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The model they should follow is that of G-Gundam or Xenogears/Xenosaga, where the mecha reflect the pilot's abilities, allowing them to be used on a greater scale. Fei is a marital artist, his Weltall mech uses the same moves and has the same ki blasts. Imagine a Solarian generating a mammoth solar weapon or solar armor, a Technomancer supercharging their main mecha gun with a spell or unleashing an overheat cone, an Operative ninja mech doing a sneak attack.

Have the mecha be summonable as needed, make adventures where there are areas big enough for the mechs to operate and the PCs can call them up. But there are narrower areas that can only be investigated on foot.

There are a lot of mecha games around, but none can really do that sort of mix the way Starfinder could.


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Pantshandshake wrote:
I couldn't quote you the rules to save my life, but I know Battletech mechs have inbuilt melee strikes. IIRC, kicks if you have legs and punches if you have arms with hands.

Though if you dived deeper, you could remove some of the lower arm locations to get mechs with gun arms like the Rifleman and Warhammer, gaining some advantages for more difficult melee combat.

Perhaps they could make an arm type with a built-in unarmed attack, or make that the default and do one without it and some advantage to the mounted weapons.

The multiple pilots aspect is the only thing that feels super robot to me, there are no finishing attacks or rocket punches.

And there's nothing that says they have to be humanoid mecha in the rules, you could do a Zoid Liger Zero or Shadow Fox just as easily.


The impression I had is you need to gear up with Hammerfists at least if you want to engage in unarmed combat... otherwise you've got tiny hands that aren't good for much (Such as a Guncannon from Gundam), or unweildy weapon arms like the Robotech/Macross Destroids.


I have to agree there needs to be a way to interface your character's abilities with your mecha. The lack of such really struck me. You may as well be playing a completely separate game. Have a "Solarian Crystal Array" to let you make a giant weapon, or an "Ether lens" to scale up your spells to mecha level.

Really seems strange to be a technomancer wrapped in a giant robot and then being unable to do anything with said technology.


I'd rather have fewer, better choices than tons of weak, conditional or even pointless ones. +1 bonuses to hit, +1 to save DCs for your spells... those should be baked into the class. Fewer and tighter means that there shouldn't be a new Prone Shooter. Or a repeatedly-erratted Dervish Dance.


Was Seoni's look inspired by Hild from the manga and anime Oh My Goddess?

They have similar hair color and style, tan skin, facial tattoos, exposed outfits with trailing ribbons and so on.

Hild Reference.


4e has no feat chains, just lots of feats. That's something PF2 should emulate. Use feats to make your character more interesting, not more powerful. Expertise, focus, finesse, the Point Blank Shot and up... those should be worked into something like Starfinder fighting styles. That would eliminate the need for fighter bonus feats. Mage Tattoo and spell specialization should go too.


doomman47 wrote:
Bloodrealm wrote:
Wheeljack wrote:


Eliminate the need for healing magic between fights too. Heal up with a rest.
And that is the one and only thing 5E did right. The Short Rest mechanic was a good idea.
on paper it looks good, but in practice with our groups nearly 2 years of playing 5e for a campaign we never once used the short rest....

A 4e short rest is 5 minutes, a 5e one is an hour. There are a lot of good reasons not to stop for an hour in the middle of an adventure.

Make the heal skill standard for between-combat healing, and keep it vague. It could be prayer and faith healing or bandages and herb lore or Chinese traditional medicine or healing songs. Keep wands and potions as a rarer and better option if available, real magic, not just something that's mandatory for having fun and not dying.


D&D 4e has a variety of characters with a healing power as a minor action, including clerics, bards and warlords, playing off of the idea that hit points are not meat points, but vigor, morale, dodging and so on. Thus, they can move and attack and heal (usually twice per battle). This is an excellent idea that could be implemented with a healing power as a minor action. Make it outside of the usual spells, an innate power with a theme to the class with the power.

Eliminate the need for healing magic between fights too. Heal up with a rest. Specific injuries as ingering conditions can be addressed by clerical type magic or magic items.


As far as Eldritch Knight multi classing for the Spellslinger, Eldritch Archer gives all martial weapons as far as I can see. It'd give a bonded weapon and the Arcane pool would work with the Mage Bullets, saving spell levels from that for the shock and other effects.

Is there something I'm missing?


I do like a simple build... four different classes feels kind of awkward to me.

Eldritch Archer has a lot to recommend it, but it can't enhance bullets with qualities until level 5, while the Spellslinger can do it at level one.

Since it's a game starting at level 1, the front-loading does speak to me, and the mage bullets + enchanted weapon spell combo would be more impressive than anything a Magus could pull off early on.

With only 2 spell slots, there'll be a lot more shooting than casting. Though I guess the Eldritch Archer could fire cantrips on top of bullets all the time.

Edit: And I'm not married to the idea of just Shocking Grasps or shock bullets, that just seemed the easiest way to do a magical damage boost on a firearm from my quick survey.


Checked with the DM, who said that a Spellslinger will get Gun Training, so that's dex to damage at level 1.

There's something I wanted to check on. If you cast Magic Weapon on your gun, could you then sacrifice another spell to add Shock or Flaming or another +1 grade enhancement onto it via Mage Bullets?

You could do that at level 1 and shoot your rifle for 1d10+1d6+ 3 or 4 from Dex every turn.


What if you cast Magic Weapon on your gun and then sacrifice another spell for something like Shock or Distance? At level 1, it'd give you one minute of really good firepower.


Thanks, there were some things I hadn't considered there.

The Spellslinger's Gunsmithing was something I wondered about for Guns Everywhere. The Gunslinger gets it replaced with Gun Training, shouldn't the Spellslinger as well, since the feat has greatly reduced value, and the Spellslinger gets the special bonuses of the Gunsmithing Feat just like the Gunslinger?


I've been asked to join a Final Fantasy-inspired Pathfinder game with airships and guns. The "Guns Everywhere" rule is in effect, along with advanced firearms. And it starts at level 1.

I've been thinking about some sort of gun mage for it, but Spellslinger is pretty bad... maybe a Spellslinger 1/Sorcerer mix of some sort too, though I'm not sure if other spells feed the Spellslinger powers.

In any case, I had the idea of a simple Arcane bloodline sorcerer whose arcane bond is a revolver. Masterwork, +1 to hit, only needs infrequent reloading, a good way to fill out turns between casting, and it can "fire" spells as a special effect.

The Stormborn bloodline had an interesting ability but it'd mean no arcane bond, so I came up with this idea: Ranged shocking grasp on the gun.

Magical Lineage and Reach Spell to make Shocking Grasp a short ranged touch attack. Cast it one round, then make a firearms attack the next. They're both ranged touch attacks, so they stack correct?


OK:

". As a swift action, he can sacrifice a spell and transform that energy into a weapon
bonus equal to the level of the spell sacrificed on a single barrel
of his firearm. With that weapon bonus the spellslinger can
apply any of the following to his arcane bond: enhancement
bonuses (up to +5) and dancing (snip long list)"

So if you sacrifice a level 1 spell, can you take something with a +1 value like Shock or Flaming, without a +1 enhancement value first? Getting +0 flaming bullets?

Or does a regular +1 enhancement need to be put on first, requiring 2nd level spells for a +1 Flaming or Shock effect on the gun?

Also, is there an official Spellslinger FAQ? I can't seem to find one anywhere.


Blade Tutor's Spirit says "Only penalties incurred by voluntary use of feats or maneuvers are reduced by this spell."

So it wouldn't work with Spellstrike, as that's not a feat or a maneuver?


OK, thanks. It looks like being a dex Magus will be pretty rough for the first two levels, using a rapier or something instead of the eventual scimitar and not doing much damage compared with the rest of the party.


I only play Pathfinder once in a while and often make a Magus, as it's a class unique to the game.

The last time I made one, it was right in the middle of the Slashing Grace errata, cutting off that method of having a character do dexterity damage, so Devish Dance and a scimitar is the only way to do it. But I'm also seeing talk that Dervish Dance might not work with spell combat either.

Is that the case? None of the build guides I've found are recent enough to address the issue.


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Relatively new to Pathfinder. I've made a few characters for play by post or chat-based games that ended as soon as they begun. The Magus has been suggested to me and it's a neat class, one with no direct equivalent in D&D, so I've given it a try a few times.

I just don't like the scimitar. It's a matter of preference, not a sort of look I like. Yet it's the only real option for a Magus to do dexterity-based damage. I discovered Slashing Grace and then Rapier's Grace which would allow for it, but one was changed to not work with Magus abilities, then the other was just this week, in the middle of my character generation efforts.

I don't understand why though. If you're going to allow one feat to give a class dexterity-based damage to the Magus, why not others? It's either balanced, or it's not. Why limit it to just one skill and feat combo? Is it the fact that a Magus will have to spend their level 3 feat on it, for balance reasons?

There's no particular link I can see thematically between the magus and using a scimitar, it's not addressed in any of the flavor text or class background. It seems so arbitrary. Was it just an oversight?