Arbalester's page

Nice note on evolutionists and nanocytes being able to break the "rules of nature". I see what you did there.

"Emerging Pact-Pulonis Alliance" Wait, WHAT?! Pulonis is trying to break away from the Veskarium? When did this happen?

Also, notes on transforming mechs into STARSHIPS? Tech Revolution has notes on combining mechs and transforming them into vehicles, but not starships! (Now you've got me thinking about what size category of mech would turn into what size category of starship. Huge mech to Tiny starship?)

Overall, this sounds amazing! I'm so excited for this AP!

Bringing up panache again, because I wanted to clarify something. People are discussing panache in at least two different ways, and I want to more firmly identify them.

1) Panache is something the swashbuckler almost always has in combat, similar to barbarian rage. In that case, panache gives useful constant bonuses and enables some flashy abilities.

2) Panache is something only gained situationally, and potentially consumed when used. In that case, panache gives powerful bonuses and any damaging effect that consumes it deals high damage.

I'm not saying either approach is better, and I have no idea which one will be in Player Core 2 (or maybe it's a third one I didn't think of). I just wanted to explicitly point out that there's more than one way to handle panache.

Now here's an idea: Did anyone think of giving focus spells to swashbucklers? And would that help? Mechanically, monks can learn focus spells for extra-powerful stances, or for flashy attacks/techniques. Some of what the swashbucklers in stories do borders on the supernatural; could those be handled as focus spells?

I haven't, and as far as I know, will never, use AI-generated art or scripts for my games.

If I want an image, I'll either draw it myself, ask a friend to do it, or find someone online and pay them. (Or ask a friend and pay them.)

Between AoN and PDF's of the books, I already have all the rules answers I need; I don't want an automated script to do my thinking for me, or try to guess what I wanted it to do.

This may be related to how I handle rules questions at a table I'm GM'ing: If it can be answered in less than a minute, I may hear you out. Otherwise, I'll make a ruling on the spot and move on, with the understanding that we can have a longer discussion during break time or between sessions. So I don't need any kind of sophisticated rule-searching algorithm; if there isn't a fast and simple answer to it, then as GM, I'll make one.

Any character prompt, no matter how absurd, can also be drawn/painted/modeled by an actual artist.

If AI art was done ethically, by drawing on a pool of sources that were voluntarily and openly submitted, I'd have less of a problem with it.

Artists have a tough time of things already without art thieves and scripters ripping off their work.

There's a number of ways to link in some of the plot.

That may help give your PC's some clues and/or motivation.

The Valashmai jungle sounds awesome! Are we getting "kaiju caller" as an archetype? Or at least a background? That sounds so cool!

I would also like a weapon system that doesn't result in pages upon pages of weapon tables. The Starfinder 1e CRB has 7.5 pages of weapon tables, including ammunition, and every single book/Adventure Path published since has only added to that list. It's quite a chore to find appropriate weapons at each level, even with Archives of Nethys' search functions.

Can we please have LESS weapons, not more? I don't understand why we can't just borrow the rest of PF2e's weapon system: Basic stats at level 1, apply bigger numbers at these given levels, can add other runes/fusions to add other features.

I don't understand the question.
Are you making one Mech for the whole group to use? Or one Mech for just your character to use while everyone else is playing non-Mech PC's?

If it's the first one, this is pretty easy; If the PC's are all level X, make a Mech of tier X, with a budget of 15 times tier times amount of PC's. Don't forget that the Mech can't go over tier X+1, no matter how many points it has!

If it's the second one, Taja went over the basics: A Mech of tier X is roughly equal to a PC of level X+3. Use the point budget for a single PC, so 15 points per tier. I will add that this is a rough guideline at best! The Mech rules really weren't made for combined-arms gameplay*, so the Mech may feel noticeably more or less powerful than the other PC's, and is always at risk of stealing the spotlight. I'd advise you, the other players, and the GM to be careful with this one, if it is allowed at all.

*Oh man, it'd be cool to see a combined-arms matchup in Starfinder, BattleTech-style. Power armor, infantry, vehicles, Mechs... I have no idea how well it would work, but that would make for a crazy table at a local game store!

Channelling suffering into artistic expression? No joy-filled art? Or just acknowledgement that much of the best art is a way of processing trauma?

I really, really, REALLY hope that this is more "processing trauma/suffering through artistic expression" and less "deliberately inducing suffering to try to get better art". Because the latter is horrifying, mostly untrue, and still believed by too many people IRL.

Any Paizo writers considering this: Ask the artists you contract with how they would feel if you deliberately made them suffer more to get better art out of them. Let me know what the artists' reactions are.

As a reminder/warning: From the quick blurbs I read up on, Eversor assassins sound pretty powerful, even by Warhammer 40k standards. Their abilities definitely sound way beyond something a single PC could do. So don't be surprised if you can't pull off all the stuff a real Eversor assassin could, even at high levels. It sounds like you can pull off their mechanics and aesthetic, though.

Where do I begin?
1) The expanded downtime rules are awesome! So many new ideas for what to do in the weeks of Drift travel!

2) Anduwar is awesome: Finally, a place where a dragonkin can stretch out! I also see it as funny that it has an accidental dig at a real-life game company with all the talk about the ruling class; there are only so many proper nouns to go around. (The ruling class of Anduwar are called the Cloud Imperium; in real life, Cloud Imperium Games is a video game developer currently working on Star Citizen.) Also, I love the imagery of some of the feats, like Plow Through. "I don't dodge around them; THEY dodge around ME!"

3) Golarion World is so insane yet awesome that it needs its own forum thread. I have several ideas for adventures here, including ones with PF2e or even PF1e crossovers. If nothing else, I will be sprinkling in references to our group's Pathfinder adventures when their Starfinder characters visit. (I'll admit some concerns with continuity for the sake of continuity, but in this case, it works.)

4) Jhavom is also a great idea as a university town that isn't just "Castrovel version 2". I'll admit personal bias; one of my characters is both a researcher and a vidgamer, and I was looking for a place for them to finish their education before becoming an adventurer. Perfect!

5) Uzodia is also nice. Great to see Starfinder's take on the Magaambya! I wonder what they think of Golarion World's Mwangi Land...

6) Getting two-page blurbs on a bunch of other stations was a nice touch! Great to see some of the "runner-up" ideas for this book! Personal favorite: Ravel Station, with an entire section dedicated to soul-crushing bureaucracy solely to stop the station from ripping itself apart. Feels like something out of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

7) And as if that wasn't enough, we got a few paragraphs each on even more stations! Personal favorite: Braxas, as a "we're totally not evil" research lab with a bona-fide lake of primordial soup. If any player wants a custom-species character, or a modified-species character, just say they escaped from here.

Most of my suggestions have been mentioned already, so I'll add: Invader Zim. I still have plans to rework The Threefold Conspiracy into a madcap comedy, using Invader Zim as inspiration.

I'll lead off with my most pressing question before it gets buried in the text: What do you think of the Mech building rules from Tech Revolution? Is that more of what you're looking for with starships, with the tier-scaling damage tables and costs being tier-based, or is that the wrong direction?
With that out of the way:

For weapons, there should must be a formula which returns a BP value based on damage X range X effect but as I pointed out above, it seems to be entirely arbitrary values based on what "seems" to be "fair", rather than any mathematical basis.

The BP cost doesn't add up unless there are additional numbers used in the calculation, which there probably is should be but for some reason Paizo considers this to be a State Secret, else the calculations would be more obvious or else simply made available.

Contrary to what the printed rules would have us believe, there is a mathematical foundation behind the numbers, but it all rests on the BP/Tier relationship. Without knowing that relationship, every attempt to balance Starship building is essentially just throwing a bucket of peas at a wall to see which pea sticks.

The "secret" is that there isn't one. There is no consistent mathematical formula for any part of starship combat, hidden or otherwise. There are guidelines, but no formal calculations. A great example is the BP budget per tier; it goes up as tiers go up, but not consistently. It's as much an art as it is a science.

As for weapons costing X BP for Y damage and Z features: If you're old enough to remember the Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier from PF1e's Jade Regent and Ultimate Equipment, then you might be old enough to remember the custom weapon creation rules from PF1e's Weapon Masters Handbook. Remember how that turned out? (For those who don't know, it was functional but not balanced very well.)

A game system that is perfectly balanced with precise numbers is a good design goal, but a practical impossibility. I can't think of a single system in PF1e, PF2e, or Starfinder that has accomplished that, though several have come close. In my experience, a perfectly balanced game is a boring game; the variance makes for a more interesting experience, and a good GM can compensate or houserule if any major flaws are found.

Also...

In fact, Starfinder's devs have essentially admitted that they half-assed Starships because they "knew players would freak out" if it was absent and that they "actively encourage players to homebrew"; they basically included it to forestall any outcry from us. Those a direct quote from a dev, BTW (I've been trying to find the relevant Reddit post stating this but no luck).

I'd appreciate if you could find that, because I've never seen that comment, and this is the first time I'm hearing of anything like that.

My take is pretty similar to Dragonchess Player's: You can't give player characters weapons and equipment with BP directly, as there is no credit-to-BP ratio for a good reason, mainly to stop players from pawning their starting ship for a pile of credits. That being said, there's no reason the players can't make credits in addition to BP with their cargo trading and side jobs, either as bonuses when selling cargo or as extra stuff found among their cargo purchases.

Are you talking about the "phase" frames? Their unique benefit is that they can equip the Teleporter auxiliary system, which lets them teleport short distances.

Don't forget Flip and Burn (lets you move up to half your speed, then flip 180 degrees, regardless of turn distance), and as a last resort Turn In Place (set your facing to whatever you want, but you can't move) as other options.

40) The GMPC that doesn't actually get in the way: The dedicated chauffeur. SRO Mechanic with an Experimental Vehicle, that also acts as an AI on the PC's starship. Can help get the PC's to and from their destination, both in space and planetside, and can also help out in a fight.
To stay more out of the way, maybe they refuse to put their vehicle in a firefight ("I just put a new paint job on it!"), but can still join a dungeon-crawl in a pinch. Their stats aren't high enough to outshine any PC's (3/4 BAB, and no exocortex or drone), but they can still put out some okay damage, as well as harrying/covering fire. Plus, they're pretty simple for a GM to run.

Operative is another possibility here, especially since Interstellar Species added some Str-based options. In particular, the Heavyweight Skirmisher alternate class feature combined with the Bully specialization makes for a strong, scary melee character that can still use Stealth effectively.

I'm not super-familiar with 40k, but when you said "assassin", my first thought was "operative".

I guess this is more of a setting question than a strict rules question, but it's weird that (Archives of Nethys link) Vortex Dragons, described as emissaries, can't get between systems on their own. So how do they access the Drift? The Plane Shift spell specifically can't access the Drift, and it seems like a waste to build an entire starship for a creature that only needs the Drift engine. Is there some kind of augmentation or magic item for this? Or do they land on a highly modified ship that's basically just a Drift engine with a frame, like a Battletech jumpship or that hyperspace-ring-thing from Star Wars Episode II?

Thanks for the answers! I was looking up the stats for the (Archives of Nethys link) Vortex Dragon and found it strange that they are great astrogators, but can't use Drift travel.

I'm not talking about starship-scale creatures that use the starship rules; I'm talking about standard creatures with the (Archives of Nethys link) Spaceflight universal rule. The rules say that they can fly at "standard navigation and astrogation speeds". Does that mean they can also use Drift travel? If so, how fast is their Drift travel speed? I would assume engine rating 1, unless the creature statblock says otherwise.

Oh, here's one: When does "astrozoan" become the new "solarion" or "rouge"?

(I was writing up a bio for an astrazoan character when I realized I had misspelled the name several times!)

Do astrazoans have any kind of extra bonus to identifying each other while disguised? I'd assume the answer is no, which would be one of the reasons why astrazoans have a hard time forming their own communities.

A definitely serious question from a post I made elsewhere on this forum: When does someone in the Starfinder universe develop a vidgame about an Astrozoan getting married and raising a family, all while disguised as a human? Maybe have an antagonist who is some kind of chef, hunting the Astrozoan. Just an idea. (Apologies to Young Horses.)

It'd be nice to have a campaign with a setting and premise that feels unique to Starfinder… but we already have that, in the form of Dawn of Flame.
Seriously, how many other games have a campaign set INSIDE THE SUN?!
So instead, here are some ideas.

1) A Shadowrun-inspired campaign with the PC's on Triaxis involved in corporate warfare between dragon-run corporations.

2) Another Triaxis one: A military/mercenary campaign focused on the Skyfire Legion. (I'm reminded of the HBS Battletech line: "Of noble heart and mercenary mind.") (Also inspired by the Star Wars Rogue Squadron books.)

3) One focused on the Veskarium, and its problems both within and without; if high-level, the PC's may even be able to shape the future of the Veskarium. We've had an Azlanti Star Empire AP, albeit a half-length one (Against the Aeon Throne), we've had a Swarm AP (Attack of the Swarm), but we haven't had one for the other big empire in the setting.

I have several ideas from reading this book, so I'll just put them here.

1) How well do most Hanakan and Vlaka get along? I feel like they have some shared cultural elements. Both of them form social circles, with most people belonging to multiple circles. Also, both of them have a well-established sign language.

2) So the Hanakan divination city is now a flying city, being "part spaceport, part cruise liner, and part taxi". This sounds amazing! Now I need to set part of an adventure there at some point.

3) Now I just want to see a Hanakan advisor to the Azlanti Star Empire. "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed..."

4) So when does someone in-setting develop a vidgame about an Astrozoan getting married and raising a family, all while disguised as a human? Maybe have an antagonist who is some kind of chef, hunting the Astrozoan. Just an idea. (Apologies to Young Horses.)

5) As an alternative to giving the PC's limited-time access to a mecha to fight a giant monster, just give them consumables that grant limited uses of True Dragon Form and Polymorphic Titan. In the words of a wise scientist, "Let them fight."

6) So evolutionists can get an at-will ranged attack and some fun utility powers. Can I finally play a (3.5) Dragonfire Adept in Starfinder?!

7) Character idea: Dragonkin Evolutionist with a human partner. So you draw on the bond with your partner to evolve in the heat of battle. You can play as a Digimon! (Dragonkin works well for Agumon and Guilmon, but you can use any other race with strong social bonds if you want.)

Mechanics-wise, it's fine. A fun new option for Biohacker, a Strength-based option for Operative, and a few new spells, among other things.

Settings-wise? AMAZING. Some of the information isn't new, but we've never had it all in one place, and all 25 of the reprinted species are expanded upon greatly. If you liked any of them, you have a lot more material now!

A few friends and I are doing round-robin GM'ing with one-shot adventures using various game systems to get back into tabletop gaming, and my turn is coming up. I'd like to do a PF2e adventure, but I don't know which ones would be good for a single 4-5 hour session. I can see three different pools of ideas.

1) PFS Scenarios. Are there any good ones to run even outside of society play? Searching earlier threads, I saw A Frosty Mug as a suggestion. Are there any others I missed, or new ones since the previous posts?

2) PF2e Adventure Paths; specifically, a section of one. I have no problem adapting the beginning and end of a single book (or even part of a single book) into a single session, but I don't know good candidates. Are there any notable greatest-hits moments in an adventure path? Even in the less-good AP's, are there any notable parts? For example, I've heard mixed reviews about Extinction Curse, but the first book (The Show Must Go On) sounds like fun on paper, but I'd need to run only part of it to fit in a single session. Also, apparently Strength of Thousands is a good AP overall; is there any one section that would work well as an adventure? (Our premise for these one-shot adventures is as a team of time/dimension repair agents being sent all over the place to fix various timeline errors, so I have no problem dropping them right in the middle of an adventure path.)

3) Other sources I didn't think of, especially third-party scenarios. I'd prefer to use Paizo sources, but what notable third-party adventures are there?

Wow, it's been a while! So, I figured I'd make a few Subnautica creatures in Starfinder; partially to see how viable adapting the game to Starfinder rules is, and partially as practice making creatures in Starfinder.

I'll start with a simpler one, the Stalker, and go through the Alien Archive's steps, one by one.

Step 1: Array. Combatant; Stalkers are mostly about fighting. I'll also decide their CR here; I'm putting it as CR 2. They're not an insignificant threat, but they are usually the first aggressive creature players run into in the game, so I'll keep it in the lower ranges.
Step 2: Type. Animal seems like the closest fit. Magical Beast is debatable, but they don't have any supernatural abilities, so I don't think it fits.
Step 3: Subtype. Aquatic, if that wasn't obvious.
Step 4: Class. Skipping it. Not the best fit for Stalkers, or most creatures in Subnautica.
Step 5: Template. Skipping it. Also not a good fit. (Notes for the future: Should the Kharaa disease apply a template to the creature, not just a disease track? Or is a disease track the better way to handle it?)
Step 6: Special Abilities. This is the most open-ended step, as far as I can tell, so there aren't any easy choices here. Fortunately, Stalkers don't have any major special abilities; the only one I can think of is to give them a Metal-Hoarding trait, as follows.
(Metal-Hoarding (Ex) If a character uses the Handle an Animal task on a Stalker, they can gain a +4 on the Survival check by offering the Stalker at least 1 bulk of metal (even scrap metal) as part of the task.)
Step 7: Skills. Also gets more complicated. Their Combatant array grants 1 Master and 2 Good skills, while the Aquatic subtype grants Athletics as a Master or Good skill. Also, Alien Archive specifically repeats that these aren't set in stone here; varying the number of skills by 1 or 2 isn't a big deal. Personally, I'll put down Athletics and Perception as Master skills, and Stealth and Survival as Good skills for Stalkers.
Step 8: Spells. Skipping it; Stalkers don't have spells.
Step 9: Final Check. Crunch the numbers! The stat block I came up with is below.

Stalker CR 2 XP 600
N Medium animal (aquatic)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +12
Defense HP 25
EAC 13; KAC 15
Fort +6; Ref +6; Will +1
Offense
Speed 5 ft., swim 50 ft.
Melee bite +10 (1d6+6 P)
Statistics
Str +4; Dex +2; Con +1; Int -4; Wis +0; Cha +0
Skills Athletics +12, Stealth +7, Survival +7
Ecology
Environment any aquatic
Organization solitary, pair, or school (3-6)
Special Abilities
Metal-Hoarding (Ex) If a character uses the Handle an Animal task on a Stalker, they can gain a +4 on the Survival check by offering the Stalker at least 1 bulk of metal (even scrap metal) as part of the task.

Did I get any of the numbers wrong (or way off)? Can something be changed to make it better, either by Subnautica or Starfinder standards? What do you think?

Halonut: Yeah, I can see how it would remind you of the Star Forge! (Mild spoilers for Chapter 4, but that's not the last time this adventure path will remind me of KOTOR 1.) That being said, the Star Forge's main threat was its ability to create entire armies and armadas, while this superweapon just destroys suns themselves. Still a major threat, but in a different way.

So, anyone have any ideas of what to add into Chapter 1? I'm debating bumping the Story Exp up to 50%, so I only need 8/10/12/20 encounters for Parts 1/2/3/4 in each chapter. Would that work, or would each chapter be too sparse on encounters?

Okay, after some reworking, I now have 4 basic rules for my overall AP design:

1) For this entire AP, I am assuming 20% Story Exp; this is exp given purely for goals completed and/or clues found, and is not associated with any CR or encounter. This isn't to say that all encounters must be combat ones; if the PC's overcome the encounter through other means (stealth/bribing/befriending/bypassing altogether), they still get exp.

2) In general, the PC's gain 1 level per part of each chapter. This means that there's enough exp in Chapter 1, Part 1 to take a party of 4 PC's up to level 2, and so on.

3) The baseline "CR unit" for each chapter is the CR equal to the lowest level the PC's are expected to be that chapter. That's CR 1/5/8/11/14/17 for Chapters 1/2/3/4/5/6.

4) Many lower-CR encounters are better than a few higher-CR encounters. I know that the AP has the opposite design philosophy (I'm looking at you, Chapter 3!), but in my opinion, splitting up the exp into more lower-CR encounters has a major benefit: Moving encounters. Instead of forcing each encounter to stay in its room, groups of creatures (especially intelligent ones) can have patrols, or just wander between rooms from time to time, and if they join an existing fight, the PC's are less likely to get overwhelmed. As always, as GM, you need to keep an eye on this, and not simply throw every monster in the building at the PC's at once. However, you don't need to simply have each encounter sit in its room, regardless of what's happening in the room over, simply because having them join the fight would make an already challenging encounter absurdly difficult.

If this is too rigid or formal for you, then I'm sorry, but I need some kind of framework to handle this.

I've already worked out how to modify or move the encounters for the first 4 chapters, but now I need some help filling in the blanks (or gaping holes, in most cases). I'll post my notes for one chapter at a time, so the posts aren't overwhelming. Let me know what you think, or what suggestions you have!

As for format: I'll first go over how I'd move around the existing encounters between parts, and then go through part by part with my notes and suggestions.

With all that said, let's get started!

That's all I have for Chapter 1! What do you think?

I have a feeling that may run a bit "chunky" on the combat.

Sorry, I forgot to mention: Not all of the CR's need to be combat. Don't be afraid to make some of those story rewards, or even other rewards, depending on your PC's. I'm just lumping them all together right now for ease of presentation.

As for Chapter 1, Part 1:

Here's one way to handle the fact that a Colossal starship doesn't seem like it has as much room as it should: Most of the expansion bays scale with the size of the starship they're installed on. Here's two examples I came up with:

Docking Bay (3 BP, 8 PCU): This can fit one starship of up to 3 size categories smaller, or twice as many starships for each size category smaller than that. If multiples of this module are purchased, they may hold larger starships: 2 size categories smaller with 2 bays, and 1 size category smaller with 4 bays. More than 4 bays cannot hold starships larger than that, but can hold multiple smaller starships.

Vehicle Bay (2 BP, 5 PCU): This functions as a Docking Bay, but can instead hold one vehicle of up to 1 size category larger than the starship, 2 size categories larger with 2 bays, or 3 size categories larger with 4 bays.

To clarify, here is a list of each size category and how many Tiny starships (or Huge vehicles) it can fit.

Compared to the CRB's Hangar Bay and Shuttle Bay, these are larger in capacity, but not to a game-breaking degree (especially since PC's have a prohibitively hard time managing starships larger than Large).

If having a vehicle with a larger size category than the starship it's in seems weird, remember that vehicles use the character size scale, while starships use their own scale. A Large vehicle is roughly 10 feet long, while even a Tiny starship is at least 20 feet long.

As for the BP/PCU costs, I based them off of the Hangar/Shuttle bays, but scaled down to a single bay. (Per bay, the Shuttle Bay costs 2 BP and 5 PCU, and the Hangar Bay costs 2.5 BP and 7.5 PCU.)

Also, I can see that Tryn already thought of a similar idea in his Starship Builders Guidebook, but with different capacity and pricing.

More broadly, could this scaling idea apply to other expansion bays as well, like Guest Quarters, Escape Pods, or even Cargo Bay capacity? Maybe some of those scale linearly (1, 2, 3, 4) instead of quadratically (1, 2, 4, 8). What do you think?

Dead Suns officially only runs from levels 1-12, according to the campaign outline in Part 1. However, the setting information near the back of each chapter gives a wealth of settings, plot hooks, and even characters to work with. With that in mind, I'm working on expanding the Adventure Path to run from level 1 all the way to level 20. First, I'll lay out my experience point roadmap. (I personally don't use exp when I run campaigns, but it's nice to gauge how many encounters to have at each level.)

Each chapter starts and ends assuming the PC's are a given level, and includes enough encounters of the starting CR so that the PC's will reach the starting level for the next chapter right at the end of the previous chapter. (Fun fact: This same math works in Pathfinder using the Fast exp track, since Starfinder uses the same exp amounts for levels and CR as Pathfinder!)

Assuming a team of 4 PC's, that's 100 encounters in Chapter 1 and 60 encounters in every chapter afterwards. (Using the lower CR's as a benchmark allows me to mix and match encounters more easily, and I don't have to worry as much about NPC's grouping up or calling for reinforcements, since the PC's can handle more of them without becoming overwhelmed.)

In addition, I can mostly follow the chapter's parts, simply placing encounters so the PC's gain roughly one level per part. (Chapter 1 needs an entire part added to it, but otherwise the structure is fine.)

So, my fellow GM's/worldbuilders/writers: What would you add to the Dead Suns AP to expand it? And how would you restructure what's already here? And the other challenge: Since the PC's baseline level will be far higher in each chapter, how would you boost the CR of existing encounters to compensate? I've already made a few basic notes myself, but I'm curious to hear what others think about it.

(Also, I've marked this thread as spoilers, not for any specific event, but because discussing each chapter would require talking about the specifics of characters/events/locations.)

It seems disingenuous to me for you to imply that both methods can be used in the same group/game.

My apologies; I didn't mean to deceive anyone, and I hadn't realized that this rule was more optional than I thought. If nothing else, I hadn't known that this method wasn't allowed in SFS.

That being said, I don't understand how it's not compatible with standard point buy for Starfinder. You're trading your character's normal racial ability scores for the human "+2 to any one score" bonus. This allows for more useful race/class choices at the expense of not getting to dump any stat below 10. Is there something I'm missing here?

4) Have your professional move the seal to the Swoop Hammer for 1300 credits and 10 minutes.

Oh... I see. RAW, the cost is only based on the item the fusion is going to, and the item the fusion is coming from is irrelevant. That means you effectively pay only 1/2 the price for almost all fusions, minus some overhead (the cost of ammo and lower-level fusion). Yeah, that's going to get houseruled at my table real quick. I don't like this kind of bookkeeping loophole.

Not sure what to do for the vehicles exactly, but using power armor rules for the PRAWN Suit seems quite logical.

Oh, duh! The powered armor rules would be perfect for the PRAWN Suit! To be honest, I keep forgetting powered armor exists in Starfinder. Not because it isn't awesome (it is!), but because there's so little of it so far. Thinking more on it, the Seamoth and Cyclops are best handled using the vehicle rules, while the Seaglide (if you wanted to include it at all) is probably a technological item that provides a swim speed.

In case anyone is wondering, here's how I work with the ability score arrays. As an example, I'll use a Technomancer for the Focused array and a Str-based Soldier for the Versatile array.

Both characters end up with a +8 modifier in their key ability score, as well as the score used for most of their attacks. Also, the Soldier is Dex-capped for heavy armor(+5), and the Technomancer is Dex-capped for light armor(+8).

Did I do the math right?

Wow, I had completely forgotten to check the Aeon Stones. I hadn't realized that those two stones were so cheap in Starfinder! Personally, I don't use them much, as I don't like the idea of putting major magic effects into a fragile rock that has to be exposed to work. (We've already started seeing Azlanti Star Empire tech in Alien Archives; maybe there will be other Aeon Stone integration later.)

So, here's an idea for a module/short adventure path in Starfinder:

The PC's are hired by a major corporation to travel with/in their starship to a region of the Vast, to assist with scanning for notable planets and placing a network of Drift beacons to make it easier for other ships to follow. However, just as the ship exits the Drift and enters orbit around an oceanic planet, a massive energy blast rocks the ship! The PC's manage to make it to the escape pods and launch to the planet's surface, minutes before the entire ship breaks apart and crash-lands. Getting their bearings in the escape pod, now floating on the ocean surface, the included PDA informs them (paraphrase as needed):

You have suffered minor head trauma. This is considered an optimal outcome. This PDA has now rebooted in emergency mode with one directive: to keep you alive on an alien world. Please refer to the databank for detailed survival advice. Good luck.

In summary, the players play Subnautica as a Starfinder adventure! So, what all would need to be changed between video game and tabletop? Here are some of my thoughts:

1) Base building and item crafting aren't usually a major part of Starfinder. GM's would either need to gloss over/handwave much of the base-building, or remove most of it (maybe major parts of the ship are still useable as rooms).

2) What happened to the PC's ship, both during transit and post-crash? My thought is to have their ship docked inside the corporate ship during transit, and then damage it during the blast/crash, but not obliterate it. (If it was docked during the crash, maybe the larger ship protected it from the worst of the damage.) However, its engines are definitely nonfunctional and in need of major repairs.

3) How does the GM make sure the PC's get the message that they can't just relaunch a ship immediately, so they don't try to just quickly fix their ship and take off? (Informing the players is easy, if they're willing to go along with it; informing the PC's ingame is harder.) Maybe make it clear that the energy blast was not an accident, and came from somewhere planetside?

4) Subnautica famously doesn't have lethal weapons beyond a survival knife, but Starfinder PC's are much more heavily armed. For me, the easiest way to adapt this is to just let the PC's fight creatures if they want, and make a Wandering Encounter table or two.

I know I already warned about spoilers in the title, but I'll still hide the rest of this list, in case anyone stumbles on it.

Overall, I think this could be a lot of fun as an adventure! Anyone else think so?

Most of the "wilderness/castaway scenario" discussion has been about how much easier it is in Starfinder, since all armor gives you at least 24 hours of air/temperature/pressure/radiation protection, made indefinite if you can get to a working recharge station (like your ship) once per day.

However, another part of survival suddenly became harder in Starfinder: Food and water. The two biggest changes are:

1) Create Water and Create Food and Water have both been removed from the CRB. A lenient GM could houserule them back in, but RAW, spellcasters no longer have a "Cure Thirst" cantrip. (Token Spell can still flavor food, at least, so spellcasters still have their spice-rack-in-a-box cantrip.)

2) Ring of Sustenance is still in the game, but item slots are much more valuable. You only get two slots for any worn magic items, and most classes will still want a Ring of Resistance, even though it's no longer mandatory, meaning the Ring of Sustenance is now competing with every other worn item in the game for the one remaining slot.

Anyone else notice these changes? Together, they do raise the stakes in a survival setting. That being said, most parties will still have at least one member with Survival, so on non-barren planets, this is less of an issue. Still, even though all players now have effectively permanent Life Bubbles (and the spell itself is only 1st level now), that doesn't mean all survival situations have been trivialized.

Something just hit me a few days ago: When creating your character, if a certain Race or Theme seem awesome except for the ability score adjustment, you can basically ignore it. Just using RAW, take one of the three quick pick arrays in the CRB, pages 19-20. It's even written there:

Under this method, choices like race and theme don’t affect your ability scores—you just choose which score goes in which ability, and you’re good to go.

(Personally, the Focused and Versatile arrays are both solid for most characters, especially Focused for spellcasters and Versatile for non-spellcasters.)

Also, with GM's permission, you could create your own "premade" array, basically choosing your own Race and Theme ability scores, regardless of your character's actual Race and Theme. Anyone else notice this?

If you don't know about this already, let me direct you to The Official Pathfinder SRD. It's completely free and legal, and hosted on this very website. It contains almost all the written rules and stats for every single hardcover book and bestiary Paizo has ever published for Pathfinder. It isn't formatted as nicely as the books, and is missing all the fun pictures, but it's a great reference, especially if you don't want to buy 10 books just to try an AP.

Not to talk you out of buying Pathfinder books, but if you're nervous about spending that much money, it's nice to know that you don't *have* to buy all the books if you don't want to.

I'm in the Sacramento area, and I'd be interested in a face-to-face campaign. I'm thinking about GM'ing a Pathfinder AP, probably either RotRL or CotCT.

I dunno, horror isn't really my thing. I may just sleep through this one and check out the next hardcover... zzzzz...

[...]a dragon that turns into a tyrannosaurus rex every full moon[...]

*Snort* zzzhuh, what? Wait, WHAT?! You know, especially with the breadth of horror covered, this just got back onto my "buy" list.

Plus, one group of my friends has never played Pathfinder, but loves the board game Betrayal at House on the Hill. This may be the book to get their attention...

[...]at least one established Korvosan NPC who may or may not have a brand new secret (and a lot of brand new powers) to be surprised by!

Here's my guess as to who and what:

Whether I'm right or wrong, I'm ecstatic to see this getting a hardcover, and Pathfinder, remake!

Okay, Lemmy, I've read through your system, and I have a few suggestions to make. Use them as you will.

Foreward: Several of these changes interlock with each other, so please at least skim all 5 of them to understand how each one would affect the whole idea.

1) Redo the damage die table, and unify it for Light, 1h, and 2h. After rummaging through the Bestiary, Core Rulebook, and looking at dice averages, here's my suggestion for all weapons/attacks of all sizes, with notes as to the maximum damage of weapons for a Medium-sized character:

So a Colossal 2h Exotic weapon maxes out at 10d6 for weapon damage.

2) Make only one 0-CP be a freebie, then 1 point for the 2nd one and afterwards.
Reasoning: Two 0-CP's seems a little excessive, given how many features are 0-CP. If nothing else, that means I can put all three damage types as (or) on a weapon practically for free.

3) Improved Damage Die can only be taken twice; it costs 1CP the first time and 2CP the second time, for a total of 3CP for +2 damage die steps.
Reasoning: Damage dice aren't everything, especially at higher levels, so I don't think Improved Damage Die should be valued so highly.

4) The Bludgeoning template for melee weapons is be 2 die steps higher on damage, not just one. However, it cannot take Improved Damage Die at all.
Reasoning: With the above change, this gives Bludgeoning 3CP in free upgrades, which balances it with Slashing and Piercing. However, it would wind up at max damage already, so it cannot improve damage dice further with Improved Damage Die.

5) With the damage die progression and the limit on Improved Damage Die, redo the Slashing/Piercing Template damage. Here's my suggestion:

As mentioned above, the Bludgeoning Template is 2 steps higher than the above templates.

EDIT: The above changes focus on the melee weapons; I've only just started to look into the ranged weapons. If one of the above changes would unbalance some aspect of ranged weapons, I wouldn't know yet.

I know that's a lot to read, but what do you think?

While I was not a fan of the Magic the Gathering card game, the world was super-evocative, and I wouldn't mind playing a Pathfinder rules game set in that world, with an assortment of thematically appropriate green, red, black, white and blue spellcasters.

You know, there is someone else on the forums looking to put an MtG setting in Pathfinder. Here's the link to the topic in Homebrew.

Infinity Archmage

170. Word has been spreading of the mighty dragonslayer for hire, who has been roaming the rural villages in pursuit of dragons to slay. Luckily for him (and the PC's), there have been numerous dragon attacks over the last several weeks, far more than usual, and many villages have paid for the dragonslayer's services. Truth is, it's the same dragon attacking each village, just in different disguises, and it's working a two-person con with the "dragonslayer" in exchange for half the pay. Any PC's helping to defend against one of the dragon attacks may realize that something is amiss...

170a. As 170, but the dragon is voiced by Sean Connery, in case some players don't get the reference.

171. As 170, but replace "dragon" with "big scary monster". Could be a wildshaped druid, or a polymorphed wizard, or even a heavily disguised familiar.

172. As 170, but the hunter/monster bond is more than just a business partnership; it's a summoner and his/her eidolon. The powerful conjuration spell the "hunter" casts to "banish the beast" is, in fact, simply unsummoning the eidolon, combined with a variation on Magic Aura (and/or disguised spellcasting) to make it look like an actual spell.

173. Run as a variation on 170, or as a sequel: Hearing of the monster attacks, actual adventurers/monster-slayers get involved to hunt down and kill the beast. Both the "hunter" and the "monster" risk losing the con, and possibly their lives! For more mercenary PC's, they're willing to part with some of their saved wealth if the PC's can help them get away from the real monster-hunters, preferably without giving away the con. On the other hand, more straightforward PC's may want to see them brought to justice, which would mean facing off against an unusual pair of con artists and disguise experts.

World-building is never easy, but it's worth it, in my opinion.

Oh, and I know it was a while ago now, but something's been bugging me: I owe you an apology. I tried to steer the discussion back to Pathfinder, and then mentioned two other game systems. That was hypocritical of me; I'm sorry.

Let me see if I can shine some light on this:

The "Linear vs Quadratic", as others have said, refers to the overall power of each class as they level up. Fighters get more powerful linearly (flat damage bonuses, more feats), whereas spellcasters get more powerful quadratically (each spell level is far more powerful than the last).

Basically, starting at about 6th level, spellcasters make fighters completely obsolete. There is nothing a fighter can do that a spellcaster can also do, and much more.

For example, there are many low-level spells that make entire skills completely useless.

The 1st-level spell Disguise Self, and especially its 2nd-level version, Alter Self, make the Disguise skill completely useless. Who needs lots of makeup and a wardrobe when you can snap your fingers and look like anyone?
The 2nd-level spell Invisibility makes Stealth almost useless, or at least shuts down the whole "can he see me or can he not" debate. Combine with some spells with the Silent Spell metamagic feat, or a Rod of Silent Spell, for extra hilarity.
By 3rd-level spells, the Fly spell allows for fairly long-duration flight. It makes the Climb skill pointless, and shuts down parts of Acrobatics. (You do need another skill, Fly, but it's far more versatile than Climb, which requires a vertical surface nearby.)

On the Cleric side of things, it's kind of odd that Clerics get Heal as a class skill, since they basically don't need it at all once they get 2nd, and especially 3rd, level spells. Even the first-level Cure Light Wounds can heal far faster and more effectively than several days of bed rest, and Remove Disease uses a caster level check, not a Heal check.

So, that's... *counts up on fingers*... 4 skills rendered completely useless so far, and I haven't even gotten into the 4th-level spells and up. Please note that, since fighters don't have spellcasting, they either need to put some ranks into those 4 skills if they want to be even half as good as a spellcaster, or they need to ask their spellcaster friends for some buffs.

The best summary I've heard of the problem comes from Jiggy. It was originally posted in this other thread.

Ultimately, having a "fantasy" setting just means there are things in the setting that go beyond reality. In a sense, the setting has two types of things in it: the mundane (that which is comparable to reality) and the fantastic (that which exceeds reality).

Now, different fantasy settings (which, remember, means "settings in which some things go beyond reality") will have different ways of determining how someone (or something) is allowed to exceed reality, to make the jump from being mundane to being fantastic.

In some settings, the necessary element to move from the mundane to the fantastic is simply magic. The Harry Potter universe is a perfect example: the fantasy setting is literally "reality plus magic". If you're a spellcaster (or magical creature), you're part of the fantasy story. If you're nonmagical, you're part of the mundane background; you're what the reader/viewer compares the magic to in order to see how much more fantastic it is than you are.

In other settings, a person could exceed reality and move from the category of "mundane" to the category of "fantastic" by any number of means: magic, training, enlightenment, divine parentage, and so forth. This type of setting is where you see people like Pecos Bill, who could lasso a tornado just by virtue of being a badass. Thus, his badassery was able to elevate him from "mundane" (realistic) to "fantastic" (beyond reality).

Both types of settings are fine. They tell different types of stories, and neither can really fill in for the other.

But there's an extra complication when you're talking about a game.

See, in a book or film or TV show, you can mix fantastic characters with mundane characters as you please, because you can carefully sculpt the action to have the result you want. In Avatar: the Last Airbender, the setting is of the first kind I described (only magic gets to exceed reality and be "fantastic"). However, the core group of protagonists includes both fantastic and mundane characters—there's even an episode about one of the mundane characters dealing with that gap. But since it's non-game fiction, the authors were able to create circumstances where the mundane characters could contribute meaningfully to the story through clever scripted use of circumstantial carefully-placed resources.

But in a fantasy game, that's a LOT harder to pull off. Even if you carefully sculpt situations where the muggle can help save Hogwarts, it will often feel hollow and contrived. Typically, it's no fun to have one player playing a fantasy hero and another player playing a mundane, non-fantastic character in the same game.

The ideal, then, is for every player character to be able to be "fantastic", to exceed reality. It doesn't matter which kind of setting you're using or what the requirement is for moving from mundane to fantastic; it just matters that each player has equal access to it. If exceeding reality requires a gift from the gods, then every player character should receive that gift. If exceeding reality requires being taught by a fantastic mentor, then every player character should have such a mentor. If exceeding reality requires access to magic, then every player character should have access to magic.

So again, it doesn't matter whether or not magic is the only way to go beyond reality and into fantasy. All that matters is that every player character gets to go there. The setting's definition of fantasy must be something within every player's reach.

And that's where the problem comes in: people who want a setting where X is required to exceed reality, but where not every player gets to have X. In the case of discussing Pathfinder, X is usually magic: people say that they want their fantasy to be defined as requiring magic in order to be fantastic (which is fine) but then fail to realize that some game options lack the very thing they defined as necessary for fantasy and are therefore by definition not fantasic!

The end result is this: if you want a setting where only magic can exceed reality, then fighters are not fantasy heroes, and you're just fooling yourself to say they are. If you want nonmagical characters to be capable of fantasy, then you have to allow nonmagical things to "go fantastic," to exceed reality. You've got to pick your direction and commit; trying to claim one setting while enforcing the mechanics of the other is why we keep having these arguments.