How bad is a Dexterity penalty in Starfinder?

[Lord Fyre]

For converting a Pathifinder race (or importing a race from another science-fiction source) how bad is it for a race to have a -2 penalty to Dexterity?

[Xenocrat]

It depends on the bonuses, the class, and your priorities. If the bonuses are in useful abilities you would have increased anyway and that are useful to your class anyway you can buy dex up to 14 and still have a 16/12 or 14/14 in your bonus stats. That's a defensible array.

[Gary Bush]

Dex is used for your initiative, reflex saves, ranged attacks, the Operative class, the Soldier class, and the following skills: Acrobatics, Piloting, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth.

So of your build falls into those areas, it is something to think about.

[Claxon]

Assuming your build isn't focusing around something that uses dex your fine (so a melee build).

Your initiative, reflex, etc will be one worse than a race that didn't have a dex penalty.

You will be slightly worse at some things, slightly better at others.

[citricking]

It's fine because of the point buy system, you can put 10 points in and start with 18 dex if you want, Vesk make good technomancers and they have an int penalty.

[Castilliano]

First, have a good Dex. For nearly all builds you'll need to shoot guns and have the AC bonus, or at least enjoy your PC more.

Second, penalties hardly matter. In this flat point system where the modifiers are applied first, penalties do not limit an ability's max, they tell you which ability could be dumped.
In the same vein, bonuses hardly matter. They tell you which ability cannot be dumped. So they matter when they raise a stat higher than you want it to be (essentially at the cost to a stat you want more).

Essentially, you get 10 free stat points + net 2 racial points + 1 theme point. If you have a -2 where you don't care, that frees up 2 points for where it matters to you. If you have a +2 where you don't care, you've wasted 2 points.

Let's say you want an Operative with:
Str 11
Dex 18
Con 10
Int 12
Wis 10
Cha 12
You could build that with any race or theme that didn't give a bonus to Con or Wis and any race that didn't give a bonus to Str.
If you did take such an option, you'd have to lose points from elsewhere. No racial penalties would affect your ability to make this character, ever, even a penalty to Dex.

Another example,
Str 12
Dex 13
Con 12
Int 12
Wis 12
Cha 12
Any character of any PC race could have these stats.
If their theme didn't boost a racially boosted stat (except Dex in this example), they could have any theme too.

Hope that helps,
Cheers, JMK

(And again, don't dump Dex!)

[Omnius]

I'd say it's now worse than a constitution penalty as something absolutely everybody cares about and would rather avoid.

Initiative, AC (with armor that makes your dexterity more usable), and the game is dominated by gun fights, so its impact on ranged combat is very important even if you're a caster. No one wants a penalty here.

Though it can be overcome.