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Hello! So, I am looking for some advice. This is an Organized Play character, as a note.
In any case, the character is an Android Solarian Icon that has freshly earned 2nd level, but I've not played yet as 2nd level.
I'm looking for advice on
My problem is that the character is pretty much a glass cannon from past play, and a melee oriented Solarian at that.
I do not want to multiclass if it can at all be helped.
I am also trying to make his name stick with it being "Mach Spirit" and going from there.
Sooo... here's the questions, advice I'm asking on.
1) Is there a decent way to setup a Solarian for melee combat with the Solar Weapon path or to make his way into melee combat without being shot down hard?
2) Is Heavy Armor Proficiency really worth it in this case? If so, can you explain the pros and cons to this? I've heard it being used before, but wanted to be sure because that's a lot of credits going into that if I do it, and it's liable to hinder my movement in most cases.
3) Anyone have a recommendation on Feats or the like to make the name stick? I'd like that a lot here, but don't know anything other than the movement feats to do that with.
Hoping fellow forum posters can give a hand here!
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
This is going to be a fairly hard path because your race doesn’t help with Strength and hurts Charisma. It would work better as a ranged Solarian using armor, since then the racial Dex bonus would somewhat offset the Charisma penalty.
Your Charisma is not going to be very high, which means you will not have the resolve to get back in a fight or recover Stamina as often as others.
To answer your questions,
1) Most melee Solarians are looking for at least a 14 and preferably a 16 Strength. Many would look to grab Stellar Rush so that they can move into position and then charge into melee.
2) Heavy Armor will give you much better AC and better options for Armor Upgrades but slightly reduce your movement. Most find it useful.
3) Mach suggests speed. Fleet or something like it would back that up, but that doesn’t work with heavy armor.
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I would go for a ranged build, looking at Solar Armor and feats like Shot on the Run and Fleet to match with the name.
For Melee Solarian
Feats -
Heavy Armor: You're going to need it to survive. Most PFS scenarios I've seen/played have not been 'to hard' for survive through. AP path is a different story.
As a second level PFS Solarian, my opinion of the best Heavy Armor is the level 3 Defiance Series, Squad Armor. While it does suffer from a nasty armor check and movement penalty, the AC boost I feel is the best you can get for your credits.
Mobility: With Stellar Rush, things with reach and not wanting to block the LOS of your fellow party members. Mobility gives you a extra +4 AC vs AO which is huge. Plus if you ever want to use your Supernova you'll want that extra defense to get in the best position.
Revelation: Stellar Rush. Gives you extra movement which you might need due to movement penalties with Heavy Armor.
Starship Combat
Sad to say, here you'll probably be a third wheel. I ended up with my PFS Solarian putting a rank or two in Engineering, Computer, and Pilot. Every now and then I get to play Captain and all I do is the Aid other action. Just about everyone else can preform all the different jobs a lot better then me.
Ranged Combat -
Be sure you pick up a Starknife, Tactical and put a Returning Fusion on it. Gives you the ranged option that uses your Strength for attacking, returns to you so you can use it every round and counts as a magical weapon if needed.
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Thomas M. wrote: Hello! So, I am looking for some advice. This is an Organized Play character, as a note.
In any case, the character is an Android Solarian Icon that has freshly earned 2nd level, but I've not played yet as 2nd level.
I'm looking for advice on
My problem is that the character is pretty much a glass cannon from past play, and a melee oriented Solarian at that.
I do not want to multiclass if it can at all be helped.
I am also trying to make his name stick with it being "Mach Spirit" and going from there.
Sooo... here's the questions, advice I'm asking on.
1) Is there a decent way to setup a Solarian for melee combat with the Solar Weapon path or to make his way into melee combat without being shot down hard?
2) Is Heavy Armor Proficiency really worth it in this case? If so, can you explain the pros and cons to this? I've heard it being used before, but wanted to be sure because that's a lot of credits going into that if I do it, and it's liable to hinder my movement in most cases.
3) Anyone have a recommendation on Feats or the like to make the name stick? I'd like that a lot here, but don't know anything other than the movement feats to do that with.
Hoping fellow forum posters can give a hand here!
1) I'd recommend a Stat allocation of Str 14/ Dex 13/ Con 10/ Int 12/ Wis 10/ Cha 14 on an Android Solarian. At 2nd level in SFS play, with a Solar Weapon, you should be able to afford the +2 Strength upgrade already, putting you at a reasonable Str 16/ Dex 13/ Con 10/ Int 12/ Wis 10/ Cha 14. You want the 14 Charisma so you have 3 Resolve points at 2nd level. Melee means you need the 14 Strength, which leaves you with 13 Dex and 12 Int.
2) If you want to go into melee, and you're using a Solar Weapon, then yes, you'll want Heavy Armor (especially with a 13 Dex). Use the heavy armors with only -5 move speed if you need to (there are also heavy armor options with no movement penalty at higher level).
Stellar Rush in normal terrain will help with the speed issue even in heavy armor. Standard move 20-25 feet to open up charge lane, charge 40-50 feet. It'll get you in melee range most of the time.
Pros are you have melee acceptable AC and won't get hit every time. Cons are you are slower, but that can be mitigated. It also costs you a feat. You put Advanced Melee Weapon Focus off until 3rd for example.
3) Mach is the speed of sound. Now it could mean you're physically fast. Or you could go with the sound association, and maybe sing or perform music. Possibly really fast with Android precision. You could go with the Profession: Musician or the like, based off charisma. At the very least you'll get 36 bonus credits every week at 2nd level in SFS play (10+1+2+3+2=18 profession check).
Skills: Culture (+1 from Icon combined with Skill Adept), Diplomacy, Intimidate, Bluff (other Skill Adept choice), Profession: Musician/Orator/Poet or something with sound (+1 from Icon).
This lets you play at Captain and a party face (or backup if you happen to get an Envoy). Backup pick is Gunner. At 3rd level, pick Diplomacy and Bluff for Sidereal influence. Androids are surprisingly good at Bluff since everyone has a sense motive penalty against them.
If you're anything like my character, at 2nd level in SFS should put you around 1000+500+700+700=2900 total credits with full sell back in a rebuild or GM credit.
A Called or Returning Starknife costs you 110+120 = 230 credits. I'd probably go with Squad Defiance Series (1,220) if you want max AC, 2 points higher than Iridishell. Or you could go Basic Iridishell heavy armor if you only want a -5 foot speed penalty (755 credits), and then plan to upgrade sooner. Buy a Strength +2 personal augmentation (1,400). You're relying on your Solar Weapon for melee damage.
You should have anywhere from 50 to 500 left over for minor other equipment.
I'd start with a stat array of -
Str 16/ Dex 13/ Con 10/ Int 10/ Wis 10/ Cha 14
5th level stat bumps: STR+2/DEX+2/CON+2/CHA+2
10th level stat bumps: DEX+2/CON+2/ (subject to your character) INT+2/WIS+2
While starting with a 12 INT is nice and gives you a extra skill rank. You're just not going to be as skilled as the classes that have the skill ranks and stats modifiers to be the primary skill roller. So I figure, get enough ranks in a skill where I'm a decent "Aid Other" and focus on where I'll be good at which is melee combat.
PS> The sad truth is that at the moment the melee Solarian is pretty much a cookie cutter build with slight variations if you want to be effective in combat.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Matt2VK wrote: I'd start with a stat array of -
Str 16/ Dex 13/ Con 10/ Int 10/ Wis 10/ Cha 14
The original poster said they wanted an android. You can't do that stat array on an android.
Base race + theme (Icon)
Str 10 Dex 12 Con 10 Int 12 Wis 10 Cha 9
You aren't allowed to sell back attributes in order to improve other attributes, so the Int has to be at least 12. In order to get to a Str 16 you would have at most a Charisma of 13.
I think that anything less than a 14 in a class key ability score is taking a huge risk. You will not have the Resolve to recover stamina between fights.
Matt2VK wrote: PS> The sad truth is that at the moment the melee Solarian is pretty much a cookie cutter build with slight variations if you want to be effective in combat. Depending on what you mean by slight variations, there are currently at least 2 different melee builds. High strength, heavy armor solar weapon and medium strength plus medium dexterity solar armor. The former focuses on AC and damage output, the later on versatile movement, reach, and other disruptive tricks.
You can also try out a melee control build with medium strength, heavy armor, high charisma, although I haven't had a chance to try it in actual play.
His other requirements (i.e. Android Icon) are what restrict his options somewhat for an effective melee combatant though.
I goofed on the stat array.
All melee Solarians pick just about the same revaluations in the same order and 75% of how they pick their feats are the same.
(same could be said for melee soldiers)
Wow! Okay, thanks guys. Lots of stuff for me to look at definitely. I mean, shoot, I didn't expect to get this many posts this early in the week either.
I'll update my next set of days off with more.
Another question, however. The starknife. Is it a good back up as well if I choose to stay Solar Weapon? I'm still looking at it and I'm impressed with it's range later on. But, as most say, charging in recklessly in Starfinder is not a good idea usually.
Other than the starknife, is there any recommended weapons you guys can give? I know I've got a set of electrovore gloves on one chronicle sheet I can pick up if I choose to go Armor instead of stick to Weapon.
Likewise, a further question since it's possible I might be looking into it and I've yet to find out how it works. How does dual wielding work in Starfinder?
Hope to hear back and get some more advice on this.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Thomas M. wrote: Likewise, a further question since it's possible I might be looking into it and I've yet to find out how it works. How does dual wielding work in Starfinder? It does not give any additional attacks.
You can hold and wield more than one weapon at a time. This would allow you to (as an example) wield both a survival knife and a azimuth laser pistol at the same time. You could attack with either of them. See pg. 168 for the rules on holding and wielding weapons.
There is a feat Multi-Weapon Fighting that allows you to reduce the penalty for full attack actions when you are wielding two or more small arms or two or more operative weapons. It reduces the penalty by one.
There is no equivalent of the Two Weapon fighting feats from Pathfinder.
I consider a Starknife with a Fusion a must have weapon for a Solarian with the Solar Weapon ability.
2 main reasons -
1) Gives you a decent ranged weapon
2) Fusion Starknife counts as a magic weapon. Which in PFS, you wont have access to make your Solar Weapon magic till 4th level. Unless you come across a chronicle with a solar crystal on it.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Thomas M. wrote: Wow! Okay, thanks guys. Lots of stuff for me to look at definitely. I mean, shoot, I didn't expect to get this many posts this early in the week either.
I'll update my next set of days off with more.
Another question, however. The starknife. Is it a good back up as well if I choose to stay Solar Weapon? I'm still looking at it and I'm impressed with it's range later on. But, as most say, charging in recklessly in Starfinder is not a good idea usually.
Other than the starknife, is there any recommended weapons you guys can give? I know I've got a set of electrovore gloves on one chronicle sheet I can pick up if I choose to go Armor instead of stick to Weapon.
Likewise, a further question since it's possible I might be looking into it and I've yet to find out how it works. How does dual wielding work in Starfinder?
Hope to hear back and get some more advice on this.
my vesk solarian pretty much always charges in recklessly and starts face pounding :)
Okay, another question since I've got some time and looked up the various Starknife and throwing weapons just in case.
First off, I appreciate the actual advice you guys have given. That alone makes me appreciate these forums a ton!
Seriously, if I could give you guys fame, reputation, XP, or something for taking the time to answer all my questions so far, I would.
Now, back to questions:
1) I noticed spears also have a thrown range, do a bit more damage, and have block that can help ACs as well. Is this a reasonable extra advantage for a Solarian as far as a possible replacement to a Returning Starknife? A Returning Spear could be interesting there.
2) You guys are right on the Android limiting my options a bit. However, I'm also considering some ideas here. One example is picking up an Operative weapon and going full Solar Armor instead of Solar Weapon. Is this viable from anyone else's stand point or not?
Hope to hear back from you guys after the holidays while I work on what I've got as far as your answers, ideas, and other things. Thank you very much for the help again in the mean time. Especially the ones staying serious about this and not slapping jokes in the thread.
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Yeah for this Kai and I are pretty much in agreement, you're basically going for the build in my Optimized guide.
14/11/10/10/10/15 - 10 pts
+1 to Cha for Theme -
14/11/10/10/10/16
Racial Modifiers - +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Charisma
14/13/10/12/10/14
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You'll only wind up very slightly behind a base melee Solarian. Androids are not ideal for Solarians.
Your feats are clear here, you want Heavy Armor - For a Melee Solarian t his is almost always a given. You need Strength, so you can't hyper pump dex.
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Feat Path I recommend - From 1-12
1 Heavy Armor
3 WF: Solar Weapon
5 Step Up
7 Imp. Resistance (Fire)
9 Step Up & Strike
11 Iron Will
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You should do alright damage-wise, you'll be around 1 behind the normal curve.
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Revelation Tree:
01 st: Supernova/Black Hole (P1/G1)
02 nd: Stellar Rush (P2/G1)
04 th: Gravity Boost (P2/G2)
06 th: Plasma Sheath (P3/G2)
08 th: Defy Gravity (P3/G3)
10 th: Soul Furnace (P4/G3)
12 th: Gravity Surge (P4/G4)
This keeps you balanced at all levels and plays good to your melee Synergy.
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For weapons, you can't go wrong with a Starknife for your backup ranged attack (I recommend going with the "Called" Fusion over the "Returning Fusion" on it as soon as you can.) and your Solar Weapon for your primary.
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Now... I want to also give you an alternative build that you *may* consider.
Since you had to take a penalty to your Charisma, which isn't ideal... You MAY want to look at an experimental build I am working on...
The Power Solarian -
The Power Solarian is a Power Armor Using Melee Solarian. It has a slow down at level 10, but passes the normal melee limitations at 15. Why this build might work for you is that you can focus away from Strength pumping as you level.
The basic build is the exact same as the melee Solarian, but instead of pumping Strength at 5 and Step Up, you are getting Power Armor Proficiency and you'll change your strength enhancement out later. This works for you due to your lower Strength. This will slow down though for your +4 Upgrade combined with your +2 Strength at level 10.
(You'll be 1 strength behind basically, as you'll be using a battle harness until you can afford a Jarlslayer at 13-14. Unless SFS has rules I am unaware of.)
However Once you get the Jarlslayer you'll have a higher strength than you can possibly get with your starting build and you can use your personal upgrades in a different direction.
Something to consider.
Thomas M. wrote: Okay, another question since I've got some time and looked up the various Starknife and throwing weapons just in case.
First off, I appreciate the actual advice you guys have given. That alone makes me appreciate these forums a ton!
Seriously, if I could give you guys fame, reputation, XP, or something for taking the time to answer all my questions so far, I would.
Now, back to questions:
1) I noticed spears also have a thrown range, do a bit more damage, and have block that can help ACs as well. Is this a reasonable extra advantage for a Solarian as far as a possible replacement to a Returning Starknife? A Returning Spear could be interesting there.
Don't go with returning, go with called. Returning limits movement somewhat, as it goes to the square you threw it from, while called is fine unless you throw it off the side of a building.
Quote: 2) You guys are right on the Android limiting my options a bit. However, I'm also considering some ideas here. One example is picking up an Operative weapon and going full Solar Armor instead of Solar Weapon. Is this viable from anyone else's stand point or not? This is *not* viable. Operative Weapons don't do anywhere near the damage as advanced melee weapons. It isn't too bad for the first couple levels, but your damage will plummet from low strength. You'll suffer lower damage from Weapon Specialization as well.
Quote: Hope to hear back from you guys after the holidays while I work on what I've got as far as your answers, ideas, and other things. Thank you very much for the help again in the mean time. Especially the ones staying serious about this and not slapping jokes in the thread. No problem.
You've already gotten some good advice for staying pure Solarian but unfortunately most of it says you're best off compromising by using heavy armor, which (assuming I understand you correctly) runs counter to the character concept. Sadly I have to agree with them, for an android pure Solarian that wants to mix it up in melee Light Armor is going to be hard to pull off.
You said in your post that you'd try to avoid multiclassing if possible, but it can't hurt to know all your options! I thought I'd chime in and outline the benefits and drawbacks of multiclassing, that way you can make an informed decision. :)
The way I see it, the main problem is that as a Solarian you want high charisma for resolve, for melee you want high strength for attack and damage bonuses, and for light armor you need high dexterity to get your AC up to par. Android compounds on this by giving you a penalty to Charisma, penalizing an already painfully stretched stat budget. Fortunately, there's a way to sidestep the problem.
If you look at the class features Solarians get and the revelations Hwalsh suggests, there's only the level 1 revelations that interact with your charisma modifier (Black Hole which you'll never use, and Supernova which uses it to calculate save DCs). Gravity Surge uses Charisma on level 12, but by then you'll be spoiled for other Graviton powers. All the other revelations work just as well with a low charisma modifier. Other than those two revelations, the only thing your class gains from Charisma is resolve. But resolve is critical - you're going to be in melee, you're going to get hurt. Having a resolve pool of 1-2 points is a definite problem, which is why most of the advice you've gotten so far suggests 14 cha minimum.
Enter the soldier. By taking a level of Soldier, you can now calculate your resolve as 1/2 level + either strength or dexterity (pick whichever is higher). With that level dip, a 10-charisma Solarian works just fine provided you plan out your revelations (ie follow Hwalsh's plan) and avoid revelations that interact with Charisma. No longer needing charisma means you can afford to put enough PB into strength and dexterity to make light armor viable. As an android Icon you can do something like 16/16/10/12/10/9, which would give you both a decent attack modifier and a decent defense. Note that the high dexterity helps offset the traditionally low reflex save for Solarians.
Since you want to go fast, I'd suggest taking the Blitz specialization at level 1. You gain a +10 Movement speed, and a +4 bonus to Initiative checks - perfect for a speedster.
Upside of dipping Blitz soldier:
Resolve based on Str
+2 Fort, +2 Will saves
+10 Movement speed
+4 Initiative
Proficiency with longarms, heavy weapons, grenades and heavy armor (if you find a particularly awesome one). Note that you'll still need Versatile Specialization if you want to use a longarm or heavy weapon.
Some new class skills. High dexterity and the Pilot class skill means you could be a pretty good stick jockey. :)
Downside of dipping soldier
Everything comes online later.
Regular and Zenith Revelations, Sidereal Influence, Flashing Strikes, everything becomes delayed by one level.
This is especially painful for Solar Weapon, but Solar Armor is still a good option.
Build:
As I mentioned before, Solar Weapon already has kind of underwhelming scaling and delaying it by a level isn't ideal. If I were you I'd go Solar Armor and rely on conventional weapons. In part because the scaling works out better and Light Armor can still use the boost, but also because Starfinder melee weapons are fun! If you go Solar Weapon then most of the time you'll be using your mote and missing out on Plasma Doshkos and Shock Truncheons and Starfire Swords and all the other fun toys! :D
If you want to be fast, let's be fast! The Fleet feat gives you +10 movement speed in light armor, and stacks with Blitz so you'll have a 50 baseline speed. Jet Dash allows you to run at 6x your normal speed. If you really want to go fast look into getting a speed suspension augment. A base speed of 60 and Jet Dash means you can run 360 feet in six seconds, ie you'd be running at roughly 65.8 kph, assuming my math is right. For reference, Usain Bolt's top speed was measured at 44.72 kph during a 100m sprint, and his average speed during the same run is 37.58 kph. So yeah, you're comfortably lapping Usain Bolt in a 400m run.
You're a human greyhound, now let's put that speed to good use! A base speed of 60 gives you a massive modifier to your already impressive Athletics skill, and Jet Dash doubles the maximum range you can jump. You're android John Carter, have fun!
I can't guarantee that the above build is going to be the most optimized thing out there, but it's going to be competent and more importantly, it's going to be a lot of fun!
I have to agree the blizarian is a good option is you want to be an Android. I made a goblin blizarian, it was pretty solid actually.
I'd also like to point out that you should consider being unbalanced in your revelations. While zenith are the solarian's superpowers you can be completely unbalanced and it's only 1 extra round before you can use one. If you are completely unbalanced you can always be in the proper mode to make the most of your revelations.
Thomas M. wrote:
Now, back to questions:
1) I noticed spears also have a thrown range, do a bit more damage, and have block that can help ACs as well. Is this a reasonable extra advantage for a Solarian as far as a possible replacement to a Returning Starknife? A Returning Spear could be interesting there.
2) You guys are right on the Android limiting my options a bit. However, I'm also considering some ideas here. One example is picking up an Operative weapon and going full Solar Armor instead of Solar Weapon. Is this viable from anyone else's stand point or not?
Hope to hear back from you guys after the holidays while I work on what I've got as far as your answers, ideas, and other things. Thank you very much for the help again in the mean time. Especially the ones staying serious about this and not slapping jokes in the thread.
To answer your questions:
1) The issue with spears is they are 2-handed basic melee weapons, not advanced melee weapons. If you're using a spear for the block ability, you are not using a Solar weapon.
As its a basic melee weapon, at 3rd and higher you only get your level/2 added damage instead of your level, and Weapon Focus: Advanced Melee would affect your Solar weapon or starknife, but not the spear.
So for levels 1 and 2, it is not a bad choice (does as much damage as Solar weapon, does more than a Starknife, nobody has weapon specialization yet, and you can put weapon focus off until 3rd). At third and later, I'd grab some form of advanced melee weapon.
2) An operative weapon wielding Solarian with 16 starting Dexterity and 10 base Strength will do significantly less damage over their SFS career than a strength based Solarian.
You're limiting yourself to 1d4 damage at level 1 and 2, 1d4+level/2 at 3-5, and 2d4+level/2 6-10, and 4d4+level/2 from 11-12.
Compare that to 1d8+Str at levels 1-2, 1d10+Str+level at 3-5, 2d8+Str+level 6-10, and 4d8+Str+level from 11-12.
In this particular case, you would be increasing your to-hit bonus by 2 in levels 1-9, but only 1 in level 10-12. Taking that into account, we're still talking about dealing about half the damage on average when compared to a strength based Solarian. That is a significant disadvantage, and I wouldn't recommend such a build.
You can do it, but you'll be like half a Solarian in terms of melee damage output. At that point, picking up longarms proficiency and shooting people would increase your damage output significantly.
Hiruma Kai wrote: Thomas M. wrote:
Now, back to questions:
1) I noticed spears also have a thrown range, do a bit more damage, and have block that can help ACs as well. Is this a reasonable extra advantage for a Solarian as far as a possible replacement to a Returning Starknife? A Returning Spear could be interesting there.
2) You guys are right on the Android limiting my options a bit. However, I'm also considering some ideas here. One example is picking up an Operative weapon and going full Solar Armor instead of Solar Weapon. Is this viable from anyone else's stand point or not?
Hope to hear back from you guys after the holidays while I work on what I've got as far as your answers, ideas, and other things. Thank you very much for the help again in the mean time. Especially the ones staying serious about this and not slapping jokes in the thread.
To answer your questions:
1) The issue with spears is they are 2-handed basic melee weapons, not advanced melee weapons. If you're using a spear for the block ability, you are not using a Solar weapon.
As its a basic melee weapon, at 3rd and higher you only get your level/2 added damage instead of your level, and Weapon Focus: Advanced Melee would affect your Solar weapon or starknife, but not the spear.
So for levels 1 and 2, it is not a bad choice (does as much damage as Solar weapon, does more than a Starknife, nobody has weapon specialization yet, and you can put weapon focus off until 3rd). At third and later, I'd grab some form of advanced melee weapon.
2) An operative weapon wielding Solarian with 16 starting Dexterity and 10 base Strength will do significantly less damage over their SFS career than a strength based Solarian.
You're limiting yourself to 1d4 damage at level 1 and 2, 1d4+level/2 at 3-5, and 2d4+level/2 6-10, and 4d4+level/2 from 11-12.
Compare that to 1d8+Str at levels 1-2, 1d10+Str+level at 3-5, 2d8+Str+level 6-10, and 4d8+Str+level from 11-12.
In this particular case, you would be increasing your to-hit bonus by... Yikes. Good advice, and scary stuff.
In any case, thank you. A lot of this is good information for me as I said.
So far, I'm heavily considering going Solar Armor due to more weapon options.
One big question there is what stats block would you guys consider for that based on the Android Icon bit?
Okay, so finally sitting down to work on this character I've realized a few things.
1) Solarian's not really optimized for Androids as far as melee. (Insert selective curse words here.)
2) Since it's not really optimized for melee, I'm switching my focus to Armor instead of Solar Weapon.
3) Just realized I've got a few items from play so far that I can kinda... uh... yeah, they're good.
So, here's the final setup so far that I'm looking at and I'd love to hear opinions from those out there.
Android Solarian Icon
STR 13
DEX 14
CON 10
INT 12
WIS 10
CHA 14
Manifestation: Solar Armor
Revelations: Black Hole, Nova Flare, Stellar Rush
Base KAC: 12 (13 w/ Armor)
Base EAC: 12 (13 w/ Armor)
I'm still not sure where I should put my augmentation as of yet.
Another thing I noticed: No matter what manifestation you tend to get, almost all Solarian abilities seem to focus on self improvement, melee, or otherwise getting into things. Kinda cool that the armor's basically giving you another play style.
In any case, to further add to the terror of the Android Solarian Icon... here's the gear picks so far that I'm going to be looking into to make sure I've got enough overall cash to run with this.
Note: I'm not putting which adventures these were in because it'd spoil, and I hate spoilers myself. I really, really hate whenever I accidently spoil stuff. Sooo...
Basic Lashuta Tempweave - This was on one of my chronicle sheets which somewhat cemented by wanting to do Solar Armor instead. After all, who can argue whenever you've got a cool android in a battle aura charging stuff? Oh, also raises both ACs to 16, 17 with the armor.
Starknife, Tactical - Not on one of my sheets, but I'm taking the advice in this thread. The darn thing's too nice to not be specialized to hell and back with it. Granted, as you guys said, it's a back up weapon. I don't really intend to overly use it and I plan on sticking Called on it, upgrading, etc. Mostly because of the last thing I noticed on my chronicle sheets I'm going to be attempting to take.
Static Electrovore Glove - Yep. It's on a chronicle sheet. I have electrified ham hands to pulverize stuff with if this all works out. It's in the Alien Archive, is an item level of 2, and looks cool.
In any case, hope to hear back and see what you guys and gals think of this build so far. I'll probably be testing him out in a Society game on the 10th of February from the looks so far.
Oh, and last question? Do you guys have any recommendation for skills to help out?
Does society let you quick buy ability points? If it does I would just turn to page 19 and pick the best one for your build.
Farlanghn wrote: Does society let you quick buy ability points? If it does I would just turn to page 19 and pick the best one for your build. Nope. Has to be the buying ability scores.
Using a tactical baton for your first few levels will give you a +1 to hit, after you get a personal upgrade or you hit 5 and get your ability score bump you can raise your strength and then use a tactical star knife. No reason to get another weapon early on unless you want to blow a large portion of your wealth to double up on ways to get a melee attack.
Another option to consider could be multi weapon fighting and sticking to small arms and operative weapons. You won't be doing the same damage as a STR based character but you will be more consistently hitting on a full attack.
Segovax wrote: Using a tactical baton for your first few levels will give you a +1 to hit, after you get a personal upgrade or you hit 5 and get your ability score bump you can raise your strength and then use a tactical star knife. No reason to get another weapon early on unless you want to blow a large portion of your wealth to double up on ways to get a melee attack.
Another option to consider could be multi weapon fighting and sticking to small arms and operative weapons. You won't be doing the same damage as a STR based character but you will be more consistently hitting on a full attack.
Interesting advice there. I kinda like it. The only thing stopping me so far is how well that would work out.
Another thing is that kinda puts me in a quandry on my augmentation, I just realized.
There's three choices for me that I can see safely here, all three of which are basically a +1 bonus in different areas.
1) STR - To hit in melee, with the starknife, etc.
2) DEX - Each AC point, some skill bonus.
3) CHA - Extra resolve? Not sure if the augmentations count towards resolve or not. Also, better DC on Revelations.
For PFS -
Skills
Do you have a regular group you play with? What skills do they have covered?
The nice thing about Solarians with skills is that they have a wide, useful range of them and can cherry pick two more. The problem facing Solarians is they don't have the skill ranks for these skills.
You might also want to figure out what you want to select with the Solarians Sidereal Influence and how you want to use it. You can select it for a skill you want to be very good in or use it to help boost a skill you're weak in.
What I've done for my PFS Solarian on skills - I used a shot gun approach as I leveled. I've got lots of skills with just one rank in them and I'm designed more as a Aid Other character. This is due more to we playing with a full 6 person table and everyone else having a more 'focused' character and usually being better at a skill by +1 to +3 if I 'focused' like they did.
CHA & Extra Resolve
For a PFS scenario that extra resolve isn't really needed as you can only spend that resolve during a short break which happens after combat. Most scenario only have a limited amount of combat so a high resolve pool won't really help.
Resolve, DC, and the Solarian Revelations.
The Solarian does not have very many Revelations that use Resolve and the few that do are considered kind of weak.
Using Revelations that require a save DC, there's been a number of posts on this that the DC for these revelations scale poorly as we level due to no feat support and CHA not being the Solarian main 'attack stat'.
A lot of these 'Battlefield' control Revelations that require a save DC can also be used on your fellow party members. They can choose to fail the 'save'.
STR / DEX
Not even going to give advice here as this will all depend on where and how you want to develop your character. Both have positive and negative aspects to them.
Matt2VK wrote: For PFS -
Skills
Do you have a regular group you play with? What skills do they have covered?
The nice thing about Solarians with skills is that they have a wide, useful range of them and can cherry pick two more. The problem facing Solarians is they don't have the skill ranks for these skills.
You might also want to figure out what you want to select with the Solarians Sidereal Influence and how you want to use it. You can select it for a skill you want to be very good in or use it to help boost a skill you're weak in.
What I've done for my PFS Solarian on skills - I used a shot gun approach as I leveled. I've got lots of skills with just one rank in them and I'm designed more as a Aid Other character. This is due more to we playing with a full 6 person table and everyone else having a more 'focused' character and usually being better at a skill by +1 to +3 if I 'focused' like they did.
CHA & Extra Resolve
For a PFS scenario that extra resolve isn't really needed as you can only spend that resolve during a short break which happens after combat. Most scenario only have a limited amount of combat so a high resolve pool won't really help.
Resolve, DC, and the Solarian Revelations.
The Solarian does not have very many Revelations that use Resolve and the few that do are considered kind of weak.
Using Revelations that require a save DC, there's been a number of posts on this that the DC for these revelations scale poorly as we level due to no feat support and CHA not being the Solarian main 'attack stat'.
A lot of these 'Battlefield' control Revelations that require a save DC can also be used on your fellow party members. They can choose to fail the 'save'.
STR / DEX
Not even going to give advice here as this will all depend on where and how you want to develop your character. Both have positive and negative aspects to them.
Okay, the skills bit I'm going to have to question how easy/doable is it? And if so, what skills would be best to take for doing so? I'm guessing most of the knowledge related ones, or maybe a few of the Charisma ones mixing in things that might help out a bit?
I totally like your suggestions on the stat augmentations there. It helps a lot.
In any case, still poking at that skills idea about an hour or two later since I saw it. It's an odd concept, but I'm not entirely opposed to it at all. It could be interesting to be a face with a helpful knowledge/skill setup to make sure the rest of the group succeeds in their particular moments of glory.
To my knowledge, the only things I really need to shine as a Solarian is Diplomacy and Profession (for Icon) so I don't really overall need the other skills unless they relate to my Icon bit, which is few since I took Video Personality.
Skills -
Diplomacy: At first I thought I'd take this and be really good at it. Then someone at the table created and ran a Envoy and blew my Diplomatic checks out of the water by easily beating my Diplo checks.
So I decided I'd still be good at this check in case they missed a game but otherwise I'd be doing the auto-assist (can't fail even if I rolled a one). So that would free up a couple skill ranks as I leveled up to put somewhere else. Still put a rank there for levels 1 & 2 but put that skill somewhere else at 3rd level.
TechnoSkills: Always nice to have a rank or two in these, even if you'll only be average. As most of these skills require you to be trained in to even roll for them. If you pick up Computers or Engineering it also gives you the option to fill another spot on a Starship and provides a little more flexibility to your character.
Matt2VK wrote: Skills -
Diplomacy: At first I thought I'd take this and be really good at it. Then someone at the table created and ran a Envoy and blew my Diplomatic checks out of the water by easily beating my Diplo checks.
So I decided I'd still be good at this check in case they missed a game but otherwise I'd be doing the auto-assist (can't fail even if I rolled a one). So that would free up a couple skill ranks as I leveled up to put somewhere else. Still put a rank there for levels 1 & 2 but put that skill somewhere else at 3rd level.
TechnoSkills: Always nice to have a rank or two in these, even if you'll only be average. As most of these skills require you to be trained in to even roll for them. If you pick up Computers or Engineering it also gives you the option to fill another spot on a Starship and provides a little more flexibility to your character.
I actually think the Envoy is pretty rare at tables where I'm at right now in Texas. I've only seen one so far. I seem to most of the time be a Face, as well.
Hiya. Been a few months since I posted here, but I wanted to give an update on the character I finally figured out.
First off, he's more a combination of the suggestions by those in this thread. I liked the speedy, weapon built build as well as the skill support.
I took Fleet as suggested to begin the speediness. It's handy whenever you do Stellar Rush. Plus being light armor, I've got a 40 foot move speed already. Getting into melee range? Noooo problem.
As far as stat spread, I went primarily for Dex but will use my first Augmentation on Str and took some Graphite Carbon Skin. So he's not such a glass cannon. His current KAC is 16 and EAC of 15.
Lastly, I took the recommended starknife with called fusion and I managed to fit in the electrovore gloves.
So yes, I'm playing a robot with a battle aura rush that manifest a laser weapon as well as punches people with electrified spikey fists and has a throwing star as big as someone's head to throw at the bad guys.
I think I did good. Opinions, please?
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