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The plasma caster is described (and illustrated) as a "compact pistol", but it has a bulk of 2 and requires 2 hands to wield.

Footnote on the Item's table on page 241 says "*You can use a toolkit with 1 hand if you’re wearing it or 2 if you’re holding it. See page 238 for details." But the infiltrator's toolkit, the maker's toolkit, and the repair toolkit all have a hands entry of "2", not "1 or 2".

Ah, got it, that makes sense.

Why do mystics have 1st-level feats, when they don't get any class feats until 2nd level?

Etheric, level one Borai feat, is another one.

Plated Deflection, 9th level vesk ancestry feat.

The question occurred to me after I read that feat, but I didn't go back to see if any others were written that way. Maybe that one is an outlier, an editorial mistake?

As a concrete example of what I'm talking about, take a look at the vesk ancestry feat Plated Deflection. It does exactly one thing, which is to grant the action "Plate Deflection".

If there a reason why it wasn't written so that the feat itself is the action, or if there would be any difference in how the feat would behave if it were, I can't see it.

This is more of a design question regarding Paizo's 2E system in general.

Many feats are written up in the following way:

SAMPLE FEAT (one action)

Prerequisites some other feat
Frequency once per day
Requirements some condition must be met

This feat allows you to do such and such.

Sometimes, however, a feat will be written up like this:

SAMPLE FEAT

This feat grants you the DO THE FEAT action.

DO THE FEAT (one action) Prerequisites some other feat; Frequency once per day; Requirements some condition must be met; Effect You do such and such.

Unless the feat grants some kind of persistent ability or bonus in addition to the action, there doesn't seem to be any reason for choosing the latter format over the former. In other words, if the feat literally does nothing other than grant a named action, then why isn't the feat itself the action?

Is there some subtle difference between the two that I'm missing? Just curious if anyone has some insight into why one format is chosen over the other for a given feat.

I dunno, that's what I did in OG Dark Souls after I found my first mimic. As long as they only start doing that after they run into one seems fine to me.

I might be wrong, but it sounds like the tactic is not, "I shoot the chest and if it flinches then it's a mimic," but rather, "I ask the GM if I am, by RAW, even allowed to target the chest at all, and if the answer is 'no', then I know that I'm not dealing with a mimic."

Which honestly seems to me ridiculously wrong-headed on the part of both parties.

The illustration for the pahtra ancestry is not a Medium humanoid. If it were the same or even close to the same height as an adult human, its head and hands would be grotesquely oversized. Is it supposed to represent a child?

A plain reading of the rules suggests that black hole and supernova are stellar revelations, and remain so when used with Attunement Rush Surge.

Meant "Surge", sorry.

The latter. Just your stellar revelations, rather than zenith ones.

I'm not sure I agree.

First, black hole and supernova are explicitly stellar revelations. From the text of the Stellar Revelations class ability (emphasis mine):

At 1st level, you automatically learn the black hole and supernova stellar revelations.

Both abilities "function as a zenith revelation for the purposes of abilities that reference them," — which Attunement Surge does not.

A plain reading of the rules suggests that black hole and supernova are stellar revelations, and remain so when used with Attunement Rush.

Second, it's not clear to me that the term "stellar revelations" necessarily excludes zenith revelations.

From the description of the Zenith Revelations class ability (emphasis mine):

At 9th level and again at 17th level, you gain two powerful stellar revelations. Choose two revelations from the zenith revelations list: one graviton revelation and one photon revelation. The list of zenith revelations begins on page 107.

Zenith revelations are powerful stellar revelations that require you to be fully attuned in a stellar mode. After using a zenith revelation, your stellar mode immediately becomes unattuned.

I've always interpreted this to mean that when one is talking about stellar revelations, one is also talking about zenith revelations, unless one adds specific language to exclude them. If there is any rules text that suggests that zenith and stellar are mutually exclusive categories, rather than the former being a subset of the latter, I'm not aware of it.

I'd like to see "Starship Feats" silo-ed in their own category (like "Class Feats" or "Ancestry Feats"), with all PCs getting a specific number of them at specific levels.

That way players don't have to worry about "wasting" a feat choice on a starship-specific feat if their game doesn't end up involving starship combat as much.

Hey, if the GM wants to do deus ex machina for plot reasons, they shouldn't let the rules or game balance stop them.

Who said the above scenario is a deus ex machina? Who says it doesn't have to require a special ability, die roll and/or resource expenditure? Who said gaining control over the garbage system is necessarily the solution to the problem, or even the desired outcome?

A game mechanic doesn't need to be realistic to be fun or interesting.

I think that the debate between "actual hacking" and "fictional hacking" is a very real thing here. Which should SF2 try to emulate?

The kind where a droid rolls up and jams a probe into an unlabeled socket and instantly gains control of every waste-disposal system on the station.

It seems very weird to recalculate the CR of a fight every time a combatant drops. That leads to all sorts of absurd outcomes, of which the Solarian's powers shutting down is not even the dumbest. Furthermore, as BNW pointed out, if you're going to recalculate CR every time an enemy drops, then you also should be recalculating APL every time a PC drops.

As long as the PCs are still rolling dice and spending resources and not taking 10-minute rests, then a CR 5 encounter remains a CR 5 encounter until the last space goblin drops.

Devices on ships that amplify spells to make them relevant in space combat.

Seconded. One of my big hopes for starship combat, in fact, is that they find more ways to make magic relevant to it.

109: A heavily redacted dossier detailing something called PROJECT: STRING. The nature of the project is unclear, but it centers around a person referred to as "Target B". There is a photo of Target B; it looks precisely like one of the PCs, down to the bar and wardrobe, except the person in the picture is wearing an sunglasses that the PC is sure they have never owned. The sunglasses are an ordinary, common style that the PC could purchase cheaply anywhere.

Attached to the dossier is the following annotation:

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT:

1. DO NOT attempt to kill, harm, or apprehend Target B.
2. DO NOT attempt to make contact with Target B.
3. DO NOT discuss PROJECT: STRING or Target B's role in PROJECT: STRING with Target B.
4. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ALLOW THE SUNGLASSES TO BE LOST OR COME TO HARM (this directive supersedes all others).

As long as we're tossing out personal anecdotes and pretending it's solid polling data, I've been running SF1 exclusively and frequently for years, and the move to PF2 compatibility is the best news I've heard since Starfinder was first announced.

I don't think you're missing anything -- looks like the fit isn't very accurate at either end. Full disclosure, I didn't really test it, I just let the computer take its best guess. It doesn't surprise me that there's not a clean fit, because as I said, the designers just put up some numbers in a roughly quadraticish-looking curve.

If it were a real quadratic equation you'd see the rate of increase in y going up in a nice, smooth, curve, but that's not what the BP/tier table is. Someone at Paizo said, "Let's start at 50 and go up by 20s until we hit tier 6, then go up by 30s, then 40s, then 50s, then for the really big, tier 15-20 ships let's just go up by 100." Then they went back and said, "Hmm, those tier 7-9 numbers look a bit too big, let's nudge those down a little," and then they called it a day. There's no way to capture that in a simple math equation because that's not math.

Well, I guess be aware that the equation is just an estimation, and gets less and less accurate as you plug in higher tiers, probably because the curve isn't really a proper parabola, it just sort of resembles one. I think by the time you get to tier 20 it's off by about 25 BP.

Another way to look at it is that the table starts at 55 BP and then goes up by 20 for the first six tiers, then up by 25 for a few tiers, then up by 40, then up by 50, and then there's a big jump where the last five tiers go up by 100 each. It's not consistent, and it obviously was designed by feel rather than by any mathematical progression.

If you were going to extrapolate past tier 20 you could probably do worse than having the next few tiers go up by 150 each, or maybe 200. I think if you dig down you're going to discover that lots of the numbers are, in fact, quite arbitrary, and imposing a system onto it means you're going to have to make some arbitrary decisions of your own.

Anyone know how Tier and BP relate to each other, mathematically speaking? And no, I don't mean "How many BP do I get at each Tier?" I can read tables.

Not sure exactly what you mean by this, since the mathematical relationship between tier and BP is, literally, a table.

My graphing calculator estimates the curve to be BP = (2.77256 * tier^2) – (11.8741 * tier) + 103.066, but I don't know how helpful that is.

So basically, an uplifted tardigrade spy XD

Map its genome and I'd argue you don't even have to uplift it.

27. Biological Tracking Device

A very small, very simple living organism -- a dust mite or a tiny slime mold, for example -- placed inside a tiny, easily concealable stasis capsule. Plant the capsule on a person, object, or vehicle, then use the organism inside as the target for a know coordinates spell.

I have a group that is preparing for a classic heist where they will be stealing a macguffin, and they have (reasonable) concerns that the macguffin might have a tracking device hidden on it. We're looking for equipment that might give a bonus to scanning for and/ or blocking the effects of the bug.

For blocking, it seems like a signal jammer would do the trick, although it would block all other comms as well. Maybe a null-space chamber would work, though I'm less certain about that. Can comm signals go in or out of an NS chamber? Does an object in a NS chamber count as being on a different plane?

For scanning, I'm not aware of any gear or spells that specifically help you sweep for bugs. Starfinder has a lot of gear, though. Am I missing something?

Finally finished this! You can check out complete descriptions and interpretations of all 54 cards, plus artwork as interpreted by Midjourney, here.

Feel free to use, repurpose, steal, whatever.

A quick rundown of the cards:

Hammers

The first 9 had no volume or mass either until the tenth one went in.

Looking at 235 of the CRB, the schematics would be to avoid having to do the appropriate crafting checks to make the items.

There is no skill check. You need skill ranks in the appropriate skill, sufficient UPBs, a workshop and tools, and sufficient time, and that's it -- there's no dice roll involved.

A player character can create all the items presented in this chapter as long as he has the skills, materials, tools, and time needed to construct it. He must have a number of ranks in the appropriate skill equal to the item level of the item to be created. For weapons, armor, vehicles, and technological equipment, the appropriate skill is Engineering. For magic fusions and magic items, the appropriate skill is Mysticism. For hybrid items, you must have the required ranks in both Engineering and Mysticism. For drugs, medicinals, and poisons, the skill can be either Life Science or Physical Science. For any food or drink, the appropriate skill is Life Science. For computers, you can use either Computers or Engineering, and you can construct a computer with a tier equal to half your ranks in the skill. For items that are not considered any of these categories (such as most clothes, tents, and so on) either Engineering or Mysticism can be used. At a GM’s discretion, an appropriate Profession skill can be used for a narrower range of items. For example, a character with Profession (weaponsmith) might be able to make technological, hybrid, and magic weapons and weapon fusions, but no other items.

Crafting items requires you to have access to tools and a workshop or similar space. Most starships have an appropriate area set aside, and such space can be rented at the same price as lodgings in major cities (with the size of the lodging being equivalent to the size of the workshop, which limits the size of items that can be constructed and how many people can work on a single item at one time). Creating an item normally has a base time of 4 hours. If your number of ranks in the appropriate skill to craft an item exceeds that item’s level by 5 or more, you can craft that item in half the base time. If your ranks exceed the item level by 10 or more, you can create the item in one-quarter the base time. Objects larger than a Medium creature take twice as long to craft for each size category larger.

To create an item, you must have UPBs with a total value equal to the price of the item to be created. At the GM’s discretion, you can scavenge similar items for parts, allowing 10% of the scavenged item’s value to count toward the UPBs needed. Even magic and hybrid items are created using UPBs, as the Mysticism skill is used to form the materials into runes and specific implements for rituals utilized in the creation of magic devices.

Not super clear on why you need that house rule for schematics. RAW already allows you to craft any gear up to [skill ranks] in level using UPBs equivalent to its purchase price, without requiring the additional purchase of a schematic.

Maybe purchasing a schematic could allow you to craft items above the normal level limit?

I'm starting a new campaign with 7(!) PCs, and I'm a little worried about designing properly tuned encounters for them.

The rules tell me to start with APL, and add +1 if there are more than 4 PCs. They're all starting at 1st level, so APL = 1 + 1 = 2. Then let's say I want it to be a "challenging" encounter, so I add another +1 to that, for a total encounter CR of 3. This gives me a total XP budget of 800 -- or two CR 1 creatures.

I cannot help but worry that 7 level 1 PCs are going to absolutely demolish two CR 1 creatures.

Am I wrong about that? I mean we're talking about a mechanic, a soldier, an operative, an envoy, a solarian, a nanocyte, and a witchwarper against... a pair of trained squox. The squox will be lucky if they last 2 rounds.

Any advice? Should I bump up the APL by one more? Or should I just relax and trust the math?

* My players are not really min-maxers, and neither am I (none of us has the head or the patience for it).

** Please don't say "split the party up". I could offer each player $100 in real money to split up and they still wouldn't do it.

Or are you suggesting you can't patch a Malfunctioning system twice in a row? If so, I'm not sure I understand this. Are you saying a single Engineer can't spread Patching a Malfunctioning system over two rounds (because that's the only way I can see how a single Engineer can do this). Or are you saying something else is stopping an Engineer spending consecutive rounds Patching the same system.

I'm suggesting that the patch action can only ever improve a given system one level higher than its "actual" status.

For example, you have malfunctioning engines, giving the Pilot -4 on all rolls. You patch them (using as many actions over as many rounds as that takes), so now they are treated as glitching for the purposes of determining action penalties. Pilot action penalties are now -2, but the engines are still malfunctioning. This means, if you patch them again, they would just be treated as though they are glitching, and since they are already being treated as glitching, there would be no effect.

In other words, you can't use patch make a malfunctioning engine go away entirely, the best you can do is improve it to glitching for the duration of the battle.

Also to clarify, this is how I think I would rule if it came up in my game (it hasn't ever, yet), but I think there are a number of valid ways to interpret it, depending on how tough you want to be on your players. (I don't do society play, so I have no thoughts on how they do it over there. )

That all seems to make sense except for maybe a slight quibble with point (vi)? I would rule that you can't patch a Malfunctioning system twice in a row to remove the penalties entirely. Per point (i), after you patch the Malfunctioning system the first time, it's treated as though it were Glitching, but it's still actually a Malfunctioning system. Therefore the second patch is not being applied to a Glitching system but to a Malfunctioning one.

That said, it kind of hinges on how you choose to parse the phrase "treated as". Although I'd personally rule it as I described, your interpretation is probably equally legit.

The Star Knight (Strength, LG) - A soldier in ceremonial uniform kneels in front of an altar, lifting a laser rifle up over his bowed head. The stained glass window consists of hundreds of monitor screens, filling the cathedral with golden light. The Star Knight gains strength through devotion to a righteous cause; he is ready to sacrifice himself if necessary, and it is his selflessness that ensures his victory. Misaligned, the card is a warning against hubris, blind devotion to an unworthy cause.

The Panopticon (Constitution, LE) - A technician sits at a bank of monitor screens; every screen depicts another technician and more screens. Behind the technician, dozens of camera drives hover silently, watching. The Panopticon denotes constant watchfulness, safety through universal distrust. Seek out betrayal and you will always find it. Misaligned, it is usually interpreted as a confirmation: someone will betray you, but you will not see it coming.

The Syzygy (Intelligence, LN) - A series of three planets in perfect alignment. In the background, behind the stars, are the faint outlines of the clockwork and gears that brought them to this position. The universe is built upon logical processes, and those processes can be understood. A complex plan may come to fruition if it is enacted with deliberation and precision. Misaligned, this card page a breakdown in the proper order of things, whether through unforeseen circumstance or sabotage.

The Dreadnought (Strength, LN) - A powerful and majestic warship looms against a field of stars, the triple beams of its broadside plasma cannons suggesting a doshko's fangs. The dreadnought projects might justified by right, a line that shall not be crossed, the appropriate use of necessary force. Misaligned, the card represents disproportionate response, ends corrupted by unjust means.

The Hulk (Strength, NE) - The broken shell of a derelict starship—possibly the same one that flew so strong and proud in its sister card, The Dreadnought—floats aimlessly through space. Only darkness is visible through the rents in its hull. The Hulk is the futility of all strength, the decay that saps purpose and will. Misaligned, it may hint at hidden reserves, an unexpected resurgence of hope.

The Navigator (Dexterity, N) - A scout ship charts a course through the shifting pastels of the Drift. On one side celestials beckon from a floating fragment of heaven, while on the other side fiends caper and leer atop a jagged shard of Hell. The pilot has not yet committed to one direction or the other, for it is the journey that matters, and the ability to maintain one's bearings in a sea of constantly changing options.

The Comet (Dexterity, CN) - A comanide sits astride its ball of ice as it hurtles through space, leaving a trail of vapor and particles behind it. The comet appears but rarely, but its appearance always presages great change, prepared for but never truly predicted. When misaligned, the Comet is a harbinger of catastrophic and woe.

The AI (Intelligence, N) - A human-like face peers down from a gigantic monitor screen at the robed programmers who busily attend to its many consoles and readouts. It is the sum of all knowledge, perfect calculative comprehension unclouded by moral qualm. The future is knowable, provided you have sufficient information.

The Scavenger (Dexterity, CG) – A space goblin sits atop a pile of junk. Spread before him is a selection of items cobbled together from unlikely combinations of technological scraps, magical crystals, twigs, and string: a laser pistol, a datapad, a serum, a forcefield module. From each device, a different-colored wire coils upward, connecting to a golden key that he holds triumphantly in his little green fist. The card represents cleverness and ingenuity, the ability to manufacture opportunity from the circumstances one is dealt, no matter how desperate. A worthless thing may turn out to be a treasure. Misaligned, this card warns that plans fall apart, chaos infects every orderly system, and the best intentions turn to dross.

The Oracle (Constitution, N) – A vast tree towering over a landscape teeming with alien life; its roots intertwine and connect with countless organisms as its branches reach up to embrace the stars. The natural world is all-encompassing, and its imperative to evolve is absolute. Circumstances will change for good or for ill, and to survive we must adapt with them. Diversity through adaptation is what makes us robust and enduring; to eliminate change is to strangle life in its crib.

The Hacker (Intelligence, CN) – An ysoki crouches inside a cramped access tunnel, surrounded by exposed circuitry and wires. One wire dangles down to connect with a datajack in the ysoki's head. Her eyes are blank white static; she cannot see that over her shoulder, a glitch gremlin is busy severing the connecting wire with its teeth. It promises rewards for lateral thinking, approaching a problem from an unexpected angle, disrupting common assumptions, and subverting known systems. But one must be cautious, for subversion is a system that can itself be subverted. When this card is misaligned it indicates a hidden flaw, a weakness that can be turned against itself, or betrayal by a trusted ally.

The Lighthouse (Wisdom, LN) – A blue-white pulsar, its glowing emission plumes shining out in opposite directions. A beacon of safety in times of trouble or darkness; illumination of an occluded mystery; a clear course of action revealing itself and dispelling confusion and doubt. Misaligned, it can represent false hope, a deceptive signal leading one astray.

Equilibrium (Wisdom, N) – A kasathan warrior monk stands atop a windswept sand dune beneath a night sky. In his upper left hand he holds a blazing star; in his upper right he holds a swirling black hole. His lower two hands clasp the hilt of a glowing energy blade. Equilibrium is the recognition that light and darkness, the push of energy and the pull of entropy, both have their place in the grand scheme of the cosmos. The goal is not to champion one over the other but to find the middle path that integrates both.

So, this was always too cool an idea to let die.

The Empire (Strength, Lawful Evil) – A throne surmounted by a peacock's plumes, flanked by warships advancing in formation. Rule by conquest, the pitiless imposition of law upon those too weak to govern themselves, slavery for the slave's own good. Misaligned, it represents freedom from tyranny, the overthrow of oppressive order.

The Shepherd (Wisdom, Neutral Good) – An oma benevolently watching over glaiads at play amongst the myriad tumbling particles of a gas giant's rings. Maternal nurturing; benevolent protection; an assurance that all is for the good and in its right place. Troubles will pass or work themselves out. Misaligned, can indicate a yearning for an idealized past that cannot longer be recovered, or imminent troubles threatening to disrupt a time of comfort.

The Void (Charisma, Neutral Evil) – A blank, utterly black card. The utter abnegation of awareness, identity, and self. The unknowable forever sealed behind the unperceivable. With no ornamentation or distinguishing marks of any kind, it is impossible to know whether this card is misaligned or not.

I'm thinking of homebrewing an item that would allow a spellcaster to affect intelligent undead with mind-affecting spells.

What would be an appropriate level/cost for an item like that? Should it be limited to a certain number of uses/day? Are there any items of roughly equivalent power that I could use as a guideline? Just looking for ideas to start with.

I'm thinking of homebrewing an item that would allow a spellcaster to affect intelligent undead with mind-affecting spells.

What would be an appropriate level/cost for an item like that? Should it be limited to a certain number of uses/day? Are there any items of roughly equivalent power that I could use as a guideline? Just looking for ideas to start with.

How do people adjudicate the difference between drawing/sheathing a weapon vs. retrieving or putting away a stored item (which is coverd by the Manipulating an Item action)?

Drawing a weapon so that you can use it in combat or putting it away so that you have a free hand requires a move action. This action includes activating or deactivating the weapon. This also applies to weapon-like objects that are easily accessible, such as remote controls and most tools or sensors you can carry and use with one hand. If your weapon or weapon-like object is stored in a pack or otherwise out of easy reach, you must instead retrieve it as a stored item before you can use it (see Manipulate an Item).

Exception: If you have a base attack bonus of +1 or higher, you can combine drawing or sheathing a weapon or weapon-like object with moving up to your speed as a single move action.

Moving or manipulating an item is usually a move action. This includes retrieving or putting away a stored item, picking up an item, moving a heavy object, and opening a door.

These descriptions imply that any item that you could conceivably have in a pocket or clipped to your belt can be "drawn or sheathed" like a weapon, while it's pretty clear that anything in a backpack requires the Manipulate an Item action. However, both are move actions, so it seems like a distinction without much difference (although weapons may be drawn as part of a different move action, per the exception).

Would you, for example, require an additional move action to unsling or unzip the pack before retrieving a stowed item? Or do you just treat it like drawing a weapon (with the exception that you can do the latter while moving)?

Just interested in how different people handle it.

Okay. Part 1 of the question was, are there any class abilities/spells/gear etc. that would grant that ability?

Basically something like the poison conversion alchemist's discovery from PF1, that lets you change a poison's type (ingested, inhaled, injury, etc.)

Is there a specific rule or ability that allows someone to use an inhaled or ingested poison or drug with an injection weapon? Or do most people just handwave it?

For that matter, how much Bulk is a Medium creature? How much is a Small creature?

How much bulk can a mule drone carry?

The quantum troll's 'Spooky Action' ability reads:

A quantum troll exists in several possible quantum states at once. It threatens squares within 30 feet of it.

Is this intended to imply that the quantum troll can make an attack of opportunity anywhere within that threatened zone, despite its 10' reach? It doesn't say so explicitly, but otherwise I have a hard time understanding the benefit of threatening squares outside your reach if you don't have a ranged attack,

Does a venom spur count as a weapon with the injection property, for the purposes of a biohacker's injection expert class feature?

EDIT: For that matter, is it an unarmed strike? A basic melee weapon? Does it benefit from Weapon Specialization?

But all of that is assuming that the Chimera Mystery doesn't have the actual 'Unobtrusive' Envoy expertise talent printed it in.

It doesn't.

The Chimera Mystery AP makes reference to an "unobrusive envoy talent" in the entry for the unobtrusive chassis drone mod:

Your drone looks like a mundane domestic drone of the same size. With 10 minutes of work, you can alter cosmetic aspects of your drone's appearance to make it look like other domestic drones in a local building or area. Your drone gains the unobtrusive envoy expertise talent but uses your total Engineering skill modifier to determine the DC to notice it.

Any idea what this was supposed to refer to or how it's supposed to work?

A 5-mile-diameter dome contains around 4.8 trillion cubic feet, not 172,000.

If there are 2 million people in Absalom station, then each of them would have roughly 2.5 million cubic feet to stretch out in. I think they're fine.

Most of the complaints about the Barricade feat are coming from people who have not read the rules closely enough.

As a move action, you can stack and reinforce objects that are too small or too fragile to provide cover into a single square of adjacent cover.

Anyone can spend a standard action to kick over a wooden table with 5 hardness and 15 hp and take cover behind it. You don't even need a skill roll. The presence of the Barricade feat does not prevent you from doing this.

Someone who has the Barricade feat can spend a move action to create cover that is just as sturdy out of a roll of aluminum foil, or a pile of foam beer cozies, or a couple of discarded plastic cafeteria trays, or literally any old crap that happens to be lying around.

I don't understand why people keep claiming that the latter is "something anyone could do before they made a rule defining it."

No, because what you're seeing is not a fault, nor an accident, nor a glitch. It's purposeful and intentional to prevent art theft.

Is that really what's going on? Because every other image in the PDF extracts just fine.