Heiracosphinx

gyrfalcon's page

1,406 posts (10,837 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 50 aliases.




1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'm looking to play in my first Starfinders game, and am delighted by the variety of races available. My inclination is to play a Raxilite Biohacker. I'm very familiar with Pathfinder but just starting to learn about Starfinder.

Raxilites are Tiny, but their LFAN counts as a single Medium sized arm (in addition to my two Tiny arms). I see that Tiny doesn't change To Hit, Damage Dice, AC, Stealth. What it does do is:
* Help with getting into small spaces, and perhaps give better cover options (sounds somewhat helpful),
* Eliminate my reach (not a biggie for a ranged character) and
* Require me to buy Tiny weapons--which cost 2x as much as Small/Medium/Large/Huge weapons, as per:

Quote:
Weapons are built to be easily held and used by both Small and Medium creatures. Weapons can be built for use by smaller creatures but generally cost twice as much (since they require special miniaturization technology).

In practice, I assume that means over time I'll choose between:

1) Using a (Medium-sized) Small Arm, or
2) Paying 2x for a (Tiny) rifle

It's fine if my character idea isn't totally optimized...but I'm a bit nervous that I don't know just how big a disadvantage this will be over time. (How do Small Arms compare over time with sniper and longarms? How big a hit to Wealth By Level to pay 2x for any longarm or sniper rifle? Are there significant advantages I'm missing to being Tiny in Starfinder, that might make up for the penalties?)

Thanks!


7 people marked this as FAQ candidate. 1 person marked this as a favorite.

I have a question about the Hunter's Forester archetype. The archetype replaces the Hunter's companion with Favored Terrain. On the one hand, the wording's fairly clear: it says "She gains her first favored terrain at 5th level." but I wonder if that's a typo, given a few oddities:

1) It's listed above the second level ability (where 1st level abilities would tend to be listed)
2) It replaces a (major) 1st level ability but, as written, doesn't provide any benefit until 5th level (which seems unusual for archetypes).
3) It has a second part (damage bonus) that it calls out as starting at 5th level, even though the ability as a whole also starts at 5th level.

Those together make me wonder if it got messed up along the way, and was supposed to read more like:

Favored Terrain wrote:

A forester gains the ranger’s favored terrain ability. She gains her first favored terrain at 5th 1st level and a new favored terrain every 4 levels thereafter. In addition, at each such interval, the bonuses on initiative checks and skill checks in one favored terrain (including the one just selected, if so desired) increase by 2. Starting at 5th level, a forester adds half her favored terrain bonus on damage rolls while in her favored terrain and fighting a creature native to that terrain.

This replaces animal companion.

Thanks!


I've been reading and loving Margerie Liu's Monstress and it's got me thinking about a character with a hungry monster inside her.

Some options I've considered:
- Warder (Fiendbound Marauder) is 3rd party (Dreamscarred Press) but seems like a great way to capture someone who partially transforms into a dangerous monster.
- Spiritualist (Exciter) or Bloodrager seem like reasonable Paizo options for modeling someone with a beast within her as well.
- Inquisitor (Sin Eater) seems like a reasonable way to mechanically benefit from devouring one's foes.
- Vigilante gives the ability to have dual alignments.

What I'm looking for: is there anything (class feature? drawback? something else?) that simulates a need or desire to kill? I like the idea of a tension between a monster inside that just wants to eat vs character who's morally opposed to that monstrous urge. It's possible to just RP it without any mechanics...but are there other mechanics you think might fit it?

At this point, I'm playing with an idea rather than making a character for a specific game (so don't have any specific build/level/Paizo-only requirement).

Given all that, what options would you consider? (Let me know if this needs clarification as well.)

Thanks!


Hey there. I'm building a 2nd level Warder with a 15pt buy. I see the recc in Elric's guide to put CON and INT first, followed by STR. I am willing to dump CHA below 10 but really reluctant to do so with WIS or DEX. We'll do max HP at 1st, 1/2+1 after that, so at 2nd he'd have 12+7+CON+fcb. With a +2 from CON he'd have 31 HP (or 33, with fcb).

I'm leaning toward either
STR: 14(16) DEX: 9 CON: 14 INT: 16 WIS: 10 CHA: 7 (putting +2 into STR)

OR
STR: 15 DEX: 12 CON: 14 INT: 14(16) WIS: 10 CHA: 7 (putting +2 into INT)

I see your recommend to max CON in order to max tankiness...and I haven't played the class or seen it played so I'm sure there's a bunch I'm missing...but would you really bump CON higher for this build? More broadly, what overall 15pt buy might you consider? It's so hard for me to imagine a martial character with a 14 STR, which is I think the max I can get if I bump up CON...but maybe I'm thinking too much about Fighters and not understanding how different a Warder (or PoW in general) plays?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!


Quote:
Chaldira Zuzaristan is a close friend to Desna and revered as a god in halfling society. She is known to charge into battles without much planning and as a result often needs Desna's assistance. Halflings see this as a sign of their innate racial luck and as their ability to survive in even the most dire of circumstances.

I find her a fun deity...and she's NG so she certainly could have Paladins...which leads me to wonder:

What do you think Chaldira Zuzaristan's Paladin Code would be?

(Actual sources are great if they exist...but I doubt that they do, so idle conjecture works here too.)

Thanks!


There's a PbP recruitment starting soon for adapting Marvel Heroes to a Golarion setting. The whole thread is here but the short summary of the build rules are level 5, 25 point buy, with gestalt and the ability to convert starting gold to race points from the race builder (at a conversion cost of ~1000 GP per RP)...and of course the ability to play with Path of War and Psionic classes in addition to the Paizo ones.

I have two heroes I'm thinking of:

- Black Cat, who I think works nicely as a Harbinger (focused on Cursed Razor for "unluck" effects) with the other half perhaps a Rogue, Ninja, or even Swashbuckler.

- Ms Marvel (the new Kamala Harris version)...who I'm more stuck on, but I suspect there are some great Disciplines/Maneuvers to go for. Some of what I'd look for:
* Things that increase Reach, or
* Allow striking at Close (25+5*1/2 level) range

Bonus points for ways to actual grow or shrink or increase movement. (The investigator formulae list covers some of those morphing abilities well with Long Arm, Enlarge, Reduce, Expeditious Retreat...but a spontaneous flavor (ideally without components) fits better than the prepared extract thing. Is there perhaps a psionic class to cover this aspect of her?

I'd love to hear thoughts/ideas/suggestions from any source but am asking here because I'm relatively new to Psionics and Path of War, and suspect both have a lot I should be looking at here.

Thanks!


Lines like this imply one might be in a stance all day long:

System & Use wrote:
"A stance remains in effect indefinitely and is never expended. The benefit of your chosen stance continues until you change to another stance you know as a swift action."

Though this implies there could be some limit, or at least that they're intended for combat more than out of combat:

System & Use wrote:
"A stance is a type of fighting method that you maintain from round to round. So long as you stay in a stance, you gain some benefit from it. A martial disciple who performs a kata and assumes a specific posture as he prepares to fight is using a stance."

Lets take as an example this stance from the Shattered Mirror discipline (which was just released in the Harbinger PDF):

Shattered Mirror discipline wrote:
"Silvered Mirror Stance (Su): When you assume this stance, choose a single non-personal range power, psi-like ability, spell, or spell-like ability affecting you. While you maintain this stance, allies within 30 feet of you also gain the benefits of the chosen effect for as long as it is affecting you."

This would be an amazing way to share buffs out of combat, e.g. casting Overland Flight or Stoneskin on the Harbinger and getting it for free on any ally within 30'. What are the limits to this?


Hey all, I'm reading about the Path of War maneuvers and want to make sure I'm understanding it right.

Maneuvers have a level listed (from 1 to 9). And I see:
"Some maneuvers effects depend on the initiator level, which is usually the character's level in the class that provides access to martial maneuvers. The word "level" in the maneuver lists always refers to initiator level."

I *think* this is saying that one can know maneuvers of a level up to your class level, e.g. 5th level warder can know 5th level maneuvers, and once one is 9th level one can learn any maneuver in your style(s). Is that right?

(I think my confusion is just that when I see level 1 to 9 abilities I think in terms of full casters who don't get their 9th level abilities until, say 17th level.)

Thanks!


1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.
Sacred Fist wrote:
At 7th level, the sacred fist gains a ki pool. This functions as the monk class feature, using the sacred fist's level – 3 as his monk level when determining the number of points in his pool and bonuses granted to his unarmed strike.

and

monk wrote:
At 10th level, his unarmed attacks are also treated as lawful weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Seems like RAW a Sacred Fist gets Lawful ki strikes (even if she's Chaotic). True?


10 people marked this as FAQ candidate.
Dizzying defense wrote:
At 15th level, while wielding a light or one-handed piercing melee weapon in one hand, the swashbuckler can spend 1 panache point to take the fighting defensively action as a swift action instead of a standard action. When fighting defensively in this manner, the dodge bonus to AC gained from that action increases to +4, and the penalty to attack rolls is reduced to –2.

and

Fighting defensively as a standard action wrote:
You can choose to fight defensively when attacking. If you do so, you take a –4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 to AC until the start of your next turn.

Based on this, here's my understanding:

Vanilla fighting defensively
  • As a standard action, one can attack once, at -4 to hit and +2 to AC
  • Since this is a standard action, one can't use this as part of a Full Attack action (so you only get one swing)

Dizzying defense + fighting defensively

  • As a swift action (plus 1 panache), one can attack once, at -2 to hit and +4 to AC
  • Since this is a swift action, one still gets to use a Standard or Full Attack action.

Some examples:

  • A 15th level swashbuckler making a full attack (not fighting defensively or using dizzying defense) gets 3 attacks
  • A 15th level swashbuckler fighting defensively as a standard action gets 1 attack
  • A 15th level swashbuckler fighting defensively as a swift action via dizzying defense can also make a full attack, getting a total of 4 attacks (all at -2 to hit, +4 to AC)

Am I reading this correctly?