JDavis91's page

Personally, I enjoy the idea behind Erroneous Knowledge, and the feat Dubious Knowledge. But I've had DMs who have adlibbed information... that wasn't always plausible (the idea being that the character states the information in such a way the party believes it). For example, had an encounter with a stone golem in a past game, and someone rolled and failed. The DM still gave them one part of actual knowledge (this is before 2E) which was their AC.

But they also gave them the knowledge that Stone Golems love hard rock (the pun... ugh) music.

Cue the bard trying to soothe the Stone Golem to sleep with a rendition of Sweet Child o' Mine. Needless to say, we had to fight a Stone Golem.

As for secret rolls... I'm against it. It makes me lose any sense of agency I have with the character. I can see this being done to prevent arguments (lord knows I've seen a few folks get uppity about failing a roll despite rolling well. I don't mean a 'Jeez, a 26 doesn't pass?' but saying that and then dragging the game off the rails with grumbling and complaints). But it makes me go 'Well, at this point, I'll just give the DM my character sheet, sit back, and be told stories of combat while I play a game on my phone' cause at that point it might as well just move from a game to story time.

I also do know DMs will sometimes fudge numbers a bit. I've done it, not with checks like this, but in combat. For example I had been DMing, the characters came up against a homebrew dragon... 10,000 years old, ancient beyond belief... our gunslinger-wizard nuked it in one shot. Suffice to say I added a bit of health onto that dragon, just enough that the other two players felt like they could actually contribute to the fight.

And... I don't have a huge issue with it... but if they're going to fudge a number for better story or encounter, just have it be on their end? Like, let me get a nat20 on my stealth check... and if that dude sees me I'm going to think 'Meep'. That this isn't a fight I want if they can see me that easily. To me, that will give a character a legitimate reason to behave in a way that they might not normally do so... but it's still ultimately on me what the roll is and how the character behaves.

My solarian is an iconic mixologist.

Specifically for a Solarian with the Solar Armour Manifestation

-The inky darkness of the void, or the burning light of a star washes over the punctures and secures them.

I went with exocortex for mine - I've never been a huge fan of pet classes, so the option to play without one was nice. I also felt like exocortex would contribute a bit more outside of combat with his Skill Focus bonus. Plus, didn't have to burn feats to get his heavy armour and longarms proficiency - which was nice.

JDavis91 wrote:

So, I'm going to be playing my second Starfinder game this weekend and I nabbed up the Solarian for play - looking at the damage Altronus is dealing at 4th level, and with his stats, I was somewhat confused.

His solar weapon is dealing 1d6+1d3+6 - now I know the 1d3 comes from his solar crystal, and he has 2 points of damage from his strength score, but I can't - for the life of me - figure out where the other 4 points of damage are coming from.

Weapon specialization, which he gets at 3rd level, adds the character level to weapon damage with the chosen weapon type.

If you are playing the Level 4 Altronus, he would add +4.

Ah, thanks!

So, I'm going to be playing my second Starfinder game this weekend and I nabbed up the Solarian for play - looking at the damage Altronus is dealing at 4th level, and with his stats, I was somewhat confused.

His solar weapon is dealing 1d6+1d3+6 - now I know the 1d3 comes from his solar crystal, and he has 2 points of damage from his strength score, but I can't - for the life of me - figure out where the other 4 points of damage are coming from.

JDavis91 wrote:

Triune was an obvious one but also, Pharasma.

And Besmara.

Forgot about her - and Desna and Weydan could also fit.

Triune was an obvious one but also, Pharasma.

I can see offerings being made to her by more fatalistic/pragmatic crew who want to hedge all their bets.

Hell, offerings to the Devourer would make some sense - make an offering to turn his eyes -away- from your voyage.

I'm noticing a clothing and hygiene optional theme in your characters.

Also, your human mystic can swing his ember doshko 20 times before and then it's turned into an improvised weapon?

As far as hygiene goes - I'm sorta covering it under the scope of lodgings/rations. For the most part Society adventures have taken course over, at most, 2 days of roughing it (using PFS standards). Plus, 1 bulk of toothpaste (I know it's more than just that) seems to be a bit unwieldy to carry around.

As for clothing - I'm going with the idea that undergarments are just sort of included in character creation rather than being something I have to purchase (everyday clothing is different in my mind). For their first adventures I'm going to hold off on those purchases in case I need credits on the fly (who knows, might have to bribe someone). Once I get a bit further along I'm going to expand their inventory - but right now this is just their adventuring kit, effectively.

Also, if I'm ever in an actual home game (where I'm not DMing) my purchases are going to look a lot different. So things like the hygiene kit, backpack, etc. are going to be a part of my baseline purchases where things like the healing serums are going to be secondary purchases.

If this were a more civilized setting in which space travel was safe, I might be inclined to agree. But it isn't safe out there in Starfinder, and the PCs in particular should be extra aware of that. Actual station flightwear might not be the norm, but second skin? You can just hide that under normal clothes.

100% of the time might be out, but most of the time? By default, even? I think that's a perfectly reasonable expectation, at least for PCs and other danger prone sorts.

I mean, I'd kind of counter this with two examples: Warhammer 40k and Star Wars. Neither are the most civilized of settings and space travel isn't that safe - and you rarely see characters wearing combat ready gear (outside of, you know, Space Marines in 40k and then military personnel on troop transports) that often. Heck, even the regular crew personnel on Star Wars vessels are more commonly wearing uniforms than they are any sort of protective gear.

I know there doesn't exist anything like what Second Skin offers in either setting (the closest is in 40k with a bodyglove, but that doesn't protect against the vacuum and such). So... I guess I could sorta see most of the time? But, coming purely down to personal view, I'd still say they aren't going to be wearing it in any sort of downtime aboard a ship. Maybe if they're actively piloting or doing repair work.

If accidents/ambushes pretty much EVER happen than I'd definitely expect people to be suited up in some of the armours all the time.

In a campaign the GM maybe gets to pull that card once. Maybe. Assuming its the first time in known history :-)

I mean - I disagree? Like, yes, if they know there is a possibility of getting ambushed, I can easily see people wearing armour. Like, if I was running a game and I just had them leave a planet that is known to have Space Pirates or Corpse Fleet hunting around it, and my players choose to keep their armour on: no problem. But, unless a character has extreme paranoia - or just doesn't suffer discomfort from wearing standard kit (so, androids? Maybe vesk, dwarves and half-orcs?) - I'm going to find it somewhat silly if they're in their armour 100% of the time.

I've actually made a few characters... mostly because I got really excited for Starfinder. Also, these characters are mostly for Society play and things like rations and lodgings tend to be covered (at least for our groups):

25 left over, didn't need a weapon because of the Solar Weapon (and do see this character being the type to not use a ranged weapon unless necessary - think Obi-Wan tossing aside the blaster while saying "Uncivilized" in this case.

50 left over - didn't pick-up a healing serum or medkit because I like the idea of this character being somewhat arrogant and thinking he'll be strong enough to survive without a serum or bandages.

20 left over - brought along most of that because I really picture him as being a bit of a jack-of-all trades for a group. Nothing big or for melee since his mindset is 'If they're closed with me I'm already screwed.'

15 left over - I really wanted to capture the idea of this 'refined' military ambassador, since the character is an older vesk and veteran of both the war against the Pact Worlds and the Swarm. So I went with more of this gentlemanly look of a pistol and sword and ornamental armour rather than someone still fully combat-minded.

10 credits left over - it was originally a lot lower until I realized his strength score was too low to qualify for heavy weapons (eventually, though!). But was loving the idea of a tiny bounty hunter geared up in heavy armour - the more amusing than menacing at first.

Nothing left over in this case - I picked up the cloak partially because it acts as a battery, but also because I love the look for a technomancer wearing a cloaked hood of crackling energy.

Nothing left over - this character is a healer, and a follower of Sarenrae and I just decided for him to go all in - melee combatant in heavy armour who is there to burn evil with the justice of the Sun.

I personally made mine an Armour Storm - rolling him as a Vesk and carrying around (currently) a laser rifle. Planning to eventually dip into Blitz at level 9, but that's far off. Loved the idea of comboing the power of Hammer Fist with the Vesk's eventual 1.5x str bonus to it, especially since I'm planning to pick up the Melee Striker gear boost at level 3 - so he'll have a total of 1d4+6 damage by that point. Not -crazy- amounts of damage, but I more see him as going in with a rifle/heavier weapon and then being able to do a 'Sit down!' type wallop with his fist.

Plus, at level 5, Imma try to nab me a Battle Harness - dealing 1d10+8 on an unarmed strike.

I would go with Mechanic - you'll be able to do more both in and out of combat than the Soldier will early on. And even at later levels (I know you were focusing on 1-3 but I did look ahead to double-check) there isn't much that will compliment a Sharpshooter in the other fighting styles by level 9 that'd make it -as worth it- as mechanic will be by that point.

I mean, my first thought is: unless your characters know they're about to be attacked by enemy ships, they aren't going to be in their armour 100% of the time aboard their own ship, right? I mean, if they are... well, some basic hygiene issues come into question, followed by the next thought of 'I can no longer take this armour off - it is the only thing preventing me from being a walking biohazard of funk'. So, my first thought is a surprise attack against some unsuspecting PCs that is fairly devastating - opening a rent in a starship's side and exposing it to vacuum.

There are some fun ways around this - an android or two in the group is going to be a major help in a scenario like that, but for the most part every other race is going to be screwed unless they have immediate access to their armour.

And I imagine even armour like the second skin and station flightwear is going to be something most PCs aren't going to want to wear as their casual gear 100% of the time.

something else to consider with the Lashunta, the Pathfinder era ones had very strong masculine/feminine traits attached to their respective sub types. Males were once "compact, muscular, and hirsute" while females were the only ones that were explicitly labeled as "beautiful and commanding" now both genders are always "hawt like elves but better" ... ok, that last quote is more of a paraphrase but the SFCRB states pretty much everything finds all Lashunta to be super attractive and the new depictions of Korasha are pretty tall, muscular and extremely smooth skinned to fit their new found beauty. the depictions of both sub species could easily fit to the standard ideals of attractive to either gender in modern society. its kind of a let down since even a female korasha wouldnt look like anything other than an attractive athelete whereas under the old break outs they would actually look different from a sci-fi trope space amazon.

I don't think the Korasha are going to be the sci-fi trope space amazon. Looking at their height range, I'm imagining most Korasha are going to hover just under or just over the 5' mark with the odd-duck ones pushing the 6' mark. The Damaya are probably the ones hovering around the 7' range.

So effectively you have (beautiful, and less hairy) space dwarves being the same race as the space elves.

The minimum strength score of 13 is a requirement to select the Heavy Armor Proficiency feat -- but you are getting heavy armor proficiency automatically as a result of having an exocortex, not as a feat selection. A soldier would be able to wear heavy armor regardless of strength for a similar reason.

Thanks! I haven't really played classes, in Pathfinder, that ever took the proficiency as a feat - or if they did, they already had a strength score that would be high enough. So I wasn't 100% sure how this would work out.

JDavis91 wrote:

So, this is something I just realized - my ysoki mechanic has the exocortex granting him heavy armour proficiency. However, the heavy armour proficiency feat requires a str of 13 to take - my ysoki has a str of 10.

I can't find anything specific in the CRB (though I might be missing it) but does this mean, despite having proficiency, my ysoki cannot wear heavy armour?

The way I was reading it (and the way I've applied it to my Vesk Nerd sitting at 12 Str) is that the Exocortex does things to either the brain or pain receptors or whatnot that allow the body to wear the armor despite it being much heavier than what the strength would allow?

I was originally thinking something similar - figured it kinda implanted the knowledge on how to properly wear this and move in it even if you're not the most physically adept.

But I'm also worried about showing up with him and finding out 'Oops, I shouldn't be able to move.'

So, this is something I just realized - my ysoki mechanic has the exocortex granting him heavy armour proficiency. However, the heavy armour proficiency feat requires a str of 13 to take - my ysoki has a str of 10.

I can't find anything specific in the CRB (though I might be missing it) but does this mean, despite having proficiency, my ysoki cannot wear heavy armour?

So, reading barricade, it mentions it creates cover in one adjacent square, and that allies adjacent to it benefit from the partial cover. So, with that in mind:

o o o o o o X o
o o o o o C C C o

Using the above where the 'o's are open squares, the 'X' is the cover and the 'C's are the characters, all three characters are benefiting from the cover?

Reading over the little backstory for it, it seems like they're born with the power though they don't start manifesting it until later on - and then they either seek training at a Temple or just go about being self-taught. As far as worshiping the Devourer... while I haven't read the entire book, I'm quite curious where you saw this at?

I'm not discounting you, in fact I could see how it could happen. I imagine, if they were tied to deities so strongly, most would start tied to Ibra then diverge to follow either Sarenrae (Photon) or the Devourer (Graviton).

I don't have a huge problem with it because, from a character perspective, I look at it as 'This character is in charge of the ship because they have knowledge of starship combat and tactics'. Once we go to ground, unless a person offers sound tactical advice in character... Imma do what I want.

That being said - I can see some players in pick-up games or Society play who might call dibs on Captain just to be self-aggrandizing. But, that's as much of an issue as that same type of person always trying to be the center of attention in a Society game for Pathfinder too... so, c'est la vie.

But in home games, especially the ones I'm planning on DMing, the Captain is still going to be called the Captain - but knowing my players I see it less as being the bluff, hardened veteran and more like a panicked Mal from Firefly shouting over comms to 'Shoot 'em!'

This is a RP related question - but I'm curious how people are going to play out reactions to the vesk, and the reactions of vesk to the Pact Worlders. It was only 26 years ago that the war really came to an end between the Veskarium and the Pact Worlds - I'm betting there's still a few veterans from both sides of the conflict who are still active and kicking.

For my own characters (the two I've made):

Aio (Kasatha) - Fought near the latter end of the War before the arrival of the Swarm. Holds no malice toward the vesk - he's firmly rooted in the nature of being a Solarian and recognizes that it is a facet of the vesk and believes that they act upon that facet to maintain their own balance.

Sobok (Vesk) - Very little respect for Pact Worlders as a whole, individuals are a different story. He's mostly going to keep these opinions to himself, but (in areas where he has some expertise) he might make comments if someone he's working alongside fails to the effect of 'As useless in this as you were in war'. And he's also not the type to take what he dishes out - no matter how someone might respond to his derision, he tends to respond to it with, well, a punch to the face.

Anyone else been thinking about this facet for RP?

I think this was covered in another thread - but the reason some of these might be feats is to make it feel like an unique choice rather than something anyone could do. I doubt many Soldiers are going to drop ranks in bluff to pick up either Diversion or Fast Talk - these are tools or a face character to contribute in combat (especially with Fast Talk) rather than something a Bruiser who dropped 1 point in Bluff then rolled a nat 20 on a check could manage to do.

Main things I'm planning to change is the flaw trade-off - you do get ability points for deranking a stat at a trade of 2:1 rounded down, but you have to derank a minimum of 2 points to receive an ability point and you can do a max derank of 4.

The other thing I'm thinking on is changing around some aspects of the Solarian to make Charisma more potent on them - mostly adding damage to their Solar Weapon or enhancement to their Solar Armour.

@JDavis91

Con appears to be less important in Starfinder than it was in Pathfinder. I would suggest shifting some of the points from Con to Charisma for the extra resolve point.

Remember that there is also Starship Combat. Solarian can automatically take the Gunner spot because of BAB. Using the Skill Adept to get a skill usable in one of the other positions is probably a good idea. When building characters, my plan is to make sure they can fill at least two different crew stations.

While it is a bit less important - I'm always a bit leery about ignoring con for a melee-based character.

As for crew positions... I mean, soldier -also- gets full BAB. Which brings back the point of, why bring a solarian over a soldier?

So, I was someone who really wanted to play Solarian from the get-go. Part of me still does, but I've seen a lot that makes them come off as not being the best choice. I'm ignoring RP for the purposes of this post because RP is not an ability check, nor is it a class-specific thing.

Despite one post, I view this class similar to a monk: they have a lot of ability scores that are important and they need to find a way of balancing them. For monks it's dex, str, wis, and con and for solarians it's dex, str, cha, and con. You could also throw wis in, but depending on your race (the solarian I made was a kasatha), you might not necessarily need to expend points for it. The problem is, the monk can sort of cover up for wanting to use one of its four as a dump stat - most of the time I see strength used as the dump stat - but they still have something to fall back on, a way to stay in the fight or extricate themselves to get back into the fight.

Solarians, at least at early levels, do not. You need str, dex, cha, and con. My test buid was 16, 12, 12, 8, 12, 12 - I spent four points on strength and then divided up the rest as best I could. The reason for this is because, well, the solarian class abilities just aren't that great. I chose solar weapon, and was surprised to find that it underperformed compared to other weapons - and didn't really have an early game benefit to support that. Then solar armour was the same - it just didn't seem that great for what it was, and since it only meshed well with light armour - it wasn't for me, since I wasn't running a high enough dex to make it count. So I went with a heavy armour solarian who's using a tactical doshko and the lashunta ringwear. So, right off the bat, I'm not making any use of my class abilities.

The next bit, for Black Hole and Supernova, while both are nice aoe abilities Black Hole is very situational, and Supernova doesn't seem like a great trade off for the buff to damage from being photon attuned. By that I mean, unless you're running a build with high charisma, reflex saves are going to be a thing that I imagine few early enemies are going to fail at. So your average Supernova damage is going to be cut in half fairly often, so doing 3-4 average damage from Supernova on one turn doesn't seem to be the best way to go about combat when I can just keep that plus to damage. If they didn't immediately drop into unattuned after use of Supernova it might be a different story, but it does.

Combat-wise, unless you're going up against enemies weak to fire, enemies who cluster up, or if there's a convenient chasm between you and a group of enemies - I doubt the early level revelations are going to come into play frequently. Also, the ramp up for solar weapon and solar armour is slow enough that you're better off buying weapons and burning a feat for heavy armour proficiency than you are in relying on either.

All that being said, looking at mid-level (around 6 or so), I think is when a melee solarian would begin to truly shine, and so would the benefits of their class. Which is only a problem because they're outshone by other classes. We clearly see a melee solarian is going to underperform next to a blitz soldier. I imagine a skill-based solarian is going to underperform next to an operative. An ability-based solarian is going to underperform next to a technomancer/mystic.

So what place would the solarian have? This might be something that develops over time, finding their niche, but currently all I'm seeing is that there doesn't seem to be a reason to run a solarian unless you're in a homebrew game where a GM will allow for some leniency (like with what Alfray Stryke said where charisma influences your solar manifestation bonuses).