The only thing that bugged me from the start was how they made armor and weapons scale, and how it's mandatory to wear armor in a SF RPG.
When you look at it, characters level determines how precise they attack, but characters gear determines how well they defend. Characters level determines how much HP/SP they have, but gear(in most part) determines how much damage they deal.
Seems a bit off...
With weapons it doesnt bug me so much, considering that dmg also scales with level, and weapons scale far more slowly through low, mid and high-mid levels.
when you look at armors, they scale in average +1 per level and they give initialy roughly 0-2 bonus for light, and 2-4 bonus for heavy(depending on EAC, KAC, max dex, ACP). Just take any armor and subtract its level from its defenses, and you will get roughly these numbers.
So if you would have all characters scale +1 EAC/KAC per level and have armor values fixed, nothing would change except you could run around without armor, and you wouldn't have to change armor every level.
In higher levels armor would gain better max dex and more upgrade slots, maybe even better ACP ratings...and it would scale more similar to weapons
Power armor would be more easy to design and it would be useful far longer in some cases(like battle harness)
Thoughts?
Honestly, having weapons and armour scale would have been a nice way for it to work in general. Especially with those weapons that don't exist part various levels.
Like Flame Rifles/Pistols. I'd love to see flame pistols/rifles past level 2.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So my level 1 character is walking out of the shower and get shot by laser and dies.
Same character, getting out of the shower is now level 12 and the laser bounces off his skin... yeah... not seeing it.
Also this causes problems with hygiene... how is my character going to shave if his natural armor bonus prevents the razor from cutting his whiskers?
Said level 12 character can already do that. If he's got the resistance talent he'll reduce fire damage by 12 and it takes quite a few levels for a laser to get through that reliably. He can indefinitely soak level 1 laser rifles.
Starfinder characters seem to use the 'Get used to getting shot by small bullets to build up a resistance' method.
Hartbaine it's not natural armor....It's your characters badass high level reflexes and combat skills. And since when can a lasershot bring down 150 or more hp/sp in one go?
You've noted the math, but haven't noted the why. The reason the armor increases like it does is because characters, unlike in Pathfinder, are not longer getting a series of pluses on their equipment. Aside from the rings in the book, there are no real magical do-dads that keep the characters AC increasing to match the expected challenges ahead of them.
To account for that they incrementally added bonuses to the armor to keep the characters safe. The +1/level is about average for most characters considering magical trinkets, spells, class abilities and whatnot.
I get what you're saying, Star Wars used to do it. Characters received a Defense Bonus based on their level. Personally I didn't think it worked out well then, and it doesn't seem like something SF needs.
That said, if you wanna do it, feel free.
Dex is an important post of AC regardless of armor type.
Saves are also a big part of defense and gear does little to boost those.
Weapon specialization is about 1/4 to 1/3 of your damage and is based on level.
Stats and class determine to-hit which is very important to damage.
Play a level 10 character in level 20 gear against a level 20 character in level 1 gear and see who wins.
I like the armor and weapon scaling. It is a big part of the game.
Dave2
...when you look at armors, they scale in average +1 per level and they give initialy roughly 0-2 bonus for light, and 2-4 bonus for heavy(depending on EAC, KAC, max dex, ACP). Just take any armor and subtract its level from its defenses, and you will get roughly these numbers...
Heavy armor:
lvl - name EAC/KAC-level upgrade slots max dex effective ACs - level
1 - ceremonial plate 0/2 3 2 2/4
1 - golemforged plating 1/4 0 0 1/4
20 - aegis series 5/8 7 4 9/12
20 - vesk monolith 6/7 7 5 11/12Light armor:
lvl - name EAC/KAC-level upgrade slots max dex effective ACs - level
1 - extex suit -1/0 2 5 4/5
1 - second skin 0/1 1 5 5/6
1 - stationwear -1/0 0 6 5/6
20 - carbon skin 1/3 6 8 9/11
20 - hardlight 2/2 6 8 1 0/10It looks like in addition to 1ac per level, light armor also gains 5 or 6 ac over the course of 20 levels and heavy armor get 8 or 9. Of course, taking into account an average starting dex of 14, the ac(-level) of light armor will be about 2/3 at level 1 and 10/10 at max level since getting a +8dex mod will be easy. This also puts it in line with heavy armor progression. They also get about 5 or 6 extra upgrade slots.
When I first saw the equipment I thought it was weird that everything had an item level. Of course, this does make it easier for society play. Seems like society play, had a large influence on the rules.
You can leave dexterity out of it. When you do, light armor gives 1-2 bonus, and heavy 3-4, throughout all 20 levels. Approximately of course.
But i get it....it was always like that in Pathfinder....AC not depending on level whatsoever
still bugs me for not being able to play a PC without armor...
still bugs me for not being able to play a PC without armor...
You can. No where in the book does it say 'armor is mandatory, you must own it'.
Take cover.
Configure a force field to act like Kinetic Barriers from Mass Effect so it's attached to a belt or clips on to your belt like a fanny pack.
Create an Ablative Harness that provides a deflection bonus.
Max your Charisma so you're so wonderful enemies feel that by destroying you the galaxy would be a less wonderful.
Max your Religion Skill so you can inflict enemies with 'guilt trip' and convince them that by killing you they'd never hear the end of it.
Don't get into fights while in your nickers.
You have options.
Remember that armor in Pathfinder also doubles as your space suit. Breathing in a vacuum is important since you might need to do it at some point.
