Back as well!
Was it this thread where we were discussing non-lethal damage in Starfinder? Maybe it was another adventure... Loram's plan is to deal regular damage for a bit, and then start using his taclash when their foe starts getting weak. If the final blow is non-lethal, the target is unconscious, right?
Was it this thread where we were discussing non-lethal damage in Starfinder? Maybe it was another adventure... Loram's plan is to deal regular damage for a bit, and then start using his taclash when their foe starts getting weak. If the final blow is non-lethal, the target is unconscious, right?
This is true.
However, it's really hard to tell when your opponent is within a few hits of dying. So it's a gamble.
Agreed, but I couldn't find anywhere in the thread where we instructed to bring him in alive - though I seem to recall a 'dead or alive' somewhere... Maybe I'm just mistaken there, though.
I don't believe I sent an alive clause for the mission, but I could be mistaken!
Okay, so first off, I want to thank you all for sticking with the game through thick and thin. I'm glad we got to get to the finale and finish it.
Now, I'd like to get your opinion of your class: What abilities out of those you used did you like, what could be better, and what you think the MVP of your powerset is.
Additionally, if you have questions about the choices from my side, I'll be more than happy to answer them.
I'm reminded of why I prefer wizards to sorcerers, the way you get stuck repeating the same spells with spont casting. Enemies fighting solo (with decent numbers of HP) make that problem worse. It's easier to keep interested when there's a variety of opponents around and you can pop one in a resilient sphere for a while, line up and blast a couple of others etc., but a 6-level spontaneous caster could easily get tedious anyway.
On spells, haste is generally a waste of time in SF. Microbot assault is OK when people remember that it has been cast. Having a reliable damage spell to blast with is clearly important. With few magical enemies (just the android in the first fight?) some of my choices of spells, magic hacks & equipment were clearly wasted.
The technomancer's powerset is all about the spells. Even if they're built to use weapons it's still about the spells used to buff the weapon. The MVP of a technomancer's powerset is therefore... spells. Arcing Surge in particular for Deneth.
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Again, I feel like I did a small disservice by not making a 'vanilla' mechanic, but Rax did exactly what I was hoping for in a character - make a tank-y style front-liner with some skill versatility and a couple extra tricks.
Exocortex is definitely the MVP of this particular build - getting a boost to hit definitely made Rax more useful (though still not a powerhouse, compared to the soldier and solarian - which is to be expected). I did find that a number of his abilities weren't 'urgent' - I would just sort of forget that I had them, like the force field, or overload, or anything else that I'm already not remembering. Part of that was that I built him to focus more on static bonuses than new abilities, and that generally worked out - Rax took some hits, dished out some damage, and ran things about as well as could be expected during starship combat.
Had a lot of fun with the soldier build, especially the kasathas - so much so that I'm going to create an SFS character for him and try to replicate the character I've created here.
Was a little bummed I didn't get use out of that Adaptive Fighting feat, but I still feel it could be helpful in different scenarios where the party has to deal with varying environments and combat situations. Was also looking forward to Deflect Projectiles, but nobody ever shot at me... :(
I think the Enhanced Resistance is a 'must have' feat for a tank, as that DR does a LOT to protect the soldier's hide - especially when facing a foe with multiple attacks. In terms of this adventure, I think that feat was the MVP. It didn't really pop like some feats might, but especially in that fight against that worm it helped save Loram's life, for sure.
I thought I had mentioned this before Loram, but I wouldn't get too used to that feat still granting DR. It's been mentioned several times on the boards that Enhanced Resistance was not supposed to grant DR.
That being said, my Vesk had the feat, mainly for Fire Resistance, which seems to be the best elemental resistance.
At for remembering the penalties of Microbot Assault Deneth, I always did my best to include them in my attack rolls, but I can't help it if the Bard problem still exists in space =P
As for Raxsortun, I feel like you definitely did a good job making yourself a target, or at the very least seem like a credible threat.
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Had a lot of fun with the soldier build, especially the kasathas - so much so that I'm going to create an SFS character for him and try to replicate the character I've created here.
Was a little bummed I didn't get use out of that Adaptive Fighting feat, but I still feel it could be helpful in different scenarios where the party has to deal with varying environments and combat situations. Was also looking forward to Deflect Projectiles, but nobody ever shot at me... :(
I think the Enhanced Resistance is a 'must have' feat for a tank, as that DR does a LOT to protect the soldier's hide - especially when facing a foe with multiple attacks. In terms of this adventure, I think that feat was the MVP. It didn't really pop like some feats might, but especially in that fight against that worm it helped save Loram's life, for sure.
Oh man, Enhanced Resistance. I'm running Dead Suns with a local IRL group, and they just hit level 10 tonight - that feat has been the bane of my existence. I for one am hoping it gets itself errata'd into oblivion, I haven't had a credible threat except for one 'boss fight' that was built with the wrong ruleset and vastly overpowered by Starfinder standards - but I was fine with that, because I have a party with 2 soldiers and a Solarian who all took that damn feat.
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At for remembering the penalties of Microbot Assault Deneth, I always did my best to include them in my attack rolls, but I can't help it if the Bard problem still exists in space =P
In space no one can hear you sing? *rimshot*
Sorry, forgot that there was one other question I wanted to ask: Which part did you enjoy the most? the chase, the fight, or the starship battle, and conversely which did you enjoy least?
Was there anything I could have done to improve either for you?
I wanted to be good at piloting so I maximized DEX. This ended up costing me in the WIS department, and as a result my WIS was only 20. Even with the spell focus feat, my best save DC (for 4th level spells) was 20. Since CR-appropriate enemies typically have saves of +9 to +13 (or higher), it meant that the majority of the time enemies made the save against my spells. Lower-level spells like command and hold person simply never worked. Even maximizing WIS would only give me +2 to my save DC, which would still have enemies beat the save around 50% of the time or more.
My save DCs for my best spells started at 14 and got to 20 at level 10, or +6 after 9 levels (and that includes taking Spell Focus at level 1). Had I maximized WIS it would have gone from 16 to 22, still a difference of 6. The fact that enemy saves scale roughly at a 1:1 ratio per level means that save DCs of your spells simply do not keep up with enemies' saves as you gain in levels. Lower level spells that are negated on a successful save become useless at higher levels.
After I realized this I started looking at the Mindbreaker Mystic. At 3rd level this connection gives you an ability where if any enemy negates a spell by making a will save, they still take nonlethal damage. Suddenly that makes spells like command and hold person much better, since you know that they will still have an effect if the save is made.
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On the subject of spells, it seemed that healing was relatively unnecessary. Certainly not like it is in Pathfinder. I did a little bit of healing but having a dedicated healing character probably isn't necessary. I didn't bother learning mystic cure IV and it turned out I didn't need it.
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I thought it was silly that my piloting roll had no effect on how likely I was to be able to run over a living creature with a vehicle, since it is simply a fixed reflex save.
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The Line feature of my plasma rifle was not nearly as useful as I thought it would be. Though that first fight was a long time ago, so I'm not sure.
The jump to power level 10 was a bit disconcerting, and with so many bonuses and abilities to keep track I had a rougher time being on top of things.
Solarian is wonderfully thematically, and I had a fun time switching between attunement options. If there were a few more varied combat encounters (massive amount of minion like opponents) then I feel some of his abilities would shine a bit better.
There was a bit of crossover with the party, as one ability I was looking forward to gave haste to everyone, but it turns out that was unnecessary. Also, the black hole warping was very awesome to use and most likely my favorite ability, though as mentioned it may have been a way to approach a vehicle chase if our party wasn't as good at that.
Still, for a small Ysoki to go shooting into battle as a tiny ball of amalgous fire, it was a roaring good time.
Of the various fights I liked the chase scene best. It presented puzzles to be solved as well as grinding enemies down, even if our driver didn't understand the rules at first.
I thought I had mentioned this before Loram, but I wouldn't get too used to that feat still granting DR. It's been mentioned several times on the boards that Enhanced Resistance was not supposed to grant DR.
That being said, my Vesk had the feat, mainly for Fire Resistance, which seems to be the best elemental resistance.
Interesting! I can see why, it's damn powerful. How would it be nerfed, do you think? Used against elemental damage only and not kinetic?
You can get deflective reinforcement as an armor upgrade and that grants DR 5/-. Also, Thermal Capacitor is an armor upgrade that grants both Fire and Cold resistance. There's also Electrostatic Field for electrical, and so on.
I think that overall these things are supposed to be relatively easy to come by.
Ya, the comments I have seen from the Dev team is that Enhanced Resistance is only supposed to be elemental resistances, not DR, cause DR equal to your BAB will always be exceptional.
If elemental resistance is easy to come by as armor upgrades, seems worthless to spend a feat on it. Maybe lower the DR to half-level?