Pogiforce's page

Older story, but still funny.

Me: playing a Dr. Doolittle of a shirren envoy.

GM: you find yourself surrounded by predators. They look hungry. You can use survival to handle an animal to drive them off.

Me: i have wildwise, can I use diplomacy?

GM: sure.

Me: looks at party. " Sorry everyone." Proceeds to belt out an absolutely god-awful psychic shriek. Rolls Nat 20 on diplomacy.

GM : okay yeah, no, they absolutely hate that and it freaks them out big-time. they run away from you to try to get away from the noises in their head.

Me: Happy shirren noises.

And this was before character operations manual came out with the psychic shriek feat.

I concur with Hmm. Give it the Tetriad Translator treatment. Free if you accept it during the scenario, otherwise you gotta buy in. just like how the wayfinders can buy the translator for fame but other factions have to spend credits.

Sent: Seconday, 12th of Desnus
To: Director of Abadarcorp Customer Relations (thursty.dir@abadar.gov)
Cc: Starfinder Agent Roster (Agent#_star@finder.org) Celita (notHis7@finder.org)

Subject: The State of Cybernetics

Salutations. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am an Android, designation OV-416, known as Overwatch to my peers. I am a seasoned field agent of the Starfinder Society and a colleague of Detaphiles Executive Officer Celita. Our line of work entails great personal risk, so it is imperative my colleagues and I use only the best equipment and augmentations available to ensure the safety of our agents. Given my years long professional relationship with Abadarcorp as a Starfinder Agent, it is my responsibility to inform you of a grave deficiency in certain products offered by your company. In other words, I wish to lodge a complaint.

I will state it simply: the state of Cybernetic Augmentations is in urgent need of redress. In most cases they are grossly overpriced for the amount of actual value they provide, in terms of value they are utterly eclipsed by Armor Modifications, and they are lacking in functional diversity when compared to other augments available on the market. As a Cyberborn who values the calculated synthetics of Cybernetics instead of the unpredictable Magitech or the fleshy tumors of Biotech, this is simply untennable.

As I think divorcing the question of cost from the question of value when compared to Armor Mods is utterly impossible, I will address these first two points simultaneously. The most readily available comparison would be the Cybernetic Augmentation of Darkvision Capacitors, as the armor mod equivalent in Infrared Sensors is readily available to any adventurer the second they step off the shuttle into Absalom's Stations vast markets. Standard Darkvision Capacitors and Infrared sensors both provide the same benefit, that being able to see through complete darkness out to a distance of sixty feet. However, while the Infrared Sensors are a modest 200 credits, Standard Darkvision Capacitors are a significantly more substantial 1750 credits, an increase in cost of 875%.

An even more egregious example would be the comparison between the Armor Modification of Deflective Reinforcement with the Cybernetic Augmentation of Dermal Plating. While Deflective Reinforcement may cost 214% more than Dermal Plating Mk 1, but it also provides 500% more protection than it's Cybernetic counterpart. When compared to a Dermal Plating model that provides equal benefit, the Dermal Plating Mk 5, The Dermal Plating costs 105,000 Credits, a 1400% increase! The Dermal Plating product line also has a troublesome glitch where it's effectiveness decreases to that of a Mk 1 regardless of it's actual mark should the person it's installed in possess other, similar forms of physical protection. While the same glitch is present in the Deflective Reinforcement, it's greater potency at first purchase suggests that you are more likely to get your full value out of the Deflective Reinforcement, whereas with Dermal Plating investing in anything more than a Mk 1 seems like a woeful waste of credits.

Now I have discussed this in the past with other agents, and some may argue that the trade off is Armor Modifications are limited by the armor you are wearing. Armors can only support so many. To that I must point out that while that is true, Armor Modifications are modular and easily interchangeable with a little time and effort, making it relatively easier to simply swap through a rotation of mods as the situation calls for it. Augmentation however requires invasive surgery, and unless you are a member of a species with a natural proclivity to augmentation, or are a member of the Augmented who have special tech and training to handle more augments in the body, each system in the body is capable of only handling one augment. I also understand the argument that Augmentation prices reflect the need for a medical bay and a surgeon to properly install the augment, but I would argue that even still those fees should not be an over 800% increase, for even the most conservative of comparisons. How do these augmentation clinics expect to stay open when the same technology comes in a modular, cheaper, easier to acquire form?

Then there is the issue of diverse functionality in Cybernetic Augments. While Cybernetic Augments share much of the same territory as Armor Mods, Magitech, Biotech, and even Necrografts boast unique, impactful augments that are favored by many an adventurer. Force Soles are a very popular Magitech item, and I have personally seen Selective Ears used as well. Biotech seems to get the Lion's share, with Dragon Glands, Venom Spur, Glass Skin, and Pressurized Lungs all being popular options. I have even seen an agent willing to look past the stigma of Necrografts to get a Bone Blade. Meanwhile Cybernetics are woefully underrepresented.

Sure, Cybernetics have a few standouts. Speed Suspensions and Data Jacks are popular with scouts and engineers. But Cybernetics still fall short of being unique because of Adaptive Biochains. Effectively for any Cybernetic Augment that exists, there is also a Biotech version of it. When Biotech already has most of the appealing augments. It may come with a small markup, but there are plenty of Biotechnicians out there who usually can exercise their connections to not only make that mark up disappear, but still manage a tiny discount. It has the appearances of self dealing.

On the other hand, there is no Cybernetic equivalent for Biotech, even those Biotech Augments where logically one would exist. Augment Makers would really pay a premium to harvest the scales of a deadly Eoxian Serpent for Glass Skin, but wont pay a modest sum for the photo cells perfectly capable of replicating the effect. Even worse, the Machine Telepathy Cluster is a gift from robotic organisms commonly known as Drift Angels, who are believed to be heralds of Triune. Triune is the tripartite God of machines, AI, and synthetic life. This Augment, which even has Machine in it's name, is Biotech. I had one implanted despite my misgivings, if only because it plays to my strengths and is a gift of Triune. I would readily replace it with a Cybernetic version if given the opportunity.

Weaponized Prosthesis might vaguely resemble the offensive power granted by Dragon Glands or Venom Spurs, but the weapons capable of being installed in such a prosthesis are limited in number, lacking in efficiency, and like everything else, overpriced. Why is there no option to convert existing weaponry to be compatible with a Weaponized Prosthesis for a modest fee? Why no melee attachments? Is Abadarcorp really that comfortable with Eoxian Necrografts cornering the market on weaponized arm blades? How is it possible that the technology exists to stick an organic computer into my brain as a Data Jack, but not a synthetic blast nozzle in my throat as a Dragon Gland? Where do you even harvest all those Wyrmling Dragon Glands anyway? On second though, maybe I don't want to know.

I just don't understand how Cybernetics got into this state. Maybe Abadarcorp scaled back their investment in Cybernetics in fear of market backlash after all those faulty implants were sold in the Free Market back in Pharast 318. Yes, I am aware of that event.Maybe the ongoing media smear against my organization coupled with the internal politics of your organization has resulted in Abadarcorp being reluctant to sell their best equipment to Starfinders. Maybe the ongoing Corona Plague sweeping the Pact Worlds and the Veskarium has had an unseen impact on Research and Development for newer, better Cybernetics. It could be all or none of these things. All I know is the situation needs to change.

I can be patient. In these trying times, I understand that fixing the state of Cybernetic Augments will take time. Please do not mistake my patience for weakness. If Abadarcorp is unwilling to address the deficiencies in their cybernetics, your organization is not so big that I could not take my business elsewhere. The society has already done business in the past with Zeizerer Munitions, and I'm sure other companies both in the Pact Worlds and in Near Space would be willing to see to our needs. And of course, I would be recommending my colleagues do the same. I am sorry if this seems drastic, but I hope now I have your full attention, and this matter may finally be put to rest. Because I know if there is one thing Abadarcorp hates, it's losing business to a competitor.

With Regards,
Overwatch

P.S. This has been posted as an open letter visible to my colleagues in the Starfinder Society so that they may cosign or provide addendum as they see fit. Maybe then you will understand the market demand for impactful, affordable Cybernetics.

P.P.S. As a sign of good faith, attached below you will find the schematic for a prototype Cybernetic Augment developed by myself and some colleagues in the Dataphiles. You have our permission to mass produce and sell this augment royalty free, under the condition that the Dataphiles and Starfinder Society are properly accredits for it's discovery. It should require minimal fine tuning. This augment can serve as a stop gap for the Cybernetics issue until new product lines are developed, and help the Society in our ongoing struggle against negative media attention. I hope the mutually beneficial nature of our offer appeals to you.

Would be nice if they allowed a one time free rebuild, like when Pathfinder unchained was released.

Dissappointed. Heard there was something big starfinder related on the 16th. This doesn't feel big. This feels forgettable. I'm not a fan of the beginners box because of how much the rules are changed from actual starfinder. I don't think if your trying to introduce new players to the game you should do it with an almost complete departure from the CRB. And then turning that into a voice only Amazon powered app that only has the one adventure?

Good for those who will enjoy this. I'll keep waiting for the additional resources update.

Incidentally also good for melee texhnomancers, since already stated plus racial bonuses to computers and engineering. Could be good exocortex melee mechanics for the same reason.

Nice!

When I playtested the Biohacker, my big complaint was the inability to effectively boost my allies, because the vanguard in level+1 heavy armor can't be caught flat-footed, so good luck giving him the good stuff mid combat. Now, you can auto succeed the ranged attack on allies so long as you had scanned them with your portable lab, and they're within 30 feet.

The thing for me is the classes and a few Class options I've got an Elebrian ad a Morlamaw that I've been sitting on for Biohacker and Vanguard, respectively. I have a level 1 mystic that will be going star Knight and was going to be healing connection, but now that I've seen the crusader connection it has a lot of appeal. I also want to be able to use a shield. There's some nice fantasy in a star Knight crusader mystic of Iomedae entering battle with a long sword and a Knight's Shield.

I wish it were sooner rather than later. I've got a number of character concept that I can't advance without this book.

"I do have to say, it's nice that Calder Soren himself is here engaging with the rank and file agents. Working hard on that campaign."

Exoguardians have one that allows you to replay a scenario for each tier you have with them.

This is inaccurate. The Exoguardians boon says that if you GM a scenario for which you've already received GM credit for previously, you may use the boon once per tier to gain one Exoguardians Fame and reputation but nothing on the chronicle sheet. Since we're talking about replays I thought I would clear up any confusion.

My argument isn't a straw man. Do you know if stelek, or Nova, or Hadif joined the society with proper knowledge of it? It's leadership, it's bureaucracy, it's power structure within itself and within the pact world's as a whole? You do remember that a lot of early Starfinder joined as hired mercenaries to fill out the numbers, right? That's why the acquisitives faction exists.

All we know is they all have the breadth of experience to have each obtained 45 SSLE reputation, which is not nothing, and puts them on equal footing. There will be an orientation period for any of them. none of them are venture captains, none of them are being expected to know the job inside and out going in. Luwazi and Jadnura are going to show them the red phone and the football and the forum meetings. Possible lack of proper society knowledge is not a disqualifier.

And I agree With Wei Hi. I think someone is trying to find an IC reason for an ooc prejudice. We get it, you don't like Morlamaw. I know a guy who says he will never play a Shirren, everyone's got their preferences ( Shirren are awesome though and deserving of love) just be honest about it. " I'm not voting for him because Morlamaw." Not " I'm not voting for him because not qualified." That right there is a straw man.

To counterpoint the idea that the Morlamaw lacks the experience, I remind everyone that all of these are player characters who got the Rising Star boon, which means like the other candidates Caldor Soren got at least 45 Second Seekers reputation. That represents a significant breadth of experience, and makes him at the very least as qualified as the other candidates in that respect.

It could also be argued that since Morlamaw are from a culture that emphasizes order and organization, he'd probably feel right at home among the Society's bureaucracy. My concern about Caldor Soren was that his strict adherence to this cultural order seems to make him rather inflexible, which is not what you want out of a leader, especially of an organization like the society that needs to adapt to every circumstance, and be willing to over look cultural differences to work together. The motto is still explore, report, cooperate. And with his culture of order and desire to start reexploring the vast, he's got the explore and report part. It's the cooperate part I'm concerned about.

So you know how we have full page art for all the relevant NPCs and monsters in Pathfinder 2nd Edition Scendarios? Can we make that a thing for Starfinder Society also? I usually make my own art by either clipping it out of the page in Photoshop or finding something similar/from the bestiary on Google, but having it readily available in the scenario would make GM prep that much easier on me.

For that matter, having all stat blocks organized by encounter with the encounter rules and tactics as a seperate appendix would make it easier for me, as someone who often runs off a PDF, since then I can just print off the appenices and don't have to go flipping back and forth to cross reference different parts of the same document when a creature gets reused or whatever.

The Pilot episode of Zo!s show Sprinting Man. Convicts are released into the wilds of Eox with little more than a hazmat suit, with the goal of escaping. Those who succeeded got a full pardon. A cast of bounty hunters are also hired to track them down, and were awarded for a confirmed kill, but even more if captured alive. The show ran for three seasons, where fans would have their favorite bounty hunters, and each episode was full of anticipation whether a particular convict would escape, be captured for another season, or have their Sprint end on the kill pile.

The show ran for three seasons before it had some hang ups. Mainly the high mortality rate of the convicts (whether by bounty hunters or the planet itself) lead to fewer volunteers from Eox's convict population, short of the lifers and those on undead (or redead) row. As a result the pool of new contestants thinned and were less empathetic, and when the question was posed what would happen if one of these hardened criminals actually escaped, it lead to litigation that ultimately saw the pact council order the show cease and desist for humanitarian and public safety reasons.

In spite of the controversy the show still has a dedicated fanbase that hold a yearly convention declaring "bring Sprinting Man back!"

Are there chronicle sheets for this for those of us running the game in Starfinder Society?

Me playing operative in King Xeros of Star Azlant, level 5 operative in a tier 7-8 game:

okay, so I roll computers to trick attack the mook, and that's a 27 to trick

GM: you trick.

Me: Okay, so then I roll to hit and... That's a nat 20! Plus 8 to crit against flat-footed eac.

GM: wow, okay. Roll damage.

Me: so with a corona laser pistol, plus trick attack doubled, that's 4d4 + 6d8 +4. So let's see... I got 48, and he burns 1d4 on his turn.

GM: well, it's his turn next, roll fire damage.

Me: I got a 3.

GM: he's dead.

Party focuses big bad, I'm fighting mooks. One mook still standing. My turn.

Me: that's a 24 to trick, does that still trick?

GM: that tricks.

Me: rolling to hit... Another Nat 20, oh my God!

GM: JEEZus!

Me: rolling damage.... Oh wow that's a lot of 8s. 51 damage and 1d4 burn.

GM: g&~#+@mit Sean!

No, you are correct. Somehow when looking at combat maneuvers for Starfinder on archives of nethys I ended up on the Pathfinder rules. In Starfinder all combat maneuvers are standard actions and are not classified as attacks, so would not be able to perform them in a full attack.

Hiya. Teach here! Speaking for myself on this one.

Shirrens are the best diplomats. The penalty doesn't limit their charisma at all, a reroll is clutch.

I appreciate the Vote of Confidence! A lot of people assume that the Iconic Heroes are indicative of who is best suited to to a particular job, and how it should be performed. That's at least part of the reason why you see Ysoki who automatically think they have to be Mechanics, or Kasatha who automatically think they have to be Solarians. People look at Keskodai and assume that Shirren should just be Mystics. But this is a free thinking society! I love Humans, and I don't have any quarrel with Navasi, but we Shirren can be useful too! Just unfortunately, it seems I'm the only Shirren that ever gets sent on missions at my local lodge... Well, me and Keskodai, but I think something's wrong with him. His personality seems to shift from week to week.

You're assigning a really heavy downside to something that's managable.

I think it's a bit unfair to have someone else decide what is manageable for me, or the agents I work with. I'm an agent of the Starfinder Society, which means every time I go on a mission, the agents I travel with are different. Our abilities don't always compliment each other well. There was one mission I went on, I was one of three Envoys in a four person squad. Fortunately that ended up working out for us. We got lucky. At our Local Lodge I don't think I've seen any Mystics except for Keskodai assigned to missions. That can have a huge impact on whether or not something is "manageable"

Aside from that, I consider myself dying a pretty heavy downside. Sure, maybe it's "manageable" from a certain standpoint, depending on who I'm traveling with and who is capable of rescuing me from from an early visit to Lady Hylax's court. But my desire to live and my aversion to excruciating pain has me finding it both unpleasant and not ideal. I follow Hylax, not Groetus.

The character you've laid out just doesn't seem to do much. I can see trying to build differently but non magical healing just doesn't have enough omph to be a viable cornerstone for a build.

Hey! That's hurtful! I try really hard! It's also untrue, non-magical healing is not the cornerstone of my Kit. I just want it to be one of the things I can do well. I just need advice on other tricks to help ensure that my allies are well supported. Because if I don't like dying, I'm sure they don't either.

I just don't want to use Get 'Em. Lady Hylax says to seek Peace above all else, and yes, even she admits that violence is sometimes necessary if Diplomacy is an impossibility. But that doesn't mean I have to have such... zeal about it. Aggression isn't my style. I don't begrudge the methodologies of those who travel with me, I just don't want people looking down on me because I chose to hold some convictions about my approaches to violence. We Shirren didn't become free thinkers just to have other people tell us to fight their way.

You will if you look delicious...

I'm not delicious, I swear! I love all animals, but becoming a Renkroda's dinner is not on the agenda. I would hope that I would have a Soldier or even an Operative or Mechanic to protect me, but I don't get to choose the people assigned to missions with me. I just do the best with what I'm given, try to stay positive, and support my team the best I can without sacrificing what makes me 'Teach'.

Just for point of note, this is literally exactly why my group almost never uses consumables except the occasional healing item in emergencies. Because our GMs don't tend to adjust things like this, they tend to run things by the book. Even when published materials sometimes fall well under WBL. Some GMs hesitate to even change Pathfinder item drops to the slightly-less-common things the party is specced into instead of five hundred longswords or greatswords.

That was one thing I liked about the PFP adventure. More than once I saw treasure tables where it basically said " the loot is three items of these item levels that you think are appropriate to your party." It's a great use of the item level system, giving your party custom loot without it being too strong. Since starfinder has item levels as well, I think it would be a great practice for the APs. Doesn't have to be every treasure section, just every once in a while. Puts more agency on the GM other than reading a script, personalizes the AP to your unique party make up, and makes the experience more unique.

I could use a laser-phaser-maser-bananafanafofaser. That sounds dope.

The solarians who've played at my tables lack creativity.

Light sabers. Always lightsabers.

Exceeding the speed limit is more illegal than that, everywhere. You get a lot of social stigmas from getting a speeding ticket?

Weed is legal in California. Doesn't mean a large portion of society would not view me disfavorably, or that I wouldn't lose my job and face potential jail time in NOT California if I was a weed user.

Or to compare apples to apples,necrografts are a medical procedure. abortion is a medical procedure. But different places have different restrictions on abortion, and a large portion of society holds very strong negative opinions about the people who do them, the people who get them, and the process itself. Not trying to get political, just stating a fact. When getting described as "less reputable, back alley clinics" as sources for necrografts, that sounds like the same language used to describe getting a hook up from a dealer of illegal substances. They wouldn't be outlawed if there wasn't some stigma against them. There are a number of popularly worshipped God's who are very much anti-undead. Would not be surprised to see a sarenaite funded billboard saying " Just say NO to Necrografts!"

And also my point, if social stigma is all the character cares about, about only getting internal necrografts and not wearing a sign that says "I has undead parts!"

Well aside from the stigma, and the fact that a lot of necrografts can't be hidden, there's the "I don't want undead rotting flesh attached to my body, useful or not" and then there's is the nature of my characters.

Darwyn is the descendant of Grant Stoneshield, silver crusader, venture captain of the pathfinder society, Savior of Akiton. A paladin in everything but name, a paragon of good, defender of the weak, destroyer of evil. Though the gap makes the exact content of Grants exploits foggy at best, Darwyn aspires to live up to his forebear's legacy. Darwyn often asks himself WWGD: what would grant do? Undead are associated with evil, and corruption. If Grant wouldn't do it, Darwyn aspires to keep to that same principle.

David Caine is a follower of Iomedae. Aside from the fact that his wife would disapprove, it would be a violation of his faith.

Teach is obsessed with all manner of living creatures, sentient or otherwise, their biology, their culture, the way life changes as it goes on, everything. Her obsession extends to her choice of augments, preferring biotech. Especially if the biotech is a symbiotic life form in it's own right. (Symbiote personal upgrade, Wildwise being a fungal life form.) Necrografts are vat grown undead flesh. It goes against her personal ethos, and she is worried given that animals have a history of being frightened by undeath, and she wants to befriend ALL the animals, getting necrografts might impede that.

Overwatch, being a Cyberborn Android, is confident in his assertion that cybernetic augments are the only ones that are truly reliable and efficient. Magic is poorly understood and volatile. He does believe that magic is just technology too advanced for most of society to comprehend, but that's not a good argument for magitech augments. Let's just take this thing no one fully grasp that can explode if done wrong and put it in my body, great plan, I always wanted a built in self destruct device with a hair trigger. biotech is like willfully getting an infection, and necrografts are like saying gang green is good. Cybernetics only please.

I know a lot of people just look at class mechanics, look for something reasonably optimized, and just self insert. Nothing wrong with that. I play with people like that all the time. I build my characters with personality types, goals, aspirations, and belief systems, then I play that character. So as I said, if I was going to play a character who would get necrografts, they would have to be someone who sees value in it. A. Undead already. B. Someone who might sympathize with groups like the corpse fleet and desires to be undead. Maybe some permutation of that where a balance between life and undeath is perfect, C. Edgelord black metal rockstar who uses necrografts to further his outsider persona. D. Some form of outlaw who already has a Target on his back, so what society thinks of him doesnt nearly matter so much as the will to survive.

C actually sounds pretty awesome, might be my next Envoy. Join the acquisitives, get a publicist, talk about all the aliens he's slaughtered and use a graphic illustration of their piled up dead bodies with him standing on top hard rocking as the thumbnail for his next album. Should do well with the ysoki and human teenage boy demographics, girls too who like that bad boy image. Make him secretly a coward and while he's got get em and Improved get em to act hard for the publicly, take "not the face" for when things start looking bad. That's the money maker!

The idea of ship credits sounds like basically a more complex solutions version than what I came up with, that being that BP are basically a unique form of UPB which are preconfigured for large design spaces such as Starships. Building Polymers. Naturally scrap and any machinable wreckage that can be used to upgrade ships would have a converted BP value. But this way, you can do a job for someone and get paid in BP. As a physical construct, it would be about the size of an iron drum and weigh 10 bulk. If a ship is going to carry spare BP in either actual BP or usable scrap, they need a cargo bay.

BP would have a converted credit cost of 1000 credits per BP (price tentative) if the party wants to sell, but buying BP is virtually impossible. it's usually mass produced by ship Foundries who use them for ship building projects. Independent BP Foundries are rare. Given the use and expense of BP foundries sell them only in packs of 50, primarily to industrial sectors and major corporations. They will only sell to individuals who present a writ expressing intent to use the BP, and have the credits up front to cover the cost. So the primary way of earning BP for the party would be to find it raw, recover it from scrap, or earn it doing a favor for an NPC. Basically, they'd have to get the BP by adventuring, rather than buying their way into a better ship. If the party actually manages to save up the 50 thou and want to spend it on BP instead of better gear, they're welcome to it.

As for use of BP, it could be used as a trade good, or used to upgrade ships as normal. It's assumed that the shipbuilders skim some of the BP cost ( so if, say, an item in the book says it costs 8 BP, it's actually 5 BP and the ship builders take 3 as payment that they can use on other projects) though if the party wants to hold onto that skimmed BP, they can instead pay that converted cost.

I would also say for PCs that want to build their own ship, they can do so with a successful engineering check = 10+ship's tier+ BP cost of that particular part. When it comes to the ship's frame, the engineer must have at least as many ranks in engineering as the tier of the ship they are building. Success means they do so in a 1d6 days x every 5 BP in the part's Cost. Having multiple engineers assisting with this check divides that time by the number of engineers. This means a solo engineer could build himself a Starfighter in maybe a month, while it would take a dedicated team to build say a medium freighter in the same time period.

Tl;Dr, basically I make BP s physical thing my players can find /get paid in / pay others with, but make outright buying it prohibitively expensive, and building your ship on your own take a really long time.

Nope. The thing has 5 less resistance minimum of Zero. I think it was written to keep you from dealing more damage to something with fire resistance 3 than fire resistance 5.

If that was the intent, then they really botched the wording. They could have just written " Reduce Energy Resistance by 5, (minimum zero) against your attacks against EAC." Though even that seems unnecessary since I've never heard of negative Energy Resistance.

Honestly, given the name of the ability, and the way it's worded, I think how we read it ( ER reduction only if the ER prevented the attack from doing damage) may be the intent. Hence unstoppable strikes.

ER Fire 20 monster soaks a 18 damage fire attack.

Soldier: Cocky aren't ya? You think you can stop me?!

Unstoppable Strikes kicks in, Soldier does 3 Fire damage

Soldier: That's right! My strikes are Unstoppable, baby!

I think that was the fantasy they had in mind with this ability, though as we have already mentioned repeatedly, that would be extremely underwhelming, unpredictable in effectiveness and situationally useful at best. I don't know why they didn't just say "Your energy attacks bypass 5 of your opponent's ER" as that would be more consistent and useful. Maybe they wanted to maintain the paradigm that kinetic attacks are generally more dangerous/harder to pull off but more rewarding, whereas energy attacks are easier/safer but do less damage compared to similar KAC weapons. (At least, that's the paradigm from my point of view, especially since from my experience enemies seem to have ER or Immunities more often than they have DR.)

They may have tried to balance this ability to be a utility for energy users without changing the paradigm, and as a result overbalanced it into something virtually unusable.

I agree that it doesn't extend the range of auto-cones. I still think you're overthinking it though. Scopes in Starfinder do increase the weapon's maximum range. I just don't think it was the intent of the developers for you to have to constantly cross-reference two different ranges for a single weapon just to see if you take a minor penalty to hit.

Scopes do not increase the maximum range, it's VERY clear about that.

In addition, a scope increases a weapon’s range increment for determining penalties to attack rolls due to range. For small arms, a scope increases the weapon’s normal range increment to 1-1/2 times its listed range for this purpose. For longarms and heavy weapons, the increase is 4 times the normal range increment. For sniper weapons, the increase is twice the range increment of the sniper special property. The reduction in penalties due to aiming with a scope applies only to the next attack roll you make with the weapon before the end of your next turn. Scopes also confer other benefits depending on their type.

The scope's improved range is only for calculating range penalties. Nothing else. There is no complicated cross referencing necessary, just take your normal range increment, multiply by ten, you can't shoot further than that. Use the scope's enhanced increment to determine attack penalties.

Profession "Corporate Professional"

Nefreet wrote:

As for #1:

"Your drone is proficient in your choice of small arms or basic melee weapons, and it gains specialization in that weapon type once you reach 3rd level."

Unarmed Strike is a Basic Melee Weapon with the archaic and nonlethal special qualities.

Would that mean that if my drone is a gunner drone, and I gave it Small arms proficiency when creating the drone, the drone then CANNOT make an Unarmed Strike?

It could. At a -4 penalty to the attack.

I don't think that's right, Pogiforce. That just seems way too complex to have been intended.

It's very explicit on that wording though, increases your range increment ONLY for the purposes of determining range penalties to the attack roll. That means for all other uses of the range increment, aka the range of cones for automatic weapons, or the maximum range the weapon can fire before hitting your target becomes an impossibility, you would still use the base increment of the gun. I agree that that is more complicated since you will have to track 2 different range increments (3 with snipers) depending on whether the weapon is automatic and how far you are shooting, but it's very clearly intended.

Scopes let you shoot more accurately, not further. Otherwise people would smack a scope on every blast weapon and you end up with shotguns inexplicably shooting people 20/25 feet away.

Though I wouldn't mind a weapon attachment that constrains the pellet spread of a shotgun, allowing it to shoot further but in a tighter spread. Convert it into a 25 foot line istead of a 15 foot cone.

Hi, I have a follow-up question:

Doesn't the hacker trick attack flavour suggest, in practice, that the operative is performing a hack at a distance? As in, making a nearby display flash and using it as a distraction, for example.

Doesn't that create a problem with how hacking works? I thought that ONLY a 5th level Mechanic can perform a hack at a distance... I am asking because this question comes up with every new level player with 1 rank in Computers: "Can I hack the surveillance camera from across the room"?

I usually say, there's no wifi... but then how can they use the computers skill to justify trick attacking somebody across the room...

... What would be the answer?
Thank you

The amplified glitch feat presents that same issue. Though it serves a similar purpose. So it could be said that hacking in this way is doing little more than causing displays and indicators to misbehave, but doesn't do enough to be a meaningful hack. The way I see it, the idea that you're hacking to cause a distraction is just flavor. The mechanical rules behind it is all that really matters, and the operative could just as easily say he's hacking his HUD/scope/whatever to highlight a spot on the enemy where you could attack that would catch him off guard. Or, if you lack tech equipment but your enemy has something, maybe causing a short in the armor's subroutines creating a temporary opening.

Basically, it's whatever you want it to be, and as long as the mechanical specifications are met, I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you get a player who tries to weasel that ability into getting to hack in ways they shouldn't be able to, tell them it's a trick attack combat subroutine in their hacking kit that let's them create immediate tactical combat advantages, but that to write and insert hostile code via Bluetooth signal it can't be long lasting.

Or, a simpler answer, "because I said so."

Would like to see the pegasus and the Drake among the official wizkids minis coming out later. I think those will see a lot of use in society play. Maybe the gorgon, too.

The talk about romance makes me wonder what races are biologically-compatible enough to have children. It's pretty much a given that humans can have kids with elves, orcs, half-elves, half-orcs, planar scions of their own or the mentioned races, and hags/changelings; I also know that some half-elves are half-ryphorian instead of half-human. But what about lashuntas, astrazoans, borais strix, reptoids, verthani, damais, and other very humanlike (or shapechanging into such) races? Can they have kids with each other?

There really is potential for half Ryphorian, half verthani, half X races in Starfinder.i think that really should be explored more.

How do characters become solarians? If it's a training thing, then how do non-kasathas gain the power of the stars? It's the tradition of the kasathas, so it makes little sense for, say, trox to follow that path.

Based on my reading of the background for the Iconic Solarian, it's not really a training thing. Not exactly, anyway. Like the Jedi it's modeled after, some people just have a gift. The training simply helps nurture it. and this gift can manifest at any point in one's life. In the case of the Iconic Solarian, he didn't manifest Solarian powers until he nearly died trying to defend the brain vaults of the Idari from a would be thief. It took him by surprise about as much as it took the thief.

If anything, like the Jedi Order and the Jedi Council, the Kasatha just have a culture that is built to recognize and nurture this gift in people, and so Kasatha are naturally more prone to becoming Solarians. Theoretically, the rest of the Pact Worlds are just as capable, they just don't have the same culture to help bring it out in them.

Think the difference between Anakin having the Jedi order see his potential and taking him to teach him how to grasp it, versus Rei who kind of just... found it on her own.

For Sprayflesh it seems like it should be DC 25, the normal DC; Medical Expert just speeds it up.

Since the only options published anywhere are DC 25 for basic medkit/sprayflesh and DC 20 for advanced medkit, I'd assume the DC 25 for a basic medkit for a medpatch as well.

I FAQ'd for an official clarification some day, maybe, but I think it's a safe assumption that since there are only two published DCs you should use the harder, more basic one for using basic equipment.

Also note that a medpatch is 50 credits, the same as a Mk 1 healing serum, so unless you have a good Int bonus and can reliably make a DC 30 check you're better off just investing in healing serums and saving the feat. At high levels you can heal more, but just once per day.

It doesn't seem worth a feat to me given the two round action economy (rd 1 draw/move to ally, rd 2 apply), low HP restoration, and cost compared to cheap serums.

It just has appeal to me, playing an Envoy with Skill Expertise in Medicine who might get Surgeon and Battle Medic, that she can heal Stamina with Inspiring Boost, and heal HP with Treat Deadly Wounds. Between Surgeon, Battlefield Medic and Medical Expert, I could potentially treat deadly wounds 4 times a day as a full round action. Once as normal, once at DC +5 for Battlefield Medic, once at DC +10 for battlefield Medic, and once with an hour for Surgeon. Bedside Manner to add Charisma to HP healed, Quick Quaff so they can get a free action to take my serums. Be the battlefield healer. It's complicated and crunchy, but I like the flavor of it, and this way it reduces the amount of actions my party has to spend tending to themselves,plus the healing from Medical Expert would be more consistent than a mk 1 serum (level +CHA, +INT also if high enough, vs 1d8) plus in my area, in society play absolutely no one uses a Mystic. Just, for some reason none of the local players ever built one. I was going to do an Elebrian death touched healing mystic, but then I found out Elebrians are better suited as technomancers or mechanics.

So you haven't got Tim the Two-lman Taylor as a pet? Disappointing...

I understood that cultural reference, and now I am furious.

Also, HG has gnawed apart my food processor. Does anyone have solutions for teething?

This reminds me of a conversation I had recently. I said " if you are known for being an assassin, you are bad at your job."

So... Due to a mission that may or may not have happened -depending on how privy you are to confidential Dataphile and Acquisitives material- I have come into possession of a... Thing.

This "thing" is nothing I have seen before. Scouring the Infosphere and digital libraries on topics of catalogued life forms and life science has turned up nothing. I have come to the conclusion this creature is as of yet in catalogued by the Pact Worlds. Given it's physiology I have decided to call the species "Sharktopus" until such a time that a better name is presented. I have named my Sharktopus House Guest for obvious reasons, which I will now abbreviate to HG for simplicity's sake.

My dilemma is that I am an Android who lives in Aballon's industrial district, and this is an organic life form. I already had to pay an alarming sum to have atmosphere scrubbers and oxygen generators installed in my residence for HG's comfort. Local foods don't seem to appease it. Worse still, it exhibits an exhuberant personality that is damaging precious technology of our now shared home, but I don't wish to discourage this behavior lest doing so stunts HG's social development. I worry about HG's safety. Missions are dangerous affairs and exposure to other agents and hostile environments both bring up awkward questions and put HG's safety at risk, but I don't think leaving him at home alone would be good for his health or safety either. Androids don't have children, but if this is what it's like for human parents I don't envy them this experience.

I cannot bring this discovery to Fitch or other Society leadership without begging the question as to where I found it, and so I bring this to you, my fellow agents. HG's species seems to have the ability to self replicate, and so I am hoping there are other Sharktopus owners out there who can give a new Sharktopus owner some advice. Of course, even advice from other pet owners on how to juggle the job and the responsibility would also be appreciated.

All this talk about stripping to reduce carry weight, everyone knows your starting outfit doesn't weigh anything, right?

For me I got my third star in the last month, so that was exciting. Will likely get my second Nova too, once I finish GMing the fifth book of Dead Suns later this week.

Working on a drawing of my Scaled Fist Monk/Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple, really excited to finish it. He's had some struggles, but is starting to come into his own. This Friday will be the first time I played my Inquisitor in a while, excited for that.

Meraki wrote:

Carrying capacity/encumbrance. No group I've played with has bothered tracking it. As long as no one tries to do something ridiculous like the party wizard carrying around a piano or loot an entire armory of 300 greatswords, we don't feel the need to pay attention to it.

I always keep track of my characters' encumberance. We all used to in the old days.

But I never had a GM roll on the Monthly Disease or Parasitic Infections tables...

For my dwarf barbarian, even with a +6 belt of strength it's a medium load.

I second pulling the starships out of the guide for a community use document. I also second more detailed ship stat blocks, including weapon range increments.

I second adding a subtotal to the chronicle sheet. I second adding more reputation lines to the chronicle sheet. In case no one has said it, I believe that an items bought/ items sold needs to be added to the chronicle sheet.

The Tetrad Certified Translator stats needs to be pulled forward to the section about buying gear. Even though the boon for it does mention that this item is available for purchase normally, it's position among the wayfinder boons makes this easy to overlook.

Personally I would like the boon descriptions organized by faction, rather than purely alphabetically. When I'm trying to read about what boons my faction offers, having to flip back and forth is irritating.

Ooooh, 14th level wizard? We should swap notes!

one thing that I bought very early on was something called a blessed book. It acts as a 1,000 page spell book or formula book that is waterproof and has a lock on it. It also weighs only a pound and it costs nothing to scribe a spell in a blessed book. I am a librarian for the dark archive so I've been spending my later adventuring levels requisitioning scrolls from the archive and then scribing them for free. It's also a great way to consolidate multiple spell books into one book.

one item that I don't have yet but I am saving up for is robes of the archmagi. With the robes you never have to cast mage armor, it gives you spell resistance, and a +4 resistance bonus to saves meaning you can use your shoulder slot or something else. It also helps with caster level checks to overcome enemy spell resistance. They are pretty handy and to be honest I wonder why you didn't pick them up yourself sooner? If you are a venture captain then I assume you did a pretty big job for The decemverate? Those sorts of jobs usually pay a lot of money.

As spellcasters our biggest weakness is being tied down. I have found that a ring of freedom of movement best deals with that problem. Being able to avoid grappling opponents or enemy spell casters who cast Black tentacles can be a lifesaver.

Since you use evocations a rod of selective metamagic might be a good investment. I personally use it whenever I have to cast fireball and my allies and my enemies are woven amongst each other.

Personally I don't feel that chasing armor class is the way to go as an arcane caster. We simply aren't going to be as skilled about not getting hit as a fighter or a paladin. I have found that the best way to deal with that is simply not be there. Now for me that is really easy since I am an arcanist and if my enemies get too close to me I can just teleport 120 ft away and then walk another 25 feet for good measure. I also have Yrishi as my familiar and I rely on her to make me invisible when I need it. if you do not have a pipe Fox as a familiar then the Ring of invisibility might be the way to go.

Of course I think there is one thing that all of us are forgetting: you are about to retire.should you really be spending your money on more adventuring gear or should you invest it or spend it on items to enjoy your retirement with? Do you own a wizard's tower? Maybe you would like to buy a mansion? Or perhaps invest in a business. Think of things that you may want for your civilian life. there is not much point in purchasing additional adventuring gear if you aren't going to adventure anymore.

Ran this Scenario yesterday, my take on the adventure.

First, I feel a party breakdown is in order. Our party consisted of 6 players: a 4th level blitz soldier, a 3 rd level armored storm soldier, a 4th level Keskodai, a 3 third level envoy, a 5th level operative and a sixth level technomancer. They were playing tier 3-4.

iGetting Started
I like the use of a skittermander for this introdutction, though the way his block text is written he feels more like a vest in presentation. I get this is a skittermander who had been in the scoured stars and lost 3 arms and an eye, but I think his generally gruff and vaguely disinterested way he interfaces with the PCs is a missed opportunity. This is the ‘goblin’ of space, the iconic species that’s so heavily associated with the starfinder brand. Having them written in such a way that they seem to belittle the PCs when they ask certain questions, outright ignore them for a minute to pick at food when they ask other questions, and to be generally dodgy and evasive in other questions,it’s kind of like playing.a pathfinder scenario where when you encounter a goblin he speaks in well constructed sentences using extremely verbose sentences, being very polite and confident with the PCs while reading war and peace. It just felt out of character for the species, and this is one of few, if not our first, major skittermander npc We’ve encountered.

Welcome to the Idari
Felt very hand wavium. I used what info I was provided to describe it as best as possible. The envoy used the opportunity to talk with the other passengrs of the shuttle, and the techno a car prompted character introductions. Other than that, eshki’s robo taxi charter to the markets.

The Outland Markets
This turned into a pretty good role play opportunity. In addition to the block text, I roleplayed various merchants hawking wares to prompt conversations. The one lone kasatha that in the party was offered a brand new face scarf made of Haan silk from a lads than vendor. The three ysoki, who were kind of moving around as a pack, we’re offered ysoki grooming kits from Akiton by a kasathan merchant. Another offered the human a 3D printed model of the Pradulex Monastery as a souvenir of his visit. The last was a lashunta wild warden, who offered to sell a pet cage armor upgrade to Keskodai so his tadpole son would have a safer place to be. ( the PC playing Keskodai then proceeded to try to sell his son to the merchant, which the party intervened in and said that was extremely out of character for Keskodai.) the envoy tried to wheel and deal and make connections and did most of the talking. They eventually learned about alsuka tea house and headed there.

Alsuka’s Tea House
a nice description, good set piece. Not a lot to say about here.

A Lesson in Manners I agree this section comes off as rather preachy and unprompted, especially since up to this point the party has been Fairly polite. When Alsuka was like “ you need to be polite.” At least one of the PCs was like ‘ but I am polite.” I think this would work better if she tells them jadnura went to the monasteryfirst, but then emphasizes that she will provide them a lesson in manners to help them ensure they don’t accidentally insult master boojan.

Sharing information
So now we get to the actual tea party, which admittedly I was excited for. I brought actual tea and cups, with a plate of snack cakes and a couple boxes of tea bags. This section ran for a while, and was honestly quite fun, though at times the party kind of hit a wall as to what to do. Most people are used to using social situations like that to gather intel, not to make small talk, and the player for Keskodai kept trying to talk about business with the rest of the party berating him for it. A few times they got a few good conversations in. Alsuka and the blitz soldiers discussed the possibility of singing ginseng, to which the technomancer eagerly chimed in that she’d love to engineer that. The envoy kissed butt and also tried to compliment her business. The armored storm complimented the decor and offered to render her business as a VR simulation so people could see it in the info sphere, which triggered a discussion about the value of business with physical locations and the need to physically go to a place and seeing it for oneself than to experience it via simulation. But then other times, everyone just sat in awkward silence drinking tea unsure what to say. Again, if it was made more obvious in the previous section that this was a teaching experience and that small talk was important, rather than the PCs having to make a relatively high sense motive check to get that info, those awkward silence moments could be avoided.

the pradulex monastery
At this point the party was eager to get here. They had gotten their intel from Alsuka, and got to meet the initiates. They did take note how agitated Kan-zeal was, but didn’t ask.

meeting master boojan
The party was warned to not speak first, and did a very good job on that. Eventually boojan addressed the kasatha in the party, asking the light or dark question. His answer was light. The party seemed to have a better time coming up with things to talk about, as it is a solarian temple, and master boojan was all too happy to oblige given the subject matter. They asked questions like what is the cycle? How does that apply to the world? Why is the cycle important? In the end, with all allowed bonuses and the way the encounter is set up, they got a 44 to influence master boojan. He set up the meeting with Kahir and sent them on their way.

in defense of honor

This probably would have been better with block text. I did my best to try to make kan-zal sound accusatory, and distraught that his parents died in the scoured stars, but I struggled to find good wording for it. The party tried to talk him down but failed the diplomacy to influence his friends, so they all attacked. The way this fight was arranged was actually really fun tactically speaking. The armored storm genuinely realized that the walls were low enough he could jump jets over them to get behind the enemies. The combined tactics of the solarian initiates felt like great interplay we don’t see often. The party made use of various obstacles for cover. They did primarily non lethal damage, and knocked out kanzal and one of the initiates, and did enough damage to the other to make him surrender. They decided ( without prompting even) to take the initiates back to the monastery, where they recieved a formal apology and assured the matter would be handled internally. After that it was meeting Kahir and boarding the Void Scholar.

Into the Void
the party appreciated having several days to heal up from the last fight. I did my best to try to describe some fantastic, visual thing to emphasize how amazing the stellar phenomenon Kahir dropped them off.

solar intrusion
we did not have time for the optional encounter and so did not run it, but only just barely. I had trouble finding the sidebar saying it was optional, I only knew it was optional because of this discussion thread. I ended up finding it on page 13, when the encounter is on page 15. The map for the temple was in between. Why is the map there?

Ibran observation temple
I let them see the whole map since it says they can get a good idea of the layout from above, but I didn’t let them see the rubble until they were in the rooms. I thought the perception check to notice the dome was oddly high, since they’re descending to the temple from above it and the dome is described as quite large.

The party dutifully starfinder Ed the entire building, and triggered every trap in the process. The mental remnant crystal seems to do a lot of damage, and if the technomancer had not saved it likely would have dropped her. The isolation chambers was a fun multi tiered trap that lead to a little role play. The t4chnomancer got stuck in there for what felt like 5 years. I also took the liberty of adding the dried, desiccated corpses of shirren Ibran priests to any room with treasure in it, including claw marks on the stone walls, and for the room with the knife, a pool of dried blood under the corpse from where that priest ultimately took its own life. I felt it made that area more interesting than simply loot lying on the floor of otherwise empty rooms. The infinite stairs was another fun and interesting one. The only thing with that one is because they could see the layout, and they thought it lead straight to the back of the temple, they didn’t see the need to go that way since they didn’t t know that back room was otherwise blocked off. They only realized that after they had already triggered the boss fight. Considering the treasure is items that would be useful in the boss fight, this is a problem. Speaking of which.

the void Hantu
I am convinced a mystic is necessary for this fight. My strategy based on tactics was to fly up in the air, use the gravity pull to yank enemies up into the air, then take an aoo when they fell past the hantu. First round both spellcasters go after the hantu, so he targets who is closest which is the operative. He blows away the fort save and nothing happens. Everyone takes shots except the blitz soldier, who had no ranged options and forgot about the called tactical knife they had found. The technomancer uses a full round magic missile after identifying it, and Keskodai uses a lvl 2. Mindthrust. The hantu fails the save. Next round the mystic is clearly the biggest threat, and so he goes after him. The hantu’s strat goes off without a hitch, and the mystic takes damage from the blow, wisdom damage, and falling damage. Thankfully it’s low gravity so falling damage is halved.the shirren mind thrusts again. And basically this repeats until eventually the technomancer finished him off with a magi missile. I think about 70% of the damage was done by the mystic, with 20 done by the technomancer and the rest by the rest of the party. I feel like a mystic is essential to this fight, and that the fight’s tactics assume a mystic Or technomancer in the party to make it manageable. The funny thing is this part could have easily been 3 soldiers, a solarian, and a operative instead of 2 soldiers, an envoy, a mystic, an operative and a technomancer. Without casters the hantu attacks classes who typically do not have good mental scores and would drop quickly because of it. There seems to be this occasional flaw in encounter design that seems to assume that there is always a mystic, which makes it seem like if you don’t have one, survival is impossible. I don’t think having encounters where it goes ‘having this specific class is the only way to manage this” is a good idea, and seems counter to one of the benefits I’ve seen in starfinder that being that people don’t have to play hardline roles anymore. You don’t necessarily need a dedicated healer. You don’t necessarily need a dedicated tank or dps. You don’t have to be a mechanic to be a good engineer, or a soldier to be good in melee. Sure, certain classes have certain roles they do better than others, but there are enough options in every class that you can have an offbeat play style and still perform well. Various systems make it where you can get by.But then you get encounters like his where clearly one specific class is needed. And if you don’t have it, it’s time to roll up a new character. From my experience, that one class is always a mystic. Maybe I need to roll one up for myself.

When running SFS 1-15 Save the Renkrodas,

For those who don't know, there's a story about how actor Fabio Lanzoni rode a roller coaster at our local theme park, and at the peak of the highest hill got smacked in the face full force by a goose.

A dwarf carrying a small arsenal comes forward with heavy footsteps.

Starting out: unless you breathe in space you need a suit of armor to survive, a melee weapon, a ranged weapon,...

Oy, Dwarf here! My family comes from a long line a adventurers, an' what the mouse said cannae be overstated: bring a melee weapon. I dun care if you a thin limbed glasses wearin' type like a lotta the blokes I travel with, having some kinda sword or hammer when an Akata's tryin' ta eatcher face is better than continuin' ta do that guarded step and shoot nonsense, especially when you ain't gotta safe place to step, an' you gotta big meaty bloke like me who's job it is to make things dead who you could be a flankin' partner for.

Hefts his Pickaxe for emphasis

Asides, it's another way to get different damage types. Normally I use a nice laser cannon in a fight, but if fire ain't working, me good ol' Sonic minin' pick 'll usually do the job jus' fine. Also carry me a wee arc shotgun for groups.

Long an' short of it, Don't be afraid to hold onto more than one weapon, and don't be afraid to stand your ground with a melee weapon when backpedalin' and shootin' ain't tactical. These ain't the days o me great great great great great great great grand uncle Grant Stoneshield where you could just buy an axe an' stake your career on it. Diversity is key.

I'm not sure I quite get how feat perquisites is somehow not enough of a reason for the theme +1.

Yeah, if you don't intend to take feats with stat prerequisites it means less, but if I don't intend to fight in melee, Strength means less, too.

Just because you don't intend to use an option, does not mean that there is no purpose to the option.

the problem with that argument is your core stats always matter. Str is your carry capacity, even if you chose to not be a melee fighter. Dex is reflex save, ac, piloting, stealth, etc. Con is stamina and fort save. Int is skill points and computers, engineering etc, charisma is social skills and all of them but con is key stat for a class.

Sure, in if you choose to roll your stats then that +1 could tip you to the next modifier. But the recommended build method- and the only legal method in society play- is the ten point buy. In the ten p,oint buy that's not tipping you to the next modifier. If I'm building a soldier it doesn't matter if I put that +1 in strength or Dex,or int and charisma, if I spend 6 points in strength and 4 in Dex I still have a +3 strength and a+2 Dex regardless of what theme I picked. On the surface you're not going to be able to tell if I'm a mercenary or a robiticist until level 6. and this is supposed to be my background to help personalize my character, a choice that once made can't be changed. Being a way to qualify for feats that SOME people might want is not enough justification for such a major decision.

Think of it this way. Why were people so upset with the ending of mass effect 3? It was because for all the decisions you could make, all the branching paths, in the end there was only one conclusion. When the final result of the choices you make have no meaningful impact, that's called illusion of choice. People want their choices to matter and those theme benefits? With that big, bold +1 STR or +1 CHA on it? That oh so "important" +1 that is even shown to you in a wuickly break down chart because it's so important? That feels like an illusion of choice, and I passed my Will save.

Don't get me wrong, I love the concept of theme. I love the powerful benefits they start to provide at level 6. The knowledge check DC reduction is even kind of nice, as is the additional class skill /skill point. But that big +1 printed at the top of the page? I feel like the themes are trying to trick me by tempting me with something that's really of no consequence.

With starfinder being such a success, does that mean we can expect official figures sometime soon?