Dan of Hats's page

While flicking through the Armoury book looking for some potential fun toys for my current character (Osharo Akashic Mystic), I spotted the Shield Projector and got pretty exciteded - a perfect weapon for my support-heavy caster! Sadly after doing a bit of reading up on them, they appear to be far removed from the image I had in mind of them, but now I have an itch that nothing in the books can scratch. So, I figured I'd try to brainstorm a fun but reasonable suggestion to pitch to my GM as an alternative.

So, first things first, needing an attack roll (which seems to be the consensus on how they function) to give your allies a buff is harsh, but I appreciate why they didn't want it to be an automatic success. My thought is to make it essentially a 5ft "blast", targeting a square rather than a specific individual which you target much as you do for other area effect weapons. That means you still need to make a roll to hit, but it's going to be far less punishing that trying to hit your heavily-armoured fellow adventurer when the whole point you took a Shield Projector is because you can't hit anything for toffee.

This also opens the door to make the Shield Projector much more of a utility tool. It states that it doesn't hinder the actions or movements of anyone the Shield effects, but what if it counted as difficult terrain for anyone trying to enter from an adjacent square into it, potentially slowing an opponent down a little? Or better yet, acting as a 5ft cube obstacle that requires it to be destroyed before it can be passed, meaning you could bottleneck enemies or deny certain squares unless the GM is willing to bust it, which is one less attack coming in at you and your allies? It might require a little coordination with your allies to ensure you don't wind up hindering each other, but I think it would make the Shield Projector more interesting to use in combat without being overpowered. Any thoughts, critique or suggestions on what other people have done to try and spice up Shield Projectors?

My crew and I are about to start our first adventure, and the DM asked me to put together our ship. It's pretty fun, but one thing has me stumped.

I really want to add a recreation bay, for flavor purposes, but I'm lost at what mechanical advantage it would give. I don't want to "waste" a build point that I could put into something else that'd be useful.

I really want to justify putting one into our ship. Has anyone seen any advantage to having one? Or is it only for flavor purposes and making the ship more comfortable for transporting passengers?

A lot of this comes down to what your GM interprets the Recreation Suite to be capable of, and how you as players choose to utilise that. For example, the HAC Suite provides a holographic chamber that could be used to simulate an environment or (if you have the relevant data) a specific location that could allow you to safely do dry-runs of infiltrations, simulating your plans before putting them into action, but it would be down to the players to scout it out, figure out details etc. It's not so much about getting straight-up mechanical bonuses (we get +X to Y for having this), but gives you grounds to justify potential bonuses elsewhere (You want a climbing roll DM? My Athletics isn't great, but we have a gym onboard our ship, and I was sure to say I was using the climbing wall for the several days of space travel time it took to get here, so could I get maybe a +1 circumstance bonus?).

My suggestion would be to try and get a sense of how your DM would view using it so you can get a sense for how far you could push it, and then put that to the rest of the party and see if it might be worth taking based on that. Worse case scenario, it prevents you all succumbing completely to cabin fever during long Drift journeys.

Dan of Hats wrote:

The fortification ability from force fields is a fair consideration, and isn't something the Stellar Revelation provides. There is the cheaper option for one slot that provides Fortification without the force field (I forget the name off the top of my head, it's in the Armory), but that might be worth swapping out for the Enhanced Mobility one.

Fortified Plates. One slot, but two bulk.

Thanks, that's the one I was thinking of. The Bulk thing isn't a big issue since as a Solarian, I tend to be fairly light on weaponry and other items, but a fair bit of strength, so having bulky armour isn't going to put me off too bad.

If you don't have a caster spamming haste the haste circuit is a must. 30 feet of movement on round one and then full attacking pretty much anyone you want on the map from anywhere from round 2 on is amazing. Starfinder may have actually made haste better. (at least if you're melee)

Haste Circuits are certainly very nice, but at level 20 I'll be able to cast it on round 2 for free, affecting my allies, and if it ever goes down I can do it again in short order. Even before that, it might take four turns, but given I tend to be in combat with Stellar Rush and keeping them close with Step Up and Strike, I tend to be in a position to Full Attack anyway. It's not as immediate, but it's free, which saves a slot and allows me to focus on other things.

Consider dropping Mobility Enhancer as an armor upgrade and taking a Speed Suspension augmentation - lower top possible speed, but freeing up an armor slot is pretty worthwhile.

I'm not a fan of the Phase shield - the math in Starfinder is such that enemies will hit reasonably often, so +1 EAC is nice but doesn't reduce incoming damage by that much. It would be fine except that it takes up an arm, meaning you need a 3rd arm to use 2 handed weapons.

I think force fields are very much worth it. Not just for the regenerating temporary hitpoints, but for the fortification ability: critical hits are nasty.

Other notable armor mods: a flight mod like a force pack, haste circuit (for bursts of mobility), spell reflector (once per day ruin a caster's day).

Your build sounds fun and effective. For "optimal" though, pretty much nothing beats taking Enhanced Resistance: Kinetic and MkI Dermal plating. Having DR = Level + 1 is insanely good, and a thermal capacitor can get you 75% of the feat.

I was considering the Speed Suspension augment, but given one of my Zenith abilities gives me access to a party-wide Haste spell (and both are Enhacement bonuses so they don't stack IIRC) I figured I might just save the money. It's certainly one of the things I'd be most willing to part with of my Upgrades though.

To be fair, the Phase Shield still allows you to use the hand, just not for attacking. I don't use two-handed weapons as-is (I took the Weapon option for Solarian), so it can still be used to grab a potion or non-weapon item easily enough.

The fortification ability from force fields is a fair consideration, and isn't something the Stellar Revelation provides. There is the cheaper option for one slot that provides Fortification without the force field (I forget the name off the top of my head, it's in the Armory), but that might be worth swapping out for the Enhanced Mobility one.

Most of the rest I'm planning to cover with various Augments, but certainly there are some tempting options I could see swapping out the Enhanced Mobility for.

I'll admit, the Enhanced Resistance: DR is hard to argue with, but sadly I only have so many feats and Enhanced Resistance: Fire feels very right for a Solarian Priest of Sarenrae, so I might have to sacrifice that optimal route for fluff!

Dan of Hats wrote:

I've been playing a single-class Solarian for coming up 8 levels now, went for Solar Weapon and Heavy Armour, and have focused on Photon powers.

Id like to point out that you take a nasty penalty if you focus one set of powers

You mean it taking four rounds to be fully attuned rather than three? That's not really proven to be much of a problem thus far - while it means taking an extra turn before I can use a zenith ability, for the most part I'm at a point where I'd rather not use one and keep all my other powers up and active rather than taking the time to reactivate them all over again. It's only in very specific circumstances, like having a big swarm of enemies around me with no allies too close, when I'd want to do a big AoE explosion anyway, and I ignore the Graviton power as-is so it's not really an issue.

Besides, in this hypothetical max-level situation where I'd be able to afford and purchase this suit of armour, you gain 2 points of attunement every turn rather than 1, meaning I'd be able to use a zenith ability every other round, just like a "balanced" character could.

Dan of Hats wrote:

Our party consists of four members; a Solarian melee tank, an Operative who can do both ranged (sniper rifle) or close combat (battle ribbon), an Exocortex Mechanic and a Technomancer who is specced for summoning and debuffing the enemies. We don't have anyone casting boosting or positive spells in our party, which is part of the reason why SR seemed appealing - given my role is tank, magic tends to be something that can really hinder me, like a well-time Slow spell means I can't get anywhere near the enemy.At the same time, if SR 28 wouldn't be enough to foil most spells, then it wouldn't really be worth the slots.

SR 28 is enough to give basically any enemy caster a 50%+ fail rate. Depending on if they have spell penetration. That feat should be less common, especially among NPCs with the new NPC creation rules. Lvl 20 casters would still have a 35% fail rate... If you aren't relying on allied caster's casting on you... it's still a toss up between that and the shield.

The shield will make enemy combatants much easier to tank, the spell resistance will have a very good chance to wast enemy caster's actions entirely.

You can always heal, but a failed save can ruin a fight... I think I'd lean towards spell resistance with your party makeup.

That's pretty handy to know - it's a pretty reasonable chance to shut down magic aimed at me even before any saves the spell itself might provide [and I should have around 16 is Fort, Ref and Will by that point]. I'd be missing out on some ablative HP, but I'd still have the Stellar Revelation that gives me a 25 HP force field with Fast Heal 4 [6 when attuned]. It's not as impressive, but it's still extra HP, and my AC should be high enough that I might get lucky and avoid a few hits aimed at me, giving it a chance to recover.

I think I'll stick with the SR option for now. Worst case scenario, I could buy a Force Field and swap it out (although it'd take a full day to reattune the slots, so I'd need to know what sort of fight I was getting into ahead of time). It's something fun to work towards at any rate!

Dan of Hats wrote:

That's really the biggest question I have about my current build - is SR 28 more worthwhile than the 80 or 100 spare HP a Force Field would provide? Given they both take 2 slots, I don't know if I could take both without taking a big hit to my functionality elsewhere, even with certain Augments being able to fill the gaps (like taking Force Soles rather than adding any sort of flying capability to my armour). The problem is I'm already getting a 25 HP Force Field with Fast Heal 4/6 as part of my Stellar Revelations, but it doesn't function with other Force Fields, so is it worth taking one for the armour and just dropping that Revelation?

In case you didn't realize: Spell resistance also affects allies' spells. It takes a whole standard action to voluntarily lower it.

I don't know if it applies to your party, but sometimes spell resistance is a very bad thing to have.

Personally I'd go for a force field, resistance mods or additional utility mods over spell resistance.

Our party consists of four members; a Solarian melee tank, an Operative who can do both ranged (sniper rifle) or close combat (battle ribbon), an Exocortex Mechanic and a Technomancer who is specced for summoning and debuffing the enemies. We don't have anyone casting boosting or positive spells in our party, which is part of the reason why SR seemed appealing - given my role is tank, magic tends to be something that can really hinder me, like a well-time Slow spell means I can't get anywhere near the enemy.At the same time, if SR 28 wouldn't be enough to foil most spells, then it wouldn't really be worth the slots.

It's possible to get resistance 15 or higher to all energy types, and DR 20/- against kinetic attacks. Stack on a powerful force field on top of all that and you'd have yourself a pretty durable character!

That's really the biggest question I have about my current build - is SR 28 more worthwhile than the 80 or 100 spare HP a Force Field would provide? Given they both take 2 slots, I don't know if I could take both without taking a big hit to my functionality elsewhere, even with certain Augments being able to fill the gaps (like taking Force Soles rather than adding any sort of flying capability to my armour). The problem is I'm already getting a 25 HP Force Field with Fast Heal 4/6 as part of my Stellar Revelations, but it doesn't function with other Force Fields, so is it worth taking one for the armour and just dropping that Revelation?

Ah, I missed that. I’m not familiar with Solarians, I didn't even know they could do that. Neat.

A mechanic in my group went a similar route as you and has resistance to everything now. If you install the capacitor for fire resist, swap your fire resist feat to acid, and then install a sonic dampener, it could help you in the tank role. Then again, our group is almost the same level and things keep hitting harder and I don't know how that resistance is going to scale.

I think by the upper levels the bad guys are going to be dishing out enough to make quite an impact even with Energy Resistance, but any damage mitigation is useful since it becomes more worthwhile the more you are hit - with a Resistance of 20, after five hits you've basically spared yourself 100 points of damage, which is nothing to sneeze at.

The Capacitor isn't really worth it even with the changes you suggested; the Cold Resistance would still be wasted because I'd have a Stellar Revelation providing it, and there's a Biotech Augment for the skin that provides up to 15 Energy Resistance that I plan to take for Acid. It leaves me open to Sonic damage (unless there's a magic item out there I can use to also provide some Energy Resistance), but having Fire 20, Cold 20, Acid 15 and Electricity 15 is pretty worth it to my mind. I could maybe see removing something else to take the Sonic Dampener, but can't think what I'd be willing to part with for it.

Don't forget about the Thermal Capacitor armor mod. It gives fire and cold resistance in one mod, as well as a great AC bonus! In this case, AC is Air Conditioning.

The Thermal Capacitor is good, but I have Enhanced Resistance: Fire as a feat (so Fire Resistance 20 by the time I hit max level), and the Solar Revelation Corona provides 20 Cold Resistance by the time you hit max level (as well as 4D6 Fire damage to enemies that hit me in melee, +4 for max Photon mode damage bonus, and 10 automatic Fire damage to enemies that start their turn adjacent to me while I'm attuned). I can afford not to take up a slot with it and instead focus on other things to provide benefits.

I've been playing a single-class Solarian for coming up 8 levels now, went for Solar Weapon and Heavy Armour, and have focused on Photon powers. My latest purchase was a suit of Pinion Skyfire Armour and a Mobility Enhancer Mk3 upgrade to mitigate the movement penalty, but it got me thinking what the natural end-state of my armour would be. I don't intend to go into Power Armour, and my Dexterity is going to cap at 20, so Vesk Monolith Mk3 is almost certainly what I'm going to be aiming for, but with seven upgrade slots, what should I put in it? My thoughts so far have been;

Deflective Reinforcement - IL 7: DR 5/- isn't a whole lot, but the cybernetic skin option caps at DR 7/- and I already intend to take the Biotech option that provides Resistance for Acid (covering one of the energy types I'm otherwise lacking), so right now I don't see a lot of reason to remove it. Five less kinetic damage is five less kinetic damage after all.

Electrostatic Shield Mk3 - IL 12: Electrical Resistance 15 is pretty worthwhile by itself, but the little jolt of Electrical damage is a nice benefit, especially since I'd technically be getting +4 to it by level 20 due to Photon Attunement in almost every situation. Combined with the Corona Stellar Revelation providing Cold Resistance 20 and 4D6(+4) Fire damage, it'll give anyone hitting me a nasty sting.

Life Shield - IL 14: From what I've seen, a lot of level drain stuff is up close or touch based, so being in close combat a lot, this seemed like a good idea. Bonus points for feeling pretty thematic for a Sun-worshipping crusader.

Magic Resistor Mk3 - IL 17: This is the one I pondered over the most I think. It's two slots for Spell Resistance equal to Level [20 for this assumption] + CHA [capping at 6 with my current build, which is fine since that's the maximum it allows anyway] + 2, for a total of 28. The MK4 version isn't really worth it since I'd only end up at 29 for a lot more money. The problem is since I've never really used SR before or seen it used, I'm not sure how worth it having a score of 28 is at that high a level over, say, a force field.

Mobility Enhancer Mk3 - IL 3: Keeps me from slowing down the party and getting into combat that little bit quicker

Phase Shield - IL 6: The +1 EAC will bring it equal to my KAC, both reaching 42 [Base 10, Dex +5, Armour 26/27 respectively, +1 to EAC]. It has limited usage, but most combats rarely seem to go much longer than a few rounds anyway, and that extra point can mean the difference between escaping death or taking a ton of damage at higher levels.

That's my current goals - quite a few lower IL upgrades, but ones I really feel work with my role as party tank and melee specialist. With Feats like Enhanced Resistance: Fire, Step Up and Step Up And Strike, I'm hoping to make myself as big a pain as possible to disengage from so they're forced to focus on me.

My question now is, am I missing anything? Since the Armoury book came out with a new Stellar Revelation that gives you a 25 HP shield with Fast Heal 4/6, I'm not sure if going for Force Field over the Spell Resistance is worth it. Is Life Shield too situational to be worth a slot? Let me know if I'm making any obvious errors here.

I tend to think that this *could* work, with a bunch of "buts". If you have an appropriate Summon Monster, yes, you are summoning an outsider who is part of a god's divine hierarchy. If its Summon Monster 1, that part is "dang close to the bottom of a very big pyramid". So, if your hoping to pass along a message quickly and efficiently, its not really going to happen until the higher level spells.

Think of it like this: are you going to get the ear of a CEO by sending a message along with one of the store clerks in their corporation?

I appreciate that it's not likely to be an immediate thing for a minor Angel to get word to a being higher up on the totem pole to actually act in any meaningful way upon the information, but I'd still take it over how long it would likely take a message sent via conventional methods. There's also an advantage that, being beings of innate goodness, Angels are much more likely to inherently trust the information and, if it were to the benefit of others, seek to act upon it - if we were talking about Demons, things would be very different.

Dan of Hats wrote:

True, but there's nothing that says praying has any actual means of reaching your deity as far as I am aware. Certainly given there's little evidence of them responding to such prayers that weren't made as part of a spell, you can pray for divine intervention, but unless you're doing something like Summon Creature, Planar Binding or similar spell, there is no means to ensure anything will happen. The GM might allow it in a plot-convenient moment, but I doubt many would want to set the precedent that simply praying to a God will guarantee that they will hear and respond in some fashion.

What makes you think that sending cherub number 765748985743 to talk to Iomedea will get a a response quicker or more plausibly than prayer? There is nothing short of a miracle spell which will grant you miracles on demand.

I actually think Prayer has in a fictional setting a better chance of working than random summoned messenger spam. Gods are by definition somewhat aware of their worshippers particularly those who gain divine spells from them so they will be aware in some fashion of prayer and if it is important to their faith or portfolio will recognize it's significance and in all probability continue to do nothing after all the pc is their divine presence in the area and should resolve the problem.

In any case I work with the method that the Summon Monster line of spells creates a generic summoned creature and does not call one from heaven etc. If you want a specific called creature which may work as a messenger (and still produce no actually useful effect) you need the planar binding spells

Fundemenatlly as a GM my viewpoint is that nothing you are going to be able to do routinely will result in a Deux Ex Machina turning up to save the day and solve the plot if that worked there would be no need for heroic pc's as every time Joe Blogs standard worshiper was threatened he could call for divine intervention and make the universe safe and boring.

I think there's a misunderstanding on your part that my intent is to have a big "Get me out of this problem" button by use of this spell. That is not my stated intention - I don't expect the GM to give me any sort of advantage for having used it, other than to alert others of possible danger.

As far as I am aware from the setting material, the Gods are not omniscient and are not aware of all actions taken by their followers at all times, even during prayer - if that is stated as being the case somewhere, then it is information I have been unaware of. If the GM decides that they wish the Gods to have that sort of ability, then great, in that circumstance this entire idea becomes needless, since praying will have the desired effect. However, my GM has not indicated to me that that is the case, so I was simply trying to find a useful means of conveying important information swiftly to relevant individuals (chiefly, in this case, my deity) in a setting where sending messages from unexplored regions of space can be extremely slow. Even should my Goddess be notified, I don't expect Sarenrae to solve the problem for me, but I certainly don't consider it beyond probability that she might alert her mortal followers in some fashion.

In short, I'm not looking for a Deus Ex Machina button, but rather method within my admittedly limited means to convey warnings that might save millions of lives, depending on the nature of the threat, how rapidly such word could be spread etc.

Usually speaking, if someone wants to pass on a message to their Deity they just pray. That's kind of the point of praying.

True, but there's nothing that says praying has any actual means of reaching your deity as far as I am aware. Certainly given there's little evidence of them responding to such prayers that weren't made as part of a spell, you can pray for divine intervention, but unless you're doing something like Summon Creature, Planar Binding or similar spell, there is no means to ensure anything will happen. The GM might allow it in a plot-convenient moment, but I doubt many would want to set the precedent that simply praying to a God will guarantee that they will hear and respond in some fashion.

The purpose of suggesting taking Summon Creature, even as a 1st level spell, is to provide a mechanically suitable means of creating a messenger that can return to the Plane and, potentially, reach the desired deity or a suitably high-up force that you might not otherwise have the mechanical means to contact directly. Praying has no mechanics and no consistent results - I'm looking to see if people might agree that this method could produce more reliable result.

That's not to say praying has no purpose at all - praying is a tool in meditive focus, bolsters resolve, affirms the spirit and can calm the faithful. Sometimes, yes, the Gods may be listening, but in those times when you really, really want to make sure Sarenrae and her Church known about the swarm of Devourer Cultists coming to ravage Dawnshore, having a more reliable method of conveying that is good to have.

My personal take is that you're not pulling an individual creature with the summon monster, like pathfinder. Instead I view it as pulling essence from a plane, and shaping it into an elemental embodiment of a creature from that plane. As such when the spell ends the summoned creature ceases to exist. So this wouldn't work in my game ATM.

I'm mostly taking this from the fact that summoned monsters are created from the elemental type then modified, though some actual monsters from the material plane are on the summoning list.

I'd figured they'd approached Summon Monster that way so that they wouldn't have to include individual, fully-statted Angels/Archons/Demons etc. at each CR rating the spell is capable of summoning, which saved them dozens of pages to include other, new monsters or keep the page count to a sane level. Using an existing template and modifying it also helps with balance to ensure that whatever you Summon will have a rough degree of comparability, just with a few tweaks.

Still, in the specific case of how you approach the setting, yeah, it wouldn't work, but I'm running under the assumption that, as Pathfinder before it, you are summoning an actual entity native to said Plane, which upon dying or the duration of the spell ends will return to said Plane.

This leads to a secondary point - can you be selective in who you Summon? Can you choose to pick THAT particular Tiny Angel you summoned previously, and subsequently can you form a bond with such an individual? Classes like the Paladins of old had class features that had similar effects with their summoned mounts, but can spells achieve a similar thing, even if it requires roleplay and player-effort to achieve a similar level of bond (though not the mechanical effects)?

OK, so I've been playing Starfinder for a few months now, and been enjoying it thoroughly - the group has a good dynamic, none of us are really feeling out of place or useless (even our Kasatha Ghost Operative Outlaw, who has a less than 50% average for actually hitting her targets in combat and takes it in good humour), and we're a few hundred XP from reaching 6th level. This prompted me to go back to looking over my Theme (I'm a Half-Elf Solarian Priest), which in turn got me thinking about future levels, and specifically about the nature of the Summon Creature spell.

Y'see, I've been playing a Knight of Sarenrae, which is basically a Solarian picking all Photon, all the time. I didn't even put Black Hole down on my character sheet, or how Graviton Attunement works. This is purely for character and flavour, just to nip any arguments in the bud there. Now I still wanted some stuff to reflect that this guy is pretty spiritual and favoured by Sarenrae (so glad they added a Feat for that in Pact Worlds), so I set my stat spread so that he'd hit WIS 15 by 5th level, meaning I could pick up Connection Inkling. Detect Affliction and Stabilise are my Cantrips, Mystic Cure is my Level 1 spell; we've got no dedicated healer in the group, so it's nice to have even a little HP boost. Nothing too out of the ordinary so far.

Now by 12th Level, the Priest Theme gives me access to another 1st Level Mystic spell, once per day. None of the other spells really leap out at me, and taking Mystic Cure again effectively just gives me one more use per day. Looking through the other books, I started reading up on Summon Creature spell, which would let me summon a single CR 1/3 Tiny Angel (amongst other things). By 12th Level, that's not the biggest deal ever - its application in combat is minimal, and short of using it as a trap tripper or recreating Pokemon battles (neither of which I feel my character would support) it doesn't seem terribly functional. But it did make me think of potential applications out of combat, namely the fact that it could possibly be a means of contact with Sarenrae (or any relevant deity for those also capable of summoning).

So communication in Starfinder is slow, comparative to many similar sci-fi settings, and intentionally so. However, the core rulebook mentions that some organisations use supernatural means of communication, such as summoning angels or devils to convey messages. Typically I'd envisioned that as some form of Planar Binding, but I'm curious whether people think it would be plausible to attempt a similar feat with Summon Creature. If so, it'd make the spell useful as a means, once per day, to reach out to my Goddess, either conveying news or warning if something majorly bad transpires. Nothing in the power says that creatures you summon, once returning to their own Plane, can't act on any instructions you might have given them, though certainly they would not be under the compulsion of your spell to do so.

In the case of the Level 1 version of the spell, there's certainly some issues - provided you can summon a creature from the desired Plane (in this case, an Angel), it still has a -3 INT, meaning complex instructions or details will likely pass it by. Even then, such an entity could still convey that bad juju is going down and maybe Sarenrae would like to send a few of her hench-Angels along to find out what's going down? There's also an argument that a low-tier Angelic being might struggle overcoming any form of hierarchy to ensure it reached an entity that could act on the conveyed information. This might be less of an impact for more Chaotic Gods, although equally trying to find any of those might prove more troublesome.

The main advantage is that, as a priest of their governing deity, I expect most Angels (especially low level ones) would consider a Level 12 Player Character to be a big enough deal to take seriously and try to help out however they can. Even if they can't reach Sarenrae herself, they might well be able to communicate to a suitably important Angel who in turn could send a vision to/manifest before an important member of the Church, thus conveying the intended message far quicker than conventional technology in the setting could accomplish.

What do you guys think? Do you think it could be used as a means of sending messages to the Plane of your chosen deity, and if so do you feel it would be a decent spell to take for that purpose, even as a once per day freebie?