ParaheliZ's page

The new operative exploit Disrupting Shot (COM 83) is listed as being available at 6th level. However, it mentions that you must have deactivating shot to choose this exploit. As far as I'm aware, deactivating shot is set as requiring 10th level in the Core Rulebook (page 96). Is there some errata that reduced that to 6th level, or is this a case of a logic error?

In Alien Archive 3, one of the new 'starmetal' dragons is called the Noqual Dragon, with an aura effect that suppresses magic using a caster check. According to the book:

The DC of this check is determined by the noqual dragon's spell resistance

However, earlier, the page mentions:

If a starmetal dragon's CR is 11 or higher, it has the crush universal creature rule (see page 151) and spell resistance equal to 11 + its CR.

So, Noqual Dragons that are under CR 10 don't have spell resistance. The rules don't have an explicit CR limitation on the dampening field aura, and the other starmetal dragons' auras function from wyrmling age onward.

Should Noqual Dragons under CR 10 just be assumed to not have this aura? Or should the implied scale of spell resistance for dragons be applied to determine the DC (with it being basically 11 + CR), even when the dragon doesn't actually have spell resistance?

It would largely depend on the nature of the sense in question. If it is purely blindsight (thought), then I believe it would only allow them to perceive thinking creatures. Effectively acting like a precise, always-on version of Detect Thoughts.

However, if they are telekinetically inducing vibrations to perceive the environment, then I'd say it should be classified as something more like blindsight (vibration).

Regardless, the only clear restrictions are on the lack of ability to distinguish color and visual contrast, which would prevent you from reading signs and stuff of that nature.

What if it is a human trying to poly into a azlanti? I think sense they are so close that it should not matter if polymorph 1 was used.

I'd say you'd probably still need Polymorph 2, because Polymorph 1 might make you superficially similar, but it just doesn't seem complete enough to have a full DNA change, even for something as close as a human to azlanti. It's like if you are trying to disguise a dog as a wolf. Polymorph 1 would make the dog look a bit wilder, like a blend between them and a wolf, but it wouldn't really be able to pass as a true wolf. You'd need Polymorph 2 to get them fully into a wolf shape.

I would say Polymorph needs to be at least Level 2 to be able to say that it turns someone into a specific Race, at least enough to fool some scanners. This is both because Level 2 is the level where it starts granting Racial Traits, and because Level 1 notes that the polymorphed form is close to the target's true form, enough for them to be recognizable, so it is likely not a through enough change to fool a scanner.

That said, I'd say that this is probably covered in the +10 to disguise checks that Polymorphing grants you.

One thing that you missed is that you only lose Resolve Points at the end of your turn each round, and you only die at 0 RP when you need to lose Resolve Points, but you don't have any left.

So, in example 1, you would hit 0 HP, it would come around to your turn, you don't have enough to stabilize, you'd lose the 1 RP that you have, and then another round would pass. You'd only die when the end of your next turn hit, if someone hadn't managed to stabilize you by then, when you needed to lose one RP and didn't have one to lose.

So, while the time is short, I think it is at least a round longer than you might think.

ParaheliZ wrote:

Personal Approach: Take whatever the NPC's Dex Modifier is. If it is greater than two, subtract two from it, and then subtract the result from the EAC / KAC of the NPC.

Mechanically speaking, the decrease in Dexterity Bonus to AC is supposed to represent it being more difficult for you to dodge, so I feel that using the above strategy helps to have the same effect for NPCs.

The dex bonus is reduced to +2, not by +2.

Their armor calcs aren't based on PC methods, but subtracting the difference in dex modifiers is easy enough. There might be a couple of low CR creatures where it doesn't make sense, but for those just use your best judgement.

Right, sorry I wasn't clear with my calculations.

My method:

Dex Bonus - 2 = Bonus to be Removed
EAC/KAC - Bonus to be Removed = New EAC/KAC

So, if a creature had a Dex Bonus of 5, you'd subtract 3 from the EAC/KAC if it was Encumbered, to show that whatever bonus it got from Dex has gone from 5 to 2.

Personal Approach: Take whatever the NPC's Dex Modifier is. If it is greater than two, subtract two from it, and then subtract the result from the EAC / KAC of the NPC.

Mechanically speaking, the decrease in Dexterity Bonus to AC is supposed to represent it being more difficult for you to dodge, so I feel that using the above strategy helps to have the same effect for NPCs.

On Page 111 of the Armory, the list of magical items lists an item called a Clearsight Trinket, with an Item Level of 5, cost of 2,750 credits, and light bulk.

On Page 99, there is an entry for Clearsight Goggles on the list of technological items with the same item level and cost, negligible bulk, and a usage rate of 1 charge per hour, max 40.

The Clearsight Trinket doesn't have a description under Magical Items, but the description for Clearsight Goggles does mention a "trinket".

Those who explore environments obscured by fog, foliage, smoke, and other vision-impairing elements value clearsight goggles, a set of tight-fitting eyewear that can be worn under a helmet or even other eyewear. While you wear the goggles, fog, smoke, and similar gases don’t grant targets concealment from you, and vegetation doesn’t either. [u]The trinket provides no benefit against a target with total concealment.[/u]

Can the Clearsight Trinket just be considered to be a magical version of the Clearsight Goggles? Is there an entry for the Clearsight Trinket that I've missed?

In the setting chapter under planetary communication, page 430.

Got it. Huh, neat, I hadn't seen that before.

Well, given that the comm-unit flashlight is less powerful than a typical flashlight (15 foot cone vs a 20 foot cone), I think that the battery charge for it is just integrated into the 1/Hour usage of the Comm Unit. So, if you go 80 hours without being in a position to recharge your suit, then the integrated comm unit would go offline, along with the flashlight. However, I don't think constantly using the flashlight would drain the battery any quicker.

Where are you seeing that armor has an integrated personal comm unit? The only specific entry I can find is flavor text at the beginning of the Armor section in Armory.

I've always read that as altering the limitation. So Jet Dash allows you to jump twice your remaining amount of movement. It doesn't have any stated effect on the DC of the Jump, however, so if you try to jump 60 feet from a standing start, you are going to have to beat a DC of 120.

The new White Noise Generator item raises the DC for sound-based Perception checks within a certain distance of it while active. The basic amount is that it raises the DC by 4 within 100 feet. Then, it lists two modifications. First, that the increase is reduced by 1 for each additional 100 feet. And second, that the increase doubles for technological means of listening in.

So, should we decrease it first, and then double it? Or double it first, then decrease it?

Using the former gets the following DC alterations by range:

+8 for 100 feet, +6 for 200 feet, +4 for 300 feet, +2 for 400 feet.

Using the second method gets this:

+8 for 100 feet, +7 for 200 feet, +6 for 300 feet, +5 for 400 feet, +4 for 500 feet, +3 for 600 feet, +2 for 700 feet, and +1 for 800 feet.

I believe method number 1 is correct, but I'm unsure if there is already an established order to whether you multiply and divide before adding and subtracting multipliers or not.

The Phrenic Scrambler item in Armory disrupts telepathic communication within 30 feet of the device. It only mentions specifically telepathic communication being scrambled, so I'm wondering. Does it / should it have any effect on some of the Mystic Connection Powers that utilize the telepathic bond (such as Healer's Channel Bond ability letting them heal at a distance)?

That's what I figured, and I figured that, even lacking the quantum state particles, there would probably be enough material in whatever is left of the table to justify the 10% 'recycling'. Or some smaller amount.

In the Armory, there is an item called a Flash Shield Generator that lets you create a pretty flimsy barrier to partially block attacks. Part of the description reads "If you create a new flash shield within 100 feet of an existing shield, the old shield disappears, its material evaporated and transformed to create the new shield."

My question is: If both I and my enemy have flash shield generators, can I disintegrate her barrier by making my own within 100 feet of hers? Relatedly, will I disintegrate an ally's barrier if we both make them within 100 feet of each other?

In the Core Rulebook, it states that a Regeneration Table becomes inert and useless once it is used. However, unlike some other items, such as the mnemonic editor, it doesn't say that it becomes valueless.

So, my question is, could you use a variation on the crafting rules to repair the table, by using 90% of the tables value in UPBs (or, in other words, recycling the table as per the crafting rules to make a new one at a 10% discount)? It would still end up costing 40,500 credits, but that is 4,500 credits saved.

There isn't any specific rules I can find about attacking while airborne. You could say that, since he can't hover and therefore must be constantly in motion to stay airborne, that he actually needs the Shot On The Run feat to shoot while flying with clumsy maneuverability. Could be a potential check on it, or at least require him to dedicate part of his build towards this if it is going to be a standard approach for him.

Alternatively, you could just say that, to counteract the recoil and whatever else for his ranged attack, that he has to make a generic Acrobatics [Flight] check anytime he fires his weapon while flying, at a Wind Condition of one step higher than he is actually flying in (because of altered aerodynamics by the weapon, etc).

The problem is there is no general rule to support 20 feet of wood stopping a flamethrower, aside from the "BNW thinks this is too ridiculous" rule. Line-of-effect is determined by the nature of the effect, and the nature of the line special weapon property extends that effect to the end of its range, without regard to what is in the way. What is in the way only comes into play when looking to see how far damage extends.

You can complain about how ridiculous it is, but ridiculousness is not part of any Starfinder Ruleset.

I think this is a similar typo to the Paragon Dart Cannon having a listed range of 1500 Feet.

What it also says:

This weapon fires a projectile in a straight line that pierces through multiple creatures or obstacles. When attacking with such a weapon, make a single attack roll and compare it to the relevant Armor Class of all creatures and objects in a line extending to the weapon's listed range increment. Roll damage only once. The weapon hits all targets with an AC equal to or lower than the attack roll.

Walls and doors are objects, so they are not going to be blocking this particular line. The same way that a wooden wall couldn't block line-of-effect for Detect Thoughts when it isn't thick enough, walls or other such forms of cover are not going to cap the distance of a line special weapon's line-of-effect, because it is established by specific rules which trump more general rules for determining line-of-effect.

Even better, add a Selective Weapon Fusion and then you can exclude yourself.

You are deciding that something taking 1 hp is not longer blocking the effect, which is the interpretation I'm objecting to. You can't use that to show that line of effect has been changed by the ability to do 1 hp of damage.

I supppose the circularity of it on either side shunts the conversation right out of line of effect and mostly back to whether the 1 hp rule is global or local.

I'm not deciding that, that is what the line special weapon property specifically states. Attacks from a Line Weapon target all creatures and objects within the line from the shooter to the range increment, with no regard for line-of-sight. Unless you have cover that is not a creature or an object, then that cover is going to be targeted by the line weapon, as will any creatures behind said cover, whether they should have total cover from attacks from that shooter or not.

The line-of-effect does end prematurely if a targeted creature or object does not take damage, which as you have noted, is a local rule specific to the line special weapon property. However, similarly, this effect does not occur if the weapon does even 1 hp of damage. That is also a local rule. This is not something that affects other attacks outside of the line special weapon property, so doing 1 hp of damage to a wall isn't going to allow that attack to pass through to hit someone on the other side normally.

The issue comes down to the fact that, like I said at the beginning, line-of-effect is not reliant on line-of-sight, it depends solely on the nature of the effect in question. The line-of-effect for a line special weapon extends to its range increment, regardless of what is in-between, and that only changes when a hit creature or object fails to be damaged.

Lines do not stop at cover: if you lightning bolt the Operative behind the adamantine table he has cover, but the bolt keeps going. If you fire line weapon to hit the operative behind the adamantine table it probably stops.

Where are you getting this idea from?

A line-shaped effects extends away from you in a line in the direction you designate. It starts from any corner of your square and extends to the limit of its range or until it strikes a barrier that blocks line-of-effect.

Any thing that blocks a line special weapon is going to block a line area effect, because again, blocking and cover is determined by line-of-effect, not the other way around.

Both of those make the lines from a line weapon MORE restrictive, not less, than regular lines. It would be kind of weird if a line weapon has more restrictions on stopping and is more blockable than other line effects but then has a FAR easier time breaking through objects. A flame thrower can't get past a red dragon by shooting under his legs but it can shoot through a stone wall? A line weapon stops at the sixth level soldier with dr 6 but can chainsaw right through 60 feet of an overturned giant Sequioa? Even for this game thats a little weird.

Your personal definitions of restrictiveness and weirdness don't apply, because it doesn't matter how strange you think the rule combinations are. It only matters what the rule combinations actually say. And like I said, the line weapon property only determines how the line-of-effect is established, by dictating what constitutes a "barrier that blocks line-of-effect" is for the weapon's attack.

It is the rules, that is why line-of-effect and line-of-sight are two distinct things.

The only thing that the line special weapon property affects is how line-of-effect is calculated for weapons with that property. For most weapons, the line-of-effect stops at cover or solid objects. This is not the case for line weapons, unless the cover or solid object has sufficient damage resistance or hardness to not take damage from the line weapon. Line weapons do not automatically stop at cover, and there is no justification in the rules to say they do.

This question doesn't require a global rule change on how cover works, just a recognition that cover is determined by line-of-effect, and not the other way around.

So, I think part of the problem is the assumption that total cover prevents line-of-effect, when it is actually the other way around. You only have total cover if the enemy lacks line-of-effect to you. Line-of-effect is not the same thing as line-of-sight, so it is not determined by whether you can see a creature or not. The fact that you cannot see a creature on the other side of a wall does not mean that you cannot have line-of-effect to them, if you are using an effect that allows you to bypass walls.

The line weapon establishes an initial line-of-effect from the point of origin to the end of its range increment. This line-of-effect gets modified by something managing to "block" the line-of-effect via not getting damaged. Due to rule-wonkiness, any level of damage is sufficient for a line weapon to continue on to try and damage other creatures or objects within its line-of-effect.

So, creatures behind walls that are being shot with a line weapon have total concealment (due to being within line-of-effect but not line-of-sight), and so there is a 50% miss chance on top of the creature's AC. They may or may not have cover, because the line weapon property allows line of effect to penetrate through the obstacle, which negates the purpose of cover in the first place.

I'd always interpreted it as A, but between looking at this and the Jumping rules, I'm leaning more towards C as the correct interpretation.

The one point I don't think actually works in your scenario is taking the comm unit with you when you enter, given the fact that the spell has a fail state of exiting through the same device you entered if you are blocked in some manner. So, I think that your comm unit or whatever you used would have to remain behind.

So, if you are planning to use this as a common strategy, you'd need to shell out a few credits for some back-up comm units to use as "travel nodes".

Just to be clear, though, it would only negate those bonuses in regards to the observer with blindsense, correct? Because one creature having blindsense doesn't negate the Stealth advantage the cloaking field provides against all other possible observers.

What is the point of the recoil stabilizer exactly? Seems like you would most likely activate it, get no crits, then it's useless for the rest of the encounter (possibly more than one of you can't get a break).

So weak. Unless the intent was that you could choose to activate it after you've confirmed more than one crit.

I thought that was how it worked, given that it specifically mentions that it takes no action to activate it, and it doesn't specify when you can activate it, just that you have to roll the critical hit damage separately.

My initial thought was that individual "polarity die" would drop off, but newer ones would remain. So, for example, when I attack with a polarity weapon, that adds, say, 1d10 extra damage that the target will take from any polarity weapon from now until the beginning of my next turn. If other players have hit the target with polarized weapons before my turn, this gets added to their dice, but those dice will go away at the beginning of their individual turns. My dice will keep sticking around until my turn, however.

Basically, like PawnJJ was saying, with each dice sticking around for one entire set of rounds.

The alternative is either: A) you just gain the bonus from the biggest "polarity die" that has hit the target, or B) each hit with a polarity weapon gets the polarity bonus, and then replaces it with the polarity bonus from the current weapon.

For A, I think the set-up weapon's dice would be used, but then the follow-up weapon would add their own dice on top of that. I suppose that is another question: Do the polarize bonus die stack? I guess that that might not be the case, given the way bonuses are handled.

The Polarize Weapon Special Property states:

When striking a target multiple times with a weapon with the polarize special property in the same round, damage from each such strike after the first is increased by the listed amount. This resets at the beginning of your next turn.

A) Does this mean that you can have two weapons with the Polarize weapon property (such as a kasatha with two sets of polarity gauntlets) and gain the boost from the first when making an attack with the second?

B) Does this effect extend to out-of-turn attacks of opportunity, such as if I hit someone with a set of polarity gauntlets, and then hit them again as a reaction when they tried to leave my reach?

C) Does the effect stack with attacks made by other with Polarized weapons against the same target? For example, if I shot an aurora polarity rifle at a target, and my ally shot the same target with an aurora polarity rifle right afterwards, would they gain the 1d10 bonus damage from my shot?

I'd note that some of the hybrid grenades (specifically the holo grenage, junkbot grenade, and summoning grenade) specify specific caster levels, which I'm assuming would apply to these mimicked grenades, as it is mimicking the grenade precisely.

So, while you can get the benefits from spells you don't know, in most cases they'll probably be somewhat weaker than if you had actually known them and cast them yourself, especially if you are using anything other than one of your most powerful slots.

If I'm reading this right, then you would need a move action to pull out the UPB from wherever you have it stored (via a Manipulate An Item move action), and then a swift action to put the UPB into the weapon and have it manufacture the ammunition. The manufacturing effect makes the ammunition inside of the weapon, meaning that it is effectively already reloaded. No reload action required.

So, using this actually takes a bit longer than reloading the weapon normally, as you need both a move action and a swift action, versus just a move action for most weapons, unless you have the UPB already at hand.

I think that "arm" would be a valid selection for this ability, covering any and all arms that you have. I do think that this would be separate from "hand" as a system, though, so you couldn't get a discount on both a hideaway limb and polyhand on your arm, as one uses the "arm" system specifically, and the other is the "hand" system.

Harrying fire (or covering fire) is the type of bonus, not the source of the bonus. The source is the Wisp Ally, so you have two different sources. It is just like if you had four players, with three of them targeting a single enemy with covering fire via overlapping lines of effect for the fourth player. Each instance of covering fire would provide an additional bonus to AC for the fourth player.

Use it to alter the flavor of a piece of poisoned food to hide the taste of the poison.

Use it to hold up a piece of light armor to act as a decoy.

Use it to conjure a fragile tile to cover a pit-trap, then color it to look less artificial and more like the surrounding ground.

I would simply use the Adaptive Biochains piece of Biotech, and rule that part of the Biochains adapting it into their body is them linking it up to help provide proper visual processing and such. Basically, add on a 10% increase in base price to account for the extra biological adaptations.

I believe it is also to keep someone from slapping a Blast Weapon Fusion on a Small Arm and then making a Trick Attack that hits everyone in the cone with a boatload of bonus damage.

Assuming that you are talking about the "Pick a skill, and use half your ranks in Computers as your ranks in that skill (or all Computer ranks if you spend a Resolve Point), if that would be better" part of the Fast Retrieval, then yes, so long as you have previously selected the needed skill as your replaced skill (Life Science, Mysticism, or whatever).

Can you stack the effects of the Soldier's Flash Freeze Gear Boost, if you were to, say, use Soldier's Onslaught to hit a single creature three times with a cryo weapon?

So, I have a question about the interaction between a Null-Space Chamber and the Akashic Mystic's Memory Palace. The description for the Null-Space Chamber states that:

Spells and items that contain or create extradimensional spaces, such as other null-space chambers, do not function within a null-space chamber's pocket dimension.

Does this apply in reverse? Can I open up a null-space chamber within the Memory Palace, or does it likewise fail to function?

So, I haven't found any official rules on this, or just throwing items in general. However, I would note that thrown weapons and grenades are generally restricted between 10 feet and 20 feet, and 20 feet seems to be more aerodynamic items, such as a javelins, while the less-aerodynamic Net can only be thrown 10 feet. This, combined with the fact that thrown weapons have a maximum range increment of 5x their base range, would lead me to rule that, at most, throwing an aerodynamic object would have a maximum range of 100 feet, while a non-aerodynamic object like a body would have a maximum range of 50 feet. Both of those would have a -12 penalty on the attack roll (-4 from being improvised weapons, -8 from the range). And, a DM might add in some sort of prerequisite Strength Roll ahead of the entire thing.

This is one of those instances where it will likely never work for a PC but has to work for the world, since the cost of items scales non-linearly you'll run into a situation where because of the hardness of materials you'll never be able to demolish a building if the damage doesn't get applied all at once, but such would break the game from a PC perspective.

I'd imagine this is something that you'd probably fit together with some sort of series of Engineering Checks, combining the Arm Explosives check (which is something I'd forgotten about) and the Determine Structural Weak Point check. So, you make some large check or series of checks to wire up the explosives in such a way that they count as one big explosive, and at weak points so they are able to ignore some amount of hardness.

But yeah, now you have to consider the Arm Explosives check, which basically means that when you are wiring twenty grenades together, you are going to have to roll twenty Arm Explosives checks, and the DM might rule that wiring multiple explosives altogether will increase the difficulty of later checks.

That makes sense, and keeps things nicely balanced. Thanks!

Radiation detector is expensive in the pact worlds book

100 Credits isn't all that bad. I'd say the worse thing about it is that it only warns you when you enter the square. So, after you're already going to be taking radiation damage. The only real use for that is to attach it to a drone and have the drone flying along ahead of you.

Cleave and Great Cleave Feats can allow you to attack multiple times, so that is another method of maximizing your value, especially if you have the Lunge Feat and a weapon with Reach. Combining both of those, and you can effectively do one attack against any enemy within 15 feet of you, as long as they are all next to each other in some way.

So, quick question in regards to the Mechanic's Overcharge ability. When using it, it notes that

This attack uses three times as many charges from the battery or power cell as normal

However, the Powered Melee Weapon property notes that

Unlike with a ranged weapon, the usage is for 1 minute of operation rather than per attack, though using a powered weapon for less than 1 full minute still expends 1 full usage.

So, how do these two actually go together? Does using Overcharge just increase the consumption on the powered melee weapon for the minute while giving you the boost for the one attack? Do you get the boost for the full minute? Is it a 1-time cost at point of casting?

I'm guessing it is the later, but if there is errata indicating otherwise, that'd be great.

From my reading of it, every round is basically an initial save. I wouldn't say it is a new dose, but from the way I read it, each round you'll make a save, take the default poison damage, and drop down the chart if you fail the save. Yes, that means that radiation can kill you ridiculously fast, but that is true of radiation IRL.

As I see it, there could be a 'kinder' interpretation, where you only take the HP hit on the very first save you make in the radiation zone, but regardless, it is pretty clear that you are going to need to make a save each round that you are in the radiation effect, regardless of whether you make the first save or not.