Dracomicron's page

When it first came out, I thought mutation points were just a rehash of Solarian/Vanguard design, and I am still correct. It's not great; it doesn't feel great to play.

Evolutionists should have a "war form" that they burst into when a crisis happens. Stronger, faster, natural weapons/attacks. Anime has loads of these sorts, but it's also common in regular science fiction as well as World of Darkness games like Werewolf and Demon. Demon, specifically, allows you to build your celestial form, which is how I would see this play out in SF2 with feats.

Within the existing context of the setting, though, that would transform orcs overnight from "oppressed underclass" to "scheming villains."

Unfortunately not unheard of in the real world for the oppressed to become the oppressors as soon as they gain power.

The oppressed want at any cost to resemble the oppressors.

Even avoiding modern comparisons, we can still look at the French Revolution: they executed 16,000 "counter-revolutionaries" while the rebels were in power, even inventing the guillotine to make it faster and more "humane" than beheading with a sword or axe. History is littered with revolutions that are as bad or worse than the status quo; they're just exchanging one in-group with another.

I think orcs taking over drow areas of control with merciless (but ostensibly egalitarian) corporate ideology is a great idea. Apostae is not supposed to be a nice place, and demons still have an interest there. They can still have a different variety of oppression:

"We abolished indentured servitude! Here's your biweekly paycheck for 1,000 credits!"

"Okay and here is your 1,000 credit bill for rent, food, and air!"

"Oh, you want EXTRA money for incidentals and medical bills? Well in our corporate utopia, you have the choice of getting a loan or working off-the-books overtime... You know we do need a blood scrubber for Demonic Ritual Wednesdays."

The stereotype of orcs is that they're dumb followers. Making them savvy capitalist jerks is a good change.

It's very possible to do a multiclass caster; you just need to make sure that high level, high DC casting isn't your primary schtick.

For example, I had a dwarven xenoarchaeologist 4 operative/4 mystic, and her entire kit was dedicated to exploration and first contact. I could passively find traps in three different ways, share languages, heal, handle nearly all skill checks, and provide a bit of support combat utility. I wasn't a full mystic mind blaster, nor was I a devastating trick attacker, but I brought a lot to every team.

As a non-caster variant, my SRO, Dragonbot, is a Shock & Awe Soldier 5/Experimental Armor Prototype Mechanic 5, and his main thing is debuffing pretty much anything that moves while dispensing electricity and sonic damage while in his large or huge dragon-shaped power armor. No one ability really relies on being full level in either class, so he remains effective as long as he can keep his Intimidate high and his guns updated.

Adventurers track down vicious drow conspiracies, plumb the depths of Apostae, spark an orcish prisoners-with-jobs revolt, and finally get to the center of the web, the mastermind behind the great dark elvish conspiracy.

Jububnans. Puffed-up jububnans all the way down. The PCs are forced to flee before the infernal hopping catches up to them. From now on, they must always look over their shoulder. What they once thought were centuries-old callous drow corporatists ended up being three jububnans with one holoskin between them, and nothing left to lose.

Discussion and some answers to this can be found in the So-what-is-going-to-happen-to-Apostae thread.

It was always serpentfolk.

The dragon just flies through a star, thereby increasing its speed and giving it invulnerability. Watch for it to be flashing and for there to be exciting music, because during this time it cannot be defeated.

I'm glad I get to play a kobold. I wish all Starfinder-only players got to. I feel like the reason I get to play one is a bit of a half-measure that benefits long time players only.

I was sad when kobolds existed in Starfinder and I couldn't play one because they were restricted to Pathfinder players.

I always want people to be able to play what they want to play, as long as it doesn't hurt other players.

I love the idea of the cross-play being a discount (so that it is cheaper for example to purchase Androids and Ysoki with Starfinder points than with Pathfinder ones) but I do agree that these races should be available with Starfinder points as well. It's one of the biggest complaints of one of my devoted Starfinder players, Dracomicron, that he had to use Pathfinder points to purchase a Kobold.

It's something that I hope they change sooner rather than later.

Hmm

Yeah. The only reason I was able to make Braxidax is because they gave us free PF2 points.

I would pay triple SFS AcP for Kobold.

I made a ranged kobold mechanized evolutionist, and so far at first level it's basically a lot of fiddling with very little payoff. Normally I go for melee characters to put up big damage numbers, but this time I'm trying something less optimized.

Is it just me, or do "capstone" boons no longer exist?

Like, the Tier 4 boons don't say "capstone" anymore in the guide or on the printed sheet. I see a couple in the retired boons section...

Can we only buy one "capstone" still?

PFS1 also got a pawn pack, which seemed really cool. SFS has plenty of first contact situations with weird and wonderful aliens and NPCs, and it would be great for future GMs to be able to break out pawns with the dedicated art for Ziggy or Datch when they show up in scenarios.

Weren't... bears... already available through ACP?

I wasn't selected earlier, which I kind of expected since Charli has had other chances to shine in the Society. I look forward to voting for the new candidates.

And this means that Zoggy and Charli can plan a high level game together sometime!

I'm running 5-10 at Con of the North; if that helps!

I am assuming that my character was not selected, I didn't get any emails about it

I did get an e-mail, in the negative, so if you didn't get one, that might be a good sign.

I am looking forward to voting for Zoggy.

Looks like Zoggy wasn't selected as an option this time.

Obliviously, he will remain on the forum and cheerfully vote for the bestest starfinder to be First Seeker.

I am looking forward to voting for Zoggy.

Gronnigan is probably my best First Seeker Candidate, but Zoggy would certainly be my most beloved.

Looks like the deadline just passed.

Exciting times!

was always the 16th. As a procrastonator whos family goes nuts for the holidays its greatly appreciated.

Yeah, I just managed to get to submitting my last candidate last week. December is a blur.

Have a prison ship with one airlock to prevent escapes.

Space OSHA has words with the Warden.

Claxon wrote:

Everything else probably does 50% damage. because basically anything that isn't explicitly called out as affecting Incorporeal creatures does 50% damage.

What about magic energy damage?

From SRD:

"An incorporeal creature doesn’t have a physical body. It is immune to all nonmagical kinetic attacks. All energy attacks and magical kinetic attacks deal half damage (50%) to it."

The way I read it, is that magic energy isn't half'd but then it does say ALL but it goes out to point out that magical kinetic energy attacks deal half damage.

"Magic energy" is a subset of "energy," so it still does half damage. The only reason "magical kinetic" is a relevant term is because they're completely immune to nonmagical kinetic attacks.

The character I would like to be put into the running has 3 reporting errors. Three of the tables were reported with the wrong faction. I assume if I send an email to the error reporting email that I can get that fixed?

Or should I plan to play the character 3 more times before the deadline?

Also, can a play have more than one character for consideration? I didn't see anything about that but I could have missed it.

My sweet summer child...

I've had multiple characters with a half dozen or more reporting errors. Send the e-mail and Alex will make sure it gets sorted, which should qualify you if it puts you above 45 reputation for one faction.

And yes, you can have multiple characters in the running, but only one in final consideration.

I didn't get an e-mail for my earlier starfinder of note, Tana Ikarian.

But she was also killed at a Thursty table without a chance at resurrection, so nevermind. :D

Its a political appointment. Having the job and getting the job are two different skill sets. Any character of that level is going to get around and know people, so if people know the player, its just art imitating life.

Yes, if I were to submit Dragonbot, with whom I have played online and posted with on the forum a considerable amount over the years, he might be a popular choice for his, uh, signature style.

He would be terrible at the job, however. Even worse than Tera Nova (shots fired)!

Wheras I have more subtle characters that would be better administrators but less likely to attract the votes necessary for election. It's a paradox of democracy.

I'll be the downer, VOs and freelancers/contributors probably shouldn't be included in lists of choices if it comes to a public vote/scenario choice. We already have many, many ways to contribute and have our voices heard in Society, and beyond that regardless of how it actually ends up if a close friend or popular VO ends up winning it smacks of favouritism. Let's be honest, those of us in the two categories above already have an improved chance were we to enter simply because the names are likely more well known among the community, that's just not fair to people who don't have the same level of exposure.

I hear what you are saying, and I appreciate the sentiment, but I would like to counterpoint that y'all likely have some of the best and most interesting characters to contribute... and in the end isn't the point of this to get the best and most interesting First Seeker?

Dracomicron wrote:

Wow! I entered Zoggy

Aww, not Dragonbot? I was looking forwards to an engaging and progressive Starfinder mandate XD

Unfortunately it looks like Dragonbot will remain about 10 short of the required reputation by the necessary date. He started repping for Jadnura and only changed over to Exo-Guardians later to steal their guns protect those fragile organics.

I have a third character that may enter the running, Brayal Yawoh, a pahtra ex-convict who would be working to reform totalitarian governments and continue work on prison reform started this season.

Wow! I entered Zoggy, since he's already a Forum member, but just to hedge my bets I need to get my sessions and rep cleared up on Gronnigan, since somehow the system had him at only 36 Dataphiles when he should be 47.

Public Service Announcement, kids: Don't let your official session info with Paizo sit unattended for 4+ years without reporting errors.

... ... ...

The Perplexity work is on hold as I get a handle on the wider Starfinder situation. I think we can both agree the full game takes some precedence ;)

But yeah, I eventually want to get back to writing out the Perplexity and maybe even making it more of a "terrifying event dungeon" that could be explored in future scenarios/adventures.

MWAH HA HA HA....

But yeah, no extra specialty boons since Perplexity Part 3 was kinda run in Beta Mode when I did it.

Well then, I guess my character is only

Heyooo!

But seriously, it's awesome that you've got the whole toybox now.

Hello all!

I've played Tabletop RPG for over 30 years and played Pathfinder a few years back and enjoyed it. After a little over a year off from gaming, my group and I tried out the Starfinder Beginner Box. Suffice to say: We fell in love right away! Loved the setting, the classes, the art, the merging of magic and tech, loved everything so far.

We played through the adventure there and I populated the extra dungeon and we finished that. We're ready to move on so I purchased the Pocket Edition of the Core Rule book and should have it soon.

My questions are:

1) Does the Core Rule book go into more detail for Absalom Station? Or, is there an AP that flushes it out more (Like Rise of the Runelords did for Sandpoint)?

2) Aside from the rule book, what else would be "must haves" or "better if you had it"? There's so many products that it's pretty overwhelming!

3) This question is going to be weird but I'll try to make sense: Can Starfinder be played as a sandbox easily? It seems geared for whatever I can dream up. Dungeon crawls in ruins or stations, spaceship fights, etc. Like, in the Beginner Box, it talks about all these forgotton levels in Absalom Station...could that be run like some sort of old school wilderness hex crawl? Or, is there more of an assumption to use official products (or, at least assume there is an official canon?)

Hope that last question makes sense.

Thanks!

1) Core book and Pact Worlds books go into more detail on Absolom Station, but it is also explored in APs (The Dead Suns #1 is set in Absolom or its environs), and particularly in Starfinder Society adventures (1-01 The Commencement, 1-10 Half-Alive Streets, and 1-32 Acts of Association are good places to start).

2) Armory, Alien Archive 1, and Character Operations Manual are the most essential non-core books. Armory basically completes the gear listings, Alien Archive 1 gives the rules for creating monsters and provides a substantial number of non-core races that will become fan favorites (nuar are my favorite, but everyone loves skittermanders), and COM provides three extra classes and some important options for every class.

3) Yes, you can do whatever you want with the game. My home game is about reality show stars on a planet deep in the Vast, embroiled in shadowrun-type corporate conspiracies and lovecraftian terror.

Hey Thursty,

I know you're busy and all (congratulations)...

But I was wondering...

Did you ever figure out a special boon for Perplexity 3 if you did the thing at the end?

If you recall, I did the thing at the end with my dwarf mystic/operative...

It's not super important...

But you did say that there would be a thing for doing the thing...

Could using a lot of ellipsis be more annoying... ... ?

Hi everyone. I'm making a Shirren operative sniper and am thinking of taking the Sniper alternate class feature from Tech Revolution, but I'm running into a bit of confusion with it. Does the new Sniper ability that replaces Trick Attack count as trick attack for the purpose of other abilities, such as Debilitating Trick? It doesn't specifically state that it does, but I also haven't been playing Starfinder long enough to know if it has those kinds of clauses added to abilities.

I could see arguments for it both working and not working, such as if Debilitating Trick didn't work with it, then shouldn't it get a replacement ability to make up for that fact? But also the fact that it doesn't state that it does count as Trick Attack for all purposes.

I'm afraid that it's unlikely that abilities derived from replaced class abilities are replaced by anything if the original entry doesn't say anything. Stunt & Strike from COM similarly doesn't reference getting any bonuses from, say, your specialization's trick attack (like the +4 to Engineering for Gadgeteers).

In theory, you could also take the Debilitating Sniper exploit, which allows you to trick attack with a sniper rifle and apply debilitations without extra damage, but, at least on paper, this wouldn't be usable with the Sniper alternate class feature.

Essentially, ask your GM if they think that getting a replacement ability for Debilitating Trick would apply.

Remote Hack is potentially one of the most creative powers in the game. If a GM is not able to cope with it, I'm not sure they're able to deal with the vast range of monkeywrenches players throw at them.

Dracomicron, how you gonna leave out my boy Captain Sea Hawk, who must be an envoy who makes liberal use of Not In The Face XD

Honestly I got to Sea Hawk and I was like, really I'm tired now. They get the point.

(of course he's an Envoy)

She-Ra is great. She's obviously a Solarian. I would say Weapon, but she doesn't really manifest independently until later, so I'm gonna say Armor with a later secondary weapon manifestation.

Catra is a... Pahtra... Operative.

Entrapta is a Drone Mechanic.

Glimmer is a Witchwarper with Flash Teleport and maybe some levels in Solar Flare Solarian.

Scorpia is an Evolutionist, and I want to know how she got the full ruleset already.

Double Trouble is a Reptoid Operative.

Perfuma is a Xenodruid, of course.

Bow is an Experimental Weapon Mechanic.

Shadow Weaver is a Shadow Connection Mystic.

...no I haven't given it much thought, why do you ask?

Isn't Datch in there?

She's in Hannibal Lecter/Magneto solitary, no less, which I always thought was a bit excessive.

The art seems to be

With a couple extras I'm not sure of... which leaves over a dozen that's not pictured in currently available hype.

I did feel like the Hungry Nanites knack should work on Swarm Strike and the Sheath Array part of Malignant Mist, but currently it does not.

Leon Aquilla wrote:

They dropped some clues that seem to heavily imply Dead Suns, but who knows.

Where did this happen? I'd been somewhat expecting this to be a 40k game, but if they've confirmed they're working on Starfinder...just, wow. My day is just made.

That said, Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters just came out, and it's excellent.

Not Starfinder, of course, but I've been wanting XCOM with Space Marines for a long time.

Profession (Surgeon) would help with knowledge checks about other surgeons in the field or the processes involved with running a surgery business; it wouldn't actually help with medicine checks outside of knowing stuff about sticky-inny-cutty-outy business practices and history.

Remember that one of the functions of a Profession is making a Day Job check; you could be an amazing doctor with a high Medicine score, but if you don't know how to market or present your practice, you're not going to make as much money as you would if you were a "real professional."

I would baseline as a SRO, but use necrografts instead of cybernetics. Robots and undead actually share a lot of traits.

But yeah, given how ubiquitous corpsefolk are on Eox, it's a real shame we don't have PC stats for them yet.

The adventure that I always wanted to play for Starfinder would be a homage to Wizard in Spite of Himself/Warlock of Gramarye by Christopher Stasheff.

PCs crash land on a planet that never left medieval times, using primarily magic with very limited technology, similar to Old Golarion.

The ship itself is a huge science vessel, so there's adventures related to what the PCs brought with them by accident (lab creature escapes, disease, etc.). The ship also has UPB stashes and fabricators so the party can upgrade their equipment without relying on local stuff entirely. Needless to say, using lasers and plasma guns and flame doshkos and whatnot give the PCs a rep as magicians of a sort.

The PCs get introduced to various planetary factions which try to claim their ship and the secrets within. Politics ensues.

Perhaps they meet other stranded (or not so stranded) space travelers, or find the facility of some ancient spacefarers, possibly leading to the mystery of the planet, and why it resembles Golarion.

Anyway I figure now that we have Galactic Magic it would be a good time for this adventure path, since even nanocytes can now lean into the magic part of the setting and archery is a valid combat style.

Can we be told if the Evolutionist every fully changes creature type? Humanoid to undead/aberration/etc?

In the playtest, that was the level 20 bonus. You got some immunities and your type changed.

I honestly thought it should happen sooner. I suppose we'll see when it comes out.

I'm still not really a fan of having it just be another variation on Solarian/Vanguard, and I feel like Drawbacks are not really in line with other Starfinder design philosophy (most drawbacks in Starfinder that are related to classes are just opportunity costs, such as, "if I only take 1 level of operative I don't get Evasion but if I take 2 levels of operative my main class's power DCs suffer too much of a penalty" or "this Envoy alternative class feature is pretty sweet, but I lose Expertise dice, which sucks!").

Still, most of the changes John talked about were in a good direction. I had been hoping that we would get more permanent and OOC abilities, and it sounds like we are.

That said, effects that specifically increase the speed of power armor do exist, if I recall correctly. Power Armor Jockey or Experimental Armor Prototype Mechanic, or both.

I dunno, I'm lazy.

Qi adept is now allowed in sfs! Thank you sfs team!

Now I have to make another SFS character? Damn. -720 it is.

I didn't think I'd would find anything so front-loaded as a GB in Starfinder, but I was a little surprised there wasn't like a mech pilot archetype, or a soldier that specialized in power armor; I think there's a Heavy Armor specialty though?

The archetype you're looking for is Powered Armor Jockey from Character Operations Manual.

https://www.aonsrd.com/ArchetypeDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Powered%20Armor%20Joc key

You don't pick it up until 6th level, mind you. An Experimental Armor Prototype Mechanic or Armor Storm Soldier with this archetype is about as close as you're going to get to a Glitterboy.

Edit: Beaten by Garrettmander. Reading comprehension is essential.

I think it has to do with formatting and word counts. Each of the races needed to have full pages of combined art and text. If they were short a spell's worth of space, they put a spell in there.

You are mistaken my friend. Here is the first paragraph of charge.

"Charging is a full action that allows you to move up to double your speed and make a melee attack at the end of the movement. You can draw a weapon during a charge attack if your base attack bonus is at least +1."

Huh. I should brush up on my Charge rules.

I can go as far as saying that Swarm Strike (available for the Sheath Array) should have been following the same damage progression as the Solarian Weapon, if a Nanocyte doesn't want to use the Gear Array.

Being an unarmed strike, Swarm Strike is already hideously competitive with the small investment of the Improved Unarmed Strike feat.

I don't think it needs Solar Weapon scaling.

Ah, you actually can't draw a weapon while charging. You can draw a weapon when you take a move action to move your speed with +1 or higher BAB, but Charging is a full action to move twice your speed.

Nanocytes could perhaps use more Knack coverage of "fast draw" style actions, but in this particular case they're in the same boat as everyone else.

Dracomicron wrote:

There needs to be a feat boost that lets you deflect attacks to a new target. That would be worthwhile.

There is (sort of)! It's a feat rather than a feat boost, and it's just so high level that I've never seen it in action.

Ah right! I had forgotten that. Make it an 11th level feat boost that gets buffed if the character gets Reflect Projectiles.

There needs to be a feat boost that lets you deflect attacks to a new target. That would be worthwhile.

RE: Enhanced Resistance - the kinetic DR is worth it if you have DR that is negated by a certain attack type. Like my Hortus nanocyte has DR 5/Slashing and routinely gets carved up by slashing weapons. Give him Enhanced Resistance (Slashing), though, and he's resistant to all kinetic attacks.