QuidEst's page

Yeah, that's not something you can do by the rules.

Yeah, they've gone out of their way to make sure there aren't any gender roles, stereotypes, etc. in their games. Not even in aliens. Gender differences are effectively meaningless in all species now. Honestly, that makes aliens a lot more boring to me, when they're just humans with antennae or four arms or whatever. I'd like some that showed meaningful, stats-level sexual dimorphism (not just "males have beards/different colored hair/etc"), or had different sorts of life cycles, or something to make them something besides an RPG version of rubber forehead aliens. But c'est la vie.

Why does it have to be sexual dimorphism? Lashunta still exhibit stats-level dimorphism, it's just not tied to their sex.

Shirren and androids both have different lifecycles.

Planar Adventures is coming out for extraplanar games.

That's what the rules definitely read as but since the author was talking about it, it's probably fair to assume liberation is intended to apply to nonmagical effects as well.

I'd consider it fairer to assume that the author misread the liberation ability, missing "magical". (I did the same thing on my first read through.)

Is that the only hardbound product for 2018?

That seems really unlikely, but this was only just announced, so I doubt we're going to get details on stuff even further away.

Tactical Coordinator

QuidEst wrote:

The damage calculations are off, because they don't account for the fact that trick attack isn't guaranteed to succeed, adjust for reduced accuracy on multiple attacks, or account for the debuff. Sniper weapons get full damage even if trick attack doesn't succeed, while small arms do much less.

Assuming an equal CR foe, that's a trick attack DC of 27.
3 (class skill) + 3 (insight bonus) + 7 (ranks) + 6 (ability score bonus and specialization bonus; may be higher or lower; ignoring the mistake where Ghost's Dex-based trick attack gets +4, since that will eventually be corrected) = 19
You need a roll of 8+, so we lose about a third of the trick attack damage. That brings the regular trick attack from 26 damage down to about 20.

The point is to allow snipers to not buy extra weapons.

You can take 10 on Trick Attack, and thus autosucceed.

Oh, right! They get that right at the level we're discussing. Well, I retract my analysis, and pat sniper rifles consolingly.

The damage calculations are off, because they don't account for the fact that trick attack isn't guaranteed to succeed, adjust for reduced accuracy on multiple attacks, or account for the debuff. Sniper weapons get full damage even if trick attack doesn't succeed, while small arms do much less.

Assuming an equal CR foe, that's a trick attack DC of 27.
3 (class skill) + 3 (insight bonus) + 7 (ranks) + 6 (ability score bonus and specialization bonus; may be higher or lower; ignoring the mistake where Ghost's Dex-based trick attack gets +4, since that will eventually be corrected) = 19
You need a roll of 8+, so we lose about a third of the trick attack damage. That brings the regular trick attack from 26 damage down to about 20.

The point is to allow snipers to not buy extra weapons.

Whoa, didn't notice each area getting its own theme! Excitement increased considerably by the prospect of 14 new themes… especially the one for being from the sun.

It doesn't have a duration of one round if you use it in combat, IIRC. There's a section on durations.

I was surprised by the 10% sell rate too, but it's really nice to have a character that is rich because they're a famous celebrity, and who can turn to fans to raise funds for a brand new level-plus-two sniper rifle. Characters feel like a bigger deal when they're not relying on making their money by looting bodies of people they just killed.

Debilitating Shot improves sniper rifles at close range. At long range, sniper rifles are already the best-and-only option. We will probably get more sniper stuff later.

I said operative melee weapons use dex to hit..

Yeah I am well aware of sniping from distance mate.. That still doesn't talk about being too far away from combat, or the fact noone wants to sit around a table while the one player takes 6 rounds of combat before anyone else, and having the enemies on full alert..

Everyone in the group could be snipers, and then they all get to have fun. Plenty of groups will like to be able to advance with a sniper covering them as they do. Hidden sniper is a great way to provide support to an unarmed group making a risky meeting. If your group doesn't like the idea of someone firing from hundreds of feet away, then... yeah, a sniper rifle is a bad choice for the group? Other groups will have uses for it, though.

The main point of sniper rifles is to not fight fair. Eventually, you're taking shots from as much as a mile away. That forces your target to find cover and stay there. It doesn't matter that it's one shot per round if it will take them more than a dozen rounds to reach you or to get out of your effective range. They don't know when you've moved, so your party can advance on their position. The only class features that work well with sniper rifles are ones that let you shoot through/around total cover, and an operative talent to make debuffing trick attacks with them (making them useful at short range as well). We will probably get specializations for snipers in the future, but for now, grab Far Shot.

All non-thrown ranged weapons use Dex to hit.

If you have a lot of combat feats for unrelated things, you can grab a feat for a flexible combat feat, letting you specialize in a maneuver when it comes up. Mostly a soldier trick.

From what I understand, two of the roles are nice-to-have. You need a pilot to move well, a gunner to attack, and an engineer to deal with damage. Captain and science officer aren't as critical. Haven't looked into it too much.

... yeah, my 10 Cha Bard was also terrible?

Which is the disagreement.

I want fights to be cinematic, and people using the scenary around them (Windows, tables, chandeliers, pits, etc). In patfhinder, I made the AOO only happen AFTER the maneuver IF you miss, to encourage people to try things other than "I full attack. Wait 2 minutes, I'm adding up some math from spell buffs.... that's it, 125 damage"

For those that don't want players to try maneuvers, the fact that maneuvers are not going to be tried is a bless, not a bug.

We're in disagreement about what's cinematic too. I'm picturing opening combat by running up and stealing the miniboss's heavy weapon and then booking it. That's something you set to Yakety Sax. Low on health and resorting to trying to take the miniboss's weapon out of desperation is cinematic. That's why I think success on a 19 is a useful feature- better odds than counting on your crit effect.

Yeah- I don't want maneuvers to be easy or attractive for non-specialists. I want there to be a chance of it working, and I'm glad they're not penalized with an attack of opportunity, but it should be a move of desperation rather than something the GM must plan around every time.

I think "better than counting on a crit" is good, so as long as you hit on a 19 with it as a non-specialist, it's a viable move of desperation.

It should be difficult. Disarming somebody with one weapon takes them out of the fight- it's more or less a one-shot move. That should be harder. Shoving somebody off a cliff is also more or less a one shot before flight. In Pathfinder, the DCs eventually got a lot worse than AC +8, and it took twice the feats to get that +4. If you have an Envoy on hand (level 6+) and take a feat, you're now hitting on the same number you'd hit on without the Envoy, and using a tac-lash means you're hitting on lower than without the Envoy.

Oh, forgot one solution. You can kill 'em and get proper burial rites performed.

How easy is it to get extra arms?

Easy. More so if you only need one.

Alien Archive mentioned summoning spells in its description. Neither Mystic nor Technomancer seem to have much reason to get spells to transform, though. I'm guessing we'll see polymorphs when there's a bestiary to reference and a class that's a closer thematic fit. That said, it's a balancing headache, since gear is so important in Starfinder, and because ability scores are harder to mess with. I wouldn't be surprised if polymorphs were more restricted than Pathfinder.

Hmmm. Infamy looks fine, as long as the rule about the GM needing to warn ahead of time that an act is evil/Infamous act still stands.

Levelgating Equipment though is terrible. Price is already an effective levelgate, and in those incredibly rare (though breathlessly talked-about) instances where characters spend all their gold on a single item, that's what fame limits are for.

Let's not forget the main reason 4E failed in the first place: Designers who were too obsessed with "Game Balance" at the expense of fun.

Don't worry, I got the book and things look pretty fun. The leveled equipment is actually really nice, and much more fun than the old enhancement bonus advancement.

Anyway, specific non-evil undead example found (not counting ghosts), plus we've got text mentioning that non-evil vampires exist, even if they don't feature in the published APs or scenarios.

While Evil subtype creatures start out evil, they can change alignment, and their subtypes do change when they become good. This is one of the main plots in Wrath of the Righteous.

citricking wrote:

The theme bonuses are useful for qualifying for feats, heavy armor requires 13 str.

Given ability score increases at every 5 levels makes this redundant, this is only really an argument if you want to get the feat early.

... In the case you give, if you don't really care for getting heavy armour until like... 10th level... Then one shouldn't see a need for this.

Yeah. It's nice that you can get the theme bonus either in the stat where you want it for qualifying, or in your primary stat to free up more point buy.

The feat is to put up a barricade in a single round, and have it hold up for a few rounds after an attack. That just means that it should probably take more than one round to make a barricade normally... which sounds about right.

The other two I'm more in agreement on.

Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:

I am amused by all the comparison and assumptions that things like today's smart phones have the exact same battery of a Plasma Cannon from the future and could attempt to power one just fine.

Nah, but it would be cool if the battery in your flashlight could work at least as well as a current flashlight battery

They greatly improved on video game flashlight technology.

A lot of PCs money is supposed to come from jobs. If you want to have fifty percent sell rate, have killing rival operation goons and taking guns as trophies with an indication of rank be the job, and have half price of weaponry be the commission for the work.

Pathfinder's categorization of good and evil spells had problems. See Protection From X for the most extreme example.
Pathfinder had to go to lengths to justify all undead being evil, putting phantoms into a different category, glossing over some ghosts, and treating some things as constructs.
Pathfinder didn't really consider more ethical uses of necromancy, such as informed, uncoerced pre-death consent.

Could be a higher threshold for spells being capital-E Evil. (I mean, Protection From Good as an evil spell? That's some pretty strong "the innocent have nothing to fear".) Could also be a more soul-friendly spell- it works differently than Animate Dead in Pathfinder.

David knott 242 wrote:

QuidEst wrote:

Just realized this really encourages necromancy. Can't sell weapons for much? Make undead to wield it. Wildly inaccurate, but a good distraction.

One thing I noticed is that animating undead is no longer an evil act in Starfinder. As best I can tell, no spell except Planar Binding has the "Evil" or "Good" descriptor.

I want this explained, I want the exact reason written down so that it can be understood what changed.

That's a little brusque. But undead (at least intelligent undead) are no longer automatically evil. Not everyone agrees with that sentiment in-universe, of course, but them's the breaks. And if undead aren't automatically evil, it follows that Animate Dead shouldn't automatically be an evil spell.

Actually, this is possible at sniper range, just not with Trick damage.

Envoy + Hurry & Improved Hurry
Operative + Debilitating Sniper

You get the sniping 250+ft range, with flat-footed, debilitating trick - just not the trick attack damage.

Ooooh! Now it all makes sense! And it fits with how snipers usually have spotters.

Sniper rifles are mean against people without sniper rifles. You just sit back, and kill people up to a mile away until they get under full cover. If they run, you clear the area. If they hide, you advance. If the charge, you get free shots in, and when they reach you, Operative doesn't really need to switch weapons to be useful- start slapping bleed effects on them with your trick attack close-range sniping.

What racial abilities do Androids get?

I don't remember all of them, but the coolest is an armor mod slot for themselves.

kadance wrote:

Using the Counter option of Dispel Magic is a defensive readied action.

Purely defensive readied action occur before the triggering event.

Dispel magic cannot counter spell-like abilities.

It presents some interesting questions that individual GMs will likely have to adjudicate. What if you are in a mexican standoff with SpaceOrc, Ally and You. Is it a "defensive" action if you want to kill SpaceOrc before he can kill Ally? That sort of thing.

I don't envy StarFinder Society GMs, though. Those folks will have to worry about official rulings.

It's clearly not purely defensive. That's why it's "purely defensive" rather than just "defensive".

Grenades are heavy, and getting them within 5 feet of where you want them is about heft of throw as much as anything, and that's how thrown weapons work (the same is true of alchemist's fire in Pathfinder, for example).

Wait, what? Alchemist's fire uses dexterity on the attack roll in Pathfinder, so that's a very confusing example to use…

Yes, large enough ships can build in battery recharging with GM approval. Yeah, it's weird that it's not all ships, but *shrugs*.

I mean... I don't think it's that hard to fix if it's a problem for you. Remove all class ability options and spells referencing charges. Remove all batteries and cheap ammunition. Ignore reloading, even for expensive ammunition. Done.

Spindown d20s might be a good choice, thinking about it.

What are 'appropriate sensors?' I'm unclear on how a low tier computer is going to detect and decide 'yep, thats magic!'.

HammerJack wrote:

It is worth noting that there will be rules arguments over readying an action to shoot a caster, because the entry on readied actions states that if the action is not purely defensive, it takes place after the triggering action is resolved.

That seems to lack any possibility of a rules argument. You can shoot someone _for_ casting, but as written, you explicitly can't interrupt.

Yeah, that bit's a little fuzzy. Tier 0 is a cell phone, though, so I don't think you'd need too high of a tier to process enough visual information.

Future books will probably include a better solution.

Get a low-tier computer, hook it up to appropriate sensors, and include a control module remotely talking to something that deals unavoidable damage, like a shock collar.

Is the Bombad grenade making ability tied to class level or character level?

Class, naturally. Class abilities are tied to class, with the exception of caster levels stacking.

Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:

Fardragon wrote:

lakobie wrote:

Battery Charge managment is a non issue. Many enemies are going to be carrying spare battery packs (as well as the battery packs in any energy rifle or weapons as they come with one), theres an armor mod that restores charges to batteries by walking, and casters can recharge batteries for spells.

You are assuming the players are going to be fighting intelligent foes using compatible technology. They may be fighting beasts and monsters, greys who attack with their mental powers, or aliens from another part of the galaxy who use an incompatible battery format.

Granted if you're fighting nothing but enemies that don't use equipment then the GM should keep an eye on loot so that it stays around recommended WBL.

This, combined with the need for credits, rather limits the freedom of the GM in the kinds of story they can tell.

Does it, though? There are weapons that don't require charges or ammunition. There are some limited ways to recharge batteries that can be included. It's easy to introduce ways to recharge the batteries, and trade goods can replace credits.

Adventurer's Armory 2.

I'm cool with it. Mechanically it's the same, but it feels very different. Setting it up like this means future writers won't look at it and think that a +5 is something to be handed out trivially, and having the section follow a specific and rather unique format will help avoid a theme giving an overly broad bonus.

BlackOuroboros wrote:

Reef wrote:

kaid wrote:

That is interesting almost seems like its priced for a box of grenades not a single one. That said it is one way to keep them as something you are not just throwing around willy nilly.

I suspect being a deterrent to throw them around willy nilly is exactly the reason for the outlandish prices. As someone upthread mentioned, otherwise standard procedure would be 'open door, everyone roll in a grenade or two, close door. Repeat as necessary'.

That being said, if that sort of tactic isn't a problem with your group of players (one way or another), price lists are about the easiest thing to houserule there is.

I'm not sure if that is necessarily a problem what-so-ever; using flashbangs in the way pretty much the de rigure way to breach a room these days based on what I understand. The problem with rolling explosive grenades is there is that you risk damaging materials and non-combatants.

Soldiers can I believe make a level 1 grenade of whatever type they want as one of their abilities. So throwing cheap flash bang type stuff is probably still viable. But if you want max damage heavy fusion mini nuke grenades they appear pricey.

Much better- they can make one up to their level. Mechanics have their own grenade-production option in a fashion.

I haven't seen the rules yet but I was always planning to just ignore ammunition (still have to use reload action if that exists and have physical ammunition in your inventory but won't be counting each bullet) except for in specific circumstances e.g. being on a world with no civilisation and not having access to supplies or in dramatic moments etc.

If the rules don't allow that then so be it but tracking ammo isn't something I'm interested in, doesn't feel very Guardians of the Galaxy which is the kinds of games I intend to run.

That is a solid boost to mechanics and technomancer, who can spend charges for things.

Are there any rules for breaking down gear into UPBs so that you can then use the resources to craft new stuff?

10%, barring very high level Mechanic shenanigans.