I think just having something like Barbarian's Quick Tempered ability for arcane cascade would go a long ways, if Paizo wants to keep the stance as central to the class mechanics. Most once/encounter toggle abilities that classes are built around should probably have that same design IMO. its just an action tax at the start of combat to use your class, that most classes don't deal with.
Talking about action constraints on classes like the magus and wanting to attack three times in a round, and talking about fighters doing different things each round, is actually talking about the SAME PROBLEM
Fighters don't have action constraints, they are FULL of action economy feats and abilities. They can choose how to behave each round, which includes just attacking three times if that is what they want to do (sometimes rolling the dice to finish off the last few hit points is the best option). If they want to repeat their last turn, they have really no restrictions preventing that. It provides extreme flexibility.
Magus, on the other hand, is extremely action constrained. Spellstrike is two actions, recharging or using a conflux focus spell is one action. That's your whole turn. No moving, no using feats for interesting effects, nothing. "Use my main class feature, make it so I can do that again next turn if I need to". That is what you are incentivized to do every turn due to the class design.
That's also why so many hybrid studies are trap options. They lower your damage output, or improve the damage output of a subpar choice to barely baseline in exchange for messing up your turn structure with arcane cascade. Laughing shadow wants you to use a one handed weapon, lowering your damage output, but it's conflux spell is probably the best of all hybrid studies, its literally a desperately needed move, then attack, and recharge for one action. You are better ignoring the one handed requirement for arcane cascade and just taking it for the conflux spell alone.
This same problem is true for both Magus and Gunslinger. Their class design is: Do my thing once, then blow an action recharging it / reloading it. This significantly lowers the damage output per action spent... but ALSO has the arguably much worse effect of constraining your turn options. Most of the gunslinger feats are just trying to fix ammo availability or fix the action economy issues with reloading in various ways.
In general, if you look at what is needed for your class to "do it's thing", and then afterwards you can do literally nothing else if you want to be able to do your thing again next turn, you have a starved action economy.
Paizo has fallen into this design trap frequently. They try to balance the class, and in so doing, they incentivize turn structures that are very rigid and unchanging. People love Fighter because it is NOT rigid and is VERY flexible. All of their feats feel like OPTIONS that gives them new moves to choose from with good action economy that nearly always leaves another action or two free to do other things on your turn. Fighter's core damage boost is a passive +2 to hit and crit that costs absolutely nothing to use every turn. Just pure consistency and lots of crits.
Compare that to other classes and frequently you get a set of feats that feel like the whole purpose of the feat is to make it so "Doing your thing" gets tacked on with some other thing you need to accomplish in the turn, like moving, recalling knowledge, performing a maneuver, demoralizing, etc. They are rigid and require multiple feat picks just to get "Do the thing + move" and "Do the thing + Recall Knowledge", or any other basic action you might want to take. This might seem balanced but it feels limiting when you look at your turn structure and go "I JUST want to MOVE, or Attack a second time, or Recall Knowledge, or hell just have SOME sort of option that isn't execute class feature, prepare to execute next turn, end turn."
Magus suffers from this the most strongly, its very hard to move and spellstrike each turn. Gunslinger is also action constrained, but mainly due to a desire to make two attacks each turn because non-crit gun damage is low. Gunslinger doesn't have an arcane cascade type ability to give a quick tempered treatment to, they need better guns they can fire multiple times. Even just a double barrel gun that reloads in 1 action without needing to burn money on attachments would probably work wonders for the class.
The reason I recommended medium armor proficiency is due to stat requirements actually. Though yes, light and medium armor both effectively grant 5 AC at a cost of 4 stat boosts, which looks like a wash at a surface level.
If you want to go FORTRUN armor focus, the only way to have 3 DEX is if you bump dex from Ancestry, Background, and your level 1 boosts. And you already need INT on your ancestry and background boosts as well, which is very limiting.
Medium armor has 2 STR, 2 DEX items (and skyfire armor is actually 2 dex, 1 str which is even better), which is more flexible and leans into the fantasy of an armored mage.
Basically this frees you from the classic problem of having below-cap AC at low levels until your stat boosts fix the issue.
Most other armor heavy or focused classes don't run into this issue because they wear heavy armor and their main stat is STR, or they wear light armor and their main stat is DEX, which is the stat they need to properly benefit from the armor.
Being down 1 AC on an already squishy class trying to play make believe as a mage tank if you don't fully optimize your stat build ONE specific way, is not good design IMO.
Granting medium armor prof. numbers wise does nothing except give the FORTRUN player slightly more flexible stat spreads and encourages STR boosting instead of DEX, which to me is better because the subclass wants you to wade into melee to get hit anyways, so you get the option of going dex or str based FORTRUN builds depending on how you want the feel of your character to be.
Yes, what I meant by that is that the only way it makes any sense to be a level 2 feat, is if they intend for it to be a valid pick for someone multiclassing INTO technomancer.
When they do that, the bog standard "Basic Class Feat" that lets you pick a level 1 or 2 feat from your dedicated class is a feat with a level 4 requirement, so a level 4 person multiclassing into technomancer could pick Ammo Infector Virus and actually meet the prereqs. An ACTUAL technomancer cannot meet the prereqs unless I'm missing some niche feat somewhere that gives early expert.
Its a feat in a level bracket that the actual class itself can NEVER take at the indicated level, which SCREAMS broken feat design.
One thing I forgot to mention is the crafting rules for Starfinder seem a bit heavy. It reveals itself when playing the mechanic since they are so crafting focused.
You have: Pharma Crafting, Tech Crafting, Machine Magic (hybrid) crafting, but then you ALSO have a few mentions to Magical Crafting.
Thats four crafting feats to make items, when in pathfinder you can get away with alchemical crafting and magic crafting to make almost everything. If you want to make items faster, Fabricator is another feat you probably want. Thats like half your feat picks just to make items. Not even get bonuses to making them.
It does help that mechanic gets a few extra bumps to keep crafting and computers leveled together, but When playing the mechanic, I noticed how heavy the feat requirements are in comparison to Pathfinder. Biotech and necrocrafts aren't even covered in the playtest, if those have their own feats then the feat taxes to unlock crafting become even more extreme in comparison to pathfinder.
Tech crafting feels unneeded, it should be the baseline: Of course you can craft tech items with skill in crafting, that is literally just mundane crafting in a sci fi world. Machine Magic feels like the replacement to magical crafting, not something that should be in addition to it. And pharma crafting feels like the replacement to alchemical crafting. Unfortunately the playtest doesn't really specify properly what is a pharma item and what isn't. We just played assuming the medical supplies section and the spell ampoules were covered.
Fix: Reduce mine deployment at range to 1 action instead of 2. This smooths out early levels without overpowering later gameplay, since later levels already bypass this cost with Double Deployment.
The errata already changed deploying at range to 1 action (2 actions is for deploying a mine in an already occupied space)
That helps a lot with the early level mine action economy, I didn't catch that one, that's good to hear.
The following summarizes each robot customization in the playtest, categorized and assessed for play value, redundancy, or suggested improvements.
Commercial Customizations:
Commercial Customizations
Armored Plates: An AC boost. You are going to need this. It's such an obvious and straight numerical boost it sort of violates Paizo's core design principles of not printing options like this. Near mandatory. This is very likely to be your free customization pick.
Artificial Personality: Basically Familiar Speech for your robot. It's flavorful and can be pretty useful.
Aquatic Adaptation: Extremely niche and either totally useless or totally mandatory depending on the campaign.
Cameras: Why is this an option? In what world would someone expect their robot to NOT have cameras?!?! How would it see? You took a basic roleplaying action and forced it to be a mechanical build option. There is no need for this ability—remove it.
Climber: Gives your robot a climb speed. Completely outclassed by Flier.
Flier: Gives your robot a flying speed. This is extremely good and makes your robot companion usable in Zero-G and in a huge number of other scenarios. Not mandatory, but damn is it one of the best options.
Grounded: Loses weakness to electricity. Campaign and GM dependent on how good this is. Some GMs love murdering companions, others mostly ignore them.
Integrated Weapon Mount: You get one for free, so picking it would get you the second weapon mount. It would be mandatory if you didn't get it for free, so really it's just added versatility. One pain point is that it doesn't say anything about ammo management: Does the drone power the weapon or does it need to reload it? Needs to be answered.
Light Mounts: Add a flashlight to one of your drone's weapons instead with a Uniclamp. Another one of those "Why is this an option" options. Narratively there is no reason you couldn't just duct tape a flashlight to your drone, or just assume the damn thing comes with a light on it, like your comm unit has for free.
Linguistic Upload: Your robot speaks more languages. Another super niche ability that also ignores that every AI LLM and Google Translate exists CURRENTLY. There should be a way to get this functionality that doesn't cost class feat choices. It's bad.
Manual Dexterity: Your robot can throw grenades and help you with other tasks. Flavorful.
Nightvision Sensors: Gives darkvision. It's good, but also screams a sort of ability that should be solvable with gear purchases instead of class feat choices.
Olfactory Sensors: Imprecise Scent 30ft. It's as good as the core sense is. Not sure it's worth a class feat considering vacuum and outer space are relatively common in the setting.
Skill Module: Lets your robot use one skill. This is a skill feat that needs a class feat to take it. Not good.
Speakers: Another "My pocket smartphone has this functionality, why don't you?" option. Just remove this option and allow people to assume their robots have speakers like EVERY OTHER COMPUTER EVER MADE.
Upgrade Slot: Gives an armor upgrade slot. Has a lot of utility, but should probably be baseline so you can offload several of these options into those upgrade slots if you want them.
Tactical Customizations:
[size=14pt]Tactical Customizations[/size]
Assistant: It's auto aid another, if you are both trained in the skill. There’s no rule your robot can't REGULAR aid you, so this is almost definitely not worth a feat pick.
Biotech Healing Circuit: Lets your robot get healed. VERY VERY good. Almost mandatory.
Burrower: You spend way too much time on metal walkways, spaceships, and building floors higher than ground level. It COULD be good, but it’s super situational.
Echolocation: Precise Hearing. Way better than scent. Pretty good pick.
Expertise Module: A class feat for an expert bump. Totally not worth it.
Emergency Reboot: Save your robot instead of letting it get destroyed and losing it for the whole day. Damn near a mandatory pick. Ridiculously good if your GM ever hits your companion with any regularity.
Hardened Chassis: More hit points. Solid pick for durability.
High Speed: Boost a speed. You’re probably gonna pick flying if you take this.
Network: Lets you hack from your robot. Useful, but also one of those "Why is this not baseline functionality? Who makes a robot with no USB port or Wi-Fi in it?"
Share Charge: Lets your robot power any device that needs a battery. If it doesn't already do this for its integrated weapon, this becomes very good for managing ammo. Otherwise it's niche but flavorful.
Advanced Customizations:
[size=14pt]Advanced Customizations[/size]
Emergency Repair: A self-heal for your robot. Can be pretty good. Probably better to just take healing circuits and let your healer do the healing.
Maneuver Module: A +1 or +2 bonus to combat maneuvers. Very rarely worth trying to do—your robot is not going to be good at it, even with a bunch of picks to be expert in Athletics.
Neural Upload: You take direct control of your robot and lose control of your own body. You can already just give 3 actions to your robot for 2 of your own actions, so I'm not sure why this exists. It's actually an action economy nerf since you already decide what your robot does anyway.
Optimized Avoidance: Your robot companion takes no damage on a success for the given saving throw. If you take this, it's probably going to be Reflex to take less damage from AoEs. Your robot is already immune to a lot of Fortitude and Will effects, so it’s the best option.
Recharge: Recharges your batteries for you. This is a cantrip-level effect as a high-level customization. Prismenis get this with Electric Arc at level 1. Not sure why this exists.
Resistant Panels: Give resistance to a damage type. Very campaign specific. If you’re going to be wandering the Plane of Fire, could be great, otherwise not really worth it.
Sapient: Your robot is its own person, but still must be commanded by you. This is highly flavorful, but in reality, it loses damage immunities in exchange for being able to do skill checks it likely has no proficiencies in. Only take this for the RP flavor, because otherwise it’s a bad pick.
Superior Customizations:
[size=14pt]Superior Customizations[/size]
Agility Optimization: Moving doesn’t trigger and it gets expert Acrobatics. Flavorful, and somewhat campaign and GM specific. If the GM likes tossing out enemies with reaction strikes frequently, it becomes a lot better.
Camouflage: Your robot is sneaky in one kind of environment. This is a VERY late customization for a robot you need to build up for stealth.
Glow Up: Makes your robot good at talking. This could be OK if your party has no faces, but it's probably worthless—especially considering how late you get it.
Speedster: +10 to speeds. Consistently good for all robot builds. Probably your go-to choice.
Below is a level-by-level breakdown of the Mechanic class feats, grouped by minimum feat level. The review focuses on balance, utility, and impact within the class framework.
Level 1:
Level 1 Feats
Commercial Customization: Most options are underwhelming or should be baseline. Consider granting two picks to increase value.
Explosive Shot: Tiny splash damage increase with poor action efficiency. Not worth taking.
High Voltage: Grants a solid AoE attack to your drone. Strong pick.
High-Tech Medic: Most effects are poor. The Healbot ability is decent but drone-locked.
Multidisciplinary Mechanic: Weak. Too minor for a class feat. Doesn't even let you craft the items for the discipline you pick.
Shielded Turret: Decent early pick for turret builds, improves survivability.
Level 2:
Level 2 Feats
Area Denial Turret: Adds Area trait to turret strikes. Strong, but highlights turret's MAP problem.
Biometric Assessor: Flavorful, but too weak due to mod slot competition.
Coordinated Fire: Essential for Drone/Turret. Massive value from MAP bypassing for Turrets. Basically a mandatory pick for turret operators to make it so you can actually fire your own gun.
Hunker Down: Excellent action economy. Great for any Mechanic.
Instant Deployment: Saves action at start of combat. Solid, but better options exist at this level.
Mobile Deployment: Another action economy booster. Good utility.
Modify Drone: Should be baseline functionality, not a feat.
Remote Operation: Extremely niche. Poor general value. Range limitations mean you basically have to be IN the vehicle in question for any reasonable use case.
Level 4:
Level 4 Feats
Adaptive Camouflage: Needs longer duration. Poor unless Modify is improved.
Double Detonation: Solid if you can set up two mines. Setup cost limits value. Consider swapping levels with Double Deployment.
Gravitic Mines: Great tactical utility. Strong mine support feat.
Self-Destruct: Weak damage for its level. Rarely useful. Basically just a way to blow up your broken turret because the rules for bringing it to full are wonky.
Tactical Drone: Mandatory for Drone users. Needed for companion advancement.
Level 6:
Level 6 Feats
Auto-Target: Reaction AoO for turret/drone. Great value. Solidly balanced.
Cloaking Companion: OK concealment bonus. Could be stronger.
Defensive Programming: Solid defense utility for allies. Nice flavor.
Advanced Customization: It's Meh. Would be better with two picks.
Energy Expulsion: Short-range AoE tied to hitting with strikes. Conceptually odd. Why do I have to hit for it to work?
Flickering Shield: Good defensive mod, but hamstrung by Modify rules. Would be a perfect mod to give allies.
Proximity Alert Mines: Excellent tactical boost for mines. Needs clarification on triggering behavior. If you place the mine in the enemy square, can it trigger immediately? If not, significantly less useful.
Rocket Boosters: Great mobility and offensive utility. Superior to the Flier customization.
Level 12:
Level 12 Feats
Deploy Bunker: Better for drone than turret. Too action-intensive to maintain.
Glitch Pulse: Strong in tech-heavy campaigns. Mod limit restricts use.
Healing Mines: Adds powerful healing utility. Excellent design direction. Might come a bit too late for such a paradigm shift for the subclass.
Shockwave Pulse: Solid control. Synergizes well with AoE builds and Auto-Target. One of the best mods.
Spinning Blades: Huge AoE, but hits allies. Risky pick. Only use with certain party comps.
Level 14:
Level 14 Feats
Advanced Drone: Mandatory. Should grant customization.
Advanced Targeting System: Once-per-10-min bonus. Just okay.
Convertible Chassis: Fantastic concept. Limited practical use. If you could also swap customizations would be a lot better.
Synchronized Advance: Excellent action economy. Auto-pick for ranged drone/turret.
Superior Customization: Requires a “superior drone” that doesn’t exist. Needs clarification. I am assuming you meant to ALSO errata this feat as well, since you errata'd Elite Drone to use Advanced Drone instead.
Terraforming Mines: Excellent battlefield control. One of the best mine feats.
Level 18:
Level 18 Feats
Elite Drone: Another mandatory upgrade. Still grants no customization.
Enduring Exocortex: Niche. Only useful when downed. Grants no recovery or survivability, so it's a feat you actively want to avoid ever using or relying on. Not a good design for such a high-level feat.
Permanent Mod: Finally gives a second permanent mod. Comes very late. The class should start with 1 permanent mod so that this feat, which is such a high-level feat, grants an EXTRA mod option to make permanent, instead of effectively just one (since you will be spending the level 13 one on a damage boost mod realistically).
Level 20:
Level 20 Feats
Auto Loop: Reaction loop for subclass reactions. Strong if used right, otherwise niche.
Multitasker: Permanent Quickened. Best use of the trait in the game. Amazing capstone.
Ultimate Drone: Power boost is fantastic, but it is yet ANOTHER feat tax for a stat boost. This one elevates your drone to fighter levels of competency (in the case of a Str build for your drone, you might actually have a BETTER attack than the fighter). It's so good you can't NOT take this capstone as a drone exocortex. I would like to see the capstones applicable to all mechanic subclasses, and provide significant shifts in gameplay power like Multitasker gives, instead of this. This feat is amazing, but a boring auto-pick for a subclass drowning in boring auto-picks. Boring is the opposite of what I hope for in my capstone feats.
Overall Feat Structure Commentary
Drone Mechanics suffer from feat tax: 5 progression feats, no added customization, and multiple action economy picks.
Turret and Mine mechanics have fewer feat taxes but still rely heavily on action economy boosters to function.
Mine builds become viable and powerful later, but early game is action-starved.
Recommendation: Reduce feat taxes and repurpose advancement feats to grant customizations or subclass-defining perks. Strengthen early Mine play with a 1-action deploy and consolidate drone feats to reduce burden.
Simple and functional. It condenses multiple toolkits into one and lets you use key skills with one hand free. It works as a quality-of-life feature and sets up for skill usage. No changes needed, but it may be worth adding functionality that interacts with your Rig (e.g., daily consumable gadgets).
Modify (Core Mechanic)
The ability to customize gear, weapons, armor, or drones with tech mods is flavorful—but currently too limited:
Mods last only until the start of your next turn, severely limiting setup play.
You may only have one mod active at a time, and only on yourself.
Modding grenades requires both hands free and is too slow in combat.
Recommendations:
Mods should last until the end of your next turn, so you can set up for your next round.
Allow multiple active mods with a reasonable cap (e.g., INT mod as a cap). Make some mods last longer (INT mod rounds, 1 minute, etc.)
Enable modding of ally gear or weapons for team synergy.
The constant reapplication of modify every turn, especially for simple damage mods, is extremely annoying. Imagine if barbarian had to rage EVERY SINGLE TURN, until they finally get an ability at level 13 to stay in rage. No one would accept that. Mechanic should not have to accept it either.
This would shift the Mechanic toward its conceptual space—a battlefield technician enhancing team effectiveness, not a solo tinkerer.
Mobile Exocortex (Level 1)
Currently gives either Reposition Exocortex or Synchronized Step. The latter is vastly superior. There's no reason for a subclass-defining ability to offer a clearly worse option.
Fix: Give Synchronized Step to all mechanics. Let them reposition a deployed exocortex and themselves as a Stride. This helps mitigate the action economy strain other exocortexes face.
Damage Customizations (Level 5)
Excellent modularity, letting you tailor damage types on the fly. However, these should last longer than 1 turn and be usable on ally weapons and grenades. Their utility screams "team support," and the short duration undermines that.
Remote Mods (Level 9)
Great idea that emphasizes gadgeteer flair. Would synergize beautifully with the ability to mod ally gear.
Enduring Mods (Level 13)
Allows one permanent mod. This feature feels like it should be granted at level 1, with a second instance at level 13. You have been spending 12 levels blindly applying your basic damage boost in 80% of all modding cases. It's boring. Level 13 is too late for your first permanent mod.
Manifold Mods (Level 15)
Two mods for one action—good power bump, with great action economy. If mods are allowed longer durations, might not be needed. This feature is designed to fight against your design that limits you to 1 mod and forces reapplying every turn.
Instant Mods (Level 19)
Modify as a free action. Great capstone payoff. If you change to allow multiple mods active and to work with teammates it will need balancing or it would become massively overpowered. In that case, giving it once per turn as a free action would probably be a good compromise.
Subclasses: Exocortex Options
Mine Exocortext:
Mine Exocortex
Initially underwhelming due to high action costs. Early game play is punishing: deploying at range (2 actions), modding for safety (1 action), then detonating (1 action) is a 4-action economy. Worse than a cantrip in terms of output.
However, many of the feats for this subclass are very good—Healing Mines, Gravitic Mines, Proximity Alert, etc. These make it viable at higher levels, and even one of the more flavorful exocortexes.
Fix: Reduce mine deployment at range to 1 action instead of 2. This smooths out early levels without overpowering later gameplay, since later levels already bypass this cost with Double Deployment.
Turret Exocortext:
Turret Exocortex
Feels like the turret does all the work while the Mechanic just babysits it. It uses your MAP, competes with your own actions, and requires constant modding to be effective (e.g., Pinpoint Shot).
Problems:
You feel like a glorified gun stand, not a dynamic inventor.
Damage mods are temporary and action-intensive.
Suggestions:
More synergy between turret and mechanic.
Allow turret-specific mods to persist longer.
Rework action economy so you're fighting alongside your turret, not instead of it.
Drone Exocortext:
Drone Exocortex
This subclass clearly outshines the others. A full companion with 1-action command, independent MAP, and real synergy.
Concerns:
Too many mandatory feat taxes: Refined Chassis, Tactical Drone, Advanced Drone, Elite Drone, Ultimate Drone. You burn half your feat slots just to give it stat advancements.
Suggested fix: Consolidate progression at core levels. Use feats to differentiate playstyle and functionality, not just to keep the chassis up to date. Giving the core progression feats 1 customization each would go a long way. You should also axe at least 1 progression feat to give the subclass some more breathing room.
Systemic Design Issues and Suggested Fixes
Several underlying mechanics in the class's design create friction points across multiple subclasses. The following systemic adjustments are recommended to address these issues and elevate the class’s cohesion and playability. Not all of these suggestions should be implemented, some would be too powerful if combined together:
1. Drone Customizations as Daily Picks
Right now, customizations are effectively feat tax expansions, and many are extremely situational. Changing the system to let Mechanics choose a number of daily customizations equal to INT modifier would:
Let the Mechanic feel like they’re tinkering and adapting daily.
Increase build flexibility without power creep.
Optionally, a feat that is similar to Convertible Chassis could let the Mechanic set multiple preset configurations of customizations and swap between them with an action (transformer-style), adding more flavorful gameplay.
2. Drone Progression Consolidation
Currently, Drones have five separate feats to grant stat progression:
Tactical Drone (Lvl 4)
Refined Chassis (Lvl 8)
Advanced Drone (Lvl 14)
Elite Drone (Lvl 18)
Ultimate Drone (Lvl 20)
This burns half your class feats, and grants zero customizations along the way.
Fix:
Consolidate progression into three feats: Tactical Drone → Advanced Drone → Elite Drone
Add 1 customization pick per feat to provide parallel value.
Make the customization feats grant 2 picks.
This would free up valuable feat space and make builds more diverse.
3. Action Economy Booster Overload
The number of action economy fixes in the feat list reveals a foundational issue—most subclasses are not designed with a reasonable action flow in mind.
Fix:
Rebuild core subclass abilities (particularly Turret and Mines) to assume more efficient default actions.
Treat action economy booster feats (Hunker Down, Synchronized Advance, etc.) as optional optimizations, not essential fixes.
Mechanic Class Playtest Review: Core Analysis and Feedback
Core Class Archetype: The Engineer of the Future
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” — Arthur C. Clarke
I used this quote in my technomancer review, and it is equally important here. The Mechanic stands at the threshold between science fiction and fantasy. Where the Technomancer blends science with spellcasting to create a personal synthesis, the Mechanic externalizes that mastery through machines, gadgets, and battlefield invention. The core archetype of the class is not just that of a tech-user, but a collaborative combat engineer—someone whose skills enhance, support, and reshape the battlefield through inventive application.
Unlike the Technomancer, who channels advanced tech with the arcane, the Mechanic builds their future with circuits and tools. They are closer to the battlefield artificer than the traditional caster—their technology isn’t magical, but it can do things that appear like magic all the same. This manifests not through raw damage or spell slots, but through flexibility, customization, and interaction with the team.
Mechanics aren’t meant to be lone wolves. Their subclass options, particularly the Drone, show what the class is capable of when it's allowed to function as a team player or support specialist. Yet many of the core mechanics pull the class back into self-focus, especially Modify and its current limitations.
To fully realize this archetype, the class should evolve in the following directions:
-More team-based Modify interactions
-Flexible gadgetry that feels like prepping tools for the mission
-Modular features that adapt to the situation
-Companion integration that feels like teamwork, not micromanagement
In short, the Mechanic should feel like the party’s tech enabler—the one who rigs the breach charge, hacks the gate, retools your gear mid-fight, and sends their drone through enemy fire to turn the tide. That’s not a spellcaster with a soldering iron. That’s the magic of technology.
Introduction: Tech as a Team Player
One of the fundamental conceptual divides between magic and technology is the role of teamwork. Magic, as presented in most RPGs, is personal power—it revolves around a singular caster wielding spells, often acting alone unless ritual magic is involved. Technology, by contrast, is born of collaboration. No invention exists in a vacuum: it is built, shared, and adopted by groups.
The Mechanic class attempts to emulate the battlefield engineer or inventor—a tech-savvy operator bringing tools to bear. But its core implementation is still heavily individualistic, especially in the Modify mechanic. Only the Drone subclass captures the synergy technology often entails. I suggest re-framing the Modify ability and exocortex concepts to emphasize ally interaction, shared devices, and synergistic battlefield roles.
I will be providing a review and my thoughts on the class below. Many suggestions will be made. I do not expect all or most to get implemented, think of them as a list of options to try. Many are strong edits or shifts, which will likely prove too strong and need tuning downwards, but I find it best to start with strong changes and balance downward from there, so you don't risk getting in a design rut where nothing feels good enough.
Note: Like the technomancer review I made, I used AI to help format my review with BBCode. They like to take liberties with word changes. I cleaned it up but some of it might have slipped by and sound weird, sorry in advance.
I would like to say that I don't expect for all or even most of the suggestions to be implemented. A subset would work for fixing the class. I provided a range of suggestions for fixes.
When dealing with a class that is underpowered, it is often best to start with strong changes, and then dial back. You can easily get yourself in a design hole by trying only small tweaks. Sometimes the correct solution is a few small tweaks and one big one. If you never try a big one, you won't find the solution.
Perhaps giving DPS++ master proficiency in simple weapons is too much, but then you can try something like a focus spell that gives a +1 bonus to hit with your firearms while it's overclocked. Maybe that will work. Maybe a +1 isn't powerful enough. You won't know which one works best until you try the bigger change and decide it needs to be dialed back.
There are also suggestions I made that are definitely not meant to go together. 4 spell slot per rank AND a temp spell gem per rank would be utterly busted and OP, for instance. Hell, even 1 spell gem per rank is probably too much, but start with a strong adjustment, and dial it back.
I mentioned it before, but the Technomancer is a keystone iconic for the setting itself. It is the setting of Starfinder packaged into a class that says "This is how this setting is different from other settings. This is how this setting works with itself"
The Technomancer being a strong option should be the given IMO. Right now it is a weak arcane caster with little tech flavor. There are other ways to fix the class than my suggestions, but it's just a bunch of ways to potentially fix issues with the class. I tried to make many of my suggestions strong enough to fix more than just one issue at a time, so your criticism is reasonable that many seem very strong.
The gods actively make changes to people on their worlds to make them compatible with one another.
Whatever magical force exists in the universe produces evolution pressure to create similar lifeforms
Something to that effect anyways. Most people handwave away the logic of multiple species, or don't even think about it at all. If you do think about it, you start realizing how silly it is to try to explain convergent evolution. We are 99.9% similar to chimps, but we are incompatible with them and look vastly different (compared to elves, dwarves, humans, gnomes, etc). The odds of different worlds somehow independently producing lifeforms even more similar through total random chance is basically zero.
I like to think of the earth as a sort of magically conceptual eye of the storm for the universe. A calm spot that generates a huge number of concepts that spreads and takes root in other worlds through the medium of magic. It would explain the ubiquity of humanoids, while still allowing for variation.
It's similar to the problem Star Trek has asked of itself many times: "Why are there so many humanoids in the galaxy? Statistics says this should be impossible"
I think in the end it's meant to be vague so you as the DM can either ignore it completely or make up whatever reason you want to for your table.
To give an idea as to how congested the feat picks are for the class, lets take a look at the progression you should take if you want your core class feature (jailbreak) to advance properly, and you want your subclass to function in the current playtest:
2: free pick
4: Double Spellshape
6: Advanced Magic Hack, or free pick if you don't want it (hardlight illusion, is fantastic)
8: Spell Library
10: Greater Magic Hack
12: Double Jailbreak (level 10 feat)
14: Free Pick (recommend Debug Spell)
16: Master Code Cracker
18: Free Pick, but probably Quine Relay from level 16. Arguably better to take this first.
20: Capstone free pick
If you are following your subclass progression that's 3-4 free picks in total. That's a LOT of overhead to make your class features work. Also notice how you only have room for 2-3 spellshape feats if you want to properly jailbreak them.
making jailbreak progression part of the core class, and making spell substitution the baseline for spell cache and ditching Spell Library would dramatically improve your flexibility with feat choices:
2: free pick
4: free pick
6: Advanced Magic Hack, or free pick if you don't want it (hardlight illusion, is fantastic)
8: free pick - lots of good options here
10: Greater Magic Hack (or free pick if you fix level 1 focus spells to be actually good and workable)
12: free pick
14: Free Pick (recommend Debug Spell)
16: free pick, but probably Quine Relay
18: Free Pick
20: Capstone free pick
This looks a lot more like how every other class feels when looking at their feat list. There are a few really good picks that jump out, but nothing feels mandatory anymore.
Yes, the wasting of spellshape focus spells to trigger overclock I think I mentioned somewhere, and it's very janky. It feels very bad to overclock your gear by burning a focus point and an action for zero effect, that SCREAMS broken class feature.
This final post offers mechanical fixes, feature rewrites, and thematic corrections based on the preceding review. Some are surgical tweaks; others address broader conceptual failures. Use it for ideas if you like, or ignore where you disagree.
The Stakes: Technomancer Represents the Setting
Starfinder is a world where magic and technology exist in the same space. No class exemplifies that vision more than the Technomancer.
When the Technomancer fails, the setting fails to express its core idea.
Right now, the Technomancer feels like:
A worse wizard
With more feat tax
And less tech flavor
That is the opposite of what this class should be. Here are suggestions for fixing core issues:
Core Design Goals:
Core Design Goals (That Need Reinforcement)
The Technomancer should:
Cast arcane spells.
Alter and reprogram magic with tech-based logic.
Use technology as both input and target of their magic.
Feel distinct from other casters—especially Wizard and Witchwarper.
Thematically, they should embody:
Tech altering magic (e.g., devices that tweak, counter, or emit spells, jailbreak spellgems and chips for later use, etc. This is not handled well).
Magic altering tech (e.g., hacked weapons, reprogrammed constructs, shield-wrapped machines, etc. This part is already covered fairly well).
A sense of tools, devices, and engineered manipulation—not just incantation.
Fixes – Core Mechanics
Overclock & Jailbreak Loop
Make Overclock a free action or passive toggle that isn’t consumed.
Give Jailbreak at level 1—this is not optional. People need to know how the class functions at level 1, and this is central to it.
Allow Jailbreaking or Overclocking from cantrips to support the loop at low levels. The main tax is the action economy used to cast the spells, you don't need to force spell slot expenditure too.
Consider adding a class feature that gives automatic Overclock at the start of combat. This would go a MASSIVE way towards smoothing gameplay.
Support the subclass identity (e.g., gish boost, summon synergy, temporary shields)
Spellcasting Deficiency
Give 4 spell slots per rank to match other casters.
Allow Technomancers to make daily temporary spell gems.
Weapon & Grenade Interaction
Grant Master proficiency in Class DC. This will help with grenade interactions that the technomancer wants to use.
Let Technomancers use Spell DC for class grenades or infused weapons/gadgets if modded by a spellshape.
Fixes – Subclass Support
DPS
Add a subclass feature that uses spellcasting proficiency for weapon attacks affected by your spells.
Or give scaling to Master in simple weapons.
FORTRUN
Grant Medium Armor Proficiency and Master Proficiency.
Consider making Overclock Armor the level 1 hack.
ServoShell
Give a permanent robot familiar or minion. Doesn't need to be as good as the Mechanic's companion. We can buff ours with spells.
Let summon spells optionally function as 2-action polymorphs on your minion, swapping its stats.
This is the subclass that should explore reusable, magical technology as a companion, and as useful tech devices that are consistently reliable.
VIPER
Give daily or free craftable temp spell gems—either based on cache or class level. This is really not optional. you NEED to do this.
Reword confusing hack effects, particularly jailbreak for Dynamic Frequency Scaling.
Reinforce the “black hat wizard” vibe with actual access to spells outside arcane, consistently. This is the technomancer that copycat's the party's Mystic, to their endless annoyance, until the mystic drops and the technomancer saves their ass.
[/spoiler]
Thematic Shortfalls & Opportunities
Right now, the class claims to manipulate technology with magic—but there’s no sense that technology is manipulating your magic. The one aspect: jailbreaking is all handwaved as happening as part of casting the spell.
Remember Clarke’s Third Law:
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
That means this fusion must go both ways.
Where is the lightning bolt wand that is also a charging station for your batteries?
Where is the gauntlet that auto-jailbreaks a stored spell with a certain spellshape and lets you cast it?
Where is the Magitech USB port that plugs into a robot summon to give it the buff of the spell being stored?
Where is the starmetal nanoswarm smoke grenade that obscures vision both mundane and magical, but transmits from millions of little cameras to your network so your allies are unaffected?
Technomancers need physical technology that interacts with their spellcasting.
Even if it’s just flavor—show the machinery. Right now, it’s a bunch of feats and math pretending to be tech.
Final Thoughts
The Technomancer has the potential to be the most iconic class in Starfinder. It should sit at the intersection of arcane mastery and technological wizardry. Instead, it’s a bogged-down wizard variant with clunky mechanics, endless feat tax, and little actual connection to tech. I am very hopeful for this class. It is THE class I want to play the most in the system, so if I sound sanctimonious, overly opinionated, or something, it's because I want Technomancer to be good.
This post covers the rest of the Technomancer class feats, from levels 10 through 20. By this point in the class, your feat economy is extremely tight—most of the critical picks have already been spent on mandatory engine-stabilizing feats. While the options do get more interesting at high levels, many of them still suffer from timing, action economy, or cost problems.
Level 10 Feats:
Level 10 Feats
Compressed Casting – It’s Quickened Spell, once per day. Technomancer's loop is so action-starved that you’d think this would help, but it doesn’t fix the flow disruption caused by Overclock timing. If you overclock, you can't cast a second spell. If you don't overclock, your cycle is broken next turn. Feats should not negatively interact with your core class flow. The jailbreak effect is basically the Double Jailbreak effect without having to take Double Jailbreak.... You are going to take Double Jailbreak.
Double Jailbreak – Essential upgrade to Double Spellshape. Lets you apply 2 spellshapes and get the extra jailbreak effect. Arguably mandatory; you won’t find a better level 10 option. This COULD stay as a feat, but man.... its the best feat at whatever level you put it in.
Greater Magic Hack – Grants your subclass’s 3rd focus spell. Standard feat, required for late-game subclass function. With the current design, arguably the one feat that makes several of the subclasses even work at all.
Overvolt Resistor – Spellshape that ignores resistances or immunities. Jailbreak pierces immunity (a bit). This sounds good, but if you are using this because you already know the enemy is immune, just cast a different spell. Still, it has situational use.
Soft Reboot – Once per hour, Overclock yourself as a reaction at the start of your turn. This is one of the few flow-fix tools that actually works, but 1/hour makes it unreliable. Would be a must-pick if it were 1/10 min.
Level 12 Feats:
Level 12 Feats
Advanced Cross Platform Application – Gain another subclass hack… if you spent three other feats first. That’s 4 total feats for a single extra spellshape. Never worth it. You need to not require so many feats.
Clever Counterspell – It’s Wizard’s clever counterspell. Extremely good for a counterbuild. Otherwise skippable.
Liminal Hyperlink – Create a short-range linked portal. Niche utility and some teleport tricks, but most games won’t justify spending a level 12 feat on this. There are several spells which come close to this behavior. This can be a good third focus spell if you skipped one of your subclass ones.
Reactive Firewall – Once per hour, give an attacker disadvantage if you’re Overclocked. This is actually good, and should be considered for defense builds. The overclock requirement means any disruption to your flow makes it unavailable, making you not want to jailbreak.
Level 14 Feats:
Level 14 Feats
Debug Spell – Spellshape that boosts low-die size spells (like d4 cantrips). Utterly devastating with Force Barrage or other small die size spells. Nearly worthless on d10 or d12 spells. Overall a great spellshape feat, as it is situationally useful depending on the spell.
Reflect Spell – Same counterspell reflect seen in other classes. If you’re deep in counterspell territory, this is fine. If not, skip it.
Sleep Mode – Once per day, start a fight Overclocked. Which saves you… one action. Per Day. This is not a level 14 effect. Should be 1/10 min or a passive trait. This feels like it should be a core class feature at level one that always works. This is the equivalent to Barbarian Rage. Ever since you gave the barbarian their rage at the start of combat, the class design just WORKS. This would also do a lot to fix Servoshell and let you jailbreak your summon on turn one. As is, it's once per day limit makes it nearly worthless.
Tashtari Cluster – Bank a second Overclock charge for later. In theory this gives you back-to-back Jailbreaks, but it takes four rounds of setup. Most fights will be over before this pays off.
Level 16 Feats:
Level 16 Feats
Master Code Cracker – Upgrades Double Jailbreak: now you get both spellshape jailbreak effects. This is the final piece of the spellshape engine. Feels close to mandatory to fully unlock the class. Probably should have been progression, not a feat.
Quine Relay – Effortless Concentration reskin. Absolutely excellent for action economy, and one of the only “clean” feats with no gotchas. Highly recommended.
Shatter Spell – Spellshape for Dispel Magic. If you successfully counteract a spell, deal force damage to someone in the area. Jailbreak increases damage or makes it AoE. Extremely niche, won’t come up often. Also very late to get an effect like this. The effect already scales by spell rank, that makes it perfect to introduce at low levels.
Spellshape Modder – Once per 10 min, temporarily gain any spellshape feat. Can’t use its Jailbreak. This would be amazing at low levels—at 16, it’s too little, too late. The inability to use jailbreak is like kicking a dead horse. Jailbreaking spellshapes is your core class mechanic, EVERYTHING should interact with it.
Level 18 Feats:
Level 18 Feats
Speedrun – Focus spell that lets you phase through enemies and walls. Cool flavor, but this is a mobility tool you should’ve had 8 levels ago. Doesn’t scale to 18th-level expectations. It's like a really good blink spell, at a level you are summoning meteors from the sky.
Sudo Spell – Lets you cast a 4th- or 5th-rank spell from a slot, then cast it again next turn for free. Good spell economy, but only works on back-to-back casting, and not all spells benefit from that. Mainly good for easy fights where back to back casting of low level spells is acceptable.
Vigilant Administrator – Gain a second reaction, only for counterspelling. Campaign-dependent feat—either utterly and completely OP and busted or worthless. If your GM throws lots of enemy casters at you, this is amazing. Otherwise, skip. A Starfinder version of Strength of Thousands would see half the GMs banning this feat in frustration.
Level 20 Feats:
Level 20 Feats
Auto Spellshape – All spellshapes are free actions. Sounds powerful, but you’ve already been doing this since level 3 via Jailbreak. Only difference: now you don’t need Overclock. Too little, too late. It also doesn't interact with double spellshape, so really it's just a feat for letting you not use your core class mechanics and still use spellshapes freely... Which is a weird capstone to have.
God Mode – Apply 3 spellshapes (or 4 with Jailbreak) to a spell once every 10 minutes. This is the dream payoff for the class design—finally unlocks the chaos you’ve been promised since level 1. Great capstone.
Root Access – Bog standard get a second 10th-level spell slot. It’s raw power. Always a top-tier pick. Not flashy, but brutally effective.
Final Thoughts on Feats
Too many core mechanics are gated behind feats: Double Spellshape, Jailbreak scaling, Spell Library.
Several “fix” feats just patch over core problems (like Overclock action economy, or not starting combat with it on).
A lot of the coolest effects are locked behind bad economy or bad action flow.
Spellshape synergy gets better late game, but it takes 5–6 feats just to get the system working. Most of your feats aren't flavor, they are needed to make your class abilities actually work.
This post covers all Technomancer class feats from levels 1 through 8. I’ve kept the writeups short unless a feat is unusually important, broken, or problematic. Later feats (10+) will be covered in a separate post.
Level 1 Feats:
Level 1 Feats
Counterspell – Standard counterspell. Does what you expect. Functional but unimpressive without further investment.
Denial of Safety – It’s Widen Spell. Jailbreak adds another 5 feet—but only for AoEs, which you won’t cast until you get 2nd-rank spells. Doesn’t do anything at level 1.
Incognito Spell – It’s Conceal Spell. Jailbreak lets you Demoralize when casting. That’s great if you’re investing in Intimidation—but thematically strange (you’re hiding the spell, yet somehow scaring people with it).
Programming Prodigy – Reskinned Spellbook Prodigy. Helps against stingy GMs. Should honestly be baseline for prepared casters.
Signal Boost – It’s Reach Spell. Solid early pick—reach is extremely valuable and action-efficient. Jailbreak adds even more reach. This is one of the best level 1 feats.
Spell Circuit – Lets you cast spell gems and chips without drawing them. Jailbreak lets you burn one spell gem to cast another. Interesting action economy option, but totally dead without cheap, renewable spell gems—which you don’t get.
Level 2 Feats:
Level 2 Feats
Ammo Infector Virus – Lets you Strike and Hack with one action… if you have Combat Hack. That’s a skill feat requiring expert in Computers, which you can’t get until level 3. You can’t even qualify for this at level 2 unless multiclassing. Feels like it was written for a Multiclassing level 1-2 feat pick into Technomancer.
Cantrip Expansion – Standard cantrip expansion. No complaints, no fanfare.
Gear Authentication – Lets you lock an item to yourself and teleport it to your hand. Must match your programming language. Very niche; the teleport is a single-action trick that’s mostly useful for armor (which you rarely swap). Not worth a feat.
Safemode Spell – It’s Nonlethal Spell. Jailbreak converts the spell into a Will-save illusion. That’s oddly flavorful and might occasionally be useful—best used for certain campign types.
Level 4 Feats:
Level 4 Feats
Alakablam – Reload a weapon with a spell gem and Overclock Gear at the same time. Effect is vague: does it buff one shot or the whole clip? Cool idea, but requires consumables you don’t have.
Delete Root Access – Cast a mind control spell on a robot of CR = your level – 3. Jailbreak can cause a long term crit fail. Extremely narrow. Even if it works, the target will be the weakest thing on the field. Fun flavor, bad mechanics.
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Double Spellshape – This feat is mandatory. It should be a baseline class feature. Without it, your core class design is crippled. No other class has to spend a feat to progress its core mechanic in such a fundamental way. I cannot stress this enough: ANY feat pick at level 4 that is not this feat is a TRAP OPTION. You cannot print the class with this being a feat. This is like forcing the barbarian to spend feats to progress their instinct, or the thaumaturge to go from personal antithesis to actual weaknesses.
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Overclock Focus – Once per day, regain a focus point if you cast a spell without Jailbreaking it. That breaks your loop. The reward is a single focus point. This feat is a trap.
Spell Protection Protocol – Gives allies a save bonus vs. spells (+1 normally, +3 vs. your own spells). Requires ServoShell or FORTRUN… the two subclasses least likely to cast offensive AoEs. Misaligned design.
Level 6 Feats:
Level 6 Feats
Advanced Magic Hack – Get your subclass’s second hack. This is a standard feat for focus spell progression.
Booming Bootloader – Adds sonic damage and a Frighten effect to your summon spells. Sounds cool—until you remember summoning is 3 actions and doesn’t flow with your loop. Niche use only.
Hardlight Illusion – Buffs illusion spells and makes them deal real damage on Jailbreak. This is a fantastic spellshape. Powerful, flavorful, and synergistic. I wish all spellshapes were this good.
Overclock Spell Database – Once per day, cast another spell from your cache if you don’t Jailbreak a spell. Breaks your loop to maybe cast again later. Feels like a lesser Wizard bonded item feat. Not worth it.
Pirate Spell – If you counter a spell, you can use your cache to prep it. You already had to spend a slot to counter it, so this is just replacing what you lost. Wizards do this for free if they are spell substitution wizards (the thesis technomancer is trying to mimic).
White Hat Hack – If you’re Overclocked and cast a spell without Jailbreaking, you remove Glitching from allies. Breaking your core loop to lower glitching is not worth a feat usually. There will likely be some APs where this will be strong.
Level 8 Feats:
Level 8 Feats
Backup Spell – Once per hour, get one more spell slot, but glitch yourself in exchange. Jailbreak removes glitching. Nice as a last-ditch option, but the debuff makes it unreliable in combat. This is a nice way to recast 1 hour duration buffs endlessly though. Best used out of combat, where it is very strong for refreshing buffs.
Cross Platform Application – Learn another subclass’s initial hack. Sounds good—until you realize it’s another spellshape and won’t synergize well unless you picked very carefully.
Grenade Spell – Turns a spell into a grenade. Jailbreak adds AoE. Not bad if you build around it, but suffers from lack of scaling and class DC issues with grenades. Needs class DC scaling to be worth it. Also needs grenades... which are expensive if you don't get them reliably. The reusable grenade shell item helps with this a great deal if you can obtain them (should be easy, but your mileage may vary by GM).
Spell Library – Mandatory feat. Expands spell cache to all your known spells, one per spell rank. Without this, you’re just worse than the Wizard at prep. Should be built into the class, or just give technomancer spell substitution. There are a lot of good options in the level 8 feat category, and all of them are trap options when compared to this feat.
Split Tunneling – Lets you split a spell’s damage between two targets. Jailbreak upgrades a miss into a partial hit. This is a very good offensive tool and a solid pick for blasters.
Note for level 8: The feats in level 8 are overloaded with good options. Maybe it feels this way because other levels have too many bad feats, but it is something to consider.
This post reviews each Programming Language (subclass) and its three associated Magic Hacks (focus spells). These are meant to define your build and provide you with signature class tools. In practice, none of the subclasses function properly at level 1, and some never fully come online at all.
Each subclass gives:
A Level 1 hack (always a spellshape focus spell)
A Level 6 hack (Advanced Hack, also a spellshape)
A Level 10 hack (Greater Hack, sometimes an actual focus spell)
The general pattern is that the Greater Hack is the one that finally delivers on the subclass fantasy—which means most subclasses don't work as advertised until mid-to-late game. That’s far too late.
Note: This DPS++ spoiler section isn't working for some reason.
DPS++:
DPS++ – The Gish That Isn’t
Initial Hack: Thermoelectric Phase Change
Change the damage type of a spell and add persistent damage on crits.
Solid flavor and flexibility—just not usable more than once/day early on due to being a spellshape focus spell.
Advanced Hack: Virtualized Data Transmission
Teleport to a spell’s area (or anywhere in range on Jailbreak).
Extremely flavorful and creative utility—this is the most fun spellshape in the class.
Greater Hack: Overclock Brain
Gain Quickened for 1 minute, usable only for Strikes.
This is the gish enabler. It’s excellent. It should be the subclass’s level 1 hack, not its capstone.
Verdict: DPS++ is a “fighter-mage” subclass that can’t fight effectively and can’t spellcast freely until level 10. The weapon accuracy, action economy, and core subclass fantasy don’t connect until very late levels. You can't make a subclass based on shooting a gun, and then give it the WORST gun accuracy in the game. The quickened condition is the only thing that enables this subclass as Overclock Gear demands your third action. You still have nothing left over for moving.
FORTRUN:
FORTRUN – The Caster Tank With No Armor
Initial Hack: Energy Sink
Gain resistance to the element of your last damage spell (Jailbreak gives all resistances).
The scaling is off, and it makes for weird gameplay where if you can't afford to jailbreak, you are incentivized to do the same damage type as your enemy, which is often the worst damage type to use.
Advanced Hack: Active Defense Firewall
Store a spell in your armor that auto-casts when you get hit in melee.
A creative trap mechanic, but doesn’t interact with Jailbreak, Overclock, or your actual class loop.
Greater Hack: Overclock Armor
Grants a scaling force field This is the durability the subclass needs—why is it not available at level 1?
Verdict: FORTRUN tries to be tanky, but you only wear light armor and don’t get hit point buffs or permanent protection. Your subclass tries to encourage melee range positioning, but doesn’t give you tools to survive it until far too late. Again, you printed a subclass based on wearing armor, then gave it the worst armor, with the worst proficiency. This subclass needs to give the player medium armor and master proficiency scaling. Anything less and you are encouraging suicidal behavior at a number of level ranges.
ServoShell:
ServoShell – The Robot Mage Without A Robot
Initial Hack: Signal Relay
Cast a buff spell, and it copies to your summon via Jailbreak.
You don’t have a summon at level 1. You don’t have enough spell slots to buff and summon anyway. Dead feature until late levels, so why is it the level 1 focus spell?
Advanced Hack: Hardlight Simulacrum
Summons are treated as constructs. Jailbreak gives you free Overclock.
This finally makes the subclass playable. But it doesn’t fix the action order issue: you want to jailbreak your summon, but can't without overclock, and summons are 3 actions. The flow is janky as hell and makes your summons WORSE (coming in late in the combat) because you tried to use your class features with it.
Greater Hack: Overclock Minion
Your summoned minion is Quickened for 1 minute.
A strong effect, but doesn’t trigger until round 3+ without some miracle of setup. (turn 1 summon, turn 2 quicken, but its already your turn so the summon doesn't get the extra action, turn 3 it finally gets an extra action)
Verdict: ServoShell does not function at level 1. You need at least two turns to even start your subclass loop. The subclass needs a permanent robot familiar/minion baseline to work at all. I can't stress this enough. Relying on three action summon spells makes this subclass dead in the water. I would recommend an ability to cast robot/construct summon spells as 2 action polymorph spells on your permanent robot minion, replacing it's stats for the duration.
Viper:
VIPER – The Hacker That Can’t Afford to Hack
Initial Hack: Dynamic Frequency Scaling
You can reuse a spell gem one additional time (or avoid destroying it).
Would be good if you had spell gems. You don’t. The class gives you no way to get them. The jailbreak effect is completely nonsensical. I have no idea what it means or how it is supposed to work. Do I roll some sort of check on a gem that would get destroyed to not destroy it? What does it mean for a spell gem to be broken? You need to rewrite this.
Advanced Hack: Log Spell Execution
Store a spell gem spell in your cache. Jailbreak lets you steal spells from any tradition.
Incredible potential, completely wasted because you can’t afford to use the class’s engine.
Greater Hack: Overclock Lattice
Lets you heighten spell gems up to your max rank. Jailbreak lets you match your current spell slot.
Late-game payoff for a concept that never had enough support. Too little, too late.
Verdict: VIPER is a great idea sabotaged by the game economy. You need daily temporary spell gems to make this subclass viable. Without them, nothing works. Overclock Lattice is extremely good but doesn't come into play until level 10, which is near the end of the campaign for most of the APs. This is the most functional subclass as written, but still suffers severely from lack of the resource the subclass requires to operate. No other class or subclass has ever been printed by you that so clearly relies on consumables and provides no method of routinely acquiring them.
Takeaways:
All subclasses fail to deliver on their fantasy at level 1. The spellshape focus spells fail to fulfill the focus spell design promise: a reusable spell that is reliably available every fight. This also leads to weird behaviors like casting your spellshape focus spell because it isn't a cantrip, JUST so you can overclock without spending a spell slot. It's very bad design. These level 1 focus spells need to be normal focus spells that have an EXTRA jailbreak effect if jailbreak is used on them, instead of yet another spellshape that isn't usable at the level it is given.
Initial Hacks are all spellshapes that require spell slots, which the class doesn’t have many of. These NEED to be regular focus spells that we can reliably jailbreak and overclock from.
Most subclasses don’t even start working until level 10.
The one thing each subclass needs to function (weapons, armor, minion, consumables) is delayed or missing entirely.
This post covers the base class features of the Technomancer—what every build has in common before subclass, feat, or spell picks. There are major issues with fundamentals here: you start with less than other casters, and your mechanical identity actively sabotages itself.
Skills:
Skills – 1+INT is Not Good
Technomancers get 1 trained skill + INT modifier. That is the lowest in the game, and it’s not good for a class whose entire concept is about versatility, knowledge, and interfacing with tech.
I understand your logic Paizo. Arcana + Computers + 1 + Int = the wizard's Arcana + 2 + Int. You are failing to account for the fact that you added 2 more core skills to the game when balancing this. This effectively means the technomancer is nerfed AND less flexible in skill selection. The witchwarper gets class skill + 3 + Int. This means the witchwarper is a more skilled class than the Technomancer, the class whose core archetype is being highly knowledgable.
Recommendation: Bump to 2+INT minimum. The technomancer should not be worse than the Witchwarper.
Proficiencies:
Weapon & Armor Proficiency – Underwhelming and Unsynergistic
You get:
Expert proficiency in simple weapons
Expert in light armor only
No progression in class DC[b]
These stats would be tolerable if you were a pure backline caster. But multiple class features:
Encourage using grenades (which rely on class DC)
Rely on attacking with weapons
Subclasses like DPS++ and FORTRUN, explicitly want you to be in melee or attacking with guns
This creates a contradiction: the class [b]wants you to use tech gear, but doesn’t give you the stats to support it. You fall behind in both accuracy and save DCs.
Recommendation: Allow Technomancers to gain Master proficiency scaling with class DC.
DPS++ should get Master proficiency in simple weapons—it’s core to their subclass fantasy. You MIGHT be able to get away with just master in class DC for auto fire and area weapons, but master in simple weapons only allows the subclass to function without missing all of the time. Alternatively, you could add a feature to DPS++ that allows your weapon attacks affected by one of your spells to be made with your spellcasting proficiency or something to that effect.
Spellcasting Slots:
Spellcasting – The Most Limited Arcane Caster
Technomancers cast arcane spells, but:
They get fewer spell slots per level (3 instead of 4) compared to Wizard, Sorcerer, Mystic, and Witchwarper.
They are the only printed starfinder class locked to the arcane tradition.
They are dependent on spell slots to trigger class features (see: spellshapes and focus spells).
Your main class identity is built around modifying your spellcasting through spellshape feats—but you have fewer opportunities to actually cast spells than any other full caster. This creates a mechanical tension where the class tells you to use spells more often—but particularly in the early levels, doesn't give you any non-cantrip spells to cast.
Recommendation: Give Technomancers the same number of spell slots as other casters (4 per level), or allow more free/low-cost use of spellshapes. Also consider making most of their class features (overclock, jailbreak, etc.) operate from cantrips. Another possibility is to give all technomancers 1 temp spell gem per spell rank (or however many would be balanced). This give them a consumable techy feel, enables viper, and lets them cast the same number of spells as other classes, with the viper getting features similar to arcane bond drain chaining for wizard.
Spell Cache:
Spell Cache – A Weaker Wizard Thesis
Spell Cache lets you swap in known spells for others in your cache—but only a limited pre-selected number. Compare this to the Wizard’s Spell Substitution Thesis, which allows access to their entire spellbook when preparing.
This makes the level 8 feat Spell Library functionally mandatory. Without it, you’re artificially limited to a tiny subset of your known spells. The feats that temporarily add spells to your cache CAN be interesting, but are so limited (generally just one download before disappearing) that they are a headache to manage.
Recommendation: Just give Technomancers the Wizard’s Spell Substitution functionality. Spell Library could be baked in, and spell prep should be less rigid for a class themed around modular casting.
Overclock + Jailbreak:
Overclock + Jailbreak – The Engine is Broken
This is the core loop of the class:
Spend an action to Overclock Gear (you must do this first).
On a future turn, cast a spell and use Jailbreak Spell (which consumes Overclock).
Reapply Overclock.
The issue is: most spells cost 2 actions, spellshapes cost 1 action at levels 1 and 2, and Overclock costs 1 action. That’s a 4-action turn, minimum. You need 5 actions if you want to move or reposition. The action economy is one of the most starved I have ever seen printed. This results in everyone else taking cover, using tactics, and making attacks, while the technomancer stands there after a single spell and must choose between engaging with their core class mechanics and turning into a sitting duck, or playing smart.
To make matters worse, you don’t even get Jailbreak until level 3. Which means your class simply does not function at levels 1–2. There are also WAY too many feats, spellshapes, and subclass features with interactions that make you NOT want to jailbreak. This is problematic seeing as how it's the core class design to use it.
Recommendation:
Make Overclock Gear a free action or passive toggle that isn't consumed.
Give Jailbreak at level 1—it is not optional.
Rework focus spells so they help you engage this loop instead of requiring it to work.
Summary of Class Feature Issues
Skill access is too low for a smart class.
Weapon and item interaction lags behind accuracy and scaling expectations.
You are the least effective arcane caster by raw spellcasting metrics. Even the witch gets hex cantrips, off tradition spells, and hex focus spells that are better.
Spell cache is strictly inferior to wizard spell substitution and feels incomplete.
Overclock + Jailbreak is a fragile, overloaded action loop that needs major restructuring.
Hello everyone. I’ve put together a review of the Technomancer class from the Playtest. I was extremely excited to see the class finally appear — Technomancer is my favorite class from SF1E, and I’ve been looking forward to it since day one. This is a long series of posts. I'm just warning you up front. That said...
Unfortunately, this version of Technomancer is a disappointment.
What follows is a multi-post breakdown of the Technomancer’s current design. I focus on mechanical analysis, with some flavor and thematic commentary mixed in. There are strong opinions ahead, but I also will take the time to break down evaluations of feats, subclass hacks, and core mechanics. I'll provide some suggestion and recommendations as well for fixing the issues. Some combination of a subset of my recommendations would be nice to see implemented in some way.
Core Verdict:
The class is mechanically disjointed.
Its action economy is abysmal, especially in the early game.
The core loop (Overclock + Jailbreak + Spellshape) is fragile, overloaded, and fails at low levels.
The class is overly dependent on specific feats just to function normally.
Subclasses (programming languages) do not come online until level 6+, and some never function properly at all.
Many core features conflict with each other or come too late to be relevant.
Main Takeaways:
The class is a worse version of the Wizard. Fewer spells, fewer spell slots, worse action economy, and no meaningful tradeoff.
The Overclock mechanic is a trap. It costs actions, conflicts with Jailbreak timing, and dominates your turn structure. Most feats try to work around it rather than with it.
Jailbreak Spell is essential, but not granted until level 3. That means levels 1–2 feel like a broken class preview.
Spellshapes dominate the feat list, but you can only use 1–2 at a time, and you have very few spells to put them on early. Most of them compete with each other rather than synergize.
**Each subclass is missing its core functionality at level 1.** DPS++ doesn’t function as a gish. FORTRUN has no durability. ServoShell lacks a minion. VIPER lacks consumables. None of them work until their Advanced or Greater hack—if at all.
Technomancer needs to embody both magic affecting tech, AND tech affecting magic. It fails at this. I go over this more in the ending analysis. The class needs more Tech in Technomancer.
Coming Posts:
I’ll be breaking the rest of this feedback into several focused follow-ups:
Core Class Review – Skills, proficiencies, action economy, spellcasting, and core loop
Subclass Review – Full breakdown of programming languages and their magic hacks
Feat Review – All class feats by level, including trap picks and mandatory tax options
Fix Suggestions – Mechanical and structural changes that could make the class viable
Note: I used AI to help me format this with BBCode. I'm reviewing and editing it, but if it feels weird, it's because of that probably (or maybe you just don't like my wiriting). I also will repeat several of my suggestions in each section where they are relevant, in case you want to skim over things.
2 things that immediately stood out to me while going through the ancestries.
One of the versatile heritages mentions the "cosmic" trait, but it isn't defined anywhere I could find by doing a search of the word in the PDF as to what the trait does. I assume it's meant to make you adapted to the vacuum of space but it's not actually specified anywhere.
Similarly to that, I went to look for the rules of being in a vacuum... and it's missing from the atmospheres section of the environment section. I can't find it anywhere. I also assume it's meant to make you hold your breath, and probably take bludgeoning damage from decompression based on the effects of other things that mention it, but the specifics are missing.
I hate incapacitation so much I just let my players know if an enemy is higher level than them when we play baseline rules.
Whoever thought it was a good idea giving EVERY even moderately difficult enemy +10 to their saving throws against any good debuff spell when they are already higher level than the players, and spells already have low odds of success, was smoking something.
Recently I've just been house ruling that incap rules only apply to big baddie bosses, and everything else higher level just gets +2 to their saves. My spellcasters no longer feel like they need to be limited to buffs and unavoidable damage for difficult fights anymore, its great.
Fights are more interesting since my players pay attention to the save weaknesses of difficult monsters because it actually matters when they have a real chance of landing a debilitating effect.
Wizards are in a weird spot where the considerations for them is an additive premeditated process, instead of a process that can be done with changes on the fly.
If you have an encounter with archers on a wall that is problematic for your fighters, you can not so subtly shove bows on some enemies in the encounter before, or add some melee fighters that come out, or put in a backdoor to the fort, or any number of changes that can be done literally in the same session.
For a wizard, you have to know what the party will be facing before they do, to an extent that the wizard is able to both find and learn the needed spells in time, and is given enough information to have them prepared on the correct day they need to be used.
I've often seen this done by heavily incentivizing divination spells, which a LOT of players underuse because GMs don't want to ruin their big surprise, or give away the entire plot of their campaign, which is the first thing players tend to want to use divination spells for. Players then get turned off of the spells when the GM immediately scrambles to be as vague as possible to the point the info feels worthless and a waste of play time to try and cajole out of the GM.
The biggest problem with attempting all of this preparation is, of course, that play is chaotic, your party doesn't do what you expect them to, and you have limited prep time and will often wing things or change them on the fly to compensate.
All of this tends to screw with the preparation needed by the wizard. When you make those on-the-fly changes, you would need to intentionally add/alter scenarios that get countered by the spells the wizard already has prepared.
The problem with this, is that if you do this, you are basically just designing your encounter around a preset and known list of spells that the wizard likes to prepare..... exactly like you would do for a sorcerer.
This discourages planning and preparation on the part of the wizard, since you will just compensate for whatever spells they prepare, and thus over time you get into a situation where the spellcaster might as well just play a sorcerer, because you are just going to design around the spell list they choose anyways. Any situations where you drop big hints like "Oh my, this thing coming up would sure be easier with a knock spell......." can just be covered by the sorcerer's one prepared spell feat.
Part of the issue with prepared casting, and wizard prepared casting in particular, is the already mentioned need to have foreknowledge of your encounters to actually gain the advantage preparation provides you.
Wizards feel this more keenly because their class toolkit does not have other options for them to use. Clerics use a limited spell list and focus more on party heals and buffs, which can stay consistent and Druids have shapeshifting for martial combat. Witches are pretty close with wizard for this issue.
I also agree that providing the opportunity to both acquire and have prepared the correct spells for the encounter is a consideration that GMs have to make for wizards to help them not just be worse sorcerers.
One of the things I think might work is retooling their drain bonded item to have an option to instead allow them to cast any spell in their spellbook. Maybe the universal wizard version lets them cast that one spell at each spell level, or a recast of a prepared spell, to prevent it from being too overpowered.
It's one of the things that's always bothered me about wizards, and why I liked arcanist so much. A wizard is centered around their spellbook, except the book is just a literal paperweight while adventuring. The quick study ability let arcanists actually use their spellbook actively throughout the day. Wizards need something similar.
I think of this as akin to the sorcerer's ability to take a feat to get a spellbook they can prepare one spell a day from. It lets the sorcerer dip their toe into the wizard realm so they aren't just out of luck if their base spells aren't up to the task.
Giving wizards the ability to, at least once per day, pull out the right spell for the job from their spellbook is like a supercharged preparation ability, which fits the wizard theme. After all, part of the preparation needed is having the foresight to bother learning the spell in the first place.
There are two major changes I would make to Wizard. Both are probably hot takes.
1. Preparing. Spells. Is. Horrible. At least as it is implemented. I have literally never, in my entire 25 years of playing tabletop RPGs, ever encountered someone who felt "Oh yeah. I LOVE doing the spreadsheet accounting to figure out if I need 2 of this, and 1 of that, and 3 of those prepared, and 1 of each of these three spells...". This actually sort of goes for every prepared caster, but we are talking about wizard here.
Honestly, Wizard needs something similar to the 1E Arcanist method of preparing spells. It is literally so good and simple that DnD stole it for it's implementation of wizard.
Paizo is sitting on a good mechanic for wizard spellcasting and what's better is no one can even accuse them of stealing the idea, because they are the one who came up with it.
2. Spellcasting accuracy is god awful. The last game I DMed, there were two fighters in the party. There were several times in the campaign where the fighters would regularly be making one action attacks that did more average damage than a two action cantrip, and had +7 better to hit on the attack than the wizard.
This was +4 from proficiency, +1 from weapon rune, and +2 from flatfooted at early levels, and later levels it was +2 proficiency, +3 rune, +2 flat footed.
That's a 35% better chance to hit and crit. The difference is so large the shock is like a slap to the face to see it in action. This wouldn't be so bad if the chance to hit for the wizard was still pretty good, but it is not. The wizard would often be rolling to hit with a 50% chance or less to land the spell attack. This doesn't even get into the abysmal odds of getting a monster to fail it's save, particularly a boss, and god forbid the spell has the incapacitate tag.
People like to succeed, they don't like to fail. I would rather Paizo nerf spell effects and increase the odds of the spells taking effect, if they consider increasing the odds of hitting to be too unbalanced, than leaving it as it is.
I had a lot of fun playing one about 8 years ago that could remember a huge number of his past lives but got splitting headaches all the time and needed to find weird magical artifacts to settle his soul so he could think clearly and cast spells.
Then he'd go off on a tangent when meeting an ancient red dragon about how he got eaten by it 37 lifetimes ago.
For the life of me, I don't understand why the term "plane" was used in the first place. They are by every definition and measure better described as alternate or parallel dimensions.
The Fire, Earth, Death, Life, etc Dimension is much more evocative and stronger a term than "Plane of X" IMO.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_(esotericism)
The concept of planes of existence is very old and dates back thousands of years, before the mathematical concept of spatial dimensions was even around.
I do have to agree though that "Negative Energy Plane" is a mouthful. And calling them dimensions wouldn't be a bad idea.
I think he is more saying that the current structure of the app and the way it generates revenue effectively sells access to something that is already available for free.
That's true for a lot of 3rd-party Pathfinder accessories. (See Beadle & Grimm, above).
What I don't understand is the animosity toward a company based on fear and on experience with an entirely different company.
With any product, some companies create inferior verisons and other create luxury versions. As long as there is also a free version available, why spew hate and hostile verbiage toward a company you've never had any dealings with? Why the instant vitriol? Why a pseudo product review of a product you've never used?
If you are just posting your own anxieties for all the world to see, perhaps a website that offers therapy or support for your issues is a better place to post them, not the product announcement page for a product you're not interested in.
Firstly, the first thing I did was test the tool before forming an opinion. Secondly, if the product announcement page for a product, which allows comments, is not the appropriate place to provide feedback about said new product, then I'm not sure where exactly one SHOULD put their feedback?
I have no personal qualms with Demiplane. I have issues with their pricing model for this product, which otherwise looks quite nice and would be something I might be interested in if it wasn't a god awful money pit.
The pricing model of having your users purchase source material is outdated. It presumes your primary revenue stream is going to be wealthy GMs that buy hundreds or thousands of dollars of content for their groups. A subscription model generates recurrent revenue per user, and is not only a smarter business move, but also more consumer friendly for the type of product they are trying to provide.
The current pricing model just doesn't make any sense. It's also incredibly ballsy to charge full price for content for a beta with missing features. It's not a good indicator as to how they perceive their customer base.
I think he is more saying that the current structure of the app and the way it generates revenue effectively sells access to something that is already available for free.
It's the same complaint people have when ISPs try to charge premiums for full speeds to websites. The core technology provides full speeds anyways, and you are already paying for the connection. It is an artificial barrier erected solely for the purposes of generating revenue.
I don't mind paying a subscription to a service that lets me make characters in a cool, pretty format that is easy to use, because that is the product I wish to pay for: access to a nice, pretty, convenient and easy to use character build tool.
What I am not looking for is a free tool that I have to remember to plop down another 30 bucks for every time a new book comes out despite the content being available for free online.
This pricing model is anti-consumer because it is trying to annoy you into spending all of the money up front to gain access to information that has no inherent cost or barrier to access.
When this is the strategy, there is little incentive to make the content you bought actually good or accurate. The content you buy could be riddled with small errors and bugs and there is not much reason to spend resources fixing the issues because they already have your money.
Compare that to a subscription model, where the investment is continual, and the consumer can stop the flow at any time if the product is not providing the quality expected.
Look at what happened with DNDBeyond in January. The majority of the user base does not buy content, they buy a sub. When that revenue stream was threatened, wizards PANICKED and did a 180. This is the power I want to wield with my dollars when I spend it on a service. I don't want to be left holding an empty wallet as Demiplane goes off doing whatever they want to squeeze money out of the next whale that buys all of the books, because I already did so like a sucker and they have no reason to listen to me anymore.
Bomber Alchemists need legendary prof. with alchemical bombs for the same reason gunslingers need legendary prof. in firearms.
Right now the most effective use of an alchemist's core class ability is to craft the bomb, and then to gain maximum hit chance, hand it to the fighter to throw.
Imagine the gunslinger only got master firearms proficiency. The core ability of the class to craft and use firearms would be best served by handing the gun to a fighter to shoot it.
An alchemist's ENTIRE IDENTITY is to make alchemical items. If they are not the best at using alchemical items (or at least tied for best), then the core class identity is broken (in a bad way).
You could get away with specific alchemical items being designed for certain classes that the alchemist itself doesn't have much use for, the same way haste is better to cast on the martial than yourself, but bombs are a core alchemical item type that the class has an entire subclass dedicated to, and which no other class has a specific focus on.
I just went to use the tool and made a basic level 2 half elf fighter multiclassed to wizard for a spellcasting flair.
My thoughts... are that the value proposition for this tool is absolute garbage. It is WAAAYYYY too expensive for what it provides. There is also no subscription option. The only way to access all options is to spend thousands of dollars.
You also can't even SEE what an option IS when you try to select it without buying the supplement first! That is ridiculous! The entire ruleset is online for free! I can look up any of these options for free in another tool like AoN to at least SEE what it DOES.
The tool as presented is pretty, and that's about the only feature it has that is superior to the competition. There are a number of features not implemented yet as well that I won't complain about because it IS a beta, so I will give them that.
They need to take a hard look at the available alternatives. AoN, Pathbuilder, Wanderer's Guide, Foundry VTT, ect. These tools are written in many cases by a tiny number of devs. All implement the same data and/or functionality (mostly) and at a vastly cheaper price. In many cases free.
I'm NOT saying the whole thing should be free. The presentation is nice and deserves compensation for that alone. It does not deserve more money than you pay for the actual document sold directly from the publisher.
This tool SCREAMS subscription model. It's deafening how badly it needs it. Most players in my experience are very cheap. they will not spend more than a few dollars a month on the hobby. They *might* spend some up front on the core book to feel better about supporting the hobby.
This thing needs something like a 5$ /mo subscription to make characters, or something like 25-30$ /mo to run a campaign and let your players make characters for free that a DM can pay for.
That would be the equivalent to selling a new rulebook every single month to a gaming group for as long as they play, sometimes a month or 2, sometimes YEARS. This is the path to making a decent profit from such a tool/service.
Massive up front costs to just use the tool in the same manner you can already use vastly cheaper alternatives is a quick route to a canceled product.
These discussions sometimes seem silly to me. The number one rule for basically any game (which includes pathfinder) is that specific overrides the general rule.
I have two character options that do not exclude each other specifically, and both grant a dedication.
The general rule is that a dedication can't be taken unless you have two other feats from previous dedications.
Clearly this is not possible in this scenario. Do we then say the specific rules for these options just.... don't work because of the general rule? No. Specific rules that override general rules often do so implicitly when there is a conflict.
The simplest and most straightforward method of resolving the conflict is that if the rules say you can take the option... IT WORKS.
Namely, you get two dedications. both require you to meet any prerequisites due to their wording, except for the limitation preventing you from taking the dedication as that would cause the general rule of dedications to override the specific rule of the option allowing you to take it.
Thus you need to meet the stat prereqs for each dedication (and not have the dedication be your base class) but otherwise you take two dedication feats.
Simple. Easy, and you can move on with your life.
Alternatively, the DM can invoke rule zero and just say you can't take both of them.
My issue with the +1/level mechanic is that it causes the auto-scaling issue seen in a lot of video games that has proven to not be fun.
Does anyone remember playing Elder Scrolls Oblivion? Does anyone remember how as you leveled the game was so tightly balanced around auto-scaling that you never felt badass? everything always seemed hard. This was an issue that was panned for a long time about the game, Skyrim loosened it up a bit, and made it so you could see weaker enemies occasionally, and also harder enemies that you could try beating for a very hard challenge.
The same is true here. With the current system you have no incentive to try easier challenges because you get no reward (xp) for doing them, and higher level challenges quickly become near impossible due to the ramping.
The biggest issue I find with this though, is that Paizo has balanced DCs around optimal characters. No one wants to pour everything into being awesome at one skill, only to find out the system expected this of you to start with, and made it so you have a 60% chance of succeeding instead of the 30% chance everyone else has.
If I become a legendary stealth ninja, I want to blow everyone else out of the water with my mad skills. Paizo has set up a decent opportunity for allowing this with the +10 = critical success, but I don't think they are utilizing it appropriately.
The numbers need to be balanced so that someone who never invested anything into a skill has a crap chance at success, someone who put a marginal amount into it, has an OK chance, and someone who is legendary shouldn't even be worrying about success, they should be concerned with how often they critically succeed instead.
These are the Heroes of the story. The people who specialize for a task should be amazing at it. Sure, a nat 1 fails, but that is just a good story hook at that point, on how the legendary stealth rogue just screwed up and now there's drama unfolding.
The best way to accomplish this I think is to make it so that the level of training and investment is the most important aspect of success. High levels just make harder tasks more accomplish-able, or allows you try try doing them at all.
My players an I were discussing a system where the t/e/m/l system worked a bit differently for skills. (combat rolls stay the same though, since no one likes missing their attacks, and we haven't discussed the combat system yet)
Quote:
At untrained you get nothing but your stat bonus, and any other bonuses from items and spells, like normal.
At trained, you get 1/2 level rounded up, +1.
Expert is like trained but with a +2
Master brings you to full +level bonus +3
Legendary is full level with a +4.
We were considering doing 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full progression as well, but were concerned about too many tables of progression, plus the tables are barely different at low levels.
The idea behind this was to make it so that level still contributes, but not if you don't invest anything at all, and it makes the skill training significant to the bonus you receive.
Most people whose characters are bad at something are bad at it because it's either part of their character concept, they don't care about it, or they have other ways of solving the problem the skill solves (suck at something? pretty sure there's a spell for that, says every wizard ever)
The DCs also need to be set based on an average joe who is just trained in the skill, with maybe a 12 in the stat. Personally I like static DCs, since they are easy to remember. It also make it so that an easy task is always the same, as you level you aren't trying for easy tasks anymore, you are trying for success with medium, hard, or harder tasks.
Something like trivial 5, very easy 10, easy 15, medium 20, hard 25, very hard 30, extreme 35, impossible 40.
A level 20 legendary is going to have +20, +7 stat, +4 legendary skill, +4 item, for +35 if they are super optimized. this makes success on all but impossible tasks guaranteed almost, with a very high chance of critical success.
A level 7 master (someone at the pinnacle of mortal skill before becoming a true heroic personage) would have +7, +3 skill, +4 stat, +2 item, for +16... they can TRY an extreme challenge with a low success rate (10%), have a much better chance with very hard (35%) and thus could do it with a few tries and some time, and pretty much auto succeed at anything easy.
This is just an example of what Paizo could do, there is a lot of room to experiment with the numbers, but I think the key is to not just blindly add +level to everything for everyone, and make it so true legendary skill users are aiming for critical success on the top challenges, not just success.
You could make it so e/m/l in a weapon skill gives +50%/double/triple your str/dex bonus to damage.
Also if the weapon itself is e/m/l you could add a flat +1/2/3 damage to the weapon even if it isn't enchanted.
A master sword user wielding a master sword with 20 strength would do 1d8+12, if it's enchanted +3 it would instead do 4d8+12.
Expert user with an expert sword with 18 strength would do 1d8+7.
Legendary with a legendary sword and 24 strength would be 1d8+24.
Trained user with an expert sword and 16 strength would do 1d8+4.
The roles could be switched too if needed (the skill gives a flat bonus and the quality of the weapon adds stat bonuses). I figured giving an incentive to be highly skilled at the weapon would be better though.
This would resolve the issue of terrible rolls doing negligible damage at later levels as well.
This could be extended to the magic system as well. e/m/l quality casting implements give +1/2/3 damage/healing. e/m/l spellcasting gives +50%/double/triple spellcasting modifier to damage/healing.
granted, martial characters already are much more effective than casters right now, they really need to buff caster effectiveness, and probably add a few HP to monsters with the change.
Yes, we saw that part, the issue is that it takes the alchemist's RP to even make the items, and that prevents the alchemist from using his party's RP instead of his own for items that they will be using.
The stockpiling I was talking about was for poisoned arrows he makes with RP one day and immediately applies to the arrows for use later. We had a discussion about if the alchemy items potency matters until activation, or for the full duration of the effect, and we decided that mutagens and poisons just wouldn't work with quick alchemy at all if they stopped working at the beginning of the next round, so we went with activation since that makes the most sense.
The main issue is that the Alchemist at low levels has precious few RP, even with an 18 INT, you have 5 at level one, which is 10 potions/bombs/poisons per day. Considering poison does 3-5 dice of damage over several rounds (if they keep failing their saves), bombs are roughly the equivalent of cantrips in terms of damage potential, and healing elixirs are strictly worse than a heal spell, the alchemist needs some way of offloading the burden to his teammates and allowing him to continue to chuck bombs throughout the day.
At level 1 he made 4 bombs, 2 healing potions, and 2 centipede poisons with 1 RP left over for the whole day. He pulled out two bombs one turn, chucked 1, next turn he pulled out a third, chucked two, and chucked the last one on round three of the first combat of the day. He missed his first shot with his poisoned arrows, and the second just got saved immediately. The healing potions did their jobs, and he used the last RP to make another, so he healed 3d6 damage and lobbed 4d6 damage worth of bombs all day with his class abilities. He didn't actually do 4d6 though, he missed with one of his attacks.
The elf cleric played in the next session ended up being way more effective than he was with his alchemist (granted it was level 2 play, but still, it shouldn't have been that extreme a difference in effectiveness). Infinite produce flame cantrips, 5 heal spells for free each day (he used healing hands to heal 2d8 + 4 for each one), more spells, it was like night and day.
The house rules let him keep lobbing bombs, and helped tremendously with his ability to get the party healed. So I do think there still needs to be some attention paid to the RP costs of things. At later levels he is going to want to invest several magic items, so I don't anticipate him having more than 10 or so RP any day for most of the levels.
We test things out under the assumption most play occurs around level 7 or below, I forget the article that mentioned this, but it suggested the significant majority of play for most people never goes beyond this, and that has been my experience with other tables so I've kept that in mind over the years.
I suppose that's my fault for not double checking him. He kept saying they cost money to craft.
I'm sure he will be happy when I tell him he can stop spending all his money on bombs.
Anyways, that alleviates the issues with wasted money, but still doesn't address the issues with using the rest of the party's resonance pools to fuel the items he makes for them.
I do this that is still a valid concern of his. Making items that aren't imbued so the other members of the party can use their resonance pools is something I think should still be available.
I'll be talking to my group about this, though we will probably come up with something like "The items last 1 day, and you can choose to imbue them or not with a resonance point for up to INT mod batches per day." or something similar is my guess, at least I'm going to insist on a limit so he can't make infinite bombs at the start of the day. (quick alchemy isn't an issue though due to the very short duration)
I've been running this playtest with my group for several weekends now, and while I'll be posting my full thoughts and those of my group later as I compile them, the player trying the alchemist has a lot of concerns about the primary class abilities.
1. Advanced Alchemy states that you spend the normal crafting costs, and that the items are Infused. From what I see in the rules, RAW, this means the alchemy items stop working one day later.
He already has concerns about blowing too much money at low levels to try to stockpile enough items for use during the adventure, and it's come to the point he essentially refuses to use the ability unless I tell him before hand he will definitely be using them that day. This mainly came up with healing elixirs, since you never know how many you need, but bombs came up as well, see below.
We finally just house ruled that the items just lose the infused trait after one day but otherwise still work since he spent the money on them.
I suggest this becomes the standard rule for the class. No one likes throwing money down the drain on their class abilities that is supposed to be their entire concept.
Second, for both Quick Alchemy and Advanced Alchemy, they always require using a resonance point to use the ability, even for items that have no extra effect whatsoever for having infused them. (poisons and tools are a main example, but bombs when under level 2 also apply)
This was a big sticking point for him particularly at low levels. He had to decide: make a bunch of stuff up front at cost to myself, and potentially waste them? Make them on the fly, using extra actions but spend his limited 5-6 resonance in the process on an item that gets nothing for the expense?
This became somewhat less of an issue when we houseruled letting him keep his stuff after one day, but there is still the cost of either resonance for one item that potentially doesn't need it up front, or money for them AND still a resonance up front needing to anticipate their use but maybe getting two/four of them.
This also causes the issue of the alchemist essentially using all of his own resonance when he might want the rest of the party to take the hit to their own resonance pools. He is unable to use his primary class ability to help his team while utilizing their resonance for the things he makes for them.
We spent a session with the following house rule:
If the item doesn't use resonance, you don't have to spend it. For advanced alchemy, you still use the money, for quick, you still use the action and it's still a very short duration item before needing to use it.
If the item DOES use resonance, you can choose to infuse the item/s with a resonance point, and if you do, it's Infused. If it was made with Advanced alchemy, the first house rule still applies, and it becomes un-infused after one day without ruining it.
And finally: if you crafted the alchemy item yourself and it is not infused, you can spend a resonance point to make it infused for one day as an action. It spoils after that day if you don't use it like normal.
This ended up being a big relief for him, since he could make items to stockpile them, and if he knew he was about to use some, he could infuse them at the entrance and have them ready, without needing to worry about wasting resonance points.
I didn't find the changes to be breaking and I would suggest the changes or something similar be done to reduce the amount of potential wastage an alchemist can have, and to allow the alchemist to use the resonance of his party for the elixirs he makes for them.
This allows the alchemist to make as many bombs as he wants for free, at the cost of an action, and with the stipulation that they are regular level 1 bombs (since there aren't any higher level bombs).
The only potential issue we saw was making free higher level poisons on the fly, mainly for contact and inhaled poisons, since injury poisons doesn't have a maximum duration once applied (and can thus be applied before hand on a downtime day even with the current rules, which is what he did ALL THE TIME). I'm not sure if this will be a major issue though, since poisons tend to take a long time to set in for anything other than injury and inhaled (which can poison your own party), and thus aren't super useful in combat.
