Rothlis's page

I have been theory crafting a mech type thing now the mechs im making go from huge size to colossal and i plan to use a hex grid for vehicles where a hex is 30' across in a vein of the starship rules crossed with the tactical rules i plan to make tanks and things too where the heavy weapons on colossal mechs or tanks are spaceship size and the weapons in the huge and gargantuan sizes are like human size weapons only their dmg is like x5 or something to show they are between personal weapons and ship weapons

Okay maybe saying it's OP isn't the right thing to say.

How about I say this:

I don't like the design of the Shobhad because it will only be used by people who want to do insane melee builds and nothing else. I like my players to be more creative than that,

there!

The way i see it is they have the str score from the start to always carry a heavy weapon then you can use the other stats to make it like the ultimate fire base mechanic take the 1 lvl of soldier to get all the profs then you can carry a heavy weapon so can your drone and your extra hands can carry tools or ammo and you could buy a pair of cybernetic arms and carry more stuff

Malefactor wrote:

HWalsh wrote:

For my home game all I did was bring back the Drugar (the Dwarven version of the Drow) but I made them a male dominated version of the Drow because I felt the game needed a mirror of the same. ]

Eh, I always felt that the "evil patriarchy" counterpart to the drows "evil matriarchy" was the orcs. I mean, if you look at the orc pantheon, only one of their 10 gods is a woman, and that's Dretha, who's pretty much the goddess of being "barefoot and pregnant" (or whatever you call the more barbaric orcish equivalent to that idea). Sure, she doesn't seem happy about it, but she still is. I doubt many drow men like being treated as second class either

And if you think that this is not patriarchalic enough:

In the German RPG "The Dark Eye" orcs do not recognize their female brethen as orcs but as animals bearing orcs...

I always saw the drugar as the logical cynical opposite of the drow the drugar are LE well how do you get from lawful to chaotic remove logical thought and structure and boom CE elves whos society makes no sense

Are there any rules for vehicle creation?

I have had the same question there doesn't seem to be a pettern its weird

If he wants to use it I might require a feat. You need proficiency for any weapons you want to be proficient in, I think combat with a shield should require some training, especially if its something no one else in the world really uses.

If you are requiring a feat I think the +2 bonus would be fair. Or maybe combo of the choice? +1 Eac and +2 Kac or +2 Eac.

One other option you could have your player look into is using a two handed weapon with the 'block' property?

*rolls up news paper* no bad feat taxer bad bad

I have a player who is trying to make a tougher melee character. The main issue is when he uses a 2 hander he ends up getting turned into cheese because he isn't in powered armor and isnt interested in using it opting to be the agile melee instead of the literal tank.

Considering I have seen starfinder pictures of shields being used I offered to let him use a shield, but I am still not 100% sure on what would be fair. What would you suggest be give him in terms of benefits and limitations for a shield strapped to his arm? Obviously he cant use that arm for anything else as per standard d20 rules. Would it be balanced to give him the standard +2 AC (KAC and EAC) bonus, or should I make him decide which AC to apply it to? Should I let him use shields from pathfinder, or stick him with an ordinary shield? What would you suggest?

I would treat it as a large shield from pathfinder i would make it so it applies to kac and reflex saves and make shield fusions for eac, energy shields, or elemental resitances

Hi all,

I'm curious if anyone else has considered changing weapon specialization to being damage = to character level for all weapons.

Just toying with an idea of a change for my own games and it looks like small arms and operative weapons do less static damage solely to limit the Operative.

It also seems to have the effect of forcing people to consider taking a weapon proficiency. What was the point of making small arms deal less damage both from the dice AND the flat modifier?

What is the damage tax that the Operative pays for being an Operative, and why is it this was passed on to everyone else?

A level 20 Gyrojet Pistol (small arm) deals 5D12 or an average 32.5 dmg (42.5 with current weapon specialization).

A level 20 Paragon Seeker Rifle (longarm) deals 12D8 or an average 54 dmg (74 with specialization).

A level 20 Paragon Reaction Cannon (heavy weapon) deals 12D10 or an average of 66 dmg (86 with specialization).

So without even talking about specialization, each tier of fire arm going from small -> longarm -> heavy weapon deals more damage than the last tier.

Currently, if the stars align perfectly, and an Operative hits with 4 attacks at 20 with the pistol above, that is 170 dmg. Bumping up their weapon specialization brings this to 210.

A ranged Solarian with the longarm above would deal 234 since they gain a +4 damage bonus from Photon mode. Non-Photon would be 222 on average. So the Operative with small arms is starting to encroach on the Solarian's damage with a longarm. If the Solarian was using the same pistol as above, their 3 attack damage would average 157.5. Yet, a Solarian's best at melee with an average 315 dmg with a reasonable build. ...An Operative with the best melee weapon would yield 224 average and we're thinking this would include a +8 str mod which is unlikely.

A Soldier using the longarm averages 255 if a Sharpshooter using Bullet Barrage and Focus Fire. With only Bullet Barrage that's the same as a Solarian in Photon mode. A...

You are aware that pistols, rifles, and heavy weapons like a machine gun do differing ammounts of damage a 9mil pistol, 556 rifle and a .50 cal machine gun do very different ammounts of damage also the operative gets the chance to make more attacks than the other people im willing to bet damage is roughly equal across the classes and yes the soldier and solarion should do more thats their only job

Now have a romance between a human and a sentient mobile fortress.

Reminds me of arpeggio of blue steel

My one biggest complaint about Starfinder (and Pathfinder) is WBL. Not only does it create this false idea that "This is the exact amount of money you must have by this point!" Which I has a GM and player hate with a passion... But it makes it so restrictive in what you can, and cannot, spend money on.

It makes it borderline stupid to go for any fun utility items because "WBL expects you to have X by now."

Though, on the other hand, I understand why it is there. WBL is there to stop power gamers from purchasing nothing BUT combat bonuses and as such making themselves too powerful, while also giving a basic guideline to GMs about, here how around how much cash a character at this level could have.

(Aka, forget this neat magical item that gives me utility! I can get an extra +1 to my weapon!)

I wish Paizo had found a different way to do this though. Instead of WBL found a way to let people have their utility items AND their mandatory combat items.

In Starfinder your mandatory combat items are:
Weapon
Armor
Secondary Weapon
Personal Upgrades
Fusions
Implants

Which, sadly, does actually skew the game for Ranged-only characters because they don't need a melee weapon, while melee characters absolutely need a ranged weapon as a backup.

Its almost like you have not read the equipment and purchasing rules you cant ever buy an item over your level +2 you cab only have 2 total magic items this includes the hybrid items that also count as magic items in the grand scheme of things theres not much to "buy" the game mostly takes place at range even though melee weapons tend to be stronger you can get a huge collection of fusion seals to mix and match on your weapons and iirc you can only buff 1 stat maybe 2 but your assertion that people are forced to chase that next +1 is just that an assertion

My solution, after careful soul searching, is to ignore WBL as a "hard and fast" rule.

Meaning, eh, it's an average.

I will restrict my players to level +1 gear though to stop power gaming equipment. If they end up filthy rich, then they do.

Are you aware that starfindsr already caps item level in the base rules your lvl +1 in all but major places or cities and lvl +2 in large well supplyed places you cant just buy over your level anymore

(Oops, skipped a number.)

8) That new reactionware/bodyware is interacting weirdly with your somatic nervous system. Now, when you're focused on another task or nervous/anxious, you find your body sometimes just wants to move. You'll find yourself compulsively tapping your fingers/hands/tentacles on the inactive spots of the ship's console, or you'll bounce your leg while sitting. Or it unexpectedly puts a little swing into your steps.

It's nothing that'll make you step out in front of the mag-lev way, or disrupt your Piloting/Gunnery during critical moments. But it might start to irritate your teammates. And it might make you more memorable when you're just trying to walk inconspicuously through an area anonymously/as Joe Enlisted Crewman.

I already have this upgrade my leg bounces when i sit and theres nothing i can do about itno matter how much weight my wife puts on it

Oh, so your cool with arbitrarily enforcing the rule that says "Don't let them buy high level weapons and armor" but you ignore the part where they purposefully don't put a price on ship stuff?

And if you are setting it up to where they can't sell the ship and buy anything useful and are giving them extra gold to buy the ship, then you're doing exactly what the book is telling you do except your adding in a layer of extra complexity by setting a conversion price that your players can't actually use.

Im keeping the starship seperate for narritive reasons also i dont plan on giving them extra credits why would i do that thats stupid however i will be adding land based vehicles that they can dump money into if theu really want but starships are a seprate economy as far as im concerned

What is the DC for using a medpatch to Treat Deadly Wounds?

The Medical Expert feat says 'You can use the Medicine skill in conjunction with a medpatch or sprayflesh to treat deadly wounds as a full action.' Medicine skill says 'You can use Medicine to restore Hit Points to a living, wounded creature. This takes 1 minute, and the DC is based on the medical equipment used.' Medpatch says 'A medpatch allows you to attempt a Medicine check untrained with a +10 circumstance bonus, but only for the first aid, long-term stability, treat disease, and treat drugs or poison tasks.'

To me it looks like that medical expert thing you are talking about adds the deadly wounds condition to the list of things you can treat with a medipatch which means you could possibly get the +10 circumstance bonus to tje check seems reasonable to me

Correction looks like the dc for deadly wounds is 25 and there is a clause on medical expert where the normal effects of the medpatch and sprau flesh dont work normally but they allow you to treat deadly wounds at dc 25 as a full round action instead of the normal list od things they can treat

A single person can fill only a single role at a time. Having a smaller crew than necessary to fill all desired roles does not change this. However, there are two available minor crew actions on P. 326; Glide lets you move at half speed, and gives you half your ranks in Piloting to AC instead of all your ranks, so you're not immobilized without a proper Pilot. Snap Shot lets you fire a single weapon at a penalty without a dedicated Gunner. These actions let you achieve some functionality even with a single-person craft, though you will be worse than having more people dedicated to their roles.

Do note that there is some ambiguity about the limits of minor actions; while each minor crew action may be taken only once per round, it is unclear whether a single crew member is limited to taking only one minor crew action per round.

Well if you are im a tiny craft amd the crew count is 1 with a maximum of 1 it looks like you would be on a permanent snap shot plan based on the bonuses in the book for the necroglider and the other single seat ship so full pilot phase and snap shot at -2 with one of your potental 2 weapons durimg the gunnery phase seem right to me skipping the captian amd engineer phases entirely and if the ship allows it like the idarran voidrunner take your science officer roll with any pilot roll then gunnery roll-2for snap shot during gunnery phase is how it looks to me

Okay, so my group has tried starship combat and it worked out pretty well.

My curiosity is on fighter vs fighter sized starship combat.
My players want to do fighter based combat where each PC can fly and fight in a small starship designed for a single pilot.

So on to the rules questions:

In ship to ship combat with small starships, during each phase, can the pilot do each of the combat actions? Example since its a single person starship, on each phase do they act as Engineer, captain, Pilot, gunner, etc?

Or as pilot, are they limited only to pilot, neccessitating another person to act as a gunner?

The rules are a bit unclear to me as to how you can do this.

So from the look of it the engineer phase eould be skipped the helm phase would happen and you take your pilot check then if you have shields or something you would take your personal computer science officer check then in the gunnery phase you would take your gunnery check rinse repeat until combat is over

Enter wrote:

Claxon wrote:

The answer is creating an equivalency will ruin game balance and ruin the in game economics.

From a realistic perspective, star ships would be incredibly valuable compared to individual personal gear. But if this is allowed then you'll have players selling bits of space ships to have the best personal gear in the galaxy. And since in Starfinder a majority of offensive power comes directly from weapons, and defensive power comes from armor this is a bad idea.

I dare to think a new way of tackling this issue. Instead of gifting a ship to my 1st level characters I ... will not do so. I ''ll have them long it and want it and pay it with what ever credits they manage to gather.

Therefore, I need to put BPs into credits.

Tryn wrote:

I would go with the basic 1 BP = 4000 gold/credits from Pathfinder (maybe round it up to 5000 credits so it's easier to calculate).

This would put a T1 ship at 275k credits (T10 = 1,35 Mio credits) - I think this is a reasonable price for a ship/mobile armed player base. ;)

I 'm really torned now. 275K seems little money for a t1 ship. 55 BP for 275 is like 5k per BP.

On the other hand the Lane_S approach of 100k per BP seems too pricey as well.

Then again for 5k per BP a party (#4) of 20 level adventurers would hardly be able to own a tier 20 ship. So maybe it's not as little as it seems in the first place.

Did I miss some guideline in the book concerning the ship tiers for party level ?

You didn't miss a guideline, you're expected to have a ship tier equal to your party's CR.

The rule just are designed against what you're trying to do.

Deadmanwalking has covered why, and it is accurate.

You're better off setting it up such that you're party is given a ship in return for their efforts. Not actually trying to buy one with cash.

Think of it like this:
A tier 1 starship has 55 bp. If you said that the party had to buy their own ship, and each bp was worth only 1000 credits,...

Unless you as the GM allow it at level 1 characters cant just sell their ship and buy level 8-9 gear hell they according to the rules on page 167 in the crb level 1 people are restricted at best at level 1 to level 3 gear thats it and only if they are in a major settlement allowing them to purchase higher tier than apl+1 in small settlements ans apl+2 in major settlements would be you unbalancing your own game personally i plan to ban longrange teleportation

Rothlis wrote:

Zwordsman wrote:

Was actually intending to do this with the stealth one.. Well with grenades anyway (also able to set them for my detonation)

is there anyone to increase their strength? I can't remember off hand.. but the stealth drone has 12..

Not to my knowledge but once you get to like lvl 11 or 12 you can make your medium comvat drone fly

Wich combined with a riding saddle basically gives you a combat-capable hoverbike. And that's pretty baller if you ask me.

Right im totally ok with using a heavy weapon if some sort while riding a flying plasma cannon

Was actually intending to do this with the stealth one.. Well with grenades anyway (also able to set them for my detonation)

is there anyone to increase their strength? I can't remember off hand.. but the stealth drone has 12..

Not to my knowledge but once you get to like lvl 11 or 12 you can make your medium comvat drone fly

BP is just another power track.

Just like Credits is a power track for PCs, along with other power track for PCs, experience.

You can't convert credits to experience, you can't convert experience to BP, and you can't convert BP to credits.

While I understand that you don't like the liack of "realism" in that PCs can't just buy ships (even if they're very expensive) it's necessary. Otherwise you will have groups who will sell their ship to get way over-leveled gear, which would be a big deal since weapons are the majority source of damage in Starfinder.

Yes, it kills realism. But it's 100% necessary.

I font remember where it says it but you cant buy op gear you are capped to your lvl +2 and thats only in well populated places like absolom station or some other equivalent place its your lvl +1 everywhere else amd since you cant christmas tree with magic gear any more you cant over clock magic gear either

The Tau as a whole are not appreciably stronger or tougher than a comparably fit human.

They have some advantages in that: they have precise long range vision (although their eyes focus slowly), they are digitigrade, and the fact that they are possibly even more eusocial than humans.

And theu still need an exterminatus

There is no consistency from image to image, artist to artist with the Ysoki art...some of them draw them with teeny little stick limbs, some with essentially human proportions and more human hands and feet.

This one for example looks basically like a human with a mouse head.

Then you get this guy who is 50% head, 40% body, and 10% limbs (with more human looking hands and feet)

I'll just chalk it up to me not liking the art, and picture them the way I want in my games.

Fair enough as DM/GM/SM that is your choice i am just going to go with what ever my player describes

So then is there no viable way for a party of pilots to fly a squadron of Vipers/X-Wings? Or Megazords?

Well BP and tier are supposed to follow APL right so maybe keep the tier APL -1,2,or3 test it out for a ehile and adjust from there just to see how combat would function thats how i would run it

So I have been seeing others take a crack at making Mass Effect and Star Trek Races, so I thought why not take a shot at it.

My first entry for the Tau Empire in Service to The Greater Good.

Tau Fire Warrior

+2 Str, +2 Con, -2 Cha
6 HP
Fire Caste Tau are Medium Humanoids with the Tau Subtype

Fire Caste Warriors: due to their life long training, Fire Caste Warriors receive a +1 racial bonus to EAC/KAC when wearing Light, Heavy, or Power Armor.

For the Greater Good: Their belief in “The Greater Good” inspires Tau with a sense of purpose. +2 racial bonus vs Fear effects

Low-Light Vision. The Tau homeworld is a warm, dry, and arid planet. As such the Tau prefer the night to the day and their vision has adapted because of this. Tau can see in dim light as if it were normal light. See Vision on page 261.

Olfactory Chasm: The Tau sense of smell is vastly superior compared to other humanoid races. Gain the Scent ability.

I realize that they are very similar to the Vesk, but since the Fire Caste are the warriors and each caste is going to be from each other I think this makes sense.

No no game needs tau not even 40k tau are an easy button top tier waac army and lol no +2 str lol no at least be accurate all tau have at least -2 str and start with a 8 in str rember astra militarum infantry beat them in melee try not to overclock an overclocked race

Slyme wrote:

It is the Ysoki equivalent of this pic, IMHO. The proportions are all wrong...his chest is deeper than it is wide...his right shoulder is too far back, his extremities are too small, etc.

His head is literally as big as his torso. Maybe even bigger if that chest piece his wearing has any sort of depth to it.

Rothlis wrote:

its limbs do look small but again go look at the limbs of a mouse or rat

I don't think that's really a compelling argument here. Yes, real rats have a different bone structure, but real rats aren't bipedal space explorers, so I'm not sure there's really much merit in making that comparison. Just look at the Vesk to contrast. Or Pathfinder's depiction of ratfolk instead.

Of course even if you did want to base their proportions entirely on real rats for some reason, their heads, torso and limbs are still proportioned weirdly.

Quote:

you dont get to see its right shoulder that joint is its elbow

Yeah, you can't see the shoulder, but follow the upper arm back to where the shoulder would be.

A mouse/rat's skull has a larger diameter than its ribcage i think thats what they were going for

The shoulder issue would place it too far forward there are issues with the picture but im of the opinion that many people are exaggerating it

I think the comparison to rats and mice is spot on from the elbow or knee down their legs are pretty much sticks mainly just tendons miniscule muscles and bone i think attempting to apply humanoid proportions to an alien is silly

Vesk are obviously of the theropod type hip joint like a raptor or t-rex not the komodo dragon hip type which will allow them to stand upright more like a birds hips less like a crocodiles

Rothlis wrote:

bookrat wrote:

Slyme wrote:

bookrat wrote:

Slyme wrote:

Ysoki are my favorite example of what I like to call the Liefeld Effect. One picture in particular personifies this, IMHO...

Check this dude out

I always hated how he did that. Massive spine twisting.

Super weird pose...check, tiny little feat...check, massive torso...check. Only thing missing is an excessive amount of pouches.

Both the butt and the chest facing the camera? Check.

That link shows the rat guy in a waist poviot with a head turn with its right leg at though you jist insulted it mid stride im a 260 poumd man and can easily replicate that pose no problem it does look funky because the ysoki's head is huge also keep i mind its modeled off a mouse or rat and i casr you are unaware anywhere a rat/mouse's head fits the rest can fit too

It is the Ysoki equivalent of this pic, IMHO. The proportions are all wrong...his chest is deeper than it is wide...his right shoulder is too far back, his extremities are too small, etc.

Lol that cap pic looks like a middle or high schooler did it its chest does look too deep but look at the yskoi pic again you only see the left side of its chest one pec and all of the left sides obliques its limbs do look small but again go look at the limbs of a mouse or rat you dont get to see its right shoulder that joint is its elbow

Slyme wrote:

bookrat wrote:

Slyme wrote:

Ysoki are my favorite example of what I like to call the Liefeld Effect. One picture in particular personifies this, IMHO...

Check this dude out

I always hated how he did that. Massive spine twisting.

Super weird pose...check, tiny little feat...check, massive torso...check. Only thing missing is an excessive amount of pouches.

Both the butt and the chest facing the camera? Check.

That link shows the rat guy in a waist poviot with a head turn with its right leg at though you jist insulted it mid stride im a 260 poumd man and can easily replicate that pose no problem it does look funky because the ysoki's head is huge also keep i mind its modeled off a mouse or rat and i casr you are unaware anywhere a rat/mouse's head fits the rest can fit too

We run a stack of dry erase play mats and just stacl the relevant ones

Organization: The Serpico Foundation
The Serpico Foundation is a large extremely wealthy interstellar conglomeration with multiple dragon and vesk families with quadrillions of credits and thousands of employees and operatives they seem to know all and see all. As the old saying goes "Never deal with a dragon."

Ship size categories are ~3 "sizes" ahead of characters.

A Tiny ship (interceptor) runs from as "small" as Gargantuan to in-excess of Colossal on 'character scale' combat, with the added complication of not evenly doubling per size from the Tiny baseline.

Reflex save I would peg at (gunnery bonus/2) +10, AoE 5' per ship-die of damage. AoE's larger than a single move action by the target are made for half-damage instead of negate.

You ain't saving to negate against a quantum torpedo, bub. ;)

Well im taking the inaccuracy thing into account thats why i am going with scatter dice

I was talking with my group about using ship weapons against a group of NPCs that were trying to attack us and they said that you could not use ship weapons on NPCs because it would do too much damage or something.... this ship weapons damage get magnified when used against Npc's because they don't have the same armor as ships or something?

The side bar in the ship section says x10 from ship weapons personally i would allow a reflex save 10+tier to negate dmg otherwise it would be a done deal if a ship shot players i would also probably place 15 ft radius for light ship weapons and i would scatter the shot like artillery weapons in the warhammer 40k table top game i still have my scatter dice so ill probably use that

I am writing rules for mech combat for Starfinder. It wouldn't be hard to put in additional rules for non-legged mobility.

For visuals im using heavy gear then fkr rules im using hexes and star ship stats for the most part with weapons being x5 instead of x10 like it advises in the starship rules for firing on partues of people if i ever actually get ti writing the rules i plan on using ill post them here

Holy moly it took 56 entries to get to what i thought was the most obvious answer also the answer im using

Why are there rules that refer to stationary starships?

Stationary relative to what, exactly?

Ender's Game should be required reading for any sci-fi game designer.

I agree but i would expand that to ender's game and the Hyperion series should both be required reading for everyone

So I've been trying to figure out how to make a xenosociologist or a xenoarcheologist. So I look at Xenoseeker and they seem more interested in finding new life to study opposed to finding old cultures or dead cultures to study. I look at Scholar which should be a dead ringer and well...apparently History Scholars aren't a thing. They either specialize in Life Science or Physical Science but not Social Science (which also doesn't exist but has a skill that's fairly close, Culture).

I would argue that "social science" isnt a hard or real science which might be why its not a choice

Starbuck_II wrote:

For my Envoy I'm making:

Range: Laser Pistol Azimuth (350 cr))
Melee: Survival knife (95 cr.)
Armor: Second Skin (250 cr)
Personal: Consumer backpack (3 cr.), everyday clothing (1 cr.),
Tech: Tool kit Vidgamer (+4 Skill 20 cr), personal comm unit (7 cr.),
Magic item: Clear Spindle Aeon Stone (no food/water. 245 cr)
Upgrades: Gills (Breath Underwater, 95 cr)

I'm sure I can recharge my weapon so I don't need extra charges. I figured the ability to breath underwater might be useful.

You've got a full environmental suit already. You don't necessarily have time to recharge batteries even between gun battles (let alone during).

Theres like 4 available aeon stones and keep in mind you can only have 2 magic items now thats 2 total magic items im not convinced that spending the slot one either of the 2 items that make it so you dont need tk drink or eat is even worth it

Have to say, I dislike the cheap and readily available Ioun Stones.
The idea that the only limited resources are battery charges just seems absurd.

Tiwaz wrote:

Hi sorry, quick question, did people with a subscription already get their books/pdfs or something? How is it that people have the rules to look through?

Subscribers can access their pdf copies when their book ships. Not sure of the why of it, but it seems to be a way of incentivizing subscriptions.

I like the idea of Shirren's insulting people based on a quality that no one else gets. Like... "Well, that bad guy is awfully purple today if you know what I mean." Cue party members staring at him blankly.

"That guy is 3 eggs short of a clutch." "He is so handsome, it makes me smell like green."

Lol that woulf be awesome

I would make it so the mecha in my game would be between power armor and space ships and stick exclusively to gargantuan and colossal sizes i would lay out their weapon die size loke they did for star finder here i would most likely treat mecha weapons fired at pcs asan aoe with DCs based on tier of mecha dmg multiplied by 5 since ships multiply by 10 and all it would be neat imo

i hope we get some expanded material about the Lashunta society now that its choice based. can you imagine the stigma for a Korasha who got into college on a sports scholarship? how do they even view intelligence as a sign of social standing? In ours we at least want our bosses and leaders to present as intelligent and it would be pretty damaging to them if we found out they choose to skip school to hit the gym but now they say they know whats best for us. granted, not everyone goes the path of upper management or politics but how would parents view their children who purposefully choose to stunt their minds so that they can be better physical laborers?

Thats why in my "retcon" im taking the pathfinder static sexual aspect and im running with it where lashunta come in inextricably linked pairs where if one dies or is killed the other one dies like other permanently monogamous real world creatures and since they are aliens the concept of trans or homosexuality will be completely foreign to them also im not using the base setting i have been working on a homebrew universe since before starfinder was announced

I could very easily see a vesk referring to all shirren as "prawns" they have that whole district 9 thing going on

Absolutely No to "it". Shirren are sentient humanoids with three genders. They are not things or constructs. "It" is insulting.

I'd actually think it better to come up with three entirely new pronouns for the shirren. Shirren have sperm donors, egg donors, and hosts that also donate additional genetic material. That doesn't really map well to human players' concepts, and so using he/she/they makes the shirren seem less alien. We as players shouldn't box/shorthand shirren neatly into masculine, feminine, and other which I think is what he/she/they puts in the minds of most players.

I think three entirely new pronouns works better. I think it also has the added bonus of letting the players attach their own concepts of personality and social/familial dynamics to individual shirren free of preconceptions and stereotypes based on 21st-century humanity.

Well im willing to guess that you are not a shirren it would be silly to assert that it wpuld be insulting as no shirren exist irl if i get a chance to play and not only dm as im my play groups resident sci-fi fan i will make a bug humanoid character that will refer to itself in the 3rd person with the word it

Torbyne wrote:

I agree with what you are saying but then how do you make Sniper weapons feel like something other than any other rifle?

Sniper rifles could be distinguished from longarms in any of the following ways:

takes a full round to fire

single attack (no auto-fire)

operative may use sniper rifle for trick attack at high levels

large range increment

short range penalty

bonus from prone and/or penalty for not firing while prone

I agree that an "auto-kill" or a guaranteed one-shot kill is not a terribly fun concept when attached to someone's main weapon. Pathfinder relegated it to a few spells (save or die) and the coup de grâce action (which is almost always performed out of combat), and I would assume Starfinder does something similar.

I think it would be kinda cool for it to be unwieldy or something but if the sniper class weapons were the only way to get called shots without penalty and maybe at higher level get the assassinate ability with requirements or something

Rothlis wrote:

I really want to know what special effects the "sniper" type weapon has did theu roll up the assassin's assassinate ability into a weapon quality i would really like for a sniper build be effective like they are in shadow run

When trying to imagine what a sniper weapon would be like, while keeping it distinct from other rifles or heavy weapons, i am only thinking of really exotic options. Something simple like a large caliber rifle would be the basic entry, from there you get to gauss rifles, particle accelerators, something big. slow working and far reaching.

I get that what I'm talking is the one hit one kill type thing more advanced would be like the rail driver from perfect dark where it could shoot through walls and what not but I would expect a sniper type weapon to have like a instant death/disable effect

Robert G. McCreary wrote:

The mechanic and its drone replace the animal companion classes (druid, ranger, and to a lesser extent, paladin) from Pathfinder. As such there is no class with an organic companion in core Starfinder. That does not mean that there won't ever be an animal companion class in Starfinder, but we don't have plans to introduce one at this point.

I see. What about summoning? I'm mostly wondering how useful the Alien Archive would be to a player.

That works out fine for me you could ride around on some kind of alien rhino/millipede/fish and be a lancer of some kind it would still be fun

I really want to know what special effects the "sniper" type weapon has did theu roll up the assassin's assassinate ability into a weapon quality i would really like for a sniper build be effective like they are in shadow run

Willing to bet rovagug and the devoured are 1 and the same

Asmodeus probably depending on circumstances might have relinquished his godhood provided the deal was right

Ninjaxenomorph wrote:

Benjamin Medrano wrote:

*ponders* I'm buying Starfinder. However, turning elves into the snooty jerks that everyone seems to love portraying them as... well, I think that's it for the setting for me. I'll make something of my own.

Thank you for making a science fantasy RPG, though.

From what I understand its less 'snooty' and more 'bitter this actually affects them personally'.

For me, it's more that I'm tired of the trope. They're isolationist, unfriendly, and aloof. To quote more directly:

Enworld Article wrote:

Elves in Starfinder are even more aloof and xenophobic than in Pathfinder.
...
Given their long lifespans, many elves never truly recovered from the pain of losing their memories, and fear and paranoia turned them bitter and insular. Today, elven society is largely restricted to their traditional homeland of Sovyrian on Castrovel, and those elves who choose to live among other races are derisively referred to as the Forlorn.

So they're derisive of those of their race that live elsewhere, they're aloof and unfriendly... honestly, the more I think about it, the more my opinion of this just plummets. I love elves. I adore them, especially the picture in the article! Most recently in modern writing, though, I've seen them portrayed as three things:

Imperialistic, arrogant jackasses who believe they're better than everyone else (See Warhammer 40k, Elder Scrolls, and at least three fantasy series)
Slaves, or previously slaves (Eberron and Dragon Age)
Barbarians and savages (Dragon Age and a number of novels)

I'm tired of it, and this just feels like more of the same. I hated the concept of the Drift. No character I played would ever use it for transport, because it's so insane. I don't care for ratfolk, but that was a minor irritation at worst. This was just for me the point when I realized that there's nothing left for me in the official setting that I care about.

Biological sexual dimorphism isnt sexism sexually dimorphic =/= sexism

I agree with the dwarf fighter in concept, but not execution. That's a LOT of investment to make it work as intended from the player perspective. If the goal is to move and hit, investing in just Vital Strike and Power Attack is usually better for the feat investment. If you're looking to hit ALL OF THE THINGS, that's what Whirlwind Attack is for, even with its weird stat requirements.

That dwarf fighter build is a meat shield and if you run the 2 cleave feats the 2 cleaving finish feats the 3 dwarf cleave feats you might as well take it to the full Monte so grab PA intimidating prowess cor smash and while you are at it grab all of the vital strike feasts an worship Gorum and vital cleave charge your way around the battle field you are meant to hold off the monsters so your casters can deal with them you can easily cover a space larger than a fireball with proper gear or buffs use it to your advantage bottle neck passages if you get enlarge person and your caster gets reduce person share space with them they will never get hit and with cleaving finish you can just keep chopping opponents down and just let the pain train roll

I thought occurred to me last night as i was leveling up an Inquisitor (Sactified Slayer) (Anger Inquisition) and that was, "This might have the most moving parts of any class i have played."

So i came up with a list of things to keep track of for the class:

Spells known/per day(cant use when raging)
Studied Target (probably cant start use when raging)
Bane (probably can use while raging)
Detect/Discern abilities (not likely to come up while raging)
Rounds of Rage (remember which abilities using this shuts down)
Sneak Attack bonus
Stern Gaze Bonus
Track Bonus
Teamwork Feat selection
Hateful Retort
Apply Wis mod +1/2 from FCB to certain knowledge checks

Are there any other contenders for complex classes? Maybe it just that i havent played many Inquisitors but this one seems more convoluted than even an 9th level caster working out their metamagic or a Kineticist figuring out burn. But thanks to all those different pools to track i was able to use two rounds of pre-buffing to come up with a combat bonus greater than my standard BAB+STR+weapon enchantment which was hilarious in play.

Unless they changed how the anger inquisition works you don't get rounds of rage you get to rage once per day besides you should take the subdomain that grants rage you don't get the spells but domain powers are almost always better than the inquisition powers there are exceptions though

I have this idea for a cavalier that uses a lance with a bear trap affixed to the end instead of a normal lance tip.

Below I have left the stat block (minus weapons). My question is this, GMs how would you handle this?

My inclination would be to make the character take exotic weapon proficiency to use the weapon with no penalty. The weapon does 2d6+3 dmg per a normal bear trap + the str modifier of the wielder. The only place I am fuzzy is how attacks would be handled. I believe that attacking a target with a bear trap would actually be 2 separate attacks. The first attack (against touch AC) would use the characters attack bonuses to see the trap successfully contacts the target. If the touch attack succeeds the trap is activate, the second attack would use the bear traps modifiers (+10) against flat footed (we already know the target was contacted by the trap).

This further becomes interesting because of the affect of bear traps. If I release the lance after a successful attack does the target take some sort of penalty until the trap can be removed (eg 1/2 move speed per a normal bear trap, or perhaps a penalty to attack or AC?). Additionally, what if I decide to keep hold of the lance? Can I now make a CM to drag or bullrush the trapped target?

In any case I know this can be a mechanical headache, I am curious to see how other GMs would handle it, or if you all would even allow it.

** spoiler omitted **...

Just use a mancatcher or tiger fork they do what you want for the most part

I wanted to re-build a handful of iconic, classic World of Greyhawk characters into Pathfinder ...

Would love some constructive build advice from folks familiar with characters from The Company of Seven. All would also have mythic paths/tiers.

Keoghtom - tough one here as he's VERY much a polymath ... bard/alchemist/ranger/sorcerer ... this is the one character who's stumping me

Kelanen - pretty much one of the greatest swordsmen ever ... carried a longsword and broadsword in 1st edition [2 relic blades called Swiftdoom & Sureguard]. Would love to see what people come up with for a near perfect sword master.

Murlynd - a paladin with the holy gun archetype

Heward - bard ... pretty easy concept/build

Nolzur - illusionist/alchemist ... straight wizard with alchemy skills or multi-class specialist wizard/alchemist?

Quaal - ranger with an interest in useful spells & magic

Zagig - master wizard

Thanks for any wisdom from people who remember these characters!

I'm unfamiliar with the characters but avoid the holy gun archetype at all costs just stat out a regular 2hander pally but swap the 2hander feats and str score for ranged feats and a decent dex score dip 3 levels of trench fighter to get extra feats and dex to damage on firearms avoid that awful archetype