sirbrokensword's page

yeah, that's a good point. still, For only -1 Kac Ill take a cheaper less bulky armor that doesn't give me penalties everytime. Does heavy armor get better than light + dex later?

In pathfinder the difference between the most optimized and the marginal choices is massive. This has led to many of us being paranoid about taking a sub-optimal choice, because it could be the difference between doing 100 damage per round and doing 50.

In starfinder the difference between the most optimized and the marginally optimized is very small. So we are free to choose the flavor we want without fear that choice will ruin us. If you want to be Grunty McSoldierman, then make a soldier. If you want Techy McSmartyface, then try a mechanic. The difference between your damage output is not going to be enough to ruin your fun regardless of what you chose.

As far as looking at armor for a soldier: The total armor class is all that matters. The fact that one armor "caps" your dex bonus is irrelevant, since that cap only applies to calculating your KAC/EAC. If you compare light to heavy armor, you will find that the total AC is 0-2 points better with heavy. Since you get heavy proficiency as a class, you will probably want to use it. Some legit reasons not to wear heavy armor are: 1) you want to move faster, 2) you want to use skills that suffer acp a lot, 3) you are a wimp and can't carry all that bulky heavy stuff (seriously though, even with a 12 str you hit that 6 bulk awfully fast).

So, I have a hard time believing that a non optimized character will perform even remotely close to an optimized character. It may be true in starfinder, but if so then it would be the first game in 25 years of rpgs that I've ever seen do it.

I can role play anything, what my party needs is a high damage dealer.

I'm concerned about the usefulness of heavy armor since I'm going to have dex 18. Here's a comparison of the best heavy armor vs light armor available at lvl 1:

Heavy :
Iridishell, basic +3 +6 and max dex +2

Light:
Freebooter armor +2 +3 and max dex +4

The light armor looks better in all ways except the heavy armor gets +1 Kac, and suffers -5 spd and extra bulk...

I guess there's not really an optimization community for starfinder yet?

So, Should my High Dexterity soldier forgo heavy armor? since it would limit his dex bonus? What's a good starting armor at lvl 1 for this guy?

So, I'm about to start a new campaign at lvl 1 and the party has most things except a ranged damage person. I'm looking for a character optimization for that role. I was thinking soldier, but not sure what weapons, or talent choices would be best, it seemed like sharpshooter was good, for the -2 cover, since there are several melee pcs already. Would another class be better? dual weilding operative?

Any advice on soldier builds, or any builds would be great.