Midboss57's page

I still need to figure out how to do Dark Templar (and they're not just variant Zealots).

To me, the obvious choice for Dark Templars would be the Solarian class focused on graviton abilities, in particular the stealth and ninja movement focused ones. In contrast, zeolots would be solarians focused on positron abilities.

A good plot point could be a protoss that chooses to combines both teachings of the Kalaih and Dark Templar to banlance out both positron and gravitron abilities and come out stronger for it, Artanis style.

How about the brave crew of the Normandy, the vessel that rescued Absalom Station from an assault by the dreaded Aboleth and their Anacite followers ?

Commander Shepard: Human, Xenoseeker, [insert class of choice here] Augmented Archetype post resurrection
Sgt Ashley Williams: Human Mercenary Soldier
Lt Kaidan Alenko: Human Mercenary Technomage
Garrus Valkarian: Ryphorian Bounty Hunter Soldier (Sharpshooter)
Liara T'Soni: Damaya Lashunta Scholar Mystic/Operative
Tali Zorah: Damai Spacefarer Mechanic (Drone) Go for the eyes Chikita !
Urdnot Wrex: Vesk Mercenary Vanguard

Miranda Lawson: Azlanti Corporate Technomage
Jacob Taylor: Human Mercenary Solarian
Jack: Human Outlaw Mystic (Mindwrecker)
Grunt: Vesk Mercenary Soldier (Blitz)
Kasumi Goto: Human Outlaw Operative (Thief)
Mordin Solus: Shirren Scholar Biohacker
Zaeed Massani: Human Mercenary Soldier
Samara: Lashunta Bounty Hunter Soldier/Star Knight
Thane Krios: Kalo Bounty Hunter Operative (Ghost)
Legion: SRO Operative (Hacker)

James Vega: Uplifted Bear Mercenary Soldier

A good candidate for making a Starfinder Game could be Harebrained Schemes. They did a brilliant job after-all with Shadowrun Dragonfall and Hong Kong. (which does have proper turn by turn combat in cyberpunk, which is the next best thing from Sci Fi)

The only downside I worry about in a turn by turn game would be how to implement the Solarian's very... mobile combat style. The only games I can think that ever properly replicated the Solarian's mobility were Titanfall and Bayonetta.

But as long as it has a good plot, interesting NPCs and actual balanced difficulty that doesn't require this Baldur's Gate, Dark Souls and Xcom veteran to turn the difficulty down to the lowest setting in order to be able to finish the game, I'll be happy.
Oh, and a tutorial that actually explains the full mechanics would be good.

I'd love to see more weapons with multiple modes of fire.

Take the under barrel weapons. Grenade launchers are a good start, but lets be creative. I want my scaterguns (Starship Trooper style), my Flame Throwers (Valkyria Chronicles style), my foe grabbing grappling hooks (Doom Eternal or Roadhog style). Heck, if we want to go the whole way, I want my all in one gun like in the Fith Element.

Or even special ammunition. Incendiary rounds, emp rounds, explode before hitting target rounds, High Penetration rounds, White Phosphorous... sort of like the Deathwatch weaponry.

Or really, anything which would qualify as Alt-Fire in games like Doom or Wolfenstein.

Glad to see Zero Hour Contracts are alive and well post Gap.

Under the same reasoning, building these ships is all well and good but you're gonna need the crew to man that fleet....
Correction, the problem is getting LOYAL crews.

Yup... and I'm suddenly having an idea for a campaign... be right back.

If we're going under the route of the Pathfinder Iconics becoming legendary figure like King Arthur, Lu Bu, Robin Hood... are to us, then it opens some possibilities...

As he lay on the ground, he looked at his savior: a garundi woman with her braided hair tied back, she was clad elaborate plate armor, the sort worn by knights in Pre-Gap Golarion, along a red cape. After a brief moment of staring into his eyes, she spoke:
"I ask of you: Are you my Master ?"

In the Space Station of Absalom, there is a war between seven mages and their Servants, summoned heroes from Pre Gap legends each selected from different classes. The winner of this Battle Royale gets the ultimate prize: a wish from the Starstone itself.

Join our heroes and villains in the story of the Starstone War: Fortune: Stay Night.

Another question about drift beacons: two ships traveling to the same beacon will not exit at the same time/place. Does anyone know how far the maximum distance from the beacon can be ?

I'm asking because of the following scenario. Due to a high tensions within a system scenario, planet X has decreed that any non authorized ship traveling within 100 000 km of the world's current position is to be given 1 warning to turn away, then shot if they do not immediately comply. (essentially, they want a buffer zone and aggressively enforce it) Now how far out an orbit would a beacon for this world to be positioned for ships to be able to warp in without accidentally (or not so accidentally) appearing in the buffer zone (and thus being on the receiving end of a wave motion gun) ?

Midboss57 wrote:

And maybe I just want to pit the party in a boss fight against a Metal Gear...

The AHAV makes for a good stand in for a Metal Gear.

Always saw the AHAV more as the Geckoes rather than a full sized Metal Gear.

One thing people see, to be forgetting in terms of reasons for ground warfare vehicles: Not all enemies come from space.

After-all, until recently, Castrovel was stuck in a generations long war between the Lashuntas and Formians. Other planets have more than one nation and have their history of wars (Triaxus, I'm looking at you). And well, there are the Kyokor. Given the choice, I'd rather face them Pacific Rim style than Attack on Titan style.

Another sources for enemies can be planar. Imagine a hell-gate opens in the middle of a major city. Nuking it from orbit might be the best way to be sure, but perhaps the locals would rather the army send a tank battalion with gunship support to fight those pesky devils.

The third consideration is that I imagine the Pact Worlds have a sort of space Geneva Conventions. Blasting the surface of a world from orbit with WMD might carry the same connotations there than using nukes on our world does.

And maybe I just want to pit the party in a boss fight against a Metal Gear...

Remember the Hellknights have the Order of the Chain which is, among other less reputable activities, a bounty hunting outfit.

This does however lead to an interesting dilemma when it comes to Solarians and spellcasters who are, for all practical purposes, always armed.

120: Some Andoran general thought Irrisen infiltrators had contaminated his bodily fluids.

Having to decide which ships are my favourites.. that's like trying to decide my favourite Indian dish... But as life is made of tough choices:

Fighter size:
- VF-25 Messiah (Macross Frontier). Of all the variable fighters, I like this one the best for its customisation options (Heavy Pack, Tornado pack..)
- Thunderhawk Gunship (Warhammer 40k): Multiple heavy bolters, a big gun on the top, full missile and bomb loading and the capacity to transport and drop 40 of the most dangerous supersoldiers in the galaxy.
- Ryoh-Oki: fleet destroying pirate ship and cute pet both in one package.

Capital Ships:
- Macross Quarter: Big wave motion, full fighter complement and the ability to punch other capital ships.
- Hyperion (Starcraft): Cool battleship with many guns including the Yamato Canon. It also acts as the mobile base for a ragtag group of rebels, holding their army and gear.
- Normandy SR-2: A common pick in this thread I notice...

Hi everyone.

I wanted to know if anyone knew if there was some guidance somewhere within Starfinder about proper level rating and Gear for various kind of Soldiers or foes as the Alien Archive was rather... light on such matters.

Specifically I wanted an idea of what level/CR and what gear level the following would have:

- A professional properly trained an equipped soldier. (AKA the Sci Fi version of First World armies)
- Veteran/Advanced infantry (AKA Sci Fi Royal Marine Corps, Foreign Legion or the Martian Marines from The Expanse)
- Elite Special Forces (aka Space SAS, SEAL Team 6...).

In all in universe logic, the elite troops of a space nation should have the very best equipment money can buy, but the Alien Archive does give the example of such soldiers with the Azlanti Empire and, despite supposing to be really high tech have really weak gear if you compare to what is available on the high end.

Anyone got any guidance ?

OK, so takes a deep breath

Classes:
- Scientist: I'd love to see a mad scientist like class that would be to Pathfinder's Alchemist what Mystic is to cleric or operative to rogue. After all, it's hard to think of a more easily transposed to sci fi class than this one. Pact World beware, Rick Sanchez is here !
- Bloodrager/sorcerer adaptation: a fun side of the sorcerer class I loved about Pathfinder was its emphasis on the bloodline and the powers it gave. I'd love to see a similar idea adapted. Afterall, dragons/angels/demons/elementals... are still out there and no doubt having dalliances with mortals.
- Paladin: the idea has already been suggested, but rather than just copy pasting the class, how about making a class who's powers and abilities specifically come from faith (variable depending on the faith in a mystic archetype type of way or a pick and mix abilities). A good inspiration could be the Sisters of Battle from 40k with their Act of Faith abilities.

Vehicles: I'm assuming that's already planned at some point, but it would be very helpful to know how vehicles scale, especially with regards to weapon damage (what do you mean you just blasted my tank with a pistol ?!!) That would include mecha, be they the utilitarian ATST or Terran Goliath to the space capable Variable Fighters or even giant biomechanical monstrosities to reclaim Damalko from the terrifying Kyokor.

Weapons:
That's a big one. To me, the best video game weapons are those where each weapon is unique and has some alternate fire mode that changes the way the weapon used.
Combi weapons like the good old under barrel grenade launcher or scattergun are a start (gotta be well equipped to defeat them damn swarm bugs)but more advanced multi function guns like the rifle in SW: Republic Commando that can do machine gun, sniper and grenade launcher or, if we're being crazy, the ZF-1 from 5th Element. Still the best fictional gun ever in my humble opinion.

Campaigns or supplements:
- My first choice is a supplement and campaign about colonizing a planet. Sort of to Starfinder what Kingmaker was to Pathfinder. I wanna play Alpha Centaury.
- An Intrigue based supplement with an updated debating rule set to include things like TV appearances with millions of viewers, datanet troll factories, fake news and googling your opponent's claims to prove them wrong.

Thanks for the feedback of idea. To address the various points raised:
- The world I'm going for is full of crime syndicates, cut throat mega corps and many other powerful organizations or individuals playing dangerous games for more power. It's powerful would tend more towards the Altered Carbon philosophy towards death, especially if you're part of the proverbial 0.001% who's life gives access to so many pleasures that even heavenly afterlife can't provide. (tis better to rule in hell as they say)
- In regards to body disposal/undead making... it's one of those easier said than done things. Assassinating someone powerful and well protected is already a very challenging task (as anyone who has ever played Hitman can attest), but assassinating someone, and then disposing of the body/raising as undead/soul theft... is going to be exponentially harder, especially if security is tight.

Hi everyone.

As part of designing a world heavy with intrigue, I wanted to get some opinions on the Setting wide consequences of the Raise Dead spell, in particular when it come to targeted assassination.

In fiction (and to some degree in reality too), assassins tend to prefer using subtle and discrete methods to kill their target, sometimes making it look like an accident. Sniper rifles, stabbing, poison, accidents, they enable to commit the deed and avoid alerting every cop and bodyguard in a 10 mile radius of the assassin's presence.

The problem comes with this fact: Raise Dead costs 5000 credits + dealer markup to make happen and pretty much anyone worth sending an assassin after will easily have the financial means or backers to guarantee they'll be back up the very next day unless steps are taken to make sure the body is too damaged or impossible to recover.

In fantasy settings, casters able to do this were too rare and far most settings so murdered kings/lords... could still stay dead. However, in a future setting where Abadar Corp probably offers literal life insurance and every major faction, mafia and government probably has their own pet high level mystics to raise their VIPs/leaders/key witnesses back from the dead how can an honest Red Mantis assassin perform their deadly trade and ensure the target stays dead ?

As mentioned before, the traditional methods tend to leave a fairly intact corpse so that's not really an option. So how do you figure assassins work in Starfinder ? Do they use heavy weapons that turn the target into a red stain ? Do aircar bomb suddenly become popular ? Does the business resort to kidnap and kill ?

Hi everyone.

As part of preparing some factions for a campaign, I began going through the ship design rules in order to build some warships. The rules are mostly ok, save for one aberration that doesn't compute with me: hangar bays take 4 expansion bays, yet only house 8 tiny ships.

Am I reading this right ? Because going by my math, that means a carrier hull can only hold 16 fighters top, all the while being gargantuan scale (2000-15000ft). Meanwhile, in real life, aircraft carriers smaller than this can carry between 20 (Cavour, 800ft) and 80 aircraft (USS Gerald Ford, 1092ft).

Am I reading the book wrong ? Is it a typo or did the designers really intend to downplay the Imperial Star Destroyer with its swarms of Tie Fighters trope ?