I see no rule in either Starfinder, the Starfinder FAQ, Pathfinder or Pathfinder FAQ that relates to the following issue that came up in our first Starfinder Society game tonight.
A few people arrived early to create characters, and selected an initial profession. Profession being a class skill, my interpretation has always been the +3 bonus only applies to your first profession, should you choose to have others.
However, a rules lawyer not involved in the game yelled from across the room that all professions are class skills. Seems a little overpowered to me. After getting home tonight and reviewing the rulebooks and FAQ's, I will be ruling next week that it's only your first choice that is a class skill. Unless someone posts to clear this up.
Thanks.
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You gain a +3 bonus on all class skills that you put ranks into.
How is it overpowered? How many professions does one character need?
Would you rule Perform skill the same way, so that Bards can good with one instrument or at singing or acting, but not multiple instruments?
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You're not gonna find much discussion (if any) or any FAQ or previous developer ruling on the topic because it's such a clear-cut case. There's no rule, ever, that only first Profession is a class skill. Profession is meant to be an easy class skill for anybody and if one takes a new type of Profession, it's still a class skill.
Just like with Pathfinder with Craft with different specializations or Perform with different instruments, they're all class skills.
Don't overthink it and change rules that's already there, especially for a Society game.
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You should see all the different types of jobs I've had. :-)
It's totally reasonable that ALL professions are class skills and it's absolutely not overpowered.
The hostility aside, I thank you all for your input, and will be changing my interpretation to what seems to be the correct one.
Any profession with a rank gets +3.
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What hostility?
The hostility aside, I thank you all for your input, and will be changing my interpretation to what seems to be the correct one.
Any profession with a rank gets +3.
Don't take this the wrong way, but your initial post came across with some hostility in it due to your usage of "rules lawyer" and general tone.
It's pretty natural to meet hostility with hostility, though that doesn't make it right. It is however very human.
If I misinterpreted the responses as hostile, I apologize. However, calling it a clear-cut issue when every player at my table asked for a ruling made me feel like I was being told I was an idiot. It is not clear-cut if everyone at the table can't find text stating a rule. For such rules heavy games, both Pathfinder and Starfinder, there is no official text about Profession as a class skill, other than the class descriptions saying that you get Profession (your choice) as a class skill.
That said, I am entirely about Society play. I play Pathfinder and GM Starfinder. I have no desire to short change my players due to a misinterpretation on my part, so everyone will be be informed of my mistake, and will go back through my PFS characters and add +3 where I short changed myself.
The hostility aside, I thank you all for your input, and will be changing my interpretation to what seems to be the correct one.
Any profession with a rank gets +3.
Don't take this the wrong way, but your initial post came across with some hostility in it due to your usage of "rules lawyer" and general tone.
It's pretty natural to meet hostility with hostility, though that doesn't make it right. It is however very human.
Very true. And once again, regardless of whether I misinterpreted your posts as hostile, I prefer my new interpretation of the rules. In the end, all I care about is did my players have fun. Yes, from Facebook feedback they sure as heck did. I only asked because if my interpretation of the rules was wrong, and ends up penalizing them, I want to change it ASAP.
My apologies if I came across as hostile, that was not my intent. :-)
My apologies if I came across as hostile, that was not my intent. :-)
No worries. My initial post was somewhat hostile, and I've never posted on these boards and had such a barrage of replies, and felt the general tone was hostile. I really didn't appreciate the person in the store interrupting me as I tried to immerse my players by describing the setting, introducing the Pact Worlds, Absalom Station, the concept of the Drift, etc, with a bunch of technicalities, because I knew my table was full of role players, not metagamers. So, yes, I probably came across as angry, because I was.
All the posts have made me change my mind as to my initial ruling, and in the end it didn't apply, since no one chose more than one profession. However, if they did that because of my incorrect ruling, I'll be giving them a mulligan next week on skill choices.
Two sessions from now, I have some very experienced Pathfinder players at my Starfinder table so I want to be very rules prepared for that session.
Once again, thanks for everyone's comments, I will apply the new rule as soon as we start again next week.
I agree, that was super rude and totally uncalled for. :-)
My apologies if I came across as hostile, that was not my intent. :-)No worries. My initial post was somewhat hostile, and I've never posted on these boards and had such a barrage of replies, and felt the general tone was hostile. I really didn't appreciate the person in the store interrupting me as I tried to immerse my players by describing the setting, introducing the Pact Worlds, Absalom Station, the concept of the Drift, etc, with a bunch of technicalities, because I knew my table was full of role players, not metagamers. So, yes, I probably came across as angry, because I was.
All the posts have made me change my mind as to my initial ruling, and in the end it didn't apply, since no one chose more than one profession. However, if they did that because of my incorrect ruling, I'll be giving them a mulligan next week on skill choices.
Two sessions from now, I have some very experienced Pathfinder players at my Starfinder table so I want to be very rules prepared for that session.
Once again, thanks for everyone's comments, I will apply the new rule as soon as we start again next week.
I don't think you'll have to worry about anyone picking up more than one Profession skill very often in Organized Play. Between themes and one Profession skill, roleplayers ought to have all they need for their background. And optimizers picking up Profession is probably for the day job checks in downtime and need their non-Profession skill points elsewhere.
EDIT: Reading my original post I can see how I came off not in the best light, so I apologize for being short with you there.
You're doing a great, enthusiastic job setting up Starfinder Society in Edmonton, by the way, Michael.
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Two sessions from now, I have some very experienced Pathfinder players at my Starfinder table so I want to be very rules prepared for that session.
You may want to warn them that Starfinder changes some of the base assumptions and mathematics of the game. If they treat it like PF, they may run into some issues and it may hinder their enjoyment of the game.
It's best to approach this as its own game, rather than Pathfinder in Space.
Two sessions from now, I have some very experienced Pathfinder players at my Starfinder table so I want to be very rules prepared for that session.You may want to warn them that Starfinder changes some of the base assumptions and mathematics of the game. If they treat it like PF, they may run into some issues and it may hinder their enjoyment of the game.
It's best to approach this as its own game, rather than Pathfinder in Space.
Absolutely. That was my first bit of administrative talk with players, that my fears that this would just be cut and paste Pathfinder with comma Space after everything, ended up totally unjustified. This is a new system, and I introduced myself as being as new to it as they were. No one cared, because fun was the ultimate goal.