Their FAQ says nothing about offline support. In fact, from various answers, to include the one that mentions not losing anything if you're temporarily disconnected, online-only usage is a reasonable conclusion to come to, especially considering one of their primary selling points is players interacting with each other for starship play.
I would gladly pay $75 every month for a potion that magically made me look and feel as perfectly healthy as I wanted to be.
Aerotan : Without any life-long consequence to the potion (you can always drink another to undo what you did), there'd be no reason to have an age of consent.
On age, could a child take the potion to appear to be an adult? That'd seriously mess with hormonal balance and developmental issues.
If you can cause gender dysphoria just by taking the serum, I would argue there's a better term for that, as the two root causes are very different. Gender Assimilation Disorder? Gender or Neutral Assimilation Disorder maybe.
Gender dysphoria affects a vanishingly small percentage of a population (if we're going to go by human norms).
For Drow, I would think their society would outright ban sex changes, since sex is tied to power/caste. I'd expect it to be a "punishable by death on sight" issue.
For non-extremists like the Drow, I'd expect to see varieties of group dynamics concerning fluid sexual identities. You'd have those that change their sex on whim. You'd have those that believe it immoral to ever change your sex. You'd have those with gender dysphoria who'd bless the day they could afford the serum.
This means distributing a digital character sheet application (say, something I'm working on for Android) will need specific permission to include stuff like equipment.
How can we tell what aspects of Starfinder are OGL? Are all mechanics OGL? Clearly setting isn't, but if equipment and deities can be considered part of setting, then they aren't OGL. Is this accurate?
The word "ovum" is literally Latin for "egg". It doesn't matter what non-scientific ideas people had in the middle-ages. The Female of a species is the one that creates/contributes the egg. How much you "experienced your female-ness" is irrelevant. The term "incubator" cannot be offensive unless you think of yourself that way, since the point I was making was that female humans are NOT incubators.
The female of a binary species is the one that contributes the ovum. Female humans are more than incubators; they contribute 50% of genetic material. Theirs just comes preinstalled in the egg, that's all.
Relying on killing enemies in one shot isn't reliable. The amount of damage enemies can take, and the total number of rounds it takes you to kill them, is what you have to consider. With spray-n-pray, there's a point at which taking a full round to attack 4+ enemies is very worth it, since you end up dealing more damage than you would have otherwise.
Just to chime in on the military experience here, I served in the US Army for 16 years and am intimately familiar with the M249 and M240B. Nobody is trained to spray-n-pray, and while I understand there needing to be a penalty of some sort to doing so, using up an entire magazine/cartridge (don't get me started on proper terminology here) to do so strikes me as wrong.
I suppose it might not be so bad if there was a feat in order to make the charge/ammo usage match the number of targets in the cone * 2. Maybe even another feat, having prerequisite of the prior feat, that allows the player to choose their targets within the cone. For the cost of two feats, being able to be actually good with an automatic weapon seems fair to me.
I wouldn't make their bodies hackable. They should be susceptible to Charm Person, like any other player class, since you can make an easy argument for all their hardware being a closed system.
You could also go the opposite route - an organic brain inside a construct body. There's a lot of unexplored room in Starfinder right now for cyberpunk tropes.
Has anyone else considered the rich and expansive universe that is Mass Effect as a setting for a table top game? I find the idea very attractive, and I'm wondering if anyone else has started on any homebrews of their own.
Full Name
Ezechias
Race
HP 42/42 | AC:20 T:10 FF:20 CMD:15 | F+13 R+8 W+10 (+2 vs death; -2 vs poison, disease, illusions, fey) | Init +0 | Perc +6 (darkvision)
Hp 42/42
Life Links Hellstrider, Dhara
Active effects None
Conditions None
Resources & Macros:
Daily spells / powers / items
Spells (1st) 6/6
Channel (oracle, 2d6, DC 15) 5/5
Lay on Hands (1d6, mercies: sickened) 5/5
Smite (+4/+3) 1/1
Vow to Self (+4 morale bonus to one roll to help keep a promise) 1/1
Exposed to Awfulness (reroll on a save that results in death or physical incapacitation, 1/day) 1/1
Scale of Terendelev, Shield (resist elements, cold or electricity) 3/3
Macros
[dice=Mwk Cold Iron Scimitar, PA]1d20+5;1d6+4[/dice]
[dice=Concentration]1d20+7[/dice]
[dice=Perception]1d20+6[/dice]
Defense AC 20, touch 10, flat-footed 20 (+8 armor, +2 shield)
hp 42 (3d10+12)
Fort +13, Ref +8, Will +10; +2 vs. death, -2 vs. disease, illusions, poisons, and the spells, spell-like abilities and supernatural abilities of fey
Immune Fear, Disease
Offense Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)
Melee mwk cold iron scimitar +6 (1d6+2/18-20)
Special Attacks merciful smite, smite evil 1/day (+4 attack and AC, +3 damage)
Oracle Spells Known (CL 3rd; concentration +7)
. . 1st (5/day)—cure light wounds, detect undead, divine favor, liberating command, shield of faith
. . 0 (at will)—create water, detect magic, guidance, purify food and drink, stabilize
. . Mystery Life
Statistics Str 14, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 18
Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 15
Feats Fey Foundling, Power Attack
Traits Aspiring Hellknight, Fate's Favored, Exposed to Awfulness
Combat Gear
scale of terendelev (shield)
wand of infernal healing (50)
Gear for level 3 (1500 gp total):
Half Plate (600 gp)
Mwk cold iron scimitar (330 gp)
Heavy Steel Shield (7 gp)
Wand of Infernal Healing (750 gp)
Paladin's Kit (backpack, a bedroll, a belt pouch, a cheap holy text, a flint and steel, an iron pot, a mess kit, rope, soap, torches (10), trail rations (5 days), a waterskin, and a wooden holy symbol) (11 gp)
Holy Symbol, Silver (25 gp)
Weapon cord (1 sp)
Total: 813 gp, 1 sp
Special Abilities Aspiring Hellknight +1 Intimidate and Intimidate is a class skill.
Aura of Courage Immune to fear, +4 morale bonus vs. fear for allies within 10 feet.
Divine Health Immune to all diseases, including magical ones.
Exposed to Awfulness Once per day when you fail a saving throw against an effect created by a demon that would kill or physically incapacitate you, you can immediately reroll that saving throw as a free action. You must take the second result, even if it is worse. (Associated Mythic Path: Guardian)
Fate's Favored +1 to existing luck bonuses.
Fey Foundling +2 hp healed per die (on me).
Fey Thoughts Perception and Climb are class skills. Replaces Weapon Familiarity.
Fey-Taken -2 vs. disease, illusions, poison and spells, spell-like abilties and supernatural abilities of fey.
Legalistic The shackles of Hell impose savage consequences should you violate a covenant, but also imbue you with remarkable guile. Whenever you break your word (either purposefully or unintentionally), you become sickened for 24 hours or until you meet your obligation.
Life Link (3 max bonds, 100 feet) (Su) As a standard action, establish bond that drains your HP to heal other below -5 hp.
Merciful Smite (Su) You can do nonlethal damage with your smite evil without a penalty.
Mercies Sickened.
Monstrous Rapport (Ex) +2 Diplomacy with monstrous creatures.
Orc Blood Half-orcs count as both humans and orcs for any effect related to race.
Sacred Tattoo +1 luck bonus to all saves. Replaces Orc Ferocity.
Smite Evil (1/day) (Su) +4 to hit, +2 to damage, +4 deflection bonus to AC when used.
Vow to Self (1/day) +4 morale bonus to one roll to keep a promise.
Favored Class Bonus (Paladin) 1st to 3rd-Hp
Automatic bonus progression
+1 resistance bonus to all saves
Development plans:
Mythic Path: Guardian
Prestige class into Holy Vindicator (replaces Oracle at level 6-15)
Feats
1st Fey Foundling
3rd Power Attack
5th Alignment Channel
7th Greater Mercy
9th Improved Critical (Scimitar) or pick +1 keen scimitar and get another feat early.
10th Channel Smite (bonus feat from Holy Vindicator 5)
11th Selective Channeling
13th Critical Focus
15th Improved Initiative
17th Stunning Critical or Toughness
19th Toughness
ALT: (Divine Interference), Extra Lay on Hands, Quicken Spell, Quick Channel
Note: Since Immediate actions add unnecessary complexity to PbP, mythic abilities or feats selected using such actions are kept to a minimum.
Mythic Path Abilities
1st Guadian's Call (Sudden Block), Empathic Healing
2nd Armored Might
3rd Marshal's Orders (Advance), Clarion's Call [Marshal]
4th Impervious Body I
5th Relentless Healing
6th Beacon of Hope [Marshal]
7th Impervious Body II
8th Mythic Resolve
9th Impervious Body III
10th True Defender, Master of Mercy [Marshal]
Note: Since Immediate actions add unnecessary complexity to PbP, mythic abilities or feats selected using such actions are kept to a minimum.
Description:
Before you stands a towering half-orc clad in a scaled iron armor. The armor’s spaulders are linked to the chestplate with large lock and chain-like designs, and the gauntlets have been fashioned to look like large manacles, a very reminiscent feature of the armors the Order of the Chain frequently wear. Ezechias’s face is burly and scarred, displaying the many hardships he has been through in life. Some of these scars, you wonder, may never heal.
Yet despite its impressive and hulking figure, the half-orc has an eerie look about him. His blue eyes seem constantly lost in a haze, disconnected from the reality that surrounds him. His skin has a dark green hue, somehow forbidding anyone to ignore the armiger’s origins.
His long fingers rest on the hilt of a beautiful enameled scimitar made of a strange metal, wrought with the holy symbol of Sarenrae. Upon closer inspection, the same symbol is repeated several times on his armor, shield, and even a large tattoo somehow half-visible on his forearm.
Background:
Individuals need order to live peacefully with one another. A soul cannot ignore the need for rules when he desires to live a life of righteousness, and when he strays away from that path, he can only return to it by upholding order. Such is the cost of Redemption, as law is the gateway to redeeming one’s tainted soul.
That is the creed of Ezechias, a young half-orc redeemer in service of Sarenrae, born about 24 years ago in the Estrovian forest in Mendev. While his birth remains a mystery, his early childhood was marked by a tragedy. All we know is that the half-orc’s real parents were dedicated Sarenites who happened to live in that eerie forest. Much later, when the child was found and returned to civilized lands, it was known that he was still carrying his father’s holy symbol of the Dawnflower, a beautiful ornament made of silver and bearing the child’s name, Ezechias.
The exact circumstances of the tragedy that befell the young boy are hazy, but it is believed that a vicious demon known as a babau somehow succeeded in bypassing the weakened wardstones and ventured further in the Mendevian lands. Upon encountering the Sarenite family in the Estrovian forest, that very demon slew both of Ezechias’s parents, baptizing the 4 year-old child in their blood. Demons are not known for their mercy, and that babau was no exception – he struck Ezechias with all his might, yet something the demon did not foresee happened. The boy survived. Against all odds, a boy designated by fate itself managed to endure the demon’s blow. What happened next is unclear, but Ezechias’s foster father later told him that he and his kin had found the child in a comatose state and decided to whisk him away to their haven, on the First World. Ezechias‘s saviors were indeed fey who had witnessed the terrible event.
On the First World the child was cared for, his fell wounds were healed. Yet even his fey abductors couldn’t help but marvel at the child’s resiliency. Ezechias eventually recovered, and accepted his new life at first. One of the fey known as Noraelys became the boy’s foster father, taking upon himself to awaken the child to the First World’s wonders. The half-orc, oblivious of his real origins, endeavored to adapt to the primal plane’s strange and chaotic environment. However that part of his life was a daily struggle, as his very body tried to resist change and chaos with every fiber of his being, though Ezechias gained some features of the faerie people due to his long stay on the First World. In time, it became clear to Noraelys that Ezechias would never fit in among the fey. Where the fey revelled in freedom, the young boy wanted moral landmarks, rules, order. More than that, the half-orc child felt deep inside an unfulfilled destiny, a sacred duty that was drawing him elsewhere.
When the boy turned fourteen, Noraelys finally chose to let go. He told Ezechias the tale of how he came to be taken away from Golarion, his own world, and the dire fate of his real parents. Ezechias’s foster father gave him the medallion he found on the child ten years earlier, and agreed to take the teenage boy back to Mendev. There was a price, however: the boy wouldn’t remember his stay on the First World, as the veil between worlds would twist and rationalize all that occured to him there. To this day Ezechias is unable to find any specific memories of that period of time, but clearly remember his foster father, perhaps an elf, telling him the gruesome tale of his parents‘ untimely death. This trauma still causes him nightmares, in which eerie things he cannot explain occur.
As he was brought back to Golarion, Ezechias was found by crusaders patrolling near Nerosyan. They took him to their headquarters and upon considering the holy symbol he was bearing they assigned him to be brought up and trained by the church of Sarenrae. There he felt at home once again, as he was able to express his dedication, discipline and righteousness fully. While the lawful life he desired was not at the core of most Sarenrae devouts‘ creed, his eerie nature and acceptance of others whatever their origins were naturally led him to become a redeemer, one of the Dawnflower’s paladins dedicated to bringing back to righteousness those who strayed too far from that path.
The more time went by, the more his legalistic views came to clash with some Sarenites’ own opinions. While the young paladin was under the belief that pure law and order are the gateways for an earnest redemption, some of the clergy’s prominent members disagreed. Ezechias chose to leave the monastery before the conflict escalated further, and sought an organization who would share his beliefs, or at least allow them to guide the paladin’s hand. He found a new path the day he joined the Hellknight order of the chain, who saw in Ezechias a great potential and possibly a different way to deal with criminals: offer redemption and atonement instead of shackles and a hangman’s noose. The young silver-tongued paladin has somehow managed to convince a Maralictor of his views, thus allowing him to join the Hellknight order as an armiger. After two years of hard training in Citadel Gheradesca near Corentyn, Ezechias returned to the Worldwound border where he was stationed with several other Hellknights. The longing and sense of unfinished business he felt all his life was drawing him there, fate was waiting for him to reveal himself as one of the scions of law in a great conflict to come.
Note: Ezechias could and will work alongside evil people, as long as they behave in a lawful manner. Of course he may try to redeem them, in time.
Goals:
Ezechias would like to make a big difference, to sway and redeem souls that seemed beyond redemption (is it possible redeem a demon? nothing is impossible for the ever-optimistic Ezechias!).
Moreover he would like to convince more Hellknights (especially in the Order of the Chain, but not only) that redemption is a decent path to hope for instead of pure chastisement and/or imprisonment. He doesn't have any big plans on that regard, but he's a bit naive and would like to do it by setting an example himself. Of course if this works this might lead to a schism in the Order of the Chain, possibly lending itself to founding a minor Hellknight order whose main belief is redemption through observance of laws.
