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Question: Is "starship combat", combat in the personal sense?
This involves two abilities:
3rd Level
You can tap into stellar forces outside of battle, using the
properties of gravitons or photons to affect your skill use. At 3rd
level, choose two skills from the lists below, one from the graviton
list and one from the photon list. At 11th level and again at 19th
level, choose two more skills. Each time you pick skills, choose
one from the graviton list and one from the photon list.
To use your sidereal influence, you must spend 1 minute in
meditation, then choose either graviton skills or photon skills.
When attempting a skill check with one of your selected skills
of the chosen type (either graviton or photon), you can roll 1d6
and add the result as an insight bonus to your check. This ability
lasts until you enter combat, fall unconscious, sleep, or meditate
again to choose a different skill type. You can reactivate this
ability by meditating again for 1 minute.D Graviton Skills: Bluff (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Mysticism (Wis),
Sense Motive (Wis), Stealth (Dex)D Photon Skills: Culture (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha),
Medicine (Int), Survival (Wis)
If starship combat is combat this bonus can't be applied, since Solarians are a bit MAD, that bonus might help.
Of course, if it really is combat, the bonus from photon mode might apply:
D When you enter photon mode, you gain 1 photon attunement
point and become photon-attuned. Some of your stellar
revelations are photon powers and get stronger if you’re
photon-attuned. While photon-attuned, you gain a +1 insight
bonus to damage rolls (including damage rolls for your stellar
powers). This bonus increases by 1 for every 6 solarian levels
you have.
It is not a huge issue, but with players looking for ways to contribute to spaceship combat, this question might come up more often.
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Class features and items affect crew actions only if specifically noted in the class feature or item.
Since firing a weapon is a Crew Action, I don't think that you would get your damage bonus from photon mode if Starship Combat is considered Combat. However, bonuses to your skill checks that come from class features (Operative's Edge, Mechanic's Bypass, etc) would still apply, since they don't affect the action itself - just the check to perform it.
Edit: minor typo
I can think of one power that might care that you can get into the Photon stellar mode in starship combat.
The sidebar on page 326 rules out teleportation between ships. However, Ray of Light is explicitly not teleportation, and in fact, moves the Solarian at the speed of light, with virtually no delay (since reactions to it are not allowed unless the actor can react faster than the speed of light). Can a 9th level Solarian literally Ray of Light through the cockpit window on a Ringworks Wanderer onto another ship or even inside it through a clear viewport?
Might require an attack roll I guess. If you can see the hull of the enemy ship, clearly light rays are reflecting off of its surface and not getting scattered. If you can hit it with a laser, you can hit it with a Solarian. :)
I'm pretty sure most GMs would say no, if only because of the headache it would cause, but it is an amusing thought.
Actually, the wording would prohibit it:
"Any barrier that would block, reflect, or scatter light prevents you from moving through it."
Windows reflect light. Not all of it, mind you, but some of it.
I figure it's up to the GM. If we're being literal, gas (such as atmosphere) scatters light, at which point it's only really useful in a true vacuum. It's all a matter of how much and where you draw the line. However, I agree your method would probably pass muster with more GMs.
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If you can see the hull of the enemy ship,
Starfinder isn't exactly hard science fiction but, even so, I wouldn't assume that you can see the enemy ship with your eyes. Space combat could easily be happening at a scale of hundreds (or thousands) of miles to a hex.
One lesson that very few TV shows or movies have learned is that space is kinda big.
If you can see the hull of the enemy ship,Starfinder isn't exactly hard science fiction but, even so, I wouldn't assume that you can see the enemy ship with your eyes. Space combat could easily be happening at a scale of hundreds (or thousands) of miles to a hex.
One lesson that very few TV shows or movies have learned is that space is kinda big.
Very true. I wasn't suggesting a character would be able to jump across multiple hexes. Given some ships are 15,000 feet in length or more, implies hexes must be at least that big, if not the miles you suggest. Ray of light's "long" range at best on the order of 1,000 feet.
Presumably since missiles can hit ships, and some tiny fighters are faster than those missiles (with the same maneuverability), a fast tiny fighter can get very close to another ship. Perhaps during a Flyby maneuver coming from behind and briefly matching speed. Whether that time is long enough to activate the Solarian power is also another valid question given potential relative velocities.
At the end of the day, it is totally up to the GM as there are certainly no hard rules on the matter. It could also make typical combats very annoying to run if allowed. But I could also see it used once in a great while to produce an interesting narrative. Anyways, I suppose I should stop derailing the thread.
My guess is that Starship combat counts as combat, and thus the Sidereal Influence bonuses are not available. But you could use Astrologic Sense to look 1 hour into the future or use Glow of Life to heal 3 times your level in hit points. Given you are giving up a crew action in a combat situation to do these things certainly makes the trade off balanced.