| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
* 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
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.
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
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.
Oh wow, that's a fantastic resource! Thanks for all your hard work.
I have one question, though.
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?
Oh wow, that's a fantastic resource! Thanks for all your hard work.
I have one question, though.
Mechanic: Sniper RifleWhy 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.
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.
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.
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
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.
My point was that no matter what type of Mechanic you play it costs the exact same number of feats to get Heavy Weapons as it does to get Sniper Weapons.
It takes one feat for Exocortex Mechanic to take Sniper.
It takes one feat for Exocortex Mechanic to take Heavy Weapons.
It takes 2 for Drone Mechanic to take Sniper.
It takes 2 for Drone Mechanic to take Heavy Weapons.
So how many feats it takes really is not a factor when choosing between Sniper or Heavy Weapons for a Mechanic since it takes the exact same amount of feats for either type to get either one.
Snipers have no prerequisites so for a drone mechanic it's only 1 feat for sniper proficiency, and 2 feats for heavy.
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.
Maze core laser rifle/shock caster is what I use for my overcharge exomechanic. You get heavy weapons as a drone mod at 7, when you can really first acquire aoe heavy weapons. Longarms and heavy armor from level 1 will be fine until then.
Use overcharge on you, and again on the heavy weapon soldier next to you.
Congrats, you've killed/nearly killed every low level enemy, and dealt half damage to everyone else.
If collateral damage is a thing, use your laser rifle. Mechanic is the best sniper in the game... However it's an average of 7 damage over most levels. Early on totally with it. By high levels...? Heavy weapons are far more efficient.
Snipers have no prerequisites so for a drone mechanic it's only 1 feat for sniper proficiency, and 2 feats for heavy.
Well hear I am shooting off my mouth and I am totally wrong. My apology. I need to stop trusting my memory it seems. I would have sworn that Sniper proficiency required long arm proficiency but it does not.
Again I apologize.
It's ok, it does seem like it should. Actually I think that it is odd that it doesn't.
Sniper Rifles are basically elephant guns. Longarms are assault rifles.