the scenario shows squares for ursikka hatchlings. However it is only one square a piece, while the stat-block say they are large, and thus should be 4 squares.
Oh goody. I shall have to step up, out of retirement finally. It has been far too long since the Society needed me, and my personal endeavors have made my prices... exorbitant... I do hope the society can pay, I'll even give them a "long time friends" discount.
The way I read it, is the boon allows you to replay a normally not-repeatable scenario, with a different character. For instance, if your 702 has played Live Exploration Extreme! your 703, if they have the Jadnura boon, can then go in and play Live Exploration Extreme!. However, your 702 would not be able to use the boon to play Live Exploration Extreme a second time.
Also, as an FYI, a single individual can always Play a scenario, and GM it, in either order, and still get credit for it each time.That credit must go to different characters however, and you can only gain credit from non-repeatable once for playing, and once for GMing, without using the Jadnura boon.
I'm glad you got some mileage out of the other major aid options. Did you feel like they were helpful? I didn't want the gear to overshadow everything else so I did try to make Ekkerah's contributions to the fight meaningful, but I couldn't playtest all of them.
I did feel like they were helpful, more on the ability to move the Starfinders with an Intimidate check, than their equipment. (Mostly because the party was combat oriented, not due to a lack of equipment on the Starfinders end.) Being able to move them in such a way to not have them all in a single fog cloud was great. Because, honestly, their inclusion added a lot more tension to a fight that otherwise drug on a little too long. (mostly due to our own unpreparedness, and prior assumptions that we were prepared.)
Hantu tactics say if there isn't a spell casters to Target, he targets whoever is closest. Sounds like Your GM did not do that, unless you had multiple people equadistant. Not sure if that would have made your fight harder or not.
It also sounds like your GM left your Hantu at ground level, which debatably is also against tactics. If it had used the airborne "pull and provoke" maneuver I'm curious to know how your solarians would have performed.
The hantu was, mostly, at ground level. yes. As for the people equidistant or not. For the most part, yes, the soldiers and solarions were all attacking in melee. The GM appeared to be of the same idea as others here that only certain rooms were the full 50 feet, hence the ground level.
I am convinced a mystic is necessary for this fight.
Calling out this bit of text. As when I played in it, we had the following party make-up, and no-one dropped. (admittedly. 6 player party, and since we had no casters, the GM would attack whichever character had done most damage so far. (or when no-damage was done in a round, come after me, since I was throwing around the "buffs" mostly. See below.) [Gm even used the incorporeal to move through walls and ceilings to avoid AOOs intelligently.] Which due to rolls, caused the damage to rotate around the table pretty evenly in the end.)
Didn't pay too much attention to exact abilities around the table except the other Envoy. (ya know, curiosity on fellow Envoy builds) I played one of the envoys, improv'ed with Get 'Em and Inspiring Boost. Other Envoy was another Inspiring Boost, they also had Clever Feint.
Both myself and the other Envoy stacked the pluses-to-hit. (get-em and he succeeded at the feint more often than he failed it. I would also Harrying-fire just before one of the Soldiers attacked if I hadn't needed to use Inspiring Boost [or couldn't cus I'd already Inspired who-ever took the damage]). Plus Inspiring Boosts for the Stamina around the table.
The Solarions both opted for solar pretty consistently, and exploded in the Hantu's face. (The party decided taking the occasional blast damage in order to apply damage to the Hantu was worth it considering we had all the IBs and previously un-used healing serums.)
I don't remember anything special about the Soldiers honestly. (We played this back in February, I am just now posting.)
Over-all, the fight was rough, but we managed.
TL;DR. Mystic is not needed for the fight on high-tier. Just need a couple Envoys.
Correct, they have access to any of Ekkerah's toys if the PCs use one form of minor aid to get gear. I wrote it pretty much knowing that most groups would ask for equipment, which was fine by me since the lion's share of the scenario's reward payoff comes from Ekkerah and I didn't want PCs to get short-changed for loot during an adventure that takes place on a world that doesn't use Pact World credits. I also needed to make sure that any group woefully unprepared to fight a demon (which has tons of resistances) would have a chance to get weapons capable of bypassing its DR without too much hassle, so as to avoid the risk of a TPK.
Irony, to me, is due to how much my party had trumped the the initial combat encounters, and managed to blaze through the chase without ever getting into "melee" with the swarm. When we got the aid options, we rolled really well and got the major aid... Which meant we looked at the loot... and then at arming the Starfinders... Pretty much unanimously agreed to arm the Starfinders rather than collect the loot...
Electric, and plasma (half Electric half Fire) weapons were the primary source of of damage around the table... Which meant we wiped the jinsuls easily... (enough so that the armed Starfinders was... unnecessary) and pretty much chipped for 1-3 points of damage on the demon.... Whith DR and/or Electric resistance against attacks back around the table. It really did turn into a long slog, but victory was ours.
Quonx is the only character with the Computers or Engineering skills. If she gets killed or knocked out (by blue whinnis for example), how the heck will the PCs shut down the M2?
Simple answer: they don't. Better hope you have 5+ players, and one of them decided to play Quonx 2.
A lot of thought wasn't put into the adventure vs. the PC abilities. For example, Mind Thrust only works on the 6 hit point Shadow Creepers, but Dakoyo still has it. Speaking of whom, as the only person with Mysticism, Dakoyo is the only one who can shut down the shadow realm portal generator, as well, so prepare for infinite creepers if 'Koyo goes down.
In our game, it quickly became a "make a skittermander wall" around Dakoyo. Getting all the op attacks as the creepers went to attack Dakoyo. It worked well enough, Dakoyo only went down once, and with the use of a healing serum, was back on their feet to complete the final part to shut it down.
If I was going to advocate for the Scientist that everyone brings up.. i would go for a poisoner type. Someone who brews up their own poisons and toxins, and can make use of that red-headed step-child known as the Needler Pistol. As you progress through levels, the various variables on poisons can become customized.
With how much more effective poisons are in Starfinder, I argue this could lead to having a lot of flexibility in toxin options, fill a unique utility, be effective, and still be balanced.
Also keeps the thematic of someone in science, playing in a lab. Then using that science to adventure.
I will endeavor to be as spoiler-free in this description as I can... But I will still put it in spoilers, for sake of spoiler possibility. As there is no way to truly explain the moment, without risking some spoilers.
Moment of Hilarity:
I never thought I'd be able to say the following... however it is most definitely true.
My Ysoki Actor Icon was able to prevent the assassination of a powerful political figure...
By having an impromptu make-out session...
With an individual who had just recently, been the willing host of a sentient alien parasite...
Furthermore, this situation was 100% completely ad-libbed between myself and the other player... I am fairly certain the table/GM were as shocked and surprised by the events that unfolded, as the NPC we were trying to distract.
Pantshaandshake has it, read the bold text you add your move and swift actions to its standard to hack as a full action, still allowing you to hack from a distance and use your standard action
This may be how you would rule it. (How I would likely rule it myself.) However, as Pantshaandshake pointed out. Starfinder does not have the "combining action types together" to make a full-action stated as a general rule. Instead, it allows for that when specifically called out as part of a specific class feature.
As such, as written, the cortex can only do a standard action itself... Unless you spend full-actions yourself, you can't hack the system. It DOES, however, allow the cortex to do actions once the system is hacked into. At which point you could combine your own standard actions to do the other Computers checks faster.
I'm not familiar with internal defense rules. Do they use up Build Points? But yeah, I'll buy that some ships will have countermeasures against borders. I don't buy the assumptions that all or most ships are going to divert resources away from their main systems and spend points on anti-personnel systems unless the rules say that they are included in the cost of the hull.
The cramped environment will give an advantage to defenders, but grenades are what attackers will use to mitigate that advantage. Ammo won't be a factor because a boarding action will succeed or fail before most weapons need to be reloaded. (I would expect both sides to be relying more heavily on melee weapons that ranged weapons because of the close quarters).
The abilities of the ship that deployed the boarders is only relevant as far as it needs to survive long enough to deploy said boarders. After that, it will either escape or perish; but that won't effect the hand to hand fighting going on inside the target ship.
Historically, boarding action depended on a combination of stealth and speed. Boarders needed to overwhelm the defenders before they realized what was happening or at least before they could organize an effective defense. It could very well turn into a race to see how much ground the marines could cover before the crew got the doors and hatches closed. And then I guess the marines would be scrambling to cut through or blow open the doors while the captain was reassigning crew (that wasn't already cut off) from their regular stations to set up a layered defense between the breach and the bridge.
There's a lot of room to swing the advantages back and forth between boarders and crew depending on how the GM sets the DC to do stuff like breach the hull, cut through doors, identify what is going on inside the rest of the ship from the bridge. Maybe it wouldn't be feasible in your game the way you run it. But there is definitely room in the rules for a handful of elite marines with superior firepower to clear a path...
Looking through the rules closely, I tracked down the closest I can get to internal defense rules. Being a turret specifically near boarding ramps in order to deter wildlife from entering and exiting the ship. It does cost build points. 5+item level of the weapon.
If we were to assume that would be the cost of a turret anywhere in the ship, then I can agree they'd likely only exist on military or exploration vessels, and probably only near important rooms. The bulkheads I mentioned before, however, would be something that comes as part of standard construction regardless of intention. They would lock down in a section immediately upon hull damage, to prevent spacing one's crew and stuff due to rogue meteors and the like. Further, most bulk-heads would have sensors in them to detect if another object has punctured them, to then trigger the next set of bulk-heads, for the exact same reason.
I'm not saying there would be a bulkhead every ten feet, but it would be between every room and at every intersection. It wouldn't take more than two or three to be broken through, or forcibly bypassed via hacking, for anyone watching the status of the ship to notice something fishy. (the doors being damaged would should bring up status warnings to the bridge as well. If again, only because of rogue space debris.)
Now, after all of the above, I never once argued that a team of elite marines couldn't cut through a standard ships crew. I am instead only arguing that, in most cases, an elite team is going to be sent after prizes worth the cost of their skills... Which have the higher chance of actually having anti-boarding measures in place... Or simply be the Starfinder equivalent of an old-fashioned Spanish Treasure Galleon. Plus those elite marines would need to get the experience to get there. Which means a lot of failed and thus dead marines along the way.
Of course, all these statements are simply made from the point of view or gritty verisimilitude. (Which, admittedly, Starfinder likes to ignore for the sake of fun.) If a GM runs it different than simple assumptions based off real-world trends in space-ship and station design. Then all arguments are invalidated, as it comes down to GM fiat.
TL;DR I agree boarding is entirely possible. I just argue that it should be much harder than shown in most sci-fi films. However, every GM will run it there own way.
I think you're comparing apples to oranges here. A capital ship may have a lot of crew, but crew have assigned jobs on a ship and they can't all drop everything to repel boarders. (Or, if they do, that boarding action has already succeeded in its mission by neutralizing the capital ship and taking it out of the larger fight). Plus a dedicated troop transport can carry more marines than a larger ship designed for ship to ship combat. And ship crew aren't equivalent to marines skilled close combat. If their were rules for boarding, it is easy to imagine twenty Soldiers and Solarians overwhelming fifty Envoys and Mechanics whose attention is divided between repelling boarders and participating in an ongoing space battle.
A boarding crew of marines has the advantage of combat skill there. Yet they will be arriving in a small cramped space, perfect for a few grenades to actually earn their keep for once. Furthermore, any space-craft built by even a slightly competent designer will have closable and seal-able bulk-heads at regular intervals. (Should deploy automatically once the hull is breached too.) These bulkheads will take a concerted effort to get past, all the while the more-skilled-at-spaceship-combat envoy/mechanic crew will be wailing away upon the ship with the lesser crew. (numerically, and for the sake of most balanced argument, out-skilled now.) Furthermore, the ammo of the boarders is far more limited than that of the defenders. Add the existence of automated defense lasers in the ship. (which I have seen in at least one scenario... in a ship too small for 25, better yet 50.)
Tl;DR The boarding process is far more dangerous than at first appearance, and most useful after having disabled the enemy ship.
I would generally agree with your premise, except that space combat is supposed to be a fun mini-game on the side, not the main game.
And as you note, there is overlap between Solarions and Envoy, and the only role easily supported for Solarions is captain, a role that isn't essential.
I feel that Solarions just so disadvantaged when it comes to starship combat...that I've decided to abandon the class. It's simply a bad class for collaborative play that include Starship combat.
Instead I'll be switching to a Soldier, be able to pickup Engineer skill, and have an okay dex bonus to act as a backup gunner when it's advantageous to do so.
Also, I can be happy without being awesome, the problem with the Solarion is that they aren't at all effective in Space Combat without really devoting a significant portion of character design around it. And to me that's an inherent problem.
Which I've solved. The answer is "Don't play a Solarion".
A different solution I noticed with my Envoy. Is that the sheer number of skills ranks the Envoy gets, means they can dump points into Piloting every level, and act as back-up gunner. (I say this, with a Diplomacy and Intimidate focused Envoy.) So you could have just spoken to the Envoy player and went "hey... you want to show how awesome of a captain you are, by blowing up your enemies... right?" (But then, i play an Envoy because I like the support role of it.. .Part of support, in my mind, is doing what is best for the party. Sometimes that means taking off my captain's hat during combat. [I only play SFS, so unexpected party make-up happens often enough.])
So, I have a new moment of hilarity to add to this discussion. Last week I was playing in a SFS scenario. During said scenario, we come across "goblin remains" that we had to extricate from a machine. Once extricated, the ysoki mechanic turns to the Gm and says "So... precisely how much Bulk ARE 'goblin remains'?... Inquiring cheek-pouches want to know..."
Worst case, in my book, the average station can do 1D4 "system" refits/upgrades at the same time. This allows a small simulation of differences in demand at different ports and times. Also, by the book, ti states 1d4 days to refit a system... To me that includes both taking an item off, and putting a new one in it's place, in the same 1D4 days.
Funniest moment so far (outside of jokes I have prepped for when the occasion calls for it.) Was when playing a certain SFS Scenario.
In the scenario, everyone had to eat absolutely terrible food, or if they couldn't, try and hide themselves dumping it in some way.
The only character that failed the roll to be able to eat said food, decided to "hide" the food by pouring it into the Vesk Soldier's bowl (sitting next to them) while the lights were temporarily out... They failed the roll. So when the lights can back on, everyone was quiet as we just sat there and stared at the technomancer mid-pour.
