steven lawson's page

The issue with 9th level casters has never been the damage they can do, every class in Pathfinder had a build that could one shot the Tarrasque if built right and abused a GM who let the player do weird things.

It has always been that a 9th Level caster has a spell for every situation and could potentially neutralize any encounter before it can begin. This is usually the main complaint I see when people tell stories of how the Wizard trivialized the encounter, it's not because he landed a critical Fireball into the monsters face. Sure there are ways to get to some truly absurd damage output on spells, but it's usually always faster and easier to just debuff the monster into oblivion than it is to burn them.

And while magic is well, magic, this lends to the rule of if you can imagine it there is a spell that can do it. Now while 5th ed. has the one concentration spell at a time, this will only affect part of the problem, when the party meets a locked door, the rogue picks the lock, the wizard decides if they want to go through the door, wall, floor, ceiling, astral plane or just remove the door from existence all together. So in a more tech based world where people use Biometric Scanners and Facial Recognition, the wizard would have spells that affect those, so either the wizard could use magic to disguise themselves or to screw with the machine. At which point the Technomancer is redundant.

So to this, I think the Shadowrun approach is best, tweaked, but still a good basis.

For those unfamiliar with Shadowrun, cybernetics tear at ones soul in a sense. So too much cybernetics and you are no longer even a person.

So I think a true 9th level Caster, would need something similar. That magic is an affectation on the living realm, it does not draw on the machines as the A.I. God has prevented that type of magic from infesting his domain. This does a few things, clearly draws a line between what Magic the 9th level caster can do, so it never crosses the line and makes the Technomancer irrelevant in design. It helps to decide not what a Magic class can do, but what it Can't do. This is far more important.

So you additionally can incorporate a similar Burn feature that the Kineticist has, that their ability to affect the living realm is tied to their own life force, thus introducing the first Constitution based class in Starfinder. So to prevent them from overshadowing the Mystic in terms of spells, they have a give and take mechanic with their magic. Want to heal someone, you can do it slowly and they would receive something similar to full rest over a short rest, this could be a 1/day/X Levels deal. A moderately fast, where you give Fast Heal of a number but the Wizard takes half that damage a turn, so you give Fast Heal 10 but you take 5 damage a turn until you sever the link, then you have the Oh Shit give health now. Which could do Xd8+Con but you take Xd6+Con in damage to give a massive amount right away.

Obviously the numbers chosen could be adjusted based on level and maybe incorporate the D10 and D12 more often, my favorite dice, but least used.

As the balance would be on how much are you willing to give up to get something.

So the rules do not include kneeling as a condition separate from normal (standing) and prone. It did exist in pathfinder, but as we all know and understand starfinder =/= pathfinder. So SHOULD kneeling exist in starfinder? And as a side question, since it doesn't, what are you RAW if you ARE kneeling? are you normal ie standing (no condition) or are you prone?

My personal opinion is that kneeling should included as a condition that splits the difference between prone and standing, Free to get into swift to stand an move normally.

I put this question to everyone here in the discussion forum as I'm most interested in the title question.

The real question is what is the point of kneeling?

If it is to take cover, then that is covered under the well Coverage rules, it can be easily explained that taking cover behind an overturned table has you kneeling and that considering start to stop movement from kneeling, unless you are someone like Usain Bolt, would be pretty much comparable to standing so there would be no need to make an action to adjust, just like you don't need an action to stand up after you tumble, it's all considered part of the action.

The reason prone is different is that lying on your stomach, back or side is much more difficult to do in one quick fluid motion and most people will take a few seconds to do so, but with proper training you can easily get up in a second from that position, hence Kip-Up.

SO ask yourself this, what benefit would you get from kneeling that isn't covered by some other rule. And you do not want to be Tebowing in the middle of the battlefield in the open, even if the National Anthem is playing, get to cover instead. Making yourself a smaller target does not help when grenades, rockets and high capacity rifles are common place.

Imagine being an 80 year old who acts like he was when he was 18. Would you want to be 18 and an a****** for the rest of your life. Unable to mature and grow as a person?

You are on the internet, this answers your question.