Poisons that target their casting attribute.
Why has no one suggested a good old "Force Choke" aka Crush on page 105?
Tie their hands, gag their mouths, remove their spell components.
How many other ways do you want to screw with someone's fun? I mean any GM that adds a rust monster to every session is going to get a smack in the mouth.
Why has no one suggested a good old "Force Choke" aka Crush on page 105?
Because it was in the Solarian preview... and it's pretty awful. Standard action for a chance of staggered on single target is a poor choice. And it eats move actions on later turns (and gives more chances to escape), which is pretty terrible for a melee-based character.
Its honestly equivalent to the enemy staggering YOU in many ways, except which actions are forfeited are dictated by the ability.
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Tie their hands, gag their mouths, remove their spell components.
How many other ways do you want to screw with someone's fun? I mean any GM that adds a rust monster to every session is going to get a smack in the mouth.
This is Starfinder, not Pathfinder. Those methods don't work.
That sadly doesn't help me. The PCs are going to start off as prisoners on a drow slave ship, the issue is not with them teleporting away, it's with them just charming one of the guards into letting them go and then blasting their way out of there.
We've already done some preliminary RP with the characters meeting and established that the guards are orcs, so I can't just replace them with droids immune to mind control either.
For most magic, you need to be able to see or touch your target to affect them with a spell, so I expect bindings and blindfolds/hoods would be your best bet. Your caster can't charm an orc if they can't see or touch it.
Spells that use attack rolls can be cast without line of sight, so there's still some threat from those, but keeping a cell door between you and them will pretty much solve the problem, since they still need line of effect.
Why has no one suggested a good old "Force Choke" aka Crush on page 105?Because it was in the Solarian preview... and it's pretty awful. Standard action for a chance of staggered on single target is a poor choice. And it eats move actions on later turns (and gives more chances to escape), which is pretty terrible for a melee-based character.
Its honestly equivalent to the enemy staggering YOU in many ways, except which actions are forfeited are dictated by the ability.
It's a Fort save against a caster which caster's don't have good Fort saves. One of the Devs said during a play test a mage they were fighting couldn't do anything and got murdered.
You might think it's not a good option but I am getting that power. *Kidney Crush!*
Why has no one suggested a good old "Force Choke" aka Crush on page 105?Because it was in the Solarian preview... and it's pretty awful. Standard action for a chance of staggered on single target is a poor choice. And it eats move actions on later turns (and gives more chances to escape), which is pretty terrible for a melee-based character.
Its honestly equivalent to the enemy staggering YOU in many ways, except which actions are forfeited are dictated by the ability.
It's a Fort save against a caster which caster's don't have good Fort saves. One of the Devs said during a play test a mage they were fighting couldn't do anything and got murdered.
It doesn't really affect casters, unless spells are now full round actions. What they actually said was they used it on operatives to disrupt trick attacks.
You might think it's not a good option but I am getting that power. *Kidney Crush!*
And then what? Hope enemies walk over to you so you can hit them? If you're already in melee with someone, most will withdraw/guarded step and shoot you. Even the target can guarded step away, and... then you're stuck, because you're giving up your move action to keep it on them.
If it were a power for a ranged class that favored unwieldy weapons, it would be an OK power. But for someone who wants to get into someone's face and try to murder them, it is a hinderance. It simply eats too many of the user's actions, a zero sum game for the action economy.
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Staggered is much more useful in Starfinder than in Pathfinder. A guarded step is a move action. Several spells are full actions. Trick attacks are full actions. There are many situations where giving up your standard to inflic staggered is a good trade, especially when you have 3 allies to off set your action economy loss.
Oh, forgot one solution. You can kill 'em and get proper burial rites performed.
Staggered is much more useful in Starfinder than in Pathfinder. A guarded step is a move action. Several spells are full actions. Trick attacks are full actions. There are many situations where giving up your standard to inflic staggered is a good trade,
If it were just giving up the standard, it would be OK... for a ranged character. For a melee focused character who also has to give up move actions every turn, it's really bad.
Since only some spells are full actions, and unwieldy weapons are a thing, it just isn't enough, given the costs involved. Not doing it and focusing on dropping enemies is still simply more of a win in terms of action economy.
especially when you have 3 allies to off set your action economy loss
That's true in PF as well. And equally true that casters are the ones that can get away with burning actions to mess with the enemy action economy, not full BAB melee classes.
Since hold monster is on the necrovite spell list, I assume casters still have at least some of those options... without the extra penalties the solarion has to soak.
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And then what? Hope enemies walk over to you so you can hit them? If you're already in melee with someone, most will withdraw/guarded step and shoot you. Even the target can guarded step away, and... then you're stuck, because you're giving up your move action to keep it on them.If it were a power for a ranged class that favored unwieldy weapons, it would be an OK power. But for someone who wants to get into someone's face and try to murder them, it is a hinderance. It simply eats too many of the user's actions, a zero sum game for the action economy.
You could use a 2nd level Solarian power, Stellar Rush, which lets you charge as a standard action to get close again?
If they only move 5' away, you could use a reach weapon to still hit them. Or take the Step Up combat feet. If they only guarded step away, you can still be right next to them. Or Step Up and Strike which lets you follow up and hit them if it was a guarded step. All very doable at level 6 or 7. At 9th level and higher, every 3 turns you can throw in a full attack with Solar Acceleration.
Certainly a way to keep an Operative under control. A single basic melee attack from an Operative a turn doesn't sound too bad, assuming they fail the save. Should also work to prevent casters from casting, since they can't standard move, eat the AoO and then cast with their standard.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
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Staggered is much more useful in Starfinder than in Pathfinder. A guarded step is a move action. Several spells are full actions. Trick attacks are full actions. There are many situations where giving up your standard to inflic staggered is a good trade,
If it were just giving up the standard, it would be OK... for a ranged character. For a melee focused character who also has to give up move actions every turn, it's really bad.
Since only some spells are full actions, and unwieldy weapons are a thing, it just isn't enough, given the costs involved. Not doing it and focusing on dropping enemies is still simply more of a win in terms of action economy.
especially when you have 3 allies to off set your action economy lossThat's true in PF as well. And equally true that casters are the ones that can get away with burning actions to mess with the enemy action economy, not full BAB melee classes.
Since hold monster is on the necrovite spell list, I assume casters still have at least some of those options... without the extra penalties the solarion has to soak.
It's worth remembering that casting defensively doesn't exist anymore, so unless the spellcaster focuses on the handful of touch spells that don't provoke, even their standard action spellcasting gets hosed by being staggered.
Umm, I can see one way. Don't ready to shoot them when they cast the spell, but after their first word. It's oddly specific, but by the logic of the game, their word would finish, and then the shot would go off. Now it would be highly inaccurate and a GM who knew what you did would have the enemies say a sentence, get faceblasted, and then cast, but it still could possibly work.
I still don't think that would work; there's no specific verbal component to spells unless they're language-dependent.
Based on the following information from the CRB:
- A spell always has obvious effects and are noticeable to nearby creatures
It seems that the designers want you to flavor your spellcasting how you like, just like many other abilities in this game; the fluff isn't baked into the crunch.
If most spells need visual confirmation of target and/or ability to speak (for language-dependent or voice-activated spells,) I think the best solution would be some sort of sensory helmet; something that covers the eyes with either total blackness or epilepsy color flashes, and something that blocks sound with either sound-dampening earplugs or headphones blasting dubstep. Take prisoners in, helmet them, gag them, bind their hands, and then wheel them to their cells. Helmeting them before they arrive at their cells prevents them from popping off AOE spells that don't require LOS; if they don't know the layout of their environment, their ability to successfully AOE is greatly diminished.
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Just forcably wake casters up every six hours. Can't regan spells. For technomancers you just take their spellbook thingie away from them and they're out. I mean, I know the book says they can make a new one, but I as a GM would say that pre-supposes that they can get their hands on. . . Well, anything useful. I mean I'd rule that you can't make a spellbook thingie out of a fork tine and a bar of soap.
Constant sedatives, monitor brainwave activity so the moment they start casting you interrupt with loud noises and shifting floors, Zone of Truth on a spellcaster to get all their known spells and have guards ready to dispel, charm person or command to cast no spells until a destination is reached, only allow 1 REM cycle of sleep to complete before waking them briefly.
That's just off the top of my head but alignment isn't as important in Starfinder as it was in Pathfinder.
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I'm fairly sure that sleeping 6 hours a night for a while didn't drive me insane. Let me know if I'm wrong.
"A creature that is attempting Constitution checks to hold its
breath can't concentrate enough to cast spells. Some spells might
work differently underwater,subject to the GM's discretion."
Pg. 405
Keep 'em in a water tank!
I think it was a 3.5 not sure if it made it over to pathfinder but Shackles of Ba'Lar would negate the magical abilities of anyone shackled by them.
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Blindfold them so they can't target anything but themselves.
Heavy manacles and leg bindings so if they try short range teleportation they are still blindfolded and can't move.
Keep them on your spaceship, and have it floating in space so longer range teleportation won't work. Interact with them via robots (so they can't cast any mind magic through touch).
This doesn't stop them from casting, but it does stop them from escaping.
Shock collar?