So having had a chance to go over the various blogs and watch the various playtests and demos hovering around the internet I took some time to sit down and speculate how the various rules changes might affect common tactics and strategies as players transfer over from pathfinder to starfinder.
One big generalization that we cna get out of the way is that the Forge still applies as far as I know. Positioning, resource management, and action economy are still very important aspects of the game so building your group along those lines will still go a long way. What really changes are the details. With the lack of 9th level casters (at least for now from what's being hinted at) and the emphasis on ranged combat, it's somewhat more difficult to properly control enemies. Players will have to get used to finding proper cover and cutting off angles of attack in order to maintain positional advantages.
This isn't to say that melee characters won't have their place. Indeed one of the biggest counters to ranged tactics are large meaty bodies wailing away at someone's face. Expect reach weapons and smoke grenades to be the bane to many encounters as the AoO against ranged attacks still persist and its quite likely concealment will still be a thing.
Resource management in particular will be quite important. Resolve is likely going to have many many uses over the course of the game as Paizo writers love their resource pools and having one built in opens up a lot of possibilities for them to expand on it.
So what of tactics? How do they change in light of the enw rules and systems? Well the first thing that will pop out to most people will be the lack of iterative attacks. This is replaced by the ability to do two attacks at a -4 penalty. In essence that likely means two weapon fighting, rapid shot, and other such feats will simply provide a scaling reduction in that penalty depending on the weapons you wield. Tactically it means that big solid hits will count for more rather than positioning for life ending full attacks. Especially in the case of kinetic weapon users who will likely have to deal with higher defense scores than energy weapon counterparts and will rely on the single atacks more. On the flipside since energy weapons target the lower AC and tend to do slightly lower damage it's possible that lower stat characters might benefit from chasing higher attack bonuses and gfetting mroe attacks to capitalize on some damage bonuses and extra chances to get critical hits.
Speaking of AC since energy weapons tend to be extremely common getting one's EAC up will be relatively important as a bunch of goblins with cheap laser pistols can be far more dangerous to a slow heavily armored soldier than a drone with an anti tank rifle. I imagine plenty of items and armor types will help bring your EAC up which will have the benefit of being useful against a number of spells asw well. I like to think that Solarians might have a lot of natural ways of dealing with energy attacks as attuned as they are to the rhythm of the cosmos.
With that in mind it looks like combat maneuvers are all but gone. Which leads me to believe that the individual maneuvers have been rolled into feats or class features that let you perform them. I kind of hope that they've just been simplified rather than requiring a choice to get them. But I haven't really seen anything about it. With 6th level casters being the norm I'd like for non-magical classes to be able to take a greater role in battlefield control.
In any case I'll come back with thoughts as I have them.
I feel like Step Up will be near-mandatory for any non-Operative melee character without an unwieldy weapon, as you will want a way to consistently get in full attacks.
I think someone mentioned maneuvers are resolved as simply attacks against KAC+8?
I'm not 100% sure on this being true, though KAC+8 sounds like a rather harsh target.
I don't believe you can use the lack of 6th level casters to infer much of anything about tactics. Many current 6th level casters still get access to spells that are on the 8th or 9th level spell list of clerics and wizards. Theoretically the biggest change should be an increase in move and cover tactics.
Its more than that.
Consider that full casters gain spell levels far faster than 3/4 casters. So displacement, a fairly decent spell, doesnt come online for maguses until 7th where a wizard gets it at 5th. Thats a long time.
So that means gear becomes more important. You cant rely on fly comming in to bypass environmental obstacles
Youll need jet packs and good luck.
Sure some spells will come in earlier but I think for the most part it will allow mundanes and their skills longer spotlight time since their arent absolutely massive magical toolboxes to fall back on.
I feel like Step Up will be near-mandatory for any non-Operative melee character without an unwieldy weapon, as you will want a way to consistently get in full attacks.
If they keep it yoire probably right. Threatening out to 10ft might still be king here as the reach dillema is tough for any ranged character to deal with.
I feel like Step Up will be near-mandatory for any non-Operative melee character without an unwieldy weapon, as you will want a way to consistently get in full attacks.If they keep it yoire probably right. Threatening out to 10ft might still be king here as the reach dillema is tough for any ranged character to deal with.
I recall it being confirmed Step Up still exists. Guarded Step now taking a move action makes it far more valuable, too.
One thing ive been thinking about is the proported emphasis on ranged combat. Its no secret that ranged combat is already very powerful in pathfinder. But will it be more dynamci? Less boring? At the moment it mostly consists of standing in one spot and slamming die roll after die roll into things until they die somtimes begrudgingly moving to account for cover and positioning.
Like id like to know if "peeking" is a thing so someone can lean around a corner to fire without being penqlozed but giving up some benefits of the corner. Prone and kneeling positions at least provide decent benefits as they dont provoke aoos when you get up anymore.
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One thing ive been thinking about is the proported emphasis on ranged combat. Its no secret that ranged combat is already very powerful in pathfinder. But will it be more dynamci? Less boring? At the moment it mostly consists of standing in one spot and slamming die roll after die roll into things until they die somtimes begrudgingly moving to account for cover and positioning.
Like id like to know if "peeking" is a thing so someone can lean around a corner to fire without being penqlozed but giving up some benefits of the corner. Prone and kneeling positions at least provide decent benefits as they dont provoke aoos when you get up anymore.
If the prone penalty still applies to ranged attacks, going prone may be a good way to trade mobility for AC.
If its still a free action and you go first, you can get both your attacks (I am assuming guns can be used from prone) and get the +4 AC against their.
Of course then I guess they could pull out their laser chainsaw or gravity hammer really mess you up, so who knows.
Prone panelty was for melee and archery, crossbows and firearms didn't get a penalty
Prone panelty was for melee and archery, crossbows and firearms didn't get a penalty
I think they're referring to the penalty to hit prone targets with ranged attacks.
Yeah, part of the issue with original published Prone Shooter I believe is that there is no penalty for shooting while prone, just being shot.