How does the Ranger feat Monster Hunter work in encounters with multiple creatures of the same type?
Mechanically it reads like it’s per creature/prey so you have to make each time even against different creatures of the same type. Flavor wise, maybe you’re not identifying just based on ancestry but even more detail than that (represented by it needing to be a Critical success rather than normal) So less of ‘Goblins are scared of howling creatures’ and more ‘That goblin has feathers in their armor, it means they fight like a berserker and swing wildly’. Just a thought/justification.
Forward:
My Table and Session 0:
In the interests of intensifying the blank slate 'fugue' for my players, I had each one of them come up with four Defining Events in a Character's life. I told them their character would have two or those events in their past, and two of them would be randomly assigned to another character. In that way, both the Player and the Character would be thinking about those events during the game, trying to piece together which of their four they kept, and which were assigned to others (i.e. which of their hazy memories and recollections were real and which were misremembered or unrelated). Given the theme of the AP and knowing they started in an Asylum, the Players took this in a somewhat dark direction. Examples include "Sustained a serious injury trying to protect someone they didn’t know from a mugging" "Watching your father and uncles kill, skin and dress wild game has stuck with you and you think about it often " and "I'm the first person in my family to leave our town since it was founded". I tried to steer people towards objectively-described events, rather than declaring how someone felt about that event, to still give the person who ultimately received it the final say over their character. For example, being the first person to leave your town could be exciting...it could be terrifying...you could have been leaving for a big city job, or leaving because you were exiled... Once I scrambled the between the players and spoke with them a little about what type of personality they were planning to portray, I fit the four events for each player together in a rough backstory outline only I knew. I wrote a short (around half a page) summary of what the character felt and remembered immediately upon waking up (with a few choice details from the backstories included) put them in envelopes, and gave them to the Players at the very start of Session 1, to be opened after the nightmare introduction. I also assigned them one of the Traits from the Player's Guide based on the combined backstory (they only picked one trait at character creation). Our party includes:
How the players reacted:
Anything I would change?:
My Players are in the midst of character creation right now, and I took a different spin on background drawing from a few snippets I've picked up from forums and podcasts about the AP: I'm having each player write four 'cornerstone' (tip of the White Hat to Westworld) events for a PC's life and submit them to me directly without sharing their contents with the other players. The guidance that I'm providing is ideally these are seminal events in a PC's life, but ones that could be interpreted in a variety of ways. As an example: "I was the first person to leave my village in a hundred years." A pretty large event in a person's life, but leaves a lot of room for interpretation (Why did they leave? How did they feel about leaving? Did more people leave after? Did they come back?) Each PC's backstory will be made up of two of the events THEIR player wrote, and two events ANOTHER player wrote. I'm working with each one of them on making sure if there's a very strong theme that they are targeting for their character/class, we can line up either their 2 known or 2 unknown cornerstone events in a way that will support that, but being light on the exact details. I'll then be assigning the Campaign Trait that most closely corresponds to that character's combination of Cornerstones to them during the first session along with a brief overview of what they do and dont remember of their history. My goal is that this adds another layer to the fugue and helps simulate the guidance that 'You only have hazy memories of the time before 5 years ago.' As hints and clues come up throughout the campaign, players can piece together which pieces of their backstory THEY wrote (and therefore have a decent idea on) and which pieces are more completely lost memories they have to reconstruct themselves (since someone else wrote that entry.) It also gives the players an opportunity to help each other recall lost memories (since they had been friends for a long time before the campaign) and have some unique RP experiences. If I as a PC wrote a memory that "Your sister is your best and only friend" and then someone in my party finds a picture of themselves and a woman in Thrushmore, I can say "I vaguely remember you describing your sister as having short brown hair and green robes like the woman in that painting at a Tavern one time..." Although they also couldn't be sure that the hint was referencing their Cornerstone and wasn't a red herring. Interested if anyone else has tried something like this, or other alternate ways of background generation for amnesiacs.
***MAJOR Spoilers for BOTH Ustalav adventure paths below, careful if you plan to play either Strange Aeons or Carrion Crown*** A few years ago, I ran Carrion Crown for my group, which was the first time we made it all the way through a full 6 Volume AP, and had a blast. After a couple other excursions to Cheliax, we're back in Ustalav for Strange Aeons. But as I read through the books, I can't help but feel some strong similarities from the Big Bad perspective - a maniacal and egotistical wealthy mastermind who's not much of a combat threat on his own terms, but is always one step out of reach of a direct confrontation until he activates Armageddon. Granted that's a somewhat common trope of Fantasy, but given the similar setting it hit a little too close to CC for my tastes. I started brainstorming how I could differentiate it a bit - not to the point where I'm going to abandon the 'chase-style' plot line, but to at least make the villain a bit different. My thoughts are along the lines of the following, but if anyone else has gone through a similar exercise, I'm very curious!! Lowls has been dead (if not physically, mentally/spiritually) since he left town at the start of the AP. He certainly was not a good guy (as evidenced by keeping slaves and ruling his lands with an iron fist) but things took a significant turn after he went to the Dreamlands. It was not just a coincidence that the Yellow King fragment which broke off from his journey to the Mad Poet is aloof but overall friendly - Xhamen-Dor purposefully ripped the innocent intellectual curiosity away from Lowls and left it locked in the Dreamlands, leaving a massive void for Xhamen-Dor to fill and leaving the Egotistical and Fearful sides of Lowls remaining. While the AP references a 'seed' infesting Lowls, and by the end referencing them as a 'merger', I'm going to make it a bit more direct, adding a couple of points (and some heavy foreshadowing/hints) where the PCs can perform the Dream Ritual again and go to other places in the Dreamlands where Xhamen-Dor ripped the other two 'facets' of Lowl's mind asunder. Perhaps the Egotistical/Power Hungry shard can be encountered in the Mystereum, while maybe the Fearful (Why gather power if you're not afraid of something you need to be powerful against?) side was left in the Parchlands at the end of Book 4 to whither in agony forever. By the end of the arc, I feel this makes Lowls' tale into more of a tragedy than someone who just was power-hungry (and conveniently out of reach) for 5 books of the AP and then was consumed. And while I might need to more heavily introduce the link between Xhamen-Dor and the PCs earlier to keep them motivated to stay on the hunt after they find the last 'fragment' of Lowls, I feel it gives the through-line of the villain enough of a different feeling to to our old friend Adivion Adrissant, who also spent 5 books just out of reach before merging with something to become a super-BBEG in Book 6. Thoughts? Other watchpoints? (I've only skimmed the books and haven't started playing yet, so may be missing details) Other ways you've tackled this problem (whether or not you played CC?)
Overcharge is actually BETTER in my opinion if you have a combat-heavy group. The fact that you can boost your damage with a Standard AND boost an adjacent ally with a Move (or boost two allies with double-move) means you're doubling the effectiveness of the ability each round. If you have a lot of available allies to use as targets, you can take advantage a lot more frequently. Two people having Computers is not a bad thing, especially since Exocortex can make those checks in some ways the Technomancer couldn't (being able to do it at range, do it while still attacking, etc.) You could also look at some of the other more Engineering-focused skills/tricks. One final note about the Operative damage - don't forget that Small Arms only gets half-level to Weapon Specialization, so it's even more stunted in terms of damage before you add Trick Attack. Overcharge Exocortex can absolutely keep up or exceed Operative on combat.
I haven't, you're right. I'd love to be able to play more. My character is a melee Drone Mechanic. I took Dwarf to save myself two feats with their Racial ability, chose Heavy Armor as my level 1 feat. I chose to use a starting array of 14/10/12/16/13/8. It was a tough choice. I had to decide to have a lower-than-ideal AC (No +2 Dex Mod to make optimal use of Heavy Armor at low levels, and Reflex saves will be rough), lower-than-ideal Strength (14 is already pushing it for a 3/4 BAB Class) or lower-than-ideal Skills/DCs (Which would block off some parts of my Class Mechanic Tricks and cause me to fall behind the Operative in Engineering? No way!) I went with the Dex lowered, and I have suboptimal AC. And my character still feels playable (I hope! Only level 2! Maybe that makes me an idiot because I'm a melee class with 2 lower AC than optimal so now I'm dead.) But I'm excited because even though my AC and To Hit is lower than many other builds I could rattle off, I do great damage compared to Ranged classes, frequently get extra attacks from my Drone to balance out a 3/4 BAB, and still maintain good Resolve. I have some weaknesses and some strengths that I chose. To me, this all sounds very familiar to many of the conversations above...decisions I had to make because I couldn't be the best at everything. That's what's INTERESTING to me. That there isn't one array that says "You solved the math problem, here's the best array, never pick anything else again or you're a noob." You're choosing To-Hit or Damage or DCs on your abilities...Saves or Skill Points...Having Revelations or generally worse class abilities like Gear Boosts/Fighting Styles. As I've continued to say, other classes make the same tough choices, and have to be suboptimal in some places to be optimal in others. Solarian is not unique in that. HWalsh, you're growing increasingly aggressive towards me and others in your posts, so before you tell me to 'get a clue' or tell me again I just don't understand and should come back when I've played more I'm going to move on. I've said my bit, and already spent too much time arguing on the Internet ;) I'd just encourage anyone who is feeling down about their class of choice and always seeing a place where another class is better than yours to flip the script: Look at the same build that's getting you down, and look at all the places where your build gets more feats, has better abilities, or does more damage. There are always differences going both ways. Otherwise it's going to be a long few months waiting for that next Rulebook.
If you're taking Heavy Armor, then you dont have to have 20 Dex. Worried about your Reflex save? As stated above, the Reflex Save is the least necessary save because it almost exclusively deals in damage. If you're going Ranged, suddenly you don't need to worry about pumping Strength, which seems to be a big point of contention. You're back down to pumping Dex and Key Stat like every other non-Soldier class. At this point it seems like sacrifices any other class has to make aren't a big deal...Mystic has 13 Reflex or -1 To Hit compared to a Solarian? Soldier does 10 less damage per hit than Solarian? That's close enough. A Solarian has 13 Reflex or -2 To Hit compared to a Soldier? That's an unacceptable choice that takes a character too far from an optimal value, and Solarian has serious problems which need to be addressed by Paizo. Diving deep into Solarian (as the forums have basically forced me to do since launch given all the threads/guides/claims that true Solarians should start Blitz soldier :P) has been interesting from a perspective of game design and class comparison. I'd encourage you to take a break from Solarian for a bit and do some deep diving and building of your own on another class. I think you may be surprised at how many tough choices other classes make. It may not be readily apparent just comparing Stat Lines, but when you look at full builds they are definitely there. Just as a start, compare the power of individual Gear Boosts + Primary Fighting Style bonuses (Soldier gets 10 of those through level 20) to individual Revelations (Solarian gets 10 of those through level 20.) I'm hard-pressed to find many cases where I wouldn't rather have a Revelation at any level.
The 26/20/18/14/18/20 array you referenced above would be 16 Fort, 16 Ref, 16 Wis, which means they meat the "16 minimum" guideline you set for yourself in all three saves...
There is no rule. I think this is similar to the other thread about Age Progression where because it existed in PF some people feel you must address it in SF. Some things were just cut because they add more complexity without adding more fun. If it's fun to be ambushed without your gear you could always house rule it.
That's not that bad, since you have to be aware of the person and they have to be up on you, someone uses reach or range or just doesn't bother attacking you and that doesn't quite work. Completely circumventing my character's weakness of a +0 initiative bonus and guaranteeing I go first almost every combat that isn't an ambush is not bad? Seems cheesy as heck and I'm sure any GM I play with would not allow it. The vast majority of combats begin with the opponents aware of each other (even if they don't see them, they hear fighting in the next room, alarms have gone off, etc). All this talk of invisible NPCs and surprise round is the exception not the rule.
Before you add a bunch of house rules to Snipers, I think it's important to realize why they are like they are. It's not just because Devs didn't understand balance and damage curves - when you make long range Combat better than close range (equal or higher damage, no chance of attacking back) the optimal strategy becomes "let the sniper kill as many as they can every fight before we engage at normal range". Fun for the sniper, less fun for the other players at the table or the GM who now has to balance around that.
Non Lethal damage in Starfinder is almost identical to Lethal damage, so make sure you understand those rules and aren't just basing it on Pathfinder To me, a Mystic would be best. They have a number of controlling effects that don't damage (like Daze and Fear). It would also make RP sense if they were from a pacifist religion or philosophy. Finally, it gives healing ability (since it sounds like you're worried about survivability of your group, this would be a good way to help)
I'd be careful about the other players at your table too. I know I would get frustrated in that situation: we all take turns with our single characters, and then spend 10 minutes waiting for Drone guy to plan out his army. Even if they share attack roll he/she still will probably want to move them around. Other thing from a mechanical point of view. Drone Mechanic is specifically balanced around basically being as good as another character full attacking. I.e. The attack bonus of mechanic and drone will be around -4 compared to another combat-oriented character. If the drone gets more effective, now the Drone Mechanic is the best combatant in the group. Again, depends on your group dynamics but that can get frustrating for the others.
The only restrictions Riding Saddle Mod has is around size categories. It doesn't say anything about not exceeding Bulk limits, riders costing a certain amount of Bulk, or anything like that. Folks keep using Pathfinder as an example, but Starfinder went out of it's way to simplify carrying capacity compared to PF. It seems very counter to the design to do all that, then say 'If you're ever riding a vehicle/mount, you have to approximate your character's weight, convert it to Bulk, add your gear, then calculate the mount's carrying capacity, multiply by a modifier based on creature category etc etc.' In my opinion it's much more likely we'll just see "This is a mount that can carry a rider equal to/X categories smaller than itself." Bulk is for gear, and a rough analog for how much you can lift/drag at a given Strength. I think we're reading too much Pathfinder into it and seeing rules that aren't there.
"A player character can create all the items presented in this chapter" Starships are not in the Equipment chapter. It also specifically discusses "items" throughout the section, and it would be a stretch to define a starship as an item. You certainly can't keep it in your inventory or carry it.
Oooooooo. That is a good question and something I hadn't considered. It says Custom Rig functions as all basic Tool Kits (assuming that includes Hacking Kit) and that you only have to hold it to use it if it's a handheld computer, implying you have access to always use it if it takes up an augment slot. A Hacking Kit tool kit says you don't need to have access to the physical user interface (first part of the Computers skill entry). This seems like a very similar (but not quite the same?) benefit as an entry level data jack, which says you don't need an interface to transfer data. So my interpretation (and how I would flavor it) would be it basically functions as a free Data Jack itself and the text is there in case you want an upgraded data jack with skill bonuses down the road.
Exocortex is not the same as Custom Rig which is what you quoted above. Exocortex is left as more abstract and it's basically just part of your character advancement (flavor fluff on why you get abilities no different than explanation of why a soldier gets feats). No slot or held requirement or anything necessary. Custom Rig is a tangible thing that all Mechanics get - it's a custom designed kit that does have rules around holding or installing it.
I don't think Weapon Proficiency represents using weapons a certain relative amount larger than you. It's more of how to hold, how to swing/fire etc. A Longarm is still built to be held, reloaded, fired, carried a certain way, regardless of how big it is relative to you. Likely they don't need rules around this since any PC race is unlikely to be smaller than Small or larger than Large, and NPCs don't follow normal rules anyway, so they could add a 5d20 assault cannon to a monster stat block with the caveat it's too big to be used by PCs without needing a whole rules subsystem or pages of Guns PCs could never use.
4 castings is more than enough. That heavily depends on your GM and encounters. If you're fighting a couple high-CR challenges and then sleeping, that Technomancer is gonna shine. If you're fighting 5 encounters of 6 low-CR goblins each (which is certainly possible given the new Resolve/Stamina Points mechanics described above) those spells are gonna run out pretty quickly, and mostly are going to overkill the NPCs anyway...
This is probably going to come off the wrong way, but do you actually not understand the intent of the feat, or are you just rules lawyering for the sake of rules lawyering? Guessing the latter (in which case, feel free to post your own version that takes around the same word count instead?) but willing to help try to explain again if it's the former.
Not really. If the whole idea of the item is that it's 'slap on and forget' your medical training is irrelevant. An experienced doctor doesn't apply a bandaid any better than I do. It doesn't matter how much they understand the underlying biology or healing process, they still just put the pad over the injury as completely as possible.
Skill Unit adds X skill actions to the list of actions you can take with your AI (In addition to Move or "standard action to attack" with Limited. Move, standard to attack, or Full Attack at -6 from Expert. Etc). Nothing is being overwritten, and nothing is modifying the part that discusses not being able to take Actions when Mechanic is out of range or unconscious.
That's really cool - I never considered that you could be a ranged tank because of those feats.
So you wasted in my opinion on a feat to have heavy armor because you were not happy with light armor and so did not want to use the class abilities to say that the class does not work which means not playing the class and just making a character with tables based of a class.If solar armor is insufficient for a Strength-based frontliner's AC needs, then that is a problem with solar armor itself. Would you say your definition of "insufficient" is "lower than the possible maximum you can achieve across any class"? Because then I would argue the issue lies in the definition, not the class ability.
You do not need to playtest to figure out that, for example, feinting is awful without investment, or that Opening Volley is not much of a feat. Thanks for your opinion. I would say it's even more clear that a Solarian that uses 1 of their 5 class features is going to be poorer than a class that uses all of their class features, but it seems like that was able to be stretched into dozens of soapbox posts across multiple threads.
It's not clear to me how a Solarian build that didn't use any of the Solarian class features helps understand how a Solarian plays.A 1st-level solarian does not exactly have much class features to show off, unfortunately. The fact that you went in with that assumption is what makes me question the entire analysis. It's not exactly shocking that any class that spends all its resources (feats/attributes/gear) emulating a different class isn't as good as the class that gets all those things for free. What about using a high Charisma score to Feint? What about using a Returning (Level 1 fusion, 125cr) Starknife to have a Strength-based Ranged option while you attune? What about using Opening Volley with that Starknife and your Solar Blade in the other hand? THOSE are the types of things I'd like to try in actual-play settings. And before anyone pulls apart each one of those options, or tells me how an Operative/Soldier could do it 5-10% better, I'm not saying I disagree with you. I'm simply saying that writing off all of those options before even trying them and telling us Blitz Soldier Lite is worse than Blitz Soldier doesn't really advance the conversation.
They lose practically nothing and get a ton. All depends on your definition of 'practically nothing' I guess. Getting your Expertise dice/boosts a level later, getting the "At level X, this improves..." improvisation boosts a level later, trading 4 Skill Points for 1 BAB. You also state they don't really need Cha as an Envoy, which at least is arguable (as one example, losing the extra boost on Bluff checks for Clever Attack makes you less effective at something pretty core to most Envoy combat strategies) I would see this as no different than saying "Every Bard should take a level of Fighter" in PF. Yea, for a lot of Bard builds/ideas it can help more than hurt, but it's not something that is appropriate 100% of the time for either mechanical builds or character concepts. |
