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If they don't come out before then: playable undead. Skeletons and ghouls as race options at the minimum.
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I'm also a big fan of the shorter APs. My group made it through book 4 of Dead Suns over the course of almost a year, but by that point were ready for a change of pace. We may come back to Dead Suns later, or we may not. A three part AP would have been a much better fit, and is probably the longest I will try and run in the future.
Most of that sounds perfectly fine on Khizar senses, and pretty much in line for what I was hoping...but I had overlooked that the SRO was going to be a Xenodruid, so I'm going to withdraw that concept. I'd rather pitch an idea that's _not_ overlapping so heavily with what someone else wants to do. We've got a potential Technomancer, Mystic, Solarian, soldier, a couple of mechanics...we are clearly in need of an operative! Explorer specialization is a natural choice for the scenario that you have in mind. I think a Neskinti as far as race goes, and the Colonist theme seems like a good fit. Will work on the writeup soon.
Hi! So, a question for you: How would you handle Khizar senses? Specifically: Senses and Speech: Khizars have no eyes or visual senses, other than the ability to perceive the presence or absence of light. Khizars have blindsense (vibration) and blindsight (life), each with a range of 30 feet. Khizars can’t speak and can communicate only via telepathy. By a strict reading, they would have no ability to accurately perceive anything beyond 30 feet -- they'd be flat footed against most ranged attacks and, depending on how blindsight (life) was interpreted, might be almost entirely unable to perceive undead or non-sentient automatons/robots, which is pretty crippling for a PC. I'd be rather interested in a Khizar Xenodruid if a more relaxed approach was taken -- I don't want to be able to see (even via cyber/biotech), so reading a book or a sign is going to be straight out without technological or magical intervention. That's an interesting limitation of a race without visual senses, and one that can be fun to play out. Not being able to target a ranged attack or a spell, on the other hand, isn't fun in a game like Starfinder. Basically, I'm hoping you'd be willing to assume that a limited form of the life and vibration sense extended beyond 30 feet so that they're roughly as aware of what's going on around them as any other race. EDIT: Oh, and I'd assume that non-sentient robots/automatons probably _would_ be assumed to be part of the scenery if they haven't been moving, since I mention that part.
I have to say, I'm not at all pleased by locking down some of the choices behind specific ancestries like this. Before, my Dwarf barbarian was innately unburdened, and I could choose Hardy and Ancient's Blood as options if I wanted them (Hardy was my L1 feat pick; and before these rules dropped, Ancient's Blood was the ancestry feat I'd chosen as I leveled in prep for chapter 4.) While I'm happy with Unburdened being dropped as innate, since it benefits characters that don't need it, which is a good thing, I think a better choice would have been to make Unburdened into an ancestry feat, and just let people pick two -- greater flexibility, very little impact on existing characters, and no annoying 'Pick X, but then you can NEVER have Y, no matter how much you want it.' An alternative idea would be to follow the example of the Druid class features: A druid can take an ability of any specialization, but they get a small bonus for taking one within their chosen one instead of being penalized for making one decision (you've got an animal companion! No wildshape for you). So maybe a Strongheart Dwarf gets Hardy automatically, but gets a small bonus for it. They can then still unburdened or hardy normally, but don't get any extras.
We're back...at least for the moment.
Let's see if the site stays up this time!
I think a good example of a Verthani's Second Skin would be Envy's outfit from Full Metal Alchemist. EDIT: Added in a link to an image for convenience, in case someone isn't familiar with the series.
They haven't announced any plans to change the pagecount of the APs, no. While that doesn't mean the format will never change, I think we're more likely to see further experimentation with AP length than a change in the content and pagecount of the individual volumes.
Per the ability, clothing or armor that covers more than 1/4 of their body does block the ability. That being said, the protection from armor often comes in the form of force fields rather than just armor plating, so I'd say that any equipment they bought would be customized for their species and thus allow them to use their racial ability. Likewise, armor found in loot could be adjusted with an engineering check to do the same.
I hope we'll get some of these for Starfinder eventually, too!
"...and if a drow takes the Psychic Power feat, she can add the drow noble’s limning light supernatural ability to the list of spell-like abilities available to her." Based on that wording ('can add' not 'does add' specifically), my interpretation would be that if you took the psychic power feat, you select your choice of Limning Light OR the usual Comprehend Languages, Detect Thoughts, or Mind Link when you choose the feat. Regardless of what you choose, you can cast it 1/day. Definitely not as clear as it could be, though.
I get that it wouldn't necessarily be cost-effective to make a physical map pack (though I'd buy it), but I'd expect that they're getting a higher resolution image from the artist and then shrinking it down so that it's appropriate size and quality for the PDF. If that's the case, I'm not sure why it would cost more to make the map available separately in higher resolution PDF...maybe it requires different/higher payment to the artist for a standalone map distribution as opposed to distribution as part of the artwork for the AP?
Well, to be fair, Flat Affect does mean your Android is at a -2 penalty on its Sense Motive checks to interpret the meaning of your typing. That's bound to lead to a few errors.
There's nothing to suggest that the gear changes with the Astrozoan, no, nor that it's absorbed when they shift. Considering that you can buy shiftskin that has multiple 'shapes' stored specifically to benefit shapechangers, I think that's the correct reading of the rules there. That said, there's nothing stopping an astrozoan from making the engineering check to adjust their existing armor to a new form, and personally, I wouldn't require an adjustment so long as they were staying within the same basic size/shape -- shifting from human to elf? You're just wearing the same stuff, no adjustment needed. Going from natural shape to human? Better either spend time to adjust your armor or have gear that has shapeshifting properties of some sort. For cybernetics, it would depend for me, but I'd lean toward what would be fun for the player. I'd rule that you always get the benefit of having any cybernetic -- so whether you look like a human or a kasatha or your natural form, you've got your darkvision capacitors, but I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that you always look like a creature with cyber-eyes if you go with a non-biological implant. Something like a full cyber-limb? That I'd have to talk to my player on -- we might work out something like a cyber-limb that's actually a swarm of nanobots so that they're capable of easily shapeshifting along with the character, but again, while remaining obviously cybernetic.
Thanks, Glenn. I appreciate the good news!
Yeesh. At this point, I'm not sure I'll believe the release date until they actually show up at my FLGS. I'm glad I didn't pre-order these things a year ago, like I'd originally planned to.
For NPCs, it's entirely a non-issue, since they don't have feat lists to begin with, so they can only take the non-proficiency penalty on weapons of the chosen category. If it was used against a PC, then I'd treat it the same way -- they still keep any other feats (including weapon specialization), just take the penalty to attack rolls. If there was an additional effect like losing damage bonus on the weapons, I think that's something that the spell would need to have explicitly stated in its description.
Surely there's _someone_ that wants to be a meat shield for a bunch of goblins? I'll even throw in this really cool _actual_ shield! (And don't give me that 'It's just a box lid with some straps' nonsense. It's the best shield ever...when you're a young goblin who's just come out of the cages!)
And that's exactly the approach they're trying to move AWAY from in Starfinder -- even as someone who does think there's more room for classes than the core that we have now, I very much _don't_ want to see the same kind of class bloat that Pathfinder suffers from.
For those wondering, Purg, Kavak, Mogmurch, and I (Gorkle) are the players that remain. The plan is to run through all the Goblins modules, possibly splitting off to original content along the way, assuming interest stays strong. Not sure on variant multiclassing.
By the same token, one could ask if a Drow (or other races similarly affected) still has light blindness if they replaced their eyes with cybernetic ones. The implants don't say they take away that racial trait. By a literal reading of the rules, there is no way to remove it, because it's inherently part of being Drow. But it's also hard to imagine a vision-based flaw remaining when you've replaced the organ responsible for allowing the light to be perceived in the first place. Personally, as a GM I'd follow what I consider to be the common sense approach: a Drow who got cybernetic eyes would lose the light blindness trait, but would only keep darkvision if the new eyes included it as a feature, since both of those traits are based on the eyes (much like a blind drow would lose both darkvision and light blindness, since they've no longer got use of their eyes.)
That's what I was keeping my fingers crossed for, and pretty much exactly for those reasons :-) When I said several, I just meant several higher level APs to choose between. I don't particularly want a 1-20 AP...realistically, I'm never going to run it. The three part APs are really more my ideal length -- completing Dead Suns with my group will be the longest continuous story I've ever managed to run or play with the same group. We're halfway there now, so I think we've got a good shot at pulling it off, but I don't think completing 6 part APs will ever be our norm. It's much more common for us to do a story arc, then switch to a different game or different set of characters for a little while to give whoever's currently GMing a break.
I'm assuming this person is your friend, hence the reluctance to call the person out on the issue. Assuming the desire to avoid conflict/maintain social harmony is stronger than the drive to prevent the cheating, is there any reason the GM can't just ask everyone at the table to roll in a general area of the table where everyone can see? Yeah, the players are all going to know why it's being done, but it does avoid explicitly calling anyone out and it causes minimal impact on gameplay overall.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for several over the long haul -- my hope is that eventually, we'll have multiple choices of APs of varying lengths to take characters from 1-20 with. Granted, it's going to take a while to get there, even if higher level APs still sell reasonably well.
Don't forget a book on the Planes. I know one just came out for Pathfinder, so this probably isn't coming any time soon, but I still want to see Starfinder's take on them, plus the assortment of beings that call them home.
I'm definitely interested, and especially interested in learning more about the Azlanti and their empire. I'm not sure/if when I'll run it -- I'm running Dead Suns for my group, and I imagine it'would be tough to adapt an AP for characters that are L1 - 7 to characters that are L12+ and potentially pretty famous given what they'll have accomplished. So I suppose I'm mostly hoping for lots of setting/cultural info to mine for my group to use post Dead Suns. Plus class options and gear are always nice, too, and I'm sure there'll be at least a little of that.
While I've already voiced my opinion that I think there is room for more classes, many of those can already be done, or would be better done through archetypes and themes. Not all -- if, say, updated versions of the Alchemist or Kineticist were made for Starfinder, they're definitely unique enough to need to be their own classes. I'm not sure on some of the others, since I'm not familiar with all of those classes. Space Barbarian - Berserker Soldier Fighting Style, rather than a class of its own. Psychic warrior sounds more like a soldier with the phrenic adept archetype; psychic in general is phrenic adept, probably mystic if you wanted to go a highly focused psychic. I do think there's more room to expand on psychic abilities, though. Ranger can be either a ranged soldier with the Wild Guardian theme, or a Mystic Xenodruid who's more combat oriented if you wanted more of a caster ranger. Vampire Hunter and Vigilante both sound like they'd be good ones to convert to themes, rather than keeping as classes -- I could see any class potentially becoming one. Witch, given the service to patrons, might actually be handled better as a mystic with a unique connection(s), rather than its own class. Hmm...now I'm wondering if a companion could be handled via archetype as well, that way you could do a XenoDruid or Wild Guardian Soldier (Ranger) with an animal companion as readily as a technomancer with a robotic familiar or a necromancer with a permanent raised undead minion. I may need to play with that a bit and see what I can come up with! :-)
Some people are going to be very quiet -- don't worry about that, just do your best to make sure she has fun. Give her character some opportunities to shine (which hopefully you're already doing for all the PCs), and then maybe solicit some feedback from the group after each session about what their favorite parts were, so you get a better idea about what parts of the game she enjoys (while also learning what the rest of your players were enjoying most, too.)
Yes, there's a rarity factor for certain figures -- and if you buy a box, you're generally guaranteed a certain number of rares. It's the same model as CCGs or baseball cards.
Please, no blind packages when the day that more releases of prepainted minis come (whomever may produce them.) While I might be disappointed that the current minis are almost a year late, I very much appreciate the fact that I know exactly what I'm getting when I make my purchase. I haven't bought a random pack card game in nearly 20 years, and barring the unforeseen, never will again, and that philosophy extends to random packed minis as well. Give me something at the same quality level as, say, Fantasy Flight's X-Wing line, and I'll happily the higher cost per mini for it!
Definitely getting creative. The kaukariki were in the book as intelligent animals -- clever and cunning animals, sure, but not capable of understanding or speaking a language, unlike some of the creatures you face in the jungles of Ukulam. They're also at a -2 INT mod, so would be INT 6 at best, not 8. Diplomacy and trade isn't possible with them playing it straight, although if there was a Xenodruid in your group, I could certainly see them being able to work a diplomatic solution since they get the ability to speak with animals. Trade wouldn't really be very feasible, since the kaukariki would have no idea what grenades (or the healing potions they took playing things straight) actually were.
I'm hoping we'll see a more dedicated (non-engineer) scientist -- sure, we have a biotechnician theme, which is nice, and you can always reflavor envoy healing/buffs/debuffs as medical tricks, but I think there's room there for a lot more cool stuff that warrants a class of its own. As much as I want to see a Starfinder take on a necromancer, I think that'll probably end up being a new mystic connection (most likely option) or alternate class features for technomancer (less likely, but possible) rather than a class of its own, and I'm fine with that. Overall, we just don't really need the same variety of classes that Pathfinder has simply because the theme/class/archetype combo covers most of the same ground.
Okay, so: stats. As an expert, I got 10 class skills, but only could put points in 6, so the +0 skills are listed solely because they're class skills. Gorkle
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Skills:
Racial Modifiers +4 Perception (over-sized ears)
Gear:
17 cp
Okay, so after a bit of research, kineticists seem to be widely regarded as fairly sub-par mechanically, but thematically it just fits so perfectly that I can't bring myself to care. Since I'm not actually a caster as a kineticist, I think I may start off as an Expert rather than an Adept as well. Are we doing anything like maximizing hit points at level 1? I'm a little spoiled to Starfinder, where it's a flat amount per level, so I thought I'd at least ask (and, well, I'm going to need all the HP I can get. :-p)
I’m not familiar with fire kineticist. I’ll take a look at that option after work, though.
Okay, I admit, while I'm generally more interested in Starfinder than Pathfinder, this sounds like it could be a lot of fun and full of some great RP even if we all die horribly along the way! Consider my hat thrown into the ring. Gorkle may be young, but he has already met his one true love: Fire. While he was still in the cages, he could stare at it, simply watching the fire burn, and imagining what it would do if it were only _bigger_. And what it would be like if he could could use it against all the things he didn't like. He is also a very clever goblin, and learned quickly how to _make_ fire. Fortunately for those around him, he's also very easily controlled -- simply tell him what to burn, and he'll do so with great pleasure. Promising to teach him how to make a bigger, better fire (or explosion) can work, too, although his attention span (or lack thereof, when fire _isn't_ involved) makes this a somewhat more dubious method. He'd end up being an Adept initially, but would level into Alchemist, and specifically Fire Bomber. Goblin song (to the tune of 'Let it Snow'): Oh the nasty dogs are so frightful,
Stats will follow tomorrow, assuming the concept is approved.
Page isn't available for me. Do you have the post set public?
What do you mean? The text of the corebook _is_ on white pages...there's a blue border on the edge, but that doesn't overlap the written text. That's true of both the print and the PDF editions. EDIT: Or do you just mean the class main pages? Those are dark blue, but even then, after the first page it reverts to white background and black text.
While we don't have specific rules, it's worth noting that a typical small creature is 8-60 lbs (page 256 of the core.) It's safe to assume that a drone is probably on the upper end of that, so if you could carry it, it would be the equivalent of around 6 bulk, and might very well count as more since it's not really designed to be carried/ride a human while in combat. A tiny creature, on the other hand, is only 1-8lbs, or 1 bulk if you round up, so at least could be more feasible to carry.
Skill focus and expertise don't stack -- they're both insight bonuses.
As with many things, it depends. The divine blessing of Pharasma is more potent, but only against a specific type of enemy. If you don't ever run into undead, then it's not relevant. Mystic Strike is useful against a wider variety of opponents, but is still limited to those vulnerable to magic, so again, if you're not running into many of those opponents, it may not be relevant. Ultimately, for me, it would come down to which felt more appropriate to the character and the game I was in.
If the ship is floating in deep space at the time, option 1 is the most likely -- escape pods can survive entry into atmosphere and crashing on a planet, but they don't have propulsion, so they're going to be moving on a very predictable trajectory at a fixed rate of speed. There really is no hiding behind asteroids or space debris. About the most that one could hope is that they keep their transponder turned off until the enemy leaves and that they're mistaken for debris from the destroyed ship. That said, these are your PCs. Having an enemy ship blow them out of the sky while they're helpless in an escape pod doesn't make for a particularly fun time for anyone, so option 3 is probably more practical at the gaming table. As a GM, it's a good idea to come up with a reason why they don't finish the PCs off -- maybe the battle is in a nebula that makes sensors unreliable, so the baddies have a good reason to believe the PCs are dead when the ship is destroyed. Or maybe they're in orbit of a planet, so the escape pods can more easily blend in with the other debris breaking lose from the ship as they plummet to the surface, and then the baddies have to go hunt them down on the ground if they want to be sure of finishing them off. Another option would be the arrival of a third ship to chase the baddies off...it wouldn't even need to be friendly, just an enemy of the baddies.
Soldier class, Priest theme, Divine Champion archetype is basically a Paladin. You could also throw in things like Connection Inkling, Divine Blessing, or even the psychic/stage magic feats if you wanted to be more of a caster. Probably want Arcane Assailant as primary fighting style, and then you'd have free pick of the secondary style. Star Knight also offers a good archetype choice if you prefer it to Divine Champion.
I don't notice it being any more common among gamers now than it was a decade or two ago, personally. There have always been people that don't care that much about learning the rules (or who don't care about reading the setting material beyond the minimum they need to play.) As far as the health of the hobby, I think we're actually doing better now than ever before in terms of both the quality and quantity of games available to choose from, whether we want to go with industry leaders or indie publishing and whether we prefer our games with lots of crunch or rules light.
I think you're fine, especially for this point in the story and with this may of us. We're way over the CR of these encounters given the size of our party.
One easy addition to Chapter 1 would be to integrate The Commencement SFS scenario (or something very similar) -- run some of their membership into the Starfinder Society, instead of just assuming they immediately head offworld. Better still, the information that the PCs need to get for the Dataphiles...is evidence of impropriety on Astral Extractions' part, so instead of just Chiskisk waving them off as not being able to do anything about the company, they at least get to hit back against them, even if they can't necessarily prove that the company paid to have Kreel assassinated.
In the admittedly limited selection of games I've run or been part of, it hasn't been uncommon for two PCs to share a race, but I don't think I've ever seen more than that, and not sharing a race been about as common. My RL game started out as two Androids, a Lashunta, an Ysoki, and a Vesk, though the Ysoki went NPC fairly early on due to RL issues for the player. None of my RL game's backup characters share a race - Drow (sort of), Space Goblin, SRO, and Human - those are the characters that come out for one shots when someone has to miss a Dead Suns session. One of my current forum games has two Lashunta, the other (huge game - 8 players, so less surprising) has two Shirren. My short-lived Discord game didn't have any PCs who shared a race, and the follow up to that one that's in the works doesn't look like it will, either.
Because drones are a class feature -- essentially part of the character -- they don't have an associated cost, no. That's also why they're almost impossible to permanently destroy, when regular equipment is afforded no such protection. They've moved away from Pathfinder's model of punishing the character pretty badly for losing a familiar/eidolon/animal companion/etc. Regular equipment, on the other hand, is much more disposable, and as such, _does_ have an associated cost, as detailed under the equipment lists and crafting rules. It's better to think of this less as a function of how the Starfinder universe itself works, and more as an OOC abstraction for the sake of not penalizing the player of a drone by potentially leaving them without a major class feature for a significant amount of time.
I'm just now seeing that there was actually some life in this thread after I thought it was dead. Since expressing interest in this game, I've gotten involved in two other PbPs (including one other Dead Suns game) that have already gotten started, so I'm going to bow out and leave my spot to someone else.
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