Starfinder Playtest Errata: Wave 2

Thank you, Starfinder Team! <3

Nice! Especially glad for the lowered projectile ammo cost and clarification on Suppressed. Thanks, Starfinder team!

One thing that absolutely, positively needs to be added to the equipment list for Starfinder 2E is a towel. I mean, sure towels are primarily for hitchhikers rather than adventurers, but what's an adventurer if not a hitchhiker with a purpose? How a towel has not been added in pretty much any TTRPG I've seen so far is beyond me.

A towel, [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost." What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Lovely, thank you Starfinder Team ^^

Since it wasn't addressed here, I also feel the need to point out that the Mystic never gets expert in Perception. That's not intended is it?

something that might be good to clarify or errata at some point is how Soldier's Primary Target works with Area weapons since RAW it...doesn't? But it seems like it should based on abilities keying off of it for Area Weapons. A lot of people ive seen have just been running it as like "you can normally not make regular strikes with area weapons but you can only when you use primary target" but i have no idea if thats intentional

Huzzah now level 1 soldiers can buy enough ammo to actually dakka dakka enough to be worth having. While an interesting tactic shooting cred sticks at your opponents was not sustainable before.

Really glad to see errata of this nature even if the hotter topics around balance and class feel haven't really been touched. That said there's still certain things that ought to be clarified. What the hell is Ibra's favored weapon given that Plasma Rifles aren't a thing? Are containers being nerfed compared to backpacks intentionally or was that also a mistake? Also, newly introduced, if Apex augments never count towards your implant limit does that mean you can get every Apex augment (and therefore get their secondary, non stat-boosting abilities) at once? I'm sure there's others.

'Carcinization has evolved to lose the incapacitation trait,' *badumpish*

One thing I noticed is that the Operative's Striker Exploit transfers its proficiency in martial guns to one-handed agile melee weapons, but doesn't specify weapon groups. So technically, considering SF2/PF2 compatibility, Striker Operatives are expert in Advanced Sawtooth Sabers at level one. Makes for an excellent Red Mantis character but might throw up problems down the line.
I will also note my appreciation for the phrasing of "Carcinization has evolved to lose the incapacitation trait."

Wow!

Awesome!

Crab forever becomes more crabby.

Witchwarper doesn't have the aforementioned weapon increase at level 11 on the pdf

Good changes, but god sniper operative is just looking less and less appetizing. No reactions with any of the Snipers, unless you can manage to reload the Seeker Rifle.

Witchwarper doesn't have the aforementioned weapon increase at level 11 on the pdf

Errata is rarely reflected on the PDF release. That's why we have the errata.

Huzzah, Whirlwind Swipe got clarified just in time for my first playtest session tonight! I think two of us independently built close-quarters soldiers with that feat.

To confirm, batteries still cost just as much and are still only implied to be able to be recharged at charging stations with no clarification on how that works or typical costs?

To confirm, batteries still cost just as much and are still only implied to be able to be recharged at charging stations with no clarification on how that works or typical costs?

I noticed that as well but for the playtest most I am talking to seem to be using the SF1 rules for recharging batteries which I am pretty sure how that is going to shake out once the full rules come in. So basically you have less expensive initially per shot but expendable so always need to restock vs more expensive initially but better sustainability out in the vast where you can more easily recharge them to keep topped up between things.

As an addendum for those who didn't play sf1 players starships were assumed to have facilities to recharge batteries so basically every time you went back to your ship you could refill all your spare batteries.

With UPB you can make projectile ammo as well but still winds up costing you more over time than just using the juice your ship is already generating to refill batteries.

None of these aren't answering Tech gear's trait

I love the errata, thank you Paizo!

My nitpicky self also noticed a typo on one of the Operative items,

Page 88 (Operative): Replace the ghost operative's exploit's second and third sentence with: "You can Aim at targets your undetected by as a free action. If you successfully Strike a target you are undetected by, or has an attitude of friendly towards you, they become slowed 1 for 1 round."

Thank you all for your hard work! After being spoiled by PF2E's relative simplicity, it's going to be great to be able to explore the Starfinder setting with similar mechanics. <3

Overall, lot of good changes. I understand the need to save on larger changes for the sake of keeping data consistent, still hoping for various other changes, but for now, these are all great changes. Best of luck to the devs, and my thanks to them for their work.

Is there any plans to errata the fact that Striker Operative doesn't get scaling proficiency in unarmed attacks, as written? the increases only apply to weapons, making their expert proficiency in unarmed attacks a moot point

I am very surprised not a single quick fix for the Solarian Solar Flare/Solar Shot getting item bonuses from Solarian Crystals, seems like they missed a simple 1 minute errata to help fix the Solar Flare's problems. However I expect this to be a bigger errata down the line.

Love the errata, especially the weapon-based stuff. Now I don't need to feel guilty if I can do a playtest and pick up a bone scepter; thanks, guys.

What, exactly, is a typical combat expected to look like for a Sniper Operative? Especially one using 'one of the most popular weapons in the Vast," aka the Seeker Rifle?

With today's change to a single-shot magazine, and a GM that allows the reload to happen over 2 rounds, I get this:

R1: Aim, Fire, Begin Reload
R2: Complete Reload, Aim, Fire
R3: Reload 1, Reload 2, Action 3?

In this scenario, the Sniper is forced to spend a round doing something other than the operatives' stated primary objective of putting damage on the bad guys. You might as well give the Seeker Rifle Unwieldy, since it can't be fired more than once a round, and won't have any ammo in it for reactions.

If the GM isn't allowing the split reload, the Seeker only allows for an Aimed shot every other round At BEST, which makes one wonder why so many folks in the Vast seem to like it so much.

The only argument I've heard that makes even a little sense is that the Design intent is for the Sniper to move to a shiny new Martial Rifle at the earliest possible opportunity, but that makes the Choice of Seeker over other Rifles made at character creation really inconsequential.

I mean, in Pathfinder you're never going to see a character pick up a simple weapon when their martial proficiency is as good or better. The niche of the seeker rifle now is "a character without martial proficiency who expects to spend most of their actions on non-strikes(like a spellcaster)."

A sniper operative should just use an Assassin Rifle or a Shirren-Eye Rifle, which is straight up better at the cost of being martial. Martial weapons are supposed to be better than simple weapons. My sniper operative spent fully 2/3 of their starting credits on the gun. I hope to get paid before I need to make more than 20 shots.

I mean, in Pathfinder you're never going to see a character pick up a simple weapon when their martial proficiency is as good or better. The niche of the seeker rifle now is "a character without martial proficiency who expects to spend most of their actions on non-strikes(like a spellcaster)."

A sniper operative should just use an Assassin Rifle or a Shirren-Eye Rifle, which is straight up better at the cost of being martial. Martial weapons are supposed to be better than simple weapons. My sniper operative spent fully 2/3 of their starting credits on the gun. I hope to get paid before I need to make more than 20 shots.

It's now worse than a PF2e heavy crossbow, for reference. The weapon was overnerfed, one of the two changes would have sufficed, both just make it basically unplayable.

A character with simple weapon proficiency will likely now gravitate towards an Acid Dart Rifle or Laser Rifle because of no Volley (60ft).

PossibleCabbage wrote:

I mean, in Pathfinder you're never going to see a character pick up a simple weapon when their martial proficiency is as good or better. The niche of the seeker rifle now is "a character without martial proficiency who expects to spend most of their actions on non-strikes(like a spellcaster)."

A sniper operative should just use an Assassin Rifle or a Shirren-Eye Rifle, which is straight up better at the cost of being martial. Martial weapons are supposed to be better than simple weapons. My sniper operative spent fully 2/3 of their starting credits on the gun. I hope to get paid before I need to make more than 20 shots.

It's now worse than a PF2e heavy crossbow, for reference. The weapon was overnerfed, one of the two changes would have sufficed, both just make it basically unplayable.

A character with simple weapon proficiency will likely now gravitate towards an Acid Dart Rifle or Laser Rifle because of no Volley (60ft).

Agreed, As you said, you're better off with a heavy crossbow, or even a repeating heavy crossbow.

A Volley (60 feet) trait is insane for a 120-foot range increment. Maybe for like, a 200-foot range increment that'd sound reasonable, but that's overkill for only 120 feet.

The backpack catapult has a Volley (50 feet) trait, but it has a range increment of 240 feet.

Ah, a return of the puzzle: does subtle hide the gestures made in spellcasting?

Having manipulate and subtle on the same spell suggests it does not, but conceal spell mentions hiding gestures and actions as part of gaining subtle... Subtle needs a clearer description I think.

What, exactly, is a typical combat expected to look like for a Sniper Operative? Especially one using 'one of the most popular weapons in the Vast," aka the Seeker Rifle?

With today's change to a single-shot magazine, and a GM that allows the reload to happen over 2 rounds, I get this:

R1: Aim, Fire, Begin Reload
R2: Complete Reload, Aim, Fire
R3: Reload 1, Reload 2, Action 3?

In this scenario, the Sniper is forced to spend a round doing something other than the operatives' stated primary objective of putting damage on the bad guys. You might as well give the Seeker Rifle Unwieldy, since it can't be fired more than once a round, and won't have any ammo in it for reactions.

If the GM isn't allowing the split reload, the Seeker only allows for an Aimed shot every other round At BEST, which makes one wonder why so many folks in the Vast seem to like it so much.

The only argument I've heard that makes even a little sense is that the Design intent is for the Sniper to move to a shiny new Martial Rifle at the earliest possible opportunity, but that makes the Choice of Seeker over other Rifles made at character creation really inconsequential.

Simple, you never aim.

It deals more damage on average than the other sniper rifles due to the hair trigger every other round. Its boring, and doesn't use the operatives main class feature, but it's effective, although at that point I would use an edge other than sniper.

Give "Hair trigger" a -5 penalty to attack. That should power it down

Not that this isn't appreciated but do we have an ETA on any meatier changes to the playtest?

So does this mean that if I'm legendary in deception, but master in ranged weapons, I can use the card gun at legendary?

I'm also confused on how this works with the singing coil, which uses a class DC

So does this mean that if I'm legendary in deception, but master in ranged weapons, I can use the card gun at legendary?

I'm also confused on how this works with the singing coil, which uses a class DC

Originally it let you use skill if the weapon was not simple up to your limit of Simple Weapon Proficiency. The Singing Coil is to add your Item Bonus to Perform checks BUT I will admit the new wording is very confusing and I read it as being completely broken but I assume what it means is, if your skill is higher then the class of weapon proficiency, Simple,Martial, Advance, you treat it as one step lower for proficiency so Card Slinger with Deception goes from Advance to Martial as long as you have 0 proficiency in advance weapons but training in Deception, which then uses your Martial Proficiency.... Confusing yes and kinda silly but fun!