Torradin341's page

I would encourage everyone to double check your shipping addresses, especially for upcoming subscriptions. For me, at least, they seem to have imported addresses from all of my orders over the past five years, which includes places I no longer live, and my current address was not the one selected for my upcoming order.

You'll want to go to your Account page on the store, then select the Subscription tab and verify what it says under Shipping. If it's wrong, you should be able to click the dropdown button and select the correct address, or add it if it's not there.

Verily, my watch hath ended.

Lo, my watch hath begun.

The point is, there is a stark difference between what is being called a Starfinder AP is and what historically has been a Pathfinder AP is, and it's causing confusion and frustration. Clarifying things would be good.

This has always been the case, though. SF1 AP volumes, and even the standalone modules, run a shorter page count. From Incident at Absalom Station to Into the Dataverse SF1 Adventure volumes have been 64 pages. The only exceptions to this were Scoured Stars (256 pages) and Mechageddon! (184 pages) which were explicitly advertised as them trying out this whole single-volume AP thing. Even last year's playtest adventures stuck to the 64 page count size.

So, by page count, this is a two volume AP, which is just as much an AP as Seven Dooms for Sandpoint. The fact that it is so much smaller is just a Starfinder thing. Everything is smaller over here on the Starfinder side of things. The game is - sadly - not as popular as Pathfinder, and therefore has a smaller team with fewer resources working on it. Hopefully, it being PF2 compatible will increase the popularity, which will, hopefully, increase the resources being given to its developement, which will, hopefully, increase the page count for our products.

I would like to second this. I love my avatar, but I would also love to see more options, especially for Starfinder.

Thanks so much for looking into that, Maya!

Just got my pdf, and I don't think it's complete? There's no cover, and there are only 8 pages, instead of the 16 mentioned in the description.

My watch, it ends.

My watch, it begins.

"Some abilities require you to wield an item, typically a weapon. You’re wielding an item any time you’re holding it in the number of hands needed to use it effectively. When wielding an item, you’re not just carrying it around—you’re ready to use it. Other abilities might require you to be wearing the item, holding it, or simply to have it."

Okay, so allow me to rules lawyer this for you in such a way as to follow intent. The two bolded sentences are the crux here. The second one is the true qualifier - When wielding, you are ready to use it. If it's in your non-active hands, you are not ready to use it, therefore you are not wielding it, merely holding it. "you're not just carrying it around" all but explicitly states that things can just be carried around. It is an implicit reading of that clause.

The first sentence seems to contradict this, but even so can be read in a way to support it. "You’re wielding an item any time you’re holding it" looks like a standalone statement that says "wielding" and "holding" are the same thing. However, the sentence continues with the qualifier, "in the number of hands needed to use it effectively." If an item is being held in a non-active hand, it is not being held in the number of hands needed to be used effectively (because you cannot effectively use it), therefore it is not being wielded, it is only being held.

Spelled out a bit differently,

Wielding = Holding IF item can be used
Wielding ≠ Holding IF item cannot be used

If you activate the hand holding something, then whatever you are holding, if you can now use it effectively, becomes wielded, not just held. Otherwise, anything in your non-active hands is "just being carried around."

Top of my list is the Surviving Specimen (IYKYK), but I'd want to wait for the Biohacker for that one, personally.

The good thing also about STLs is that lots of local libraries have 3D printers too! If you or your friends don't have one, you can pop by a local library and still get the minis printed!

As someone who works at a library and manages the 3D prints, I can confirm this is accurate! It's also pretty cheap. I can't speak for all libraries, but ours costs 6¢ per gram, and a standard, medium-sized TTRPG figure will *usually* cost less than a dollar.

When should I be concerned about my order remaining in a "side cart"? The product (murder in metal city) shows that it's now available, and I placed my subscription order before it was available (July 24th), but it hasn't shown any movement. Just wondering when I should reach out to customer service about it.

I would reach out to Customer Service now. You missed July's subscription shipping window (if you subscribed on the 24th), so by default it would wait until August's subscription shipping window. If you wanted it to ship ASAP, then reaching out to CS now is a good idea.

Hey there, Paizo friends! [...]

THANK YOU!

Both for letting us know what will explicitly be available online, and for having those things in the first place. There's a reason y'all are my favorite tabletop company. :)

Is there a non-special edition of this?

The non-special edition of it is right here.

The main game has barely any ranged enemies, which doesn't work well if you're trying to make a starfinder game with ranged meta, large battlefields, and cover that matters.

I have to laugh every time anyone brings up the "ranged meta". The only hint of it we've seen is the removal of melee options from classes. Most of the enemies and scenarios I've seen so far have been very melee oriented.

I would caution everyone to temper their expectations in regards to panel streams. Paizo has never been great at posting or streaming their GenCon panels (except for the years that GenCon was online). I really hope they do stream or at least record and post them, but they only posted two panels from last year, and one of those was the liveplay.

Unless they explicitly say they will, I would not count on them streaming or posting the panels.

THANK YOU!

I could not for the life of me remember where I'd heard any of that from, and the more I looked the more I started wondering if I'd just imagined it.

Also, where did you hear Galaxy Guide getting stated it was a repurposed SF1 book?

Fair point calling me out on that. I definitely don't have sources for this, but I remember them talking about Galaxy Guide (not by name, but definitely by description) as one of the books they were working on for after Starfinder Enhanced, which was not supposed to be the last SF1 rulebook. Then the OGL happened, and they cancelled everything SF1 that wasn't already deep in development to work on SF2 (from my understanding of the situation).

Now, to be fair, GG would definitely have had work done to it, as they would have had to update all the fluff to be concurrent with the state of the galaxy post everything that's happened in the past few years, as well as all of the player content with the ancestries and faction archetypes. But my understanding was that they were not starting from zero with that book, but instead starting from what had already been in development. I could definitely be wrong about that, and having laid it all out like this, it does smack of rumor and assumption.

Torradin341 wrote:

PF2 launched with a full corebook, not half of a Player/GM split. It had twice as many classes.

SF2e is not based on the original PF2e core rule book; it's based on the PF2e remastered Player Core and GM core, which is why the play test used those 2 books. At least to me, I'm not surprised that Paizo is using the remastered layout and roadmap for SF2e.

I am well aware that it is using the Remaster template, and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. It does not, however, change the fact that Starfinder Player Core, by itself, is not a full game. Most of the rules systems that would make it distinct and standalone from PF2 will not be available until next month.

Comparing it to the Remaster is a false equivalence. The Remaster was not a new edition. It did not alter the fundamental rules in any way that would invalidate what had already been released. Indeed, when Pathfinder Player Core released, all of the tools from CRB, APG, GMG, and Bestiaries 1, 2, and 3 all still worked and made for a complete game right then and there. The Remaster was an errata - a much more thorough errata to be sure, but an errata nonetheless.

Starfinder 2e is a new edition, and the Player Core does not, in and of itself, have enough content to really sell it as such. As a Sci-Fantasy game, it is missing most of the subsystems folks from outside of the Paizo ecosphere would expect a game like this to have, as OP said. Those of us inside the Paizo ecosphere know what those features will be and when to expect them.

It does not change that Starfinder Player Core is the most feature-lite launch of a game of this type I have ever seen.

I am glad you are enjoying it, and I don't mean to dampen yours or anyone else's enthusiasm for the game. As much as I may gripe about these things, I believe the Starfriends have done the best they could with the situation they were given. While I will definitely be playing with a bunch of houserules to "fix" many of the things I have a problem with in this book, overall, I'm delighted to finally have this game in my hands.

While I'm disappointed that, to me at least, this feels more like an expansion to PF2, I'm hopeful that that exact thing will bring in far more people to Starfinder and that this game will be successful enough to go for years and earn an eventual 3rd edition that the devs will hopefully, finally, be able to take their time with.

Weak launch lineup?

Yes, a weak launch lineup. The Gap doesn't count, it's an empty book. Galaxy guide counts only as much as any PF1 book does, since it's a repurposed SF1 book, though it does have some player rules for SF2, so I'll give you that.

Otherwise, PF2 launched with a full corebook, not half of a Player/GM split. It had twice as many classes. SF1's corebook had vehicles and starships, environmental rules every other rule system you would need to run a full game in it's launch book. PF2 also launched with Bestiary, so within two books that came out in the same day, you had everything you needed to run your own campaign.

Sf1e and PF2e didn't launch with a full AP. They launched with part 1 of an AP

As a point of order, SF2 isn't launching with a full AP either. MiMC is a 64 page single-level adventure, not an AP. To be fair, it's rather cool looking, but it is only one adventure. PF2 launched with its own 64-page adventure (The Fall of Plaguestone), and the first volume of an AP. PF2 also had PFS scenarios, so PF2 definitely had stronger there. PF2 also had a FRPGD adventure (yes, it was technically a "playtest adventure", but it counts as much as Nova Rush).

As for accessories, PF2 had the GM screen, Character Sheet Pack, Combat Pad and the Condition Card Deck, which are all functional game aids. SF2 has a tie-in novel, a prop, and a Combat pad. And if you're going to throw the maps in there, the entire PF1 archive of maps exist, so PF2 also had that.

Looking at what we really get for SF2, we have a core book that has the fewest classes Paizo has ever released in a launch book, with only the terrestrial tactical combat rules and no other systems in it, one stand-alone adventure, a combat pad, and a setting book that released months before the core rulebook.

There are reasons for this (the OGL is far more to blame than either tariffs or Diamond), but it doesn't change the fact that we will be waiting until next month to reach a parity with SF1's single book, nor does it change that there isn't much here at launch.

I probably shouldn't post this. It's 5:30 where I am, and I haven't slept in two days. I'm just really tired of everyone lauding SF2 giving us less.

1) Starfighter rules will theoretically be in a book next year. I don't think any of the devs have confirmed starfighters in particular, but they were in SOM, so hopefully we'll get them in 2e. Starship combat, in general, will be in GM Core ("cinematic starship combat"), with crunchier rules coming in the aforementioned book that will likely release next year. There will be a playtest for it first, so we'll know more then. (hopefully they release that at GenCon)

2) Computer Hacking rules will be in GM Core.

3) 0G combat rules will hopefully be in GM Core, but I'm not aware that they've specifically mentioned them.

4) There isn't one. Not yet, at least. The Mechanic (more of a combat engineer than the 1e greasemonkey) and the Technomancer will be in a book next year. We just had a playtest for them a couple of months ago, and frankly they're a mess (at least the Technomancer is), so I don't know if they'll do it for you, but that's all there is now. No word on the Biohacker or Nanocyte yet, but I wouldn't expect them until 2027 at the earliest at this point. Otherwise, the only Sci- in this Sci-Fantasy game really is just the equipment. And any vehicles that might be in Player Core. I don't have my book or pdf yet, so I can't say for certain, but yeah.

They cut most of the Sci out of the launch book, if the playtest was anything to go by. Mostly just there in the pop culture references in the names and a bit of flavoring. I was really hoping the full release would have more to it, and I'll hold my own judgement until I get my book, but this was my biggest criticism last year. It's disappointing to hear that I may have been right that this is more Player Core 3 than SF2.

My watch has at last ended (card was hit on Monday - downside to ordering everything, I guess).

Again they are not promised to be early release. You're just expecting that, because they have been most times int he past. As others have pointed out, they also did this exact same process when PF2 launched.

That's the problem, they did promise the early release pdf, or at least strongly implied it. They've been advertising it at the bottom of each Iconic Encounters post with the following:

Be the first to play Starfinder Second Edition by subscribing to the Starfinder RPG or Starfinder RPG (Special Edition) lines and receive a free PDF when your book ships!

And as Redelia said, every order states that the pdf will be available when the book ships. The problem here isn't that the pdf is being delayed, it's that they never said it was while also advertising that it wouldn't be.

So I got curious and it turns out it's just on the accessories page. Not in any of the subcategories, like the other screens. If you go to Pathfinder/Accessories and scroll down below the category links, you can find it on the All Products or Available Now tabs about halfway down the list.

My watch has begun.

Also beginning is the countdown to my wallet's funeral.

Dawn rises... 22 days remain...time marches as a lumbering unstoppable juggernaut

...like a moon, madly grinning at the planet it intends to crash into, the release creeps ever closer...

Others have said it, but I would also like to say that Pakelia is awesome and I would love to see more of her, either as a new iconic or just in more fiction as a recurring character.

Is there a PaizoCon coin this year?

My watch, though hardly begun, has ended.

Okay. So. How does it play?

At level 1, it mostly doesn’t. Since the subclass is entirely dependent on spell gems (4gp 40 credits each), you’re not going to have any right off the bat, not unless you give up your starting gear. Maybe you’re frugal and have a gem or two. That’s it until you hit a payday, unless your GM gives you some. So assuming you couldn’t afford any, and your GM isn’t handing them out like candy, you’re just generic spellcaster #4. At least you have spellshapes! Oh, wait. Those are also entirely dependent on spell gems. Hmm. WELP. Guess it’s just your gun, cantrips, and your two spell slots until you can get a gem or a chip.

If you do happen to have gems, well, that changes everything! Or not. Outside of letting you use more types of spell gems, Overclocking doesn’t actually have any knock-on benefits at this level. This means that you’re only really wanting to attempt to Overclock if you have a non-Arcane spell gem that you’d like to use. And here’s your big decision - do you use a spell slot to Overclock the gem, allowing you to DFS the gem, getting a second use out of it? Or do you burn DFS to Overclock the gem, saving your spell slot, but only getting one use out of the gem?

At level 3, Jailbreak unlocks and. Doesn’t change much. 4gp 40 credits is still a lot, maybe not as a one-off, but as a regular tax for your abilities? It’ll add up. Of course, you should also be able to get a spell chip or two. However, only the base Spell Circuit effect works on chips. The Jailbreak and Super Jailbreak effect for Spell Circuit, as well as all of DFS, do not work on chips, only gems. So unless you picked up a non-arcane chip, or other spellshapes, gems are still the way to go. Getting a chip is a good idea, however, because unless you overuse it, it is always available for Overclocking, even after use. Which means you at least always have something you can set up for Jailbreak.

At level 4, you can pick up Alakablam, but it really is more of a DPS++ feat. Unless you’re planning on actually using your gun after a spell gem, it’s not worth it. There’s nothing else available at this point that specifically fits Viper, so you could also use this feat to pick up more spellshapes that aren’t dependent on spell gems. Otherwise, your gameplay hasn’t really changed.

Level 6 allows you to pick up your Advanced Magic Hack, for, again, very little point or purpose. Personally, I’d rather take Overclock Spell Database or White Hat Hack, but neither of those particularly fits the theme. Unless you count the utility theme presented by the Spell Cache list. At this point, you should be able to afford a couple of chips and a regular supply of low level gems. Leaning into the Overclock ability to cast non-Arcane spells makes you a very versatile caster, as you literally have all (non-focus, non-cantrip) spells at your fingertips.

At level 8, there’s Grenade Spell, which is absolutely shenanigans if you combo it with your Super Jailbreak. It takes 3 turns and 4 spells, but the important thing is that it works. Turn 1, you cast a spell slot spell to Overclock one of your gems. Turn 2, you Jailbreak Spell Circuit into that gem, which lets you burn a different spell gem and turn the original into a grenade. For your third action, you Overclock the spell gem again because you’re only treating it as a grenade - it’s still a spell gem. Turn 3, you Jailbreak Spell Grenade to cast another spell into your grenade gem, and throw it for your third action. This lets you use your spell DC in place of your Class DC (if the spell you installed called for a Reflex save).

Granted, this is still using up to two spell slots and up to four spell gems (using all spell gems, turn one uses a gem spell to start off, turn two uses a sacrificed spell gem, turn three uses the spell gem grenade and a spell gem you installed the spell from). I don’t know if it’s worth it, honestly, but it’s something you can do, and it gives mad Johnny vibes to pull off something like that.

At level 10, you can pick up your Greater Magic Hack, allowing you to heighten your spell gems. Which is profoundly fantastic, but only if you plan on not using any other spellshapes. Because it is one. Though, if you picked up Double Spellshape and Double Jailbreak, that’s less of an issue. So now you can load up on low rank spell gems that you can boost up pretty much whenever you want.

And, as with all of the subclasses, that’s pretty much it. There’s no more support for the subclass.

What’s more interesting, is that while the other three subclasses encourage specific routines, Viper doesn’t. You’re Overclocking to either enable Jailbreaks, or to use non-Arcane spell gems. And you’re not just throwing those spell gems around to throw them around. Just like your spell slots, you’re only using them when called for. Where DPS++, FORTRUN, and ServoShell inform your playstyle, narrowing its focus, Viper opens it up, giving you far more versatility. It says “Here’s all of the spells. Go nuts.”

So, fixes. Most obviously, give the subclass the ability to make a temporary spell gem. It’s the only consumable class in the 2e ecosystem that can’t make the consumable that it relies on, and that’s bad. Players are, by design, not made of credits, and this is why PF2 classes and archetypes that rely on consumables can all make said consumables. This is an absolutely required fix.

The Overclock effect is actually good, and I have no complaints with it other than its ridiculous requirement to cast a spell before using it. As always, I think the Overclock Gear should be a focus spell cantrip, probably just a single action for this subclass.

I still think either the level 1 feat or the Rank 1 focus spell should be something else, either a utility feat or an actual focus spell. However, this is the one subclass that I think gets away with having both of them be spellshapes, and at any rate, they’re both really good and really thematic. I’d say replace Log Spell Execution with Dynamic Frequency Scaling and give the subclass a spell it can use, but…

Log Spell Execution should allow the copied spell to stay in the Spell Cache until the next daily prep. This is, perhaps, a bit powerful, but. As it is, you are throwing away a spell gem so you can overwrite one of your spell slots with said spell once. In total, you are losing money from the spell gem to maybe heighten the spell. If you’re doing this in combat, it’s a waste of turns and resources, and if you prep out of combat, you may never actually use the spell because you may never need to. Offsetting those costs by allowing you to use it multiple times, is, I think, fair. Certainly, it is capable of being abused, but so are a lot of things (see my Melee Sniper Build thread). I don’t think this would be game-breakingly powerful.

Replace the redundant spells in the Spell Cache for a better variety of spell effects. I get that it’s a full utility list, but it really doesn’t need to contain its own upgrades. And having the same capstone spell as another subclass feels disappointing.

Again, I think this subclass needs a feat at 14, 16, or 18. Some kind of support for the 11-20 journey.

This programming language was originally developed by engineers working for the Aspis Consortium to standardize the manufacturing of hybrid items, especially spell chips and spell gems. While this code was made to help install multilingual hybrid magic items into replica antiques to sell across the galaxy, it’s since been implemented as a high-level, general purpose programming language thanks to its emphasis on code readability and multilinguistic compatibility.

It’s the Scroll Trickster! Gem Trickster! This subclass overclocks spell gems and spell chips, and through that, lets you cast any spell from any tradition. Pretty dang cool. I want to love the Viper subclass. I think it’s neat. But unlike any other 2e consumable-dependent class or archetype, it has no way to generate its requisite consumable. Right off the bat, this is a problem. And that’s not even getting into the “cast a spell to cast a spell” nature of it. I’m getting ahead of myself though, so let’s get into it.

Each subclass has several features: a given spell line, focus spells, a level 1 spellshape feat, an Overclock Boost, and an additional Jailbreak feature for their given spellshape feat. That’s. Honestly a lot. And only about half of it ties into this subclass. Which makes sense, because the theme is “use spell gems”.

So, Spell Cache, the list of always available given spells. We’ve got:
- Delete: Destroy information from a data set, or “tech item with the tracking trait”.
- Translate: Understand 1 language.
- Locate: Learn the direction of the target.
- Creation: Create a temporary object.
- Truespeech: Become an omniglot.
- Truesight: Get an automatic (secret) counteract check on any illusion, morph, or polymorph effect within 60ft.
- Contingency: Precast a spell to trigger on conditions you set. The spell can only effect you.
- Pinpoint: Learn the location of a creature or object with *ahem* pinpoint accuracy.
- Foresight: Gain a status bonus to initiative, immune to off-guard in certain situations, gain defensive reaction.

I don’t know what to make of this spell list. It’s all utility spells, which isn’t a bad thing, per se, but it’s a bit lackluster. Translate and Truespeech are redundant, so are locate and pinpoint. Foresight is also on FORTRUN’s spell list, which doesn’t feel good, especially when they share a subclass feat as well. I get it though? How do you build a spell list around using spell gems? I don’t give it a pass, as this is a problem the devs gave themselves, but I understand the theming difficulty with this one.

Next, Focus spells:
- Dynamic Frequency Scaling: Spellshape a spell gem to get a second use out of the spell gem.
-- Jailbreak: The spell gem only breaks on a crit failure. (what???)

This is the only one I’m going to look at for now, because it’s the only one you get for sure. The other two Focus Spells for Viper are for Viper, but are locked behind feats.

So the base spellshape here is great. For a subclass entirely dependant on one-use consumables, getting a second use out of said consumables is a life saver. Or, well, a credit saver. The caveat that the spell gem becomes a temp item until end of day is not even really a problem. They even put a clause in there to prevent you from double-dipping! If you use the already-used spell gem, it is destroyed, no matter what.

That Jailbreak though. Like Alakablam and a few other feats, it doesn’t make any sense. “If you use Jailbreak Spell to use this spellshape with a spell gem, it only becomes broken on a critical failure.” Spell gems are never broken, only destroyed. Spell chips on the other hand, can be broken. But this spellshape only mentions being used on spell gems. So does the Jailbreak version allow you to effect spell chips? If it does, what are the knock-on effects? Turning a spell gem into a temp item to get a second use is great, but turning a spell chip into a temp item? NO THANKS. This sentence does not make sense and needs much more clarification.

Moving on to the Given Spellshape Feat. Viper gets an initial spellshape of:
- Spell Circuit: You don’t need to be holding your spell chip or spell gem to cast from it.
-- Jailbreak: If you use a spell gem this way, you can consume a different spell gem instead of the one you cast.

The regular spellshape version of this is alright. If you don’t have a bandolier or belt, or if all of your gems are (for whatever reason) in your bag, you don’t need to spend actions to draw them before casting (if they are on a bandolier or belt, drawing them is the same action economy). If both of your hands are occupied, you can cast without putting anything down. Interestingly, by RAW I don’t think this would let you cast from a non-active set of hands. The Jailbreak though, is fantastic. If you only have one of spell gem A, you can cast it and destroy spell gem B instead, allowing you to continue using spell gem A again and again. Granted, that brings up the action economy of Jailbreaking for this class and whether it’s worth it, but we’ll come back to that. This also means that you can buy a high rank spell gem and repeatedly cast it by burning level 1 spell gems. On paper, this is a great Jailbreak.

Finally, the pièce de résistance, the Overclock Boost, the core of the subclass. It does only one thing:
- You can use Overclocked spell gems and chips with spells from other traditions as though they were Arcane instead.

This is. SO COOL. Or it would be, but action economy, actual economy, and spell cost. BUT. On paper, in a vacuum, this is so friggen cool. This subclass can cast any spell. ANY OF THEM. Except focus spells. But other than that! Tradition doesn’t matter! Want to cast a Divine spell? Get a spell gem and overclock it. Occult? Same thing. Primal? Just get a spell chip for that. This is the most versatile caster in the whole 2e ecosystem.

All you need is credits.

Moving on! At level 3 you get Jailbreak, and that comes with Viper’s super special Jailbreak bonus for Spell Circuit.
- Viper Jailbreak: Turn the Jailbroken gem into an electromag grenade of the same item level until end of next turn.

This is not bad. I know a lot of folks on these boards have been outspoken about how Technomancer’s class dc doesn’t increase, but to be honest, no one’s increases until level 9 or 11. Except Soldier, but they’re a special cookie. So at least up until that point, this is useful. After that, yes, it suddenly becomes a heaping pile of ‘meh’. The last few levels (17-20) are definitely going to be feeling the lack of class dc, sitting a solid -4 behind anyone else (-6 behind the Soldier). But up until about level 11, this is going to be useful.

Okay, so that’s your guaranteed kit. As with all of the subclasses, Viper only has one feat and its two focus spells specific to it down the line.

- lvl4 - Alakablam: I still don’t know what this does. Best guess is that, after using a spell gem, you can pseudo-Overclock a gun and give it bonus damage or change its damage type based on if the spell you cast is non-damaging or damaging, respectively. Having spent a lot of time on this feat, I think this just gives you a boosted magazine of ammo? So it lasts as long as a magazine does for your weapon. I think. (I really just freaking don’t know, because this feat is SO. POORLY. WRITTEN.)

I think this could be okay for Viper? It’s extra damage or elemental damage from your gun after using a spell gem. Gives you a little extra bonus for that gem usage. But idk. Feels like a DPS++ feat that they tied Viper into to save space instead of giving Viper its own feat. It works for Viper, but it doesn’t feel all that beneficial to Viper itself.

- lvl6 - Advanced Magic Hack: Rank3 Log Spell Execution: Add a spell from a spell gem to your Spell Cache until you Download it or use LSE again. Can only be used on Arcane spells.
-- Jailbreak: j/k you can use any tradition’s spells as long as it’s from your Overclocked gem/chip or you use Trick Magic Item.

I don’t see the benefit of the base spellshape here. You’re taking a spell out of a gem or chip and putting it into your Spell Cache, where you will then have to use a spell slot to cast the spell, thus rendering the usefulness of the gem/chip null and void. You’ve effectively spent credits to cast a spell from a spell slot. At that point, why not just write the spell to your Database and prep it normally?

The Jailbreak is even harder to swallow due to logistics. You have to cast a spell to Overclock your gem to use your gem to add the spell to your Spell Cache to use another spell slot to cast the spell. Doing this mid-combat will cost you at least 3 turns, during which you’re not doing anything but casting one spell (unless you used a spell slot to Overclock your gem). You absolutely can prep it out of combat, burning a focus spell up front and then spending 10 minutes to get it back

That said, you can heighten non-tradition spells this way. You could take a rank 1 gem, add it to your Spell Cache, and then cast it from a higher rank spell slot, thus hightening the spell. I suppose this could be worth it, but feels pretty corner-case to me, due to the sheer logistics and the fact that if you prep it in advance you may not even need that spell.

- level10 - Greater Magic Hack: Rank5 Overclock Lattice: When you cast a spell from a chip or a gem, you auto-heighten the spell to 2 ranks below your max rank.
-- Jailbreak: Heighten the spell to a level equal to the spell used to Overclock.

This is a great spellshape and is probably too powerful. If you Overclock from a focus spell, you can always Jailbreak this to cast from your highest rank. We’ve also immediately negated Log Spell Execution (as far as I can tell). Instead of having to use a spell slot to cast a gem, you can just use the gem and get a heightened version of the spell.

(Also, why does this have Duration: 1 minute?? It’s a spellshape, it’s duration is 1 action. Unless this is an exception??? But it doesn’t say that?????? I know it’s probably a copy/paste error from the other Rank 5 focus spells, but still)

There are other feats you can take that compliment the theme, or at least, the abilities. I don’t know that there are any spells that do, but that just means you can take whatever you want.

So who wants a melee sniper for SF2? It’s a really simple recipe. Take one dragonkin ancestry, one dragonkin heritage, two ancestry feats (third one optional), and stir. For added shenanigans, mix in one or two augments, some magic, and an ancestry feature. Bake at 425°F (220°C) for nine levels. Let sit for up to eight more levels, then serve to your DM. Preferably with some aspirin, because this is nuts and they may need some to deal with the headache.

Right, so, to break it down. Dragonkin have an innate 20ft fly speed.

Their heritage Stormrider Dragonkin increases their fly speed by 5 feet. Up to 25ft fly speed, and we’re still creating the character.

(Optional) Their level 1 ancestry feat Touch the Sky removes rough terrain penalties for moving vertically while flying.

At level 3, don’t bother to pick up the general feat Fleet for a 5ft increase to speed. This feat apparently only affects your land speed, and so will not increase your fly speed here.

At level 5, pick up the Aerial Dash ancestry feat. This one, for 2 actions, allows you to fly 3 times. Or 4 times, if you have the Stormrider Dragon heritage. Right at this moment, for 2 actions, you are now able to fly 100ft. Pretty good. It gets better.

At level 9, pick up the Aerial Master ancestry feat. This will increase their fly speed by 10 feet. Now, this is a separate effect from the heritage. Neither of these are bonuses, they’re just flat increases, and neither specifies that they can’t stack. Now your fly speed is 35ft, and you can move 140ft in two actions. But wait! There’s more.

If you get the level 12 augment Superior Ultralight Wings, they give you a base 60ft fly speed as long as you are not encumbered and not wearing more than light armor. So that’s a new base of 60ft. The heritage says to increase your fly speed by 5 feet. Aerial Mastery says to increase it by 10ft. So now you have a 75ft fly speed, as long as you’re not encumbered. Which means you can now fly 300ft in 2 actions. Not done yet though, this isn’t even its final form.

At level 17, you can get the Apex augmentation Hyper-Agility Enabler. Amongst other things, it has an activated ability that, for 1 hour, will increase your land speed by 20ft. Which also, as it specifies, applies to your Burrow, Swim, and Fly speeds. So now you’re rocking a 95ft fly speed, and are able to fly 380ft in two actions. And you still have an action leftover to swing that doshko!

If you know a divine or occult caster, they can also cast Motivating Ringtone on you to get you to a full 100ft fly speed. 400ft in two actions!

It’s here I would like to point out, just for context, that the best sniper rifle in the game at the moment only has a 120ft range increment.

Finally, you can absolutely turn this into a taxi service. Dragonkin are large, and just by RAW, can be ridden by small or smaller PCs. This does not impose the encumbered condition, you just lose an action to make sure your passenger is stable. Which means that you can still fly absurd distances, all while carrying a passenger. If you bond to a medium creature and take the Bondbearer ancestry feat, you can also carry them. So then, for two actions, you and a party member can appear anywhere a sniper would be and snipe them back. In melee.

Alright, so. How does it play?

Frankly, it doesn’t. At level 1, your focus spell is useless unless you have a minion, Incognito is pointless, unless you’re specifically in a campaign where it matters, and you only have two spell slots. So, until you hit a big combat, you’re just Generic Arcane Spellcaster #3, throwing around cantrips and probably shooting a gun. Once you get to the big combat, round 1 is Summon Robot. The summoned robot then immediately gets its two actions. Round 2 starts with casting Signal Relay, then using Overclock Gear (which causes Signal Relay to do nothing), and finally Sustaining your robot, giving it its two actions. Round 3, you’ll cast a Sustain spell and Sustain your robot. Round 4 and on, you’ll just be Sustaining your robot, which sustains your other sustain spell, and casting cantrips. Or moving and shooting. But the important part is that it took you 3 rounds of setup to get a robot summon and a spell you can sustain for free.

Alternatively, if you don’t have a Sustain spell to cast, you can just. Not Overclock your minion. Go on Sustaining your bot and just casting your cantrips from round 2 on. Maybe use your second spell slot.

Level 1 kind of sucks for this subclass. You don’t really get to do your thing at all. Importantly, the only cantrips with sustain are non-combat spells. And while they can be used in combat, that’s going to be a rare exception. They aren’t buff or summon spells that you for sure want to keep up. Which means you’re more than likely using both spell slots in one combat to get any benefit out of Overclocking your minion. Or, you just have two combats per day where you even have a minion. Which functionally means that you don’t get to do anything with your subclass features at this level. That sucks. A lot.

At level 3, Jailbreak comes online and you have five spell slots. Which means almost nothing. It still takes two full rounds and a spell slot to summon and Overclock a minion. Round 3 you can Jailbreak a spellshape into a spell and sustain your minion. But. If you use a spell slot spell, then you are reducing the amount of times you can have a minion. You can use a cantrip, but that’s pretty limited. Maybe you’ve got some spell gems or chips you can use, but that’ll get expensive. And regardless of what spell you use, unless it was a 1 action spell, you can’t Overclock your minion again. It’s really just one-and-done, unless it’s a really long combat.

And this is kind of the point where it sets in that this subclass is largely unplayable on its own. Maybe you can multiclass into Mechanic to get a drone, but that’s speculation since we don’t have rules for the Mechanic Archetype yet. It takes so many actions to set up Overclock on a summoned minion that Jailbreak is pretty much off the table except for long fights. And if you’re saving your spell slots for Summon Robot, then you’re not casting any spells besides your cantrips. So then, with no minion, you’re just playing a generic arcane spellcaster without class features. Well. You still have your Spell Cache, which is pretty cool. But that’s just versatility in how you use your spell slots. There isn’t anything unique about those spells.

At level 4, you have a delightful choice of SPP or Delete Root Access. SPP is not terrible to have, but it takes a lot of setup to get any use out of it. DRA is a great way to gain a minion out of an enemy, though only if you’re fighting enemies 3 or more levels below your own. I hate Delete Root Access as a feat. It’s literally “cast Delete to cast this spell”. It’s not a spellshape, it’s a spell overwrite. It should just be a whole different spell.

At level 6, you’ve got choices. Advanced Magic Hack will let you overclock from all kinds of summon minions. Booming Bootloader damages and frightens (when Jailbroken) enemies around a minion when you summon them. Hardlight Illusion makes it harder for enemies to disbelieve your illusions, and you for sure have some illusion spells in your Spell Cache. Importantly, none of these really effect your play experience. They do not make it easier to Overclock, and definitely do not make it easier to Jailbreak. They just make summoning more versatile.

At level 8 there isn’t anything for ServoShell specifically, but you might consider picking up Cross Platform Application to get the Rank 1 focus spell from another subclass to give you a focus spell spellshape that doesn’t revolve around minions.

At 10 you can take Greater Magic Hack to get Overclock minion to 1 action haste your minions. Which is good! But, again, doesn’t solve any of the problems or fix your action loops. By this level, you do have plenty of spell slots, but spending a turn to summon a much lower level minion doesn’t feel great. You’re either burning your highest level spells to summon a minion half your level, or burning lower ones to summon even lower level minions.

Alternatively, instead of Greater Magic Hack, you could pick up Compressed Casting to help with the action economy of summoning things, but you can’t use it on your two highest rank slots. So, at level 10, you can use it on a rank 3 Summon Robot to summon a level 2 minion for 2 actions. Feels bad, man.

That’s pretty much it. There isn’t ever anything to help this subclass work. There’s nothing after level 10 specifically for ServoShell, or even tangential to it. The subclass just doesn’t function in anything other than 4 or more round fights. And that’s assuming your much lower level summoned minion survives long enough to be useful.

So. Fixes. It doesn’t actually need a lot! First and most importantly, ditch Incognito Spell and replace it with a Druid style Robot Companion feat. This fixes just about everything. With a companion, summoning becomes a choice rather than a necessary tax to do your thing. Alternatively, give them a familiar, and change the Overclock requirement to “a familiar with the tech trait.”

Change the Overclock benefit. Make the current one a level 4 ServoShell only feat, “While your companion is overclocked: when you Command it, you may also sustain a spell as a free action.” In its place, make overclocking a focus cantrip that boosts your companion’s saves or attacks. Or maybe just let you cast spells from it.

As with all the other subclasses, I think this needs a feat at 14, 16, or 18. That all subclass support ends at level 10 just. Feels bad.

This programming language was originally developed by a thrifty university student building their own coffee-serving minibot. This code is primarily used with an operating system that maximizes compatibility by converting all system checks between different proprietary software while routing driver keys to simulated virtual drones, which makes sure parts from different manufacturers (and even other worlds) will work with the same minibot. The increase in sales for individual components and nonprofit status of the freeware have kept minibot companies from attempting to outlaw the software, and some companies have even adopted the controversial practice of anonymously leaking drivers on the infosphere.

Oh boy. This is the one I’ve been looking forward to. First though, this subclass description is nonsense. It’s a little blurb about the history of the programming language, but doesn’t actually tell you anything about what it does. The bolded part is the actual language description, and it’s just a litany of buzzwords that doesn’t have anything to do with anything. Anyway.

It’s the pet subclass! Except no. It’s not. It’s the summoning subclass. This. This presents problems. ServoShell and Viper both run into the problem that their Overclock targets are limited resources. Viper has to purchase spell gems or chips to overclock, and those are consumables or limited use. ServoShell has to burn a spell slot (or a spell gem) to even have something to Overclock. More than any other subclass, ServoShell really drives home the feeling that the devs just don’t want you to use your core class features. I’m not saying that they don’t, but man does it feel like they don’t. The hoops you have to jump through to get this subclass moving. Anyway.

Each subclass has several features: a given spell line, focus spells, a level 1 spellshape feat, an Overclock Boost, and an additional Jailbreak feature for their given spellshape feat. That’s. Honestly a lot. Almost all of it does revolve around your minion(s), so at least this subclass understood the assignment.

So, Spell Cache, the list of always available given spells. We’ve got:
- Summon Robot: Summons a minion creature with the Tech trait.
- Illusory Creature: Summons an illusory creature you can control like a minion. But! It’s not a minion.
- Discharge: De-engergize a tech item, or Glitch a tech creature.
- Speak With Computers: Speak with computer spirits. Like Speak With Animals.
- Control Machine: Literally Dominate, but only for tech creatures and tech hazards.
- Dominate: Take control of a creature until daily prep. Can’t force them to harm themselves.
- Wall of Steel: Create a 120ft x 20ft wall of steel.
- Phantasmal Fleet: Summon an illusory starfleet to damage enemies. And/or allies. YMMV.
- Telekinetic Tantrum: Do a psychic knockback, TK throw, or TK slam each round up to a minute in a BIG area.

Almost an A++ list. Telekinetic Tantrum doesn’t fit the theme, and Dominate feels redundant with Control Machine on there. Otherwise, excellent selection. Rank 1 is your bread and butter summon, and everything else is tech or summon focused, often both. Except for Dominate and TK Tantrum. Illusory Creature I give a pass to because you can easily flavor it as a hologram, and you’re set.

Next, Focus spells:
- Signal Relay: If you would cast a spell that would only effect you, effect your minion instead.
-- Jailbreak: Effect you and the minion.

This is the only one I’m going to look at for now, because it’s the only one you get for sure. The other two Focus Spells for ServoShell are for ServoShell, but are locked behind feats.

ServoShell’s only guaranteed spell is a summon spell, so not one you could use this spellshape on. Therefore, the player must pick a spell that it can be used on to get any use out of this. This is not actually guaranteed, as the Arcane spell list only has a couple of low level buff spells. This is a great spellshape on paper, but I think in practice, it will be far too easy to accidentally prevent yourself from using it. Especially for newer players who are likely to already be overwhelmed by prepared casters and all of their nonsense.

Moving on to the Given Spellshape Feat. ServoShell gets an initial spellshape of:
- Incognito Spell: Add the Subtle trait to your spell, so as to pretend you’re not casting the spell.
-- Jailbreak: Demoralize with Arcana as an added effect.

Personal preference, I hate this. Some people might play in a campaign where this matters, but I never have. The Jailbreak is fun, but the whole Subtle trait feels so pointless. And more to the point, has nothing to do with the subclass.

Finally, the pièce de résistance, the Overclock Boost, the core of the subclass. It does only one thing:
- When you Command an Overclocked minion, you can sustain another spell for free.

This is. Lackluster. It’s a good way to save on action economy, but is predicated on having and using sustain spells at the same time that you have a minion that is Overclocked. Now, to be fair, several of the Spell Cache spells are sustain spells. But. The action economy to get to the point where this even matters is atrocious.

Now, interestingly enough, the ability says “Command”, not “Sustain”. Per the Minion trait description in PC1, you Command a companion and Sustain a minion. Perhaps the devs were, or are, considering giving ServoShell a companion. Alas, there’s no sign of it in the playtest, so this is just irrelevant trivia.

Moving on, at level 3 you get Jailbreak, and that comes with ServoShell’s super special Jailbreak bonus for Incognito Spell.
- FORTRUN Jailbreak: Cast the Jailbroken spellshaped spell from a minion you control.

This is awesome. This is a great effect, as it considers the origin point for the spell to be the minion, which greatly increases your range and line of sight/effect options. Too bad it’s attached to Incognito Spell, and not just a spellshape of its own. And also, you’ll never be able to use it.

Okay, so that’s your guaranteed kit. As with all of the subclasses, ServoShell only has one feat and its two focus spells specific to it down the line.

- lvl4 - Spell Protection Protocol: You or an ally gain an aura that gives a status bonus to saves versus spells and magic effects. It’s a larger bonus if they’re your spells or magic effects that are being saved against. You can also sustain it for up to 3 rounds.

This is the same feat as FORTRUN. The two subclasses share it, and I kind of hate it for ServoShell. It feels rushed, as this is clearly a FORTRUN feat that does work with ServoShell, but isn’t really ServoShell flavored. The fact that you can sustain this one action ability more feels like a tacked on excuse to give you a thing to sustain for free with your Overclocked minion. This does not feel like an ability designed for this subclass. But it does work, if you’ve happened to pick up AOE spells and feel like dropping them on your minion. Which, to be clear, is a bad idea since your minion is always going to be lower level than you.

- lvl6 - Advanced Magic Hack: Rank3 Hardlight Simulacrum: Summon a non-tech summon as a hologram, giving it the Tech trait and other hologram/construct things.
-- Jailbreak: Overclock the summoned minion.

This is, frankly, a mandatory feat for this subclass as it is presented in the playtest. Or it would be, except that you have to have an Overclocked minion in order to Jailbreak anything, so really all this is letting you do is trade your current Overclocked minion for a different Overclocked minion. Which is a waste of a minion. So the Jailbreak is bogus, but the base spellshape is still really good. It’s a free action spellshape that lets you use all of the other Summon spells and Overclock what you summon. This lets you summon Animals, Constructs, Dragons, Elementals, Undead, and other summons that have been lost to the premaster.

- lvl10 - Greater Magic Hack: Rank5 Overclock Minion: Your minion becomes Hasted.

A++. No notes.

There are other feats, and of course spells, that fit the theme, but this is everything Technomancer has specifically for ServoShell. Incognito Spell is baffling, SPP feels tacked on, and there are a couple of spells that don’t fit, but otherwise very on point for the Summoner theme. Not so much the subclass description, but idk what that’s even about. Doesn’t seem to have anything to do with anything.

Functional in the most technical sense. A one action spell is necessary to Overclock a summoned minion, DPS++, FORTRUN, and Viper can overclock every combat with this.

It's not good. You're right in that Overclock benefits are rather underwhelming. ServoShell still isn't playable, FORTRUN is still pointless, and Viper is still a money sink. But they can all technically function doing this, and without costing all of your spell slots.

Staggered core releases are pretty standard these days. I imagine it has, in some part, to do with the subscriptions (3 hardcovers in one month is a lot). As for monsters, last year's Free RPG Day supplement, Second Contact, has some stat blocks.

Player Core near certainly not going to have any monster stats, and GM core might have some NPC stats you can use, but won't have a lot. Mostly though, yeah, you should be able to just rip them from PF2. Mathwise, the systems are supposed to be completely compatible.

Okay, so, how does it play?

At level 1, you’ll only have two spell slots and maybe a spell gem. You’re mostly saving that for big fights. You don’t have anything to spend Overclock on, and the effect is purely defense-based-offense. Unless you run into a fight with point-blank melee enemies, there isn’t really a need to use it. So this is where your playstyle really comes to light. You’re either melee focused, which can work at low level, or you’re staying in the back and casting spells. Staying in the back with this subclass feels really bad, since you don’t do anything with it, so let’s theorycraft melee.
In that case, you’ve either built +3/+3/+3 INT/DEX/CON to maximize your HP and DEX bonus, or you’re +4/+3/+2 INT/DEX/CON to maximize your spellcasting, and DEX bonus, and you’ll just make due with less HP. Or, daringly, you went +3 CON/+2 DEX because you want to get hit to trigger your thorns, and you’d rather have better HP to soak more hits. In either case, you definitely want the shield cantrip, and probably want to invest in an actual shield or parry weapon for when/if you become immune to the cantrip.
You’ll also need to invest in a melee weapon (a baton has both finesse and parry, so that’s a good choice) and AOE spells. Caustic Blast is a must, as it’s the only AOE cantrip on the Arcane list, And then you’ll want one or two first level cone, line, or burst damage spells.
With all our parts in play, what’s the action routine look like? Turn 1 wants to be cast Engergy Sink (for no effect) into Overclock, move to melee. If you’re fighting melee enemies, you’re likely just casting 2 action cantrips and Shield for the rest of the fight. You’re theoretically closer than your backline, and so likely to be attacked before they are, which works to your purpose. If you’re fighting ranged enemies, then you’ll want to continue advancing until you get to melee, always being sure to cast Shield. If you ever Shield Block, then you’ll want to break out your actual shield, so you can keep that circumstance bonus to AC (you may want to be hit, but you don’t want to be hit a lot).
Once you get to a big fight, then you break out your spell slot spells, dropping Protection on either yourself or whoever’s in melee with you. Alternatively, this is when you bust out your big AOE spells, spellshaping them with DoS for bigger blast areas, or using Energy Sink to get some kind of resistance. If you do spellshape your spell slot spells, then you don’t have actions to Overclock, so you’ll want to stay out of melee and just cast cantrips after you slots are used. If you have a gun, you can take a pot shot with your third action, or take cover (if there is any).

At level 3, Jailbreak comes online, which means you can now Jailbreak DoS for extra effects, massively increasing the size of an AOE and letting you get out from underneath it if you have to drop it on yourself. You also get your rank 2 spells, which means you have Resist Energy on tap, allowing you to be more cavalier about getting into dangerous situations. You also get your first big choice of general feats. Do you take Shield Block, so you can shield block while you’re immune to your cantrip? Toughness, so you can better soak hits? Or Diehard, because you’re probably going down like a sack of bricks in melee, and you want to make sure you live to see level 4?

Level 4 brings access to Spell Protection Protocol, which makes you even more careless about where you drop your AOEs, as long as you remember to buff first. Otherwise, your routine is still mostly the same: focus spell into Overclock, move to melee, cast cantrips, though you do have more spell slots now, so maybe use those instead. Don’t forget to shield! Unless you’re going to drop an AOE on everyone’s heads, then be sure to use SPP first. Maybe Jailbreak DoS into the AOE.

Level 6 offers up Advanced Magic Hack, so you can double down on destroying someone for hitting you. Or you can take White Hat Hack to help remove the Glitching condition from yourself or allies. Neither of these substantially changes your combat to combat routine. ADF can be done between combats, as the duration is until daily prep, and WHH is a situational option. You also get your second general feat, which is probably something you’ve really been looking forward to after the debate at level 3.

Level 8 doesn’t offer anything in particular to FORTRUN. But level 10 does. If you’ve built this crazy melee build, picking up Greater Magic Hack is a must. Being able to Overclock off of giving yourself a force field is just too dang good.
This does introduce a rules puzzler though. If an enemy touches/damages your force field, but not enough to break it, does that trigger your thorn effect? Needs clarification. RAW, I think, precludes that, as it is your force field being touched, not you, but I think ROI would allow it. But this is the Technomancer we’re talking about, so who knows what even is intended or not.

At level 12 you can pick up the Reactive Firewall feat, to give disadvantage to an attack once per hour. This reaction feat is missing its trigger, so we don’t know when precisely it can be used. It is likely triggered off an attack hitting you, however, based on the rest of the text. It’s not a FORTRUN specific feat, so it might even just be any attack, and not a point-blank melee attack.

And that’s it. There’s nothing else specific to FORTRUN, and no other feats that particularly play into its presumed playstyle.

I’m still thoroughly perplexed by this subclass - it just feels so dang weird. If it was all about AOE spells, or buffing the party, it would make so much more sense, but it really wants to be hit. And, hey, no shame if that’s what you like, but it’s so counterintuitive for a pure caster. If you don’t put yourself in situations where you’ll be hit, then your primary class feature and your second focus spell are mostly worthless. You’d just be using them “just in case” and nobody likes that for a primary class feature. The spell cache is fine, because all of those defensive spells can be put on yourself or someone else, and none of those effects are limited to being hit in point blank melee.
And that’s before we take into account that your baseline AC will fall behind, because caster. Your DEX is never going to be as high as a DEX class, and you just do not have the ability to wear medium or heavy armor. You’re also always going to be comparatively low on HP. And, frankly, THE THORN DAMAGE ISN’T EVEN WORTH IT. You’re only dealing 1-10 damage when someone else hits you in point blank melee. The tradeoff just isn’t worth it.

So this leads directly into my fixes. Just like with all the other subclasses, I feel Overclock Gear should be a focus cantrip. 2 action for this class, and modify it so that first, you can Overclock any ally’s armor. Let you give the thorn benefit to someone who’s already going to be in that situation to get hit in melee. ALTERNATIVELY, ditch the arbitrary point blank melee requirement. It’s the Technomancer, surely it can be flavored to damage an enemy at range - something about arcing feedback or whatever. And for the love of Mike, let it trigger off of being hit, not off taking damage. Shields and force fields are a thing. Second, let the AC bonus last the whole duration of the Overclock. If that’s too powerful, just bestow a 1 action ability while Overclocked to apply the bonus. It’s just Raise Shield by another name, and no different than having a Deflecting Field installed, except that you can’t Shield Block with it.
I do think that either the level 1 feat or the rank 1 focus spell should be changed. For the feat, give them a modified Shield Block. Double down on that whole defense thing, and let them Shield Block like the Shield spell (ie, block any attack, not just physical attacks). They’re a caster, let them shenanigan.
A replacement focus spell could easily just be changing Energy Sink to a 2 action spell that does the same thing. Pick an energy type, gain 2 resistance to it. Heighten +1, increase the resistance by 2. Targets 1 creature, lasts a minute.
Active Defense Firewall just needs to lose the “take damage from a point blank melee attack” requirement. As with the Overclock, let it trigger off being hit. The installed spell has a range, let that limit it.
In short, embrace the defensive support caster with a side of AOEs.
Finally, give them a feat at 14, 16, or 18. None of the subclasses get anything past level 10, and it just feels lackluster.

This programming language began as the AbadarCorp standard for heat sinks, especially in hostile environments, and was quickly adopted as the universal language of armor, environmental protection, and satellite defense software. The simple but elegant code is designed to minimize the possibility of potentially life-threatening errors that could cause a system to malfunction and has endless applications for personal defense.

I’m going to be upfront about this, I cannot figure out this subclass. If it could Overclock other peoples armor, that would make sense. But it can’t. This subclass increases your defense and resistances and gives you thorn effects, but, importantly!, you’re a pure caster. You can’t take a hit, and this subclass really wants you to get hit to trigger those thorn effects. So, let’s look at what it does, and maybe I can figure out something.

Each subclass has several features: a given spell line, focus spells, a level 1 spellshape feat, an Overclock Boost, and an additional Jailbreak feature for their given spellshape feat. That’s. Honestly a lot. And while it does boost your survivability, the jury is out on if it increases it enough.

So, Spell Cache, the list of always available given spells. We’ve got:
- Protection: Gain a status bonus to AC and Saves.
- Resist Energy: Gain resistance to one type of energy.
- Haste: Become quickened for Stride or Strike.
- Unfettered Movement: Ignore circumstance penalties to Speed, Escape vs immobilized, grabbed, restrained.
- Scouting Eye: Create a magic eye to look for you.
- Repulsion: Force creatures away from you.
- Energy Aegis: Gain energy resistance for a day.
- Gravity Field: Increase gravity, creates Greater Difficult Terrain, grounds flyers.
- Foresight: Gain a status bonus to initiative, immune to off-guard in certain situations, gain defensive reaction.
This list definitely understood the assignment better than DPS++ did, though there are a couple of outliers here (Scouting Eye?). I will dock points however, for there not being any tech spells on here. This is the Technomancer, after all. But, whatever. I’m sure they’ll be flavored appropriately.

Next, Focus spells:
- Energy Sink: Spellshape a no duration energy damage spell, gain resistance to the same energy type.
-- Jailbreak: Gain resistance to all energy instead.
This is the only one I’m going to look at for now, because it’s the only one you get for sure. The other two Focus Spells for FORTRUN are for FORTRUN, but are locked behind feats.
So, the FORTRUN Spell Cache does not have a damaging spell on the list. The player must pick an elemental spell to get any use out of this. This is an almost guaranteed thing to happen, but it is not guaranteed, and truly it must be kept in mind that if a player can screw themselves with a choice, a player will screw themselves with that choice.
Otherwise, solid defensive spellshape. As long as you have a spell to use it with. Cantrips work beautifully for this, since they auto-highten, which means you’ll always have the maximum resistance. You’d just need to keep in mind that you wouldn’t be able to Overclock off of a Jailbroken Cantrip.

Moving on to the Given Spellshape Feat. FORTRUN gets an initial spellshape of:
- Denial of Safety: Increase the area of AOE spells that have no duration.
-- Jailbreak: Double the increase.
While this is an absolutely fantastic spellshape, I feel it misses the mark a bit for the stated theme of the subclass. While you have plenty of AOE spells in the spell cache, they all have a duration. So, again, the player must pick spells that will work with this spellshape. Additionally, there’s only 1 (one) cantrip that can benefit from this spellshape, and it’s a Pathfinder spell. Odds are good that unless you’re specifically thinking about it, DoS is only going to be used on spell slot spells. Which, especially at low levels, means it’s not going to get much use.

Finally, the pièce de résistance, the Overclock Boost, the core of the subclass. It does two things:
- You get a +1 circumstance bonus to AC until the start of your next turn. (Raise Shield)
- You gain a thorn effect. Anytime someone touches you, damages you with an unarmed melee, or damages you with a non-reach melee, they take damage.
I. Do not know what to do with this, honestly. Since the AC bonus only lasts for 1 round, it’s literally a guessing game as to when to Overclock to benefit from it. It also becomes the secondary effect, thus making the thorn effect the primary effect, since that one lasts. Which. Why? Why does a pure caster want a thorn effect? FORTRUN has no particular melee capability, and Starfinder 2 is infamously a “ranged meta”, so what is going on with this? When are you supposed to benefit from this?

Moving on, at level 3 you get Jailbreak, and that comes with FORTRUN’s super special Jailbreak bonus for Denial of Safety.
- FORTRUN Jailbreak: When you Jailbreak Denial of Safety on a damaging spell, you can move yourself in any direction a number of spaces equal to the spellshaped spell’s rank as a forced movement. You are not effected by the damaging spell if this movement moves you out of its area of effect.
This is not bad. This lets you massively increase an AOE, drop it on yourself and everyone around you, and get out of it before it goes off without incurring a Punitive/Reactive Strike. You just need to make sure you pick spells that this will work with, because, again, your Spell Cache doesn’t give you any.

Okay, so that’s your guaranteed kit. As with all of the subclasses, FORTRUN only has one feat and it’s two focus spells specific to it down the line.
- lvl4 - Spell Protection Protocol: You or an ally gain an aura that gives a status bonus to saves versus spells and magic effects. It’s a larger bonus if they’re your spells or magic effects that are being saved against.
As with the Jailbreak bonus, this feat wants you to be dropping AOEs all over the place, even on yourself or allies. This is actually kind of fun, though the other players may not be as on board with this playstyle. Once again, my only real problem with this is that it requires players to pick spells that can be used in conjunction with this feat, though since this is an optional pick, you’re more likely to pick it when you’ve already got those spells.
- lvl6 - Advanced Magic Hack: Rank3 Active Defense Firewall: Load a hostile, single target spell into your armor. When a creature touches you, damages you with an unarmed melee, or damages you with a non-reach melee, you can cast the spell as a reaction with the triggering creature as the target. You can dismiss the spell to recover the spell slot it was loaded from, but you can only use that slot to Download Spell. The loaded spell remains loaded until your next daily prep.
This is fun, in a vacuum. But it runs into a lot of the same problems as FORTRUN’s Overclock Boost, in that it’s a thorn effect. It’s proactive preparation for being hit under very specific circumstances, and is only retaliatory in nature. It doesn’t do anything to bolster your defenses, just punishes an enemy for hitting you at point blank range (“it’s a ranged meta!“).
There’s also a bit of interpretation to be going on with the spell. It doesn’t say you can’t load a cantrip into your armor, but the final paragraph implies that it has to be a spell slot spell. Personally, I’d allow cantrips and spell gem spells to be used, but. Like Alakablam, it’s unclear and open to debate.
- lvl10 - Greater Magic Hack: Rank5 Overclock Armor: You give yourself a force field.
No notes, this is perfect. A++ focus spell.

There are other feats, and of course spells, that fit the theme, but this is everything Technomancer has specifically for FORTRUN. Except for DoS and ADF, it’s decently on brand with the stated theme.

So how does it play?

At level 1, with only two spell slots, and (presumably) not enough money to get more than maybe a single spell gem, you’ll be starting every fight with your focus spell (to no effect) and then Overclock. That gives you one more action to either shoot or move. You can’t Jailbreak yet, so you’re casting cantrips left and right, and firing your gun for your third action. Very occasionally, you’ll pop your non-focus spell spellshape to extend your cantrip range. For big fights, you’ll start off by casting one of your two spells. Supercharge is a good contender, as it will further boost your weapon damage, and then Overclock. This gives you +1d6+1 damage to your next shot, so if you’ve doubled-down on gishing, you might start your next turn with a Sure Strike to make sure your boosted attack can hit. But since your to-hit isn’t really more than a point or two worse than anyone else’s, I’d use your second spell slot on something else. And then you go back to cantrips and gun rounds, with the occasional spellshaped cantrip thrown in there if needed.

At level 3, Jailbreak unlocks, and you have three more spellslots. Fundamentally, your gameplay hasn’t changed, other than to allow you to use spell slot spells more frequently. Maybe you’ve spent some money on spell gems, or maybe even a spell chip. Now, you can have a few more combats in the day where you cast a spell that does something to Overclock off of. So, when do you Jailbreak? Since Jailbreaking eats your Overclock, you only really want to use it with those spell slot spells or spell gems/chips, so you can Overclock off of the Jailbroken spell.
If you picked up Ammo Infector Virus at level 2 (highly recommend if you are trying to gish), it’s now online and you really want to fire your gun. Getting a free chance to Glitch things every time you hit something is really powerful, especially since your Computers skill should be pretty high, even if you didn’t put your lvl 3 point into it.

At level 4, if you pick up Alakablam, your decision tree expands to include “how much money do I want to spend on spell gems?” If I’ve interpreted the feat correctly, then every non-damaging spell gem lets you Overclock with an additional damage boost, which, in combination with Ammo Infector Virus, makes shooting your gun really good. But with no way to make your own spellgems, this gets expensive fast. Even if you just buy a bunch of level 1 gems, that’s still 4gp each (sorry, 40 credits). Even if you only purchased and used 1 gem for each combat, that’s going to add up. So now you’re breaking your bank (or at least stealing its lunch money) to enable a damage boost to get the most out of shooting your gun.
That said, if you stock a bunch of Sure Strike gems, you can pop one of them for 1 action, Alakablam for 1 action, the Strike for 1 action, which results (again, assuming correct interpretation of Alakablam) in a ranged weapon Strike with advantage and +1d6+1 damage, followed up with a Combat Hack. And then you still have +1d6+1 damage for the next 5 rounds(??). For another few levels at least, that’s still better damage than using your focus spell (1d6+1 = 4.5 damage on average, whereas your focus spell will only guarantee +2 damage right now). At this point, you’re actually starting to feel gishy, between your spells and a solid weapon damage boost.

Levels 6 and 8 have no clear cut DPS++ options. Yes, Advanced Magic Hack is available at 6, but it’s just a teleport and I’ve already said my piece about it. At 8, there’s Grenade Spell, which can be a bunch of fun, especially if you Jailbreak it. However, it also requires grenades, so if you take it, be prepared to buy those consumables. Personally, I’d pick up Spell Library to really embrace that hybrid prepared/spontaneous caster lifestyle.

Level 10 is special. If you picked up the various feats I mentioned, shooting is your bread and butter, though your to-hit fell behind non-casters a few levels ago (though really, you’re only firing once each turn at 0 MAP, realistically, so it’s not too bad). If you’ve been buying gems to feed Alakablam and/or grenades to fuel Grenade Spell, you’ve maybe been seeing some serious decisions about what you’re not buying instead.
At level 10 though, you finally, finally, can take Greater Magic Hack to get Overclock Brain. This completely reshapes the paradigm. Now your turn 1 is Overclock Brain, Overclock Gear, 1 action of your choice, Strike. You’ve got a solid set of spell slots to burn on bigger fancier spells, which means you’ve got a lot more ability to Jailbreak when you need it, or even just want it.

At level 11, you finally get Weapon Expertise, and you can enjoy two levels of keeping up with the non-casters, until they all get Weapon Mastery at level 13. But that’s okay! You still get a free shot every turn.

There isn’t really anything else after that though. Your DPS++ subclass has achieved its final form, with only your choice of spell after this. There’s nothing after level 10 specifically for this subclass.

So, final grade. I think this subclass (and the class as a whole) is a lot better than I had originally thought. It’s not anywhere near intuitive, and really requires knowing the loophole with the spellshape focus spell to even work. Without that, it’s barely functional until level 10, but with it, I can see being a real menace with it, especially at early levels when you’re mostly just as good at shooting as everyone else. I haven’t yet done a deep dive on the other three subclasses, but I’m pretty sure this is the most functional of them all, and likely is going to be the default subclass for most people.

What I’d really like to see is to just make Overclock Gear its own focus spell cantrip, tailored to each subclass. For DPS++, have it be a two action spell that does the same thing it already does. That’d leave your focus point available to actually use for its intended purpose.
On that note, I’d like either the level 1 focus spell or the level 1 bespoke feat to be not a spellshape. For the focus spell, it could be some kind of tech focused spell, allowing you to buff someone else’s weapon, reduce the glitch condition, give the suppressed condition, something.
For the feat, the first (and I think best) thing to come to mind is to instead give Trained proficiency in Martial weapons, and editing Weapon Expertise and Weapon Specialization to include Martial weapons.
It’d also be nice if the Advanced Magic Hack did something related to the subclass, and for there to be a feat at 14, 16, or 18 that’s for DPS++.

DPS++ is the premier programming language for weapons, incorporating tactical commands, shortcuts, and innovations from programming languages found across the galaxy to cause maximum destruction. This incredible feat of computer science is responsible for the universal compatibility of weapon upgrades.

So. That’s the subclass description, and it sounds really cool. Total gish. Which is great! I love me a good gish! But this is not a good gish. It’s kind of a mid to bad gish. Or that’s what I thought until I realized that nothing in the RAW prevents you from casting your focus spell and then not casting a spell afterwords. I’ll come back to that. Anyway, after that realization, and spending a week writing this and deep-diving the class, I don’t really think it’s that bad.

Each subclass has several features: a given spell line, focus spells, a level 1 spellshape feat, an Overclock Boost, and an additional Jailbreak feature for their given spellshape feat. That’s. Honestly a lot. And not much of it really folds into the gish mission statement. There’s more available to Technomancer as a whole, but what the subclass gives you isn’t really what that blurb at the top implies it gives you.

So, Spell Cache, the list of always available given spells. We’ve got:
- Supercharge Weapon: Your next Strike with a chosen weapon gets a damage boost. Total Gish Spell.
- Caustic Conversion: Spell attack with persistent damage.
- Electrotether: Spell attack with pull.
- Hydraulic Torrent: Save Spell with push. Line.
- Impaling Spike: Save Spell with Immobilize.
- Disintegrate: Spell Attack with Save.
- True Target: Gives advantage to up to 4 people when they attack a specific target. Gish/support spell!
- Arctic Rift: Save Spell with Immobilize/slow. Line.
- Implosion: Save Spell, pulls and damages. Sustained.
So, not a bad DPS list, but there’s only two spells on here that interact with weapons (which is what the description says the subclass is all about). As well, only three of these spells are Starfinder spells, of which only one really is tech related. Two if we include the electromagnetic one. Which. It’s the Technomancer. You could maybe flavor these spells to be techy, but they’re almost entirely elemental attack spells. Regardless, only mildly gishy and only mildly Technomancery.

Next, Focus Spells:
- Thermoelectric Phase Change: Spellshape. Change the elemental damage type of a spell.
-- Jailbreak: The spell deals more damage.
This is the only one I’m going to look at for now, because it’s the only one you get for sure. The other two Focus Spells for DPS++ are for DPS++, but are locked behind feats.
This spell is either really useful or really a nothingburger. Its usefulness is dependent on two major factors, one from the player and one from the GM. The first necessitates that the player pick out at least one spell with an elemental trait. While they will get an elemental spell at level 3, to use it at level 1 or 2, the player must pick an elemental spell to get any use out of this. This is an almost guaranteed thing to happen, but it is not guaranteed, and truly it must be kept in mind that if a player can screw themselves with a choice, a player will screw themselves with that choice.
The second major factor necessitates that the GM use enemies or puzzles that have weaknesses or solutions that need a particular element. To state it another way, if the player has no spell with an elemental trait, they cannot use this focus spell, and if they never run into anything that makes using a particular element advantageous, then there’s no reason to use this spellshape. For a level one focus spell, that’s very unfortunate.
The Jailbreak is not bad, but it’s entirely crit dependent. If you use a spell and either crit on the attack, or they crit fail on the save, you get an extra 1d6 persistent damage of whatever elemental type was used. I actually kind of hate this, mostly because of the crit dependency.

Moving on to the Given Spellshape Feat. DPS++ gets an initial spellshape of:
- Signal Boost: Increase spell range by 30ft
-- Jailbreak: Increase by 60ft instead.
There’s not much to say about this one. It’s not bad, but it feels unnecessary in the context of official scenarios, where I’ve rarely seen the need to extend my range. Works great for touch spells though. I’m more confused why this is specifically DPS++.

Finally, the pièce de résistance, the Overclock Boost, the core of the subclass. It does three things:
- Reduces your targets’ circumstance bonus from cover by a value equal to half the rank of the spell you used to Overclock.
- Reduce any penalty due to range by 1.
- Gain a circumstance bonus to weapon damage equal to the rank of the spell used to Overclock. If the enabling spell dealt damage, the bonus damage for your weapon is of the same type as the spell.
Now, none of this is bad. The cover bonus reduction is actually pretty awesome at later levels, completely negating it in almost all circumstances by level 7.
Reducing range penalties is also great. If you’re firing outside of range. Which, unless you’re using the scattergun, is unlikely to come up often.
Finally, the damage bonus is nice, if low. But that makes sense, as this is a core class feature that’s always available.
Which is where I come back to the focus spell and that whole loophole in the rules with spellshapes. See, being able to just cast the focus spell spellshape and not cast a spell afterwards, while it means you don’t get any benefits from the spellshape, does mean that you have just cast a spell. And one that is not a cantrip. What this does is just add an action tax to Overclock, effectively making it a two action focus spell. Additionally, since the focus spell is, well, a focus spell, it will auto-highten, allowing you at least one instance every combat to activate this Overclock at maximum bonus. Which makes the whole subclass playable.

The only other thing DPS++ gets is their super special Jailbreak bonus to their level 1 feat:
- DPS++ Jailbreak: When you use the Signal Boost Jailbreak, add damage equal to the base damage die of your weapon to one target of the spell.
It’s another damage bonus. For the price of Jailbreaking, you’re just adding 1 additional damage die to a spell. This is good in early game (remember you can’t Jailbreak until level 3), and it’s never bad, but it’s also hard attached to a range boost. The higher level you get the more spellshapes your going to get - law of averages says you’re going to get other spellshapes, what with 21 of the 49 feats being spellshapes (I’m including Advanced Magic Hack, and both Cross Platform Applications in that count), and 3 others being spellshape focused. Your choice to use this spellshape to get this bonus will come at the cost of using any other spellshape you have.

So that’s all the kit you’re guaranteed to get for DPS++. After that, subclass specific options include 1 (one) feat. There’s also the focus spell feats to unlock the other DPS++ feats.
- lvl4 - Alakablam: I. Don’t even know what this does. It’s poorly written, as I have criticized in other threads. Best guess is that, after using a spell gem, you can Overclock a gun and give it bonus damage or change its damage type based on if the spell you cast is non-damaging or damaging, respectively. This, maybe, lasts for the Overclock duration(??).
This is maybe not bad if you plan to blow a lot of credits on spellgems (assuming my interpretation is accurate), but is otherwise kind of bad. Mostly because of the requisite spellgems. Again, assuming the playstyle of most official scenarios, you’re never going to have enough downtime to craft these gems, so you’re going to have to spend a decent amount to always have gems to use this. And since this is (maybe) activating your Overclock(??), you’re going to want to have some high-rank gems, so you can’t just only carry around rank 1 gems.
- lvl6 - Advanced Magic Hack: Rank3 - Virtualized Data Transmission: Required: Wielding a ranged tech weapon.
-- Teleport anywhere in the area of a [ranged spell with an area] you’re about to cast.
--- Jailbreak: Teleport anywhere in the range of the [single target spell] you’re about to cast.
My biggest beef with this spell is that it requires a ranged weapon. There’s nothing in the spell that affects weapons, you don’t get a free attack with it, it is entirely focused on modifying a spell within the parameters of the spell. Just. Why does it need a weapon, let alone a ranged weapon? This is either a get-me-tf-away spell, or a get-me-in-their-face-so-I-can-hit-them spell, but with the ranged weapon requirement, the second option is off the table. (Why does it require a ranged weapon???) Additionally, how does this fit the DPS++ theme? It has, as stated, nothing to do with weapons. Nor, as the name DPS++ implies, anything to do with damage per second. I dunno. It’s not a bad spellshape, it just doesn’t fit the theme, in my opinion. To clarify, my objection is that this is a DPS++ specific focus spell that doesn’t fit the theme. This could be a great general Technomancer spellshape, but it’s explicitly DPS++.
- lvl10 - Greater Magic Hack: Rank5 - Overclock Brain: Gain quickened for 1 minute, for an extra Strike.
This is, finally, finally, something that is universally on brand for the mechanics of DPS++. A 1 action, non-cantrip, non-spell slot spell you can overclock off of, that does something independent of spellshapes, and it gives you an extra strike every turn. This is perfect. Too bad you don’t get it until level 10.

So, there’s other feats you can pick up, and obviously spells you can add to your database, that fit the theme. But out of all of the above things that are for the subclass that supposedly uses “the premier programming language for weapons”, there’s not a whole lot that really ties into that theming. You’ve got one spell (two depending on how you want to count True Target), Overclock Boost [Weapon], a level 4 feat, and a level 10 focus spell (and even then, that focus spell is themed as overclocking you not your weapon).

I think, by RAW, you can actually use Overclock Gear off of your spellshape focus spell. The actual text of the spellshape rule is as follows:

Many spellcasters can gain access to spellshape actions, typically by selecting spellshape feats. Spellshape actions tweak the properties of your spells. You must use a spellshape action directly before casting the spell you want to alter. If you use any action (including free actions and reactions) other than casting a spell directly after, you waste the benefits of the spellshape action. The benefit is also lost if your turn ends before you cast the spell. Any additional effects added by a spellshape action are part of the spell’s effect, not of the spellshape action itself.

Note the bolded part. By RAW, I think you can cast the focus spell, then, because it is a spell and not a cantrip, you can immediately use Overclock Gear. The spellshape fizzles and does nothing, thus imposing a 1 action tax on Overclock Gear, but I think it technically works?

This is clearly not as intended, I think, but it's a loophole that does make the class functional.

What do y'all think?

It's not especially odd. SF adventures (AP or singles) have always been shorter than PF adventures. This is, by page count, a two volume AP for SF.

Okay, so what I mean is that there’s very little you can do with Overclock Boost and overclocked gear, but so many feats and Jailbreak that use overclock as currency or qualifier.

By itself, Overclock Gear does not a lot at all. DPS++ reduces enemy cover and range increment penalties for weapons. As well, it gives a 1-10 damage bonus to the weapon, and a corresponding damage type based on if the requisite spell did any damage.
FORTRUN gives an armor bonus for only one round and a thorn effect that deals 1-10 force damage or a corresponding damage type based on if the requisite spell did any damage.
ServoShell allows a free Sustain action when you command a minion.
Viper lets you cast from spell gems/chips outside of your tradition.

This is literally all that this class feature does without taking a feat. It never scales, never gains any more features, this is all it will ever do. You can use it as currency to enable Jailbreak, but that’s not something that Overclock itself is doing. Now, to be fair, some of these effects are pretty good, and none of them are bad (except arguably FORTRUN), but the base loop of the class is that you don’t get any of this without casting a 1 or 2 action non-cantrip spell. This makes it, by default, an infrequently used class feature. The setup to start it requires the expenditure of limited resources prior to level 10 when you can get a non-spellshape focus spell, and even more, requires, generally, an entire turn to enable. If you do Jailbreak, your gear is no longer Overclocked, and so you have to start over again (though it is usually easier because you’ve just cast a spell).

Once you take into account feats, things open up, but most of those are “if you have Overclock, than you can do this thing,” not anything that encourages you to do something with the Overclock play style.

lvl4 - Alakablam: Who actually knows. This thing is so poorly written, it’s entirely open to interpretation. Best guess is that DPS++ double overclocks on non-damaging spells, and that Viper gets DPS++’s Overclock-lite.
lvl4 - Overclock Focus: Overclock is a qualifier to gain a focus point.
lvl6 - Overclock Spell Database: Overclock is a qualifier to cast a spell from your spell cache.
lvl6 - White Hat Hack: Overclock is a qualifier to reduce the Glitch condition on things.
lvl10 - Soft Reboot: You can Overclock as a reaction after Jailbreaking.
lvl12 - Reactive Firewall: While Overclocked, give disadvantage to an attack against you.
lvl14 - Sleep Mode: On initiative roll, become Overclocked.
lvl14 - Tashtari Cluster: You can have two pieces of Overclocked gear. This would be amazing, except. It’s not any easier or cheaper to Overclock things. You still have to cast a spell to overclock gear 1, then cast another spell to overclock gear 2 (without Jailbreaking), and this is really only useful to ServoShell. DPS++ doesn’t have any advantage to using a second weapon, FORTRUN doesn’t have a second armor, and Viper. Maybe I’m not seeing it, but I can’t really fathom a situation where you want to overclock two spellgems at once to where you pick this feat over other choices. ServoShell having multiple summoned and Overclocked minions makes sense, but it’s also impossible to do with this playtest.

Focus Spells:
DPS++ and FORTRUN don’t actually have any overclock related focus spells. They have rank 5 spells that have Overclock in the name (as does ServoShell), but they don’t actually utilize any overclock mechanics.
ServoShell’s rank 3 focus spell lets you auto-Overclock a minion if you Jailbreak. But. Overclock is an impractical afterthought on this spell.
With Viper’s rank 3 focus spell, the Jailbreak lets you use a non-tradition gem that you’ve Overclocked.
Viper’s rank 5 focus spell, when you Jailbreak it, lets you (potentially) do more if you use an Overclocked gem/chip.
Finally, Speedrun is a rank 9 focus spell that all subclasses have access to. If your gear is Overclocked, you can burn the Overclock to extend the spell’s effects for a second round. Really a cool spell, but once again Overclock is just a currency for something else.

ALL THAT TO SAY the Overclock Bonus effect of each of the Programming Languages encourages you to play a certain way, but none of the feats or features help you do that. Of the eight Overclock related feats, only half of them are not using Overclock as a qualifier for something else, and the other half are not super impactful. 1/hour Overclock as a reaction, 1/hour get a defensive reaction, 1/day overclock on initiative, and “you can have 2 overclocked items”.

I think Overclock is incidental to this class as written. So little is done with it, it almost feels tacked on - the solution to the problem of “how do we limit Jailbreak” rather than its own worthwhile feature. And while it is presented as the driving factor of how each subclass plays, the class as a whole doesn’t do anything to help you play in those directions. DPS++ wants you to be a gish, but Technomancer has terrible weapon proficiency. FORTRUN wants to boost your armor (for one round - I can’t mention that enough) and punish enemies for hitting you - but only in point blank melee. ServoShell wants you to have a minion or companion, but you don’t have access to a companion or familiar, and the action economy makes having a minion and overclocking it impractically difficult. Viper wants you to use all the spell gems and chips, but doesn’t give you any way to alleviate the financial stress of obtaining said gems and chips. While the focus spells do, for the most part, compliment each subclass’s playstyle, they mostly don’t have anything to do with Overcharge either.

As well, with the current requirement of having to cast a non-cantrip spell to even get your Overclock benefits, most combats are going to see all Technomancers play the same. The only difference to gameplay being their two initial spellshapes and what spells each player picks. The spell cache could also have some impact, since those spells are always available without prep, but I don’t see it being that big a distinction.

A lot of this just gets flat out better and becomes less of an issue if Overclock Gear loses its requirement of “Your most recent action this turn was to cast a non-cantrip spell.” On the light end, I think allowing you to use Overclock Gear off of cantrips would be fine, but honestly I think making it a focus cantrip/spell and getting rid of the requirements at all would be better. Firstly, I think casting a spell to Overclock feels better, though that is mostly just a flavor change. Honestly I think the action tax is fine without forcing you to burn a spell as well. Probably the best solution would be to give each subclass a unique focus spell to Overclock their gear with.

2 action cantrip for DPS++.
2 action cantrip for FORTRUN.
1 action cantrip for ServoShell to Sustain a summoned minion and Overclock it.
1 action cantrip for Viper.

You can save on page space by moving the Overclock effects to the individual cantrips.

I’d love to see one or two feats for each subclass that allows you to do more while Overclocked, or changes what you can Overclock (like being able to Overclock ally equipment).

This could also be a way for the class to interact more with tech or non-casting actions. A special property of a technomancer's "hack" spellshape would be being able to "spellshape" certain other actions. "This spellshape increases the range of your spells, but also your leaps". "This spellshape lets you cast spells using a piece of technology 30 feet away as the origin, and a bonus to hacking checks against that device". Etc

Considering their tagline of "hack reality," this would actually fit quite well.

Viper should probably get a free per day spell gem? That might be too strong comparatively, the equivalent existing ability would be the Scroll Trickster's Basic Scroll Cache which is not nearly as strong and is a 6th level archetype feat.

Honestly, giving them a Basic Scroll Cache equivalent would be perfect, and you could even restrict it further (to account for getting it at level 1) by limiting it to their Spell Cache spell. And they're disinsentivized to use it anyway, for the very reason they need it - once they use it, they're out of any free way to use their Overclock/Jailbreak.

Another thing I just noticed, the last sentence's structure implies that if you cast a damaging spell to activate this, then you don't actually get a damage bonus, just a damage type change.

If the spell was not damaging, the weapon deals an extra 1d6 force damage and gains the arcane and magical traits.

So the weapon gains two tags and a bonus die.

If the spell dealt damage, the Strike deals this type of damage instead[].

New qualifier that is mutually exclusive witht the previous indicates a separation in effects, not a continuation. The effect stated does not reference the extra die, nor does it add one of its own, it simply changes the damage type of the attack. It also does not add the Arcane or Magical traits.

Imagine the Mechanic and Technomancer released in the Player Core. I bet a substantive portion of the community loses interest in Name TBA Technology Book.

I mean, they could have put the Nanocyte in there, like they did in Tech Revolution for SF1. Wouldn't have been a half bad place to put the Biohacker, either

The more I read over Alakablam, the more confused I get. At first blush, it seems straightforward, but as written, it’s missing key things and is not so straightforward. What it seems to do is to boost the next shot from a reloadable gun with damage of the same type as a recently cast spell from a spell gem. But let’s go through it line by line, because that’s not all that it says, and that’s not really what it says.

Requirements You are holding a weapon and your last action was to Cast a Spell from a spell gem or spell chip.

There’s already some issues with this, but we’ll come back to it.

You can use the delicate remains of a consumed spell gem or spell chip as ammunition by firing it before the last of its magic fades away.

And here’s the first problem, and this is more of an implicit thing. If you use a spell chip, what happens to it? It says the “remains”, so is this only usable if you’ve just destroyed a spell chip? If you use a spell chip that isn’t destroyed, does it become destroyed?

You Reload a ranged weapon using the consumed item and Overclock Gear.

Problem number two and three. You aren’t required to be wielding a ranged weapon, just a weapon. So can you reload a non-wielded ranged weapon? If you need to be wielding the ranged weapon that is being loaded (I presume this is the case, because this whole thing doesn't make sense otherwise), then the requirement should reflect that.

If the spell was not damaging, the weapon deals an extra 1d6 force damage and gains the arcane and magical traits.

Pretty straightforward, but how long does this last?

If the spell dealt damage, the Strike deals this type of damage instead (or one type of your choice if the spell could deal multiple types of damage).

Okay, hold up. Does this action give you a free Strike?? Is it for the next Strike with this weapon? What Strike is it referring to??? The tags are only Manipulate and Technomancer, so I would assume it’s not giving a free Strike, but it doesn’t say how long this damage lasts. Is it the next Strike you make this turn, until the end of your next turn, all Strikes for the next round? What’s the duration on this thing? When is it consumed?

As I said, the longer I try to parse this feat, the more confused I get.

Can we talk about the Technomancer action loop? Because I think it kinda sucks as it is. The class has three major features, one of which is built entirely around another. These are: Overclock, Spellshapes, and Jailbreak.

Now, until you reach level 14, you cannot activate Overclock without casting a non-cantrip spell. So this is either casting a spell slot spell, or using a spell gem/chip. That’s pretty bad, right there, that’s a hefty tax already.

Next is spellshapes, and oh boy. Using a spellshape is mutually exclusive with Overclocking, unless you’re casting a single action spell, and unusable with a three action spell (incidentally, so is Overclock). So the whole thing the class is built around requires you to not use it so you can use your other class feature, or use it and not get your other class feature. And if you want to use both in one combat, you’re either using all of the single action spells, or you use the third feature.

Which is Jailbreak. Which requires you to Overclock to use. So that you can spellshape as a free action. Fortunately, spellshape/jailbreak doesn’t require you to use a non-cantrip spell, but oof. Let’s break this down.

Variant 1
Turn 1: Cast a spell (using a spell slot or an item), Overclock
Turn 2: Jailbreak, Cast another spell (using a spell slot or an item), Overclock
Turn 3: Repeat step 2?

This is really expensive, and you’re going to run out of spells fast. Probably good for bosses tho.

Variant 2
Turn 1: Cast a spell (using a spell slot or an item), Overclock
Turn 2: Play your Overclock.
DPS++: Shoot things (you’ve now burnt a spell to get bonus damage for a gun)
Fortran: Run up into melee and start swinging (you’re a caster? Why are you doing this?)
ServoShell: Is unplayable. Literally. But there’s a whole other thread for that.
Viper: See Variant 1. Viper’s Overclock is cast a spell to use a spell gem/chip you wouldn’t otherwise be able to use. And you can’t even repeatedly use this one, because you can only overclock a spell gem/chip you’re holding, wielding, or wearing. So that’s, I guess, two per combat, unless you burn every other turn drawing a new gem, or only jailbreak with DFS.

Now you’ve burnt a spell slot or finite resource for a bonus to not cast spells for this combat. Sure, you could still use spells, but then you’re wasting your Overclock. Except for Viper. That one’s just a resource hog (cast a spell so you can cast a spell, so you can cast a spell, so you can cast a spell…).

Variant 3
Turn 1: Cast a spell (using a spell slot or an item), Overclock
Turn 2: Jailbreak, Cast a cantrip

tbf, if you’re jailbreaking a cantrip, you’re pretty much done with the fight. Else, why are you wasting your Overclock?

Variant 4
You cast cantrips. Or fire your gun. Either way, you’re not using your class features (though, I suppose you could non-jailbreak-spellshape your cantrips, but not for ServoShell or Viper). And it’s not because the they wouldn't be useful, it’s because it’s too expensive to use them.

Okay, so, yeah. This is a bit hyperbolic (only a bit, I think), but my point is no matter how you use your features, you’re burning a turn and finite resources to activate them. Other spellcasters get usable Focus Spells to accent their features, but all of the Rank 1 and Rank 3 Technomancer Focus Spells are spellshapes and thus fall into the above dilemma. You’re forced to avoid actively using your class features because of the resource cost, or only passively use them when you do want to cast a spell. Which. Feels bad.

Also, Sleep Mode feels like a feat tax. Free action, start Overclocked on initiative? How is that not a necessary feat in this economy?

Am I missing something? Is it not actually this bad?