| Nevaritius |
Nevaritius wrote:Sounds like a fun playtest.
It seems that the Operative and Soldier share very similar roles. Unsure as to why Technomancer and Mechanic weren't tried out, as they have some of the best Starfnder flavour there is.
Moving to a 2e like system gives the chance to really run rampant with subclasses due to the flexibility of build paths.
Wonder if it would be better to absorb Operative into Soldier, having it as a soldier subclass via feats, and bringing Mechanic in as a class with Technomancer as a subclass option for that.
As it stands reading through the post it felt like you have 2 people playing different Soldier builds, 1 mystic, and a witchwarper.
Operative as it is thematically is just like Soldier, but sneakier. You could achieve that by having subclass feat options in the Soldier class itself under the 2e system rather than have Operative as a class all on its own. Would give you breathing space design wise.
By this logic, a Rogue is just a Fighter but sneakier.
The SF2 niche for the Soldier is clear: a heavy, someone who wields the biggest weapons in the game for devastating effect and can take a beating like nobody else in the new corebook. Compared to that, an accuracy-driven Operative with more focus on stealth, skills, and/or movement feels plenty distinct from that.
More importantly, anything trying to do both is going to feel pretty shapeless.
I disagree. A heavy that focuses on big weapons, and an accuracy driven stealth operative differ only in the style of fighting. They're thematically the same thing, with different areas of focus. An operative is a stealthy Soldier who likes to use skills to overcome situations. Alternatively, a soldier is an operative who likes to use big guns to force his way through something.
They're the same thing, and pretending like they're so vastly different as to be completely separate classes doesn't make sense to me when as seen in the play test above, they've given some of the Precog's abilities to the Witchwarper.
I would argue that the witchwarper/precog situation has a similar relationship as the operative/soldier. They have a similar play style that differs only in how they approach a situation.
Keeping classes separate that could otherwise be combined will inhibit build creativity and party inclusiveness, I think.