Skabb's page

I get why they may not want to subject PCs to the downsides (or upsides?) of the tech trait, but androids not being able to get the glitching condition is a HUGE loss of verisimilitude for me that (currently) I don't personally see a good balance justification for. Perhaps, at the very least, make it opt-in as an uncommon option?

Also, I noticed in the latest play test that the phrase "technological trait" and "tech trait" are both used, are these intended to mean the same thing?

As far as I can tell, with the exception of the Broken condition (which is extremely rare for enemies to rely on, from what I can tell, especially at early levels), in PF2E, there is no real way to become immune to conditions at early levels, especially ones that creatures may base their strategies around. You can gain things like circumstance bonuses, but never really outright immunity.

Glitching seems like it will be somewhat prevalent in the game, and also a condition that is very easy to become immune to (even more easy than Broken in PF2E)... just don't be an ancestry with the tech trait, and don't use equipment with the tech trait (we'll see what armor options exist for this in the future). In a way, it's almost an "opt-in" to vulnerability.

Personally, I like this. Starfinder always felt experimental and boundary breaking, and this feels the same. I hope we continue to see a willingness to break for established paradigms of PF2E.

When reading about the focus points being spent with amps, I was worried it would feel too limiting to only be able to use them twice per combat in addition to have limited spell casting, but once I read Unleash Psyche (and strain mind) I found myself very impressed at how you found a way to "increase" the focus pool without actually increasing it. MUCH more successful than the attempt of doing something similar with the oracle playtest.

It not only provides a unique power boost compared to other classes, but also helps push the flavor of what I would imagine a psychic to be like compared to other spell casters (powers being more limited in breadth, but each power being powerful and used in novel ways with the amps)

Perhaps there is a good reason related to balance, but wands/staves are weird magical implements that seem within the wheelhouse here (especially wands since there is a wand implement). I feel like this would apply to any magical artifact requiring access to a certain spell casting tradition to activate.

I would imagine this as a class feature (even as simple as gaining trick magic item as a free skill feat, maybe keyed off of charisma instead of int), but with scrolls being tied to feats, it probably makes more sense as feat related (possibly with scroll thaumaturgy being a prerequisite, and maybe the ability to recharge a staff in some limited way as its own feat).

beyond mechanically, I think something like this would feel good as a way to tie the flavor of the thaumaturge to the adventure at hand, being able to gain access to more of the artifacts revealed by the adventure.

this feat is listed under level 20 feats, but has level 18 next to its title. What is the intended value?

A lot of people have complained about this, but I really do think with a few tweaks, you could make use of the great flavor of this class in situations outside of combat.

first, I think having the evolutionist lose all EP outside of combat would be a mistake. Flavor-fully, I don't think it makes sense unless you box everyone in to this stuff being highly driven by adrenaline, which is kinda lame. It also provides a play pattern that is more unique than other classes, and with drawbacks balancing things out, it's not like you just build up to some OP state for future fights. And of course, this opens up the door for more utility outside of combat.

Worth noting, you would have to make sure the player can't abuse things like evolution drain outside of combat to fine tune their EP without cost.

my proposition: instead of adding " An evolutionist loses all EP at the end of combat.", add " An evolutionist loses all EP when they restore resolve points while resting" and "An evolutionist cannot gain EP when outside of combat except by spending resolve".

Next thing is to buff the abilities that can be useful outside of combat. For example, with these changes, ocular advantage becomes an interesting out of combat option, except it only lasts a minute. Buff it to last 10 minutes or even an hour, and suddenly you've added some cool utility to the otherwise combat focused class. Similarly for gaining specific movements, I would extend that to a minute, perhaps only outside of combat if that is too powerful in combat.

Next is to add more abilities like those mentioned above that focus more on utility, like perhaps some pheromone enhancers for charisma actions; and have each niche gain 1 bonus that is mostly only good for out of combat situations (maybe they gain it at level 3 or 5).

Seriously though, I would love to be able to use fission form to solve problems outside of combat.

Activating Cover Fire just make your attack worse. Instead of doing a normal attack, you instead give the enemy the choice of either a normal attack or an attack that is twice less as likely to hit or crit as its next attacks chance to do the same get reduced... theoretically the enemy should always choose the better option (unless you have an overly benevolent GM, or flavor really dictates the worse option), so if you are using it because you want them to take cover, they would instead just take the attack. In other games this is called a "punisher mechanic" and is almost always considered bad, unless the choices to choose from are both generally worse than what you could be doing that doesn't give the enemy an option.

To fix it, the options need to both be a little better than just a regular attack. My suggestion is two fold, the enemy needs to take a reaction to take cover, and if they don't take cover, your shots ignore their cover for the strike. I think it remains flavorful, and while both options seem powerful on their own, in practice, the ability for the enemy to choose which they do takes it down quite a notch.

in the book, it reads like so:

"Whenever a mech takes enough damage to be reduced to two-thirds its remaining Hit Points, and again when it takes enough damage to be reduced to one-third its remaining Hit Points, it experiences system failure."

At first, we assumed it worked like starships, so when the mech reaches 2/3 and 1/3 of it's maximum HP, it causes system failure. However, My players and I noticed the word "remaining" not "maximum" or something similar.

Is this a typo? or does it actually mean something like, if your mech is at 15/100 HP, and it takes 5 damage, it causes a system failure?

furthermore, does that mean one attack can cause multiple system failures? for example, dealing 10 damage to a mech at 15/100 HP causes the mech to reach 5/100, which is less than 2/3s (10/15HP) and 1/3 (5/15HP) of its remaining hit points (15). thus hitting both thresholds?

In the end, we guessed this was poor wording, so we went with the static break points of 1/3 and 2/3 of maximum hit points.

Between encounters, it would seem to me that a power core would be underused, and thus be able to build up excess energy. Additionally, if you end an encounter with more energy than the starting amount, you end up losing energy between encounters? strange.

I'm sure you could come up with a somewhat plausible explanation (though I bet it will feel a little flimsy no matter what), and I think if you want to keep it that way, there needs to be something in the final release, because it makes no sense on its face.

Right now, everything is available at level 1. It makes sense for the purposes of a playtest, but I can't help but think there lacks any excitement around leveling up when it comes to your mechs, you just get higher numbers and that's it. Perhaps extra frame/arm/leg/aux slots every tier for more flexibility, perhaps some sort of gated computer upgrades that act kind of like feats for the mech. Even locking of certain equipment, like the recon frames or certain limbs (though I think leaving this as a last resort if nothing else works is best).

I know you can increase flexibility with lower tier mechs as you gain levels, but that only works within your first few levels, at which point you can't really add more below a certain tier due to slots.

The Auxiliary Systems "Autotarget" and "Haste Circuit" both mention abilities but have no indication as to what action to activate them with or as a part of.

Are these just free to activate?

This is the first draft of my first attempt at a home brew class: The Xenosplicer. A class that makes heavy use of gene therapy to augment themselves with the dreams of species from across space.

google doc

I'm pretty happy with the concepts I ended up with, but for sure would welcome feedback, especially with balance. Feel free to use it at let me know how broken or under-powered it is.

I must say, creating a home brew class is quite an interesting experience. It started from a completely different concept, but a part of that concept blossomed into its own class that I think helps fill in some missing aspects in Starfinder, but do it in a future fantasy way.