CorvusBloodcrow's page

Some thoughts on the magic station.

If you put the crew at greater risk of taking damage during starship combat, the crew's healer or medic gets to heal during combat. Also, if you are on a biomachanical starship, healers and medics could help heal the ship.

That doesn't eliminate the use of a magic station as an option, especially before any of the crew takes damage. I'm trying to imagine what a starship combat would be like with an all-magic-using crew. How would a mystic, a technomancer, and a witchwarper use a magic station differently? I'd love to see witchwarpers be able to use their quantum field in space to create some space hazard or obstacle to change up the map. Mystics and techonmancer should then also get their own class flavor abilities too. Other uses of a magic station could be available to any casting class.

I was thinking something similar in regards to the magic station/biomechanical starship. I am in the design process, and right now I'm focusing on frames (think ancestry) and mods (think ancestry feats). One of the feats I was designing (today, in fact) looked like this:

BIOMECHANICAL SHIP MOD 13
MOD STARSHIP STRUCTURAL
Your starship is a hybrid of technological and organic components. The starship gains the biological trait. You can choose whether the starship contains living or undead components.
If the starship contains living components, spells and effects with the vitality trait can have a partial healing effect on the starship. If such an effect targets the starships magic station, the starship heals a number of Hit Points equal to double the spells rank.
If the starship contains undead components, spells and effects with the void trait can have a partial effect on the starship. If such an effect targets the starships magic station, the starship heals a number of Hit Points equal to double the spells rank.

(Side note: in my design scheme, a starship can have only one mod with the structural trait)

I thought 13th might be a good level, but it feels a little high. I'll probably end up sticking it at 9th instead, to allow for more use over character lifespan and earlier access. I reduced the effectiveness of the healing to account for starship HP being different than character HP in my design scheme, which is similar to animal companion HP. Also, to avoid over-lengthening a starship combat.

I like the concept of spellcasting characters having agency through the magic station, by having them able to use a variety of spells in similar yet different ways. One reason for this is because I don't see a design scenario that involves changing the established text and listed effects of core spells to accommodate a starship combat subsystem. The subsystem should try to accommodate the core rules instead. But we can definitely create interesting uses for existing spells and effects to use cool things in a new way.

Saw driftbournes post near the top (don't know how I missed it!) about someone else with the same thoughts, but the link to scribe is no longer working. Would really like to see what they have put together.

This is my first post, but I wanted to get some feedback.

My thoughts on starship design seem to lean towards designing the ship similarly to a character,as far as design philosophy. Hear me out:

Starships would have levels, and increase along with the party. This would represent tinkering, customization, upgrade purchases, etc. Starships would gain upgrades in the manner of class feat progression. Frame modifications in the manner of ancestry feats (1st, 5th, 9th...) for things like more weapon mounts, more expansion bays, adding turrets, or atmospheric or underwater adaptation.

Use a PCU pool (maybe 3 plus one half the starships level) to balance system installation (which would reduce available PCU based on the system) against tactical usage in combat with starship actions with the push trait (which would use PCU, which recharges every round).

Grant crew feats similar to skill feats, that would represent practiced, cooperative operation of that particular starship that are available to its crew. This could grant unique actions (some that come to mind are Coordinating Fire, which could allow crewmates firing different weapon systems in the same arc to gain a bonus to hit the same target, or Help Me With This!, which could allow a crewmate to use an action or two to allow someone trying to fix a malfunctioning system to roll twice and take the higher result).

All starships would be considered trained in Perception (which is effectively the starships sensors), Piloting (to allow for autopilot features and such), and Computers (for Computer stuff like infosphere access and other starship actions). Also trained in weapon systems installed on the starship (for determining attack modifiers), unarmored defense, and cladding (like barding for ships), to keep the starships AC increasing along with the characters. This way, starship statistics cleave closely to the numbers for enemy monsters and game mechanic baselines for balance. Grant 8HP/Level (slightly better than animal companions to account for a lack of Con modifier). Crew members operating a starship could use these numbers or their own, whichever was greater.

Instead of a companion 'type', like Ape, you have its frame, like 'Racer'. This would set size, base HP, Speed and Turn rating, sensor range, weapon mounts, and expansion bay slots. Large and larger frames could be level-gated to limit access to big ships until their HP totals and multiple upgrades make thematic sense, while giving something to strive toward or upgrade into.

Take it a step further and incorporate starship classes. Not like Pathfinder classes; think Assault-class or Science-class. Similar to a rogues racket or sorcerer bloodline. This could determine free initial weapon placements, bonus upgrades, access to specific upgrades (like druid order feats), expansion bay allocation, or the like.

This would allow for deep customization in a similar manner to character design, while adhering to a similar format that isn't wildly different. You could get some cool ship designs, like an Assault-class shuttle, or a Guardian-class transport.

Along with this, consider weapon system mastery (increased proficiency with installed weapon systems) and weapon system mastery (increased damage with installed weapon systems) built-in as well as part of the level progression to keep weapon damages up alongside increased hit points.

One thing I feel strongly about is doing away with shield arcs. It is an unnecessary complication that only increases resistance to adoption. To me, the only things arcs would be used for is weapons, in order to give tactical advantage to positioning when bringing guns to bear.

Adopt starship conditions, like breached (hull pierced and crew/passengers exposed to elements), malfunctioning (applies to system, prevents push actions and applies penalty), offline (applies to system, prevents usage), shielded (prevents the effects of various weapons, like those with the vortex, tractor, or emp trait; damage goes to SP first), and the like.

Have critical hits not do double damage, but require a saving throw for the starship or gain the malfunctioning trait to a random system (2 systems on a critical failure). If a system is already malfunctioning, it gains the offline condition. Have shields allow for a chance to negate a critical hit (like fortification runes, or forcefield armor upgrades do).

I have many more ideas, but this method just seems elegant to me, and solves so many issues I see people having with this part of the system. I would really like some feedback on this.