New rulebook announced yesterday at gencon: https://youtu.be/8GMppnwVm-Y?t=697 11:30 if the link chokes.
Campaign setting changes ahead!
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Is that all original art?
I’m GMing Fly Free or Die via play-by-discord (still in part one) and some interesting things came up, so I’ll share here. -------- 50 tons of Yaro berries in 50 pounds crates = 2.204 crates. It’s mentioned the crate the PCs get is worth 500 credits in Akiton (I wonder how much they are worth in Castrovel - and thankfully no one thought of buying some extras), so the cargo is worth 1,102,000 credits - not bad for a crew of schmucks! That’s also 275,5 crates moved per hour to complete the task in just 8 hours. Initially the players didn’t take the hint of helping Runo Pratt with his tablet, so I came up with the idea that it would take about two hours for him to go all the way to Port Authority, formalize the change of ownership in their systems and come back. They finally decided to hack the datapad when he was finishing putting his raincoat and about to head out. The revelation about the space goblins made some of them paranoid immediately, so they decided to check some crates for goblins and keep an eye out for every crate moved onto the hover trailer, expecting goblins to be hidden somewhere trying to board their ship. I had Runo leave to “investigate” the presence of space goblins with his network of merchants, to give the impression the threat was somehow being addressed - didn’t want the PCs to become too paranoid and mess up the surprise later. I think Runo sells very well the importance of the cargo to his life going forward (the old hand PC sympathized right away), and the bonus crate solidifies his presence in the player characters' heart. -------- The first combat is brutal! I have a balanced enough group (soldier, envoy, operative, biohacker) though lacking a magic user, but the junkbot was whopping the ass of anyone within reach. The fire breath with the tanks of petrol makes for an amazing intro. It almost took out one of the characters that was right in the middle of the trap in round 1. One weak spot of the decoy junkbot would be his lack of ranged options - two of the PCs can fly (espraksa and strix), so if they hadn’t spotted the goblins when they took to the skies, they could’ve kited the robot with ease. Though I’d probably have it pick up the tanks and toss them against the birds. That’s something to keep in mind when writing adventures for level 1 in SF, there’s a lot of characters that can fly or climb right from the gate. The goblin attacking the party (while the other two loaded up crates) had some amazing rolls and caused a lot of trouble. 6 HP doesn’t seem like much of a threat, but when 3/4 of the party is ranged and the melee is busy getting beat up by a robot, it takes some effort to drop one of the goblins - the supenga creature companion was getting more results than the ranged folk. I had a bunch of NPC tokens on the sidewalks, initially spread out but inching ever closer, with their comm units or datapads taking pictures and streaming the action. One of them eventually was hit with a fire breath for 11 damage - I assigned them 12 HP, so the fella was almost burnt alive. I kept expecting the PCs to share a healing serum or drop some credsticks to him as compensation, but I guess they didn't have a big enough heart to help some nut job that approaches a gun fight to take a selfie. That did trigger the “police will take you in for at least 24 hours” event, informed to the PCs via a DC 10 culture check. One of the PCs stole a junkcycle and rammed the goblin ‘sniper’, which ended up causing it to explode and nearly hitting the cargo. That was quite amusing, though I was too rusty on vehicle rules to GM it properly - certainly wasn’t expecting that development. Besides looting the goblins, they also loaded up the remaining junkcycles into the hover trailer - not sure if that was planned in the wealth budget of the encounter, but it’s an interesting element to include this early. One of the players asked about fixing the junkbot after the combat. I know Starfinder has no rules for purchasing or crafting robots (other than those level 4 and level 10 drones), so I just ruled that it was a monster instead of an object, therefore it couldn’t be fixed - besides, goblin tech probably falls apart into thousands of pieces after it’s broken. But it got me thinking how the goblins managed to get their hands on such a powerful robot - for a moment I thought it had something to do with the junkbot spells, but the first one of its kind is a 2nd level spell, with just rounds per level duration (and it’s also garbage)… I guess it would make more sense if it was an SRO accomplice or something, mechanically speaking, instead of something they built. -------- The PCs decided to flee the scene, with a successful Piloting check. To keep the tension up, when they were about to leave Castrovel I added a last minute dispatch from traffic control, mentioning that the Port Authority would like a word with the captain about an incident in Ship’s End... but only the next time they visit the planet. They didn’t want to bother with the situation as well. Also to keep the tension, and the grittier realism, the presence of the crates almost overloading the cargo hold keeps getting inserted in the PCs interactions during the trip to Akiton - lack of room for privacy, to exercise, to do anything - it’s just crates everywhere, everywhere. The box on page 10 encourages Downtime activities, but the BD514 is ill-equipped for that. Even some of the activities suggested can’t be used, at least right away - like lounge, which requires good or luxurious crew quarters (or a tech workshop somehow) or work out, which takes 7 days to kick in, while the most the trip will take is 6 days. I’m cutting a lot of slack so the players won’t have a bad impression of this ruleset, but I believe this box should’ve been included after level 2, when they can upgrade the ship a bit. The pilot managed to roll a 1 on the Manage Course downtime activity, triggering the “If you fail by 10 or more, you also suffer more serious consequences as normal”. There are no examples of further information about this, so I decided they “drifted out” for a couple of seconds in front of a corpse fleet vessel, were shot at and drifted back to their regular course. I was hoping for at least a critical threshold to be reached, but I managed only a little dent on the hull - should’ve gone with a higher tier ship! -------- Well, that’s as far as I have GMd the first book, I’ll post more as we move along, probably once we reach part 2.
Just a couple of lists I put together for some discussion on Discord earlier, thought it might interest someone. Top 11 oldest races by maximum possible age: Witchwyrd 600+10d% years
Shatori, from Alien Archive 3 don't have a Maximum Age - I guess none of them has died of old age yet? SRO, from Pact Worlds, have a "See page 213" note on their Maximum Age, but there's no explanation in said page (their entry). I suspect they might be immortal.
Top 4 short-lived races by maximum possible age: Formian 15+1d10 years
Nobody talking about the new high-level 3 part adventure path yet?
Ranged biohacker
Spoiler:
Male gosclaw scholar biohacker 1
N medium humanoid (gosclaw) Init +4; Senses low-light vision; darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +7 DEFENSE_________________________________________ SP 6; HP 10; RP 4 EAC 15; KAC 16 Fort +2; Ref +4; Will +3 Resistances fire 5 OFFENSE_________________________________________ Speed 30 ft. ; burrow 10 ft. Melee Injection +1 Ranged Tactical plasma bolter +4 (1d10 E & F; unwieldy) Needler pistol +5 (1d4 P; analog, injection, called fusion; critical injection +2) Offensive abilities Injections (4/day) STATISTICS________________________________________ Str 10; Dex 18 (+4); Con 10; Int 17 (+3); Wis 8 (-1); Cha 10 Skills Computers +9, Life Science+8, Medicine +7, Perception +7, Physical Science +9, Piloting +5, Sense Motive +7, Sleight of Hand +8, Stealth +5 Feats Longarm proficiency Other abilities Custom scanner, Injection Expert, Primary Field of Study (Genetics), Scientific Method (Studious), Flexible Languages Common, Gosclaw, Azlanti, Draconic, Abyssal Combat gear Serum of healing mk 1 (3); Other gear Second skin, Tactical Plasma Bolter, Needler Pistol (Called weapon fusion), Battery, Darts (25), Industrial backpack, Everyday clothing, R2E (8), Lighter SPECIAL ABILITIES Injections 4/day You must hit an unwilling creature with a melee attack to inject them with an injection. An injection can be injected into a willing or unconscious creature (or yourself) as a standard action, as long as the target is within your reach An injection can also be loaded into a weapon with the injection weapon special property as a move action, and you can deliver the injection with a normal attack with that weapon. When you attack an ally with an injection loaded into a weapon that has the injection weapon special property, that ally is considered flat-footed against your attack. Counteragent: lasts 1 round
Restorative: lasts 3 rounds
Custom scanner
Flexible
GEAR DESCRIPTIONS Tactical plasma bolter
Needler pistol
~~ Melee biohacker
Spoiler:
Male uplifted bear mercenary biohacker 1
CN large magical beast Init +0; Senses low-light vision.; Perception +7 DEFENSE_________________________________________ SP 6; HP 10; RP 4 EAC 13; KAC 15 Fort +2; Ref +0; Will +3 OFFENSE_________________________________________ Speed 35 ft.; climb 20 ft. Melee Warclub +4 (1d10+4 B; analog) Injection +5 Unarmed strike +4 (1d3+4 S) Space 10 ft; Reach 5 ft. Offensive abilities Injections (4/day), Ferocious charge STATISTICS________________________________________ Str 18 (+4); Dex 10; Con 10; Int 17 (+3); Wis 8 (-1); Cha 10 Skills Athletics +6, Computers +7, Culture +7, Engineering +7, Life Science +9, Medicine +7, Perception +7, Physical Science +7, Sense Motive +7 Feats Heavy armor proficiency Other abilities Custom scanner, Injection Expert, Primary Field of Study (Toxicology), Scientific Method (Studious) Languages Common, Brethedan, Shireen, Triaxian, Vesk; limited telepathy 30 ft. Combat gear Serum of healing mk 1 (1); Other gear Hidden soldier armor, Warclub, Everyday clothing, Consumer backpack, Engineering kit, Lighter, Zipstick SPECIAL ABILITIES Injections 4/day You must hit an unwilling creature with a melee attack to inject them with an injection. An injection can be injected into a willing or unconscious creature (or yourself) as a standard action, as long as the target is within your reach An injection can also be loaded into a weapon with the injection weapon special property as a move action, and you can deliver the injection with a normal attack with that weapon. When you attack an ally with an injection loaded into a weapon that has the injection weapon special property, that ally is considered flat-footed against your attack. Counteragent: lasts 1 round
Restorative: lasts 3 rounds
Custom scanner
Ferocious Charge
______________________ The ranged biohacker is built to be a boss debuffer, probably really effective if paired up with a technomancer (or if the whole party agrees to use the same type of energy weapon), and to also contribute with some damage dealing. In starship combat he's good gunner or SO and a reasonable pilot. The melee biohacker is primarily a self buffer and damage dealer. Not sure if the melee debuffing will pay out, in comparison to just doing damage. In a starship he can only do engineering or SO, and has no place near a gun or pilot chair. Both the main strategies are poison based, so that's kinda garbage. At least the vanilla injections work on anything. I'll try both of the characters out, and see if anything goes out of my expectations.
Studious Biohacker: focusing on INT and DEX, dumping WIS. From best to worst, considering racial abilities as well. Gosclaw
Shimreen
Ikeshti
Instinctive Biohacker: focusing on WIS and DEX, dumping CHA Except, there isn’t such a race! So, moving to the next best, considering racial abilities as well: Neskinti
Ghibrani
Kalo
This might come handy. Small arms
Basic melee
These guys above have the injection +2 critical but don't have the injection special property listed on the basic melee table at the Starfinder Armory - yet, the fluff text reads "Modern warriors use refined versions of the weapon that are effective at delivering poisons and similar substances through contemporary armor. You apply such substances to the blade per rules found on page 232 of the Core Rulebook." So, I'm guessing someone just forgot to add the property on the table. No injection grenades yet, I'm afraid. Longarms
Advanced melee
Sniper
Special weapons
Let me just put all information in one place: Weapon special property: Injection
Critical hit effects: Injection +2
~ ~ And get one of these as soon as possible: Weapon fusion: Conserving
Spell Ampoules (CRB 224): - Harmless in Saving Throw or Spell Resistance entry
Did I miss any spell? Level 0
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Mystic Cure and Necromantic Revitalization almost qualify, but the excess HP management seems to breach the "Can't create a link between caster and target" rule. On a google spreasheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17Ew5dyrKinIrTebo_7ZxJBc8wVOniwADlUN Wjo2NLZU/edit?usp=sharing
Hello! This is a topic to present characters made with third-party classes. They are either PCs my players built, NPCs I created to use in a campaign or straight villains from modules that I rebuilt as a compatible class version. The objective is to let other people check them out, comment, clarify any doubts they might have about mechanics, and, mainly, use them. I hope the abilities are explained enough so that you can place any of them on one of your sessions even without having the necessary third-party books (and enjoy the experience so much you’ll buy them later!). I believe it makes for a fine introduction to compatible material. These are all snapshots of a character at an exact moment in time. Meaning, he might have a large list of powers, spells, etc, but I’ll describe only the ones he can use/has selected right now. At the top of each character posted, I have a link for the Google Doc version, where I can make any future corrections; links for the books I used; followed by all the stats blocks; a role-playing part with background, tips for playing said character and combat tactics; to finish, a link to one of my customized third-party class character sheets, a side project I've been developing for quite some time. |