Is there a easy way to level up existing content? For example, when we finish Aeon Throne I think our group will be level 6, would it work to take another AP and crank up the content level initially until they catch up to the proper level in the AP? Hope that made sense.
It's not the definition of easy, but I've found success with switching out printed creature stats with the NPC stats found in the Alien Archive 1 appendix. You can make them any tier you'd like that way. Only issue is somethings are just meaningless at high levels, like lower levels of radiation, so some encounters can fall flat. For the most part it's pretty smooth though.
"..plus rules for gaining a creature companion that can accompany you as a pet, a mount, or even a fearsome combatant! And over a dozen species have rules for making your own playable alien character.."
The back rules portions are easily becoming my favorite parts of the Archives. Building NPCs, Summoning, Polymorph, and now building PC races and companions? Fingers crossed that Armory 2 follows suit with gear or vehicle creation systems!
Awww yeah this is much appreciated! I plan on playtesting these from the GM point of view. It seems pretty straight forward that the arrays to be used are Biohacker => Expert, Vanguard => Combatant, and Witchwarper => Spellcaster. Is it worth while giving feedback on class graft thoughts? Also, I'm assuming multi-classing is covered in the specific class surveys?
If you have thoughts on class grafts as a GM, we'd love to hear them.
We didn't do multiclass-specific questions on the surveys, but there are generally class satisfaction places where you can enter any weird itneractions you discover.
Awww yeah this is much appreciated! I plan on playtesting these from the GM point of view. It seems pretty straight forward that the arrays to be used are Biohacker => Expert, Vanguard => Combatant, and Witchwarper => Spellcaster. Is it worth while giving feedback on class graft thoughts? Also, I'm assuming multi-classing is covered in the specific class surveys?
I'm really happy to see a lot of the community here in agreement! Near Space, The Vast, and Threats to the Pact would be lovely. Also focused books for Ships/vehicles, Magic, Planes, and a Players Guide with new classes.
I would love solar system maps and maps of sections of the galaxy too, but that one might just be me.
The one thing I really see missing is bio-punk, I'd like a class focused around biological manipulation that's akin to the Mechanic.
So Gad wouldn't know he had a son? Interesting. Now the big question: Would the son know? Would Vivan have told HIM?
=)
I was thinking that the truth of it would not be known by anyone, but the boy would want to find out and at some point that secret would be available for the GM.
I'm been struggling with the Oread son idea, coming back to the monk class a few times but something just wasn't clicking with it. I've been thinking though, Viv has a half orc in her background who introduced her to Gorum. My idea is that Viv and Gad hooked up one night and afterward she said it was a mistake and then left. Returning years later with a half orc son. She then insists that she found the half orc from her past and that he is the father, when really it is Gad.
Viv wasn't a great mom, she focused on other things more and more as the boy grew older and they passionately clashed on differences. Being raised amid a military school, he is a strong fighter but really rebels from authority.
I propose a half orc arcane bloodrager, where the rage is Ferris zeal and the magical power is Fireblood.
The boy really has a rebelious and mischievous side, similar to what it sounded like Gad had before he was sent away. The abilities of the bloodline mesh well with learning to fight around casters and knowing how dangerous they can be, while also being the son of a powerful monk.
For background I'm going to just go for it. Feel free if you disagree with the creative license I've taken with the party.
I'm thinking an Oread son of Vivian that was raised by Qina and Brezik's families in Kassen Vivian wasn't a perfect mother, she actually entered into a few battles while knowingly pregnant with her only child. It took the intervention of the Keepers literally snacking some sense into her to and settle down for the last 4 or 5 months. Once the oread was born she had trouble staying. The oread grew up with more of a sisterly relationship with his mother.
For class, thinking ranger, monk, or warpriest. Playing with the multiclass idea of an empyreal sorcerer monk.
Iiiiit's June! Crazy excited to read this. We're in book 4 and intend to continue on past level 13 after this conclusion. I've been very curious how to twist the character's backgrounds up into this conclusion for future story arcs and what the continuing campaign article holds. The guy on the cover is exactly what I was hoping for though, it's building up to be quite the exciting path.
Intimidation to make it flee makes more sense, I think I was trying to key too much off of one key stat. I agree there were too many feats and abilities as well. It's been scaled back now power-wise. My intent was to make the creature have the power level of a familiar, not a companion as to not step on the Mechanic's toes or shatter the level of benefit that a single feat should carry.
The sibling thing was and attempt at clever wording, but the point to it is to avoid people making an army of these creatures. I feel like the power curve will get blown away if more than one is able to exist at a time.
Ethics being grey here is completely true, but I strongly disagree with the statement that this feat chain's purpose is to make slaves. The intent is to synthesize new biological lifeforms that would be similar to pets or mental equals. If you run an evil campaign and allow players to go down a dark path, that's up to you, but the intent is to have a hands on approach to building a familiar. Once the creature is born and leaves the incubation chamber it will be fully sentient and it's own being. While the creator has some emotional leverage over the creature due to their relationship, they do not possess any out right control. The result is akin to a literal child or a pet, and I for one can't get my cats to do a single chore around the house.
Reasons I think it is needed:
1) There are no familiars
2) There is none or little gene manipulation/DNA splicing sci-fi in the current setting. This allows players and GMs to make characters that focus in the life sciences rather than computer or engineering to develop sentient things.
It's easy to go cyberpunk right now, but what about biopunk? Frankenstein is argued as the original Sci-fi story and I think something like these feats gives it a place in Starfinder.
Feat: Craft Creature (I - IV)
Crafting time: (Creature Tier ^3 + creature’s level) days, the last half of which uninterrupted.
Tables mentioned can be found in doc here.
Prerequisites:
Craft Creature Tier I: 4 ranks in Life Science and Mysticism
Craft Creature Tier II: 8 ranks in Life Science and Mysticism, Craft Creature I
Craft Creature Tier III: 12 ranks in Life Science and Mysticism, Craft Creature I & II
Craft Creature Tier IV: 16 ranks in Life Science and Mysticism, Craft Creature I, II, & III
Description:
This feat gives you the knowledge and ability to genetically create a novel creature based on field research and gathered samples. The creature is always sentient and operates under its own control, though as the creator you have influence over it. The DCs for Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive against the creature are 5 lower than normal for the creator.
Creature Size Unlocks:
Beginning at Tiny size with the Tier I feat, subsequent higher tiers unlock larger size options
Craft Creature Tier I: Creature size Tiny
Craft Creature Tier II: Creature size Small
Craft Creature Tier III: Creature size Medium
Craft Creature Tier IV: Creature size Large
Building the Creature:
The basis of creature building is to mashup the various special abilities confronted in foes to build a custom amalgamation. A creature must be created in a Science Lab for the entire duration of the build time and a crafted Creature can only have special abilities applied from samples of creatures that you have gathered or been given. Every creature starts with one of the three base stat arrays in Table 1-1. They are then leveled according to Table 1-2 up to the Creator’s desired build level. The maximum level a creature can be created at is the average of the Creator’s Ranks in Life Science and Mysticism - 3, rounding down. (E.g. 4 ranks in both Life Science and Mysticism yields a level 1 creature, while 6 ranks in Life Science and 4 in Mysticism yields a level 2 creature.)
A creature can purposefully be created at any level between the Creator’s maximum and 1. The time it takes to create them in a lab is found in days by the “creature’s Tier ^3 + creature’s level” or can be referenced in Table 1-3. The project can be moved to a new lab only during the first half of the build time, rounding down. Once the second half of the build time is started the creature must stay in its current lab and the remaining of the build time must continue in uninterrupted days until completion. Both Tiny and Small projects can be packed up and moved on one’s person, while a Small project also renders the carrier encumbered. Medium and Large projects must be transported by vehicles with adequate space for the project’s creature type. The project has hit points equal to the number of days spent on it and ACs of 5.
The Constitution modifier does apply to total HP (per every level) and Fortitude saves, as the Dex modifier applies to ACs and Reflex saves, and the Wisdom modifier applies to Will saves.
Leveling Up:
The creature levels along with its Creator, gaining improvements to its stats and feats, but the Special Abilities must be added on through surgery.
Creature Siblings:
Only one creation can exist at one time, else they succumb to Frankenstein Jealousy and fight each other to the death. A crafted creature can be set free and thus released from the creator-child bond. To break a bond this way requires a successful Life Science check of DC 10 + (Rank Prerequisite for tier *1.5) that can be attempted once per day. Other options are abandonment and death. These both cause you to enter a mourning state that prohibits you from beginning the crafting another creature after as many weeks as your highest Craft Creature Tier.
The finale went better than I expected for my group. We had 5 so I added a sixth Bone Trooper since they've been fairing pretty well on average. When combat started Vesh drew the Soldier and Solarion up the stairs to the cliff while the Mystic, Mechanic, and Technomancer danced with the six bone troopers below. I had the bone troopers jump the party with Supercharge Weapon pre-casted, so their first round really went off with a BANG and set and exciting tone.
First off, thank goodness for DR! The six bone troopers were able to get the Technomancer and mechanic down pretty good into HP, but ultimately the 3 PCs and drone were able to widdle away at them. A lot of good AOE from the technomancer with spell grenade ala Jolting Surge and consecuitive rounds of Explosive Blast did the trick. The map is just narrow enough to get 2 or 3 in a radius consistently.
Meanwhile Vesh was easily able to kite the other too up the stairs and around the bone pile with her sniper rifle. Around the time the last Bone Trooper dropped was when she first had to enter melee. This is where it got pretty good. The Solarion and Soldier locked her into a flanked position quickly, but some bad rolls for the PCs in addition to her DR and Fast Healing put her in a pretty healthy place when she started going all out claws. First she grabbed the solarion, who failed his fort save. Next round she grabbed the soldier, who initially made his save. Both had 2-handed weapons and with a DC 30 to break the grapple could not do anything but flail and punch as she continued to go back and forth biting each of them. The solider failed his first Fort save off of a bite and that pretty much cemented their fates as the HP began to burn.
There was a 2 round segment of the other three party members running up the stairs, hearing shouting, but being blind to the reality of the others being grappled and staggered. Cresting onto the cliff, they saw Vesh with one hand jammed into each the solarion's and soldier's abdomens with them both almost helpless.
Alas, with a good crit and a nasty shot from a Supercharged AND Overcharged longarm. Vesh was no more after a round and a half. No one fell unconscious, but it was climatic and ended things well. The first half of this book didn't do it for us but part 3 in the Splice investigating the trail was very cool and memorable. Looking forward to the next step in the journey. See you all on the other thread!
I used Pathfinder Flip-Mat Darklands (I believe side B, the open-spaced one) for the exterior. For the interior of the hermitage I pulled this up off the cuff. It all worked pretty well, for those who rock the mini's.
The Marrowblight Hermitage could easily be done Theater of the Mind as well, much like the stampede at the beginning of the second books expedition. An issue I had was letting Xerantha wait out the combat with the Ellicoth before stepping in. If my cat was an Ellicoth (awesome parallel universe, I know) I wouldn't stand by at all. In addition to the creature being massive and likely very loud when in combat, I chose to introduce Xerantha during round 6 of the combat. That gave her 36 seconds to notice the commotion, get to her gun, and then get in position. In my opinion other things can factor in here, like landing their starship in Xerantha's front yard... but for the most part it's what I would recommend.
A good and hard set of sequential encounters. As I have felt the rest of the book has been easy, these last three are very legitimate player deaths. My group has a healer and the Elicoth/Xerantha battle contained a lot of combat healing. Excited for the climax this weekend!!
As someone who got into PFS a couple years ago, being on the ground floor of the Starfinder Society story is insanely satisfying. I'm loving the build of this arc and so pumped for it to explode into whatever the next turn of longterm events are. Viva la Elsebo!
No Ellicoth really hurts. I was just looking for it thinking "I'm all prepared, it's in the book, wait, where?"... Now it's just an empty large base on my table. Was it left out because it was in a Pathfinder Bestiary before?
You can already break items down for their UPB (10%). The issue is that it doesn't say how or how long it takes to do so.
how? i know there's a way to scrap an item to use it as spare parts but i didn't see a way to convert it back to upbs. also it makes no sense for full price as upbs because upbs wouldn't be 100% the mass of the object,
I don't think you can convert anything back to UPBs, I think the 10% rule is because when making similiar items there are similiar components that can be reused. Or at least that is how I understood it, don't have the book here ATM.
Yeah a few details are missing, I've had to house rule that settlements and star ships have a "De-materializer" that breaks an item down in the same time it would take to craft. It also looks like a dishwasher.
Also, I like the chaos in the cover image but I wish Altronus was not simply clenching empty fists with his other two arms. He's the only 4-armed pregen and this is the Armory!! FUSILLADE!!!
For people who do combat with mini's, what are you doing for the map of the Marrowblight hermitage? Seeing that it is allocated to a little side window yet is 30ft to a square, are a lot of games running this bit more theater of the mind? It helps that strategy with the Ellicoth being gargantuan, but it gets even worse for the interior of the shack as it's a 90ft diameter building with a handful of medium sized creatures gunning around. I really wish this area was fleshed out more visually.
Thanks, my excited reading seems to impede it's only purpose of reading.
Formatting:
That button isn't working for me either so you're not alone, but the formatting is as follows with the asterisks removed:
[Quote*]quote in here[/quote*]
[B*]this is bolded [/b*]
[Ooc*]this is blue[/ooc*]
[I*]this is in italics [/i*]
[Spoiler*]this is hidden in a button [/spoiler*]
The cover looks like a Vracinea, will AP aliens be reprinted in this archive?
every 1000 XP, huh? so a CR 19 monster grants you the same XP as a CR 4 monster? Or will you just jump 7-8 levels by killing a monster with higher CR?
Maybe encounter XP scales based on what is "CR Appropriate"? So a CR=APL encounter has a fixed amount of XP, no matter what level the party is.
Few pages late commenting off this, but if they do wind up going this way I hope there's some guideline for how to approximate CR for encounters with multiples of smaller creatures. In PF1e you could use the XP-by-CR chart to do so, but if XP is entirely dependent on CR compared to APL that would make that system nonfunctional.
I'm assuming this will go off APL vs the encounter's CR with something like 100xp for an APL = CR encounter, then adding 25xp for every CR over APL or subtracting 25xp for every CR under APL.
"Once you hit 1,000 XP, you level up! (That's for every level, so whenever you have 500 XP, you'll always know you're halfway to leveling up again! And if you have any extra Experience Points after leveling up, they count toward the next level.)"
Interesting, so I'm assuming this will go off APL vs the encounter's CR? For example, 100xp for an APL = CR encounter, then adding 25xp for every CR over APL or subtracting 25xp for every CR under APL.
My table and I have been chewing through and enjoying the Dead Suns AP a lot since it came out, but they've mentioned interest in playing a homebrew next and taking on something with a more open feel. I'm into the notion too, so to facilitate it I've begun some work on savage ripoff of the Dark Sun setting into the Starfinder realm that I'm calling Burning Void.
The Setting's History:
Initially, an united galactic culture flourished with technology that rivaled the highest forms of magic. This place existed as a civilization that encompassed thousands of species and spread its reach across hundreds of stars. As the envelope of power and enlightenment challenged traditional thresholds of existential perception, barriers into unknown realms were shattered and god-like mystics arose within the spiritual connections.
The ascension of these eight powerful Mystic Lords soon led to the decimation of the galaxy surrounding the culture’s core words. As the Mystics grew their inconceivable power they consumed the majority of nearby matter to create ideal domains, molding surreal keeps modeled in their connection’s view of perfection. When finished, little else was left than a void thousands of light years across with a cluster of eight lonely stars near the center. The Akashic and Xeno Lords soon withdrew into their own personal obsessions while the Star and Devastator Lords continued to wage their own vastly different chaotic crusades against all who remained. The last frayed remnants of the prior civilization was reduced to a stalemate between the Empathic and Healing Lord’s followers and the Mindbreaker and Overlord cultists.
Strewn across the last eight stars, the wills of these eight Mystic Lords struggled within the confines of each other’s presence as both subtle espionage and outright occupation broke the last remaining threads of trust. All efforts were ultimately failing to decisively shift galactic control towards one of the Lords interests when the Devastator Lord completed the construction of his Technomantic Hypernovae. Since the explosion, the remaining seven star cluster has since been wreathed in the dust of the Mad Mystic’s Technomantic Radiation, which is commonly referred to as the Burning Void. The Healing and Devastator Lords were both declared dead and the Empathic Lord in hiding. The former armies of the Empathic and Healing Lords have begun to dissolve and lose their strength while the Mindbreaker and Overlord cults seize the opportunity to close their grip on the Lordless domains.
The Setting Present-day:
With the severing of spiritual boundaries some aspects of the former Universe mutated and magic now consumes matter when used (at the cost of x^x kgs where x = spell level). Due to its historical role, all public use of magic is heavily chastised. Rumors of evaporating structures, creatures, settlements, and even planets feed fervor among the common populace. Newly manufactured technology is extremely rare to find and free energy is almost never offered. When new functionality is needed, old technology must personally be recycled, modded, and combined. There is no galactic or even system wide networks of information, instead all computers are either existing completely isolated or as parts of small primitive networks. The majority of the populations are ignorant to wide swaths of history, science, and culture as few individuals often succeed in pilgrimages to the remaining database outposts. Radiation dust from the Devastator Lord’s Technomantic Hypernovae has spread across everything with the intent to end all life. Though the Devastator Cult's ultimate goal failed, it was successful in rendering all of the accessible material plane essentially inhabitable (almost everywhere is at minimum low radiation). All planar travel has been barred from the Material plane, how and by whom is an open mystery though Drift engines still function. At the onset of the galaxy’s destruction, some populations fled to the Drift and built what have since been named the Lost Colonies. They live protected from the Burning Void, but suffer erratically shorter lives due to a condition known as Drift Madness. Despite physically removing themselves from the Void and its war, the tensions and plots eventually followed into the Drift and have ensnared the Lost Colonies in the feud despite their best efforts.
The players would likely start in the contested binary star system and we'd just see what happened from there. I have write ups on the seven remaining star systems, each of the Mystic Lords with their followers, the new situations each species finds themselves in, and some other odds and ends, but thought I'd decrease the wall of content and get some overview feedback first. Hope you enjoy!
I really like the idea of crits being "beat the DC by 10" rather than on a dice roll of 20.
I'm terrible at math, but in just imagining a few numbers in my head, I'm thinking you're going to be rolling pretty darn high to beat most target's AC numbers by 10. In fact, in some situations you could roll a 20 and still not have beat the target's AC number by 10... which would be really terrible, from my point of view. For maxed out martial characters that might allow them to crit more often than normal, but for even a 3/4 martial class, that could actually shrink the number of times you crit. I think the keen, improved critical, and weapons that crit at a lower range was supposed to address some that mechanically.
Now if it's a situation where if you beat the DC by 10, OR if you roll a 20 you crit, I could get behind that.
What I'm getting from this is that they've stripped weapon profiles down to just the damage value and possible a special reaction.
No more crit range or crit multiplier.
Essentially, this is reading more and more like D&D 5.0
They dumbed everything down for the new player while removing the depth that keeps players around for the long haul.
From what I heard the weapons are likely dumbed down to damage, damage type, range, cost.
I would swear I read somewhere that they might focus more on the damage type aspect and make having different options matter more.
Sorry, I'll stop ranting. Just know, you're not alone. I feel your pain.
Naw, a rant for a rant, it's much appreciated. I'm sure some of the gametime juggling is just the newness of it all. Once the Aeon Throne is here we'll be having no problems!.. never thought I'd say that phrase..
The new action economy feature I'm most excited about is from the podcast where it was stated that some spells can be cast at different action costs, i.e. magic missle as a single, double, or triple action with each being more powerful than the next. It seemed like they all were a single spell slot use, but you're able to really kamehameha the spell if you wished and had the time.
As the PCs go on adventures and gain experience, they need an increasingly powerful starships to face tougher challenges. When the characters’ Average Party Level increases, so does the tier of their starships (see Table 9–1: Starship Base Statistics). The PCs receive a number of Build Points equal to the Build Points listed for their starships’s new tier – those listed for its previous tier, which they can use to upgrade their starships. For example, a group whose APL increases from 2 to 3 receives 20 BP that the PCs can use to upgrade their starships. This could represent salvage gathered during their exploits, an arrangement with a spacedock, or called-in favors from a wealthy patron. Some GMs might require PCs to visit a safe, inhabited world before they can spend these Build Points, but this shouldn’t be allowed to impact the campaign too much.
Emphasis added...
quothe the SRD wrote:
PCs can’t upgrade the base frame of their starships. They can rebuild their starships with a new base frame if they so desire (within the limits of their budget of Build Points, of course), but that new starships will have a different look (and should probably have a different name). PCs can purchase Huge and larger base frames only at the GM’s discretion, as these usually require large crews and thus are normally reserved for NPC starships.
Buying a whole new starships is a process that can take between 1d4 days and 1d4 months, depending on whether the PCs are purchasing a used starships from a spacedock or having a custom vessel built from scratch.
The BP system doesn't work like loot and normal gear purchases. The group is supposed to just get more BP/higher tier ships automagically when they level. My impression is that you're just supposed to handwave it using whatever excuse works for your group. It mentions under refitting that upgrades usually take 1d4 days, but...
Yeah.. the balance was pretty bad in my game.
They finished book two and essentially had 40 BP to upgrade their then tier 3 ship to a tier 5 per their new APL. What my awesome players did was sell all their guns and install only two to replace them. Heavy Antimatter Missiles on the front arc and a Plasma Cannon on the turret. They put minor upgrades onto a few other things as well like their armor, shields, defense, and computer. Then boom off to the races in the Diaspora.
That first encounter was an freaking breeze with the Rusty Rivet. They had a better piloting check so just flew up along the side and slammed it with both weapons. The damage total was something like 83! Blew the thing out of the sky like total bosses immediately. To round it off once they boarded the Rivet their soldier was threatening and the percentile dice rolled under a 20, fate just wanted more fight I guess.
In the end I wasn't really disappointed about the ship combat going short. So far it has fit into the campaign weirdly. We've been having ship combat once every 2 levels and the process of upgrading the ship and remembering the ship combat specifics doesn't make up for the one event per book (or 5 sessions for us) in my opinion. It eats up half of our 4 hour session. This isn't a remark for or against the ship combat in general, just the spacing and weight of it. It kind of ruins the flow and takes us out of the story for a moment with the upgrading time at the table being the biggest pet peeve. Something I'm working on is a homebrew squadron arc that will go two or three levels where each player has their character sheet and a personal squadron ship. That way the can level it alone to their own preferences when we're not all together and the ship combat will mimic standard combat more.
We'll see. In the middle of searching the asteroid right now, next game is in a week.
2nd to 1st back conversion of future new material will be critical. It would save a schism from damaging a beautiful community and is the epitome of learning from other systems/companies mistakes.
Good news is, we can make this heard during the playtest!
Also I would love prices on buying alien animals as pets and costs for moding them. What happened to familiars in this setting?! My Technomancer would do great with their spell cache as a cyborg alien bat familiar!
In the next month my table is going to undergo a squadron test adventure. I'll report back with what rules we use and how it goes, but the discussion here has been very useful for brainstorming.
I'm glad that people are so receptive to these tidbits! It's one of the neat things we can work in when starting up a new campaign.
Absolutely! I'm one of those people who loves to theorize the different "perfect" paths for a single character to level through the scenarios. The cross story seeds and shoutouts really gives the campaign that cool larger story feel I'm sure you're going for.
Thurston Hillman wrote:
As for the spoiler... well, be sure to play this scenario when it gets released :)
Starfinder Society GM. 184 posts (4,263 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. 1 wishlist. 22 Organized Play characters. 17 aliases. 
