Superpossu's page

Tech class playtest says this about robot companions:

Robot companions follow all the same rules as animal companions, with the following changes.

Rules for young animal companions include the following (emphasis mine):

Your animal companion is trained in its unarmed attacks, unarmored defense, barding (a type of armor for animals), all saving throws, Perception, Acrobatics, and Athletics.

Nothing in the playtest explicitly says that robot companions can't wear barding, but the Armor Plates customization implies that robots don't have separate armor, just customizations that fill the same role.

Should buying better armor for robot companions be possible (outside of using customizations)?

This brings up a good question: how should Flickering Shield work with force fields?

• 1. They're essentially the same thing (both have their own Hit Points), so only one can be active at once.
  
• 2. They have the same mechanics (both have their own Hit Points), but they're different things, so they do stack. But which one takes damage first?
  
• 3. Flickering Shield grants temporary Hit Points, with everything that implies.
  
• 4. Flickering Shield really does restore true Hit Points, with everything that implies.

The 10th-level feat Flickering Shield has a few problems:

• 1. The mod's effect (emphasis mine): The creature wearing the modded armor gains temporary Hit Points equal to 5 + your Intelligence modifier and regains Hit Points equal to your Intelligence modifier for every round the shield is active. In other words, while the mod initially grants temporary Hit Points, it heals the target on the subsequent rounds. This is a spelling error, isn't it?
  
• 2. Modify says (emphasis mine): The item remains modded until the start of your next turn, but the effect ends early if you use Modify again or if the item is destroyed or a character other than you, your drone, or your turret attempts to use the item. Flickering Shield says: The flickering shield lasts for 1 minute or until dismissed. I assume that this means that the mod does function for 1 minute, and it ends early if you Modify again?
  
• 3. Is it really not possible to Modify someone else's armor? The text of the feat implies that it should be, but the new text of Modify forbids it.
  
• 4. How does Flickering Shield interact with Enduring Mods and Permanent Mod (both its duration and the following 10-minute immunity)?

I agree that a more versatile companion and a second MAP track should require a larger investment. However, I don't think that the current format is good for the following reasons:

• 1. The druid needs to spend three feats to fully upgrade their companion. The mechanic needs four, even if we ignore Ultimate Drone. Druid also gets specialized companions four levels earlier, and can get multiple specializations. Thus, the drone is already more expensive than an animal companion.
  
• 2. A druid's power comes mainly from their spells, while a mechanic's power comes from their class feats. Therefore, if the drone and the animal companion require the same amount of feats for the same results, the drone is more expensive, since class feats are more valuable to the mechanic than to the druid.
  
• 3. The druid is a nature magician with an animal companion, while the mechanic is, well, a mechanic who has made a unique technological marvel. The companion doesn't feel as critical for druid as it does for a (drone) mechanic IMO. The druid still has their magic, but the mechanic doesn't really show off their unique capabilities.
  
• 4. This is not just about drone as a whole compared to animal companion as a whole, but about Customization feats compared to other mechanic feats that affect the drone. For example: is there any commercial customization that's better than Coordinated Fire? Integrated Weapon Mount and Upgrade Slot could be, since those scale with equipment - and you can have both for free. Customizations like Aquatic Adaptation or Nightvision Sensors are situational, so their usefulness depends on the scenario. But Light Mounts, Olfactory Receptors or Speakers? I can't ever see myself choosing one of those over Coordinated Fire. What about Auto-Target and tactical customizations? A specific combination of feats and customizations might be better than the sum of their parts, but even this means that the majority of customizations are never worth taking.
  
• 5. Like I posted above, to me, the appeal of Drone Exocortex is making a unique drone. With so many customizations in the playtest alone, it's easy to think that you can pick up all kinds of customizations to personalize your drone. But looking at the feats you pick, the Maturity feats alone take 5/11 of your class feats, and if you take each Customization feat once, your drone has taken 9/11 of your feats. This results in a drone with just six customizations - one of which is always Integrated Weapon Mount, and some chassis (like Imitator) also effectively take up more of them. You can push this to eight customizations if you spend all of your class feats on the drone. That might sound a lot, but most of the customizations feel pretty weak, and the mechanic themself would have few abilities outside the drone.

As I wrote earlier, it feels that the drone works as a "killbot", but not as anything else. The Imitator Chassis implies that it's possible to build a drone that trades some of its combat prowess for skill proficiencies or other non-combat capabilities, but currently, it feels like the mechanic must sacrifice most of their class feats and much of the drone's fighting skills to get situational at best abilities.

Even for the other chassis, it feels like you should be able to pick different customizations to alter the drone's performance, but it seems that the best results come from taking the Maturity feats and other feats that improve the drone - not from picking Customization feats.

Also, while a mechanic isn't forced to pick feats to improve their exocortex, a drone mechanic kind of has to to keep the drone's numbers up. The other exocortexes keep their numbers up via other means, so other mechanics are more free to pick feats for extra mods or other things. Is the drone really so much stronger that the Maturity feats are needed to keep it balanced with the other exocortexes?

A second MAP track is great, but bypassing MAP entirely is even better. Mines don't care about MAP at all, and while the turret does, the mechanic themself can use an automatic or area fire weapon to ignore MAP, can't they? So, the drone doesn't seem uniquely good in this regard.

Maybe it'd be better if the drone had more customization slots, and different customizations would take a different amount of slots? This way, one could either have one powerful customization or a few weaker ones. Many drone feats could then give one extra slot, while the Customization feats could give lots of slots and also allow one to choose from higher grade customizations.

I've been trying to build a drone with lots of customizations, but it seems that no matter what, the drone can never have that many of them - especially if some of them are higher grade customizations. I'm new to the system (or rather, PF2e, which I assume people are basing their analysis on). Feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong or missed something!

For starters, let's define the feats affecting the robot:

• Maturity feats: Tactical Drone (4th), Refined Chassis (8th), Advanced Drone (14th), Elite Drone (18th) and Ultimate Drone (20th).
• Customization feats: Commercial Customization (1st), Tactical Customization (6th), Advanced Customization (10th) and Superior Customization(16th).

If the player takes all of these feats, they have used nine out of their eleven possible class feats. Only 2nd- and 12th-level feats are free - whether for taking even more customization feats or for taking any other feats. This results in a drone with six customizations: three commercial (one of which is always Integrated Weapon Mount) and one tactical, advanced and superior. This doesn't sound a lot.

• Let's say that I want to build a drone that can Repair things. This doesn't sound like it should be too difficult, but it requires a lot of feats: to even attempt Intelligence-based skills, the drone needs the Sapient customization, which is available at level 10 at the earliest. This requires Tactical Drone, Refined Chassis and Advanced Customization. We'll then need Skill Module (Crafting) and Manual Dexterity. One can use the free commercial customization, but the other need another feat. That's four feats to do this. This results in a drone with a Crafting modifier of +12 (+10 from level, +2 from trained, +0 from Int). For comparison, the mechanic themself likely has a Crafting modifier of +22 (+10 from level, +6 from master, +5 from Int, +1 from tactical repair toolkit). Even if we disregard any feats the mechanic most likely has, the drone's modifier is so far from the mechanic's that this doesn't seem to be worth doing ever. Pretty much any PC will have a better modifier if they invested in Crafting at all.

• Maybe drones are built for physical labor? Let's take Powerful Chassis, make it a burly robot and give it a Maneuver Module. This requires Tactical Drone, Refined Chassis and Advanced Customization. This gives the drone an Athletics modifier of +20 or +21 (+10 from level, +4 from expert, +6 from Str, as well as +1 to the selected maneuvers). For comparison, a solarian's modifier would be +21 (+10 from level, +6 from master, +5 from Str) - but they might have a weapon that can add its item bonus to attack rolls to these checks.

• How about a scouting robot? Fortunately, Surveillance Chassis is a really good base: the drone has good Wisdom and Dexterity, Stealth training, an integrated ranged weapon, darkvision and fly speed. It also has an Integrated Weapon Mount for additional options (including grenades), and a free commercial customization. What could we add to it? Aquatic Adaptation will let it scout underwater, Cameras let us see what it sees (but not hear - no Microphone customization?), and Olfactory Receptors lets it detect smells as well. That's two feats worth of customizations. For more advanced drones, Tactical Drone also increases the drone's Perception and Stealth to expert, so we don't need Expertise Module for that. But we might want High Speed to fly faster and Burrower to reach new places unseen. That's already three feats, for a total of five. This drone is neat, but we don't have anything else: if the drone goes down, the mechanic doesn't have much else to do. And we haven't taken feats like Hunker Down, Coordinated Fire or Auto-Target, so while we can use the drone in combat, we can't fight in tandem with it. Is this scouting ability really that good? And if we want more customizations, such as Echolocation or Network, we need even more feats.

The chassis don't seem to be balanced in terms of customisations either. For example, Surveillance Chassis effectively starts with Flier and Nightvision Sensors customizations, so the player is a bit more free to add customisations of their choosing - or saving the feats for something else. By contrast, Imitator Chassis is obviously built for Charisma skills, but they need to take Artificial Personality to even attempt such checks. And if the player wants the drone to use other Charisma-based skills than Deception, they need to spend a feat to take Skill Module - potentially several times. At 1st-level, this results in a modifier of +4 (+1 from level, +2 from trained, +1 from Cha), which isn't awful. But a PC can use their skill increases to improve those Charisma skills, get item bonuses and increase their Charisma. The drone needs Tactical Drone and Customization feat for Expertise Module, and increasing the modifier further takes even more feats.

Are drones just meant to draw attacks? The turret seems to be better for this role, since it has hardness, uses the mechanic's class DC / Int for AC, saves and hit points, and if it gets destroyed, the mechanic can just collect and redeploy it to fully heal it. None of this takes any feats. At 3rd level, you can even use Reposition Exocortex to move the turret to chase or block enemies as needed. Maneuvers like Grapple and Trip seem to be the only major advan1tages the drone has over the turret.

Let's compare the drone to druid's animal companion. A druid needs just three feats to mature the companion: Mature Animal Companion, Incredible Companion, and Specialized Companion. Even if we disregard Ultimate Drone, this is still one feat less - or five, is we take each of the Customization feats. And the druid gets specialization for their companion 4 levels earlier! Furthermore, a level 20 druid with no class feats is still a full spellcaster with nearly 40 spell slots. What can a level 20 mechanic with no class feats do? Much less, I assume. This means that a mechanic's feats are more "expensive" than a druid's.

Lastly, how powerful are those customizations? Majority of them seem nice to have, but far weaker than feats like Coordinated Fire or Auto-Target. The ability to change them during daily preparations is good, but if the customizations themselves are too weak and/or poorly balanced, this versatility doesn't mean much. And you can't quickly change them to adapt the drone to a new situation. I can't see myself ever using customizations like Light Mounts or Olfactory Receptors, no matter how fun they seem - there just isn't room for them after taking the "mandatory" ones.

It feels like the best way to build a drone is to pick the five Maturity feats and spend your remaining six feats other things - and to leave the customizations on the shelf. This is a shame: to me, the appeal of Drone Exocortex is making a unique drone, but with so few customizations, there's not much to distinguish one drone from another of the same chassis. And if you pick other feats than Customization feats, there's even less to distinguish the drone.

Another problem is scaling. Mines are the easiest to scale: their damage goes up as you level up. Turret needs a bit more effort: UPB, time and a Crafting check. But the drone requires Maturity feats, and quite a few of them. And if you want to give your drone a mounted weapon, that one needs upgrading too - as does your own weapon (and the rest of your equipment as well).

If the drone matured like the turret (upgrading it as armor, rather than a weapon like the turret), the mechanic would be free to take both Customization feats and other class feats. This way, the feats are used to make the drone more versatile, rather than just keeping up with numbers.

Alternatively, instead of Customization feats, the Maturity feats and other feats affecting the drone could also give it more customizations. This way, the mechanic would be free to invest in something else than the drone (or they could get new mods / actions as well as customizations), while still getting a few customizations to play around. Or maybe the Customization feats could just give more customizations?

Or maybe the mechanic could just buy or Craft extra customizations for the drone? These ones could be harder to swap out of, which is more limiting than just deciding what customizations are online during daily preparations, but if you want your drone to do one thing almost all of the time, they'd be a smart investment.

Playing around with different customizations doesn't really seem possible even if you were to spend all of your class feats just to upgrade the drone. They seem far weaker than a "proper" class feat is. It feels that the drone works as a "killbot", but not as anything else - and the turret arguably works better as a weapon platform.

Am I not seeing something, or is the drone both really limited in what it can do and very hungry for feats? Or does the drone work much better than I'm assuming?