John Pryor's page

I'm looking at Grappling, and I'm wondering if I am understanding it correctly. Let's say I am a lvl 1 Soldier, with Base Attack 1 and another +3 from Str. I wish to grapple a goblin in Second Skin. Say he has a Dex 12. that gives KAC of 13. On page 246 it says to make a Combat Maneuver I make a melee attack against KAC +8. So that means I have to hit a 21 and I have +4 to do it: I can only grapple successfully on an 17 or better? Seriously? And I have to renew that each round? Or am I getting something wrong? If I'm understanding correctly Combat Maneuvers seem pretty useless. I would be quite happy to be proven wrong. I wrestled in high school, and I guarantee you I did not need the equivalent of a 17 to succeed (Ok, so a high school wrestler isn't wearing Second Skin, but I didn't have a Str of 16 either; you get my point.) I needed about a 12, and I was not an especially good wrestler. The reason I care about all this is that traditionally grappling has been a good way to neutralize an opponent without killing and it seems pretty futile in Starfinder.

I've played a lot of PathFinder and D&D and I typically play clerics. I'm looking at the Mystic and I want to like it, but I can't get a feel for it and I'm wondering what it's like in play. In PathFinder, clerics frequently take the Face role, sometimes the Skill Monkey, and frequently act as Controllers in combat. In the Mystic write-up, there is the option to go Face, due to class skills. But for some reason the iconic comes from a race with -2 CHA!! Controller does not seem to be an option; there don't seem to be many controller spells. So, is Mystic just a healbot? Is a healbot needed in a universe with technological healing? What is the Mystic *for* in a party? With all the different flavors, it's clear a lot of thought was put into it, but the traditional roles don't seem to work. Any clarification, especially based on play experience, would be GREATLY appreciated.