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Okay. So. How does it play? At level 1, it mostly doesn’t. Since the subclass is entirely dependent on spell gems ( 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. 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 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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
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.
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.
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
Next, Focus spells:
Moving on to the Given Spellshape Feat. FORTRUN gets an initial spellshape of:
Finally, the pièce de résistance, the Overclock Boost, the core of the subclass. It does two things:
Moving on, at level 3 you get Jailbreak, and that comes with FORTRUN’s super special Jailbreak bonus for Denial of Safety.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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:
Next, Focus Spells:
Moving on to the Given Spellshape Feat. DPS++ gets an initial spellshape of:
Finally, the pièce de résistance, the Overclock Boost, the core of the subclass. It does three things:
The only other thing DPS++ gets is their super special Jailbreak bonus to their level 1 feat:
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.
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?
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.
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.
Focus Spells:
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++.
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. This sentence lists three things, of which you can only wield two: the ranged weapon, the consumed item (a spell gem you just used, or the device a spell chip is/was installed in) and the Overclock Gear. “Overclock Gear” is a bit confusing, because that’s an action, not equipment. Is it referring to the gear you have Overclocked, or the Overclock Boost that is affecting your gear? I assume the latter (for multiple reasons, not least of which is that you don't have a third hand to wield things in), but again, it’s unclear. Also, assuming that it is referring to the overclock boost, does that eat your overclock boost, or do you just need to have an overclocked item to use this? That presents problems for Viper because you would then need a third hand to have a second gem/chip because if you just used your overclocked gem it is gone and presumably no longer overclocked.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
This is really expensive, and you’re going to run out of spells fast. Probably good for bosses tho. Variant 2
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
tbf, if you’re jailbreaking a cantrip, you’re pretty much done with the fight. Else, why are you wasting your Overclock? Variant 4
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?
And despite the fact that tons of the spells already released in the preview interact with technology in a variety of ways ways, you are worried that there won't be spells that interact with technology in what you think are very basic necessary ways for a technomancer, and so those abilities need to be baked into the technomancer, pushing out the the newer stuff so that all they can do is interact with technology, so that if the adventure takes place anywhere without high-tech, the class is useless? This is what you're wanting? There's two points in this particular paragraph. The first is spells, and while yes, the core playtest does have some spells, those are not Technomancer spells. None of them are unique to the Technomancer, and so would be like saying that Fireball is a spell that defines what a Wizard can do, or a longsword defines what a Fighter can do. No general spell list defines a class (and nothing indicates that Technomancer will have a unique spell list), and therefore bears little weight to this topic. The second point is that you're arguing that we want to abolish the new programing related, spellshaping things. No one has said that? Except you? We want more versatility, more things covering this design space, not less.
They can channel spare magical energy to enhance their gear (oh look, magic interacting with technology you wear into those environments I talked about) Sure, sure. The Technomancer can boost 1 (one) piece of gear (two with a feat!!), that is theirs, depending on subclass. Loads of interaction with technology. Just tons. How did I not see it.
Where as the Technomancer is looking at magic from a programmer's prespective, understanding how spells operate on fundamental levels, and thus able to alter, tweak, and change them. To A Technomancer magic is programming reality is running on, and they known how to adeptly alter the code and hack it. I think this is the fundamental perspective difference that people are having here. The 1e Technomancer was a class that did magic to technology. The 2e Technomancer does magic through the lense of programming. "Hack Reality" is explicitly a new tagline for what is functionally a brand new class concept usurping the name of an entirely different class. That the name "Technomancer" is being used implies we aren't going to get another class that fulfills the same mechanical game space that the 1e Technomancer did, and a lot of what we're asking for is for this one to cover that niche, of magic done *to* technology. Overclocking doesn't really count, and saying "the spells will do it" is inane and condescending - what you're saying is "sit down and wait for this thing that we presume exists, I'm sure it will be fine". Yeah there will be spells, but we don't know what they all are or that they will do this thing that we are asking for.
So by "no tags" do you mean no Starship, Vehicle, Replayable, etc tags; or no tags at all, like Wayfinders, Metaplot, etc? Because some of those tags were absolutely useful for letting us know what to expect from the scenario, in fact, all of them were. I for one would very much like to continue seeing which scenarios tie into the metaplot, which factions are represented, whether we can expect vehicular or starship combat, etc. All of the other changes seem great. I'm glad to see the number of scenarios returning to 2 per month, I appreciate the expected time of 2-3 hours and the 2-level level range. These all sound great!
Maybe have a sniper trait that doubles the range (or add an extra 250' or whatever). Maybe some other benefit. I suspect down the line we will have energy snipers (why not, we should) and the magazine will have more shots before reloading (that or use 10 rounds per shot which would be ridiculous). This is actually pretty close to what they did in SF1. The Sniper trait had a second range increment and allowed you to take an action to aim and then use it. The second range increment was as low as 250ft but got up to 1000ft in the core book. I'm pretty sad to see that they got rid of that.
Aside: a thing I'm noticing, is that the Forums seem to have more "PF2e enjoyers approaching this as a PF2 side-grade," whereas Discord (or at least the servers I'm on) is more "SF1 enjoyers approaching this as an edition change." In other words: Forum people, in general, seem very quick to accept the PF2 status quo. This is, right now, my biggest headache with the edition change. While I'm all for using the PF2 ruleset for Starfinder, it feels like the devs and most people on this forum are treating SF2 as Player Core 3 rather than Starfinder Second Edition.
Does archaic actually do anything at this point? Explicitly, archaic gear can have runes, whereas non-archaic (tech, analog but not archaic) cannot have runes. Implicitly, archaic gear cannot have upgrades, as our only examples of archaic gear are PF gear, and upgrades require an upgrade slot, which PF gear do not have.
*examples of game breaking exploits* Yeah, alright, fair. But. The question is still, why would you take a multi-armed ancestry? What about multi-arms is a reason to have multi-arms (besides the corner-case Reactive Strike dodge)? Right now, I struggle to come up with a reason to be excited about that. If I picked a skittermander for a character, having six arms would be an irrelevant detail to that choice (unless I planned on taking Allsix at level 17). It gets me functionally nothing right now. All hands active is broken, an action to switch which arms I can use is mostly useless. So what's a solution? What if it was a free action to swap active hands. That mitigates many of the problems y'all have raised, but still allows function of multiple sets of limbs without unduly taxing the players who want to do so.
But would it really be too good not to take? Again, I'm having a hard time seeing how it would be so OP if it didn't have the swap hands penalty. And if that was directed at having feat chains that made it more useful, the assumption would be that other ancestries also have feat chains to make their special thing more useful.
So your argument is .. . .it won't be usable all the time? Like . . . fair, but that's the same with anything? If Iseph finds himself captured and without his guns, all of his gun abilities are useless? The difference is the base assumption of usefulness. In order for Iseph's abilities to be useless, you have to take their guns away. The GM has to engineer a situation for Iseph to be unable to use their abilities, but the base assumption is that their abilities will be accessible and usable normally. With multiple arms, the base assumption seems to be the opposite. It's useful in corner case situations, and you have to be actively prepared for those situations. About the only advantage we've been able to agree on is that you can swap your active hands to a pair that has an item you want to use without provoking a reaction. This assumes that you have the item you need already drawn, and that you are in a situation that would otherwise provoke a reaction (melee vs someone with reactive strike/punitive strike, or in range of someone with hair trigger). This is extremely corner case, as most enemies (in PF2, at least) don't have a reaction to punish you for that in the first place. Further, the biggest problem I have with this (which fair, I've yet to articulate) is that the design philosophy of "we have to nerf multiple arms because it's action economy is too great if we don't" directly impairs anything fun we could get if they were looking at what we could do with multiple arms instead. Instead of feats that would let us attack with multiple weapons at reduced penalties, or draw multiple items at reduced action cost, or bonuses to combat maneuvers, we instead get a feat that graciously allows us to once per day use our hands without tax. And All-Six, the only other feat available for multiple arms, and only for skittermanders, *requires* you to have all hands empty except for your active pair - which blatantly and directly subverts the advantage of being able to swap to other weapons/items without provoking a reaction. What I wish for is that instead of the design saying "well within these strict limitations there's still this marginal advantage", it instead said "look at these cool things you can do". That was one of the best things about SF1e - species got to do really cool things, like fly, or have multiple limbs, or be a squid in a robot aquarium, or not rely on breathing, or be large. The ancestry abilities feel much more reserved in this playtest.
As I read it, the only thing it's letting you play out are the effects of the attunement state, nothing else. For Stellar Rush, you are taking two strides and then, after you finish, your attunement does something. Photon lights up the squares you moved through and you cannot determine those squares until after your movement ("The squares you moved through during your stride are suffused with solar energy" - past tense). Graviton forces a fort save and effect on enemies based on your end position, which you cannot determine before you end your move. Both determinations happen at the end of the move. My best reading is that you commit to your strides, then determine the outcome of Photon-attunement (easily calculated - what squares did you move through?), and Graviton-attunement (what enemies are within 15 feet, what are their fortitude saves vs class DC, which ones failed, what order will the enemies be pulled in, where do they end up), then you decide which attunement results you want to have happen.
Again, I repeat, it also prevents things like Hair trigger/reactive strike/punatitive strike from triggering, because it doesn't have the manipulate trait. Yes, but again, only if you set up for it. Only if you have something in your hands to swap to already. I wouldn't call a design tradeoff a fallacy. The fallacy is the assumption that you *always* have something ready to swap to. But you also aren't worse than other characters with only two arms either. But that's kind of the problem? Barathu's flight is always on, always accessible, and always an advantage. You get a flight speed that can't be taken away from you easily, and while other ancestries can gain flight, be it through feats or items, barathu have the advantage of not having to invest that cost. Same goes for lashunta telepathy, and android construct bonuses. In 1e, multiple arms used to be like this as well. Anyone could get augments to get more arms, but species with multiple arms didn't have to pay that cost and inherently had the advantage that multiple arms give - being able to hold multiple weapons and items and use them freely. That doesn't exist here. For some reason, you can't graft on new limbs, so multiple arms is an unfair advantage and now has only marginal benefit, and only if you set it up always. I think you're underestimating the lengths people will go to to optimize. There are definitely people that will walk around with a bunch of grenades, spell chips or whatever scrolls are that I can't remember, poisons, etc, and abuse the crap out of the existing action compression, let alone anything better. Of course there will be people who do that. But again, how much of an advantage is that really? If I'm holding four weapons, I still can only use three of them. I still have to account for MAP. I still have to draw a replacement consumable if I use a potion I've been carrying around for 2 hours. It's not that big of an advantage, but it is fun and thematic. The way multiple arms are set up now, however, means there's *only* fun and an advantage for the people willing to walk around optimizing as much as they can. The casual player who doesn't optimize their economy isn't going to get any use out of multiple arms, other than as set dressing. As the thread title says, they're kind of worthless.
The inherent fallacy of the action compression is that you already have the items drawn and ready. If you're playing normally, you're not going to be walking around everywhere with a serum and a grenade in your off hands, or multiple weapons already drawn and waiting all of the time. This is a fine assumption in a dungeon-style setting, where you're expecting combat around every corner, but it falls apart on, say, Absalom Station. Or most any social setting where it would be inappropriate to be holding weapons. In a situation where you're not expecting combat, your character is theoretically not holding anything in any of their hands, at which point you're spending at least a whole turn setting up your off hands so that you'll be able to switch to them at some point. I guess I just don't see any meaningful advantage to having multiple arms to where they have to nerf it by adding an action tax to using said multiple arms. Between action costs, MAP, and the monetary cost of making sure you have enough viable options for each hand, the whole "active hands" and the single action cost to switch between them seems... excessive and punishing to me.
The problem is that it explicitly calls out that anyone can craft Tech items, and implicitly states that you don't need a feat to do so. The sidebar on pg204 calls out that you would need the Magical Crafting feat to craft magical items and the Programmer feat to craft virtual items. Nowhere does it state that you need Tech Crafting for anything. It's not even a prereq for Machine Magic, which is required to craft hybrid items.
First new announcement was Starfinder Galaxy Guide, coming in May. It will have six new ancestries (Astrazoans, Dragonkin, and Kalo were confirmed), and will generally be a setting update.
Talked about War of Immortals, but nothing new (that I caught).
Next PF Adventure is Claws of the Tyrant, but will be an anthology of 3 disconnected mini adventures, but all in the Gravelands.
Next Lost Omens is Rival Academies, detailing Six magical academies in Golarion. Narratively is set in a conference between the six schools in Sarkoris where they have a, ahem, "friendly" competition killing demons. Will have an update to the Runelord archetype and Sin Magic in general. They didn't outright say it, but it sounds like it will update a lot of Secrets of Magic lore. The last thing mentioned was Pathfinder Quest. As described, it sounds like "what if Pathfinder, but no GM and is Board Game". Crowd funding campaign got moved to next spring instead of this fall.
So it should show up when you're looking at your cart. Under 'Price Each' the normal price will be listed and crossed out, with the discounted price listed in red underneath it, as well as under 'Total Price'. First thing I would try is to clear your cache and cookies. Paizo.com has notorious issues with those, and most of the time if the website isn't working correctly, clearing those will fix it. If that doesn't fix it, I would email customer service and ask them to take a look at it.
Seriously though, thanks for pointing this out. It kind of sucks that I need to dig through the deck and figure out which are duplicates, but it's nice to know I'll still functionally have the product I was hoping for. Here's hoping that my new players' first starship combat goes smoothly! Okay, hopefully I can save you some time here. Start with all of the odd-numbered cards from 19 - 95. That'll give you all the correct cards for everyone but the gunner (which will also repeat on cards 81 and 83). If you take cards 94 and 96 for the gunner (Deploy Drone and Lay Mines), replace those two with the magic officer cards 50 and 52 (Mystic Haze and Psychic Currents), and then replace those with the engineer cards 38 and 40 (Overpower and Quick Fix), you should then have a full deck. The final set of gunner cards should be 35, 81, 83, 94, and 96.
I hope that makes sense and helps!
I guess if you buy two sets, you can sleeve them to block the reverse side and create a "proper" set of cards, but then you're dropping $50 and ending up with a bunch of duplicates for things that may not be used terribly often. That's entirely unnecessary. The backs of all of the crew action cards are duplicates of the fronts. For instance, card 19 is the captain's Demand action, which is the same as card 54 on the back of the science officer's Balance action. The only exception to this is the gunner's Lay Mines, Deploy Drone, and Firing Arcs, where Firing Arcs is only printed on the "front" of the cards, and Lay Mines and Deploy Drone only have one copy each. That said, they're printed in such a way you can still have a full set of actions for every roll with one copy of the deck.
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