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The purpose of this thread is to clarify questions arising in this adventure.
This thread is a GM Reference thread for Part 2 of the Dead Suns Adventure Path. Links for the individual threads for each part are as follows:
Incident at Absalom Station (Part 1)
Temple of the Twelve (Part 2)
Splintered Worlds (Part 3)
The Ruined Clouds (Part 4)
The Thirteenth Gate (Part 5)
Empire of Bones (Part 6)
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Heyo! I have a quick question about a thing at the start of Temple of the Twelve:
** spoiler omitted **
Thanks!
I love the map for area B so much. However I'm confused how to handle the prior evening's fight with the Whiskered Renkroda, which suggests using this map at dusk the night before.
Presented with the fact that a giant threat is coming their way, the party will be drawn to the center of the area. Unless told otherwise, they will want to camp at the base of the Stargazer to rest up and explore the area in the morning. This ruins the spirit of the fight the following day that features a cool approach while under attack from two sources.
Am I missing something? What is the intended way to approach these two encounters sharing the same space?
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I love the map for area B so much. However I'm confused how to handle the prior evening's fight with the Whiskered Renkroda, which suggests using this map at dusk the night before.
Presented with the fact that a giant threat is coming their way, the party will be drawn to the center of the area. Unless told otherwise, they will want to camp at the base of the Stargazer to rest up and explore the area in the morning. This ruins the spirit of the fight the following day that features a cool approach while under attack from two sources.
Am I missing something? What is the intended way to approach these two encounters sharing the same space?
This makes sense. There's also a section that calls the Temple of the Twelve area D instead of C, so I'm guessing things moved around close to the final draft.
Anyway - thanks for the clarification John! Really enjoyed reading this AP cover to cover when I should have been sleeping. Looking forward to running it for my group. Castrovel is such a cool setting.
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Organized Play Lead Developer
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This makes sense. There's also a section that calls the Temple of the Twelve area D instead of C, so I'm guessing things moved around close to the final draft.
Anyway - thanks for the clarification John! Really enjoyed reading this AP cover to cover when I should have been sleeping. Looking forward to running it for my group. Castrovel is such a cool setting.
I'm glad you've been enjoying it. I agree that Castrovel is a neat place, and this adventure really allowed me to apply experience from my past jobs and travels in fun ways.
The Carnivorous spell really seems to abandon Starfinder design principles with its scaling damage dice. Disappointing.
Panelliar has contradictory information. His attacks list the Pulse Dart as 1d6+8 damage, but the Pulse Dart block itself shows 1d10+6, so which is correct?
Creative Director, Starfinder
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Panelliar has contradictory information. His attacks list the Pulse Dart as 1d6+8 damage, but the Pulse Dart block itself shows 1d10+6, so which is correct?
They both deal the same average damage (11.5), so it doesn't really matter which damage value you use, but 1d10+6 is correct.
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The Carnivorous spell really seems to abandon Starfinder design principles with its scaling damage dice. Disappointing.
Hardly. It grants a bite attack. Attacks like that typically do scale in such a manner
I a have a problem with the trek to the temple.
The journey takes at least 10 days so most parties will run out of life support during the last days of it, something that seems to be expected, otherwise the moldstorm encounter would be useless.
But once they run out of life support the PCs would be forced to do hourly checks against the heat. Letting them do up to 8 saves per day does not seem fun at all and the damage might add up to a quite lethal amount.
An alternative would be travelling by night and resting by day in a tent (as far as i understand a tent should reduce the heat by one level, so no saves need to be made) but that leads also to the problem that all encounters are supposed to happen by day.
I am a bit at loss how to GM that part.
The Carnivorous spell really seems to abandon Starfinder design principles with its scaling damage dice. Disappointing.Hardly. It grants a bite attack. Attacks like that typically do scale in such a manner
Please point to any other Starfinder spell that scales up in damage or effect (without changing spell level) as CL increases.
Please point to any other Starfinder spell that scales up in damage or effect (without changing spell level) as CL increases.The Carnivorous spell really seems to abandon Starfinder design principles with its scaling damage dice. Disappointing.Hardly. It grants a bite attack. Attacks like that typically do scale in such a manner
Please point to any other Starfinder spell that grants a Natural Attack. All the spell is doing is giving you a Natural Attack and the Imrpoved Unarmed Strike Feat.
Please point to any other Starfinder spell that grants a Natural Attack. All the spell is doing is giving you a Natural Attack and the Imrpoved Unarmed Strike Feat.Please point to any other Starfinder spell that scales up in damage or effect (without changing spell level) as CL increases.The Carnivorous spell really seems to abandon Starfinder design principles with its scaling damage dice. Disappointing.Hardly. It grants a bite attack. Attacks like that typically do scale in such a manner
Right, and that’s clearly unbalanced for a 1st level spell, none of which do anything similar at high levels.
Right, and that’s clearly unbalanced for a 1st level spell, none of which do anything similar at high levels.Please point to any other Starfinder spell that grants a Natural Attack. All the spell is doing is giving you a Natural Attack and the Imrpoved Unarmed Strike Feat.Please point to any other Starfinder spell that scales up in damage or effect (without changing spell level) as CL increases.The Carnivorous spell really seems to abandon Starfinder design principles with its scaling damage dice. Disappointing.Hardly. It grants a bite attack. Attacks like that typically do scale in such a manner
I fail to see how a Mystic giving themselves a Natural Attack with low damage that slowly builds up as they Level is unbalanced.
I fail to see how a Mystic giving themselves a Natural Attack with low damage that slowly builds up as they Level is unbalanced.Right, and that’s clearly unbalanced for a 1st level spell, none of which do anything similar at high levels.Please point to any other Starfinder spell that grants a Natural Attack. All the spell is doing is giving you a Natural Attack and the Imrpoved Unarmed Strike Feat.Please point to any other Starfinder spell that scales up in damage or effect (without changing spell level) as CL increases.The Carnivorous spell really seems to abandon Starfinder design principles with its scaling damage dice. Disappointing.Hardly. It grants a bite attack. Attacks like that typically do scale in such a manner
It’s unbalanced against other first level damaging spells, none of which ever get better.
It’s unbalanced against other first level damaging spells, none of which ever get better.I fail to see how a Mystic giving themselves a Natural Attack with low damage that slowly builds up as they Level is unbalanced.Right, and that’s clearly unbalanced for a 1st level spell, none of which do anything similar at high levels.Please point to any other Starfinder spell that grants a Natural Attack. All the spell is doing is giving you a Natural Attack and the Imrpoved Unarmed Strike Feat.Please point to any other Starfinder spell that scales up in damage or effect (without changing spell level) as CL increases.The Carnivorous spell really seems to abandon Starfinder design principles with its scaling damage dice. Disappointing.Hardly. It grants a bite attack. Attacks like that typically do scale in such a manner
I say they get better by remaining useful. A 20th Level Mystic probably has better things to do rather than go chomp on stuff.
Sky Fisher - Lasso
As a move action, a sky fisher can attempt a combat maneuver check with a +8 bonus to reposition the target...
Combat Maneuver
For each maneuver, choose an opponent within your reach (including your weapon’s reach, if applicable) and then make a melee attack roll against the opponent’s KAC + 8.
So, does it get a total bonus +8 for the combat maneuver, or is that +8 in addition to the +14 for its primary melee attack (bite)?
If the former, I don't see how this creature could reliably reel anything in. If the latter, it should be able to reel in about as often as it hits in the first place. The latter seems right to me.
Hi,
Am I missing something or did the writers just get lazy since after the beginning of this book there has been no referenced Life Science -throws regarding the wildlife at all? The players all took at least one rank so they can identify and know something about the creatures and now the book gives nothing. Book 1 had these covered very nicely.
I thought that maybe they just decided people can look it up from Alien Archives but I noticed there that we have a lot of details about the creatures but no references on roll difficulties or what players might know about them either.
Page 133 of the Core Rulebook goes over what Skills and what DCs are used to identify creatures.
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Organized Play Lead Developer
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Hi,
Am I missing something or did the writers just get lazy since after the beginning of this book there has been no referenced Life Science -throws regarding the wildlife at all? The players all took at least one rank so they can identify and know something about the creatures and now the book gives nothing. Book 1 had these covered very nicely.
I thought that maybe they just decided people can look it up from Alien Archives but I noticed there that we have a lot of details about the creatures but no references on roll difficulties or what players might know about them either.
In Volume 1 there was also an effort to spell rules out as clearly as possible because we recognized everyone was new to the system—GMs, players, even the us, to an extent. Providing reminders helps acclimate everyone to the new rules set.
To answer the broadest question, yes, there are references to what the Life Sciences DCs are embedded in the game's rules, specifically on page 133 under the header Identify Creatures.
As for Life Sciences checks referenced in the adventure itself, in a couple of minutes I found at least three Life Sciences references to identify organisms outside of combat, including the yaruks (page 16), the kaukarikis (page 19) and the moldstorm (page 21). You can find information about these organisms in their encounter areas as well as in this volume's alien archive section at the back. Heck, there was even more ecological information that I wrote that needed to get cut to hit the requisite word count. If we can keep it civil, I'd be happy to dig it up and share.
Does that alleviate your concerns?
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Organized Play Lead Developer
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Sky Fisher - Lasso
As a move action, a sky fisher can attempt a combat maneuver check with a +8 bonus to reposition the target...Combat Maneuver
For each maneuver, choose an opponent within your reach (including your weapon’s reach, if applicable) and then make a melee attack roll against the opponent’s KAC + 8.So, does it get a total bonus +8 for the combat maneuver, or is that +8 in addition to the +14 for its primary melee attack (bite)?
If the former, I don't see how this creature could reliably reel anything in. If the latter, it should be able to reel in about as often as it hits in the first place. The latter seems right to me.
I defer to the developer, should what I say be in error.
As I recall from designing this creature, the bonus is in addition to the sky fisher's normal attack bonus (not in place of it) in order to give it a reliable chance of snagging prey of about the same level.
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Developer
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Sky Fisher - Lasso
As a move action, a sky fisher can attempt a combat maneuver check with a +8 bonus to reposition the target...Combat Maneuver
For each maneuver, choose an opponent within your reach (including your weapon’s reach, if applicable) and then make a melee attack roll against the opponent’s KAC + 8.So, does it get a total bonus +8 for the combat maneuver, or is that +8 in addition to the +14 for its primary melee attack (bite)?
If the former, I don't see how this creature could reliably reel anything in. If the latter, it should be able to reel in about as often as it hits in the first place. The latter seems right to me.
I defer to the developer, should what I say be in error.
As I recall from designing this creature, the bonus is in addition to the sky fisher's normal attack bonus (not in place of it) in order to give it a reliable chance of snagging prey of about the same level.
That is correct!
That is correct!Sky Fisher - Lasso
As a move action, a sky fisher can attempt a combat maneuver check with a +8 bonus to reposition the target...Combat Maneuver
For each maneuver, choose an opponent within your reach (including your weapon’s reach, if applicable) and then make a melee attack roll against the opponent’s KAC + 8.So, does it get a total bonus +8 for the combat maneuver, or is that +8 in addition to the +14 for its primary melee attack (bite)?
If the former, I don't see how this creature could reliably reel anything in. If the latter, it should be able to reel in about as often as it hits in the first place. The latter seems right to me.
I defer to the developer, should what I say be in error.
As I recall from designing this creature, the bonus is in addition to the sky fisher's normal attack bonus (not in place of it) in order to give it a reliable chance of snagging prey of about the same level.
Thank you, gentlemen. : )
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Heck, there was even more ecological information that I wrote that needed to get cut to hit the requisite word count. If we can keep it civil, I'd be happy to dig it up and share.
I would love to see this!
Heck, there was even more ecological information that I wrote that needed to get cut to hit the requisite word count. If we can keep it civil, I'd be happy to dig it up and share.I would love to see this!
John, if you have any additional information you are allowed to share, it would be most appreciated. I for one am having a blast reading this book and any additional flavor to add for when my players get to play it is always welcome.
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Organized Play Lead Developer
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Turhalu Point sits at the tip of a broad peninsula characterized by rolling plains, seasonal blooms of immense fans of magenta fungus, and expanses of tall, pale green grasses that shimmer with violet hues in the wind. The most recent fungal bloom occurred about a week ago, and the 20-foot-tall fans are starting to wilt, drooping to half that height. As a result, many of the creatures that migrate from the forests to feed on the fungi have begun retreating back toward cover.
The station at Turhalu Point sits at the tip of a broad peninsula covered in rolling plains and expanses of tall, pale green grasses that shimmer with violet hues in the wind. Short-lived blooms of magenta fungus tower more than twenty feet over the landscape, though many have begun to wilt, and others are marred by bite marks of half a dozen sizes. Trumpeting calls echo across the plains as immense, six-legged creatures with swooping, long necks trek steadily across the grass toward the western forests. Beyond rise the Dawnward Mountains, their peaks barely visible in the light.
The grasslands are not difficult to traverse, but the grasses are in a tall, seasonally dormant state that attracts few grazers to crop the vegetation. As a result, the grass ranges in height from 3 to 8 feet, making it difficult to watch for wildlife. The PCs face few dangers until they reach the edge of the forest. Even so, this period is an ideal chance for them to spot local animals and have close calls with smaller predators that ultimately decide attacking an armed group isn’t worth the risk. Common creatures here include the yaruks mentioned above; dog-sized, eusocial, feathered quadrupeds known as sarpashus; a predatory arachnid called a wippari that weaves temporary shelters and nets out of nettlegrasses; and the sawback screech, an opportunistically omnivorous flightless avian covered in hair-like feathers that help it blend into the plains—at least until it mock-charges at possible threats, screeching wildly to chase them off. A PC can identify and recall basic facts about many of these creatures with a successful DC 17 Life Sciences check.
Also, for more not-necessarily-canon about contemplatives like Ailabiens 21:2, you can see my thoughts on contemplatives' ecology and culture.
Hi,
Am I missing something or did the writers just get lazy since after the beginning of this book there has been no referenced Life Science -throws regarding the wildlife at all? The players all took at least one rank so they can identify and know something about the creatures and now the book gives nothing. Book 1 had these covered very nicely.
I thought that maybe they just decided people can look it up from Alien Archives but I noticed there that we have a lot of details about the creatures but no references on roll difficulties or what players might know about them either.
---zipzip---
Does that alleviate your concerns?
I was just checking if you're awake :D Sorry, seems like it was me that was the lazy one, totally forgot about the section on page 133. Thanks for the help (and sorry :D )
I don't understand why Ambassador Nor would make the feed of the PC's Acreon exploration public -- or at least, I don't understand what explanation he would give when questioned by the PCs. Is this covered somewhere that I am not seeing?
I don't understand why Ambassador Nor would make the feed of the PC's Acreon exploration public -- or at least, I don't understand what explanation he would give when questioned by the PCs. Is this covered somewhere that I am not seeing?
I would imagine it works to his advantage to be responsible for the newest group of adventurous heroes around, much like a music producer hawking the newest hot boy-band. :D Book 3 I imagine will grant us a fuller picture of what Nor is really up to.
In my campaign, one of the PCs actually works for him, and the positive PR from the successes of the Starfinders (in leading to stopping a gang war, to resolving the Hardscrabble/AE dispute, etc.) reflects positively both on Eox and its business affiliates, and on him being the brainchild who enabled it.
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Another possibility is that the Corpse Fleet is in fact a sanctioned, but disavowed black ops division of Eox's military. In this instance, Ambassador Nor could be helping smuggle a known, high ranking, corpse fleet strategist into Absalom Station for some nefarious purpose. Because only the PCs, Commander Eskolar and Ambassador Nor have knowledge of this, the PCs are a loose end which needs to be eliminated.
Given that the Corpse Fleet is banned from the Pact Worlds, the fact that they were present at the Drift Rock, in Absalom Station jurisdiction, is a violation of Pact World law. There's no real reason to risk their own exposure and discovery when they could employ patsies to do their dirty work and then just eliminate the witnesses.
One of the two tables I ran this for never opened the crate. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil sort of thing. They were confused as to why they got jumped by the Corpse Fleet in the first place, but who can truly know the motives or intentions of such as those? They eventually assumed the Corpse Fleet wanted to search the Drift Rock for themselves, possibly aware of the alien tech.
My table also never opened the crate before loading it onto the Hippocampus (which, of course, then left them on the Acreon). They're suspicious of Nor anyway, particularly because the Iron Rictus is the second Eoxian ship to attack them. I, too, wonder what the ambassador is up to, but I'm trying to keep a poker face. Let 'em be suspicious. : )
Until I read Book 3, my initial thoughts are that Esoklar is a deserter. After all, if the Corpse Fleet's goal was to sneak Esoklar onto Absalom, why send the Iron Rictus to retrieve her?
I really wish that at this point, the books would have clarified what Nor's plan is, because it feels a bit awkward to have to RP this guy across two books without even being aware of his end goal.
Just finished Book 2 yesterday with my group. I like the story and there were a few tough encounters in the jungle but the temple and Tahomen were a bit of a disappointment. 4/5 of the group were lvl5 when the encounter started so basically they walked over the cultists. Tahomen got a few good hits through but when gunned/beaten in 5vs1 he did not last more than a few rounds and most of the good spells he had did not do anything since he only threw 3 before dying. The DR Resistances he had did not help much since 2 PCs used projectile weapons and Solarian used his class abilities and solarian weapon on him.
The group were really surprised that this was the "boss encounter" of this book, since in book 1 they had some challenge with the Garaggakal but in the whole book their worst enemy was navigating the jungle, and a few fights that took a few characters to hit points. Yes, only a few, most never ran out of stamina during the whole book.
I started to wonder if I should add more enemies since I have 1 extra player (this was designed for 4 PCs), but that would also mean more XP and this would take the chars even more OP from the game design perspective. Or maybe I just should add some HPs to the enemies so they can at least take one hit from a Solarian before dying. The Lore Guardians were barely able to take a step before they were beaten/gunned to the ground. I hope book 3 comes soon since they are eager to continue, but I have to be prepared to make some modifications if the encounters continue to be this easy for them :P
Oh, and in the end I also wondered about the motivation on why the characters would go to Diaspora. Sure, they will go since they want to play the game and try to do some good but there really is no "real" motivation if you think it from the characters perspective, unless you expect everyone to be heroes. My players would be best described by alignment "Neutral A-holes" :D
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Organized Play Lead Developer
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Just finished Book 2 yesterday with my group. I like the story and there were a few tough encounters in the jungle but the temple and Tahomen were a bit of a disappointment. 4/5 of the group were lvl5 when the encounter started so basically they walked over the cultists. Tahomen got a few good hits through but when gunned/beaten in 5vs1 he did not last more than a few rounds and most of the good spells he had did not do anything since he only threw 3 before dying. The
DRResistances he had did not help much since 2 PCs used projectile weapons and Solarian used his class abilities and solarian weapon on him.The group were really surprised that this was the "boss encounter" of this book, since in book 1 they had some challenge with the Garaggakal but in the whole book their worst enemy was navigating the jungle, and a few fights that took a few characters to hit points. Yes, only a few, most never ran out of stamina during the whole book.
I started to wonder if I should add more enemies since I have 1 extra player (this was designed for 4 PCs), but that would also mean more XP and this would take the chars even more OP from the game design perspective. Or maybe I just should add some HPs to the enemies so they can at least take one hit from a Solarian before dying. The Lore Guardians were barely able to take a step before they were beaten/gunned to the ground. I hope book 3 comes soon since they are eager to continue, but I have to be prepared to make some modifications if the encounters continue to be this easy for them :P
Oh, and in the end I also wondered about the motivation on why the characters would go to Diaspora. Sure, they will go since they want to play the game and try to do some good but there really is no "real" motivation if you think it from the characters perspective, unless you expect everyone to be heroes. My players would be best described by alignment "Neutral A-holes" :D
The lore guardians are definitely an easier encounter, with Panelliar and Tahomen intended as the biggest threats on the map.
As I'm seeing from my experience tracking, the PCs were intended to hit level 5 after defeating Tahomen, so it sounds like you went in with one more person than intended and one level higher than I had intended. I probably would have boosted the encounter a little for a larger and stronger group. That said, Starfinder's still a fairly new game, so it's a little harder to add or boost enemies on the fly based on experience and intuition (something I'm quite comfortable doing for Pathfinder RPG).
The lore guardians are definitely an easier encounter, with Panelliar and Tahomen intended as the biggest threats on the map.As I'm seeing from my experience tracking, the PCs were intended to hit level 5 after defeating Tahomen, so it sounds like you went in with one more person than intended and one level higher than I had intended. I probably would have boosted the encounter a little for a larger and stronger group. That said, Starfinder's still a fairly new game, so it's a little harder to add or boost enemies on the fly based on experience and intuition (something I'm quite comfortable doing for Pathfinder RPG).
Yeah, Panelliar did much more harm than Tahomen, although one well placed sticky grenade saved the PCs from a lot of it :) And to be honest, my group has had incredible luck with all their investigation and have gotten pretty much ALL XP available in the books, so they are probably a bit too far because of that.
Are the Kaukariki really supposed to have a +9 to hit, deal 1d4+2 damage (+1 more for poison application) and have a poison that can outright kill you if you fail enough times? Granted, the save is low but with how ridiculously accurate they are you are bound to have at least one poison rolling at a time, and that's probably right after the stampede and a warm up for the vracinea.
Are the Kaukariki really supposed to have a +9 to hit, deal 1d4+2 damage (+1 more for poison application) and have a poison that can outright kill you if you fail enough times? Granted, the save is low but with how ridiculously accurate they are you are bound to have at least one poison rolling at a time, and that's probably right after the stampede and a warm up for the vracinea.
Seems reasonable to me, considering the party likely picked up an antitoxin each at Turhalu Point. But I'll find out this week how well it works out for my party.
Ah, I didn't realize antitoxins worked like that. The poison was more of an aside, though. I still have a huge problem with their accuracy and damage.
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Another possibility is that the Corpse Fleet is in fact a sanctioned, but disavowed black ops division of Eox's military. In this instance, Ambassador Nor could be helping smuggle a known, high ranking, corpse fleet strategist into Absalom Station for some nefarious purpose. Because only the PCs, Commander Eskolar and Ambassador Nor have knowledge of this, the PCs are a loose end which needs to be eliminated.
Given that the Corpse Fleet is banned from the Pact Worlds, the fact that they were present at the Drift Rock, in Absalom Station jurisdiction, is a violation of Pact World law. There's no real reason to risk their own exposure and discovery when they could employ patsies to do their dirty work and then just eliminate the witnesses.
One of the two tables I ran this for never opened the crate. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil sort of thing. They were confused as to why they got jumped by the Corpse Fleet in the first place, but who can truly know the motives or intentions of such as those? They eventually assumed the Corpse Fleet wanted to search the Drift Rock for themselves, possibly aware of the alien tech.
There are definitely some continuity challenges with this situation that I'd like to get clarity on. If the PCs never open the crate and don't find Eskolar, then they have no knowledge of Corpse Fleet involvement. Even if they *do* discover Eskolar, Ambassador Nor edits out the encounter with her before making the recordings public.
As a result, if Eskolar is the reason the Corpse Fleet attacks the PCs upon leaving the Drift Rock, the Fleet has to have another reason to know that Eskolar is on the Acreon. The video never shows any interaction with her on the ship, but whatever she is doing there has to be important enough and the corresponding need to destroy the PCs strong enough for the Fleet to reveal themselves within Absalom Station-controlled space.
If we knew *why* Eskolar was trying to get to Absalom Station, it would help deduce why the Corpse Fleet is so anxious for that information to die with the PCs. It would also help me adjust the story based on the PCs' actions.
Unfortunately, the 3rd book doesn't tell us why Eskolar is on the Acreon, either. There's no mention in the book about the "Eskolar situation" being used later in the campaign, either, which means I don't know whether it's okay to make up my own reason for her presence there, or if it will be revealed (and be important) later in the story.
I'm posting that last part in the Splintered Worlds GM Reference thread, in the hope that it might be answered... or to further discuss it there, at least.
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Yeah, I have complained about that issue in all product threads for all of the first three ap parts xD At first I was annoyed it wasn't in first book, but thought it was going to be explained in second book, then in second book I was again annoyed, but thought they would explain it when pcs go to Eox and in third book when PCs finally go to Eox I was like "...They aren't planning to explain this at all are they?"
If Panelliar happens to crit with his solar spear, what should the DC of the Wounding be?
If he were a PC, it looks like the DC would be 18.
18 = 10 + 3 (1/2 item level - Least Gluon Crystal: 6/2 = 3) + 5 (Strength modifier for melee attack)
But he's not a PC, so I looked to the Alien Archive for guidance.
Table 1 on p. 129 lists a Base Ability DC of 14 for a CR 6 Combatant, but since "Wounding" isn't spell or spell-like ability, I'm not sure what to add to that base to end up with an appropriate DC, per the guidelines on p. 127 (Ability and Spell DCs).
Please advise.
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If Panelliar happens to crit with his solar spear, what should the DC of the Wounding be?
If he were a PC, it looks like the DC would be 18.
18 = 10 + 3 (1/2 item level - Least Gluon Crystal: 6/2 = 3) + 5 (Strength modifier for melee attack)
But he's not a PC, so I looked to the Alien Archive for guidance.
Table 1 on p. 129 lists a Base Ability DC of 14 for a CR 6 Combatant, but since "Wounding" isn't spell or spell-like ability, I'm not sure what to add to that base to end up with an appropriate DC, per the guidelines on p. 127 (Ability and Spell DCs).
Please advise.
I just asked around, and the standard for calculating NPCs' critical hit effect DCs is the ability save DC listed in Tables 1, 3, and 5 in Starfinder Alien Archive. Remember that a combatant array can boost the save DC of an especially important ability by 2 during design.
For Panelliar, I don't think that the wound critical hit effect is central to his design; it's a nice thing to have and a mean surprise in the unlikely event it lops off a PC's arm. As a result, I'd have his critical hit effect save DC of 14 as advised on Table 1.