Peter Duchovni's page

I have a rules question regarding the specifics of the Fortification that is provided by the Force Field armor upgrades in the CRB equipment section. Specifically, if I am wearing armor with a Prismatic Force Field installed (100% fortification) that is turned on, and an enemy rolls a natural 20 on an attack with a laser weapon, with a high enough attack bonus to overcome my AC, does fortification prevent that attack from being treated as a critical hit?

The specific wordings that make this ambiguous are as follows:

Regarding fortification,

More powerful force fields also have a fortification ability, which gives a percentage chance that a critical hit is treated as a normal attack, dealing normal damage and not applying any critical effect. You roll your fortification percentage chance before the critical hit’s damage is rolled.

and regarding laser weapons,

The force field blocks solids and liquids but not gases or light (including laser beams)

(source: CRB)

This means that laser weapons bypass the force field's temporary HP, but are they subject to the chance for turning critical attacks into normal attacks that fortification provides?

I recently looked over the full spell description for the T4-T5 spell 'Creation', listed in the CRB.

You create a nonmagical, nontechnological, unattended object of nonliving matter. The volume of the item created can’t exceed 1 cubic foot (or 1 bulk) per caster level. You must succeed at an appropriate Engineering or Profession check to make a complex item, and you can’t create a consumable item.

4th: When you cast creation as a 4th-level spell, it creates an object made out of vegetable matter (such as wood) that has an item level no greater than one-third your caster level. The duration is 1 hour per caster level.

5th: When you cast creation as a 5th-level spell, it creates an object made out of vegetable matter or material of a mineral nature: crystal, metal, stone, or the like. The object can’t have an item level greater than half your caster level. The duration depends on the hardness and rarity of the created object, as indicated on the following table. (...)

I am somewhat confused over exactly what is signified by the "duration" of the spell. The "Spell Description Format" explains duration but does not mention what exactly it signifies for spells whose effects bring objects into existence. My instinct would be that the 'duration' of the spell's effect indicates either

1) How long the creation process takes after the spell is fully cast (which doesn't really make sense based on the numbers provided)

or

2) How long the object *lasts*

My suspicion is that it is the latter, but if that is the case, I am somewhat confused as to why this spell description even bothers listing precious metals as an option, given the fact that they last only one round per caster level. If your character is in a position to use a full minute to cast the spell itself, then it is highly unlikely that tactical time intervals are being used, and it would vanish somewhere between 1 and 2 minutes afterwards (since the first level a technomancer can cast a 5th level spell at is 13, excepting the use of spell gems).

Am I correct in assuming that the items somehow "expire" after a given amount of time? If so, what exactly does that entail, and why would this spell be used to create anything that is going to wink out of existence in a matter of minutes? If if is not the case, what exactly does "duration" indicate for this particular spell?

I recently took a look at the "Earn a Living" section of the Profession skill in Starfinder.

> You can use Profession to earn money. A single check generally represents a week of work, and you earn a number of credits equal to double your Profession skill check result.

Let's take a look at this.

The highest possible skill check modifier for Profession at character level 1 (without purchases) is +11 (1 rank + 3 (skill focus) + 3 class skill bonus + 4 for ability score of 18). This means that you can earn an amount of credits per week equal to 2x(1d20 + 11) = ~44 credits on average, with a minimum of 24 and a maximum of 62.

In comparison, for a level 20 operative who fully invests their skill ranks and ability increases towards a profession stat, and who purchases a Mk 3 personal upgrade for that stat, the best you can get for skill check modifier is +38 (20 rank + 6 operative edge + 3 class skill bonus + 6 for pre-upgrade ability score of 22 + 3 for +6 from personal upgrade), which only means that you earn 2x(1d20 + 38) = ~96 credits on average, with a minimum of 78 and a maximum of 116.

This basically means that a level 20 professional in a trade earns only twice (or so) as many credits per week as a complete rookie, despite reaching level 20 (which is normally very very hard in in-world terms).

Does anyone else think that this is somewhat odd, and is too low for higher level characters?