huscarl105's page

I want to make the fight with Null-9 an epic fight to conclude the module. I don't think as written a CR10 Envoy/Soldier can do that, especially cornered and tethered as she is at the start of the encounter and its as likely as not that my party of 5 PC with above average equipment may not let any allies get back to her. The only thing I'm set on keeping is name and Race. I've done a few boss plus enough mooks to preserve the boss fights, i want something different. How can I create a very old android that single-handedly can give my party a very tough fight, hopefully without making her level 18+, or undead as that is for the next book. PC are level 10. I have thought of giving her a self destruct, so the pcs don't get all of her stuff - there will be a vary large load of UBPs (they already have an anvil of the maker) as an end of book reward, so they won't be getting shortchanged.

Culture Skill - why would this be a trained only skill? To me it seems like everybody know at least some of whatever culture they belong to.

Nice to see the changes before we gt to the level it would hurt. I do have one question, was the change on the flyby stunt from tier of opponents ship to tier of your ship intentional?

I thought that was a nice feature especially in the one player starship vs many inferior npc ships type of fight.

Yep nothing specifically allowing it. I'd think I'd allow wearing exactly one suit of second skin, under everything else. Of course you only get the ACs of the best suit and any penalties would stack. If the outer suit became damaged, to where it was worse, the Second Skin could become your best armor. As for armor upgrades, I think I would allow some but not others, if it makes sense as an inner layer function. I.e a filtered re-breather or rad buffer in you next to skin layer would work, but not jump jets or a load lifter.

I read that as knowing all current info at the time of the check. Most of it wouldn't change of course. Also only another simple success is required to get anything that changed later, not multiple ones or the extra +5's needed.

Gary Bush wrote:

I think the penalty from having damage to engines does not apply because the penalty is applied to the pilot actions.

Rolling to determine who moves first is a Piloting skill check (pg. 317) and not a Pilot action.

Since both the Fly and Glide actions do not require a check there is no reason to apply a penalty. If those actions did require a check, then yes, they would be subject to the penalty.

As I said up top, I agree that is *probably* RAW, but that seems ... wrong. Surely you shouldn't be able to Glide without penalty with Wrecked engines, and you should take a penalty even to Fly with Malfunctioning engines?

I think for my home games, I'll treat that go-first roll as a Pilot action (and hence penalised by Glitching and Malfunctions; I guess Wrecked engines will have to mean you auto go-first as befits what ought be a sitting duck). I'll see how that goes, and adjust if this becomes the "one true tactic".

I could also see fly and glide actions being auto-succeed with a fully functioning engine, but not with a damaged one. Require a check (15+1xtier)? with the associated penalty. Wrecked auto fails. I'd say a failed fly means you move at 1/2 speed and/or receive a -2 to AC/TL. A failed glide means the -2 (or 4) to AC/TL (note a ship below 0 hp continues to move at 1/2 speed in its last direction until destroyed) - so this represents an uncontrolled ship. A wrecked also auto fails. Possibly an interesting possibility on a failed check with a wrecked drive would be tumbling. Move 1/2 speed in current direction. Facing at the end of move is random. +2 to AC, -4 to TL and -4 to all weapons.

Pretty much every item in Starfinder has an "item level". However, the word "item level" does not seem to appear anywhere in the Equipment section on computers (p. 213). Computers instead have tiers.

Where do we find information on the item level for computers?

In general levels seem to be intended to - regardless of price - keep overpowered out of the hands of low level characters. Computes seem to be a partial exception, though obviously there's still a credit limitation.

To integrate a computer with a comm unit, design it like you would if you weren't going to combine them. Then multiply the cost be 110% and add it to the 7 credit cost of the basic comm. I would say if you want to use it like any 'normal' unit (wrist, headset, etc.) you need to pay enough miniaturization to get it down to L bulk or less.

In terms of starship combat, a critical hit occurs when you get a natural 20 with an attack (and a 19 if your science officer took the Targeting Systems action), or if you deal damage to hull points that meet or exceed a critical threshold (CT) multiplier. In essence, every 1/5 of a ship's total hull damage you deal causes one of its systems to malfunction, making checks affecting that system harder to do.

(See page 321.)

The 1/5 part is only true for low tier ships. Every 4th tier a ships HP increases, but unless I missed it somewhere (entirely possible) the Crit threshold does not change. So higher tier ships may take more than 5 crits before they are disabled strictly due to HP damage. From limited experience I predict that crits will determine many high tier fights, especially in many vs one scenarios.

If I have a Medium transport starship with M8 thrusters and Mk 10 armor, what is it's maneuverability?

Is it
Speed 8; Maneuverability average (turn 3)

Or is it
Speed 8; Maneuverability poor (turn 3)

Certain portions of the rules seem to indicate that it can increase your turn rating, while others appear to indicate that it changes the maneuverability rating. Which is it?

If it changes maneuverability, then it also affects pilot check modifiers, whereas if it only changes the turn rating, then it does not affect pilot modifiers.

The base Maneuverability of a transport is medium for a piloting of +0 and a turn of 2. M10 thrusters don't change this. (M12s would have made the piloting -1). The Mk 10 armor is heavy. It adds +1 to the turn distance, give the ship a base AC of 10, but reduces the TL (target lock) by 2. This makes it very tough to score a telling hit with beams, but makes it an easier target for seeking weapons.

I'm not sure the name of the really means anything. I'd say its still average with a +1 turn distance modifier. Just like if you put an M6 thruster to get a +1 pilot check it wouldn't improve to good (and drop the turn to 1), its still just average with a +1 pilot mod.

The text specifically says you can't move for 1 minute, but it isn't clear on if you just need a 75 PCu or 75 PCU actually free, but as a gm I'd call that you need to be using the 75, since your literally charging a gaint jump drive

Yes I think that's poorly worded, but I would make the same interpretation. Want to engage your Drift drive you must dedicate its minimum PCU requirement to it for 1 minute. The 'good' news is that since you must shut down your maneuver drive, that power can be switched over, if that's not enough some other systems will need to be shut down. Choose wisely.

First, does it even say anywhere that you MUST have power core housing for additional power cores?

Second, even if it does, why would anyone ever invest in it? The sum of BP cost for power core housing and the additional power core always seems to be higher than if you had just installed a higher grade power core.

So, why on earth would you ever have multiple lower grade power cores over a higher grade power core, unless the best power core in the game wasn't enough to meet your power consumption alone?

Why does this rule even exist?

Hulls have a maximum size power core then can hold i.e a Nova Ultra for a medium hull that only supplies 300 PCU. Having designed a stock tier 4 medium hull that uses most of 150 PUC (not counting the drift engine) I imagine with enough build points, weapon upgrades, expansion bays I might be able to exceed that number.

huscarl105 wrote:

I think it comes from the Bonus on the computer table (pg 297). I.e a Mk2 Trinode gives a +2 bonus to up to 3 starship combat checks per round.

By my reading (and re-reading) the Modifier on the sensor (+2 for basic short range), (pg 301) is added only to the Scan and Target System Science Officer Action.

Nope, check out the ship statblocks, like the "Norikama Dropship" on page 315. It has, "Modifiers: +3 any two checks per round, +2 Computers, –1 Piloting" and in it's statblock it has "mk 3 duonode computer"(+3 to two checks), "basic long-range sensors"(+2 to computer checks), and M12 thrusters(-1 to piloting checks). The reason it's not "to science officer actions" is so the captain would get it when trying to "encourage" the science officers action. I agree it could be clearer though.

Ok that example does make it a bit fuzzy - but i do believe it is the sensors that it is reffering to. I'd say the block should say Modifiers: +3 any two checks per round, +2 Sensors.

it does get confusing since the Science officer is making a check vs computer skill to use sensors. I see nowhere that the Captain can use the sensor bonus to help encourage the science officer. She can use her skill at computers to do so. By that, the captain should also get the piloting modifier to encourage the pilot. Though the sentence in the sensor rule (pg 301) "All sensors have a skill modifier that applies to any skill used in conjunction with them" doesn't help much. I'd argue that the Captain encouraging the science offer is not actually 'using' the sensors. Note also that only the 2 Science officer skills explicitly call for the use of this bonus (Scan and Target System). I'd argue that Lock on should also. If I were making things completely consistent I'd say your ship's countermeasures mod should be a bonus for improved countermeasures and the DC should include the other ships sensor mod.

Are starship turrets subject to the max of all weapon critical hits or the maximum?

I.e. A statship's forward arc has been hit for 1 crit and weapons in that arc are glitching. The port arc has been hit for 2 crits so its weapons are malfunctioning.

Do the turret weapon(s) take the worse of the condition of an weapon arc (malfunctioning) or do the add all critical on all weapon arc so that the would be considered wrecked?

Many of the example starships get a +2 bonus to Computers, but I can't figure out where it's coming from. How does one get that bonus?

I think it comes from the Bonus on the computer table (pg 297). I.e a Mk2 Trinode gives a +2 bonus to up to 3 starship combat checks per round.

By my reading (and re-reading) the Modifier on the sensor (+2 for basic short range), (pg 301) is added only to the Scan and Target System Science Officer Action.

Did a playtest at PaizoCon UK with just 3 of us. As Claxon said, you need a pilot gunner & engineer, but you can manage without a captain or science officer

yep those are most important. You can also change roles before the engineer phase. So if you really need to re-balance the shields more than shoot the gunner could switch to science or even to captain tho help the pilot or eng make a critical maneuver or repair role. They will need the right skills of course.

I saw this too, and also believe its an error.

But if it is not an error, I wonder if its flavored such that you are so self-obsessed as an Icon that you can't be bothered to learn about your peers, thus increasing DC by 5.

That was my rational for what at first I thought had to be an error.

At a standard situation minimum, I'd want to be able to power the drift drive and shields. If you get ambushed somehow while going in or coming out of drift, you are a sitting duck. I'd also say (as a GM) that the computers have to be powered to do much of anything, or accept the 0 PCU cost and have your comp revert to basic mode. Other things like defense countermeasures might be nice too, and maybe some bay items. Any weapons would be gravy. It does make the time/round of space combat important though.

GM "Six necrogliders are somehow waiting when you come out of Drift. You need to survive one minute before your engines power up."

Worried Players "How many rounds is that?"

You know what, I'm just going to house rule that the Theme Bonus will be +2 instead.

That would make it useful and/but immediately give a bonus at first level for a secondary. Another option I thought of was all the theme bonus - and only the theme bonus - to bump a stat to 19. Doesn't mean much, if anything at first level, but would allow the level 5 stat boost to bump it to 20.

Sensors

"The modifier listed in the table below applies to some checks
attempted by the science officer in starship combat as specified
in the science officer’s actions"

so the bonuses from the sensor do not help weapons fire?

Do sensor ranges affect weapon ranges? i.e. Can a weapon on a ship with only short range sensors fire at medium range?

Weapons can fire beyond their stated range with a -2 penalty per increment.
Is there any difference between a short ranged weapon firing to range 8 depending on what range sensors the ship has?

Engineer Position
Can the Captain, Science officer (or others) jump in and do a patch action instead of their normal actions while the primary engineer is still active. Does it take anything more than their action that round?

Computer
A "starship combat check" is any crew action that requires a die roll? Including the captain's? If you have 2 gunners and want to boost both rolls, it requires 2 of the bonus roll uses? Is the pilot initiative roll a valid use of this bonus? Can these be applied to minor crew actions?

Pilot
Is the flyby roll done only after the intention to move through an enemy hex is done (or committed to)?

To be fair under a lot of systems, targeting anything but directly-the-hull-if-possible leads to even MORE time in spacedock to fix things.

The worst is when repairs are directly a factor of damaged component prices, and labor directly a factor of the expenditure.

Repairing the hull isn't cheap either, but damaged weapons or reactors can cost millions.

Larger ships may well be incapacitated by critical hits before they get to 0 HP.

This is particularly important in a class based system. IE pathfinder. If your class has space combat abilities, then they are wasted when on the ground, and better then everyone else when you are in space. If your class doesn't have space combat abilities, you are SOL in spaceship encounters and subjected to a sideshow.

They did a good job a reusing common skills. Piloting doubles as any vehicle control, BAB works for gunnery, engineering for building, traps, repair ship functions, diplomacy or intimidate for captains, computers for the science officer. Most well rounded groups of 5-6 characters will be able to cover all of these, even if its not their primary. I'd be a little surprised if many don't have someone with full level ranks, class skill bonus and max or near max ability mod for each primary skill. Piloting, BAB Eng, Comp, Dip/Int.