Race / Class overload. Ideas?

[Jack_of_Spades]

With Starfinder, there's suddenly going to be a bunch more base races added. And, with that, I assume that means there will be base classes or core classes added. What are your thoughts about allowing standard pathfinder feats and classes into a starfinder game?

Personally, I'm against using both sources. With all the material that already exists, I think starting over and limiting the allowed material to "just Starfinder" would bring back that feeling of...Not quite simplicity but we won't need to use and srd that lists ALL the feats and then hit ctrl+f to find what we need. I think having it simplified and grow outward from that all over again is something to look forward to.

[captain yesterday]

Considering it's still over a year away, i'll wait and see.

[Lord Foul II]

I figure that given that starfinder is supposed to be in space There's a lot of... space to fit those races into because I mean, Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.*

Each of those races likely have a somewhat different way of doing things (probably also somewhat similar because the gods meddle with things) hence the potential new classes and equipment
But hey, if you want to restrict yourself in your home games, that's fine, if that's how you want to have fun
There are probably an infinite** number of way to have fun, by that same token of the default is how You wish it, in my home games in perfectly capable of introducing stuff from regular pathfinder into it.
We'll just have to wait and see what's up

*hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy
**likely a small infinity but still

[MMCJawa]

well..I don't see any problem with lots of races. The "Mos Eisley effect" does reference a very popular and well known space fantasy movie after all, and it's a pretty common trope.

For everything else we would have to wait and see. Some of the new design changes for Starfinder could render a lot of existing feats pointless, awkward, or of only niche use. Some styles of campaign may make certain non-archetyped classes useless or their inclusion bizarre. And if magic is relatively reduced in power, than some classes may just be too unbalancing to allow at certain levels.

I actually think it might be easier slotting a Starfinder class into Pathfinder than the other way around

[Torbyne]

I dont have a problem with a large number of races. In fact for a sci-fi setting it is easier for me to imagine more races being active. There is FTL in play so, sure, you can get a few sapient species from a single planet and there are thousands of planets out there. i would rather have a large pool of core races than repeating the same seven species in different make up across the galaxy.

Balance may be an issue but you can come up with a very big number just by going with mix and matched stat adjustments plus 1-2 traits out of a pool, (+2 saves vs thing, +1 skill point, +2 skill, 60' darkvision etc.)

Classes in Pathfinder arent exactly overloaded to me. i view them as a flow chart, what do i want to do? go to the corresponding category and look at the next level choice, martial, divine, arcane, psychic and so on. Its pretty easy to end up with something i want to play. Starfinder classes will probably end up overlapping already existing niches since it needs its own foundational classes if it is a stand alone game. I am not sure how compatible the two will be but i bet you could move things from one game to the other with a little work if you want. Its still not too much so much as some options may be redundant.

As for Feats, i hope they follow the Vigilante model here and give us fewer to pick from but they all scale and stay relevant across levels. Can you imagine if combat maneuvers were just one scaling feat each? Or ranged combat? ... wow....

[Dragon78]

Even in Pathfinder there doesn't seem to be that many races especially when many of them are not from Golarion, some were created, and some are so few in number it doesn't really matter.

[Papa-DRB]

I would like to see the a new class, based on the Babylon 5 Technomages and perhaps do away with Wizards and Sorcerers. Also some kind of Psionic (ala Lensman series of books).

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-- david