At its core, Starfinder is a game about exploration and possibilities. Whether you’re excited to uncover new expressions of heroism through new character options in the Character Operations Manual, explore the Pact Worlds’ closest neighbors in Near Space, dramatically expand what’s possible in spaceflight with the upcoming Starship Operations Manual, meet extraordinary lifeforms in Alien Archive 4, or just blast into uncharted space with the Galaxy Exploration Manual, the past year and upcoming 12 months’ hardcover books keep bringing new reasons for excitement!

So forgive my Zo!-like theatrics in saying: “But wait, there’s more!”

That’s right! Why pine longingly for amazing 2021 content when you could playtest it this summer? Beginning in July 2020, Paizo is launching not one—but two—different Starfinder playtests, opening up new possibilities for your gaming experience and inviting you to become part of the creative process! Final versions of both playtests’ contents will appear in an upcoming, yet-to-be-announced book.

A New Class!

As a guiding philosophy when designing new classes, the Starfinder team is always pushing to expand innovative ideas and territory: the biohacker brings a new spin to the scientist trope, the vanguard weaponizes the multiverse’s fundamental energies to redirect damaging forces, and witchwarper takes a fresh approach to magic, superimposing alternate realities to create supernatural effects. Naturally, an additional class we’d make would want to meet or exceed those standards for conceptual novelty, visual wow-factor, and fun at the game table. It’s a high bar!

Enter the nanocyte.

The nanocyte’s body houses nanites in untold numbers, granting them impossible strength, transforming into tools, and coursing between obstacles to overwhelm their foes. The same nanites can reshape the nanocyte’s body to avoid harm as easily as they reconfigure features to conceal their presence or mask a lie, making the nanocyte an adept combatant and infiltrator able to manifest weaponry at a moment’s notice. Whether their powers stem from excruciating experiments, accidental infection, or voluntary symbiosis, the nanocyte’s nanites grow stronger by the day as the character evolves into a being more machine than mortal.

A New Way to Play!

Starfinder allows for so many stories and ways to play: infiltrating an embassy ball, trading shots across a shell-cratered battlefield, racing after villains in futuristic vehicles, soaring through space in elegant starships, and more! But since Starfinder’s debut in August 2017, the fans have echoed the same question: Where are the mechs? Sure, Starfinder provides powered armor that enhances a user’s natural abilities, and there are even a few larger powered armor suits that give that tower-over-the-opposition feel. Yet the game so far lacks the ability to pilot that giant robot, that titanic vehicle whose power far exceeds that of its pilot.

Not anymore! In July Starfinder will publicly playtest new mech rules, allowing PCs to jump into single-seat mechs or team up with friends in even larger behemoths to stomp, fly, and jump-jet around the battlefield! Mech combat is designed to use most of the familiar tactical rules and 5-foot squares you already use in your games, making mechs a feature you can as easily drop into a single encounter as you can build entire campaigns around them. And as you would expect, mechs represent a significant power boost, allowing PCs to take on far greater challenges than they might on their own—just what you’d expect from a system that lets you customize your mechs’ frames, limbs, armaments, power cores, and more!

Get excited and follow along for more updates! The action begins this July!

John Compton
Starfinder Senior Developer

The Starfinder Character Operations Manual expands the universe of what is possible for characters of any class or race, providing new choices at every stage of character creation and advancement. Whether you are a veteran or new to the game, there's something there for you!

Now, retailers have their print copies, subscription PDF and print copies have been sent, and non-subscription PDFs are available for purchase. The new Starfinder Character Operations Manual has hit the streets. For your convenience (and because showing off my co-workers’ brillance is my favorite part of my work), I have bent time and space to gather the previews, with their vivid science-fantasy art, all in one place! #talentcrush

(Front Cover)

First, we introduced the new iconic characters in our Meet The Iconics series. Subsequently, in our Iconic Encounters web-based flash fiction series, we received a glimpse into the life and personality of each of them. Developer Jason Keely put Barsala, a.k.a. “Dr. B,” the new iconic biohacker centerstage. Then we saw Barsala test a hypothesis in The Scientific Method. Managing Director Amanda Hamon manifested Zemir, the iconic witchwarper. Later, she revealed more about Zemir in The Reality Next Door. Lead Designer Joe Pasini shown the spotlight on Velloro, the iconic vanguard. And then he showed Velloro in entropic action in A Hail Of Bullets.

In Starfinder Wednesday! on our OfficialPaizo Twitch channel, Social Media Producer Payton Smith got interactive with the new classes. Most of the Starfinder team, including Jason Keeley, Joe Pasini, Amanda Hamon, and Creative Director Rob McCreary, sat down together and—with the live assistance of chat— built a biohacker, a vanguard, and a witchwarper. All the Starfinder Wednesday! videos have been archived on YouTube for you to watch now, with one possible exception. This week’s episode showcased the New Roles Starship Combat, and it is currently available as Video on Demand on Twitch at the time of posting. If you have been lost in space, then it is on YouTube too!

(Table of Contents)

In our final preview blog articles, we explored alternate ability score adjustments, racial traits, and new feats, gear, and class options that are available to everyone in Character Operations Manual Preview: Race Options by Jason “Jake” Tondro, Starfinder Developer. We previewed the new feats and class features in Classing Things Up With Starfinder's Newest Book by John Compton, Starfinder Senior Developer. And we introduced you to a new mode of play in System Of A Downtime by Joe Pasini.

(Back Cover)

All 160 pages of the hardcover Starfinder Character Operations Manual are available today at your favorite local game, book, comic shop, online retailer, and here at paizo.com. We’d love to hear what you think on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube, and our Starfinder Forums.

Adventures Ahead!
Aaron Shanks
Public Relations Manager

Feeling overwhelmed by the wealth of new Starfinder species and class options in the new Character Operations Manual? Well, take a break and spend some downtime with me, and I’ll introduce you to a new system introduced in this very same book.

I love downtime—it’s the home of the montage and the “Meanwhile…”—and it lets you build those flavorful interrelational stories that bring motley crews together between their high-octane adventures. Downtime requires you to take at least one day off. You can still rest for 8 hours, but otherwise you can’t be out there beating up aliens and shooting down Corpse Fleet ships if you really want to focus on your downtime activities.

Let’s you and I hop in a starship and head to Near Space. With 3d6 days of travel ahead of us, we can try out some of the dozens of downtime activities covered by this system!

To start us off, why don’t you spend a few days using the manage course activity? If you succeed, you’ll shave some hours off our trip! I’ll use the maintain readiness activity in the meantime—if we’re interrupted by some combat in the Drift, we’ll get a bonus to our initiative.

Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

After that, it’s time to lounge! I’ll probably watch some trivids and get some vidgaming done in the crew quarters, and you can head to the tech workshop and do some arts and crafts. The next day, we’ll both automatically get some temporary Hit Points and a +1 morale bonus to our first saving throw.

I suppose after that, we’d better get ready for action. We could individually drill specific skill tasks, potentially letting us take 10 on those tasks the next day (even under stress), or we could work together to coordinate, training together to gain bonuses on covering or harrying fire (or further bonuses if we spend multiple days).

And heck, once we reach our destination, we can keep the good (down)times going with activities like build shelter, carouse, practice profession, or secure area, all giving us specific benefits or bonuses, as we choose!

But we don’t have to do any of those; there are more than a dozen other options—grab the book and let me know which you prefer!

Joe Pasini
Starfinder Lead Designer

We’re mere days from getting ahold of Starfinder’s new Character Operations Manual, a book that’s overflowing with new character options. Although I didn’t get to work on this book directly, I got the benefit of flipping through all of its fancy new feats and class features with the exuberance of a fan—a pleasure I experience far less often as a developer.

Envoy: The envoy gets all sorts of potent new alternate features that let your PC become the combat-negotiator they always dreamed of becoming—or wield mystical spells in addition to their charismatic tricks. However, the one that captures my attention is called polymorphic disguise. With this alternate class feature, your envoy can ditch their expertise ability and instead become a shapechanger! You can design your envoy’s alternate form using the polymorph spell (from Alien Archive 2), and your envoy always adds their expertise die when disguising themselves in that form. As your envoy gains levels, their shapeshifting power improves by using higher and higher levels of the polymorph spell. What’s more, in place of learning new expertise talents, your envoy can instead learn additional forms to expand their shapechanging arsenal!

Mechanic: If you caught me on the recent Starfinder Wednesday Twitch stream, you’ll know I’m a fan of powered armor in Starfinder. I’m also a big fan of the mechanic class, so I was overjoyed to see an alternative to the artificial intelligence class feature called experimental prototype. Your mechanic chooses either to develop an experimental weapon prototype or an experimental armor prototype, and let me tell you: the armor is damn cool. In addition to gaining heavy armor proficiency, your mechanic is able to fit extra upgrades into their suit, reprogram the armor on the fly to better defend against specific foes, and at most levels rebuild the armor into a higher-level version of itself. At 5th level, your mechanic automatically becomes proficient in powered armor, and your mechanic can transform their armor prototype into powered armor. At higher levels, your mechanic can start adding great powers like flight and energy shields.

Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

Mystic: If you’re like me, you adore many of the mystic connections but often see one of the connection powers and say “Hmmm, I see how that appeals to some folks, but that’s just not what my character wants.” What if you could shop around for new connection powers on a case-by-case basis? Enter epiphanies, a new mystic option that provides a host of universal connection powers that anyone can take in place of one of their connection’s current powers. Would you rather your akashic mystic gain the mystic reach epiphany in place of her peer Into the future connection power, extending the range of their spells by casting them as full actions? Maybe your star shaman wants to branch out by picking up a second connection in place of their starlight form power? Or are you like me and just want to give a mindbreaker mystic the 1st-level epiphany called wrecking fists, letting them punch anything that has the gall to be immune to mind-affecting effects? Now you can!

Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

Operative: A large portion of the operative’s options involve a really fun alternative to trick attack called stunt and strike, and while I’m excited for you to explore that on you own, I want to call out a delightful alternative to the operative’s fast movement ability: quick cover. Why run when you can hide? You’re able to upgrade the degree of cover your character is gaining from the environment, with tiny impediments that would grant no bonus giving partial cover (“I take cover behind the toaster. No, really.”), and gain cover from whatever would provide just partial cover. I really enjoy manipulating an encounter’s environment with improvised weapons, cover, and other tricks, so this ability’s right up my alley.

Solarian: The Character Operations Manual introduces shields, which the new vanguard class wields admirably. But why should vanguards get all the fun? What if instead of manifesting a photon-axe or solar armor your character could instead generate an energy shield that boosts your AC? What if I also told you that you can slap people with your energy shield to make an unarmed strike? What if you could slap a solarion weapon crystal into your character’s shield to change the type of damage that the unarmed shield slams deal? What if I stopped asking leading questions and just got to the point? The solar shield solarian is really cool! And if you can stand to wait until this book hits shelves, you can also read up on the long-anticipated solar flare solarian option that can fire ranged energy bursts!

Soldier: Do you ever run into a character option that suddenly inspires a whole character concept and spurs a frantic rush to research all of the other options that could potentially contribute to that character’s new schtick? I know I do, and I’ve been through that at least three different times when finding a playable alien that has the natural attack racial trait. Like, do I want my vesk to tear limbs from her foes as the rest of the group watches with a mix of horror and envy? Darn right I do. And now others can enjoy that same fascination thanks to the ascetic warrior option that exchanges your character’s heavy armor and heavy weapons proficiency in order to deliver devastating unarmed strikes. And if your soldier already had the natural attacks ability, you can instead add weapon special properties to their strikes, such as block, grapple, or stun. If you’re excited about unarmed prowess, you might also like some of the new feat boosts—those are special gear boosts that modify specific combat feats your character might have grabbed. I really like grabbing strike (modifies Improved Combat Maneuver [Grapple]), which lets you automatically grapple a foe after you use an unarmed strike against them and beat the target’s KAC by 8 or more.

Illustration by Matthias Kinnigkeit

Technomancer: For those who love casting spells, the technomancer’s spell cache gives you all the power you need to fuel your character’s technological mischief. But for me, the ideal technomancer lives for cybernetic augmentations, slowly transforming into someone who’s as much machine as mortal. That’s why I’m so excited for the cache augmentation, a new option that replaces spell cache and cache capacitor with a cybernetic or magitech augmentation that evolves as your character gains levels. Plus, at higher levels, every time your technomancer prepares for the day, they can configure their augmentation to boost their choice of Reflex saves, Fortitude saves, attack rolls, or key skill checks.

Illustration by Matthias Kinnigkeit

There’s so much more beyond this that the Character Operations Manual has to offer, so get ready for its official release on November 13th!

John Compton
Starfinder Senior Developer

Starfinder has over 100 playable species now, but one of the things we wanted to do in the Character Operations Manual was give a little love to the 13 species found in the Starfinder Core Rulebook (including legacy races). What does that mean? That means alternate ability score adjustments, alternate racial traits, and new feats, gear, and class options which—while perhaps pioneered by a given species—are actually available to everyone.

Let’s start with the simple stuff: ability score and racial trait options unique to each species. So, for example, some androids were built for manual labor; instead of high Intelligence and Dexterity, they’re stronger and more able to endure tough working conditions (Strength and Constitution). Species known for settling diverse environments have options that model adaptation to high (human), low (human and vesk), or zero gravity (human and ysoki). There’s a lot more.

Every species also has one or more options that replace each of their racial traits. A player who doesn’t like the shirren’s Cultural Fascination ability, for example, has three (three!) new choices. Cultural Assimilation gives you a bonus to Disguise checks instead of Diplomacy, as you blend in with an adopted species; Individual Obsession allows you to pick an additional class skill and get an automatic skill point every level, along with a +2 bonus in the chosen skill; and Linguistic Acculturation swaps out that Diplomacy bonus for more languages (a lot more).

But what I find really cool are feats, gear, spell, and class options, and if your character has the right physiology, you can take these options no matter your race. Check out kasatha, for example: You’ve got a bunch of new feats for characters with four arms. (How many new feats? Four, of course!) There’s even a new class option for soldiers who wield three or more weapons at a time: the Fourfold Tactician. As followers of the Four-Armed Conspiracy™ can tell you, you don’t have to be a kasatha to qualify. Even a human or lashunta soldier with a couple of cybernetic arms can use the Fourfold Tactician fighting style to fire two automatic weapons at the same time! (We call that class feature “Overkill,” and you can see why.) Other class options have no requirements at all: the Crusader connection for mystics, for example, or the vesk Battlemaster fighting style for soldiers.

On top of all this, there’s spells and gear. Now your ysoki can cast shrink object to fit that big special something in their cheek pouches (at high level, a really big special something).

The rest of the Star Chamber will be chiming in here over the next few weeks with more glimpses into the Character Operations Manual, but let me tell you, you are not going to be disappointed. This book blows Starfinder character creation wide open. From now on, you’ll never feel like your hero is just like everyone else.

Jason Tondro
Starfinder Developer