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Starting at odd levels up to 7th? A commitment to have most content available without boons, including ancestries? Two thumbs up in my book. I stopped playing OP back in like 2020 when the big drama about playable ancestries and the high XP costs to purchase boons for them was at its height. I decided that I wasn't going to play OP until that was addressed. This looks like it addresses my concerns, and I look forward to playing SFS 2E. Any chance you'll give me a way to play kitsune in SF2 with low/reasonable effort? ;3
Very excited to see y'all get your books next week. ^^ I had a lot of fun writing Gravelands Survivors, and there's a lot I love about this book. It has some of my favorite prose work out of any of the 3-4 adventures I've written for Paizo thus far. I'm curious to see if anyone can find the line I like the most. (Hint: It's in the opener, since most adventure prose is about setting the scene and all. :3)
Huzzah! Hopefully y'all survive this one. >:)
WHOA, there's no more product exhibit compatibility list for the new Paizo compatibility license? That's FANTASTIC news.
The Dead Walk seems SUPER cool and fun!
It's a lovely story! Now I need to know—how long does it take Shirren to go from larval size to adult-size like Chk Chk? GIVE ME ALIEN SPECIES LIFE CYCLES STARFINDER TE— *gets carried away by vulkarisu, frothing*
I'm looking forward to this for my swashbuckler. I think, "You always get Panache on a fail," is better than having scaling skills, personally. It means that when I roll my best skill and do poorly, I still get something. Having a higher bonus isn't going to help me when the die roll is low.
The whole, "Androids don't need to breathe" thing works fine in a game where everyone gets that blanket immunity via their armor. But honestly? That blanket immunity SUCKS like Thursty said several posts up. If you ask me, Armor is too important in Starfinder 1E; you basically have no ability to dodge or defend yourself against attacks on your own without it, and it literally renders entire chapters of the Core Rulebook into wastes of paper. Honestly, androids needing to breathe is fine in my opinion. I do, however, think that both teams need to look at giving a better benefit than just, "You get +1 to saves against this specific thing that monsters with your trait are generally immune to!" I know that one of the Three Action System's mantras is that, "Every +1 is important!" but that doesn't change the fact that a +1 in a sea of +1s doesn't feel fun. I'd love to see it change to something like, "If you get a critical failure against a disease, you get a failure instead. If you get a success, you get a critical success instead." I think that would feel a lot more fun and impactful then a small numeric bonus, but that's just in my opinion.
As a freelancer who worked on a significant amount of Starfinder First Edition, this document actually reinforces the vibe I got playing the envoy at PAXU last month—Starfinder 2E feels WAY more like Starfinder 1E then Pathfinder 2E felt like Pathfinder 1E. Like, for starters every feat and heritage in this document is a thoughtful conversion of at least one of SF1's alternate racial traits. Great example is the android heritage that lets you pick a function your body was designed for and specialize in it; I wrote that alternate racial trait in SF1's Character Operations Manual. Contrast that to a lot of what's been going on in Pathfinder 2E where the design often feels like it goes out of its way to avoid legacy conversions, and this has me pretty excited. I agree with some of the points that have been made about the conversion. Yeah, the system plays differently. My Starfinder 1E players can regularly take fights up to CR +4 with a lot of damage taken, but not too much difficulty, so the math is going to be pretty different there. And I definitely prefer everything about the PF1 Soldier to the PF2 Soldier we saw in the first Field Test, but the Developers have been pretty clear that their internal documents for the Playtest have changed substantially. I like the direction this team is going in, and I'm excited to see where they take Starfinder 2E.
G&$ D@~N the rizz on page 27's illustration, am I right?
Unarmed Exemplars, by beloved! Here's hoping that ikon works with weird unarmed strikes like foxfire and seed pod!
Hey there, it's your GM here to tease you because for the first 5 levels of Teenaged Wasteland your mystic was a luddite who hated technology and preferred that his magic be "old fashioned." Fun factoid, as Dustin's GM I can confirm that this class OOZES with flavor from his kitsune mystic in our home games.
I know a lot of people are excited about getting another nature / divine spellcasting class, but the flavor of the animist just SCREAMS "binder" to me in a way that Secrets of Magic's Pactmaker archetype just doesn't. This class does everything I'd want a binder to do, and I kind wish this could BE the creepy guy who makes weird pacts with strange entities they don't really understand. I feel like this wouldn't be super difficult either. Most martial classes can pick Strength or Dexterity as their Key Attribute. What if this class could pick Wisdom or Charisma, and if you picked Wisdom you used the divine spell list and if you picked Charisma you used the occult spell list? It's an easy enough house rule I suppose, but there's nothing quite like the rule being ubiquitous in the book, eh?
Title says it all. I'm getting ready to play my exemplar on Saturday, and this is by far the coolest class in this game. It literally has everything I wish other martial classes had: 1) It's not weapon locked. I know there's concerns about it not having an unarmed attack ikon yet, but Mike Sayre's comments make it pretty clear that it's on the table. That means this is one of the only martial classes that has support for every possible weapon style. Most other classes get locked into specific weapons like an MMORPG classes, and the exemplar can just do anything and has support for everything. I would like to see this as the standard for PF2 classes going forward. 2) Cinematic as Hell. The class just DOES cool things and makes you feel cool as you level up. I'm a big fan of the ability that just drops lightning bolts onto people. It's also got a ton of neat feat options. That's it.That's all I've ever wanted. This is by far my favorite martial class, and I can't wait to report back on it after our game on Saturday!
Jason Keeley and I are both huge fans of creepypasta and weird Internet things like Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared! I was really excited to use the data constructs in the Dataverse in that way.
...B-but I like alignment :( I don't like alignment personally, but I don't think its a matter of your preference versus my preference. Chances are that alignment is considered a mechanic that might be indefensible in the court if Wizards decided to sue Paizo over using their brand identity. The concept of, "a mechanic that measures your goodness" is definitely a game mechanic that probably couldn't be sued over, but using that rule and calling it alignment could be argued as D&D product identity, and it's probably easier to trash it as a result.
SO, I know nothing about what Paizo may or may not be doing, but here's some likely considerations. If the goal is to break free from the OGL, then there's a VERY legally gray zone regarding, "What can we use without using the OGL?" For example, the concept of, "rolling a die for an attack against a value to determine what happens" is not copyrightable because it's a game mechanic, but arguably, terms like "Armor Class" and "saving throw" might be. I don't know, I'm not a lawyer, but lawyers probably don't know either because basically every TTRPG company in America has been doing their best to avoid going to court because the ruling given could be ... interesting. This means it's VERY Likely that we're going to see soft changes, ie terms changing that don't change the actual rules of the game. This is likely necessary to play ball in the same stadium as a company of wizards that seems okay with ruthlessly dismantling the tabletop games community.
NO MORE ALIGNMENT!
Weren't Robot Dragons already in an Alien Archive? Or am I thinking of something else? They are, but when I wrote Into the Dataverse I wanted a disintegrator dragon, which doesn't appear in an Alien Archive. So I wrote one. >: )
As far as I'm aware, Owen was never contacted by Paizo to not do Shadowfinder. I think the stall was more about his health, which hasn't been great for a while. He's currently diagnosed with Stage II Colon Cancer and there are two different PDF Bundles (Bundle #1 and Bundle #2) up to help him try and cover the costs. I asked him a few months ago, and he said he's very intrigued by Starfinder Enhanced and is looking forward to seeing how a new crop of designers moved the game forward.
Re: the "Starfinder becomes PF2 Compatible" discussion, I know my personal hope is that when the time for a Second Edition comes, that Starfinder takes a few good ideas from Pathfinder 2E like the 3 Action Economy and transitioning the Leveled Equipment system to a Mk upgrade system that mirrors fundamental runes in PF2, but also gives itself the space to be it's own game. I'm not in Starfinder Enhanced (I was assigned to Into the Dataverse at the time, and that was a three-month project), but I think a book like this that turns Starfinder into the best version of itself is better than a theoretical book that turns Starfinder into a different version of a different game and am really excited for it to get into people's hands! Including mine.
Nice to look forward to the future of Starfinder I guess. I think that when you get a chance to read the adventure and how it leaves the state of the galaxy, it'll be pretty clear that the future of Starfinder is bright. Bright and weird, my favorite. ;)
I had the same initial reaction. Luckily mystics do have epiphanies as alternate class features, and there are some decent ones. Hopefully we get even more of them in this book!! I hope so too! I originally wrote epiphanies thinking that we were going to see a lot of new ones over time, and that hasn't been the case. We definitely need some customization love for the Mystic. Being the strongest spellcaster shouldn't mean that you don't get to customize much.
Name's in the thread. Why do I need to Play Pathfinder 2E to play kitsune, grippli, hobgoblin, or kobolds in Starfinder? Like, I get that it's supposed to be a cool crossplay thing, but now I feel like I have to use my Achievement Points for Pathfinder to play what I want to play in Starfinder. It just feels bad.
What do you still need? Interesting question! While there are definitely a lot of great class concepts out there that I would really appreciate seeing in Pathfinder 2E, I think the thing I can definitely say that I need more than anything else is that I need a hero. I'm holding out for a hero until the end of the night. He's gotta be strong (key ability: Strength), he's gotta be fast (+10 Speed bonus for sure), and he's gotta be fresh from the fight (maybe something to help him regain Hit Points after an encounter?). Yeah, definitely think I need a hero, and I'll be holding out for one until the end of the night. Gotta double down on the Strength and the Speed. Ooh, I know! Maybe something to give him enlarge person? My PC really needs to be larger than life. ... wait. I just described a giant instinct barbarian, didn't I? Hm. I'll have to think more on this tomorrow.
I got a shout-out! <3 Spoiler: I love you too, my dazzling Knight. Keep on enhancing Starfinder with your talent and creativity!
Good. It’s about time!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Come along, friends! I have such wondrously fascinating things to show you!
I am VERY excited for y'all to see this AP next year.
But tell me, Luis, does this book have rules for property values?! I NEED TO BUY A HOUSE FOR MY PC, LUIS!
This could have been called the Deck of Many Faces?!?! WHYYYYYYYYY! (Still looks rad, though!)
I thought the same thing watching that video! The know direction beyond crew is nothing if not honest about what they think about products, and they gave this very high praise. Thank you! We try very specifically to be honest about how we feel about content so that when we offer praise, our fans (and Paizo staff) know that it means something. I mean, we're biased; my name's in the Starfinder CRB and V's written hundreds of pages of awesome Starfinder content, like two whole AP volumes at this point. But it's very important to us that we're biased with integrity, and I'm glad that our honesty shines through about the book! In addition to reviewing our early access PDF last month, we had John Compton on at twitch.tv/knowdirection to talk about the making of Drift Crisis, so if you want even more behind-the-scenes info about the book, check the episode out there. It'll also be available to listen to in podcast form tomorrow (5/13) at knowdirectionpodcast.com. You know, unless we get SUPER unlucky, it being Friday the 13th and all.
Cool!
Thank you for taking the time to write this up, Mark! This is great. :D
Also, there were a few people who were like, "Your post got too heated and passionate so I stopped listening to anything you said." You're perfectly entitled to that response, but I'd challenge you to question in yourselves why perceived emotion devalues the quality of my opinions in a thread literally titled, "Respectful Opinions about PF2." I may have been emotional, sure. I am an emotional person. But being emotional and having feelings doesn't invalidate my thoughts and opinions. You don't need to be an unfeeling bastion of rationality to have valid thoughts and experiences, and respect doesn't necessitate a lack of emotion.
A lot of people replied to my post and I thank you for that (as well as 22 Likes!!). Out of respect for the OP and the spirit of this thread, I'm not going to engage in a discussion for any of them, but there was this one post I saw that I wanted to speak on: The only other major unaddressed issue I can think of is Recall Knowledge rules. Both in terms of clarity and structure. I agree with this, mostly because all the different rules for recalling knowledge are all over the place. The rules in the skills chapter don't, like, list DCs or anything. I found them later in the GM chapter, which is weird to me. I feel like it's okay for players to generally know how difficult something is, so why put that in the back of the book? Also, I agree that for the number of options that there are in the game that interface with Recall Knowledge in encounter mode, it's strange how vague it is. I'm currently listening to the Outcast and Outclassed 2E podcast, and there was one point where the GM-appointed Rules Lawyer was like, "Yeah PF2 handles it one way but that way is confusing so I recommend just doing it like PF1." I don't think that's a good look for a rule, personally.
1) The Math.
2) Feats
Similarly, the game doesn't give enough feats for how niche many of them are. This is evidenced by how popular Free Archetype is, in my opinion. One of the most common statements I see is, "Pathfinder 2E doesn't feel complete without free archetype," and in my opinion that means the game doesn't give enough feats baseline (or that those feats aren't meaningful, but that's another discussion). 3) Free-Bies
4) Rarity
5) Overcorrection Mechanics
There's sort of this design idea that games need to be catered to the GM because, "Without no GM, no one can play our game!" And I think Pathfinder 2E did a good job making a game that's legit fun to GM. I enjoy running Pathfinder 2E. But none of my local friends want to play Pathfinder 2E because of how the game treats players and character building (quantity of feats is not quality of feats), so I don't get to run PF2 unless I do it with strangers online. If a game isn't fun for players to play, they won't. 6) The Investigator Class
To me, it feels like they took every cool ability that could have been a neat thing for the investigator to do and gave it to the rogue instead, so I wish they just didn't make an investigator and folded all those investigator feats into the rogue. Maybe make an investigator racket out of them. Which is sad, because I think there's real value in having a skill-focused class that isn't flavored as a criminal, but the investigator is just flat-out worse than the rogue in every mode.
:( Fox form kitsune still have broken legs. (Why is it necessary to limit them to 10 foot speed when transformed?)That's more of a system-wide issue that we're just stuck with going forward, unfortunately. :/ The rules of a tabletop RPG are more than printed words on a page of a book. They're a prism of endless possibility. Where a single sentence can be struck and replaced at a whim, creating homebrewed systems radically different from the core gameplay experience. Each custom tailored to the individual needs of the people surrounding the table upon which it is played. Some rules will be beloved. Others will be scorned and scoured. But nothing will be the same. I am the Everyman Gamer. I am your guide through these vast new tabletop experiences. Follow me and dare to dabble in design, and ponder the question... What if (you just house ruled that a kitsune's pest form doesn't adjust their speed)? Also, shameless plug, I should have Kitsune of Golarion published on Pathfinder Infinite this week, and a tweak to this is something that appears in that PDF! :D
Vellero's vanguard powers activated for the very first time and crushed the boulder into powder before it could kill them. Yes! Specifically, I was trying to show what an entropic strike might look like; he touches the boulder and the bonds between the rock fall apart, changing from boulder to stones to pebbles to gravel to dust in an instant.
This is basically what I was going for, caribet. Idea was that as one of the oldest and largest mountains in the Pact Worlds system, the mountain is mostly made of really old, strong metamorphic rock but it has a crumbly layer of igneous rock on top of it that ultimately makes the mountain tricky to climb, because if you dig a piston in and it's not rooted in some of the metamorphic rock, your body's weight might just make a chunk of the igneous rock crumble away and send you plummeting towards the ground a few miles below. Of course, Dhareen wasn't expecting any geothermic activity from the mountain because Akiton's core has been cooling for centuries, meaning eruptions and earthquakes on Akiton would be even more uncommon then they are for us on earth. Good thing Vallero is a fledgling vanguard! ;) Anyway, sorry if my geology wasn't perfect! Maybe "basalt" is just the best Common translation for a Shobhad concept?
Thank you, Paizo, for the opportunity to write this tale!
This reaction made me smile! Glad you liked it so much. <3
Great story Alex! Thank you! :D
I agree that it's not very clear whether manifold array limits the maximum item level of weapon you can manifest as a gear array. I can see an argument that the effective level reduction of manifold array should apply to the maximum item level of weapon you manifest, but I also agree with Milo v3 that this interpretation essentially makes it so you can't use gear array to form a weapon, because weapon damage is bounded by your level and having a weapon that is significantly lower item level is not going to be helpful. (Would having a lower-level cybernetic augmentation be helpful? Maybe? But weapon certainly wouldn't.) It also creates an option trap where you basically have to keep lower-level weapon and augmentation options to not lock yourself out of being able to use one of your class features. I think this could use an FAQ clarification, but in the meantime it should probably be ruled in favor of player fun.
Hi people in my latest game I'm playing a kitsune outlaw from the Azlanti Star Empire and was wondering how they would be treated their Species in the Azlanti Star Empire fall into five categories: 1) First-Class Sapients: Pureblood Azlanti Humans2) Second-Class Sapients: Gathols, gosclaws, neskintis, screedreeps, shatoris, slivaras and vilderaros 3) Non-Citizen Sapients: Brakims, dessamars, elanayas, filsoks, mercoys, stelliferas and volotins 4) Enslaved Sapients: Androids, hortuses, iztheptars and tromlins. 5) Non-Sapient: All others. So, let's take a look at your question. Kitsune in Starfinder aren't on this list, so they're non-sapients. In your tailless form, you'd probably be considered a member of that sapient's class while you were disguised as them. For example, you'd be a non-citizen as a brakim, a second-class sapient if you're a gosclaw, or a first-class sapient if you're a pureblood azlanti. BUT let's say your tailless form is a pureblood azlanti ... and you get caught. You're something AWFUL to the Azlanti, then. You're basically a silverfish, right? A parasite pretending to be something far above your station, and therefore you're likely disposed of promptly like a parasite. Below non-sapient, likely reviled. There's a reason that the Azlanti Star Empire is an evil empire. ;)
In the spirit of this, I’m going to provide some of my own thoughts on what I perceive to be the evolutionist’s rough patches, aka my top 3 “concerns” and what would make me think twice about whether I wanted to play this class, below. I hope that we can start a dialogue that creates more top-rate feedback for the Star Chamber! 1) The description of this class made me think it was gonna be a shapeshifter and it’s not, and that frustrated me. Starfinder’s polymorph rules aren’t great for combat, so I thought based on the description that this was gonna be the combat polymorph class and it wasn’t, which was really disappointing to me. It wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of the negatively surrounding the Playtest stemmed from this missed expectation. 2) EP is too much like vanguard points. This is an aesthetics thing, but I feel the EP mechanic works too much like a vanguard’s entropy points in practice. They’re both even different kinds of EP, which is bound to get confusing. In talking with John, since this class is supposed to feel like “corruptions the class,” I think the stronger option is to model the progress after an affliction. Instead of EP bench marks, give the class steps similar to an affliction with each step having a minimum level requirement to attain it. A much more homogenized progression would likely help sell the feel of a transformation, since that way there is a tangible point where you’re “fully transformed” aka “transformed as far as you can.” 3) This class wants to be a combatant / expert hybrid, but it lacks the math to do either well. One of the biggest problems with the evolutionist is that in order to have maximum effectiveness in combat, they need to spend their points on a full BAB. Even if that isn’t the only way to spend your points, it’s always going to feel like the only way to spend your points. Additionally, this class doesn’t have enough starting skills, and since Intelligence isn’t it’s key score (unlike operative or
Additionally, instead of spending EP for a BAB bonus, it should just have 3/4 BAB but gain a scaling boost to attack rolls with unarmed strikes and adaptive strikes, similar to how the biohacker handles the same problem. (Though maybe with better bonus scaling, since the biohacker’s bonus doesn’t fully make up for not having full BAB.
Obviously because of the nature of the interview, we couldn’t ask every question we got and at this stage of the Playtest, the Star Chamber hasn’t been able to thoroughly assess feedback yet, so we’re hoping to have either John or Joe (perhaps both) back for our October or November show once the data’s been reviewed for an update on how the playtest went. But since it’s still going, please continue to give your feedback because it is being listened to!
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Pathfinder Society GM. Starfinder Society GM. 6,469 posts (7,251 including aliases). 28 reviews. 1 list. No wishlists. 29 Organized Play characters. 4 aliases. 
