Encounter ratings for low tier ships

[Some random person]

What would you consider an easy, average and challenging challenge rating for ships of tier 1, 2 and 3?

[Metaphysician]

Starship tier -3, -2, and -1, respectively.

[Tryn]

Isn't a ships CR equal to it's tier?

So if the players have a APL/Ship Tier of 3 the encounter table would look this:

Easy = Tier 2 (Tier – 1)
Average = Tier 3 (Tier)
Challenging = Tier 4 (Tier + 1)
Hard = Tier 5 (Tier + 2)
Epic = Tier 6 (Tier + 3)

[The Morphling]

Tryn wrote:

Isn't a ships CR equal to it's tier?

So if the players have a APL/Ship Tier of 3 the encounter table would look this:

Easy = Tier 2 (Tier – 1)
Average = Tier 3 (Tier)
Challenging = Tier 4 (Tier + 1)
Hard = Tier 5 (Tier + 2)
Epic = Tier 6 (Tier + 3)

That is not correct in Starfinder. Ship encounters are very different from monster encounters, and tier is not to be used like Challenge Rating. Metaphysician is correct - as the Starship Combat chapter confirms.

[pauljathome]

Tryn wrote:

Isn't a ships CR equal to it's tier?

So if the players have a APL/Ship Tier of 3 the encounter table would look this:

Easy = Tier 2 (Tier – 1)
Average = Tier 3 (Tier)
Challenging = Tier 4 (Tier + 1)
Hard = Tier 5 (Tier + 2)
Epic = Tier 6 (Tier + 3)

I think that, before deciding, we need to see how Paizo decides to fix the known issue of starship difficulties scaling badly.

Also, I strongly suspect that assuming that a ships tier and its ACTUAL combat difficulty are identical is at least as incorrect as assuming CR accurately refelected anything much was in Pathfinder. You can build way more or less impressive ships with the same CR.

[Some random person]

Metaphysician wrote:

Starship tier -3, -2, and -1, respectively.

Thanks, but what I meant was: how does that work for low numbers?

For a tier 1 ship those are "negative tiers" (or zero).

[David knott 242]

The next step below 1 is 1/2, then 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8. Reducing tier or CR by 1 is equivalent to going one row up on Table 11-3 on page 390.

[Some random person]

David knott 242 wrote:

The next step below 1 is 1/2, then 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8. Reducing tier or CR by 1 is equivalent to going one row up on Table 11-3 on page 390.

Ah, thanks. Do you have any idea where that's spelled out? I've been looking for a week now, but I must've missed it somehow. (I decided the intended progression was maybe 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 - so I was close!)

[Tryn]

Good to know.
The planned ship combat would have been a desaster for my group oO

[David knott 242]

Some random person wrote:

David knott 242 wrote:

The next step below 1 is 1/2, then 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8. Reducing tier or CR by 1 is equivalent to going one row up on Table 11-3 on page 390.

Ah, thanks. Do you have any idea where that's spelled out? I've been looking for a week now, but I must've missed it somehow. (I decided the intended progression was maybe 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 - so I was close!)

I was just going by the referenced table.

[Some random person]

It makes perfect sense to treat "-1 tier" as "move up the table one row". I was just stuck on it as a formula (x-1) and couldn't see the wood for the trees.

Thanks.