archaephyrryx's page

I suppose the main reason from my perspective that grappling is more difficult in Starfinder than in Pathfinder is that it is less useful in terms of the setting, both genre- and world-wise.

I can't help but think of the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones just shoots the guy who came up to him flourishing a sword very skillfully.

Combat in the Starfinder setting is considerably different from combat in the (standard) Pathfinder setting. Whereas in Pathfinder you might see a small battlefield consisting of a couple rear-line casters, supports, and ranged attackers with a couple of group melee skirmishes in between, most of the combat in Starfinder is focused on the "backline."

In Starfinder, in most situations, there are generally a great many alternatives to grappling in a given situation that would be equally or more reliable or useful. Literally every class has basic melee weapon, small arm, and light armor proficiency, and weapon specialization is handed out very early. Operative weapons are basically automatically free finesse weapons, and the range of small-arms means that you never really need to invest in extra proficiencies to ensure you have level-appropriate damage options every level, modulo how much money you have on hand. The prevalence of ranged weapons means that unless you are building exclusively towards close-range combat domination, combat maneuvers aren't useful for everyone since most fighting takes place at range rather than in close-quarters. That isn't to say grappling doesn't have its uses, but it isn't as flexible an option in the Starfinder setting as it is in Pathfinder (since there are far fewer martial options, no real benefit to grappling spellcasters without somatic components, and a higher chance of just getting shot at while grappling), there may very well be better feats to take than Improved Combat Maneuver (Grappling).

Basically, my take is that if grappling were easier to do, more people would be tempted to do it, and the fact that it is more niche than in Pathfinder due to setting constraints means that the payoff would be minimal in general.

There is specific text in the CRB that implies this applies to partial-damage effects as well:

Tech Countermeasures (Su): As a move action, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to make it more difficult for enemies to target you with technological weapons for 1 round. Until the start of your next turn, as a reaction just before an enemy attacks you with a technological weapon, you can force that enemy to roll the attack twice and take the lower result; if the weapon allows a Reflex save instead of requiring an attack roll, you instead gain the benefit of evasion (as the operative’s class feature; see page 93) against the attack. This magic hack has no effect on spells that target you or on weapons or attacks that are not technological in nature.

I would therefore take Starfinder's Operative Evasion feature to be an empowered analogue of Pathfinder's Monk Evasion feature, that extends not only to half- or reduced-damage, but also less severe conditions applied on a successful save. Therefore, a character with Evasion would treat all effects that grant a Reflex save to reduce severity as if they had no effect on a successful save. This includes things like half-damage from grenades, a Solarian's Supernova or Stellar Rush, Shock Grids, Dragon Glands, and spells such as Arcing Surge, and so forth; as well as non-damage partial effects like those of spells including Cosmic Eddy.

As an update, I believe that "gas" refers to things like clouds of toxic gas, not attacks that are mediated or consist of gaseous forms. So only lasers and toxic smoke bypass the forcefield.

There is also the case of exocortex mechanics, who start out with a free Skill Focus feat they can move around every level. If you wanted to be ahead of the curve on either Computers or Engineering, you could put this skill focus into one or the other (not stacking with Bypass) and move it around once you decide your Bypass bonus gets you far enough. There is also the Mechanic Trick "Visual Data Processor" that allows you to apply your Bypass bonus to Perception as well. So far playing an Exocortex mechanic has been incredibly rewarding, since aside from mechanic tricks you get to respec your class features (skill focus and exocortex mods) every level in case something starts to fall off or something else becomes better or more useful given the scenarios you are encountering.

I have a couple of questions about the force field armor upgrade. According to the description it blocks solids and liquids but not gases or light (including laser beams).

1) Does this mean that cryo guns ignore the force field, since they are described as generating blasts of supercooled gas? If so, what about flame or plasma weapons?

2) It also says 'You can breathe while the field is active, but you can’t eat or drink.' Does this mean it also blocks your own weapons? If lasers are the only thing it lists as as not being blocked, does that also mean your character HAS to use laser weapons if he/she wants to attack with the force field active?

As to your other question, I would say that the force field is polarized and only blocks incoming attacks, not outgoing attacks.

I have a couple of questions about the force field armor upgrade. According to the description it blocks solids and liquids but not gases or light (including laser beams).

1) Does this mean that cryo guns ignore the force field, since they are described as generating blasts of supercooled gas? If so, what about flame or plasma weapons?

2) It also says 'You can breathe while the field is active, but you can’t eat or drink.' Does this mean it also blocks your own weapons? If lasers are the only thing it lists as as not being blocked, does that also mean your character HAS to use laser weapons if he/she wants to attack with the force field active?

Cryo weapons fire blasts of gas according to both common-sense and the RAW, so I would say that they would bypass the Force Field as stated in the CRB RAW. Plasma I would definitely say bypasses force fields, as it is explicitly stated as being a gas (also physics).

I would say that without a doubt Sonic and Shock blasts also bypass the field, as they are neither solid nor liquid particles or projectiles.

Then again, I am not sure to what degree the weapon type descriptions are meant to be treated as flavor text and to what extent they provide concrete information about the weapons they pertain to.

In light of that, I would say that sonic, shock, plasma, and laser weapons are the only ones that bypass shields, as it seems like having a shield that only blocks kinetic and acid damage is a bit useless. Hopefully when the Armory is released there will be more concrete information to address this question.

I have a rules question regarding the specifics of the Fortification that is provided by the Force Field armor upgrades in the CRB equipment section. Specifically, if I am wearing armor with a Prismatic Force Field installed (100% fortification) that is turned on, and an enemy rolls a natural 20 on an attack with a laser weapon, with a high enough attack bonus to overcome my AC, does fortification prevent that attack from being treated as a critical hit?

The specific wordings that make this ambiguous are as follows:

Regarding fortification,

More powerful force fields also have a fortification ability, which gives a percentage chance that a critical hit is treated as a normal attack, dealing normal damage and not applying any critical effect. You roll your fortification percentage chance before the critical hit’s damage is rolled.

and regarding laser weapons,

The force field blocks solids and liquids but not gases or light (including laser beams)

(source: CRB)

This means that laser weapons bypass the force field's temporary HP, but are they subject to the chance for turning critical attacks into normal attacks that fortification provides?

You're not a full-time wage worker, you're a part-timer.

Even if you were full-time, and accounted for all of the costs and benefits that, as previous posters have suggested, factor into these net gains (be glad we don't have to calculate rent or taxes), it shouldn't get you as much net worth as smuggling contraband through the Azlanti Empire or plundering the ancient technology of lost moon. If it did, why wouldn't PCs just sit and do that?

Aren't those respectively Profession (smuggler) and Profession (archaeologist)?

If the items are non-magical, is there any way for a merchant to tell whether the diamond he is looking at will go away in 130 minutes, or whether it is non-ephemeral?

I recently looked over the full spell description for the T4-T5 spell 'Creation', listed in the CRB.

You create a nonmagical, nontechnological, unattended object of nonliving matter. The volume of the item created can’t exceed 1 cubic foot (or 1 bulk) per caster level. You must succeed at an appropriate Engineering or Profession check to make a complex item, and you can’t create a consumable item.

4th: When you cast creation as a 4th-level spell, it creates an object made out of vegetable matter (such as wood) that has an item level no greater than one-third your caster level. The duration is 1 hour per caster level.

5th: When you cast creation as a 5th-level spell, it creates an object made out of vegetable matter or material of a mineral nature: crystal, metal, stone, or the like. The object can’t have an item level greater than half your caster level. The duration depends on the hardness and rarity of the created object, as indicated on the following table. (...)

I am somewhat confused over exactly what is signified by the "duration" of the spell. The "Spell Description Format" explains duration but does not mention what exactly it signifies for spells whose effects bring objects into existence. My instinct would be that the 'duration' of the spell's effect indicates either

1) How long the creation process takes after the spell is fully cast (which doesn't really make sense based on the numbers provided)

or

2) How long the object *lasts*

My suspicion is that it is the latter, but if that is the case, I am somewhat confused as to why this spell description even bothers listing precious metals as an option, given the fact that they last only one round per caster level. If your character is in a position to use a full minute to cast the spell itself, then it is highly unlikely that tactical time intervals are being used, and it would vanish somewhere between 1 and 2 minutes afterwards (since the first level a technomancer can cast a 5th level spell at is 13, excepting the use of spell gems).

Am I correct in assuming that the items somehow "expire" after a given amount of time? If so, what exactly does that entail, and why would this spell be used to create anything that is going to wink out of existence in a matter of minutes? If if is not the case, what exactly does "duration" indicate for this particular spell?

You might want to check out the Nightarch Needler from the Pact Worlds expansion.

I recently took a look at the "Earn a Living" section of the Profession skill in Starfinder.

> You can use Profession to earn money. A single check generally represents a week of work, and you earn a number of credits equal to double your Profession skill check result.

Let's take a look at this.

The highest possible skill check modifier for Profession at character level 1 (without purchases) is +11 (1 rank + 3 (skill focus) + 3 class skill bonus + 4 for ability score of 18). This means that you can earn an amount of credits per week equal to 2x(1d20 + 11) = ~44 credits on average, with a minimum of 24 and a maximum of 62.

In comparison, for a level 20 operative who fully invests their skill ranks and ability increases towards a profession stat, and who purchases a Mk 3 personal upgrade for that stat, the best you can get for skill check modifier is +38 (20 rank + 6 operative edge + 3 class skill bonus + 6 for pre-upgrade ability score of 22 + 3 for +6 from personal upgrade), which only means that you earn 2x(1d20 + 38) = ~96 credits on average, with a minimum of 78 and a maximum of 116.

This basically means that a level 20 professional in a trade earns only twice (or so) as many credits per week as a complete rookie, despite reaching level 20 (which is normally very very hard in in-world terms).

Does anyone else think that this is somewhat odd, and is too low for higher level characters?

Thanks for providing this amazing work for folks like us to make use of. I have hacked together a flimsy calculator spreadsheet for tracking my character inventory, and it isn't nearly as polished as yours is (it doesn't have any preloaded item info but it has a lot of nuts and bolts calculation and needlessly complex graphs), but it has done the job for a while now and can track an arbitrary number of items since it doesn't do any kind of pretty-printing. One feature that I have been unable to find in any starfinder equipment calculator sheet (or character sheet that includes equipment details) is marking certain items as not counting towards bulk limit due to being stored in a location, not carried (such as a spy drone which can hover instead of needing to be shoved in a backpack), or stored inside a Null-Space Chamber or Glove of Storing and therefore having no effective bulk against carry limits. Do you have any plans for implementing this type of metadata into this spreadsheet in the foreseeable future?

So, under the monk unarmed strike it states "A monk's unarmed strike is treated as both a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons."

I had assumed this to mean that a monk could enchant his unarmed attacks the same way a fighter might enchant his longsword. Does anyone know if a dev or someone like JJ has weighed in on this? It can make a fairly substantial difference in the Monk's ability to stay on track for accuracy and such compared to other melee classes.

As a note, I know it seems a little ridiculous on the surface, but I always pictured it as intricate tattooing or magical energy being infused directly into the monk's ki.

Not sure that this is necessarily what you were looking for, but if you don't have any access to the Magic Fang spell, the spell Magic Weapon (which has a much wider range of caster classes) specifically says that it can be used on monk's unarmed strikes. No material components means there isn't a cost besides the spell-slot itself, but it can't be made permanent as Magic Fang and still lasts only 1 minute/level.