It's a discussion about what is the most fun for the group.
I am of the opinion that a majority of people are having less fun when they have almost nothing to do while other characters snipe and engage the enemy. I'm not saying all players are this way, but not everyone wants to be a spotter or keep the civilians calm.
My objective is maximizing all the players fun at the table, and doing essentially nothing (for combat) doesn't sound like fun to me. And to expand on why it's a problem, is because it usually takes the most game time. The other parts of game, RP sections, making skill checks for diplomacy, bluff, intimidate, usually move way faster than any combat section of the game.
Well we can at least agree about maximizing fun for all at the table.
My groups experiences with Starfinder have been nothing but positive in all circumstances.
Like I said I have been lucky with the group I have had.
I suspect if we swapped players that might not be the case.
Anyways good gaming to you and your group!
This discussion reminds me of an old D&D 3.5E campaign I played in.
The final dungeon had one staircase on which EVERY step had a Symbol of Death and there was no means to bypass it. I played the Rogue. The entire game came to a screeching halt while I performed the Find/Disarm Traps game over and over. and over. and over and over and over again.
THANKS MONTE COOK!
Anyway, I have never seen anything that egregious in a Starfinder adventure. The two times in SFS where the snipers got to shine I managed to figure out other stuff to do, like casting fog clouds to give us strategic concealment, or charge straight down the gullet with my tank character to draw fire and take the heat off the team.
It's a discussion about what is the most fun for the group.
I am of the opinion that a majority of people are having less fun when they have almost nothing to do while other characters snipe and engage the enemy. I'm not saying all players are this way, but not everyone wants to be a spotter or keep the civilians calm.
My objective is maximizing all the players fun at the table, and doing essentially nothing (for combat) doesn't sound like fun to me. And to expand on why it's a problem, is because it usually takes the most game time. The other parts of game, RP sections, making skill checks for diplomacy, bluff, intimidate, usually move way faster than any combat section of the game.
Well we can at least agree about maximizing fun for all at the table.
My groups experiences with Starfinder have been nothing but positive in all circumstances.
Like I said I have been lucky with the group I have had.
I suspect if we swapped players that might not be the case.
Anyways good gaming to you and your group!
My experiences with Starfinder are also all positive, but we don't have anyone attempting to specialize in sniper rifles either.
First, you can have a sniper rifle yourself. Being bad with it doesn't mean you can't use it.
This is a mathematicians answer. Technically correct but utterly meaningless. "can't use it" in this context means can't use it effectively, which given how tight the math is on starfinder hit, that non profieincy penalty acurately describes it.
When my mystic is in a ship she's not much usefull than you would be.
Which is a problem with ship combat or the mystic. that one is very fixable with half a feat or your theme.
- Smoke grenades (in counter sniping)
20% miss chance. Its not bad but its only good for an action you're bored after that.. The problem with a sniper map isnt that it's difficult its that it gets boring.
- Spell Ampoules to give bonuses to your sniping teammates
with which spell? I love buffing in pathfinder (with enough buffs you can just walk off with a final blade...) but starfinder is pretty low on buffs.
- Covering or harrying fire with a sniper rifle
Covering fire is pretty pointless considering the NPC hit to party member they want to shoot at AC disparity
The game give you lots of things to do actually.
Sniper rifles are not by default usable with trick attack
Trick Attack (Ex) 1st Level
You can trick or startle a foe and then attack when she drops her guard. As a full action, you can move up to your speed. Whether or not you moved, you can then make an attack with a melee weapon with the operative special property or with any small arm.
operative melee weapons or small arms only
at 6th level you can take debilitating sniper
Debilitating Sniper (Ex)
You can use trick attack with sniper weapons. You do not add trick attack damage to your attack, but the target is still flat-footed, and you can use debilitating Tricks.
So the problem isn't the scope, its that there's currently no way to use a sniper rifle with a trick attack to damage someone.
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That is not entirely true. There is another exploit that you can pick up (with a req of 6th level) called Bleeding Shot. Instead of other debilitations, you can give the target bleed = your operative level. This, though not high instantaneous damage, is pretty decent damage in the long run. Also, if you are going for an operative sniper, you will be picking it up at 8th level, so that's just a straight 8 bleed.