Astrianna Sparacello |
She did! If we want to be really nice we could give the noqual to HSC. Wouldn't be a bad idea to have them on our side.
Edit: Are we getting the big turret gun on the shp? I kind of want the big turret gun.
Leila Bluetistle |
Survey time!
-What was your favorite music?
Honestly I don't know. When I post from my computer I just click the link and let youtube autoplay take me away. So I'm not really sure which song is which or even which songs that were actually linked!
I'll say this though: It was nice to have some cosy mood music : )
Anything that can be done better?
Hmm. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmmmmmmm.
I'm not sure really. There's probably something - several things most likely - but I can't put my finger on any. Except maybe well see next point :P
How were the combats?
Some of the combats felt a bit repetitive. (Melee enemy moves into melee and attacks. Party takes Guarded Step and shoots. Restart.)
But I think that's mostly because there aren't super many options at low level - neither for us or the (melee) enemies.
I think my favourite fight were the first shoot-out on the station. There were interesting tactical options and cover and stuff to move around behind. And there were this mystery/shock feeling of "who do we shoot? And why are they even shooting at us/eachother?".
Do you guys want to continue with the spaceship stuff?
Yes! Starships!!
Too much botting? Not enough? Just right?
Mm seemed reasonable. Things are moving at a decent pace and so, so I think this one is tuned right : )
---
@Noqual - That we can do. But let's take a moment and see how things unfold back at the station and so before we decide anything!
(Also what does the Station law say about bribing :P?)
---
@Loot!
Leila wouldn't mind that fancy Arc Pistol seeing as it is an straight upgrade over her trusty Pulse Caster.
On the other hand; they aren't too different and maybe we want to spread our electric damage a bit?
(Also Leila recently got that fancy rifle!)
Leila Bluetistle |
Oooh yes and one more thing!
@Big Laser - Everyone seemed to be in favour so I assume so. Azih only have to nod (or remain silent, we'll take that as a 'yes' eventually :P).
Cueta Guiding Star |
Soldier gets you a bunch of useful proficiencies right off the bat, and you get a very different feeling fighterperson based on the Primary Fighting Style. All of them look really good. Hit and Run is terrible though. Don't take that one!
Noted! I think I'm going blitz style. Seems the most melee-apt style there is.
You probably really need to get Versatile Specialization at Level 3 so you can add your level to damage.
Sadly, due to the multiclass, I think I have to wait to 4 and retrain a feat (if that is allowed) or pick it up at 5. I don't have weapon specialization yet!
Starfinder encourages multiple attributes which is good, since if you're thinking about melee, you'll want STR and CON as well as WIS which is important for the Mystic. A good DEX would help the Piloting part as well. INT and CHA can be ignored I think!
I think my con is going to be average to start. Hopefully that isn't too much of an issue!
Since Qaru neglected DEX and INT, he's pretty much useless in starship combat. Soo.... don't do that :)
My int is average. Will that be an issue for a pilot?
Star shaman connection might be a good match if you want to be a pilot.
It fits perfectly with my concept as well. I'll be a decent pilot (not as good as a dedicated operative, but good enough most of the time.
Also, I'm not sure how much it's worth to invest in AC. So far it feels like the enemies have really big hit bonuses, so they are not going to miss much. Then again, my experience is still quite limited.
Huh, interesting. I've got heavy armor prof, and a decent (if not great) dex, but maybe I'll save a little money on this (at least to start).
Also, this is the toon I'll be using.
GM Stargin |
* Blitz is the most popular dip this early in Starfinder's life :). Extra movement and a bonus to init is amazing.
* You're right about the specialization. Retraining is possible in Starfinder. All you need to do is Dark City, Johnny Memnonic, Neo yourself for a price. Waiting till 5th is also an option.
* Not the highest Con should be fine. Most enemies are going to focus on the person right up in their grill rather than her friends pinging away from cover though! Your Resolve is just as important as your HP anyway. You'll be fine
* Int doesn't matter to Piloting. You should be good there.
* Peek behind the screens here but 'equal level' Starfinder NPCs are built with higher attack bonuses than PCs (balanced by lower AC). You're going to get hit. The choice with AC is whether you get hit a whole lot or just sort of a lot. I think that makes a difference but you definitely can't be the kind of tank that Pathfinder allows.
Leila Bluetistle |
@Hp - well there's always the force field ...^^
@Int - It matters since it determines how many skill points you have to throw around!
@Update - Nice : )
Leila Bluetistle |
Ditching:
Port Light Laser 2p
Starboard Light Laser 2p
Turret Light Particle Beam 10p
Replace with:
Upgrade Turret Mount to Heavy 6p
Turret Heavy Laser 8p
That should make it an equivalent exchange. Unless I missed anything of course!
Astrianna Sparacello |
Oh yeah. The Arc pistol is your Leila, enjoy! Prospero should keep the Arc Emitter, considering how he's proficient in it.
Astri will take the Flame Pistol cause it's cool. We'll need to make a pile of armor upgrades for hots wrapping, cause we're got a lot of them now...
The brown force field isn't bad really.
GM Stargin |
Alright this is The updated Sunrise Maiden:
SUNRISE MAIDEN (TIER 3)
Medium explorer
Speed 10; Maneuverability good (turn 1); Drift 1
AC 13; TL 13
HP 55; DT n/a; CT 11
Shields Light 60 (forward 15, port 15, starboard 15, aft 15)
Attack (Forward) gyrolaser (1d8)
Attack (Aft) flak thrower (3d4)
Attack (Turret) heavy laser cannon (4d8)
Power Core(s) Pulse Green (150 PCU); Drift Engine Signal Basic; Systems basic medium-range sensors, crew quarters (good), mk 3 armor, mk 3 defences, mk 1 duonode computer (tier 1); Expansion Bays cargo hold (2), escape pods, recreation suite (hac)
Modifiers +1 any two checks per round, +2 Computers, +1 Piloting
Astrianna Sparacello |
Lol Amicphabet Conglomerate.
Wow some Eoxian has it out for us. Who would have thought the ambassador wasn't completely truthful?!
Hmm maybe we should have set the Aceron on autopilot back to the station too. Oh well.
How is this going to work? We have a lot of guns and not a lot of people. Can Prospero be on the heavy turret and engineering at the same time? But then we don't have a pilot..
I guess Astri can be on computers (yes she has.. Some.. skill ranks) and Captain at the same time but that's going to be a hot mess :)
GM Stargin |
The House Rule I'm using is that ONE player per round can do two roles. So you can do four actions among the three of you.
Enemy Piloting Check: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27
Yeah you guys are going first as you just have a +1. Do you want to edit the map? Or just tell Pumpkin what to do and I'll do it?
Round One:
What's already happened:
Pilot initiative done,
what is next from players:
Choose Roles
Move Ship
Take all Actions except Gunnery
Then:
GM Move enemy Ship
Then:
Gunnery fire
Astrianna Sparacello |
Astri will take captain and the forward gyrolaser! Let's have Pumpkin fly the ship and we can each take our preferred station station/gun?
Cueta Guiding Star |
@Hp - well there's always the force field ...^^
I just looked up force fields. They are pretty nice!
Questions:
1) As a multiclass PC, I'm reading that I have two abilities that I use to determine resolve - Str for soldier and Wis for mystic. Is this correct?
2) Thoughts on unwieldy weapons? Seems as if with a mid-bab character, a str of 16, and little in the way of buffs in SF, this might be the way to go over full attacking?
GM Stargin |
1) Unfortuately no. That would make Multiclassing incredibly powerful. Instead use the max:
"A multiclassed character can have more than one key ability score. For each class, your key ability score remains the same as normal for that class (and for the class features that rely on that score). For any key ability score calculation not tied to class, such as determining your maximum Resolve Points, use whichever key ability score has the highest value (and therefore the highest modifier)." Pg 27 of CRB.
2) I have read theorycrafting that envoys for example are incredibly well suited to unwiedly weapons as they have a lot of things to do with their move action. So I think you've got something there. You can always have multiple weapons too for different equations. Prospero-4 is already a bit of a walking armory.
Cueta Guiding Star |
1) Unfortuately no. That would make Multiclassing incredibly powerful. Instead use the max:
"A multiclassed character can have more than one key ability score. For each class, your key ability score remains the same as normal for that class (and for the class features that rely on that score). For any key ability score calculation not tied to class, such as determining your maximum Resolve Points, use whichever key ability score has the highest value (and therefore the highest modifier)." Pg 27 of CRB.
Okies, thanks for the clarification. I missed the part about
"key ability score calculation not tied to class." I'll update my character sheet accordingly.Leila Bluetistle |
@Ship roles - I think Prospero has actual Pilot ranks right?
And he was manning briefly. Maybe Mr 4 could fly this one - let's give him a chance to chime in : )
(Also, Engineering/Sensors aren't quite as important as the others. Hopefully :P)
That would mean:
Prospero: Pilot + Engineering (houseruled - seems like a good target with his co-processor!)
Astri: Captain + Gyrolaser
Leila: Sensors
And then whomever of Leila or Prospero that doesn't need their primary just at the moment (for example, Leila really don't need to scan every round! And Prospero hopefully won't need to patch all the time either!) shoots the big laser.
Thoughts : )?
Prospero-4 |
Sure, P-4 can be the pilot for now. He's not quite as skilled as Fi was, but passable.
Maybe there's no need for engineering action this turn, so I can take the shot with the big gun. In future turn maybe someone else..?
Also, remember that it's possible to take a gunnery action to shoot all weapons at -4
Leila Bluetistle |
Mm sounds good for now. And I do have this odd feeling about that stasis pod ... :-P
Prospero-4 |
Speaking of the stasis pod...
@Cueta: Take note that the bonus from your connection and skill synergy don't stack - they're all insight. (pretty much everyone misses that in the beginning...)
Leila Bluetistle |
Yeah bleh on that :-P
GM Stargin |
Paizo designers are WAY more strict about stacking bonuses now. I expect the same from PF2e to be honest.
Speaking of what do you guys think of 2e?
What's already happened:
Pilot initiative done,
Leila: Called Science Officer and Scanned
Prospero: Called Pilot, Evaded and moved.
Astrianna: Called Captain and Gunner
GM Moved Enemy Ship
what is next from players:
Captain Action and Gunnery fire
Astrianna Sparacello |
Unfortunately I can't zoom in on the map on my phone, so I can't tell if we're facing towards or away the enemy ship. I'm going to assume towards.
Astri should definitely not be the only gunner because she can't give bonuses to herself. Prospero shoots the turret this turn, Astri shoots Gyrolaser?
GM Stargin |
You guys are facing towards at the moment. Enemy basically just moved in for a kill. We've already taken a Pilot, and Science action, so there's only two actions left. You could take a captain action and a gunner action or two gunner actions or something else.
Do you have the Powerpoint app Astrianna? It makes things better I think.
GM Stargin |
That's all four actions for this round if you do a Captain and a shot Astrianna. You sure you want to take the shot?
(Also a minor modification to the house rule of one extra floating action. A person cannot do of the same kind of action so no doubling down on science or engineering or gunnery actions).
Prospero-4 |
BTW, next turn Prospero-4 might need some captain bonuses on piloting. There could be a change to get to enemy's rear arc with some fancy stunt...
Leila Bluetistle |
@Actions - I think Astri went with a Minor Crew Action to shoot the gyrolaser.
Someone ought to fire the turret with our house-rule action.
Leila can do it, if no-one has by the time I get home tonight, but there's better candidates :-)
Astrianna Sparacello |
I think Prospero should be on gunnery, so no she should not shoot the gyrolaser if it impedes him shooting.
Yes I was using the minor crew action to shoot, sorry for not pointing that out. Is that not possible because Prospero is also shooting?
I guess I was under the impression that one person could control one gun at a time, and each gun was its own "gunnery" station. So if Prospero is shooting the turret and piloting as his house ruled double station then Astri is doing Captain and a minor crew action to fire the gyrolaser because no one else had used the minor crew action to fire a weapon.
If that's not the correct interpretation that's fine, that's just the impression I was under.
Next round I'll do an encouragement for piloting, Prospero!
GM Stargin |
Minor Crew Actions are a failsafe for when you don't have anybody to fill a role. The one person android assassin in the fighter was doing either a Glide Minor Crew Action or a Snapshot Minor crew action as she was just one person for example (Should have given her the house rule too now that I think about it).
Relevant text: "Minor crew actions are computer-aided actions that allow a starship limited functionality if it doesn’t have the necessary crew to fill all the roles (for instance, the lone crew member aboard a Tiny starship might always be the pilot but may need to fire one of the vessel’s weapons in an emergency). You can take a minor crew action regardless of your current role, but only if no other action was performed this round for the role associated with that minor crew action. A minor crew action can be performed only once per round and doesn’t count as your action....
Snapshot: You can take this action only if no other gunner actions have been taken during the gunnery phase (including snapshot). "
Astrianna Sparacello |
Got it.
So by our house rules Prospero is pilot and Gunner (Heavy Turret), yes? Astri is just Captain.
Or does gunner control ALL the guns? I know there's an action to fire all the weapons simultaneously? If we had someone else could they also be gunner, but on a different weapon?
Astrianna Sparacello |
Oh right sorry it's TWO guns. Wow any arc?
Could that action be used to say, fire a flak cannon at a torpedo even if the torpedo isn't in the flak cannon firing arc?
GM Stargin |
Even better than you think!
The flak cannon is a point weapon which means...
Point
A weapon with this special property is always short range and can’t be fired against targets that are outside the first range increment. If a tracking weapon would hit a ship in an arc that contains a weapon with the point special property, the gunner of the targeted starship can attempt an immediate gunnery check with the point weapon against the incoming tracking projectile using the bonus listed in parentheses in the weapon’s Special entry (instead of her usual bonus to gunnery checks). The DC for this gunnery check is equal to 10 + the tracking weapon’s speed. If the attack hits, the tracking weapon is destroyed before it can damage the ship. A point weapon can be used to attempt only one such free gunnery check each round, but this usage potentially allows a point weapon to be fired twice in a single round.
So yeah, mooning the enemy might be a wise tactical decision.
Leila Bluetistle |
@Guns - you can also install them linked (though only the same ones in the same arc) and fire them as one.
Also! Note that Fire At Will is at -4 so it might be better to just shoot one gun (the big one!)
Astrianna Sparacello |
Oh sweet! Point weapons are great.
If your maneuver doesn't work out Prospero, we could turn our aft to them and Astri (or Leila, or trading if the shields need re-distributed) could get on the flak cannon. That way we're protected from missiles And can fire both the turret and the flak cannon!
Okay I'm starting to understand how this all works. Man, Fi used to do all the thinking for me and I just sat back and yelled things like a good Captain...
Leila Bluetistle |
Ideally we want to be behind then facing rear-to-rear right?
Might be a bit of trouble to arrange since they have initiative.
But the first step is probably to go straight at them and hope they pass us by.
Hmm. Starfinder ships have a minimum move distance do they not? Then it might actually work!
Astrianna Sparacello |
Ideally we want to be behind then facing rear-to-rear right?
Starship combat is weird.
Cueta Guiding Star |
Speaking of the stasis pod...
@Cueta: Take note that the bonus from your connection and skill synergy don't stack - they're all insight. (pretty much everyone misses that in the beginning...)
Well, blerg. It didn't even occur to me that a feat wouldn't stack with a class ability. Thanks for pointing that out, Prospero!
I'm going to drop the feat for now, which will give Cueta a +10 piloting mod.
Cueta Guiding Star |
Totally unimportant question: I haven't caught up with all of the gameplay thead yet. Does Astri still dress like a 1980s era jazzerciser?
Astrianna Sparacello |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Lol, no she changed outfits right before this mission.
She had great success at the her new favorite clothing store in Drifter's End, The Boutique at the End of the Universe. A perfectly fitted dark green duster makes up the bulk of her outfit, buttoned up and tied at the waist by a dull yellow silk belt. She wears her usual black leggings underneath, though they are nearly invisible under her dark brown knee-high lace-up boots. A small, shimmering, golden scarf wraps around her thin neck like a pet python, and a wide-brimmed, dark green royal derby hat hangs low off to the side of her head, making the illusion it was weighed down by a bundle of bright golden ribbon and black feathers. Her makeup was focused primarily on her eyes- black eyeliner on the bottom lids, flaring out to short curved points on the sides, and a bright gold on the top lids.
Let's be honest, the hat probably falls off all the time though.
GM Stargin |
Round Two:
What's already happened:
Pilot initiative done, Enemy lost Initiative
Enemy moved
Prospero-4: Called Pilot for this round
Astrianna: Called Captain from last Round and encouraged initiative roll (roll not made yet but enemy lost regardless)
what is next from players:
Choose Roles remaining three roles (five roles total across four players)
Move Ship
Take all other Actions except Gunnery
Then:
Gunnery fire
Prospero-4 |
Now that we have a crew of four, do we still have the extra action?
Cueta Guiding Star |
I'll take a gun! Should I wait to post the action then until all other actions are taken?
Leila Bluetistle |
Since the turret is on well a turret I think you can go ahead now. The only actions that can really impact your shooting is probably Astri's helpful encouragement (directed at Mr 4 this time) and Leila's Target Lock action which I just posted : )