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When you take the attack or full attack action with weapons (including a Solarian’s Solar Manifestation, but not Spells or other special abilities of any kind), you can take a –2 penalty to your attack rolls. If you do, those attacks deal additional damage equal to half your base attack bonus (minimum 1).

Since you can give enemies feats as per the AA creation rules, I was wondering how this would be calculated. Because with RAW, giving a CR 6 combatant +8 to to damage for a -2 feels a bit... strong.

I personally would house rule it to their half CR instead to make the feat function on a power level closer to what the players get since their BAB is their close to their level anyways.

To help myself keep track of whose who, and where they are in combat at my table, I have made colorized versions of the official paizo character sheet, along with initiative trackers that you can fold in half and place on top of your GM screen.

Color Coded Character Sheets And Initiative Trackers

Example Image

The character sheets come in 8 colors (Not counting the blue vanilla character sheet and greyscale), making for 10 total colors.

I figured I would post them here if anyone else finds them useful.

So far my experience in this game has been pure monoclassing. How well does multiclassing play out in this game, as I have many questions about it.

1) When multi classing how do you split it? Do you go evenly, or is it more dominant/side class. E.G so-and-so has solarion 5 and picked up soldier 1 for that blitz bonus?

2) Any special notes on class match-ups? E.G like types only, such as combat with combat (Like the soldier solarion above) and support with support (like a technomancer mechanic), or can you mix and match anything?

So when it comes to weapons with mixed damage types such as an accelerated star knife that does Fire and Piercing, what happens when the weapon hits a target with DR or energy resistance, but not both?

One might wonder, with all of the inhabited planets in the pactworlds system, one might think it's unrealistic. Short answer: Yes, but not nearly as bad as you might think. So far, I've only done the rudimentary math, namely just figuring out their semi major axis to see where they would be spaced out in the system. All values are assuming the sun is equivalent to the earth's sun, and that the days and years are in reference to earth.

All of my equations were taken from Artifexians worldbuilding videos.
Classical Planetary Systems
Orbits For Earth-like Planets

Sun
Class: G
Mass: 1
Habitable Zone (I): 0.95 AU
Habitable Zone (O): 1.37 AU
Inner limit: 0.01 AU (planets will break apart if any closer)
Outer limit: 40 AU (anything outside this boundry would be considered a trans neptunian object, which are typically asteroids and dwarf planets)
Frost line: 4.85 AU (Distance where volatile compounds such as H20, NH3, CO2, & CH4 become solid ice. Gas giants are typically formed out +1 AU from this line)

I have not calculated them yet, so all of these numbers are assuming 0 eccentricity and inclination. Which isn't that bad since only one or two planets even bother to mention those. And, artificial structures such as Absalom station and the Idari are omitted as well as the diaspora since they are not planets. I've extrapolated their worlds distances from the sun based on their orbital periods.

1.0 = 1 AU

Aballon: 0.044 AU - Outside sun's Roche limit. Good. World is appropriately mercury-like and features artificial habitability or robotic lifeforms. Totally works.
Castrovel: 0.645 AU - Too far inside sun's habitable zone. Oceans would have boiled away and become Venus-like or barren.
Akiton: 1.59 AU - Planet is just outside the HZ, but unlike castrovel, it's not by as much, and we got some room for bullcrapping here. It's dark appearance and lack of oceans gives it a low albedo and industrialization means it could have a fair amount of greenhouse gasses in it's atmosphere, making it a good enough heat absorber to just barely be habitable.
Verces: 2.09 AU - Well outside of the sun's HZ, and too far for conventional tidal locking. One could argue because it's tidally locked, it sun facing side should be heated up enough for habitability, but thanks to the inverse square law, Verces gets only ~23% of the light as earth (Absalom station) does. The backside could be cold enough that gases would freeze out of the atmosphere, and reduce the rest of the planet to a barren ice cube. Best case scenario is that is that convection currents keep the heat distributed just enough for dry ice snow and liquid methane rain like titan. (That kinda sounds like a way cooler planet TBH.)
Eox: 2.96 AU - Cold and (un)dead. Makes sense.
Triaxus: Screw Triaxus. It's eccentricity means it would spend the majority of it's time far outside the HZ. Life not possible, and probably screws over all of the other systems planetary orbits if it's not in resonance. That fact it's orbit is unnaturally slow just throws equations out the window.
Liavara: 5.25 AU - Gas giants outside the frost line. Good job. Have not done the research on moon probability. Only mess up here is that it's not the system's largest gas giant, but that's passable.
Bretheda: 9.7 AU - See above, bar last sentence.
Apostate: 39 AU - Barren, and it's wild inclination is justified since it's a captured dwarf planet.
Aucturn: 63 AU - "Planet" is supernatural in nature. No point in judging anything here.

Over all, the only major conflicts are Castrovel, Verces, and the affront on science; Triaxus. And the planets are far enough apart from another they would be in reasonably stable orbits. Except for Triaxus.

Pact Worlds: 7/10, would swarm again.

So, for one of my homebrew races, I was thinking of giving them a weakness to offset their strengths. While I know fire is one of the more common of the energy damage types, exactly how bad would having +50% additional damage and -4 to saves vs fire effects be?

So, as a new GM and relatively new player, I often forget a lot of the stuff you can do during your turn or what to keep track of during a game with all of the stuff going on. I am currently working on a little printable note card with check boxes that acts as a visual aid to help you keep track of stuff. What things you think I should add on there? Crude hand-drawn prototype.

Here is what I currently have planned:
Front side
-Your actions per turn are
-What your solarion attunement is

Back side
-What condition(s) you have

There's a creature on the tactical rules art page (236-237) in the CRB, and I'm super interested to know what it is if it'a not some kind of generic monster.

As a budding game master, I find the use of music and sound effects to be something that really enhances the experience. I currently use my phone and a portable speaker (phone speakers don't have enough power).

As for actual audio, I use assorted sci-fi music I put into a youtube playlist for combat and ambient music, and I use the sound effects from the fallout games as tones on my phone, using it as an impromptu sound board.

What does everyone else use? I hear syrinscape is popular.

So as an upcoming GM, I'm learning how to put together an one-shot "playtest" scenario to try things out. And well, I was wondering how do you structure a mission or adventure path? Not write, as I'm pretty good at coming up with ideas and writing them down, but the creation of the skeleton of an adventure that anyone can just pick up the note papers and run. I'd love to look at the incident at Absalom station booklet and model after that, but the GM said no because they don't want me to accidentally spoil myself of anything.

Now I know you need dialogue, skill checks, room maps, baddies to kill. etc... for an adventure. But my question is how do you assemble all those pieces together in an organized and coherent matter. Are there any free/open source adventures I can look at to see how they organize their stuff?

After a bit of discussion from another PC that is our group's min-maxer, I have been left with the distinct impression that DEX is the most important ability score for all the stuff that it does. Mainly, it adds to initiative and AC among other things. The best starting armor you can by is Freebooter I with +2/+3, and a dex of 18 more than doubles it to a total AC of +6/+7. Frankly, that is ridiculous. From a mechanical perspective, why would a combat character not have dex be their best score?

So, in a homebrew setting that is pretty much the starfinder 'verse with the Stellaris setting. I've added the notion of Elder empires, or empires that have developed their own FTL and were fully functional and highly advanced spacefaring civs prior to the gap. The the magical-plotty-mystery thing of the gap had caused them to collapse somewhat and are in varying stages of decay/recovery, and due to their isolationist behavior (mostly from trying to sustain themselves and thus ignoring the galaxy around them), most have fallen into obscurity or are unknown to most of the relatively young starfinder world until they announce themselves.

And if you know anything about fallen empires from stellaris, each personality has it's own berserk button. The elder empire I have in question is modeled after the fanatic xenophile one, thus are quite egalitarian, and view those that abuse their citizens quite poorly. They are gentle and generally peaceful with lofty ideals. However, their advanced age has diminished their naivete, and that they recognize that there are some threats words alone will not reach. And given the Azlanti's first contact policy, and infamous reputation, this elder empire recognized them as such very quickly when their diplomatic ship returned moderately damaged - not destroyed (due to this empire having great defense in their ship builds.) carrying tales of similar vessels.

In the following months the elder empire sent another vessel to deal with the Azlanti belligerents. However, things did not go the way they did the last time for the Azlanti, for the elder empire had shown that their ships poor offense and great defense was not a limitation of design, but of philosophy. And the Azlanti bore witness to what happens when this gentle giant decides to take off the kiddie gloves; for they had diverted the resources form their ringworld production to mass produce proper combat ships instead of their using their piddly civil defense ships.

Things went about as well for the Azlanti as it would for 1940's Germany if they were to somehow end up fighting the modern United States. Because for all intents and purposes, they were now facing down fleets of ships that outnumbered them in addition to having superior offense and defense against a nation that can outproduce them. Any stellaris players that have fought against an awakened empire knows this feeling very intimately.

After a couple of weeks, anywhere from 60-80% of Azlanti navy and naval infrastructure was destroyed or rendered non-functional, with a following invasion of the capital homeworld, that was more or less trounced like their navy. The ultimatum to their leader was quite simple; Reform their vile ideology and government and ban slavery, purging, etc... or lose their sovereignty entirely.

From the Azlanti's perspective, they were essentially invaded outside force that are now demanding that they change their way of life to something contrary to their air of human superiority - something they'd never EVER do, but their opponent is overwhelmingly strong and are pretty much at their total mercy. This could cause some brewing or deep seeded hatred to take root, but they can't act on it because if they do, they'll lose everything and they would be powerless to stop it. Would they cow to the elder empires's wishes, or would they kinda implode and attempt to fight to the bitter end. Not to mention, the elder empire would be seen as a huge liberator and hero against the Azlanti rule, a hero that shows that these foes CAN be beaten and overcome, and now is the time for payback against all those years of tyranny. So now there would also be civil unrest everywhere from the oppressed. And at that point, would the empire just outright collapse from internal rebellion now that the Azlanti no longer have the power to keep it together?

So we got a new player in my group, and they seem to really like hyper specializing their skittermander soldier character. Apparently with six azimuth laser pistols + fusillade results in 60 attacks, and our Gm was persuaded to allow it.

I'm kinda baffled on how can this happen, as this seems like crazy strong tactic, especially at level 2. Can someonw care to break this down for me?

Seems like with fusillade you keep attacking until your clip empties, and since you are treating the weapons as automatics, you expend 2 rounds per attack, so six laser pistons with 20 ammo each, result in 60 attacks.Is this really right? It's kinda bonkers if it is.

So it's reads as such:

Mass production has rendered this once-rare serum easy and inexpensive to obtain. Upon drinking this elixir, your biology instantly transforms to take on a set of sexual characteristics of your choice, changing both your appearance and physiology accordingly. You have some mild control over the details of this change, but you retain a strong “family resemblance” to your former appearance.

The elixir’s magic functions instantaneously and cannot be dispelled. Your new anatomy is as healthy and functional as your previous body’s, potentially allowing you to conceive, carry, or bear children (depending on your species’ biology). Drinking a second elixir of sex shift either reverts you back to a former form or allows you to adopt other sexual characteristics, as you choose. The elixir has no effect if you are unwilling, and the presence of certain sex-specific biological processes, such as gestation, may prevent this serum from taking effect.

So I have a couple of questions about this item, because the wording of it could result in some rather... interesting implications if one thinks about it too hard.

1) Since you adopt the set sexual characteristics of your choice, and does not specify the set having to be male OR female, does that mean a user could become a biological hermaphrodite?

2) Is it limited to the species genders limitations, or is there no restriction. Such as a vesk wanting to become a shirren host? Or a Ysoki wanting to have a marsupial anatomy so they have an extra pouch to use?

3) An... "Enhancement" bonus to charisma or profession courtesan if you catch my drift. (I'm sorry, but with at least two other "romantic" types in our playgroup, myself excluded, this would be a legitimate inquiry should they find out about this item.)

So as I learn more and more about the game from the SRD since my rule book I paid for still hasn't arrived yet at my LGS (Darn you CRB shortage), I'm starting to entertain the idea of practicing making NPC's. Given the parallels I already drew with the technomancer mechanic + drone basically being a an XCOM specialist, I figured why not make a sectopod?

Now for those of you who don't know what a sectopod is, well... just resd the tv tropes entry for it.
Lightning Bruiser: Sectopods are armed and armored to their non-existent teeth, get three actions per round, don't end their turn by firing, are not impeded in the slightest by terrain, buildings, or cover, and can assume a high-stance freely which gives them height-advantage bonuses with no downside. It's not hard to believe Shen when she says sectopods trounced Earth's own armored units in the first war.

Three actions! Though, in xcom the action economy is a bit different as moving counts as an action, so it's really (most of the time) one move and two actions. So for here, I was thinking of a template graft to make a sectopod here well... behave like one in the game. Thing is, the SRD doesn't give me any idea on how a graft modifies a creatures challenge rating, which I think is a bit silly, as grafts, especially this one can be game changers to the affected NPC.

Lightning Bruiser (CR+???)
Lightning Bruisers are creatures due to technological advancement, extreme prowess, or a true mental capacity to multitask, are able to preform more than one standard action in a round of combat.

Traits: Creature gains an additional standard action to perform each round and full attacks grant three attacks at a -4 penalty instead of two.

What are your thoughts on such a graft? And yes, even with what little I know, I can tell it's a very strong graft that should only probably be used for unique enemies or bosses. I just would like to know how strong it would be from people that know the game better than I do.

So, after a bit of a debate with my friend, there seems to be a lack of knowledge on engaging stations? Like how many Tyrants it would take to blow up Absalom station or what if the PC's attacked a station, etc... I'm guessing for plot and rules you aren't supposed to fight or destroy stations.I would chalk it up that single single ship or small squad would be irrelevant to the station, and probably be wasted pretty quick by it's defenses.

However one of the players really doesn't like things having "plot armor" and thinks everything should be fightable to a degree. I disagree, as I believe not every foe you encounter (or create) should be something you are able to engage in hostilities with and get away with it. Perhaps a compromise would be doing the x10 rule like PC's vs Starships? Or should I just keep them 'invincible' because anyone who attacks a station without an armada backing them up is on a suicide mission in my opinion.

After a bit of discourse with my GM, I was left with a lot questions when it comes starship combat. When engaged in starship combat, how much do you know about enemy ships?

Do you know how much HP their shields or hull have, what weapons they have, etc... or is it completely obscured?

I'm doing a bit of a homebrew setting with some Stellaris elements to it and in a bit of deja-vu I learned the shields do not regen during combat in this game too. And unlike stellaris, it does not appear there is anything you can fit to your ships to change that. So for particularly high end ships that can affront the associated costs, I made a homebrew shield regen item.

Shield Capacitors This expansion bay module draws excess power from the ships power core(s) and stores them in a power dynamo that can directly feed energy into the shields array without the rather... explosive risks of trying to hook up a power core directly to the shield generator. This bulky setup requires two expansion bays.

The cost and effectiveness of shield capacitors are directly linked to the model of shield generator they are supporting. Capacitors costs 2 PCU x shield PCU, and 1 BP x shield BP. Shields regenerate in combat equivalent to ½ their listed regeneration rate per round.

Example: A ship with medium shields 200 require 22 BP and 100 power for a capacitor, and it will regen 4 shields each round. A heavy shield 360 will require 28 BP and 160 power, and it will regenerate 16 per round.

As you can see, they aren't really that good anything below heavy shields, and the costs are a fair bit steep. Especially when you factor in that you are very likely spending even more for a power core housing + core to feed this thing. It might be a bit much, (and I might even take it a step further and make it like the EVE shield caps where it bloats your signature radius and thus take a penalty to TL). It's just that I want them to be something that can be useful - but only if you think about it carefully, and not something you just pick up as an automatic upgrade.

I'd love to know what you peeps think about it. Too expensive, or is it somehow too stronk as is?

I'm still pretty new to Starfinder, but that hasn't stopped my rather runaway imagination from spitting out ideas for when I am able to GM a game with my friends. One of which is adapting my Stellaris setting to my campaign. Now you might be asking, Stellaris does not really have any "defined" races as you make them yourself in the race editor. So a custom race of a custom race???

Sounds strange, but because of my imagination, I already came up with the lore of the races in my universe, so might as well transplant something I already did the worldbuilding for to this setting. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Though, the stats might be a bit off here. Sure, Stellaris has stat limitations too, but they are much more lax there as the focus there is to roleplay your race the way you want it to rather than rigid balance. So far I have two races on paper.

Brief Description: The Que'Pulci are a partially subterranean species that has managed to survive and thrive on their large, hot, arid planet with high gravity. They resemble a cross between upright humanoid porcupines with their long course hairs running down their backs, and moles with their sturdy arms and large hands armed with digging claws. Their figures are stocky and highly muscular, though not very defined; endomorphic in build. The lack of competition or natural predators has caused them to develop and peaceful demeanor that is further exemplified by the wisdom granted by their venerable lifespan. The labors of being a subterranean species in addition to their stocky builds and high gravity has afforded them a great deal of physical strength to use in the rare event that they are angered.

Que'Pulci 6 HP
Racial Traits:
+2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Dex

Size and Type Que'Pulci are medium sized humanoids with the Que'Pulci Subtype
Harsh Environment Acclimation Que Pulci are completely unaffected by high gravity (up to 1.6 g) and receive a +2 strength bonus when in earth-like gravity, and a max of +4 in low gravity. They also receive +2 to saves vs heat effects.
Venerable Age Que'Pulci receive a +2 racial bonus to Culture, Diplomacy, and Sense Motive checks.
Overwhelming Strength Their unarmed strikes do not count as archaic damage and to same sized targets or smaller, they can stagger or even knock them prone. Stagger: Melee attack roll exceeds target's KAC +(insert number here, I was thinking 8) Prone: exceeds target's KAC + (insert number here, I was thinking 13) small creatures receive a -2 penalty and so on for these conditions. Que'Pulci at 3rd level can choose to drop their restraints and gain Natural Weapons.
Low Light Vision Que'Pulci can see in dim light as if it were normal light.

Vital Attributes
Height range: 6'7 to 8'
Weight range: 325-475 lbs (in 1g)
Average lifespan: 370 years/Maturity 20 years

I can already tell that Overwhelming Strength is the one that's the problem trait, but I'm not sure how to fix it while keeping the spirit of the attribute. After all, these are mole people who are built like the wrestler Big Show acclimated to high gravity for whom's evolutionary history was pretty much arm day all day every day. If one were to punch you at full force, this is the realistic outcome.

In any case, if the trait has to be revamped, their punches should be hard to consider non-lethal and hard take one without getting the wind knocked out of you.

However, there are two things that I can see as power checks if I were to use as-is.
1) I specified unarmed damage. So, if a player want to utilize the effect, they are going to have to go bare-fisted monk.
2) Que'Pulci ideologically are peaceful and see violence as a last resort in most situations. As the GM of this setting, someone "playing against type" for the stats of a good brawler can find themselves experiencing "complications" for defying their race's carefully cultivated reputation of peaceable aristocrats. Thus, leaving things a little janky might actually make things more interesting.

Also, if you wondering about the second race, I have a feeling they aren't the ones to worry about mechanically. The short version is the they are an uplifted pre-saipent opossum-like creatures (hence the massive Int penalty) that are (happily) subservient to the Que'Pulci.

Mekkanassi 4 HP
Racial Traits:
+2 Con, +2 Dex, -6 Int

Size and Type Mekkanassi are small sized humanoids with the Mekkanassi Subtype
Harsh Environment Acclimation Mekkanassi are completely unaffected by high gravity (up to 1.6 g) and receive a +1 strength bonus when in earth-like gravity, and a max of +2 in low gravity. Their strength gains aren't as great as the Que'Pulci due to lack of initial muscle mass. They also receive +2 to saves vs heat effects.
Chemical Uplifting Mekkanassi are able to use a special drug provided by their caretakers that gives them a +4 Int bonus for three days, and only suffer relatively benign withdrawal effects of -1 to Cha and Dex for one week after two days without the use of the drug. Other species using the drug will find the withdrawal effects much more severe (-4 penalties for five weeks). The drug while legal in itself, it is illegal for non-Mekkanassi to consume.
Trained Caste Mekkanassi grow up being trained into a specific set of skills to perform for their caretakers, choose one racial bonus: Chauffeur: +2 to Piloting. Courtesan: +2 to Culture. Entertainer: +2 to Acrobatics. Technician: +2 to Engineering. Nurse: +2 to Medicine.
Stubborn Loyalty Despite being a subservient species, they are fiercely loyal to their caretakers and the embrace role they fill in society. They detest being persuaded from their line of thinking. +2 bonus to will saves.

Vital Attributes
Height range: 3' to 4'
Weight range: 75-120 lbs (in 1g)
Average lifespan: 75 years/Maturity 12 years