Alien Archive Races with +4 stat bonuses


General Discussion

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

The current player character creation rules do not allow for any attribute to start above 18. So is there any real benefit of a +4 Stat over a +2 Stat?

Granted, some races like the contemplative have 2 -2 stats, so you could opt for two 8s and have some higher others. But then 8 Con would be "interesting"


Basically guarantees you will have a 14 in a stat and makes it cheap to boost to 18 while still having extras for other stats. But really it all works out to be about the same in the end unless their negative is in a stat that you would have to pump points into to compensate.

With the way stamina and the death system work low con does not appear to be as deadly dangerous in starfinder as it would in pathfinder. And you can get shields to give you temporary HP as you level to mitigate con issues. I would expect probably when you get your stat boost at level 5 that you drop one of them into it to bring con to 10 and I believe that retroactively gives you all the stamina/hp back to that point.


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+4 to a stat is more of a restriction, since you can't dump stats, and it commits you to having at least 14 in that stat. Races with a +4 are more "pigeonholed" into certain roles than others. There's nothing wrong with that, especially since it's only a few races out of many.


Attribute power comes from getting a penalty in a dump stat you don't care about, not a bonus, as long as the bonus is in something you don't care about anyway.


I have to disagree guys. The "worst" would be a 14 Cha and that is still a +2 bump to assisting in diplomacy situations. Every other stat affects AC, a save, skills or combat.

As long as you aren't taking a hit to something your class needs, it's all cream.


Ignore the 18 rule. It was written in line with your Race selection surrounding the +2 race stats, I don't see why a GM should feel that someone can't start with 20 in a stat if they want.


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EC Gamer Guy wrote:

I have to disagree guys. The "worst" would be a 14 Cha and that is still a +2 bump to assisting in diplomacy situations. Every other stat affects AC, a save, skills or combat.

As long as you aren't taking a hit to something your class needs, it's all cream.

Gotta point out that the Solarian's key stat is Charisma, so no, CHA can affect combat.


RevenantBob wrote:
Ignore the 18 rule. It was written in line with your Race selection surrounding the +2 race stats, I don't see why a GM should feel that someone can't start with 20 in a stat if they want.

It actually does matter because for your every five level boosts for attributes 17 and above you only get +1 to the stat. So if somebody starts at a 20 it would take another race 10 levels to match that naturally without using one of their three stat enhancing items they can purchase.

Every race I have seen winds up with the same net +2 boost to attributes. Starting with the +4 in one stat is just a more focused race where they are better at that one attribute but the max at start would still be 18. As with anything it is a GM's call but due to how stat advancements work be REALLY careful about letting anybody start with more than 18 in a stat because it could cause a long of angst in the long run.

Shadow Lodge

At first level everyone starts with a total of +6 stat modifiers. Having +4 to one stat and -2 to another still nets you +6 stat modifiers. Racial stat bonuses don't really matter where they are anymore, so stacking them together doesn't change much.

Say you want to start with the numbers: 16 14 13 10 10 10
Any race can start with those numbers, all race does is determine which stats those numbers could be assigned to.

Negative stat modifiers don't even matter much anymore. Want to play an android with an 18 cha? No problem. You can start with 10 13 10 12 10 18. The only difference between this stat array and the one you could get as a human, is that you have to put the 12s into dex and int.

Stat modifiers are more of a limiting factor than anything else. Since you can choose a race with a -2 in a stat that you will not roll often, then you get an effective bonus 2 stats. So the stat penalty is actually the important part of racial ability modifiers.
(Note that a race with a -4 stat modifier would be more powerful than core races; assuming it got +6 in other stats to compensate).

Personally, I would not ignore the 18 max rule. Allowing someone to start with higher than 18 means they will always be above the designed curve, giving them an advantage over every other player.


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It is technically possible to have a total of less than +6 in stat modifiers if you take more than one odd stat. For example, a stat distribution of 18 11 11 11 11 11 would only add up to +4.

Of course, I have no idea why anyone would be insane enough to do that.

Shadow Lodge

David knott 242 wrote:

It is technically possible to have a total of less than +6 in stat modifiers if you take more than one odd stat. For example, a stat distribution of 18 11 11 11 11 11 would only add up to +4.

Of course, I have no idea why anyone would be insane enough to do that.

Yeah, I think the character creation rules should say something along the lines of: We strongly suggest you take only one odd stat as there is no way of making odd stats even! The only purpose of an odd stat is meeting the prerequisites of certain feats.


gnoams wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:

It is technically possible to have a total of less than +6 in stat modifiers if you take more than one odd stat. For example, a stat distribution of 18 11 11 11 11 11 would only add up to +4.

Of course, I have no idea why anyone would be insane enough to do that.

Yeah, I think the character creation rules should say something along the lines of: We strongly suggest you take only one odd stat as there is no way of making odd stats even! The only purpose of an odd stat is meeting the prerequisites of certain feats.

Yeah... the future is weird like that.


Yeah, I detail this in my other thread with Solarians.

For the Melee Solarian the recommended array is:

16/13/10/10/10/14 or 16/13/10/10/08/16

But even those, as they level end up:

18/15/10/10/12/16 vs 18/15/12/10/10/16
19/17/12/10/12/18 vs 19/17/12/10/12/18
20/17/14/12/14/18 vs 20/17/14/12/14/18
20/18/16/14/16/18 vs 20/18/16/14/16/18

So they quickly all become largely the same regardless of starting array. Any race with a single -2 and + to Strength or Charisma can do this, and any theme that adds to Strength, Dex, or Charisma can do this.

Even a Dragonkin (+4 Str, -2 Dex)

Str: 16 (2 pts)
Dex: 13 (4 pts +1 Theme)
Con: 10
Int: 10
Wis: 10
Cha: 14 (4 pts)


Wouldn't they even out when you upgrade 17s to 18s? Not sure that works starting at 11s but the idea of it.

gnoams wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:

It is technically possible to have a total of less than +6 in stat modifiers if you take more than one odd stat. For example, a stat distribution of 18 11 11 11 11 11 would only add up to +4.

Of course, I have no idea why anyone would be insane enough to do that.

Yeah, I think the character creation rules should say something along the lines of: We strongly suggest you take only one odd stat as there is no way of making odd stats even! The only purpose of an odd stat is meeting the prerequisites of certain feats.

Shadow Lodge

EC Gamer Guy wrote:

Wouldn't they even out when you upgrade 17s to 18s? Not sure that works starting at 11s but the idea of it.

Yes a 17 technically becomes an 18, but then you just threw away that odd stat. You could have had a 16 and it would upgrade to 18. That one odd stat could have been somewhere else where it did not get lost for no benefit. So there's really no reason to put the odd stat in an ability you are going to upgrade past 17.

On the other hand, that odd stat doesn't really do much so if you do toss it, not much loss.


gnoams wrote:
EC Gamer Guy wrote:

Wouldn't they even out when you upgrade 17s to 18s? Not sure that works starting at 11s but the idea of it.

Yes a 17 technically becomes an 18, but then you just threw away that odd stat. You could have had a 16 and it would upgrade to 18. That one odd stat could have been somewhere else where it did not get lost for no benefit. So there's really no reason to put the odd stat in an ability you are going to upgrade past 17.

Not necessarily. Starting with an odd number in your Dexterity score, for example, will allow you to qualify for several close combat-friendly feats that classes like Solarians and Soldiers like at early levels, and I'd say it's still a good idea to boost it up to 18 as soon as you can.

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