kaid's page

I agree that the way you are describing Akashic Dragons is how most of them would be like; however, there's no right answer here. An Akashic Dragon will behave very differently if it's a friendly NPC, a neutral NPC, or (very rarely) the Big Boss monster. Also, where they are from could make a big difference; an Akashic Dragon in the Azlanti star empire might be the curator of the department of propaganda's library of disinformation, known to the public as the Library of Truth.

Hellknights trying the contract trick, likely wouldn't write the contract themself but would call upon the highest level lawyers from hell to do so, and would likely be in a contract so long it would take years to read, and other efforts would be made to distract the dragon during the reading of the contract. Here, the people pulling this off would be the Boss monster.

The Akashic Dragon I'd personally like to hang out with is the one in charge of the Library of Galactic Music.

It is all fun and games until the dragon starts blasting retro EDM death polka.

WOOT I will have to plink around with that tonight.

I suspect before they start adding more to summoner it is going to need its remaster pass even if it does not change much.

Sounds like it is mostly done they are just finishing up some of the GM stuff. The IOS/android delayed till early next year but given the time of year it is and the cert process needed it would be weird if it did make it out before the end of the year.

pauljathome wrote:

2) Stellar Rush, especially with a creature with a fly speed, gives INSANE mobility. Ranged combat you say? I am my own weapon :-). 70 feet at level 1 for a Dragonborn with 2 actions
3) The insanely cool Graviton attuned pull. As far as I can see there is nothing stopping me dragging them into the air and just dropping them.

Not only TGTBT but also not supported by RAW.

Stellar Rush: You rush forward with a blast of stellar energy, getting into the thick of combat with ease. Stride twice. You gain a +10-foot circumstance bonus to your Speed during these moves.

Stride: When you use the Stride action, you move a number of feet equal to your Speed. Whenever a rule mentions your Speed without specifying a type, it's referring to your land Speed.

So, no Flying with a standard Stride action.

The stellar rush feat has the transversal trait so you can substitute any movement type you have to perform the action.

Please let the thaumaturge wand implement use exploit weakness/IE or tune down to 1 action or 'Something!' to boost its early level implementation. The class is to action heavy for a 2 action activity as more than a back up rotation item.

Please let thaumaturges just 'work' with 1H+ weapons without having to jump through 1000 hoops.

Please let thaumaturges free action exploit weakness like a barbarian can rage.

Please boost the power of the mind smith (its weapons are very under-tuned).

Please do something for the psychic (extend the length of unleash psyche, ditch the stupefied, bump them to 3 slots per level, or give them a secondary 'focus pool' like cursebound traits on the oracle.

Yeah I always found it weird you have this cantrip thing that has adjustable damage types but it does not interact with your exploit weakness feature.

May your engineers be fully caffeinated and armed with big plates of snacks for their endeavor today.

Opsylum wrote:

Alien Core has another interesting mention of ** spoiler omitted **

Loving the Scrap Rats and Paradox 17 (very Magnus Archives), and GLaDOS! Dominion of the Black getting more stuff is also a real treat. This book is a treasure.

I mean, I guess from an editing standpoint it makes sense ** spoiler omitted **

Not just

Theaitetos wrote:

Tiny Sprites can jump as high as gargantuan Titans.

Diminutive Grasshoppers can jump higher than elephants

If you have a tiny sprite with an 18 str and a human with an 18 str pound for pound that sprite is a freaking monster.

Or handsome dragons working in host clubs. :O

Chip n' dragons.

Yeah, Starfinder is just sort of doomed to get a portion of what Pathfinder gets, even if they started at the same rate, unless Starfinder really does pick up some traction. The compatibility helps, I mean, it has me winding up to run Guilt of the Graveworld. But really the only reason I'm humoring it is because it's compatible enough, and if it was much more incompatible, I'd have entirely ignored it. But my next plan is Pathfinder, so. If I couldn't allow all Pathfinder classes and most Pathfinder ancestries, I'd have not bothered. A well-oiled conversion system is what it'll take to keep the Pathfinder 2E players coming back to using Starfinder stuff.

But for example, even if they started at the same pace, Pathfinder simply gets more. The Pathfinder Core Rulebook had 12 classes, with 4 more the following year in the Advanced Player's Guide. Starfinder began with 6 classes with only 2 more planned for next year. (But granted, if Starfinder began with 12 classes, that'd be problematic for coming years, as Starfinder only had 13 classes, reduced to 12 if we combine Precog and Witchwarper, which means if Starfinder began with 12, we'd have the entire 1E roster day 1, with everything the following years having to be entirely new. It's a valid strategy, as it gives Paizo a 3-year buffer before they have to figure out completely new classes)

Starfinder also does sort of make up for it by giving ancestries at a faster rate than Pathfinder, though.

I do like how they are leaning all the way in on ancestries. I think of all the things I would immeditely okay poaching from PF2 though is ancestries. There are a whole bunch of really neat PF2 races that would be hard to really mesh with most campaigns that would be dead simple to integrate in SF2. Take the aquatic races environmental suites built into nearly all armor means right from the jump they are totally viable in any adventure. Then you get weirder stuff like the automata, conrasu and some of the more odd ball ones again are a lot easier sell in a science fantasy setting where they are just one more person in a sea of diversity.

Your issues with Dex aren't really going to be solved by just more classes, it's kind of baked into the system, Dex was a key stat in PF2 and it's only exacerbated by SF2's extra emphasis on ranged.

I also feel like any potential discussion of class options here is going to get clouded by your very offhand subjective assessments of things. I feel like you either need to explain your thoughts more, or maybe not talk about that at all since which sublcasses are good doesn't really seem to be like the meat of what you want to talk about.

I do generally agree that six classes is kind of a sad opening for the system, especially with some of them not having a lot of built in build variety making them pretty narrow.

... but I guess it's also worth pointing out that there are 27 other classes made for the same system you can go add to your games if you want. That would help variety a lot while waiting for more dedicated SF options.

I believe this is why they made sure to have the technomancer and mechanic play test to go before SF2e core book came out and they are SFS legal. So right off the jump there are 8 playable SF2e specific classes although two of them are going to be getting some changes when the tech book comes out.

Like some ancestries will have two or three significantly powerful features and another ancestry might have only one or very little.

Dragonkin and Vesk are both 10 hp and 20 feet of movement... but Dragonkin have flight and darkvision and their partner bond while Vesk only have low-light vision.

I know flight is considered cheaper in SF but it's still a very good ability.

Astrazoans have low light vision and almost unlimited shapechanging, humans have no features, a hearing/sighted vlaka has less hp and a cool but somewhat situational skill feat, kasatha get four arms and... an extra language for some reason?

Some of these aren't huge on their own but in general it seems like ancestry bonuses are really haphazard, with some ancestries getting multiple high powered features baseline and others getting almost nothing without any real clear advantage in any other way.

Humans are a bit more limited in default features because they get some pretty strong ancestry feats. The one that just grants a level 1 class feat for some classes is extremely strong.

That said it does look like SF2 is just leaning into the ancestry weirdness and I am down for it. In a tech environment a lot of the default features get mitigated pretty fast. A lot easier to pick up things that grant low light vision, flight and I believe we will bee seeing bionic extra arm options for non multi armed ancestries to be able to have fun with that too if they want.

Neat.

Isn't Krune the Runelord that the PFS dealt with?

he got betta.

I think for more specific fields of interest that is what lore skills are for. If you want to be a professional xenooceanolgist take that as a lore.

I would not be shocked if there is some kind of engineering skill that comes in related to the tactical starship game play. Most stuff players would do short of working on a spaceship type situation are not going to be engineering. Most of the crafting/engineering in Starfinder is put in UPB into a maker kit and use your schematics to 3d print whatever item you are trying to craft. You generally are not actually directly making anything you are using UBP to generate it from food to guns and armor. It is basically your skill in working your maker and your access to formula/licensing to produce an item. Honestly instead of crafting or engineering it probably should be called Making but that would confuse a lot of people.

I think the general skills being mostly carry overs from pathfinder 2e winds up being more of a win than a loss just due to portability. The generic names are due to them being pretty broad based skills for specific stuff take lores.

BotBrain wrote:

This sounds more like a PFS failing than the system itself. We've known from the get-go that mixing SF2e and PF2e will come with issues like flight from level 1.

I don't know how much you can argue something is power-creep when it's from an optional ruleset that explicitly flags this as a problem. It'd be another thing if Dragonkin was a printed ancestry in Pf2e.

Yeah, this seems like purely a PFS mistake.

Low level PF2 adventures aren't designed with permanent or even temporary flight in mind. So SF2 ancestries in PF2 should not get those speeds for free at level 1.

It is a failure of PFS that they (seeemingly) don't have a rule for that.

I actually wrote something up for that a while ago. Primarily focussed around Barathu and Contemplative,but should also work for Dragonkin.

Yes the reason in SF2 flight is no big deal is basically everybody is expected to not only have a ranged weapon but for the bulk of people to be predominantly ranged based attackers. If you move something with innate fly speed to PF2 need to adjust it a bit or something like a contemplative just floats around blasting things that can't fight back.

Especially at lower levels before you start accessing more esoteric feat options, Solarian vs other martial comparisons I think comes down a lot to how often the GM gives you Nimbus Surges. An extra MAPless attack is an extremely load bearing feature in terms of power. If you're proccing it regularly you're outputting excellent damage, if you're not you're kind of featureless.

And in fairness you actually have some tools to help enable that. 1h d8 reach is a good weapon profile, graviton attuned strikes deny people the ability to step away from you, and if you take stellar rush both options mess with enemies a bit.

... tbh it's one of my (admittedly more vibes based) complaints about the class in that it doesn't really feel appropriate for reactive strike to be such a centralizing feature of its base kit.

Given how common guns/ranged weapons are in starfinder I suspect nimbus surge gets a good bit of use or whatever you are attacking gets stuck to you forced to use only melee attacks. With a lot of the graviton powers very often targets are going to be unable to step away from you so them having to use move actions is also going to be pretty common if they don't want to just let you keep punching them in the face. Even if they chose to not move and choose to use a melee attack you are effectively tanking that target for your team.

Every time I read Gideron Authority my brain reads it as the gridiron authority and picture some football based civilization.

Yeah, that's an important feature in Starfinder, interstellar travel of information I believe takes as long as it would take a starship to travel via drift because the information is relayed via drift beacons.

Which it's not nothing, to get information that is days/2 weeks behind the event. But also, it's like nothing compared to other settings where it can take years to get information across the galaxy.

The way communication works also opens up the job of Info Courier ships. Fast ships with hot drift engines and data servers that can cart around big info sphere updates for far out colonies. You could likely beat a transmission if you are a skilled navigator and then get back with responses quickly. Also for people wanting to do stuff a bit more hush hush paying somebody to cart it to the destination is not losing you much if any transmission delay while keeping it from interception by anybody sniffing around at those communications.

Yes the initial form of the drift and still to some extent made a lot of Sci Fi tropes difficult to impossible.

It is hard for a space pirate to pirate if you never have any idea of where something is coming or where it will arrive. Defense of anything was a challenge because your attackers can pop out with a whole fleet if they are all linked up anywhere so there is no way to do any kind of defense in depth.

Pactworlds had the double edged sword it was faster to get back to Absalom station from literally anywhere than even short jumps in near space. Problem being this is great for trade but it also meant attack fleets could be right on top of you before you had any time to react. Reinforcements for those fleets could also come very fast from any direction.

At least now with drift lanes there is more set "geography" to channel conflicts/trade so you can get a lot more normal scifi stuff going on while not totally wrecking what made the drift unique.

Free hand weapons are really good for people who need a free hand for some things. You can use it to grapple/climb you can more easily grab a consumable/use battle medicine without having to sheath/un sheath weapons.

Unfortunately, the SF1 versions of the "shifter" didn't really fit, either.

Biohacker had some theorems that could temporarily allow a character to inject serums with transformative effects, but more along the lines of a PF2 alchemist's elixirs and mutagens.

Evolutionist was pretty much focused on "powering up" augmentations (grafts in PF2 Howl of the Wild) in combat and not about changing form.

Nanocyte would probably come closest, IMO, but even then the options from either the Discorporation or the Transmutation faculties were extremely limited.

Given what we have already seen with the astrazoan I think Paizo may be more willing to really lean into a shifter type character now than they were in the past.

PF2 relies much more heavily on melee damage than SF2.

Hence why the Soldier can work without being STR.

The Guardian just cannot. Any PF2 Martial needs to max its attack stat, which is either STR or DEX. And those who do not have STR as KAS have other features that up their melee damage.

Solider is even weirder that their primary attack is based on their class DC with their area attacks.

I think a PF2 class could work with some of the soldiers con fix things that counts as str for things like bulk of armor/weapon/carrying capacity and certain athletics maneuvers.

Xenocrat wrote:

I interviewed for an Amazon warehouse manager position when I got out of the Army, and one of the interviewers positively seethed when I said I'd follow whatever policies were in place, but lacking any information on that I'd pull a guy for medical treatment or assessment if he claimed he had a sprained hand/arm while working the packing line. I guess he'd be a good candidate.

Yeah, that sounds like it exactly.

I could see some manager who expects to spend the afterlife climbing the ranks of Hell, carving out his niche of power in the hierarchy, only to end up in Ksedahl's domain because of all the broken promises used to keep people working a few more months.

Yeah amazon like jobs where they aim for 150% turn over because they don't want anybody getting enough experience so just soullessly grinding down employees toss them out and repeat the process. Having a special hell for that BS seems fitting.

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

Driftbourne wrote:

The origin story of the Hellknights in Starfinder is in Era of the Eclipse. I'm only on chapter 10, so I'm not sure yet how that lines up with how they are in the Galaxy Guide, but from what little I know from Era of the Eclipse so far, I'm not expecting Hellknights to remain unchanged from the PF2e timeline, Hellknights waking up from the Gap is frightening...

I gotta get my hands on that book.

It's a good read; I'm basically necro-ing this thread to say that, lol.

Though I wouldn't use it as any sort of accurate depiction of the Hellknights. Characters at multiple levels of the story question the reliability of Tyrcell, the primary source of information in the text; Tyrcell themselves is pretty open about making up dialogue for events they didn't personally witness, for example.

Yup although it is pretty clear he was not totally off base either in what he was saying. Honestly the hellknights reaction to suddenly they no longer remember the laws they are supposed to be enforcing going well if we don't remember the law then the law is what we say it is and enforce it seems to be pretty in keeping with that kind of organization.

That just means it's tens of centuries, still correct! It's longer than an elven lifespan, that's all we know for certain, because none of them (barring some liches or super extended longetivity guys, maybe, on par with a Jatembe or Baba Yaga who might still be around) had any pre-Gap memories when it ended.

Some like XO! had pre gap memories but at least in the recent novel talked about how scrambled and distant they were although memories from that long ago have to be just fuzzy by nature anyway.

Muscle magic reminds me of that doom patrol series. They had a guy which such perfect muscle control he was basically a wizard by flexing or twitching the right muscles.

Arutema wrote:

Multi-armed ancestries; while they can only make strikes with weapons in their active 2 hands, climb and grapple have no such restrictions.

TBF, multi-armed ancestries just give a restricted equivalent of the Lightning Swap fighter feat, for the most part

It is better than that. You can still hold things in your non active hands and they also can count as a free hand. So if you have a two handed weapon on a kasatha you still have two free hands for climbing or abilities that require a free hand. They also make things like needing to hold things like your comm link, took kits, medical kits while still wielding your weapons.

It is not a massive boost in power but it is an example of one of the changes in SF2 where they are more willing to unleash things a bit while still being pretty well balanced.

It's also worth noting that the Starfinder 2e developers seem a lot more comfortable in having fewer restrictions on mechanics. This is the natural result of 5+ years of making PF2E and a bunch of remaster changes, but it's a lot more noticable in SF2E from the ground up.

I've seen a lot of people online come into SF2E with their expectations of what Pathfinder 2e content looks like, and it inevitably ends up in asking "this is too good to be true, right?". Multiple Arms are a great example- I've seen quite a few people be shocked that they're better than just Lightning Swap!

I don't really wanna call it "power creep" or something silly like that, because it's not like it's just one random gameplay element that's way better than everything else. Starfinder 2e is pretty internally balanced- not a higher ceiling of power, but def a higher floor of power. It makes it a lot easier for new players to hop in and have fun, I've noticed.

Just look at astrazoan compared to PF2 ancestries with shape change abilities. With the astrazoan right out of the box their shape change works like how you would expect something like this to work. You can lean into it even further with feats. Basicaly if you ever thought a friendly version of john carpenters the thing would make a good PC astrazoan are your people.

It does not make them super powerful but it makes them not feel overly leashed/constrained just for potential balance sake in case somebody finds some weird combo of other things.

I think the other biggest thing I have seen play wise is guns. Having guns with a reasonable amount of shots before you have to reload has made weapon attacks by casters a LOT more common. If you are using save spells having a nice 1 attack blast with your pistol feels very appropriate and effective.

I still really want a gunslinger archtype that lets them work with slings (and also buffs slings in their hands.)

Same due to the reload they need some class chassis that has more action compression around reloading. The weird thing is I don't get why bows are 0 reload and slings are 1. A trained slinger is not slower in loading and firing than a longbow. I think most assume they are twirling the sling around a bunch before loosing. You can do that but most slingers are just a whipcrack motion it is very fast and the pouch is easy and quick to load.

I really want a good halfling sling focused character that at least has some of the action/reload gunslingers get. A sling slinger should be viable.

As complex at a glance the solarian seems in play they are pretty straight forward.

They have that whole cycling thing but mostly once you pick your feet it is pretty easy to just go with the flow. You don't have to worry about your weapon if you don't like how it is working you can just change it. You have a side arm that requires no hands so don't have to worry about figuring out hands and taking hands off something and wielding something else just 1 action shoot no fuss no muss. Same with shield if you want a shield they can put one up that again does not require any hands. Hell if you take free hand on your solar weapon solarians can basically never worry about free/open hand stuff.

Most of what they do is zoom up and lightsword things in melee or if necessary plink with their flare.

Soldiers at first glance have more going on than fighters but once you grasp the AOE weapon class DC thing it is pretty basic. Most rounds you are 2 action AOE +1 primary attack free action and then you have 1 action to move/reload/or some other skill action like intimidate.

A lot of the stuff that normally takes multiple stats to build around they can just do with con. Stack con aoe+primary attack stuff and win.

But how would such a vlaka describe things because if they can't see what a person looks like, only smell them that could lead to some problems later on if they are needing to describe a person and they can only say what they smelled like.

The issue is just saying you can just tell what somebody smelled like is a pale description of what a precise scent would be like. It is accurate enough to do aimed fire at precise targets int heir range. It gives them enough info where they can effectively "see" you as clearly as you could see somebody. How big/small/fat/skinny/what their complexion is like do they have acne/blackheads/excess ear wax. Think daredevil but with smell instead of hearing.

The weirdest thing is when a vlaka like this walks into the room it is probably like walking into a movie of everybody/everything that has been through there in the last few hours/days/weeks depending on ventilation.

I think there is still some underestimation of what a precise sense of smell would be. Even bloodhounds with as crazy as their sense of smell is would still be imprecise. A vlakas precise sense of smell is comparable to our vision in that range. Giant hole in the ground they "see" it. Something most things would perceive as scentless very well may have distinctive scent to the vlaka. With that level of sense of smell they are a walking chemical analysis device capable of detecting things at a couple parts per million level or even more sensitive.

It is just handwaved as basically smell o vision to 90foot range because the actual capabilities are almost impossible for us to grasp just like trying to tell a blind person what pink looks like but with vlaka they could very well be able to try to describe to you how pink smells to them.

kaid wrote:

Christopher#2411504 wrote:

Oni Shogun wrote:

How would a blind and deaf Vlaka "see" things like say stairs? A hole in the ground they are going to fall into?

They have smell precise enough to put a bullet between you eyes.

Walking is not going to trip them up.

Stairs:
The would smell the metal, wood, stone or Polymer of the stairs going up in that unique way that only stairs do.
Because they did have to deal with stairs since they were born. Like everyone in every ancestry that doesn't fly.

Hole:
They would notice the sudden lack of "ground smell" where the hole is. Maybe pick up the different smell from the walls of the hole.
Or even notice the airflow from the hole, based on how it distorts environmental smells.

The main thing is:
It is not supposed to be an issue. So it is not.

I think the main Vlaka potential issue would be when they are in a buttoned up space suite or in a vacuum. But given they are a starfaring species I would almost have to assume any of their space gear has some kind of video to scent translator thing going on so they have smell o vision.

Their Society entry covers that. They use everything, but they use scent and touch the heaviest. As it is the common denominator.

Quote:

Like much of vlaka society, communication is shaped by diverse sensory experiences. Vlakas communicate with multiple senses whenever possible, including scent, and nearly all of them know how to communicate with both kinds of Vlaka sign language—one visual and one tactile—and sign while speaking. Vlaka text is grooved, so it can be read by sight and touch, with modern technological devices also integrating audio descriptions and smells as appropriate alongside their haptic touchscreens.

Yeah that is why I figure Vlaka space suites probably have the smell o vision option so they operate as normal when suited up.

Oni Shogun wrote:

How would a blind and deaf Vlaka "see" things like say stairs? A hole in the ground they are going to fall into?

They have smell precise enough to put a bullet between you eyes.

Walking is not going to trip them up.

Stairs:
The would smell the metal, wood, stone or Polymer of the stairs going up in that unique way that only stairs do.
Because they did have to deal with stairs since they were born. Like everyone in every ancestry that doesn't fly.

Hole:
They would notice the sudden lack of "ground smell" where the hole is. Maybe pick up the different smell from the walls of the hole.
Or even notice the airflow from the hole, based on how it distorts environmental smells.

The main thing is:
It is not supposed to be an issue. So it is not.

I think the main Vlaka potential issue would be when they are in a buttoned up space suite or in a vacuum. But given they are a starfaring species I would almost have to assume any of their space gear has some kind of video to scent translator thing going on so they have smell o vision.

The vlaka are an interesting role playing challenge. A 90 foot precise scent is hard for us to picture. Weird stuff like walk past somebody and realize they are pregnant or have cancer or some other health issue just like it is a plainly visible exterior thing. Your ability to detect differences in chemicals would potentially allow you to get a TON of info about people like what drugs they are doing/how much you can tell who has been with who almost like they had billboards saying yup we are shagging.

They are getting a totally different bank of data but it is as precise as our ability to see it. A lot of things that would be concealed to vision may not be concealed at all. Like some guy hiding behind a bunch is visually concealed but he is also wearing space axe body spray and the vlaka is like DUDE stop shouting at me.

I will note one of the big range boosts is that feat that requires that you already hit that target in the combat to brand them. So to really turn on crazy range you already hit that thing at much closer range. I am okay if once you brand somebody you can basically hunt and plink them anywhere on the battlefield it seems in keeping with the intent of the feat.

So, been reading through Solarian's feats, and a question formed in my mind.

How does Homing Mote interact with Distant Flare, Star Brand, and Propulsive Shield?

To help, I'll explain what each feat does, from lowest level to highest:

** spoiler omitted **

Basically, what I'm asking is: how does this stack? Should I:
1) Add up the extra increment distance from the earlier feats and then triple it?
Or
2) Triple the initial the increments first, then add the extra increases?

I'm probably over thinking it, but I am also curious what other people think.
(right now, my math knowledge tells me it's #2)

My reading would be add up the flat bonuses and then the multiplication. The flat ones are increases range increment so those are changing the value of the that increment value. The last is three times your increment value so it would make sense if that happens to what is now your range increment.

And yes this means if you are heavily investing in your flare it has some serious range by level 18.

I suspect we will see archaic weapons native to starfinder as we go. You find some primitive backwater planets using old fashion weapons is a pretty standard sci fi trope. They should not have the improved grades and strictly be runes to upgrade.

Right?! in a game full of ranged default, you are the one who chooses to default get up-close and personal. yes others can make a melee build, but it's the other way around for the Solarian, you are melee, who could choose to make a ranged build. you are meant to be disruptive to their ranged fighters. Diving the back line as it were.

Also solarians are the only class who will be maxing strength. Soldiers even melee ones are going to most likely max con first. This will make them the hardest hitting melee at least for now for SF2 classes. They have lots of movement increasing powers to enable them to close up to targets fast and disruption powers to pull enemy out of cover.

They seem to be a pretty good compliment to the other SF2 classes so far. I do kinda hope they errata the 1d10 upgrade for the weapon option though. It would be nice it could be 1 upgrade option but require two hands. It would make a ton of sense to give up twin weapon shenanigans for a two weapon harder hitting option. The premade seems to indicate that was their initial thought with that and reach anyway.

I would presume com units would be designed for full use by the species that is making them. There is mention about the info sphere on castroval needing telepathy to access but there is an tech tool that allows those without that to access it.

I presume a species comm units would have a "display" and "interface" appropriate to their sensory capabilities.

Starfinder things that I want to see in 2E:

◈ The orc revolution on Apostae.
◈ Nuars
◈ Rhyphorians. We have Dragonkin, let's bring back their buddies!
◈ Worlanisi - they were my baby as a freelancer, so I'd love to see them back
◈ Sarenrae - the hottest of Golarian goddesses
◈ Vanguards
◈ Starship Stuff

Hmm

I have to assume Rhyphorians and a lot of the other main pact world races wind up in the unnamed ancestry book they are working on for SF2. They are waay to big of a population to leave out for long and they are the dragon kin little buddies so sooner rather than later.

Yeah, for now anything that's not batteries is a major downside.

Honestly that seems pretty reasonable to me. Batteries higher up front cost but designed for reuse and makes sense that higher grade ones are simply denser energy storage units so much easier to scale capacity if you throw money at it.

Bullets cheap old tech but they are physical objects so you can't just scale them like a battery. They take the size they to do the expected amount of damage. I do expect to see things like weapon mods for bigger clips or ability to hook up to a separate ammo drum to be available especially with power armor.

Chemical launchers are also kinda understandable. If it is a gas/fluid higher tech storage could be storing them at higher and higher pressures to jam more in there or using more efficient chemicals. The price also sort of makes sense just a lot messier/more pricy to deal with than bullets but you are getting the ability to apply various other damage types like cryo/corrosive/fire with an analog weapon.

moosher12 wrote:

Starfinder 1E has bows. And bows are classified as Analog, not Archaic.

That does address a thing I said.

The existence of a "Analog" Bow, does not prevent the existence of a "Analog, Archaic" Bow. Even with exactly the same stats, just an extra Trait and a different upgrade path.

I think the main reason that would be unlikely as having both methods of weapon upgrades both the tech and runes could get confusing.

Okay, so barring Anacites it seems like most things that have sapience also have souls.

But Anacites are apparently an exception.

I'm not keen on that personally.

Yeah I found it a bit odd but I have to assume a LOT of SRO are anacites that attracted souls. It does seem like the return of the first ones is going to play a big part in SF2 so it is possible that anacites more widely accumulating souls could be an upcoming event. Facing their creators and having to deal with either helping or opposing them may be their turning point.

Christopher#2411504 wrote:

There is a decent chance those weapons will be Archaic and Analog.

You say that, but: https://aonsrd.com/WeaponDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Bow&Family=None

Starfinder 1E has bows. And bows are classified as Analog, not Archaic.

Granted, the Starfriends can change it, but the point is we still have precedent, and this bow is described with modern materials. As for Archaic and Analog traits. It's an open door, but we don't know if it will actually be used until we see an example. As I have no idea how the Starfriends will balance both a suite of runes with a suite of upgrades on the same item, and the clause doesn't mean much until they exercise it by releasing a weapon with both analog and archaic.

Probably the difference between a modern compound bow with all the fancy add on's vs an old school stick with a string on it.

kaid wrote:

I am not sure that is true that AI have a soul in game. Anacite's at least in descriptions I have seen are called sentient but didn't have souls or at least mostly didn't I think some SRO may be anacites that acquired one.

I am 90% sure that somewhere, in some long ago Starfinder Wednesday (GOSH, who remembers Starfinder Wednesdays <3 "He's trying, folks!" XD ) Rob G McC or Owen K.C. Stephens clarified that yes, SROs and Anacites are complex, ensouled, creatures. I('m pretty sure I) remember this, because I am 90% sure I asked this very same question, once, in The Before Time :D

That is what I had thought but then I saw something maybe it was in the galaxy guide that seemed to indicate SRO had them but anacites did not which surprised me.

kaid wrote:

Claxon wrote:

Yeah, SF1 made a pretty clear distinction between virtual intelligence and true artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence was as much a person as biologically based life form, just not biological.

Virtual intelligence does not possess souls, just very good computing algorithms.

As to where the line is or when and why that happens...don't expect hard and fast rules (although IIRC there is magic to make it happen) but it can kind of just spontaneously happen.

Yup make a VI advanced enough given how slippery "sentience" is as a concept having one make that final leap from time to time should not be too surprising. Especially in a settings souls are real/provable things and sometimes attach themselves to constructs/machines/vi/ai spontaneously.

Well, one point of clarity, AI (true AI) has a soul already. That's like the defining factor between VI and AI. And without access to magic that lets you evaluate soul stuff, it can be challenging to determine what is and isn't a person/soul.

I am not sure that is true that AI have a soul in game. Anacite's at least in descriptions I have seen are called sentient but didn't have souls or at least mostly didn't I think some SRO may be anacites that acquired one. I am not sure if SF2 will clarify that more I hope it does as it feels weird that the anacites who are clearly thinking/feeling beings for some reason don't have souls.

Yeah, SF1 made a pretty clear distinction between virtual intelligence and true artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence was as much a person as biologically based life form, just not biological.

Virtual intelligence does not possess souls, just very good computing algorithms.

As to where the line is or when and why that happens...don't expect hard and fast rules (although IIRC there is magic to make it happen) but it can kind of just spontaneously happen.

Yup make a VI advanced enough given how slippery "sentience" is as a concept having one make that final leap from time to time should not be too surprising. Especially in a settings souls are real/provable things and sometimes attach themselves to constructs/machines/vi/ai spontaneously.

There seems to be a few ways it happens. Easiest there is a ritual that lets you "wake up" a computer/robot and allow it to be fully sentient.

The other "common" way with androids/SRO is a sufficiently complex artificial life form can spontaneously attract a soul. The more common advanced computers/robotics happens the more often some will just spontaneously awake to sentience.

I would imagine along the lines of famous space saga series the longer a robot/droid exists and the more world info it absorbs it likely increases the chance it makes the final step sentience.

One interesting thing though is Starfinder seems to have two directions towards machine life

SRO/android/awoken computers/bots. The artificial life has acquired a soul and now is able to be healed at least to some extent with healing magics and after death/destruction would progress into the after life.

Anacites and likely others are purely artificial they have no souls and apparently never attract them although possibly could become effectively an SRO. They are just highly advanced and either were given or over time bootstrapped themselves to free will. They are sentient and have free will but are not alive.

The rules are unclear and clarificaitons have been requested in the Errata suggestion thread.

My currrent undestanding is:
- the Primary target strike is extra
- it works even with area wapons
- it doesn't consume ammunition
- it doesn't run into Unwieldy

While a bit unclear it almost specifically has to work with area and unwieldly. I believe this ability was put in specifically because early play test soldiers basically didn't give a rip about their proficiencies with weapons at all. They just never used it as everything was always just class DC area attacks. So basic/martial/advanced prof just didn't matter to them which felt very weird. The primary target strike makes sure they have at least one attack that uses their actual weapon proficiencies to strike.

Their reactive strike option also ignores the unwieldy and area modifiers in a very similar fashion to make a basic MAPless attack.