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Good. That'll save me the work of making it myself haha.

Where's the scope? I can't seem to find it

I think this is pretty pretty cool. Pick up hit an run for the second fighting style so at level 13 you can move and full attack in the same round. At level 20 you'll be able to put out 4 attacks and move with more accuracy than an equal level operative. Plus bullet barrage gives you even more damage. I like it. Need to crunch numbers to see how balances it is but first impressions seem good.

To get a good idea of what realist spaceship battles would be like, take a look at the mass effect codes on the topic. The space battles in that happen at distances of up to hundreds of kilometers.

Star wars, while super cool, has one of the worst representations of a realistic space battle. Ships are most likely going to be too far away to be seen out of a window. Fighters would be moving to quickly for pilots to be able to react.

I think starfinder is doing a pretty solid job of emulating a Star wars style space battle with a little star trekky bridge crew thrown in there. A realist simulation would have (if using a 10 kilometer per he's scale, which seems reasonable to emulate more realist physics driven dogfights) would have maps the size of a house.

What, specifically, don't you get?

Also feedback would be appreciated. It's a pretty powerful ability and I worry I'm trying to make it do too much

I'm making my geneticist class and there's this ability I want where the character can make short lived genetelic creations recreate spell effects that aren't truly magic. I'm just having trouble putting the ability to words that makes it easy to understand and also discourages abuse.

Right. But I still applaud Paizo for making an item like the sex change serum so cheap. That coupled with the representation in the races really make the game feel like the cosmopolitan society they were going for. As someone who's tried their hand at designing a game from scratch I can attest to how hard it is to make a system feel like a setting.

I'd just like to point out how much less gender dysphoria there would even be in this setting. I have a couple trans friends, one of which hasn't transitioned yet for fear of surgery costs and other factors. But after a couple conversations with her it's pretty obvious that, at least for her, a lot of her anxiety and discomfort stem from the lack of easy availability to a solution to her problem. I imagine just knowing there is a quick, affordable, and most importantly completely functional sex change system in place keeps a lot of those anxieties at bay even if someone couldn't immediately attain them. And such easy availability would most definitely erase the stigma behind transgendered people.

I think thats a cool idea, and one im probably going to steal, but I was wanting something that makes the natural weapons feel unique to the class. Just something slightly more unique than a generic weapon as an incentive to choose this class over the mechanic besides just flavor. Not to say that I'm trying to make something better than the mechanic, just better at different things. I'm finding it hard to carve out this niche.

I completely agree. The mechanic has been what I'm trying to balance off of. Thematically the class is gonna feel like a cross between pathfinder's summoner and alchemist.

What kind of effects could I tie to the natural attacks to give them more differentiation? The last thing I want is a lack variation in the pets, the idea being that you've designed it yourself on a genetic level.

I think I'm gonna go with solarian damage but augment it with the option for different kinds of riders to reflect different types of natural weapons. Claws have bleed, a stinger injects poisons, tentacles make you flat footed or something. I think that coupled with a reduced penalty for full attacks or a Blitz Soldier like multihit charge could make for an interesting pet.

I think the real problem right now is that there arent enough feats that are as attractive as longarm prof and versatile spec. Sure it takes an investment to get those abilities but what abilities are better that you don't have enough feats to get? I applaud starfinder for getting rid of obscene feat trees but I'm not seeing a lot of eye catching feats for a mechanic or mystic or even technomancers.

My problem is that 1/2 level damage on side arms makes longarm prof. and versatile specialization an almost must take for envoys, technomancers, and drone mechanics that want to contribute meaningful damage. It seems the only reason they get 1/2 level is to keep the operative from being too much of a combat beast.

I'm working on a geneticist class that has a pet and so naturally (heh) it's gonna be throwing around some class, teeth, and maybe a tentacle here and there. The problem I'm running into is how am I supposed to have my natural weapons scale with the characters level?

My first instinct was to have the damage scale at the same rate as the solarian solar weapon, but I don't want to step on that classes toes and I felt like that might end up as too much damage coming from the pet. Another option is to do like the pathfinder summoner and give it a bunch of attacks, but that seems to go against the design decisions they made for starfinder and it would bog combat down.

Do you guys have any suggestions for me? The second the first draft of the class is done it's going up here and I'm expecting the theory crafters to tear into it and I'm looking forward to it. Thanks guys.

Mecha combat that works with starship combat. I'm imagining a system where every mecha has a "class" that fills a role (think stuff like melee striker, tank, magic debuffer) and the higher your level the more abilities you unlock for your class of mecha, similar to how you gain more abilities in starship roles at higher levels.

I'm about halfway done with a Geneticist class. It's kinda a mix between pathfinder's summoner and alchemist. At first level you can choose to have a mutant creature or you can transform yourself into the monster. It's gonna get a couple medic like abilities and it has a way to emulate spell effects with sweet magical science.

I don't understand why dermal plating exists when there's also the enhanced resistance feat. It just seems like an inefficient way to spend your credits. On that note why does enhanced resistance exist? It's basically a must take. And all it does is turn off another feat (weapon specialization) I could understand if they stacked but dermal plating explicitly says it doesn't.

Also there's the interaction with solarian flashing strikes. Now you're looking at a -1/-1 for a full attack and when you get the third attack -3/-3. And even if you give the choice to make it an operative weapon you're looking at a -2/-2/-2/-2 for a high level operative. That definitely makes this a choice that's better for specific classes than the universal cool stuff it looks like you're wanting.

Pretty sure you can. It would explain some of the wording of some of the abilities like flashing strike calling out a full attack using only melee weapons

How big of a deal would it be if we either had the point buy be 11 or have the theme give a +2?

Sorry i didn't type that how I meant it. I meant give the class reduces BAB with living armory being the exception. Kinda like exocortex mechanics

I'm in a similar boat of thought. The base 10 is archaic and a holdover from the 3rd edition days. The only good I can think of from it is intelligence scores for figuring out when they can understand and speak languages (3 and 6 respectively). I'm of a mind to get rid of the stat increase from themes and have every score chosen for increases go up by 2 regardless of what the score is.

It's not bad at al for a first draft. I'd change some stuff like BAB (making living armory use level for BAB with melded weapons) and maybe dial down a few abilities (like making eat metal 1/day) but I like the theme and the mechanics. It's really strong as is but with some tweaking I'd totally allow it in my games. Good job.

If I get around to making a write up for the geneticist I'll post it on this thread.

Do you have a link or anything so I can take a look?

The thing I'm most excited about with starfinder is where it's gonna go from here. The core classes give you a lot of character types to play as but I was wondering what gaps in concepts you guys think need filled.

I posted in another thread about my desire for a geneticist class but I also hope to see class specific archetypes. Stuff like a mechanic whose AI is in a weapon or vehicle, a solarian themed after wormholes and space manipulation, or maybe even a mystic that focuses on summoning (hopefully from the alien archive in october)

Basically I'm mining you guys for homebrew ideas if Paizo doesn't deliver stuff I want. So bring on the inspiration.

But that's still really useful depending on the gm and how they use the computer rules. Hide behind cover from the turret while your exocortex hacks it. Sneak up on the bad guys and hack their comms. A smart player could get away with a lot of shenanigans.

I was thinking about home brewing a starship sized dragon for a oneshot combat demo. I was gonna have different stat blocks for different body parts and have them act on different initiatives.

Stuff like the head using it's bite or breath weapons. Claws attacking, grappling, or casting. Wings control when and how it moves. And tail making cleaving tail swipes.

Take out the body part and it becomes useless. Use tactics like climbing it to reach the wings with powerful melee weapons.

So long as the line of effect travels through the barricade square I'm gonna say yes.

The ship is possessed by an AI ghost, develops affection for the player characters, and refuses to work for anyone else.

Were I running it would be dependant on a few things.

Are you trying to cheese the rules? Then it's probably a no. Does this make the game more fun or exciting? Then it's probably a yes.

A good middle ground for me would be a fairly high DC to set up those explosives. You can't just put a bunch of fire crackers on a door and blow it off it's hinges but if you know it's structural weaknesses and how to exploit them then sure.

Can we take a moment to enjoy that the god of evolution is named after the acronym for some pokemon games? Oras. Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire.

Yeah I was wanting a more fleshed out power armor list. Kinda hard to make a Vesk space marine when the battlesuit is forever fixed at item level 5.

I was wondering what you guys are wanting from future starfinder expansions or splat books. Things like new classes, spell effects, feats, or equipment.

I'll start:

Ever since I read about Oras, CN god of evolution, I had an idea of a mad scientist character haphazardly mutating an alien animal to suit his needs. I envisioned a pet class similar to the pathfinder summoner that uses genetically modified organisms to duplicate certain spell effects (bioexplosive blobs of animal matter that recreate an Explosive Blast and the like) and can spontaneously give his pet mutations that recreate things like armor mods or weapon fusions.

So what's on your Starfinder wishlist?

First of all, Operatives Edge plus Eager dabbler from Spacefarer is awesome. You're getting +6 to all skills without ranks at level 6. That's gold.

The only issue I have with Darrow is his feat selections. Fleet is a little redundant with Quick movement. I get that you're going for ultra mobile but it seems a little over kill. I think deadly aim would get you more mileage.

I wonder how the feel of the class would change if it's key stat and DC were dependant on CON I stead of CHA. It would fit the tanky feeling of a lot of the graviton abilities and give CON some much needed love.

I think that would also make the STR to damage "issue" seem less relevant as you feel less MAD if you don't have to pump points into arguably unneeded CHA.

And while all of this is well and good from a design perspective, like I said earlier, it only reinforces the murder hobo stereotype. If you can't sell your stuff for the new tier of gun you'll want to start a fight so the GM will give you one.

Harrying and covering fire are basically ranged aid another actions,either giving a +2 to attack or ac respectively to or against one attack by making a DC 15 attack roll.

Suppressing fire allows you to apply those benefits in an aoe. So either every enemy in it has effectively -2 according (as you buff allies attacking them) or -2 to hit one ally (as they have +2 ac against them). This only applies to enemies whose ac you've beaten with an attack roll albeit with a +4 from the feat.

I'm pretty sure it still only applies to 1 attack for each enemy though, but it doesn't seem like a bad feat for a little battlefie buffing. Especially considering starfinder's reluctance to give out accuracy buffs.

I think the idea is to loot weapons off of enemies as you fight them, basically allowing you to trade 10 weapons you don't want for one you do. It does set a pretty hardcore murder hobo precedent if the game assumes that you'll be looting 90% of your WBL.

Other threads have pointed out a perspective shift in design for starfinder. The 10% sell back ratio incentivises keeping gear that you find and I think the prevalence of different damage types and easy access to resistances and DR (I'm looking at you Enhanced Resistance) even further enforce the idea of a varied equipment list.

I think the lack of medical tech come more from the setting than some failing from the designers. The setting has really cheap magical healing when you think about it. 1d8 healing for 50 credits from a mk1 serum is actually a lot when you can't go into negatives. That's one week of work with a DC 25 profession check. Imagine if a week of work IRL could pay for medical bills like that.

So I get that weapon specialization doesn't apply to grenades, but would you get the extra damage from firing them from a grenade launcher, which is a heavy weapon?

Basically the question books down to, is a grenade launcher a heavy weapon that deals damage based on its ammo?(the grenade) or is the launcher just a delivery system for the grenade granting extra range?

Don't forget that the drone is entirely replaceable, taking only 24 hours of work to build a new one. In a game where any ftl travel takes on minimum 1d6/drive rating days, you should have plenty of downtown. Also, unlike in pathfinder, replacing your companion is free and you suffer no penalties while it's gone. So send that thing on deadly scouting missions, or use it to hold off some space pirates while you make it to the escape pod. It's your little self sacrificing buddy.