LittleMissNaga's page

Just got the chance to try it myself, and I'm having fun. The biggest problems will pretty much all be fixed by more books coming out.

One member of my group is extremely anti-2e, though. It's a shame. He rips apart things that are issues in 2e that were already issues back in 1e and that he used to ignore.

Honestly, I think he has a problem with some of the new moves towards political correctness and inclusivity and the like in the game mastering section of the CRB, and is throwing a tantrum about it. Declaring the game to be a GM's nightmare, mechanically constraining, and impossible to build a creative character with a whatnot, when his real problem isn't actually with the mechanics at all, and he just doesn't want to admit that any part of something he dislikes is good.

Y'all might come to some more productive conclusions if you cool off on taking digs at each other and actually converse politely.

(Like half this thread is an example of stuff that tends to get deleted when someone from Paizo steps in.)

I don't have much to add. Already said my piece.

Good to know that War for the Crown has really a ton of prep work. I mean, it was pretty predictable, but still good to know. I guess those flashcards were handcrafted, LittleMissNaga?

They were. I bought some coloured construction paper and a 2-pack of black permanent markers from my local dollar store, and doodled a little line-drawing mugshot for each important NPC beside some jotted notes on them (usually their name, race, title, and any distinguishing features).

Cheap, but effective prep material. Very time-consuming to make, though. If you crammed together all the hours I worked on those things, I'd say that I probably spent almost a full week on them.

Get them to talk using Truth or Dare.

Bachuan seems an obvious parallel to North Korea (although for some weird reason it is listed on the linked page as being "Lawful Neutral", which seems to be applied to more nations than it should be).

Paizo is reeeerally generous with its neutral alignments at times.

My top pick to avoid would be Rahadoum. Plagues, famines, narcotics, slavery, and Alahazra's backstory makes it clear enough that you can get 'disappeared' in Rahadoum without actually trying to break their rules. Plus if you're in the capital, there's the threat of invisible outsiders battling it out in the streets.

...Also, I can't take the heat. I'd be a sweaty corpse before the enforcers ever got to me.

Rahadoum are those people who get burned and then take it out on others. I don't really like those people. I think they're bad people, and that living in a nation run by them would be really stressful and dangerous. I'd call them Lawful Evil, but Paizo definitely can't. There's be uproar if the atheistic nation was labeled evil, even if the label wasn't at all based on their atheism.

Tossing in my experience as an oozemorph (played from level 1 through to 17). There's early challenges for sure, but I think it helps to just let the party know exactly what to expect... Not that I did. Poor girl reverted to ooze-form for the first time mid-conversation with an NPC. Just collapsed into a puddle. Fun times.

Sometimes, the other PCs might need to prepare to carry you in a bucket. Sometimes they might need to speak on your behalf, or play charades with a wobbly puddle. Sometimes they might get it wrong, and that's okay. Don't trash it just because they interpreted your jiggling overtures of diplomacy as "The ooze monster wants to seduce the princess". Roll with it, and have fun.

Embrace your ooziness fully. It can have its mechanical downsides, sure, but don't think of it as just a problem to overcome and nothing more. Don't go quiet and mope while you're in slime form, keep playing! Your time at the table isn't finished for the next 23 hours just because you're now being carried in a bucket. And don't forget that your humanoid form can have oozy fun too. I was the lockpicker of our party, and I'd tend to flavour it as forcing my gelatinous eyeball into the lock so that I could see what was going on while I worked, then jabbing the lockpicks through the back of my distended ooze eyeball to get them in there too.

You're a weird ooze monster. Be weird.

Mechanically, I just didn't focus too much on the belt and gear and whatnot. I think I eventually bought an ioun stone or two, and a good amulet, but for the most part I was getting buffs from our cleric, like bull's strength.

...And before anyone says that this was weakening the cleric by frivolously wasting his spell slots: We've heard that before. His response was "90% of the spells I cast on her were low level slots that I could afford to give out to improve her, and the party as a whole. I'd be a bad cleric if I wasn't willing to buff an ally who needed it. The one high level slot she used (mass bull's strength) was a domain spell that I was going to use whether she was in the party or not, because the other domain's option was terrible".

Depends on the vigilante. I've had one whose social identity was often used to case enemy organizations, and the other PCs knew about it (and helped cover for him) right from day one.

I've run a game for another whose social identity was their quest-giver/noble sponsor. They never actually learned that the private mercenary he always sent with them was just him in disguise.

Voted. Not switching.

I really hope Paizo proves my fears wrong and creates something great, but my hopes have been dying bit by bit as the playtest has gone on, and at this point I'm the last person in my group who even cares about the future of Pathfinder. The rest have already started purchasing books from WotC and planning D&D 5e campaigns, with occasional talk of playing PF1 adventures that we haven't gotten around to yet.

Even if the new edition ends up being great (which, at this point, I don't think is going to happen), I doubt I'll even be able to get the entire group to willingly come back and give it a try. Too much animosity.

So... Yeah, we're almost certainly not playing PF2. At best, I may keep up with adventures if they seem easy enough to convert backwards to PF1.

I always felt like Pharasma was basically just GM to a big game that the rest of the deities are playing. She's doing her best to be impartial and stuff, and judge fairly but she's got biases of her own, and some jerk players who deliberately push her buttons, so she does make biased calls sometimes.

I've been growing to be okay-ish with Sarenrae as time goes by, but her "True Neutral" murder cult is still a problem. As people above have said, she talks a lot about redemption, but doesn't actually seem to be very good at it. She let the cult of the Dawn-"Agree with me or I'll kill you"-flower go unchecked for way too long. And I'm only assuming she finally got around to telling them to chill because of PF2's change in which alignments she accepts for her clerics. Maybe they've actually just decided to go with "Nah, her murder cult is toooootally Neutral Good (and if you disagree, they're coming for you)". Mostly though: Yeah, Sarenrae's okay. I don't like her worshippers.

I don't dislike Calistria, but I do dislike the kind of characters she tends to inspire. For every one decently-made one, there's a hundred amateur seductresses and horrifically evil psychopaths insisting that they're chaotic neutral and that they're just following the revenge code.

Asmodeus is definitely a mary sue, but it helps somewhat that he's his own sue, in a way. The whole Ihys story is a lot funnier if you assume Asmodeus is lying through his teeth about it all to make himself sound more awesome. Same with all his "Exactly as planned" stuff.

I think my least favourite is actually Cayden Cailean, because he's... well, he's kind of dull. He's the joke character of the roster, and sure the accidental god schtick is funny, but it's all about him, and leaves his faithful as being just a mix of stereotypical adventurers, and friendly drinkers. Nothing really inspiring. He was the first deity I ever had a character worship (though in retrospect, she would have gone for Besmara if I'd known Besmara existed at the time), so it feels awkward to call him my personal bottom of the barrel, but oh well.

The final encounter of the Jade Regent AP. I don't remember how many rounds, but about 3 x 3 hour sessions.

Ooh, that one stretched on forever here too.

It went by pretty rapid fire for us, at least, but we had at least 3 dozen straight rounds of "He made his saving throw again" and "Nope, that still doesn't hit his AC" before the tide finally turned.

It was so bad that a min/level spell the PCs had trapped a different enemy with elsewhere in the dungeon actually expired mid-fight, and said enemy had enough time to head up to where the final battle was taking place and join in.

LittleMissNaga wrote:

I'm always miserable in what the weather folks on TV like to call "Beautiful" weather. Give me the chill, and the damp, and the gloom any day. A nice"Dreary" autumn is my perfect tank top and shorts weather.

Same for me. 10C/50F is my ideal room temperature.

These meat things we're walking around in are kind of haphazardly thrown together, so it's pretty hard to standardize stuff for them.

Yeah. My whole group, being from a somewhat-colder climate than the one the Paizo office is situated in, tends to have a laugh whenever we convert the Fahrenheit and remember what sorts of weather the rules consider to be extreme cold.

I wear my summer clothes in ranges of weather that seasoned fantasy adventurers (who are presumably much tougher than me) could freeze to death in, apparently. It makes me chuckle.

I'd explain that the PCs getting swarmed by everyone at once doesn't happen because that'd be a really dumb response on Nox's part.

Sending all your forces at once to respond to a disturbance by relatively unknown forces is just begging for an enemy group to take advantage of that. Whether by ambushing all your people by luring them into a big fortified position just outside that they don't know about, or just by leading them on a merry chase while a second team takes advantage of the distraction to get in, swipe what they need, and get out.

A more measured response is a more sane one. Restructure the defensive lines to make sure there's no holes your enemies can get through, and to ensure that your people are waiting in good ambush spots, make sure everyone is alert, start casting medium and long duration spells, move or destroy important documents, have patrols start seeking out your enemies not to destroy them, but to get further intel, and then to hold them off while a runner falls back to the nearest defenders and warns them to start casting short duration spells, and to send a team around through a side passage to catch the intruders in a pincer strike.

Etc.

No point being rude about other people’s temperature acclimation, it’s largely out of an individual’s control. If you’re from a hotter part of the world, you’d prolly be pretty miserable in the wintertime where I’m at, on account of not being accustomed to it.

Yep. I'm always miserable in what the weather folks on TV like to call "Beautiful" weather. Give me the chill, and the damp, and the gloom any day. A nice"Dreary" autumn is my perfect tank top and shorts weather. That's going to be different from people in other areas, and even just people with other preferences, and that's fine.

As mentioned above, the most important thing for the game seems to be defining when you've got new levels of environmental effects. Add me to the camp who thinks that eschewing precise temperature altogether and just saying "The temperature is extreme heat", or whatever, would probably be more useful.

4th level party will be going into the absurdly spacious sewers soon, trying to reach the abandoned underground city buried beneath the regular city.

I'm a bit lacking for sewer ideas, though. I can think of otyughs, and... well, that's it. I know they're escorting a bumbling weaker-than-them warrior with a penchant for charging into trouble and needing to be rescued, but I can't really think of anything to do here. Help?

I do like hearing what the folks working on an adventure have to say about it.

I'm also quite happy with a longer adventure.

I think I'm basically satisfied either way.

Baba Yaga seems to like forcing anyone she feels like into servitude. They may work for her, fear her, maybe respect her power, but I get the impression that a lot of Grandmother's "Employees" don't like their boss.

I even ran a few of them as partially-sympathetic. "I know what it's like being forced to do her dirty work, and it sucks. I'm sorry, but I'm magically compelled to stop you". Led to players trying to find tricky loopholes to bypass guardians without killing them (or sometimes, to using nonlethal, because they really didn't have anything against the people there fighting).

Others will be actively antagonistic, and probably trying to exploit loopholes of their own. Maybe an: "Oh, yes, I am supposed to help people working for Baba Yaga, but I'm also supposed to kill intruders. Since you're trying to save her, I'm going to choose to interpret your presence here as an intrusion and use that as an excuse to stop you and ruin her day".

Others might actually just look threatening, but will actually help if you're honest with them.

What mode are most of you finding that players take to infiltrate Fort Hailcourse? I'm curious whether players are opting to go up the walls, one way or another, and end up dealing with the tougher scenario up there or instead opt to burst through the front door (or otherwise enter there).

How has the choice of entrance gone for your players?

We had an oozemorph shifter who compressed her way through an arrow slit and then opened the doors for everyone else from the inside.

The initial encounter was a little tough, since she was alone in melee and getting ganged up on, but she lured the enemies near the arrow slit so that the casters could blast spells at them (and reach in and poke her with cure spells when necessary), and it worked out alright.

Breaking into the fort was probably the most intense part of that dungeon, honestly. It was dynamic, with running battles against waves of skum, but very easily handled beyond that point (the skum are kinda weak). There were, at least, some battles best described as two oozes sloshing and melding together as they struggled for superiority. That was pretty memorable.

So consensus is to add one social round for each Senator added yes?

Dunno about everyone else, but I added a round for every four that were added, and it worked out pretty perfectly. Tight enough that PCs had to scramble to do everything they wanted to, but not so tight that they didn't have some room for errors and do-over, and were able to get it all done in the end.

In our case, it was 32 additional NPCs and 8 additional rounds. Worked great!

Would it track creatures in gaseous form?

If it does, you could use it to track escaping vampires.

Agreeing with Castilliano. This just creates meta. Players figure out their target-numbers after a few swings or whatnot, and then that "Before the results are revealed" line has revealed itself as the OoC hoop to jump through that it was.

I've met more people in game stores who smell like poo -- literally -- than I'd care to count.

Usually I finish playing my scheduled round of mtg against them, then vacate to open air. A few minutes for the sake of playing with a new set of cards, I can handle.

I don't think they'd ever make it so far as to receive an invitation to anything longer than some quick card-playing, though. No Pathfinder with Poopsy.

I'd be cool with that. My players usually like full orcs better anyways.

Weirdly, they prefer their elves at 50%.

And in regards to the more snobby posts. I have played 4E, Warhammer, LOTRSBG, Hail Caesar, Lion Rampant, Dark Souls, and more tabletop games. Believe me, this s$~@ is unique when it comes to learning it.

Ooh boy. I had so much trouble with Warhammer. If you got that one with relative ease, good on you.

I realize I haven't mentioned this yet: One of the sections of the CRB I found most useful when I was newer at PF is right at the start of Chapter 3, under "Advancing your character". Character creation is just the steps there, plus a couple extra (pick race, buy equipment).

You do still have to bounce around the book a fair bit to actually do each step, but I found that section useful for keeping tabs on which steps still needed to be done.

Angry Adventurer wrote:

But if I have access to 2nd level spells, can I use all of them, if requirements for stats are met?

Look, if you are unwilling to read the relevant passage yourself, this will be a wasted effort. It really is not that hard.

Be nice. It's easy to miss a relevant passage or two, even for folks who are familiar with the game.

And OP's been invited to ask questions by the people here. If you don't want to answer them, that's fine, but don't discourage someone from asking questions immediately after they've been told to feel free to ask questions.

As to targeted due to their ancestry, do you talk it out with demons and devils. If not you are being racist and committing hate crimes. It's clearly the murder of an innocent devil JUST minding it's own business... :P If so, you're the first person I know to do so.

Very heavily on the side of not murdering on sight here: Yes.

I know that my group have never attacked someone who was just standing around minding their own business and not endangering or working on endangering people. Everyone is given a chance to diplomacize. Every demon is given a chance to surrender and be treated fairly. Every devil, negotiated with, talked into simple non-interference deals if possible. Every goblin is presented with alternative outlets for their violence and pyromania.

If we suspect danger or deception (and with fiends, that suspicion is always there), then we watch carefully, and stay ready to respond.

Frankly, killing someone pre-emptively based on an assumption that you know what they're going to do just feels kinda uncomfortable to me. Like that's not a thing good people do (at least not without falling down to Questionable Neutral alignment).

I'm a fan of 15 pb. Too many rolling players cheating their rolls. Too many bad memories. Plus, every roll-preferring player I've ever met, when asked why they want to roll, have given answers indicating that it's because they want their character to be better than their allies' right from the start.

15 pb keeps people more even, divided only by skill in assigning their stats, and I'm happy to help newer players. I've heard it encourages minimaxing, but my experience has been the opposite. When players need to dump everything hard to get the 20s they want, they tend to shift their goals to more reasonable numbers and buy more 14s and 16s.

...And finally, 15 pb let's me play more colourful opposition. I can run kooky builds and unusual tactics against the PCs, and not worry so much about needing to optimize the enemies to keep up with them.

I think something that might help a debate on goblins is an answer to the question: Exactly how "Kill on sight" is Golarion, on average, towards its weirdo races.

I, and many in favour of Goblins seem to lean towards guards and things being suspicious by default towards goblins, not hostile. It seems many who are anti-goblin lean towards the default reaction of town guards to be killing goblins the instant they lay eyes on them.

I imagine that the actual answer is "It varies from place to place", but it would be helpful to see some response from Paizo about just how murder-happy the average town/guards are. Are the anti-goblin people correct in assuming that a goblin, even a heroic one can't function in society because everyone would just kill them? If so, what's Paizo's explanation going to be about why PF2 goblins fare better? Or, are the "Kill on sight" folks running Golarion as edgier than it really is, and resorting to a violent response that most guards and whatnot wouldn't resort to for a goblin that wasn't being violent at the time.

Of course my internet totally kicked the bucket in time for International Transgender Day of Visibility. Figures.

Ah well. Better late than never. I never really had RPGs involved with my own gender, personally. Characters have been all over various spectrums, gender included. Was fortunate enough to get started with me being myself early enough that I guess by the time I got to RPGs I felt comfortable enough in my own shoes to feel comfortable playing basically anything (or perhaps it's rather unfortunate that my introduction to RPGs took as long as it did. Eh).

Well, I've read... Like, two people's stories so far before I got excited enough to come down here and post this "Hey! Me too!" post. Gotta go back and read the rest now. You're all such awesome folks, and it's heartwarming and cool to get this glimpse.

I am seriously stunned by this thread. People are talking AT each other rather than TO each other. Some are trying to listen and respond on both sides of the fence, but even they seem to missing the point the other is trying to make or are having their counter arguments ignored, misunderstood, or misconstrued. I hate threads like this. They add nothing to the game, are not helpful in the least, and crank quite a few of those involved up to accomplish, what? To give the Paizo staff a headache moderating it and trying to keep the conversation civil instead of their regular jobs.

It doesn't feel like much of a conversation, yeah. Responses definitely favour back-and-forth between people who offended someone on one side or the other (either by being offensive, or just for having different preferences) more than having a discussion. As you said, lots of talking at each other.

Mostly, I don't expect to convince anyone. I've gotten a few favourites on things posted, but those are likely all people who already agreed with whatever I said before I said it, so eh.

At this point I'm just here to be a pro-goblin presence. There's so much anti-goblin sentiment here that I basically just hope folks at Paizo see one more person here who is cool with the direction they're going, and hopes it goes well.

LittleMissNaga wrote:

Mostly I expect that because I'm here to play a game and have fun, not be punished and picked on because a GM declared my fun to be wrong. That's not fun. I'd find another GM and have my fun with them.

Not everyone's fun is equal, especially when you go in knowing that your fun is stepping on others fun: if you know the DM doesn't like goblins, it seem odd to want to play one.

I'd prefer everyone's fun was equal, actually. Thanks.

As I said, I'd find a GM that works with what I want, and for that matter a whole group that works together, rather than try to play with people who shut down my fun, or try to foist my fun upon people who don't want it.

It's fine to not like the same stuff I do. That just means we shouldn't be in a group together. Not that my fun is less than equal.

So... people actually think they will play goblins, but not be treated like a pest/problem often by pretty much everyone... that is an interesting thought.

Guess better ban the race indeed, players clearly are building up diferent expectations than i would ever GM for the race.

Mostly I expect that because I'm here to play a game and have fun, not be punished and picked on because a GM declared my fun to be wrong. That's not fun. I'd find another GM and have my fun with them.

...Well, that, and because I usually am the GM for Pathfinder. When I get to play, it's Starfinder, 5e, or Mutants and Masterminds.

At any rate, GM being antagonistic and making a setting hostile towards the PCs isn't fun, generally. I've had like one instance of players wanting people to discriminate against their characters. Beyond that, my home setting is weirdo-friendly, and I try to run Golarion pretty tolerant as well.

Sandpoint, since it's being cited as the most common example, probably would be a rather uphill battle for Goblins, admittedly, considering that particular town's circumstances. That doesn't mean the whole setting, or even all of Sandpoint is going to be "Kill on sight", though.

"Kill on sight" is such a dull way to handle racial tension anyways. I'd rather do something more interesting.

I feel for folks who have problem-player friends that they can't just dump. I've been there. I don't anticipate the goblin causing much trouble at my table though. Some of our most cohesive parties have been CE murderers, demon cultists, and indeed, goblins. Good players can handle this stuff without screwing it up for everyone.

On a side note, I'm actually pleased to see the +Dex/Cha, -Wis change. I've houseruled it that way for a while already. Pathfinder Goblins have never fit as a negative-charisma race. They're little energetic balls of strong personality, and that's totally positive Charisma, lack of table manners be darned.

Reduced Charisma was baggage from D&D's goblins: Unfunny, wretched little cowards. It just doesn't fit the direction Paizo went with their fearless (aside from that stuff with the horses), bombastic little murdermunchkins.

Former high priestess of Norgorber reincarnated as innocent cutesy gnome.

No reason to be alarmed.

Alchemist: Mad Scientist (And really, anything similar from other classes. I've a personal soft spot for a little bit of random chance injected into my abilities.)

Monk: Qinggong Monk (Or better yet, what unchained did with powers and stuff just being rolled in as options. Qinggong as a whole, with its ability to swap in where you want and leave things where they are when you don't want the alternate option simply makes it my epitome of archetypes.)

Ranger: Skirmisher (I think that's the one that trades your spells. Can never remember that one by name no matter how many I build. I think the option to be a non-caster if you want is a great thing for low-magic classes like ranger and paladin.)

Rogue: Eldritch Scoundrel (Like my ranger choice above, but reversed. I think a bit of casting is a cool option to spice up classes that wouldn't otherwise get it.)

Sorcerer: Wildblooded (I don't actually think this one should be an archetype, and ought to function more like subdomains and the more specialized versions of arcane schools. Why should the wild sorcerer be locked out of every archetype ever when nobody else is, after all? But that aside, I think the wild bloodlines add a lot of variance and options to an already-great class, and they and things like subdomains and such are important.)

I... Don't like how I feel about this. I like Pathfinder, and I'm not poised to jump ship. There's no other system I've been waiting to run to at the first mistake. This is my game of choice.

So... Here's hoping Pathfinder 2e is great. Here's hoping Pathfinder 2e doesn't leave me going "Well... there's no roleplaying games left that I'm interested in playing any more."

Count me in on the playtest at least, but I've gotta say, I'm really, REALLY worried about seeing 2e fail to live up to what 1e gave us over these past years.

Xenoseeker for sure. It's the only theme that sounds like me at all.

Class is tougher. Maybe Mystic (I have been described as "That weird witchy lady"). I don't know Mystic well enough to name a specialty without pulling out the book, though.

Race... Well, from my abysmal carrying capacity, it's safe to say a Str-penalty is there. Beyond that, I'm not particularly nimble or dextrous, but am pretty hardy and rarely get sick. Con-bonus? Finish that off with being apparently approachable, if everyone jumping to confide in me their secrets and problems is any indication, and I think I'm a gnome. (Classic feychild gnome, not bleachling.)

Gnome Xenoseeker Mystic. I think I'm preempively banned from a number of tables, huh?

check local stores. I know ours has a copy or two I think (In the middle Georgia Area).

Makes me sad that my only local store didn't bother getting the APs.

Heck, they only bothered stocking a handful of CRBs (one of which now sits beside me on my table, thankfully), because they insisted Starfinder would never sell.

I bet they feel silly now. :P

Starfinder has been out for several weeks now.

Are the usual types of people already trying to find ways to break the game? Or are people finding it's generally just good fun so far?

Darling, the munchkins were already beginning to do their thing before the game even came out.

Though Charisma is their key ability, envoys only really care about it for resolve points. They don't really need it for skill checks, since they can use Expertise, and they don't really need it for their special abilities, of which Charisma only effects two, and neither in a way that really matters to the effectiveness of the class.

In theory, I see your point.

In practice I see our group's 18 Cha envoy utterly dominate the social game, in part because she's got that extra +1 to +3 compared to what she'd have as a blitz ignoring Cha. It helps her make those checks that much more consistently.

Sure she's putting out less damage than yours would, but ours has repeatedly swung whole narratives in our favour. In the long run, I'd say that's more useful than "Oh look, isn't she so very optimized for killing things?"

Not as confusing as your spelling.

This answer provides no assistance, and its doubtful you actually had any problems understanding that spelling. Solarion is obviously solarian. Chose might have been meant to be choose, but chose could also work. Capitalization isn't that confusing. While not utterly flawless, the spelling is reasonably good.

Shouldn't mock spelling anyways. Could just be not up to your standards (though, still, why mock?), or could be someone learning a language and doing quite well. Or in some other circumstance you're not aware of.

Re: The original question. It's as TranslucentDuck says. Only the glowing one glows, though both do have a visible manifestation (which can be turned off outside of battle to blend in, sneak, hide your powers, etc.)

I feel like a passing shout of "Hey hive mind!" would really push a shirren's buttons. Something that implies the complete lack of the individuality that their society so cherishes.

If you haven't read the adventurer's guide yet, you might like to know the Rivethun have developed a form of alchemical HRT (I think it was first mentioned in Shardra's backstory). Not as powerful as magical alternatives, but at only 5 gp a dose, it's much more affordable.

I have read it! Am actually playing a dwarven rivethun stone shaman (geez, she's such a Shardra clone that it hurts) in Crimson Throne. Her wife's a hedge witch who learned some alchemy to make the stuff for her own transition, while my shaman found an elixir in her backstory and did the one-drink instant transition.

I was definitely pleased to see the rivethun's method as an option in PF. That 5 gp per dose does add up to a fair bit of cash as the months wear on, though. Rough on a poorer peasant's budget (especially if they don't have friend or family support). It's why my shaman's wife learned to craft it herself.

I could easily see a "Money's tight, so we can't afford your weekly extract" situation causing problems for a poor commoner trying to get through the... I think it was 6 months in which you need to keep continually taking doses.

I must admit, I'm torn between really liking these options being... well, being clear and available options for our characters, and worrying about my WBL, and what might happen to it in the hands of a character who drinks these serums particularly regularly. I don't think the "I'm saving up for an elixir" goal works too well anymore (they're too cheap for that), but it is pretty reasonable to have done it already and afforded one (or more) in one's backstory now.

Mostly, I feel good for all the space-commoners out there. Many can actually afford this option now. I felt bad in Pathfinder, thinking about poor commoners whose bodies weren't right for them, but who definitely couldn't afford low-to-mid-level adventurer-priced potential solutions.

My SO's quite certain the Idari is the Galactica.

I don't know the reference well-enough to say.

We've mostly been winging it with NPCs sorta based on PC stats. Was a bit irksome at first, but Starfinder seems easier to improvise than Pathfinder, so it's become not much of a big deal.

Still. Definitely looking forward to alien archive, and maybe NPC books, and more.

Solarians can top soldiers in melee damage, and come on, isn't it the fighter's turn to be the best combat class?

I agree, the moving dudes around bit seems lackluster, but I'm holding out judgement a bit longer. Some way of making them stay put until your next turn would be nice.

Moving dudes around is a bit lackluster until you get clever with it. Pull that hard-to-hit enemy out of their full cover so your soldiers and operatives and such can open up on them. Tug someone into hazards. Leap out into space and pull half your enemies out with you, then jet back in and leave them helpless. Pull your biggest, shootiest allies into cover so that they can devote all their actions to firepower without needing to make a dash for safety. (Heck, that's all pretty basic. You've got to improvise to your situation, because it's always going to be a matter of "When would that ever happen" until suddenly you're right in the middle of that unlikely situation.)

If folks want to play someone big and damage-y and simple, they ought to play a soldier. If they want to play someone with mystical space-balance powers, they should play a solarian (and I mean actually play a solarian, not just write solarian on the sheet and carry on trying to play like you're a soldier).

And those folks who can't manage to be clever? Who can muster no inspiration in their play beyond showing up to the table with solved builds and expecting to win purely because their numbers are biggest and their math is sound? Well, the soldier remains a fine choice if one is finding it too difficult to play cleverly.

I find it a bit AWESOME, personally.

Crit and take somebody's whole arm off? Yes please!

Get crit and have an excuse to get an awesome cyber-arm? Double yes please!

I think you can get by without a melee specialist, but having some people who can do melee in a pinch is still pretty important. Given I'm still pretty new to the rules, but that's my feeling thus far.

This has been my experience. We've got an all-ranged party, but it was still really nice to have a vesk soldier capable of decent melee (even though she wasn't specialized in it) among us. Someone who could occupy the enemy's big scary solarian pirate captain when he broke out the doshko made of pure darkness and tried to charge our squishy little halfling envoy.

I felt worried looking at the numbers on paper, but actually trying things out, we've been great! Fights are a much longer slog than in Pathfinder, but that's alright. It means there's time for cool cover-based repositioning tactics, or for our mechanic to break into their security system and turn the enemy defenses against them.

After a few hours the only class that still felt combat-weak in practice was our envoy, but she more-than pulled her weight (her negligible halfling weight, but still) out-of-combat (and in skill-based in-combat matters). After she was able to distract some guards long enough for us to stow away on a ship we were robbing, get herself onboard as the elven prince's guest of honor, then spent the whole robbery standing smugly among the enemy on their own bridge and manipulating them into making the worst tactical decisions they could make against the rest of us until it was time for her to get "taken hostage" by us and ensure our clean getaway, during which she assumed a natural captain roll and easily aided every one of our pilot and science officer's checks that she tried to aid... well, I don't doubt her out-of-combat and skill-based power.

(And hey, she was a nifty pseudo-healer too, with her ability to restore some of our SP in a pinch. Our soldier stayed conscious long enough to take down the vesk space-pirate captain thanks to her!)