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At least I'm not alone in the Bounded and Unbounded issue. Just put me in the Bounded corner, where I'll be sitting eating popcorn.
This is what the Proficiency system should be used for. If you're Untrained, then yeah there should be a chance to fail basic skill uses. If you're Trained, then you should be able to pass basic skill uses. And so on. Each level of Proficiency should allow for greater and better uses of skills. Someone Legendary should be able to do far greater things than someone just Trained. A better system would be if they got rid of the Character Level as Modifier and, at least for Skills, make it so every tier of Proficiency in skills just adds a +5 modifier to that Skill. Keep the standard DC chart. And I'd only do this for Skills. But I'm all for making the game have more Bounded Accuracy. I think changing the Character Level as Modifier to Half your Character Level could also work. Instead of +1 to +20 swingyness, make it +1 to +10 instead.
This is the same kind of skills system that was in D&D 4th edition, where the DCs of the skill checks were more dependent on what level the character is than what the actual skill DCs are supposed to really be. It didn't function well in 4e and it makes no sense here. Plus... this is convoluted as (insert appropriate word here, if there is one). This is also showcasing something else that I think will be the problem of this edition, if it's kept, and that's the Add Your Character Level as a modifier to Everything issue. You add your level as a modifier to your Saves, Skills, Attacks, etc. And while this system works functionally well in D&D 5e, here the modifier of going from +1 to +20 for everything in the game is just way too swingy. This goes counter to the design of taking Proficiency Levels, which range from -2 to +3 over Untrained to Legendary, which is a design that shrinks the total modifier range applied to the d20 dice rolls. Now if you added just half your character level (which is how the math was in D&D 4e) this range would go from +1 to +10, and that's way more manageable. Less swingy, less based on luck of the die roll, and it'd be easier to design for. Bounded Accuracy works for a reason. It's supported by the actual Proficiency system than ripped apart by Character Level as a Modifier, which exasperates one of the central problems Pathfinder has always had. And I admit to not getting the logic of this DC skills system. To me, if something is a DC 20 at level 1, that same action should be a DC 20 test at level 10. But according to these rules, that's not the case. So it's really also just confusing as hell. I love everything else about the game so far. But this problem will be enough to keep me from playing it if it sticks around in 2e.
I don't know about everybody else but I feel that Starfinder will actually let more 3pp stuff happen because the setting itself is so much more wide open for creating new stuff. Aliens, technologies, worlds, starships, space empires, wars, lost colonies, etc. Whereas I had always dabbled in Pathfinder, I am totally in for Starfinder. I am looking forward to it, and seeing what everybody creates for it. I hope it finds great success.
I want mecha in my Starfinder. Powered by sentient crystals that link with the pilot but nobody has really figured out the crystals are actually sentient. They just think the crystals are a super cool power source of energy.
Oooh, this is cool. I like it. :) My own idea is to adapt some of the ideas of Relic Knights into my own Starfinder sector of space, with a dash of Guardians of the Galaxy. Now using TMNT as a source of inspiration sounds like it also perfectly matches. And stealing ideas from Fragged Empire. |