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Shield bash is listed in the weapons, don't see why you couldn't. It's not agile, but it doesn't have to be
Kernal, Ready is still a thing.
If you have a multiple attack penalty and your readied action is an attack action, your readied attack takes the multiple attack penalty you had at the time you used Ready. This is one of the few times the multiple attack penalty applies when it’s not your turn.
Let's assume a 1st level wizard, so the DCs are 17 (3 proficiency and 4 Int).
Goblin pox says:
So stage 1 they're sickened 1 and make another save after a round. If they succeed they are cured, if they fail they go to stage 2. After a round at stage 2, they roll a save and either go back to 1 or go to three, depending on the success of the save.
Nonlethal only matters if it's the last hit
Yeah, the AC isn't super hard, but every attack on it is an attack that isn't on a PC
I took it as less, "we kept nothing" and more as "we asked ourselves if it was worth keeping?" Large parts of the casting system are quite different.
Go watch Tower of Druaga. The main wizardy character on it has a literal golf bag of wands, and even swings them like a golf club. It's hilarious
I think there's a reason detect alignment is an uncommon spell, because of players constantly spamming it on everything in sight. Yeah, it was a fairly major class ability that was kinda supposed to be spammed, being at will and all, but it got old
Heck, slap mage armor on a wand and laugh. Never need to cast that more than once anyways
Wands = useless, I mean, c'mon, ONE casting a day then maybe, MAYBE, a second use then destroyed or broken. What's the point of even having one? Spellstaffs are really limited but at least they have some flexibility in casting charges which are good in a pinch. Look at how many spell slots you get. One extra casting of a crux spell, or a utility spell that you dont necessarily want to prepare is great.
well I'm excited to hop back into PFS after a long hiatus due to a whole bunch of stuff. And a brand new edition to rack up cool stuff in!
I think Medical Expert isn't there to let you treat deadly wounds with a medpatch, but instead to treat deadly wounds faster if you use a medpatch in conjunction with your normal medkit.
How do crits work on turret weapons? The book says that turrets count as being in every weapon arc, and when the weapons take a crit you randomly determine an arc that has weapons in it to be affected. So does a ship with a front weapon, rear weapon, and turret have 4 arcs that can be critted since the turret is in every arc, or does it only have the front and rear and the turret just shared the crits. And if an arc is Malfunctioning and the turret fires to a different arc, does the turret still take the penalty? How do crits on weapons stack? Do I roll a different arc each time? That sounds like the right way to me, but it does make the weapons difficult to wreck.
Actually two large races are in First Contact. Sarcesians are large as well.
The flat footed condition only applies to your next attack, i.e. the one you're making for the Trick Attack. Without some of the later class abilities, you're the only one who benefits from the flat-footed condition. Miss the skill check, you still make the attack, just without the extra damage and condition. Make the skill check, you then get to make your attack against their AC-2. Make the skill check but miss the attack roll, nothing happens.
And are you really complaining that Starfinder comms are basically modern smartphones?
Although another weird thing I found is rereading the Radiation Revelation. Even though it talks about low-level radiation, I'm pretty convinced that it isn't actually a radiation effect. The DCs aren't the comparable, the effect never actually references the radiation rules, and it doesn't do the same thing as actual radiation. I'm thinking it just gives you an aura that sickens people, unless they're immune to poison. No interaction with armor, or other rad fields, or anything. Just exactly what the ability says.
Seriously, Solarians maybe having 1 less Resolve than a Soldier hardly cripples them. At least they get Perception as a class skill. Speaking of which, I agree that the more annoying issue is their skills. They get the bonus 2 class skills, but probably won't ever use them! Tarik, did you miss that Hypnotic Glow's attuned effect is command? Letting you disarm or remove them from the fight.
Yep, deliberate choice by the devs. Note how the weapons scale in damage, it's especially noticeable on the Solarian's Solar Weapon. Slow increases until level 8-10, then rapid increases every level. Trick Attack follows a similar pattern. Slow gains early on, and the average damage is reduced by the occasional failure. Starting at mid-levels it takes off once you can't fail anymore. The devs are even on record stating that you should auto-succeed about this point.
And how many people get a job they're crap at? Even a level 1 NPC will have a 12-14 in some thing.
Sleight of Hand Trick Attacks could be Revolver Ocelot style gun twirling. I don't plan on making any players justify their Trick Attack choices beyond what the rules demand, like the Hacker's requirement to have some sort of computer nearby. If they pass the skill check, their character succeeded at whatever their Trick was. I'd hope they have some fluffy description, but I don't feel the need to penalise them if it is just 'I hide my gun again.'
I'm going to say no, because what stops you from wearing 10 suits of second skin? More seriously, the armor upgrades are written to be limited, and I hesitate to mess with that.
What exactly is the effect of the Starfinder Insignia boon from Into The Unknown? Spoiler: It says it can store as much data as a tier-1 datapad, however storage capacities aren't defined for computers. Is it just able to hold files of an undefined amount and be really small and hidden?
So the computer section is cool, if a bit obtuse, and I think will work out pretty well. What doesn't help keep it clear is the lack of sample computers! I know, word count, blah blah blah. So let's get some made to help out. Computerised machine gun turret, tier-2, 2,704 credits, 6 bulk
Robo-doc, tier-3 , 9,075 credits, 59 Bulk
Drone remote, tier-1, 5,123 cr, L bulk
Secure datapad, tier-2, 760 cr, L bulk
Automated cargo lifter, tier-1, 3,845 cr, 35 bulk
Page 21, leveling up ability scores.
20 ranks +3 class +14 Int =37 +3 Skill Focus +10 for having a password and security key = 50 A tier 10 computer is also massive, 100 Bulk is something approaching 1,000 pounds. Like the description of tier says, a tier 10 computer is going to be running a space station or interplanetary database, not something you'll be hacking regularly, even at level 20. When you need to hack one, it should be more than just rolling a d20. Find a key card, hack some dude's email to get his password, etc.
Operatives get Trick Attack, which should be going off 50% of the time or so. Solarians and Soldiers have a better BAB and can full attack for higher damage. Mechanics get two attacks a round with no penalty if they have a drone, or have full BAB and longarms and should be close behind. That leaves Mystics and Envoys, neither of which are primary damage classes. The Technomancer who spams jolting surge four times in the first encounter is going to feel bad when everyone else tops off their Stamina and keeps going. Reports I've seen place combat at about 25% longer than Pathdinder, so 4-5 rounds. Assuming 3- 4 encounters per day, and aid the spell lands 60-70% of the time it looks a lot less impressive.
Just because I'm on a math kick, let's run a scenario more in the doshko's favor. We'll assume that every other round you need to move to a new enemy, so round 1 will be a standard attack and round 2 will be a full/standard attack. This is more in the doshko's favor since it's damage doesn't go down while moving. Wrack devastation blade, average 9+12
The advanced doshko will do 32.5 damage over those same two rounds. The ultrathin curve blade will do 56.95 damage over those two rounds, while the ultrathin doshko will do 55.9. The apocalypse devastation blade will do 139.4 damage, while the dimensional blade doshko will do 146.25. As we can see, the inflection point is 1 full attack every 2 rounds. If you can get that many or more, the non-Unwieldy weapons come out on top. If you are only getting 1 full attack every 3 rounds or less, Unwieldy begins to shine.
I'm curious, what sort of damage can you expect with Unwieldy versus a full attack. We'll take a level 7 soldier, and compare the wrack devastation blade (2d8) to the advanced doshko (2d12). Both weapons are level 7 and have no other abilities to influence the math. We'll assume that the soldier has a hit chance of 60% without full attacking, and has a +5 Str bonus (16 at creation, 5th level boost, mk I personal upgrade). Wrack devastation blade, average 9+12
Advanced doshko, average 13+12
And at level 11 when Soldier's Onslaught comes online, using an ultrathin doshko (4d12) and an ultrathin curve blade (3d10). The soldier will now have a mk II personal upgrade for a +6 Str bonus, still with a 60% hit chance base. Ultrathin curve blade, average 16.5+17
Ultrathin doshko, average 26+17
And finally at level 20, with an apocalypse devastation blade (12d8) versus a dimensional blade doshko (13d12). Our soldier now has a +8 Str bonus. Apocalypse devastation blade, average 54+28
Dimensional blade doshko, average 84.5+28
However, since the doshko wielder isn't taking an accuracy hit, they might want Deadly Aim. Advanced Doshko, average 13+12+3
Ultrathin doshko, average 26+17+5
Dimensional blade doshko, average 84.5+28+10
Wow. Deadly Aim sucks. Other than that, the Unwieldy weapon is about 80-85% of the blade. This also assumes that you can full attack every round. If you need to close to melee, the Unwieldy weapon looks better.
Just pointing out it doesn't really state how long it stays on. Armor upgrades have a usage based on activation or duration, and neither shield specifies a duration.
A 7 cr comm unit is just a tier 0 computer. No modules or options besides cell phone stuff. Pretty sure the line about being a tier 0 computer is in case you need to hack it. A comm can be turned into a real computer by spending 110% of the price of the computer. So the breakdown is:
Total: 117 cr. User interfaces are the actual seats, monitors, and input devices for the computer. Your phone will have one, generally just big mainframes or desktops will worry about interfaces.
It definitely isn't something to use on just a couple of enemies. It might be worth having the option just in case you run into a horde of space goblins.
I actually think it makes the problem of choosing the right race for a class far worse than in Pathfinder. At least in Pathfinder you could dump a stat so that you could have a high primary stat even if you took a racial penalty to it and still have decent scores in other stats. With the removal of dump stats in point-buy, you'll pretty much always be significantly less effective as a race with a stat penalty to their class stat.How? I mean, it does restrict your decision making ability, but we've already shown how you can make a decent character even with a racial penalty working against you. Uhh, you don't end up with a 16, 12, and all 10s. You have 12 Str, 10 Dex, 12 Con, 16 Int, 10 Wis, 10 Cha, and 2 points left over. Say we put them in Dex for the AC. So vesk technomancer: 12 Str, 12 Dex, 12 Con, 16 Int, 10 Wis, 10 Cha (total bonuses: +6)
Now take them to level 5
The CRB also agrees. You enter a mode when combat starts, and both photon and graviton state that you gain 1 attunement when you enter them. So it's correctly:
Make their cellphone ring, set off an alarm, make a billboard shout their name, load weird vesk memes onto their cybereye, make the ammo readout on their gun say 80085, make a hologram appear in their peripheral vision, play dubstep through their earpiece, call their mom from their phone, make their prosthetics tickle, shine a spotlight in their face, delete their Shirren Smash Saga high score, give their phone number to Eoxian spammers ("Sell your body for credits! Our operators don't need to sleep, so call now!"), if they're an android you could make them drop their guard.
They also have access to a few 9th level spells from their capstone abilities. I like the way it's set up.
An Ace Pilot might want a Starstone compass (level 1, 3 cr L). It tells you what direction Absalom Station is and gives a +2 insight bonus to astrogation while in the Pact Worlds. Not the most massive bonus, but it's cheap.
I'm not a fan, they took something alien and made it more human. Yeah, cause all the human kids I grew up with eventually diverged into two distinct phenotypes based on personal choices. Definitely a human trait there.
Yeah, they've gone out of their way to make sure there aren't any gender roles, stereotypes, etc. in their games. Not even in aliens. Gender differences are effectively meaningless in all species now. Honestly, that makes aliens a lot more boring to me, when they're just humans with antennae or four arms or whatever. I'd like some that showed meaningful, stats-level sexual dimorphism (not just "males have beards/different colored hair/etc"), or had different sorts of life cycles, or something to make them something besides an RPG version of rubber forehead aliens. But c'est la vie. Exactly. Rubber forehead aliens are aliens that are basically people with some make up on, maybe with some elements of an 'exotic' historical culture, like klingons and the sort of samurai Japanese honor shtick. Starfinder aliens are pretty far from just rubber foreheads, kasatha have extra limbs and are very culturally different, ysoki are ratpeople, shirren are three-sexed bug people, and androids are functionally immortal.
Nobody's said you can't make every female Lashunta you play damaya and every male one korasha. If you still like the gender-based breakdown you can do it that way. Anyways there's a post on an earlier version of this that goes over the in-universe explanation. Basically the phenotype is environmentally determined, and historical Lashunta society was fairly heavy on gender roles. Most males were exposed to environments that triggered the korasha expression, while females were in roles that triggered damaya. Modern, Starfinder-era Lashunta society is less rigid, and hormone treatments are available to ensure individuals can choose which phenotype they will express. It's still really unique and nifty.
Oh no, I agree there's uses for it. Maybe situational, and you won't use them every chance you get, but I think I'll be ok with that. I think a lot of the use will come down to encounter design. If the GM is good about giving varied encounters and not just set piece battles, everything gets a lot more attractive.
It's not. Try it out before writing off a class based on less than a week of theorycrafting.
Aren't most of the size rules gone? Weapons don't change damage for different sizes, and I think there were two large playable races from First Contact, so they don't think they are concerned about sizes being imbalanced.
The stat items in Pathfinder weren't a choice, you either bought them or fell way behind. CRs were written assuming certain stats on the players' end, and the only way to get those stats was the belts/headbands. Find a neat cloak? Forget it, the cloak of resistance +x is all you need. Limiting the number of personal upgrades to 3 and making them slotless is what allows choices. Now you can keep up with the assumed stats and get the stuff that does something cool.
After a few hours the only class that still felt combat-weak in practice was our envoy, but she more-than pulled her weight (her negligible halfling weight, but still) out-of-combat (and in skill-based in-combat matters). After she was able to distract some guards long enough for us to stow away on a ship we were robbing, get herself onboard as the elven prince's guest of honor, then spent the whole robbery standing smugly among the enemy on their own bridge and manipulating them into making the worst tactical decisions they could make against the rest of us until it was time for her to get "taken hostage" by us and ensure our clean getaway, during which she assumed a natural captain roll and easily aided every one of our pilot and science officer's checks that she tried to aid... That. Sounds. Awesome!
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