Faction Overview: Second Seekers

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Illustration by Josef Kucera

Where the First Seeker leads, the Second Seekers follow. Exemplifying dutiful service, the Second Seekers follow-through on the Society's pledge to support the First Seeker, the elected head of the Starfinder Society. Unlike other factions, the goals of the Second Seekers vary over time, adapting to each new leader's mission.

Even before the Organized Play team started work on the factions for the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild, we had the opportunity to work with the Starfinder team to create the in-game Starfinder Society organization. One thing the Organized Play team agreed on from the beginning was changing up some of the leadership structure for the new Society. We'll be going into further detail on differences between the Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society in a future blog post, but for purposes of today's blog, I wanted to briefly talk about one new role: the First Seeker.

The First Seeker is an elected Starfinder who takes on a senior leadership role within the Starfinder Society, directing the organization for a brief period. Each First Seeker is elected based on a platform: a defined goal for the Starfinder Society to pursue. As an example, the Society's previous First Seeker, a kasathan solarian named Jadnura, petitioned to explore a corner of the galaxy known as the Scoured Stars. That particular mission didn't go so well for the Society...

The Second Seekers are a faction dedicated to furthering the agenda of the current First Seeker. Their dedication extends only to a specific First Seeker, not necessarily to any First Seekers who came before or after. When characters gain Reputation with the Second Seekers, they only gain Reputation with the specific First Seeker who they champion. This means that the Second Seekers will evolve as we continue telling stories through the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild campaign, with each newly elected First Seeker acting as an entirely new faction. Once a First Seeker's term ends—such as at the end of a season storyline—that doesn't mean your characters stop championing that First Seeker. In fact, any character with an appropriate faction boon for that specific First Seeker can continue to champion that individual for the rest of her career—just don't expect a lot of new scenarios involving that First Seeker!

Because of the First Seeker's importance to the Second Seekers faction, you'll see the Second Seekers presented in text with the associated First Seeker listed in parenthesis. The first iteration of the Second Seekers faction shows up as "Second Seekers (Luwazi Elsebo)."

Illustration by Miroslav Petrov

This brings us to our first faction leader for the Second Seekers: Luwazi Elsebo (NG female human envoy). Luwazi was responsible for keeping the Starfinder Society together in the aftermath of the previous First Seeker's expedition to the Scoured Stars. Her goals include rebuilding the damaged Society while investigating what happened in the Scoured Stars. If any of the Starfinders lost in the Scoured Stars can be saved, Luwazi intends to find a way to make that happen.

Players get their first chance to interact with Luwazi Elsebo in Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Scenario #1-00: Claim to Salvation, the pregenerated character special debuting at Gen Con 2017, written by Pathfinder Society and Adventure Path veteran, Larry Wilhelm. This scenario acts as a prequel to the start of the Year of Scoured Stars, and showcases some of Luwazi's more unorthodox methods for keeping the Starfinder Society intact, along with the first seeds of a faction we'll be spotlighting in a future blog.

Now, I don't want the Exo-Guardians to get away with having more information than our recently spotlighted faction, so I figure I can share one more thing. Characters gaining Second Seekers (Luwazi Elsebo) Reputation can access some pretty exceptional boons, many of them themed around the idea of preserving and rebuilding the wounded Starfinder Society. Here's one boon I think a lot of Second Seekers are going to pick up.

Team Spirit (Untyped Boon)

You are an expert at using your resources to help other Stafinders.

Prerequisites: Second Seekers (Luwazi Elsebo): Tier 2

Cost: 1 Fame

Benefit: When you or another character is killed during an adventure in which your participated, reduce the Fame cost of the raise dead spellcasting service by 2. This boon is not expended when used.

Special: A character can only benefit from one copy of this book at a time, to a maximum discount of 2 Fame.

As you can see, a character purchasing this boon reduces the cost of raise dead by a noticeable amount of Fame. Even if just one character in a group has this boon, every character at the table benefits from the discount. I suspect we'll see a lot of characters gaining Second Seekers (Luwazi Elsebo) Reputation picking this boon up. I also suspect we'll see groups looking to muster for higher difficulty content going out of their way to make sure a Second Seeker is on the team!

Ok, that's it for today's post; I need to get back to finishing up the last Gen Con scenarios. Stay tuned for our next blog, when we talk about Wayfinders—and I don't mean the magical compasses!

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

Class Preview: The Operative

Monday, May 8, 2017

Illustration by Miroslav Petrov

Last Friday we took a look at the envoy. As soon as we announced the operative as a class, many fans began to theorize it would act as the "star thief," and wondered how it would be different from the rogue class in Pathfinder. There are certainly some thematic similarities between the two classes, but just as a 16th-century highwayman's tactics and skills were different from a modern hacker's, a character with a knack for stealth, security systems, and unexpected attacks in Starfinder should be significantly different from a Pathfinder rogue. We need a class that can easily serve as spy, assassin, thief, hacker, investigator, and trailblazer. That was the spark for the operative, which gets the following description in the Starfinder Core Rulebook:

You're a shadow. You move swiftly, strike suddenly, and always have an escape plan. You're a consummate professional, and always get the job done, whether it's scouting enemy lines, hunting down criminals, stealing and smuggling items, or assassinating key figures. As an operative, you're skilled in a wide variety of disciplines and specialties, and use speed, mobility, and your quick wits rather than relying on heavy weapons. You excel at the art of surprise, whether it's sniping targets from cover or striking while their backs are turned. Your cause may be righteous, but you have no problem fighting dirty—achieving your objective is all that matters.

The operative is very much a character skilled at working outside the norms of society. Whether committing crimes, hunting criminals, or just living on the fringes, operatives find ways to get things done, though their methods don't always meet with public approval. This takes skill, so the operative gets 8 skill points per level, and 16 class skills. Operatives also get the operative's edge class feature granting a bonus to all skill checks (as well as initiative checks). The class also receives special bonuses at 7th level with any skill in which the character has the Skill Focus feat.

The operative knows that sometimes getting things done means doing some damage, and the class gains a fair base attack bonus, poor Fortitude saves but good Reflex and Will saves, light armor, and proficiency (and eventually specialization) with basic melee weapons, small arms, and sniper weapons. The operative can augment the damage done with basic melee weapons and small arms with his trick attack.

Trick attack may sound on the surface like Pathfinder's sneak attack, but it works very differently. An operative can attempt a trick attack regardless of the combat situation—it's not restricted to targets that are flanked or have the flat-footed condition. Instead, the operative must make an opposed skill check (normally Bluff, Intimidate, or Stealth, though class features can alter that) to gain an advantage over his foe for the trick attack to function. At higher levels, the operative can also apply penalties to foes hit with a trick attack, beginning with the flat-footed and off-target conditions and expanding from there (potentially even applying such effects to sniper weapon attacks).

Because operatives have different methods and thus focus on different techniques, each operative selects a specialization. We present seven specializations in the core rulebook—daredevil, detective, explorer, ghost, hacker, spy, and thief. Each has an effect on that operative's trick attack (a detective can use Sense Motive to activate her trick attack, for example), and grants bonuses to specific skills and access to new abilities.

Finally, operatives also have exploits—special tricks they learn as they gain levels to help customize their abilities. While the selection of exploits is fairly small at first, they expand as the operative levels up, making increasingly powerful exploits available. Here's a sample of a 10th-level exploit (though the ghost specialization receives it at 5th level):

Cloaking Field (Ex)

You can bend light around yourself and muffle any minor sounds you make, allowing you to nearly vanish when not moving. Even when you move, you appear only as an outline with blurry features. This cloaking field doesn't make you invisible, but it does make it easier to sneak around. Activating the cloaking field is a move action. While the cloaking field is active, you can use Stealth to hide, even while being directly observed and with no place to hide. Attacking doesn't end the cloaking field, but it does end that particular attempt to hide. If you remain perfectly still for at least 1 round, you gain a +10 bonus to Stealth checks (which doesn't stack with invisibility) until you move.

Your cloaking field lasts for up to 10 rounds before it becomes inactive. While inactive, the cloaking field recharges automatically at the rate of 1 round of cloaking per minute.

We already looked at the envoy last week, and we'll present more information on the remaining five classes in the coming weeks. And, of course, you can read the full classes this August when the Starfinder Core Rulebook is released at Gen Con!

Owen K.C. Stephens
Developer

Class Preview: The Envoy

Friday, May 5, 2017

Illustration by Miroslav Petrov

When the Starfinder Core Rulebook is released in August, some of the things players are sure to look at first are the classes—envoy, mechanic, mystic, operative, solarian, soldier, and technomancer. Along with the core races and character themes, these classes are a major part of defining a Starfinder player character.

Of course, we don't want to make people wait until August to learn anything about all the fun things we have crammed into our new game, so we're going to be doing a series of class previews over the coming weeks, starting with the envoy. So, let's take a quick look at what the book has to say about the envoy.

“You make your way in the universe with a charming smile, quick wit, and keen sense of self-preservation, and excel at getting others to do what you want. You might be a trickster, hustler, or con artist, or you might serve as an actor, ambassador, or businessperson, paving the way for negotiation through kind words or the occasional dirty trick. You are often the group's strategist, using your quick wit and tactical acumen to push your friends to greater heights. You may also be skilled in diplomacy, serving as the face for a starship crew, talking your way into restricted systems or gaining audiences with local politicians or warlords.”

As that description suggests, envoys are good at social skills. Whether they're using those skills to make friends, fool victims, or threaten foes, envoys often use their wits and charm to get the job done. (And when that doesn't work, well, there's always your laser pistol.) Some of that ability to affect others is modeled by their 8 skill points per level and 16 class skills, which allow them to pick up a lot of social skills while still being able to put ranks into skills such as Acrobatics, Computers, and Stealth, as appropriate for your character concept. The class couples that with an average base attack bonus, poor Fortitude saves, good Reflex and Will saves, light armor, and proficiency (and eventually specialization) with basic melee weapons, grenades, and small arms.

Envoys gain the expertise and skill expertise class features at 1st level. Expertise grants the envoy a 1d6 expertise die that she can add to Sense Motive skill checks as an insight bonus, and skill expertise extends that bonus to one other skill. As the envoy gains levels, she expands the number of skills she can apply her expertise die to and gains expertise talents, which give her additional options for those skills. These can extend the effects of a skill check, allow her to perform acts the skill doesn't normally grant, or alter how long it takes her to use a talent.

Each envoy also gets to select a number of envoy improvisations over the course of her career, beginning at 1st level. These allow the envoy to more directly hinder her foes and aid her allies. Many improvisations are sense-dependent, and some are also language-dependent or mind-affecting. Clever use of envoy improvisations can turn the tide of battle, as the envoy can bolster allies actions and defenses, warn them of impending dangers, and—with higher-level options—even give them additional actions in a turn. Here's an example of a 1st-level envoy improvisation.

Clever Feint (EX) [sense-dependent]

As a standard action, you can fake out an enemy within 60 feet, making that enemy open to your attacks. Attempt a Bluff check with the same DC as a check to feint against that enemy (though this isn';t a standard check to feint, so Improved Feint and Greater Feint don't apply). Even if you fail, that enemy is flat-footed against your attacks until the end of your next turn. If you succeed, the enemy is also flat-footed against your allies' attacks until the end of your next turn. You can't use clever feint against a creature that lacks an Intelligence score.

At 6th level, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to treat a failed Bluff check for clever feint as if it were a success.

We'll present more information on the other six classes in the coming weeks, and of course, you can read the full classes this August when the Starfinder Core Rulebook releases at Gen Con!

Owen K.C. Stephens
Developer

Ultimate Intrigue—Vigilante Playtest Round 2!

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Illustration by Miroslav Petrov

Almost three weeks ago, the vigilantes of the world struck out from the shadows and began to carve their own niches in a new open playtest. After plenty of feedback and several playtests of the vigilante, the vigilante returned to his lair to recover from his wounds and prepare his toolbox for his next greatest challenge... and so, the vigilante returns, with more tricks than ever before!

For those of you familiar with the first playtest vigilante, there's some huge changes in the new versions. In my opinion, the biggest of all was the change to the social identity. The first round vigilante received set abilities in his social identities, but many playtesters pointed out that every vigilante has a slightly-different take on their social identity, so maybe they won't all have abilities befitting of Bruce Wayne. The new version of the vigilante allows each vigilante to choose from a list of social talents at odd levels, to complement his vigilante talents at even levels. This allows you to prioritize the social abilities that are perfect for your own vigilante's social identity. For instance, you can gain the ability to switch identities quickly at a lower level... speaking of which, however, leads me to the second and perhaps more important part of the change in how identities work. In the new version of the vigilante, it only takes 1 minute to change identities even at 1st level (down from 5 minutes). But beyond that, as many of you suggested in the discussion threads, vigilantes can now use all their vigilante abilities in their social identity; they just risk being exposed if they do!

The other huge change is to the zealot specialization. In the first round, playtesters pointed out that the zealot didn't have enough of its own identity as a specialization like the others did, and too many of the abilities were similar to those of previous classes. Following some very clever suggestions from the playtest forums, the revamped zealot, inspired by superheroes with divine origins, chooses one of four potential sources for his power and gains a special ability, new talent options, and some changes to his spells known based on his choice. Whether you play an abyssal zealot with claws (and the ability to gain rend!) or a fey zealot with the ability to turn invisible while moving, the choice is yours!

There are a number of other smaller changes within the talents and specializations as well. Together they add up. For instance, many playtests of the stalker indicated that its unique talents allowed it to play differently than the playtester first expected, and now, with a few new talents, the specific ability to do full hidden strike damage on every attack against a foe affected by startling appearance, and upgraded damage on a full hidden strike (d8s instead of d6s), the stalker continues its path of darkness. Meanwhile, the avenger has gained some upgrades and consolidation of key talents that grant him some powerful abilities. For instance, now if you take hard to kill, you don't just gain Die Hard; you gain other powers like the ability to wait a round before dying of hit point damage (during which you can heal it off). The warlock's biggest change is to the powerful mystic bolts option, which now allows you to use it in conjunction with way more other abilities and ignores spell resistance, in return for a decrease in damage that is more-or-less cancelled by the ability to use it with the arcane striker talent (which you previously couldn't) alone!

So whatever style of vigilante you might be, whatever secret hides within your fragmented heart, find the strength within yourself to go forth and right the wrongs you crave to right... or, you know, commit those wrongs; we don't discriminate against evil vigilantes!

Roleplaying Guild Vigilantes

As we announced in the last playtest blog this version of the vigilante is legal for play in the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. The Chronicle sheet for the vigilante is now available for all participating in the playtest in organized play! Go ahead and grab it now!

Download the Chronicle sheet — 147kb zip/PDF

The official playtest period ends on July 20th, but we'd love for you to keep playing through August 17th; when you're through, you can post new discoveries and final thoughts (once per person) in a special thread. This allows us to continue to apply your most important ideas and latebreaking discoveries later into the design process than usual and makes them easy to find!

In honor of the new round of the playtest, I think I'm going to make a dedicated stalker thread to have some stalker chats with you guys. See you there!

Mark Seifter
Designer

Ultimate Intrigue—Vigilante Playtest!

Friday, June 19, 2015

Illustration by Miroslav Petrov

The streets of almost every large city are rife with corruption. Greedy merchants, cruel guards, and bloodthirsty gangs oppress the poor common folk and those who dare to stand up against them find themselves with the dagger in the back more often than not. That is where the vigilante comes in. With their true identity hidden behind a secret persona, the vigilante is unafraid to take the fight to the powerful. Of course, not all vigilantes fight for what is good and just. Some use their secret identity to commit acts of depravity, unburdened by guilt or consequence.

Due to release in early 2016, Ultimate Intrigue includes a new base class for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: the vigilante. By participating in this playtest, you can help us make this class a fun, vibrant part of the game.

Starting today, you can download a playtest version of the vigilante right here! Create a vigilante, use it in your games, and then head over the playtest forums to tell us what you think. Tell us what works with the class and what other abilities you think it should have. We need your thoughts and ideas to refine this class and get it ready to stalk through the shadows of game tables everywhere. We have two subforums for you to use: one for general discussion about the class and the playtest and another specifically for feedback based on actual play.

For the Pathfinder Society players, the playtest version of this class opens as a character option. And there will be a special Chronicle sheet available soon that allows you to gain benefits that increase in future utility the more sessions that you play a vigilante for the playtest, or GM a game with at least one vigilante player at the table.

This playtest will remain open until Thursday, July 20, 2015. Although the forum discussions will close as that time, we'll be setting up a “Final Thoughts” thread. That thread will remain open until August 17, 2015 and you can post in that thread once with your final comments and feedback from the playtest. As always, we ask that you check for an existing thread that covers your topic before starting a new one. Remember that we are all here to make a better vigilante, so please be polite and civil to your fellow playtesters and community members.

We are truly excited to see your thoughts and feedback on the vigilante. It's a class unlike any other that we've ever done and we hope it will make for an exciting addition to your game. See you on the boards!

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Choose Your Enemy

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Since the Pathfinder RPG NPC Codex is so packed with images of worthy allies and deadly foes, we’re starting the previews for it a bit early. This time, check out a crew of mid-level marauders, which you’ll find both in this expansive character catalog and in the Pathfinder RPG NPC Codex Box (the humanoid-heavy sibling of the Bestiary Box). Be sure to watch this space in the coming weeks for even more NPC Codex action!

Illustrations by Jason Engle, Damien Mammoliti, and Miroslav Petrov

F. Wesley Schneider
Editor-in-Chief

New Year, New Goblins

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Illustration by Miroslav Petrov

Everyone loves goblins, right? And by extension, folks are keen on their goblinoid brethren, the militaristic hobgoblins and the sadistic bugbears. Well, this month we introduce a new goblinoid subtype humanoid to Golarion—the kijimuna, a native of the Dragon Empires of Tian Xia. These CR 2 creatures are known for their wild, bright red hair and their wide, mischievous grins, and enjoy fishing almost as much as playing pranks and practical jokes on unsuspecting targets. Much like their Inner Sea cousins, kijimunas have a deep-seated fear of a single creature, in this case the octopus, and when faced with an octopus, a kijimuna either flees in terror or desperately fights. Unlike the other goblinoid races, however, kijimunas are not innately evil, and typically have chaotic neutral alignments.

The kijimuna receives a full write-up in the forthcoming Pathfinder Adventure Path #53: Tide of Honor, due to hit stores and subscribers’ mailboxes later this month, and appear in one of the two new Pathfinder Society Scenarios released last week—Pathfinder Society Scenario #3–11: The Quest for Perfection, Part II: On Hostile Waters—in which the intrepid Pathfinders journey through kijimuna territory as they sail down a great river.

Mark Moreland
Developer