Mechalibur's page

The PF2 crit rule is definitely in, as it is part of the core math. As for AC concerns, it really depends on what enemies you are fighting. But especially against enemies that aren't higher than your level, critting on an 18 is common even without any bonuses. If you apply some teamwork, getting it on a 15 or 16 is just as common. It's mostly just strong single enemies that play the "20 or bust" game when you don't apply penalties to them.

I never had problems with players critting against same levelled enemies, but in Age of Ashes there were so many encounters against APL +2 or +3 enemies that were exceedingly difficult for any of the PCs to hit.

I did hear AoA was overtuned, though, and encounter design got more reasonable later in development, so hopefully that holds true for SF2.

Not a huge fan of 2E overall, but there is one area where I think it can really improve the Starfinder experience.

Critical hit effects! There were so many cool crit effects in Starfinder 1, but they barely ever came up because you only got a crit on a 20. Assuming we're still using the crit = hit+10 rule, we should be able to see cool effects like lightning arcs and corrosion more frequently. I just hope AC doesn't end up super high on average for enemies.

Not really a specific mechanic, but SF1 seemed to have a higher "expected accuracy" for both players and enemies. Generally when fighting level-appropriate enemies, you could expect to hit a lot more than miss. It also helped when summoning monsters - even though their overall stats weren't great, since attack was higher than AC, they could still hit enemies a reasonable amount of time despite being lower level.

After having played Age of Ashes from 1-20 in PF2, one point of annoyance for the players was just how hard it was for them to hit enemies that were 2 or so levels higher (and the adventure had quite a few encounters like that). Even with the highest possible value in their stat and a levelled weapon, it wasn't uncommon for players to see 50% or worse odds to hit on their highest attack bonus, with secondary attacks being even lower.

I know the crit rules in PF2 make it dangerous for accuracy to be too high, but I really don't want enemy defenses to get too out of control.

I also really liked the huge variety in weapons, with lasers, disintegration beams, sonic guns, flamethrowers, etc. Definitely hope we get some cool variety there and fun rules for power armor.

This new edition of Starfinder is being designed to be fully compatible with the upcoming release of the Pathfinder Remastered rulebooks and all future Pathfinder Second Edition products. This means that all your Pathfinder content going forward will be compatible with the new edition of Starfinder, and that all Starfinder Second Edition content will work in Pathfinder—with your GM’s permission, of course!

Out of curiosity... is this a big draw for a lot of people? I've never really the desire to combine the 2 settings since I think both are pretty complete as-is. This is potentially a negative for me as I'd rather not have Starfinder feel beholden to specific Pathfinder 2E rules in order to remain cross-compatible.

Though it goes both ways with the way it's worded, and a GM can use that to ignore it if they want, I still see it as permission to remove players' core abilities. "At GM's discretion" can (and likely will) be abused by a terrible GM. They can point to that rule and say they can turn off your powers because the fight isn't worth you using them.

A terrible GM will make any system bad. The solution is not to play with them.

Hm...I wouldn't mind ditching the "metal armor druids" stuff, especially since there's art of an example druid multiclass character literally drawn wearing metal armor. It feels like another shibboleth, like the wizards' old proficiencies, so it may be a good candidate if it doesn't mess up druids' balance.

So does druids having their own language. It doesn't really matter from a gameplay balance perspective, but I've always found the druidic language completely out of nowhere and bizarre from an RP perspective (where do they learn this language from? Why is teaching it as bad as defacing nature? Where is this language actually used?)

Anyway! For wizards I'd like to see a 3rd set of advanced school focus spells. Stopping at only 2 seems a bit strange to me.

Sounds promising for Witchwarper. Was anything mentioned about solarians/technomancers?

It restores functionality, but it is no more durable than and doesn’t otherwise function differently than a normal limb for your species.

I don't see why they wouldn't be able to feel.

I'd like to see Two Weapon Fighting be a bit better. I think right now all you get is a feat that gives you +1 to hit if you attack with both weapons in a full attack. And of course, it lets you make a choice between two weapons if one would be better in a given situation, but I think I'd rather just have a weapon that's conventionally stronger.

One advantage of small arms should be that you have a free hand, but in practice that doesn't really amount to much since very few classes even get shield proficiency. Casters can use a free hand to get support from gimmicks (from Galactic Magic), but eventually with integrated weapons and cybernetic arms, that advantage of a free hand becomes less and less relevant.

My big wish for Witchwarper is that their infinite worlds (or equivalent) gets decoupled from spell slots along with the few Paradigm Shifts that use spell slots. It's a really cool ability, but some of the effects feel pretty minor compared to what that spell slot could do. Instead it could have a dedicated number of uses per day, with the power scaling up as you level.

I'm glad Solarians are included in the classes getting reworked - I don't think they're weak per se, but they have a few things I find annoying when it comes to building a character. Charisma as their key ability score, for example, bothers me a bit since several builds don't really rely on it. My guess was the intent was to stop people from completely dumping charisma (which you totally could if you don't go for DC-based revelations) by hurting their resolve if they do. I'd rather see built-in benefits for charisma, though, or maybe letting you pick Strength/Dexterity as your key ability score if desired.

Another issue I have is that you don't have any control over your starting zenith revelations, especially since Black Hole sucks (pun not intended). Spending a standard action to have a chance to pull people near you just doesn't seem like a good use of your time or worth unattuning for. Supernova is fine, at least, but it would still be nice to have some options.

This leads in to my last major issue: there isn't much reason to switch between your two different modes. Something like allowing you to attune to the opposite mode you were in after using a zenith revelation could make for a more dynamic playstyle. As is, I think most solarians stick to their favorite mode (usually positron since it's generally more damage), and the Broken Cycle alternate class feature just encouraged that playstyle even further.

I've looked into the 2e character gen and one thing really stood out to me. Why is a species which naturally has wings, it's a big part of their culture/race life style only able to actively fly at level 13?

It's for game balance, to the game's detriment, in my experience. I like when games push boundaries instead of always playing it safe. I always prefer thinking "I want all of these, it's so hard to pick!" than "All of these are so marginal, it's so hard to pick."

But I think there's an even simpler reason Ancestry feats won't work well in Starfinder. Starfinder has a huge number of cool and weird playable aliens, and ancestry feats require around 10 or so options per ancestry in order for there to be any real decisions. Making that many for every playable Starfinder race would be insane and would also restrict how frequently new playable races/ancestries could be produced.

Solarian also could really use more skill points per level. As MAD as they are, there is little room to improve their Int. More skill ranks per level would allow them to be more useful out of combat.

Also, just how many people do an Armor Solarian as anything other than a dip?

<Cricket chirps>

Weapon Solarians have always done good damage in combat. Just not much outside of combat.

I do hope they get rid of the idea that the Sidereal Influence ends as soon as you go into combat. No other class has they insight bonus go away like that.

My biggest issue with Solarion wasn't necessarily related to balance, but the fact that you were never really incentivized to switch between graviton and photon mode. You got punished if you took too many powers from one mode and not the other, but there was no carrot to go with the stick. In practice, I think a lot of people still ended up mostly sticking to a single form, and only taking powers from the other form because they had to (and mostly taking ones that were decent even if you're in the opposite form).

Unrelated to Solarion, I hope this offers an alternative to archetypes. Some classes had to give up way more than others to pursue an archetype, making a lot of them impractical.

I'm sure this has been answered 100 times by now, but I'm having trouble finding it: How many spells per day do the Magus/Summoner get in the final version? Is it the same as the playtest?

Oh, that's too bad. I understand if it goes against the design guidelines, but I've personally found those a bit restrictive when it comes to casters that want to invest in weapon skills.

So happy to see capstone feats in an AP again! I think this is the first one with the APG classes, too. It's great how most of theme have a common theme of manipulating space. Sever Space is probably my favorite: a fighter can use it to attack an enemy with a slashing weapon up to 80 feet away and teleport right to them (or try to force them to teleport to the fighter).

The Sixth Pillar archetype is pretty interesting. One of the feats (requires level 16) increases a character's unarmed proficiency to master if they also have master proficiency in spell attacks (or vice versa). As far as I'm aware, this is the only way a full caster can reach master proficiency in any type of non-spell attack. Doesn't seem to be limited to any particular tradition, either, so it could be interesting for a Warpriest of Irori or something.

Maybe a bit weird, but I'd kind of like to see a big book of class feats with no interconnected theme.

Not gonna happen, obviously, but I can dream.

There might be feats or items that support attack spells without them being specifically tied to magus. At least, I hope there are, since attack spells tend to be fairly lackluster as a result of not having a miss effect.

I get the feeling geomancy won't be its own spell list (although it may have focus spells, I suppose).

If I had to guess solely by the art, I'd say something along the lines of tactician/warlord?

I noticed you said implosion deals 750 damage, when it's actually 75 :P

By my estimation, it's actually a pretty mediocre spell. You have to sustain it to affect more than 1 target, and 75 damage to a single target at a time (with no repeats) doesn't compare favorably to the other level 9 damage options. Power Word Kill for example is 50 damage (no save) for only 1 action. Meteor Swarm is an average of 82 damage to multiple targets and Weird is 56 to multiple targets but also inflicts frightened.

AnimatedPaper wrote:

CorvusMask wrote:

So I'm curious about the harrow and tales on failed starstone attempts, are there any curious interesting funny lore bits there? :O

Some of the failed entries made me chuckle.

The harrow was interesting, as it describes some cards that aren't part of the standard deck.

Were all of them funny or were some of them also mysterious or ominous? :O

The failed entries are a lot shorter than the entries for living aspirants. One I found weird was the failed god of Sacrifice crossed the chasm after his brother sacrificed himself to make a portal. Kinda sucks for him.

Two of the failed gods utterly failed to cross the chasm and fell to their deaths. On the same day.

As for mysterious, one of the failed god's dead body showed up in one of his temples three days after entering the Starstone Cathedral, only to vanish afterward.

Mechalibur wrote:

I'd like to see some kind of synergy with touch spells. Magus' poor spell accuracy combined with touch spells having no effect on a miss make them quite unappealing. As is, all they get is the ability to ignore MAP (which I've always found a bit silly that touch spells even have to be subjected to).

I'd also accept a magic item that gives an item bonus to touch spells, or a rune that allows a weapon's item bonus to apply to touch spells.

Most touch spells don't have an attack roll. Shocking Grasp might be the only one. Most touch spells are just basic saving throws.

Force of habit. I meant spell attack roll spells.

I'd like to see some kind of synergy with touch spells. Magus' poor spell accuracy combined with touch spells having no effect on a miss make them quite unappealing. As is, all they get is the ability to ignore MAP (which I've always found a bit silly that touch spells even have to be subjected to).

I'd also accept a magic item that gives an item bonus to touch spells, or a rune that allows a weapon's item bonus to apply to touch spells.

In one of the novels, didn't a summoner hide their sigil by wearing a helmet? Seems like a retcon if it's now always supposed to be visible.

I like this feat. Some similar feats (like mirror shield) require a critical save or critically failed attack roll which severely limits their usability. This one seems quite a bit more useful.

Would standing next to a lasting AoE spell like, say, Wall of Fire or Flaming Sphere allow you to do it every turn ?

Could you trigger it on a friendly caster's spell?

It only works on targeted spells, so that would not work.

Really? I always thought the wizard version was pretty bad, considering its once per day limitation. I know it can get you a really strong turn, but I was never sure it was worth an entire feat.

As others have said, this version allows higher level spells but is limited to spellstrike. Seems fair to me.

Sure, there are other benefits, I just think if the issues with touch spells continue, most magi will elect to use save spells since there's usually a partial effect on a save.

Well, the biggest loss compared to Eldritch Archer is that the EA uses the same attack roll - which includes the item bonuses from their weapon.

Unless Secrets of Magic finally introduces an item that can boost spell attack rolls, it's going to be incredibly difficult to land any touch attacks, especially since they tend to have no effect on a miss instead of a partial effect.

Interestingly enough, the Agents of Edgewatch AP so far seems to be quite the opposite. I noticed there would be quite a few opportunities for the less law-abiding PCs to make extra money through theft or other illicit means, and the book doesn't even acknowledge the possibility. It's for good reason, anyway, since if they got caught, they'd get fired, and the rest of the AP would probably be over.

I got to say, the new Heavenseeker archetype is really amazing (especially compared to the Edgewatch Detective which I found quite bland). One thing I found interesting is that it has a level 20 feat as an option - More archetypes should do that!

I just hope the pdf is $15.

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meaning my lower level slots turn into what feels like mostly dead space or last choice options.

This is one I have to disagree with. DCs scaling automatically has made low level slots vastly more usable than in PF1, where they were pretty much just fodder for whatever random quality of life spell you felt like by midgame.

That's a good point. My one issue, however, is that low level blast spells end up inferior to damage cantrips, meaning all your low level slots need to be buffs or debuffs.

1e was kind of similar due to poor DC scaling (pretty much only utility spells were prepared in low level slots), but it feels weird that cantrips do more damage than 1-3 level spells at high levels.

Another question. The Tarrasque's ranged spine attack as the "Brutal" trait. As far as I'm aware that's not defined anywhere. Was that supposed to be forceful or deadly or something else?

Probably an oversight then. I'd just drop the regeneration.

Question about the level 20 sorcerer feat Bloodline Metamorphosis: Are you allowed to pick a spell outside of your tradition?

I like a lot of the class feats, although some are more interesting than others (the champion one for example is pretty bland).

The monk feat in particular gives 20 unconditional fast healing (which isn't even its only benefit). Pretty awesome :)

Here's the text for what a Witchwarper loses at 4th level if it has an applicable archetype:

"You don't gain another daily use of the Infinite Worlds class feature, nor do you gain its additional 4th level effect."

What does this mean? Infinite Worlds doesn't seem to be a per-day feature, as far as I can tell you can use it as long as you have spell slots remaining. Also, what does it mean by "additional 4th level effect?"

But yeah, seriously, are there others worried that this book sets up lot of precedence that could result in major power creep later on?

A little bit, but I dunno, I feel like some of the classes (like Envoy or Solarion) can use the power creep.

Out of interest can anyone with the book find the Level 6 reality warper spell 'Subjective Reality' it is in the short decriptions and sounds interesting but I cannot find the full description of the spell ?

It's a core spell, so I imagine they didn't reprint it.

Subjective Reality

Is anyone else having trouble understanding the whole Chiselrock conspiracy? I'm reading the book intermittently so I could be missing something. But it is mentioned that there is damning evidence about him in his prison warehouse. I don't know what that evidence is, or what exactly he was doing to undermine the town. I know he was weakening one of the walls, but it feels like there is more I'm missing.

But with the Hidden Forge clues not being specifically defined, it occurs to me that the whole conspiracy might have been left vague.

Isn't he selling citizens of the town as slaves to the Scarlet Triad?

I do wish the clues were more defined though. Get X clues to find the prison without explaining what the clues are or how you got them is kind of annoying as a GM.

Rules as written, you would just make a single Escape check against the Thievery DC.

It does make a thievery check to remove manacles a bit impractical in combat compared to the other options.

Any cool new gravonic revelations, or solarion feats/items that encourage switching between stellar modes?

Also, Uri has a reaction that lets him make an unarmed attack, but he doesn't have one statted up. I'm guessing it should be +34 to hit, 1d4+17 damage or something?

So the wasp trapped in amber... does it do anything besides be a key? It doesn't seem to have any stats. I'm just checking since every other key seems to be magic item on top of its key functionality.

Aw man :( Thanks for the info.

Extra Manifestation! FINALLY!

Also, two words: sun gun

Any other "extra" feats?

I wasn't aware, sorry.

Perhaps they meant to post in the discussion for Book 5, those are being shipped nowabouts.

Aren't special shields' hardness and HP getting looked at in the errata coming out soon?

You're correct, no one will have more than 16 con at level 1.

Allowing barbarians to have +2 con instead of str wouldn't break the game, but it would result in a less powerful character overall. Maxing out your "to hit" attribute is pretty important in this edition.