SITZKRIEG!'s page

Just curious if imitator chassis drones from the latest playtest get to choose a heritage. Admittedly, most of the time the difference will be asthetic but in the case of some like the barathu it change change the size of the drone from small to large depending on which heritage whereas the "base" barathu entry is medium. The text for clarity:

"Special Your robot companion was constructed to imitate
another ancestry. Select one ancestry. Your robot companion
is the same size as the selected ancestry, has the same Speeds
as the selected ancestry, and it looks identical to its chosen
ancestry, with a +2 circumstance bonus to its Deception DC
to Impersonate the chosen ancestry."

I know I'm late to the party (obviously) but I just downloaded the playtest document to see how things were shaping up. I haven't played SF since before the pandemic as my in person group broke up but was curious just in case. I'm surprised and glad to see the barathu becoming a core race in the playtest with lots of options including sizes small to large! I can't quite tell why I'm obsessed with that ancestry but I loved it from the first time I read about them as a playable race and started making characters the same day (though I never played them as I was 8 levels deep in my Veskness at the time!).

A common complaint that I have with alot of modern scifi is the trope of aliens just being humans with an hour or two in the makeup chair each morning even in written/animated fiction. Even massive budget scifi like modern Star Trek has failed to live up to what is possible with both practical effects and CGI nowadays (even killing off my favorite Andorian and only actually even moderately alien character in Strange New Worlds during season 1!). Starfinder obviously added anthropomorphic aliens in 1st edition but I'm glad to see their going full alien in this one with multiple ancestries including my favorite aberration! This blimpy alien vents my gas in your honor (and general direction) as thanks! :)

I haven't kept up with the latest and greatest in Starfinder after my previous group drifted apart but I was curious if organic bio-armor has made it into the game? One of my original character builds was a character that didn't depend on equipment where possible and the game has made great strides to improve natural weapons, barathu weapons, add classes with innate weapons/attacks (like Solarian), and various body morphs (like the geneturge mystic and upcoming evolutionist)... but I don't think I've seen a way to incorporate living armor INTO the character as opposed to just wearing it.

I've seen obviously bio-organic and class abilities that give you a token +1 or +2 to AC but I'm more referring to the twisted ribbon manufacturer for armor where the armor melds with your form and can't be removed (other than obviously a long process when you level up) but still otherwise provides the abilities and disadvantages it normally would (EAC/KAC bonus, environmental protections, upgrades, etc). Have I missed this option? If not, am I the only one interested in such a variant? So far, I've only been able to use necrografts for environmental functions and basically just skip the other features of armor.

It may sound silly but I tend to make characters up based on cool art and/or figures I find (or buy in the latter case) and I have one that seems custom made for a Vanguard (heavy armor and big shield). What roles can a vanguard fill in a party besides the obvious tank? I tend to play combat casters because I enjoy for the variety of having both straightforward attacks to choose from as well as off the wall spells but I'm not sure I'll get that with the vanguard. I didn't play a solarian despite liking the look of them for the same reason as I didn't feel there was enough variety. Coming off of playing a barbarian in D&D, I'd prefer to avoid another rinse/lather/repeat playstyle character.

Sincerely,

Vinnie the "Tank but not just a Tank" Vanguard

Hey folks, I saw the wiki was updated with Tech Revolution and was wondering if the intent of entropic shot was to still allow entropic strike in melee as a limited option.

https://www.aonsrd.com/AltClassFeatures.aspx?ID=37

https://www.aonsrd.com/Classes.aspx?ItemName=Vanguard

The last sentence in the rule says it modifies instead of replaces strike and the bulk of the rules use permissive optional words like "can" instead of "must" in the first paragraph for new uses while the second paragraph lists specific abilities that are lost/replaced. The closest analog to this would be the solarian manifestation but thatbone specifically says you pick one and not the others (so flare instead of weapon or armor).

Is this a specific change for this one armor in Junker's Delight or is this more of a general rules change in the recent Tech Revolution book?

https://www.aonsrd.com/PoweredArmor.aspx?ItemName=Salvage%20Chassis

" A character who is proficient in heavy armor is considered proficient with a salvage chassis. A character with proficiency in powered armor from some other source—such as a feat or class feature—gains an additional benefit while wearing a salvage chassis;"

My group hasn't played in over a year at this point so I haven't really been keeping up with the more recent rule books and adventures. I went to the wiki to see what was new and found that blurb under the new level 2 powered armor. I personally like the idea of powered armor being possible at the lowest levels (instead of the current 5th level entry gate for PCs) with an added benefit/cherry on the top for those officially trained in it. I'm a bit biased though because I'm a fan of power armor characters in scifi RPGs (and even scifa like this on!) but it never was a possible starting loadout except with a GM handwave. I'd even be fine with a further nerfed version if folks are worried about game balance (like a bonus to strength up to the max listed instead of autogranting the max) for these hybrid heavy/powered armors.

Is there a pic in the book to show what this looks like officially? I've got some ideas floating around from other popular scifi properties like mega-armored 40k orks but was curious to see what other possible counts as might work.

If you're using a flying movement mode, can you use the run action? By RAW, I don't see any mention of it under the flying special movement mode nor under the acrobatics skill description that lists advanced flight options so from a strict rules reading I'd say no. The flight rules only reference using move actions to fly and running is a full action so no.

Obviously the literal reading of "running" invokes the idea of a land speed using legs but, from a game design perspective, it's also a faster movement mode option at the expense of other things (actions, AOO, penalties, etc). Assuming that I didn't miss any rules snippets elsewhere, should it be available as an option under the acrobatics skill as a house rule?

If you have an AI computer on your character (like a mechanic with that custom rig option/upgrade at 7th level), does it gets its own action? From my reading of the rules (copy pasted below), you could order the AI to perform an action with a free action involving the limited set of skills listed (like feint with bluff or demoralize with intimidate). Opinions? It's not particularly powerful and the bonus is paltry compared to what a character could get but it seems like a flavorful option. I'm not playing a mechanic at the moment but was coming up with a build for fun. I figured the mechanic would have a holographic sashimono as well as the commlink for the AI to communicate with others for the purposes of the skills. Ideas?

CRB pg. 216 "The primary advantage of an artificial personality is that an authorized user can operate the computer by giving simple spoken or typed commands in plain language and receive information from the computer the same way. *flavor text removed* Artificial personalities are sophisticated enough that the computer can attempt Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive checks with a total bonus equal to 2 × its tier. "

Sorry to bother you guys about this but this is the second month that I didn't get my issue of Dragon Magazine. Last month, I didn't want to both you guys so I just bought another copy at the FLGS. How would I go about finding out what the problem is? I moved a few months ago and an issue was forwarded to my new address but nothing has come since I changed my address on the website here. I'd appreciate any help you all could give me with this. Thanks.