lower levels, an enemy that always saves against mindthrust is going to take the same DPR as shooting him with a sniper rifle. Use the Longarm against lightly armored foes and spell against harder to hit opponents.
Operative: Small Arms before 6th level, sniper rifle after six.
Solarion: Small Arms. You might want to take deadly aim, but I would suggest feats that make it easier to get into and survive melee instead.
Soldier: Heavy Weapon. Maybe a longarm if you are doing a melee build but, in general, heavy weapons.
Technomaner: Magic Missile / Sniper Rifle
Quote: Magic Missile Base +3 Damage
2 Missiles 7 10
3 Missiles 10.5 13.5
Empower Weapons increased DPR by 0.175/spell level per 5% chance to hit and adds 5% chance to hit per spell level.
My suggestion: take Sniper and empower weapon at first, versatile specialty at third, and harmful spell at 5th.
Nixitur wrote: Yeah, the formatting makes this kind of impossible to read. Your conclusions do seem sound, though.
Also, as an aside, the average roll on a d6 isn't 3, it's 3.5. I don't know if this would change your conclusion, but this can make quite a difference.
Yeah. I realized that but it was late. The forum won't do tables. I guess I could link the spreadsheet. Can I link in a picture.
I did up a comparison of the various classes of laser weapons (pistol, rifle, cannon and sniper rifle). Since lasers seemed to be the most common in the game, hopefully this is a useful comparison. These assume a character at 5, 10 and 15th level. Where there was no on level weapon, I chose the nearest in level and broke ties to the weapon doing the highest damage.
To allow a useful comparison with full attack and deadly aim, I based everything on an unmodified chance to hit. That means if you have a 100% chance to hit, you have a 90% chance with deadly aim, 80% with full attack and 70% if combining full attack and deadly aim. This does not include a base chance to hit over 100%. Rolled damage was figured by taking the midpoint of the dice, (so 2 for a d4, 3 for a d6). Damage is in damage per round.
What I found: Deadly Aim can be important if you are using small arms (which only get 1/2 level bonus damage instead of level bonus damage). Deadly Aim can start increasing pistol damage as low as a 40% chance to hit and is at it's most useful when a character will not be making a full attack.
For larger weapons, deadly aim is useful to increase alpha damage when shooting mooks with bad AC. The larger the base (dice generated) damage the less useful deadly aim becomes.
A sniper rifle does more damage than full attacking with a longarm when the base to chance to hit is less than 50%! That means a level 5 diasporan laser rifle fired as a standard action is likely to do more damage to a boss than full attacking (the highest damage mode) with a longarm.
At both level 10 and level 15 a sniper rifle does more damage than full attacking (the highest damage mode) with a laser cannon when there is less than a 50% chance to hit.
If you can get the chance to hit over 50% full attacking with longarms and heavy weapons are a better choice.
Here;s the full table, though I suspect the forum is going to make it unreadable:
Laser Pistol Base Chance to Hit 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
2d4 (4)+2 = 6 0.6 1.2 1.8 2.4 3 3.6 4.2 4.8 5.4 6
2d4 (4)+2 +2 = 8 Deadly Aim 0 0.8 1.6 2.4 3.2 4 4.8 5.6 6.4 7.2
2d4 (4)+2 = 6 Full Attack 0 0 1.2 2.4 3.6 4.8 6 7.2 8.4 9.6
2d4 (4)+2 +2 = 8 Full Attack +DA 0 0 0 1.6 3.2 4.8 6.4 8 9.6 11.2
3d4 (6) +5 = 11 1.1 2.2 3.3 4.4 5.5 6.6 7.7 8.8 9.9 11
3d4 (6) +5+5 =16 DA 0 1.6 3.2 4.8 6.4 8 9.6 11.2 12.8 14.4
3d4 (6) +5 = 11 Full Attack 0 0 2.2 4.4 6.6 8.8 11 13.2 15.4 17.6
3d4 (6) +5+5 =16 Full Attack +DA 0 0 0 3.2 6.4 9.6 12.8 16 19.2 22.4
5d4 (10) + 7 = 17 1.7 3.4 5.1 6.8 8.5 10.2 11.9 13.6 15.3 17
5d4 (10) + 7 +7 = 24 DA 0 2.4 4.8 7.2 9.6 12 14.4 16.8 19.2 21.6
5d4 (10) + 7 = 17 Full Attack 0 0 3.4 6.8 10.2 13.6 17 20.4 23.8 27.2
5d4 (10) + 7 +7 = 24 Full Attack +DA 0 0 0 4.8 9.6 14.4 19.2 24 28.8 33.6
Laser Rifle
2d6 (6) + 5 = 11 1.1 2.2 3.3 4.4 5.5 6.6 7.7 8.8 9.9 11
2d6 (6) + 5 +2 =13 DA 0 1.3 2.6 3.9 5.2 6.5 7.8 9.1 10.4 11.7
2d6 (6) + 5 = 11 Full Attack 0 0 2.2 4.4 6.6 8.8 11 13.2 15.4 17.6
2d6 (6) + 5 = 11 Full Attack +DA 0 0 0 2.6 5.2 7.8 10.4 13 15.6 18.2
5d4(10) +10 = 20 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
5d4(10) +10 + 5 = 25 DA 0 2.5 5 7.5 10 12.5 15 17.5 20 22.5
5d4(10) +10 = 20 Full Attack 0 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32
5d4(10) +10 = 20 Full Attack+DA 0 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
7d4 (14) + 15 = 29 2.9 5.8 8.7 11.6 14.5 17.4 20.3 23.2 26.1 29
7D4 (14) + 15 + 7 = 36 0 3.6 7.2 10.8 14.4 18 21.6 25.2 28.8 32.4
7d4 (14) + 15 = 29 Full Attack 0 0 5.8 11.6 17.4 23.2 29 34.8 40.6 46.4
7D4 (14) + 15 + 7 = 36 Full Attack + DA 0 0 0 7.2 14.4 21.6 28.8 36 43.2 50.4
Artillery Laser
2d8 (8) + 5 =13 1.3 2.6 3.9 5.2 6.5 7.8 9.1 10.4 11.7 13
2d8(8) +5 +2 =15 0 1.5 3 4.5 6 7.5 9 10.5 12 13.5
2d8 (8) + 5 =13 Full Attack 0 0 2.6 5.2 7.8 10.4 13 15.6 18.2 20.8
2d8(8) +5 +2 =15 Full Attack + DA 0 0 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21
3d8 (12) + 10 = 22 2.2 4.4 6.6 8.8 11 13.2 15.4 17.6 19.8 22
3d8 (12) + 10 + 5 = 27 0 2.7 5.4 8.1 10.8 13.5 16.2 18.9 21.6 24.3
3d8 (12) + 10 = 22 Full Attack 0 0 4.4 8.8 13.2 17.6 22 26.4 30.8 35.2
3d8 (12) + 10 + 5 = 27 Full Attack + DA 0 0 0 5.4 10.8 16.2 21.6 27 32.4 37.8
4d8 (16) + 15 = 31 3.1 6.2 9.3 12.4 15.5 18.6 21.7 24.8 27.9 31
4d8 (16) +15 +7 = 38 0 3.8 7.6 11.4 15.2 19 22.8 26.6 30.4 34.2
4d8 (16) + 15 = 31 Full Attack 0 0 6.2 12.4 18.6 24.8 31 37.2 43.4 49.6
4d8 (16) +15 +7 = 38 Full Attack + DA 0 0 0 7.6 15.2 22.8 30.4 38 45.6 53.2
Laser Sniper Riffle
2d8 (8) + 5 =13 1.3 2.6 3.9 5.2 6.5 7.8 9.1 10.4 11.7 13
2d8(8) +5 +2 =15 DA 0 1.5 3 4.5 6 7.5 9 10.5 12 13.5
4d8 (16) +10 = 26 2.6 5.2 7.8 10.4 13 15.6 18.2 20.8 23.4 26
4d8 (16) +10 + 5 = 31 DA 0 3.1 6.2 9.3 12.4 15.5 18.6 21.7 24.8 27.9
6d8 (24) +10 = 34 3.4 6.8 10.2 13.6 17 20.4 23.8 27.2 30.6 34
6d8 (24) +10 + 5 = 39 0 3.9 7.8 11.7 15.6 19.5 23.4 27.3 31.2 35.1
The idea behind a Dragonkin seems to be that it is be a large blocker. The Dragon gets between ranged party members and opponents try to close to melee. Dragonkin are large, hard to get around and have a 15 foot range for an AoO. That reach means that they can use a Dragonglaive like a ranged weapon in close quarter fighting. The breath weapon complicates attempts to move around the dragon and offers an option if several weak opponents end up bunched up in front of the Dragonkin.
Quote: Benefit: Your unarmed attack damage increases to 1d6 at 4th level, 2d6 at 8th level, 3d6 at 12th level, 5d6 at 15th level, and 7d6 at 20th level. You threaten squares within your natural reach with your unarmed strikes even when you do not have a hand free for an unarmed strike. If you are immobilized, entangled, or unable to use both legs (or whatever appendages you have in place of legs, where appropriate), you lose the ability to make unarmed strikes without your hands. When making an unarmed strike without your hands, you can’t use such attacks for combat maneuvers or similar abilities—only to deal damage.
Normal: You don’t threaten any squares with unarmed attacks, and you must have a hand free to make an unarmed attack.
Does archaic still apply to your unarmed strike with this feat? That would seem to be the difference between a very good feat that is keeping up with a dueling sword while not costing any credits and being always ready or being a useless feat.
Looking at the wording, I suppose you could drop this on a Vesk or Nuar to turn their natural weapon into a primary melee weapon. If the character is using heavy weapons you could maze core a blast or explodes weapon with a standard gun and not have to pay for melee (which would be always ready and on or above level for damage).
So the idea here is pretty simply, an envoy that maximizes Move + Standard or 2 x Move (Haste) + Standard. A simple example of a cadence would be Improved Get Em as a move for +2 to hit followed by clever attack (flatfooted to you, flat footed to the entire party if you make the bluff check (for a total of +4 to hit) followed up with an attack with a sniper rifle.
The simplest cadence is Get Em (move) plus a standard attack. Building to optimize cadence can get tricky. Let's look at a character that will be played from level 1 to 14, with the caveat that the later levels are iffy, the game might not last that long.
Themeless Halfling
Quote: Halfling Luck
Halflings receive a +1 racial bonus to all saving throws. This bonus increases to +3 against fear effects.
Keen Senses
Halflings receive a +2 racial bonus to Perception skill checks.
Sneaky
Halflings receive a +2 racial bonus to Stealth checks. In addition, halflings reduce the penalty for using Stealth while moving by 5, and reduce the Stealth check penalty for sniping by 10.
Sure-Footed
Halflings receive a +2 racial bonus to Acrobatics and Athletics skill checks.
Stats
Str 8, Con 10, Dex 16, Int 11, Wis 10, Cha 18
Initial Skills: Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidate, Sense Motive, Perception, Stealth, Culture, Spread [start putting one point in class skills).
Themeless class skill: Survival
(Why themeless? So you can put one point into multiple class skills, then hit it with the themeless once a day +2 bonus to be vaguely competent).
A quick note on skills: If you plan to play a starship captain modify this build By replacing Stealth, Culture and spread with Piloting, Engineering and Computers. Pickup Stealth at level 5 and Culture at level 10. You can flip from Themeless to Spacefarer to give some shot with the missing skills, though the floating +2 from themeless might do you more good. Also flip the starting expertise skill for Diplomacy and pickup slick operator at level 3 pushing the intimidate talents back. It's not absolutely combat optimal, but will help with the substantial non-combat tasks you're facing.
1. Inspiring Boost (Restores up to 6SP. Useful in getting the party to second level).
Initial Expertise Die: Intimidate.
Level 1 Feat: Sniper Weapons
Spread: Acrobatics (1)
2. Get Em.
This sets up the most simple cadence. Get Em and either shoot or heal as a standard.
Spread: Pilot (1)
3. Menacing Gaze (The need to have expertise dice limits this choice to either Sense Motive or your first expertise choice). This means that you can use
Spread: Engineering (1)
Feat: Versatile Weapons Specializaiton
4. Dispiriting Taunt (Why not clever feint, because summoned creatures and microbot swarms also inflict flat footed).
Spread: Disguise (1)
5. Second Expertise Skill: Diplomacy
Improve Base Stat Array, Str 8, Con 12, Dex 18 (20), Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 19 (23).
Add Skill: Computer (or Pilot)
Spread: Athletics (1)
Feat: Improved Initiative
6. Improved Get Em. This opens the option to use Get Em either as a move action or as part of a attack.
Spread: Survival (1)
7. Rattling Presence
Feat: Deadly Aim (Move, Get Em, Haste: Aim, Attack with Sniper Rifle at range with Deadly Aim).
Spread: Slight of Hand (1)
8. Quick Dispiriting Taunt. Haste circuits are level 8. This means that you can now, Taunt, Get Em and Menacing Gaze, followed up by Taunt, Get Em and Shoot.
Spread: Your out of spread skills (except Profession). Just put everything into Disguise from here on out.
9. New Expertise: Bluff.
Feat: Spell Breaker
10. Hurry
Improve Stat Array, Str 8, Con 12, Dex 20 (22), Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 20 (24).
Skills: Max Disguise (or Computer or Pilot).
11. Slick Operator
Feat: Enhanced Resistance (Kinetic or Fire, unless campaign specific).
12. Improved Hurry. So you can now:
Ship a move
Taunt (haste)
Get Em (attack)
or
Taunt (Move)
Get Em (Haste)
Ship a Standard with a RP.
13. New Expertise Disguise or Engineering
Feat: Veiled Threat or Greater Fortitude
14. Situational Awareness. Hold an action, then spend a resolve to shift the trigger and another to shift a standard action to an ally that needs it. I'm not really a fan of what it does to your place in the combat order.
starfinder wrote: You can’t move, and you take a –2 penalty to your Armor Class, attack rolls, Reflex saving throws, initiative checks, and Dexterity-based skill and ability checks, except those made to grapple your opponent in turn or to escape a grapple pathfinder wrote: A grappled creature is restrained by a creature, trap, or effect. Grappled creatures cannot move and take a –4 penalty to Dexterity. A grappled creature takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls and combat maneuver checks, except those made to grapple or escape a grapple. In addition, grappled creatures can take no action that requires two hands to perform. A grappled character who attempts to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability must make a concentration check (DC 10 + grappler’s CMB + spell level), or lose the spell. Grappled creatures cannot make attacks of opportunity. Quote:
NJECT NANOBOTS T2
School necromancy
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range touch
Targets one living creature or construct
Duration instantaneous and 1 round/level; see text
Saving Throw Fortitude partial and Will partial, see text; Spell Resistance yes
You concentrate key particles in your blood into tiny biological nanobots that you can inject into a foe with a touch, disrupting and damaging its natural processes. Make a melee attack against the target’s EAC; if you hit, the nanobots deal 4d8 damage and swarm through the target’s biological or mechanical systems, causing the creature to be confused, as per confusion, for 1 round per your caster level. If the target succeeds at a Fortitude save, it takes only half damage and negates the confusion effect. A confused target can attempt a Will saving throw at the beginning of its turn each round to end the confusion effect.
Casting this spell doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity.
So you can still cast and casting does inject nanobots does not provoke. So I guess the question is, do you get a free touch on the creature that is grappling you?
Without the spell failure chance in pathfinder, it seems like grappling a technomancer might be one of the last things you want to do.
Tarpeius wrote: With race attributes in Starfinder there are only two considerations:
- Avoid races with a bonus on a dump stat.
- Avoid races with a penalty on a focused stat.
From this we can say that getting to 16 Dex/18 Int is no different among androids, goblins, grays, ikeshtis, and ysoki.
But arguably one should also avoid starting with any attribute above 16: The +2 bump at level 5 is too good to give up. This opens up "ideal" race selection for the purpose of a technomancer to bleachlings, urogs, and verthani--if favoring a small Con bonus above Wis--or kalos and elves if favoring Wis over Con.
Humans, half-elves, and half-orcs are obviously disadvantaged in all cases if just focusing on race attributes. It's possible their other abilities can offset that in different ways.
Actually, you can get the same number of bonuses with a 16/18 as a 16/16/12 at level 5 just by putting the +2 into something other than your primary stat. The real question is do you want a bonus 3rd level spell at 10th level? 18+4(augmentation) +2 (two +1 boosts) is 24 so +1 third level spell/day and +1 save DC (+7 from stats instead of +6). At 10th level that brings your 3rd level spells/day to 4 from 3. When making this choice, you need to ask yourself how likely the game is to reach 10th level and how likely the character is to survive to 10th level.
Race matters as it dictates what stat can get bumped in a 16/16/12. If both Int and Dex are bonused the third stat can be anything that does not have a penalty. Similarly either Int or Dex get a +4 the 12 can be anything that is not penalized.
Also, running with an 8 Con might not be the best idea in the world. That means you are only getting 4SP per level, which is somewhat squishy. Then again, if your SF game leans a bit more on skills and less on murderhoboing, social skills can be important. Think of it as a play style fork.
When it comes to a "good" race, what I normally mean is that it gives bonuses on common rolls. +2 against mind affecting spells and abilities might not be flashy, but it is likely to come up a lot. Same for perception checks and energy resistance (fire). After that comes bonuses to an area of specialization, for example bonuses to social skills or engineering.
The innate spell races just are not all that great unless they 1. give you at will abilities that will be usable over a long period of time (for example, magic hand is good, daze not so much) or 2. give you a 1/day spell that you either do not have access to or would want to know but are unlikely to need to cast more than once a day.
Ikeshti simply are not good. The race's reproductive cycle can be disruptive. Secondly it has bonuses to desert survival, climbing escaping a grapple and can provide harrying fire for a single turn as a move action between 1 and 3 (max five) times a day. While the last one is pretty decent. They just don't have anything that is going to bonus common rolls.
Grays are a bit better. +4 Int, -2 Str is a really nice stat array. I didn't cover them as it seems like they're going to get errataed. They get dark vision and have a 20% chance of not getting hit one or two times a day (admittedly, depending on what the character is about to get hit with, that can be a lifesaver). The main probably is that they have some not great innate spells and lack generalized bonuses. They're a collection of flashy abilities, without much to back them up (still, it is a really nice stat array).
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Best:
Android, but Elf is very close.
Stat Array: Advantage Android (slight). You are more likely to want to dump Cha than Con.
Vision: Advantage Android. Darkvision plus low light against simply low light. No light is, probably, a more likely condition in SF than PF.
Save Bonuses: Android: Android gets a wider range of bonuses, Elves get a flat immunity to magical sleep plus a bonus against enchantment spells and effects. The android bonus against mind affecting spells means a bonus to save against mind thrust (a mind affecting divination spell). Mind thrust is one of the most common combat spells in the game.
Skill Bonus: Advantage Elf. Elf gets a +2 to perception, one of the most rolled skills in the game and to mysticism (some, but not much, use). Android gets a bonus to avoid sense motive checks. Not that great on a character with a cha penalty.
Misc: Advantage Elf. Android gets an extra armor upgrade slot. Elf gets +2 to overcoming SR.
Overall the Android favors flashy bonuses that do not effect rolls. The Elf is more dice roll heavy.
Other notable race:
Gnome (Good): A Bleachling with +2 Int, +2 Con -2 Str isn't bad. On the other hand, that forces 16 Int, 16 Dex, 12 Con. Android and Elf could take one of Int or Dex to 18. The ability to reroll a one can be helpful. +2 Culture isn't bad. The spell like abilities are largely forgettable. The +2 to save against illusion isn't as good as a bonus against mind affecting spells, as psi type spells are fairly well represented in the current material. It's a solid mechanical choice, though the lower starting hitpoints may be a problem.
Ysoki (Neutral): Would be better if small size gave you an AC bonus (could not find one for characters in SRD). While the cheek pouch is a cool mechanical idea, it won't let you fast draw a longarm. This race really wants to be operatives.
Damaya Lashunta (Situational). At +2 Cha, +2 Int , -2 Con. This is a ship captain race. Its bonuses are built largely around social situations. Get two extra cantrips (only one of which would normally be kept after low levels) and can cast detect thoughts once a day. You get to assign two +2 racial bonuses to whatever you will be rolling a lot.
Witchwyrd (situational). A more combat focused ship captain. The stat array is the same, with the same downsides (10 Str, 8 Con, 16 Dex, 16 Int, 10 Wis, 12 Cha). As a one shot, one a day detect thoughts is more useful than magic missile. A character is likely to only want to cast detect thoughts once, but to have magic missile as a learned spell. On the other hand a Witchwyrd is one extra casting of magic missile, plus the ability to wield both a longarm and melee weapon at the same time. Diplomacy and Bluff are both likely to be used by a character taking the role as the party's face (though there is still a problem that those are not class skills for a technomancer).
If later material gives the witchwyrd the ability to gain and at will tongues and buy a planeshifting drive not normally available to characters, this race might get substantially better. The 8 Con is still a problem. Also, this is a reskin of the Arcane from Spelljammer, so the concept may feel a bit unoriginal to some players.
Contemplative (Bad). +4 Int, +2 Cha, -2 Con, -2 Str and cannot use two handed weapons. The giant flying brain is simply too far down a hole for the most obvious fix -- powered armor with a weapons mount. If we had 1/2 BAB full caster classes a contemplative would be a good choice. The inability to use longarms is just too much of a problem right now.
Ryphorian. It's a better human! Unfortunately with +2 Con, +2 Wis and -2 Str this race makes much better mystics than technomancers.
Space Goblin (excellent). I'm amazed I just wrote that. With +4 Dex, -2 Cha an 18 Int, 16 Dex stat array is very doable. Space Goblins get darkvision, an enhanced move speed, race bonsues to Engineering, stealth and survival and the ability to cobble together items for a turn. While there are setting issues with taking this race, it actually is an excellent mechanical choice for a technomaner.
Verthani (good). +2 Int, +2 Con, -2 Str. It's a better half-elf! Allows for a 8 Str, 12 Con, 16 Dex, 16 Int, 10 Wis, 10 Cha array. Gets an extra implant slot and has low light vision, a very situational stealth ability and skill focus. A solid choice, but not really one with the mechanical advantages of some of the others.
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