legolizard's page

wow this is still going. Sorry I haven't been around to respond. I have been working with a friend on a solution to this problem.

It's not perfect, but hopefully it will be customizable enough to cater to each person who wants to use it. I don't want to go too much into detail, but the idea is its a simple program that will set up certain guidelines on what weapons of certain levels and certain types should be able to have and than suggest a price for the weapon based on what the user applys to the weapon.

A lot of work needs to be done and I don't want to raise anyone's hopes.

It seems like the Vanguard is being pushed into the sword and board role. I am happy shields are back but this is still a sci-fi fantasy game and we already have a class that does melee better, granted the solarian is much more complicated, to a fault.

My point is that the Vanguard should have at least longarms added to their weapon proficiency. They feel too much like a archetype for Solarians at the moment, giving them some more gun options (especially some kind of shotgun option) would really help them just play differently than a Tanky Solarian.

If the Vanguard is going to stay the "tank" of starfinder than they will need more shield focused abilities that don't require them to actually hold a be piece metal/ceramic.

Like replace reactive with something that lets the Vanguard make a entropy shield that can grant themselves or an alley a floating energy shield. Really move forward with that magical tank theme.

(Also reactive feels like such a "filler" ability that was put in for no other reason than to avoid empty levels.)

Or dare I even say, give them more of a sliding shield AC bonus that doesn't require them to even be holding a physical shield. Sure give them special bonuses if they also have a shield equipped, but giving them more entropy based defense abilities would really help make them fit the theme.

But whatever you do, don't give them the stupid Solarian balance thing.

Super excited for the Vanguard . . . except for how they gain their primary resource of Entropy points.

This idea of "gaining benefits by getting damaged" has been around for a long time and it has never really worked. I remember trying it out with the good old crusader from the book of wee . . . Book of the nine swords.

So here are the problems I have always run into when using a class that has to take damage in order to use it's abilities.

1. Slow start - You have to take damage before you can do your cool stuff. Unless you are lowering your guard and running into attacks,you are not guaranteed to get damaged. Now starfinder has a large assortment of fun weapons you can use before taking damage and you can spend resolve points, but you will have to wait to use your more interesting abilities.

2. Feast or famine - You may end up getting no points because nothing is doing ENOUGH damage to you or not at all, or end up getting too many points that you lose or can't use because you are taking way too much damage. These are both issues but the first is by far the worse or the two. While the aspect trait at level 4 helps, it can only be used once per combat so it doesn't really fix the issue.

3. Self Damaging - someone always tries to cheese the system by self damaging in some way. Sure you can have the wording of the ability try to prevent this, but what is an "enemy" is up for interpretation. "Aren't we all just our own worst enemy, so me hurting myself counts right?" Point is, anything that requires a GM to constantly have to reaffirm or designate who is and isn't an enemy for game mechanics may lead to issues, both role playing wise and balance wise.

4. You should have dodged that - Damage should be avoided. If you make it in the characters best interest to lower their guard or not dodge a blow you may find they are taking a lot of unneeded damage. This will get them killed. I know there is the whole "cost vs. reward" argument, but eventually these mechanics always get characters killed. Also the death ends up not being impact full. More of a "unavoidable when you really think about it" scenario more than a "oh no how could this have happened?" scenario.

OK, so what do we do to fix this entropy point issue?

Make Entropy more Like grit points. Were dealing damage and taking damage gain us points. That way it feels really natural to go in swinging and take and give that damage the Vanguard was clearly intended to do. Possibly even make the Aspect entropy point regain work once per round instead of once per combat or have a Vanguard start the day with full points.

The Vanguard is supposed to be the front line fighter who is in the thick of it. Instead of making them the vanguards round be "I lower my defenses and don't dodge the first attack," make sure its "I charge in an bust his head open!"

So this question has come up several times. Most recently when I noticed that Androids (who as constructed humanoids are immune to fatigue and exhaustion) are able to get the feat empathy that allows them to gain morale bonuses.

This means that a level 1 android barbarian with the empathy feat is not subject to rage and bloodrage's main drawback.

To me it seems that it is pretty clear that Androids would not suffer from fatigue after raging like this, but many people disagree.

They say that the fatigue from the rage is something brought on by the character and is not something you can bypass.

Just wanted to get some clarification on this.

First thought. She is ADORABLE!

Sorry guys, but my first thought was her saying "Senpai Senpai! Lets go discover ancient arcane knowledge together! Senpai I released an arcane horror onto the world >.< agoe*! (or whatever sound girls make in animes I dont know)

I still think basing a class largely around a minor detail of the cleric class (favored weapon) probably hampered what could be done with it; we already have a 3/4 BAB class that is strongly inclined toward the deity's favored weapon, it's called a cleric.

3/4 BAB and high damage puts this in the same problem area as a monk. Monks lack for accuracy boosts. Maybe the warpriest will fare better. I would much have preferred to see full BAB. No damage boost, or even just setting a flat minimum, would have made made more sense to me.

I don't see this effectively replacing a paladin or a melee-focused cleric.

I agree, bonus damage does not mean anything unless you can hit. I will still try out the class but sadly I think with this change will doom the class to none use as the paladin does pretty much everything a warpriest does but better.

Ok I have to suggest this. The bloodrager should be able to either replace his Wis bonus for his Cha bonus for will saves and be able to use char based skills while blood raging.

"But that does not make any sense, cha based skills while raging"

THAT NEVER STOPPED KAMINA!!!

He raged and did nothing but cha based skills.

I love it. This is exactly what I have been waiting for. I have always loved making my characters unique and that were more than just the "Fighter" or the "cleric" of the group.

But there will be many naysayers to these advanced class ideas. Those opposed to it believe that multiclassing or any deviation from the core class system should never be an option.

Please do not listen to those people. For the love and god and everything holy please do not let this be spoiled by people with little to no imagination when it comes to character roles.

A little paranoid I know. . . . . Ok a lot paranoid but I just hate players that have little to no imagination when it comes to class combinations.