So far, there’s nothing much for WIS-based characters to do, but if you have decent DEX, you could be a pilot, or (if someone in your party is a better pilot) an extra gunner.
Yeah...I understand your pain.
I'm playing a solarion, which would make an okay captain. Except that we also have an Envoy in the party.
So I'm relegated to being a gunner/backup gunner because I don't have any skills that are exceptional (Solarions don't get any real skill bonuses) and Charisma based stuffed is definitely outdone by the Envoy compared to me.
So the only think I can really do is be a gunner, but not even a particularly good one since my dex is low (melee character). All I have going for me is full BAB.
I have a couple of pieces of advice for those that feel the pinch on starship combat.
One, remember that you can change your role at the top of every round. You may not be the best at any particular role, but if you can be a backup to several roles you can help out a fair amount actually.
Consider taking engineering as a skill. Divert is a relatively easy check to make and can be critical to help out. IF you know you've been hit and your engineer is going to be patching this round, switching roles and diverting to shields can save your team. Also when you can't do anything as a gunner you can attempt to divert to guns or sensors. It's not great, but it adds to your versatility and you can have as many engineers as you want.
You may be able to get similar mileage out of computers as a secondary. Balance is also an easy DC and can be lifesaving. Scan you can attempt as many times a round as you have officers as far as I can tell. So it's possible you add another piece of info to the info your "real" science officer grabbed.
Extra gunners I extra possible damage, you don't ever hurt a team by doing this unless you waste limited ammo, or prevent a better gunner from firing.
So of the 5 roles you can be able to help in 3 of them even without super high skill bonuses, just keep in mind you may be backup so know what you can do and communicate that to your team.
As mentioned earlier in the thread, anyone with some dex can be a pilot or gunner - gunnery checks especially aren't skill checks and hence aren't even piloting checks, despite when they use piloting to determine their success, so it's not the hardest thing ever to be a useful gunner. I think there's room in the design space for using different skills in various roles based on using exotic ship parts - for example, sensors that wire directly into a datajack in the science officer's brain could easily use Perception, not Computers, for Scan/Target System/Lock On. I hope we get a splat at some point for exotic stuff like ships that interface directly with crew brains, living ships, magical ships, and so on.
@ghostunderasheet:
That's not a rule, that was a proposed future rule (or house rule).
I really do hope they broaden things a bit. For a home game, I'd probably experiment with some house rules to give STR and WIS characters something they're good at, even if it's just one task at a given role. Or maybe try out house rules for boarding actions or attacks that directly injure crew members so the Mystic's healing abilities come up.
For SFS, my approach has been to not play a STR or WIS-based character if there's going to be a ship combat.
The problem is made sharper by the fact there are 2 core races that give DEX/INT but none of the STR or WIS-boosting races give INT or DEX. So you end up with DEX or INT-based characters who are still better at their secondary crew roles than a STR or WIS character is at their best role.
I mean, is there a balance reason why the Technomancer has to be so much more useful than the Mystic in space combat? Is the Mystic that much better at something else to compensate for it? It doesn't seem that way to me.
@ghostunderasheet:
That's not a rule, that was a proposed future rule (or house rule).I really do hope they broaden things a bit. For a home game, I'd probably experiment with some house rules to give STR and WIS characters something they're good at, even if it's just one task at a given role. Or maybe try out house rules for boarding actions or attacks that directly injure crew members so the Mystic's healing abilities come up.
For SFS, my approach has been to not play a STR or WIS-based character if there's going to be a ship combat.
The problem is made sharper by the fact there are 2 core races that give DEX/INT but none of the STR or WIS-boosting races give INT or DEX. So you end up with DEX or INT-based characters who are still better at their secondary crew roles than a STR or WIS character is at their best role.
I mean, is there a balance reason why the Technomancer has to be so much more useful than the Mystic in space combat? Is the Mystic that much better at something else to compensate for it? It doesn't seem that way to me.
Yes, currently there's an enormous plot hole in the universe: some races are so very drastically superior to others that they don't pose as credible a threat as they're portrayed as posing.
My favorite is the Vesk. The notion of the Vesk making a Lashunta fleet do more than scratch a knuckle is rather laughable. It's entirely different from the Shirren - the Shirren are portrayed as an accidental mutation, not a threat strong enough to bother the entire Pact Worlds system. But in terms of fighting off The Swarm and the Plague Fleet, I'll take Human, Lashunta, Android, and Ysoki support over Vesk support any day.