Starfinder Society Class Playtest

Monday, December 3, 2018

With the release of the Starfinder Character Operations Manual Playtest, the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild is also opening its doors to a limited form of playtest. Since these classes won't be released until late 2019, we're looking at allowing players the chance to try these classes out during the playtest period.

Playtest Period: The availability for these rules runs from the publishing of this post until the end of the playtest period (January 16th, 2019.) Once this period has expired, players can no longer use the Starfinder Character Operations Manual Playtest classes until the publication of the book in late 2019.

How It Works: Given the smaller volume of scenarios that Starfinder Society has compared to Pathfinder Society, we've elected not to force players to choose between playtesting new classes on new characters or ignoring the playtest to continue with existing characters. As a happy medium between these options, we're opening up Society play for the playtest classes via the use of custom created characters that operate much like our pregenerated characters. We believe this should encourage players to test the waters with custom builds, be it with current scenarios or through our growing stable of repeatable options.

Creating a Playtest Character: Prior to playing a scenario in the playtest period, a player can determine if they want to playtest one of the new classes. Depending on the tier of the scenario, the player can then use a 1st-, 4th- or 8th-level character using one of the classes in the Starfinder Character Operations Manual Playtest and created using the following guidelines:

  • Classes: The character must have all levels in a single playtest class. Although multiclassing ramifications are important for the playtest as a whole, we're keeping to single classes in the organized play portion of the playtest for simplicity.
  • 1st Level: The character can be created using the character creation rules presented in the Starfinder Core Rulebook and Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide.
  • 4th Level: This character follows the same rules as above, except it can select one 4th level armor or weapon and one 3rd level armor or weapon. In addition, the player can spend up to 4,000 credits on other available equipment.
  • 8th Level: This character follows the same rules as above, except it can select one 8th level armor or weapon and one 7th level armor or weapon. In addition, the player can spend up to 18,000 credits on other available equipment.

Credit: The credit earned for playing a playtest character follows the same rules and guidelines as presented on page 7 of the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide. This means that you must choose which of your characters will receive the credit at the beginning of the adventure. Credit must be assigned to characters of lower level than the playtest character.

Resolving Conditions: We recognize that players taking the opportunity to playtest these characters are performing a service for the game and campaign. As a result, whenever a player playtests a 4th- or 8th-level version of these characters, the cost to purchase a raise dead is reduced to 6 Fame and subsequent restorations to remove the negative levels are only 1 Fame each. This means that there's still some risk to your established characters, but the penalty for dying as a playtest character is far less onerous than it would be for a normal character or pregenerated character.

Applying Credit: As we want to encourage extra play of the higher-level versions of these classes, we're also going to open up the rules for applying credit when playing a playtest character. A player using a non-1st-level playtest character may choose to apply the earned Chronicle sheet to an existing Organized Play character. To do so, simply replace the credits earned on the Chronicle sheet with credits from the list below that match the level range of the existing player character.

  • Levels 1-2: 720 credits (2,160 credits for Adventure Path module)
  • Levels 3-4: 1,460 credits (4,380 credits for Adventure Path module)
  • Levels 5-6: 4,085 credits (12,255 credits for Adventure Path module)
  • Levels 7-8: 5,835 credits (17,505 credits for Adventure Path module)

Shields: As a special note, the availability of shields, as presented with the vanguard class, are available for all playtest characters (biohacker, vanguard and witchwarper) to try out. However, shields cannot be purchased for other organized play characters.

With all this in mind, we encourage our players to take an active part in the playtest, both by sharing your opinions online in the Playtest forums and by completing the playtest surveys. We hope that by opening up the means in which players can create and customize characters for the playtest, that we can see some unique and fun builds using these new classes and that such tests will provide the design team with priceless "field agent" feedback!

I look forward to hearing from each of you about your experiences with the Starfinder Character Operations Manual classes and am even more excited to see these classes join the roster of Starfinder classes officially in late 2019.

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Organized Play Starfinder Playtests Starfinder Society
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Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

@Thurston: for equipment, could we also take weapon/armor of lower than maximum level? For example, when making a level 8 pregen, can we take a level 8 armor but only a level 6 weapon?

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

I'd treat that as the rules for NPC creation for Starfinder, where you are allowed to go one level down if there is a compelling thematic option that you want to better fit a character.

Hmm

1/5

I, for one, welcome our new playtest overlords.

Paizo Employee 5/5 Starfinder Society Developer

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Lau Bannenberg wrote:
@Thurston: for equipment, could we also take weapon/armor of lower than maximum level? For example, when making a level 8 pregen, can we take a level 8 armor but only a level 6 weapon?

Lower is fine.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Gotta remember how to build a character without HLO now :P

Grand Lodge 3/5

First complaint to Playtest: WITCHWARPER NEEDS ACCESS TO MAGIC MISSILE. Why leave out such an iconic spell to this class's spell list?

I cobbled together a Damaya Lashunta Biohacker and a Halfling Witchwarper for a quest run this weekend

Honestly, reading over the Biohacker, it'd make a great multiclass with the Operative. Trick shot debuff combined with counteragent debuff can ruin boss fights.

Dark Archive 3/5 5/55/5 *

Will we be allowed to use Archetypes for the Playtest?
I'm not sure if that counts as Multi-classing or not.

Also, are we allowed to replay the #1-00 with a replay Character?
I have played/GMed it already, and don't wish to signup for games I'm not allowed credit for.

1/5 5/55/55/55/5

Starfinder Superscriber
Selvaxri wrote:
First complaint to Playtest: WITCHWARPER NEEDS ACCESS TO MAGIC MISSILE. Why leave out such an iconic spell to this class's spell list?

That's the technomancer's iconic spell. I agree though that Witchwarper needs a decent low-level damage spell, that's the first thing I noticed when looking over the spell list.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

Cyd the Arcmagi wrote:

Will we be allowed to use Archetypes for the Playtest?

I'm not sure if that counts as Multi-classing or not.

Also, are we allowed to replay the #1-00 with a replay Character?
I have played/GMed it already, and don't wish to signup for games I'm not allowed credit for.

I have a very sad player who wants to join my Playtest run of 1-00 (that was scheduled before the Playtest announcement) but has already played 1-00.

It would be great if we could let them replay during the Playtest.

Hmm

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Agent, Georgia—Atlanta

Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:
Cyd the Arcmagi wrote:

Will we be allowed to use Archetypes for the Playtest?

I'm not sure if that counts as Multi-classing or not.

Also, are we allowed to replay the #1-00 with a replay Character?
I have played/GMed it already, and don't wish to signup for games I'm not allowed credit for.

I have a very sad player who wants to join my Playtest run of 1-00 (that was scheduled before the Playtest announcement) but has already played 1-00.

It would be great if we could let them replay during the Playtest.

Hmm

They could always play to make the table, or if they happened to have a character that is Tier 1 with Second Seekers (Jadnura)...

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

I have four players already. And yes, I told them about Tier 1 with Second Seekers Jadnura.

Hmm

Grand Lodge 3/5

Arc Riley wrote:
Selvaxri wrote:
First complaint to Playtest: WITCHWARPER NEEDS ACCESS TO MAGIC MISSILE. Why leave out such an iconic spell to this class's spell list?

That's the technomancer's iconic spell. I agree though that Witchwarper needs a decent low-level damage spell, that's the first thing I noticed when looking over the spell list.

By all accounts, Shifting Surge is probably going to be a Witchwarper's go-to spell half the time. 2d6 additional damage to any weapon's energy attack, AND change the element?!

At lvl 1, Witchwarper could do 1d4+2d6 damage to EAC with a lazer or hail pistol, or farting spider [whatever that living weapon is called]. compared to 3d4+3 with a full-turn Magic Missile.

Hell, imagine a super-charged shifted doshko at lvl 1...

1/5 5/55/55/55/5

Starfinder Superscriber

Shifting Surge doesn't guarantee a hit, huge difference. Even at higher levels Magic Missile remains relevant because no matter what it'll hit, even at just 11.5 avg damage per round its better than trying to hit something with an AC/DR/Res that you can't normally overcome.

Casting a spell that adds damage to a ranged attack is doubly worse; if you miss a touch attack spell like Jolting Surge you still have the spell and can try again until it discharges. But Shifting Surge only lasts one round - if you miss, that's it. You cast a spell, it has a 1 round duration, you didn't hit anything during that round, better luck next time.

Well - at least Shifting Surge targets the person wielding the flame doshko rather than their target so there shouldn't be SR at least? Nope. Still has SR.

Worse, given the current text a GM could rule that all of the damage dealt by the temporarily Shifting Surge'd flame doshko, because the energy is converted to another energy type, is blocked if the caster fails to overcome SR.

Compare this to the Technomancer's Supercharge Weapon which adds 4d6 and is unaffected by SR. Both have touch range. The other advantage Shifting Surge has is it'll affect multiple hits if made in one round.


Arc Riley wrote:


Casting a spell that adds damage to a ranged attack is doubly worse; if you miss a touch attack spell like Jolting Surge you still have the spell and can try again until it discharges.

This isn't true in Starfinder, I'm pretty sure. There's no rule allowing you to retain a charge for a touch attack if you miss.

Core Rulebook, pg 335 wrote:
Spells with Attack Rolls: Some spells require an attack roll to hit. For these spells, you don’t need line of sight to the target, but you still need line of effect (see page 271). These spells can score a critical hit just as a weapon can, and deal double damage on a successful critical hit. If one of these spells has a duration, it refers to the duration of the effect that the attack causes, not the length of time that the attack itself persists.

The above is the only relevant text I've ever found on this subject. There's nothing affirmatively giving you the ability to keep a charge.

Arc Riley wrote:


Well - at least Shifting Surge targets the person wielding the flame doshko rather than their target so there shouldn't be SR at least? Nope. Still has SR.

Worse, given the current text a GM could rule that all of the damage dealt by the temporarily Shifting Surge'd flame doshko, because the energy is converted to another energy type, is blocked if the caster fails to overcome SR.

The SR check is against the target, which is the ally you touch, not the target you shoot.

Given that this is contrary to how Supercharge Weapon works, one of these is likely in error. Probably Supercharge Weapon.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

Arc Riley wrote:
Shifting Surge doesn't guarantee a hit, huge difference. Even at higher levels Magic Missile remains relevant because no matter what it'll hit, even at just 11.5 avg damage per round its better than trying to hit something with an AC/DR/Res that you can't normally overcome.

Just curious, but how are you calculating 11.5 average damage from 3d4+3? Apologies in advance if I missed something earlier in the thread about this.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

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Xenocrat wrote:
This isn't true in Starfinder, I'm pretty sure. There's no rule allowing you to retain a charge for a touch attack if you miss.
Core Rulebook page 271 wrote:

Touch Effects and Holding the Charge

Some effects, most notably spells, have a range of touch (see Range below) and require an action to activate. In most cases, if you don’t discharge a touch effect on the round you create it, you can postpone the discharge of the effect (also known as holding the charge) indefinitely. You can make touch attacks round after round until the effect is discharged. If you make any other attack, activate another ability, or cast a spell during this time, the touch effect dissipates.
Core Rulebook page 272 wrote:

Effects with Attack Rolls

Some targeted effects require an attack roll to hit their target. These effects can score critical hits just as weapons can, and when they do, they deal double damage on a critical hit.
If a targeted effect that requires an attack roll lists a duration, it refers to how long the effect lasts on the target (if the attack roll is successful), not how long you have to make an attack.

Hope that helps!


Pretty foolish of me to expect that to be in the magic and spells chapter, I guess.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

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I agree with you wholeheartedly, there.

1/5 5/55/55/55/5

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Starfinder Superscriber
Mike Bramnik wrote:
Just curious, but how are you calculating 11.5 average damage from 3d4+3? Apologies in advance if I missed something earlier in the thread about this.

You're right its 10.5 (2.5*3 = 7.5, + 3), head math gone wrong.


Thurston Hillman wrote:


3) See above, but essentially you can apply the credit based on the level ranges listed. So if you use the 8th level, you can reduce the credits earned based on the level of the character you're applying it to.

Does this mean XP can be applied immediately to a lower-level existing character as well?

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Agent, Georgia—Atlanta

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It does

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

I have a question re. the Level 8 Biohacker Theorem:
Versatile Injections (Ex)
You can use fringe science to tweak your injections that would normally affect only living creatures to instead affect any creature.

This "only" means that you can apply the normal effects to non living enemies (like Endocrinology making them off-target) not that you can also apply effects that do not normally work on undead & constructs etc. (like Enzymology making the target fatigued), correct?

Grand Lodge 3/5

It says in the Injections:

Quote:
Injections come in two varieties: counteragents and restoratives. Unless otherwise stated, counteragents and restoratives affect both living and unliving creatures.

Reading through all the Fields of Study, all the counteragents mention "living creatures" so, this Theorem would allow counteragents and restoratives to effect any creature, in case you come across SRO's and other Constructs.


Eric Collins - France wrote:

I have a question re. the Level 8 Biohacker Theorem:

Versatile Injections (Ex)
You can use fringe science to tweak your injections that would normally affect only living creatures to instead affect any creature.

This "only" means that you can apply the normal effects to non living enemies (like Endocrinology making them off-target) not that you can also apply effects that do not normally work on undead & constructs etc. (like Enzymology making the target fatigued), correct?
Unliving, Alien Archive pg 154 wrote:
The creature has no Constitution score or modifier. Any DCs or other statistics that rely on a Constitution score treat the creature as having a score of 10 (+0). The creature is immediately destroyed when it reaches 0 Hit Points. An unliving creature doesn’t heal damage naturally, but a construct can be repaired with the right tools. Spells such as make whole can heal constructs, and magic effects can heal undead. An unliving creature with fast healing (see page 150) still benefits from that ability. Unliving creatures don’t breathe, eat, or sleep. They can’t be raised or resurrected, except through the use of miracle, wish, or a similar effect that specifically works on unliving creatures.

As you can see, the unliving quality isn't what grants those other immunities (fatigued, poison, etc.) - they come from the subtype, which Versatile Injections doesn't change, and so can't overcome.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

@Xenocrat: thanks!
That is what I thought...


I'm a little confused by the applying credit section:
"This means that you must choose which of your characters will receive the credit at the beginning of the adventure. Credit must be assigned to characters of lower level than the playtest character."
So if I must apply credit to a lower character does this mean I can't use a lvl1 playtest character, as I can't have a character less than level one? Would I just get no credit for that scenario? How would this be reported if there is no 7XX character number to apply it to?

Dataphiles 4/5 5/55/5 *

Long story short, you can apply credit to a level 1 character.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

Thurston - here's an odd question that came up this weekend.

Say PCs in a higher level game fail some of the scenario objectives that causes them to lose credits. Because they're using playtest characters, is this effectively nullified on their chronicle sheet when they take the credit for a lower leveled character? If not, should GMs reduce the credits earned by the % lost in the actual tier played?

Example w/spoilers from #1-19:
When I ran this earlier today, the PCs failed to find all of the beacons, and should have lost 250 credits for it. They also set off the trap in the mountains, costing another 714 credits. By my napkin-math at the table, they lost 16.6% of their max possible credit reward, but then all but one of the players were taking the chronicle for a level 1-3 PC.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

I ran into the same question last week after the party failed the bossfight in #1-26. I looked at the difference in max credits (1400 something) and level 1 credits (720 something) so I halved the penalty to credits as well. Not sure it's perfectly the solution but it seemed like the spirit of the rules to me.


I got to play a level 8 biohacker for a game of 1-27 over the weekend. Having tried it, I'm glad you're handling playtesting this way for SFS. Coming up with a new level 8 character from scratch was no joke, but it was valuable experience and then I got to see how my choices fit in with and compared to a group of non-playtest characters (three level 7s). It was great for scheduling because the game was already going to run anyway and didn't require anything special apart from the GM being made aware of the playtest guidelines. I also don't have a SFS character of my own at that high of a level yet, so it let me participate in this game without being forced to use a pregen. (Not that I dislike the pregens - I've had quite a bit of fun with them in the past.)

One concern I had was that being able to apply a chronicle directly to a lower-level character might in some cases give them access to boons that were originally intended not to come into play until higher levels. But I'm not sure how much of a problem that would really be.

Anyway, thanks for setting up this method of in-the-field playtesting for us! I have dutifully filled out my survey. :)

Silver Crusade 4/5 5/55/55/5 RPG Superstar 2013 Top 8

Eleanor Good wrote:
One concern I had was that being able to apply a chronicle directly to a lower-level character might in some cases give them access to boons that were originally intended not to come into play until higher levels.

You don't get them until the character who received credit is higher level.

Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide 1.1 p. 8 wrote:
You do not benefit from any boons until your Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild character reaches the minimum level listed on the Chronicle sheet, unless otherwise noted.

3/5

Michael Eshleman wrote:
Eleanor Good wrote:
One concern I had was that being able to apply a chronicle directly to a lower-level character might in some cases give them access to boons that were originally intended not to come into play until higher levels.

You don't get them until the character who received credit is higher level.

Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide 1.1 p. 8 wrote:
You do not benefit from any boons until your Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild character reaches the minimum level listed on the Chronicle sheet, unless otherwise noted.

Can we please get clarification if this is true or not for this particular situation, as it is not clear from the OP that anything is lost or delayed beyond the credits. It was noted, even, that the more flexible applying rules were to act as incentive to encourage higher play.

Thank you.


Ah, I see, invoking the "unless otherwise noted" clause. That would resolve my concern, but yeah clarification would probably help to make sure we're all on the same page.

5/5 5/55/55/5

What wording could possibly make that clearer? Its not noted so you follow the default rule.


BigNorseWolf wrote:
What wording could possibly make that clearer? Its not noted so you follow the default rule.

For me, the issue is that the rule quoted from the guide is not a universal default, it's what you do when applying a credit from playing a pregen to a newly created, 1st-level character. That's not what's happening here. The blog post just says to apply the chronicle to a lower-level character by simply reducing the credits earned. When I read it I figured that meant that everything else on the chronicle is unchanged.

After having it pointed out, I agree that it makes sense to hold the boons that way. But I don't think it's self-evident from reading the blog post and I might not be the only person out there who interpreted it that way.

5/5

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Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

This was discussed on the Org Play Online Discord on Dec 5.
Short version:

TheMaskedFerret wrote:
it seems to me, that they may get access to some boons early...
Star Daddy Thursty wrote:

Sure do.

Sure do get some really nice benefits from playing these pregens, almost like it's the holiday season or something

Long (unformatted) version:

Spoiler:

Moofed 12/05/2018
Question on applying playtest credit: If I use a level 8 playtest character in a session played at the 7-8 subtier, and apply it to a lower level character (level 6 for example) as described in the playtest blog, is the 7-8 subtier equipment crossed off the chronicle?

Noven 12/05/2018
I wouldn't think so

Yiroep (GM Andrew) 12/05/2018
The chronicle doesn't apply until your character is level 8.
It's when it hits the level of the pregen for when it applies.

TheMaskedFerret [UTC-5, Eastern] 12/05/2018
@Yiroep (GM Andrew) @Moofed
Playtest stuff is special, per Thursty. It bypasses the normal assignment rules for Pregen credits.
From the blog:
+Applying Credit: As we want to encourage extra play of the higher-level versions of these classes, we're also going to open up the rules for applying credit when playing a playtest character. A player using a non-1st-level playtest character may choose to apply the earned Chronicle sheet to an existing Organized Play character. To do so, simply replace the credits earned on the Chronicle sheet with credits from the list below that match the level range of the existing player character.

Levels 1-2: 720 credits (2,160 credits for Adventure Path module)
Levels 3-4: 1,460 credits (4,380 credits for Adventure Path module)
Levels 5-6: 4,085 credits (12,255 credits for Adventure Path module)
Levels 7-8: 5,835 credits (17,505 credits for Adventure Path module)

- 3) Does the credit from a Playtest character apply the same as a Pregen, in that if you use a level 8 pregen, that credit does not apply until your character is level 8?

+Thursty:
+3) See above, but essentially you can apply the credit based on the level ranges listed. So if you use the 8th level, you can reduce the credits earned based on the level of the character you're applying it to.

(( see https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sgei?Starfinder-Society-Class-Pla ytest#5))

Yiroep (GM Andrew) 12/05/2018
ah, thx

Moofed 12/05/2018
Right. So the answer is the character gets access to the listed equipment? Subject to Level+2 limitations like normal of course.

TheMaskedFerret [UTC-5, Eastern] 12/05/2018
Yes.
And, it seems to me, that they may get access to some boons early...
((Because things apply differently))

Star Daddy Thursty 12/05/2018
Sure do.
Sure do get some really nice benefits from playing these pregens, almost like it's the holiday season or something :stuck_out_tongue:


Oh! And just when I'd been convinced of the alternative, heh.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

Thank you for this post, Moofed.

3/5

Yes, thank you Moofed.

Dataphiles 5/55/55/5 Venture-Agent, Netherlands

I 3rd this thanks Moofed!

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