WWHsmackdown's page

I wasn't in the forums when pf2e dropped, so others could speak with authority, but I assume all that specific delineation and segregation would happen this summer when the edition actually drops.

All things shift with time. Things tying back to culture (language, mythology, fashion, art) shift at a horrifically faster pace than anything else in the natural world. So yea, what is and isn't a thing in something as human and artificial a construct as a dragon is going to depend on where the needle is in the current zeitgeist.

Yeah, this was absolutely my feeling. Anytime I go to build a drone, it feels like I'm pouring all my feats into customizations if I want to make something other than a second MAP track.

Mechanically, a companion IS a second MAP attack, that's kind of the balance niche of getting the second body

Yea, in the 2E system taking sub cloth caster AC and further decreasing it by making a strength companion is extremely fraught and makes your hulking trex have the martial constitution of wet tissue paper if any enemy decides to focus them. I hope the starfinder team uses a different balancing method for animal companions over AC vs. Damage/athletics. My mammoth isn't gonna average more damage or get off many grapples considering how often it's gonna be dying. Dex companions are (to me at least) the "correct" choice when making an animal companion considering the amount of build resources that go into keeping one scaled. Your wooly rhino is a bit of wasted class feats when it's lying on the ground twice as much as the druid next to you who made the "right" choice and chose to make a wolf companion. Heck, make the balancing factor speed vs. size, anything other than AC in a system with the 2E engine's crit rules. The fantasy of the the large animal companions being so much easier to drop.....has been one of the biggest mechanical/narrative bugbears I've had with this system I love. *puts down worn and battered drum and ceases to vent*

I wanna hear about the AnadarCorp agent and the starfinder archetypes

I've ran plenty of dump save characters (usually dumping either wis or dex depending on the character) and have found the game perfectly functional. These characters have gained versatilities for their decreased defenses. I've always felt it's been a fair trade; I don't consider the three save stats mandator, you'll just be in more danger for opening up a less than optimal avenues of play.

For example my unarmed, laughing shadow magus/psychic has tragically low will, which has led to me failing saves and going lower in initiative....BUT HE'S STILL ALIVE and I get to be the party's RK repository bc he's such a smarty pants and my spell DCs are better than a magus that tanks int. I think the game works fine with these kinds of trade offs.

I think each language could get a focus spell on the level of a witch hex and the class would be fine. Maybe not something that has to be sustained bc the class is action hungry but something on the level of a one action cantrip and the tehnomancer's tier 1 troubles would go away.

The easy fix would just be letting overclock gear work on cantrips and tweaking the overclocks on some of the languages.

I'm fine with the playtest armor. I just want hp to reflect the slots. 6hp should mean 4 slots or strong repeatable fallbacks for non spell slot turns. The player core is long off to the printers or en route from shipping so we'll see how it shakes out come august

I'm fine with the -1 martials bc that hurt accuracy usually pays for a lot of features that make them more engaging than fighter, rogue, etc.

Arcane, building a language of understanding for magic, seems like the natural place for the magical programming class. There could be flavor arguments for a techno that stumbles upon the eldritch programming language of fundamental madness or some such but I think the occult niche for techno is a bit smaller than the arcane.

Surveys are macro data through the question system with (maybe, but don't know for sure) key word or phrase tagging in the open response section. It's a lot more useful than devs (maybe) combing through hundreds of thread responses and (possibly) picking up general trends from a less than representative, vocal, and invested minority of the player base. At least, that's why I assume survey data is valued so much more.

I'll eventually be doing a homebrew sf2e game in the golarian system so I can't wait to sift through the galaxy guide to help write plot!

Yea, witches get their one action hexes and familiar shenanigans while psychics get some ultra buffed cantrips and amps. As written, technomancers don't have enough in either their features or their chassis. Either they bump the hp so the class is more comfortable martialing between spell slots, make it a four slot caster to give it enough fuel for it's resource heavy play style, or give it repeatable activities that are independent of spell slots. Something's gotta give, though

I think the magic hacks are a problem in the way they deny the technomancer the primary benefit of what focus spells are are supposed to be: a replenishable source of combat ammunition that is stronger than a cantrip but weaker than a slot and doesn't require spending a slot. Almost all of them (weakly) enhance a slotted spell or provide a utility benefit, which you may not have (at 3 slots/level) or want to spend.

Admittedly 1 action to teleport or an energy shield are good focus spells comparable to options that psychics and other casters have had before. But they didn't make you cast a slotted spell first, and there's zero offensive options. (The "change energy type" one doesn't really count.)

The first Viper one is kind of sneaky good as a way to double the use of spell gems via replenishable focus spells, letting you "buy" extra slotted spells at half price, but it's still not sustainable.

This right right here. Bread and butter based on resource when you're not a martial is kind of rough

Remote hacking from your exocortex ( or other limited techy buffing/debuffing) would help.

I have yet to see a name change from playtest to release, though. The devs seem to budge on nitty gritty details and numbers, not the vision of the class (including the name). Summoner is the summoner, inventor is the inventor, and the playtest necromancer is gonna full release as the necromancer despite the arguments (from some) that these classes didn't properly capture the fantasy that (some) players wanted. It's just a non starter. Bemoan the current vision all you want, it will be the new mechanic, though, not some other name

Ehh, just adding some action feats for remote hacking or crafting related debuffing on tech enemies would help further justify the non strike KAS. PF2E gets along just fine with it's -1 martials; HOW WELL those classes utilize their non strike KAS is more of a case by case study.

3 slots AND 6hp is pretty brutal. As far as I'm concerned a class should follow the wizard/sorc paradigm or "the rest" paradigm for caster proficiencies in regards to their number of slots (witch and physic being outliers). If mystic and ww lose a slot, then they should keep the 8hp and armor. Otherwise they can keep the 4 slots and lose health/armor

I understand not being happy the things you enjoyed weren't translated over, but I've seen the "this 2e version of the 1e class barely resembles the 1e version, bring back the old stuff or name it something else"....like, 3+ times now. The argument never changes the name and usually the design intent of the playtest caries through to the final product (barring outliers like 2e magus). They could inject some zaniness back in sure, but super faithful translating is rarely their design goal over reimagining, so temper your expectations

I'm fine with 3 per rank considering the h
Juice and passive benefits they can put in spells, they just need to be 8hp instead of 6

Space mines (in a starship sense) and flying mines are definitely a scifi trope, so itd definitely be a good addition

I love both of these classes! Technomancer and mechanic both ooze flavor and versatility. From a quick skim it seems hard to find anything to complain about. My only suggestion is making the four slot casters 6 hp and the technomancer 8 hp since it's working with 3 slots. tweaks aside it all looks good enough to full send

A netrunner type class could be the technological mirror of the mystic class, giving out passive buffs and actions by way of everybody's comms and augmetics being tied to a party network

I'm just happy to see an archetype fully enable a swashbuckling play style. A lot of pf2e archetypes let you dip your toes in certain combat play styles but this one just enables it, full stop. Those are the kind of archetypes that tickle my brain for making characters and I'm fully floored for sf2e to have more of that moving forward (plus, archetypes not progressing your martial or caster progression fully into the other lane keeps me sanguine on the matter).

I'm a lot more nervous. Different power levels will kill the much vaunted cross compatibility between games. It also threatens to make encounter design much more of a headache.

Only if those varied power levels exceed the bar. This preview meets the bar like beast master or sentinel. We're just used to archetypes being so niche they can't be justified for general use over class feats (pf2e pirate or archeologist). If everything looked like a psychic or exemplar dedication it might give pause, but this doesn't look like that to me.

I don't think it's a matter of power levels so much as some archetypes having been made more for flavor than practical use; this is fine in the 2e engine since so much of your power comes from your base chassis but that's a different discussion.

I agree with others in that thread that an exploration activity (coerce) bonus on rolling initiative doesn't really do much for combat so I don't think it's strong like people think it is; id need that to be erattaed to a bonus to demoralize checks to really be floored (and mayyyybe that was the RAI). It could be useful for some victory point negotiation encounter, but the point is the initial feat is a lot more niche than would be assumed at first glance.

EDIT: just reread and saw that level two feat let's you demoralize when you roll initiative. It's not a bonus but it's good action compression with your thematic pirate flag (I take back my complaints on the dedication feat).

HOWEVER, the rest of the archetype just straight up encourages and EMPOWERS a swashbuckling play style. The lvl 8 feat is extremely cool lore and can be fairly build worthy if you have or get your spell DC up by class choice or casting archetype. It is a great archetype, has a lot of general, widely applicable use in it that a bunch of pf2e archetypes shied away from; it stuffs the archetype full of space pirate flavor AND avoids giving abilities that would be so niche they couldn't compete with general combat effective class feats.

Bottom line, if I wanted to be a diaspora pirate this archetype could stand up against class feats, which is very impressive. Pf2e has these caliber of archetypes too (beast master, sentinel, champion, rogue, dual weapon fighter, mauler), of course, but they're more the exception than the rule; the flavor you want on your character can come at a steep price sometimes.

This is just a preview of one archetype, though, I'd want a couple books worth of archetype releases before declaring SF2E archetypes less niche than PF2E. Still, very encouraging!

Little bit worried that runesmith will end up becoming too much of a support. Please add 2 ways of play where 1 can be more offensive and other can be more supportive (a bit worried bc of your comment about it)

Would also love support for shield/2handed usage for Runesmith as it would be cool to not have a hand free as a requirement. After all we can do most spells having both hands occupied

Looking forward to seeing what u will do with it
c:

Ehh, I think we have plenty of DPS martials. Id rather runesmith be more support so it has the budget to be as magical and varied as possible.

I've said it before, but I hope there's an archetype dedicated to the hacking subsystem to get that net runner feel and a build-a-bear drone archetype so anybody can have their R2D2 type buddy. Scifi archetypes are my most anticipated part of SF2E

Paizocon or Gencon will tell us if the impossible book includes summoner and magus

Just got the book and everyone did an amazing job. One of the many highlights for me was crime kingpin: using a reaction to kick a disarmed weapon 20 feet away AND have a flunky in the path of travel pick it up was so disrespectful I cackled. It's my favorite for a tier 2 end boss

I have friend groups that dabbled in a smattering of ttrpgs: zweihander, morkborg, star wars, & shadow of the demon lord, but starfinder and DnD 5e were the only two games I played with any real frequency. When the pf2e dropped I opened it up to peruse in my local nerd shop and saw that rangers and monks were interesting and fun, not shortchanged and suboptimal. I dropped 5e and started GMing for pf2e, being a PC whenever I get the chance. My fixation made me sideline starfinder, but sf2e having the engine I love is gonna get me back into GMing scifi

The playtest ancestries were some of the most fun in the 2E engine so far. Barathu in particular put a big, dumb grin on my face

Mangaholic13 wrote:

Dragonchess Player wrote:

Mangaholic13 wrote:

(since SF1e technomancer was a prepared caster, and I don't really see a reason why they'd change that for SF2e)

Correction: The technomancer, like all SF1 casters, was spontaneous with a limited list of "spells known."

Really? My bad.

...I guess this shows how invested I was in the SF1e Technomancer class...

In fairness to you they did eventually get an option to become prepared casters in Galactic Magic. I really liked that concept, I hope we see something like it again.

I also just realized that, with the mechanic being the deployables class, they may fill the niche of martially-themed necromancer some people were talking about during the Impossible Playtest.

This is my hope, too. A support martial with a map token mechanic like Necro would be a cool addition

Slight tangent, but what's the over-under on SROs showing up on this future tech book.....asking for a friend

https://paizo.com/starfinderplaytest

The playtest notice describes the mechanic as "The mechanic syncs with their exocortex to deploy mines, turrets, or command a drone." Looks like mines, turrets, and a drone might be the subclasses

Galaxy guide is pretty hype for me. World guide was one of the most useful books I got for DMing PF2E; something in that same vein that also categorizes by theme is gonna be choice, the archetypes and ancestries are gravy, honestly.

I'm hoping/guessing that mechanic is a support martial that can also drop drones/turrets like the playtest necromancer's mechanics. Basically a martial inversion of that playtest. Im with Milo on the technomancer: the fewer the spell slots the more cool toys we get, so I hope it's a two slot caster or a wave caster

WWHsmackdown wrote:

Thanks for all the cool Cobyslarni lore, Kendra! It's definitely my favorite school of the bunch

Thank you! I'd love to hear what folks do with it in games (and the rest of the schools, too)!

I'ma finagle the school into my starfinder2E campaign so my players get a novel surprise. Time and space shouldn't be an issue for the big fey god elephant; it'll just be another Saturday for the students...

Thanks for all the cool Cobyslarni lore, Kendra! It's definitely my favorite school of the bunch

Looking forward to the archetypes! An astrazoan AnadarCorp Rep envoy sounds like a great party face to go full sleazy corpo. I'm also interested to see what kind of primal casting xenodruid gets; it might serve as a more flavorful scifi druid multiclass.

Endure and blood vendetta are my favorite rank 1 & 2 spells. Single action spells and reaction spells are what I like for enriching caster turns so they feel less like "move and cast" all the time; this leads me to load up on these kinds of spells so I can have options for keeping my turns varied.

All the posts saying the next book is some SoM successor checks out to me. A reprint of SoM would require a lot of edits and a good number of brand new pages. Unless that space is going to be taken up by some magi and summoner class archetypes or some other brand new content, I don't see it happening.

I'm hoping those classes get rolled with necro and runesmith in a new magic compendium. Elementalist got rolled in RoE, runelord is in RA, shadow caster might be too OGL in material origin, that leaves wellspring, flexible casting, and leylines/true names to find new homes.

I'm curious what the best option here is: putting in the man hours needed into SoM, pruning some of those less used systems to make way for more new stuff in a new magic book, or stuff all of it in and leave the new offerings in a new magic book to mostly consist of the two new classes.

Interesting choices to be made, but anyway, yea my future product hope is a (safe bet) new tome of magic shenanigans framed by war between Nex and Gen.

I enjoyed the mythic rules in WoI and I like callings ramping up to destinies (that's more about me not liking lvl 1 "godlings" and the player attitudes they can engender). The disparities between some destinies is unfortunate but easily fixable. I just appreciate mythic for giving me something that actually justified a free-archetype-esque campaign. A call to action from the gods may be a little trite but having rules to back it up is sweet!

Kavlor wrote:

To be honest, I'm not a fan of Arcadia book. I mean, it could be good, but I'm not a fan of concept of almost fully-native America-analogue, cause I believe that history of colonization and formation of new cultures in colonized lands is interesting too. But if it came out, I would like to get getherer and more info about dog-folk and wyrwoods.

[...]

And about adventure paths, there a few things that I would like to see. For example AP that would denounce Segada Protocol in lore.

"I don't want an Arcadia book because I don't like that it's not repeating the story of foreign colonization" and "I want an AP about ending the restrictions on colonization by Fantasy Europeans empires in Fantasy America" are both wild to just say out loud. I'm very glad you're not making decisions for Pathfinder.

Go re-read any of a dozen "slaughter the natives and take their gold" fantasy books from the 80s and 90s, there's no shortage of those.

New mwangi lore also benefits from being believable as a place with functioning stable empires in the geopolitical scene

Psychic archetype archetype on a magus is the best method I've found for making a bare handed force adept; laughing shadow and the extra slots from magus inches it for me bc monk/psychic doesn't have enough slots and psychic/monk is pretty painful in star spread. Heck, I don't even get imaginary weapon bc magus damage doesnt need the cheese.

I grave spell called harrow where its described as a projected arc of your scythe in a 15 foot cone in front of you thats a reflex save and gives you half the damage in temp hp would be really cool; it might be too much and definitely steps on the toes of draining strike, though. Having something like this INSTEAD of draining strike, though, would free up being able to have a thrall strike that turn. Maybe something like that as an early grave spell would would be too good for stacking temp hp.....idk I'm not a designer.

Good read! I'm excited for the reveal of this book at Paizocon or Gencon

Seas of golarian setting book! Rules and setting details to accommodate a swashbuckling island hopping campaign would benefit wide open, hex crawling, episodic campaigns (the One Piece approach).

Life is better with pets, adopt your own fur baby with beast master archetype!

Runelord does look like a pretty cool midrange wizard from the skimming a did.