Help with my first character


Advice

Silver Crusade

Okay, as the title says, I'm making my first Starfinder character, but I've been playing D&D/Pathfinder since 3rd edition. What I'm trying to do is make an Android follower of Oras, the god of evolution. I'm thinking a Mechanic for the Exocortex, which I can have as a self-upgrade, since I can install it in the armor slot the android gets automatically. Bounty Hunter is the theme, not so much for getting bounties so much as opportunities to test himself against people who can (generally, at least) be seen as a threat in some way, whether in combat or needing to be tracked down. Currently he's more focused on longarms, because he's relatively fragile in close quarters combat, though I am planning on making him more of a switch hitter. His stat breakdown is 14, 15, 12, 14, 10, 8.

My question is, what are some good options from here? I'm thinking of dipping Blitz Soldier, with his next two feats being Versatile Focus and Versatile Specialization. Any suggestions would be appreciated.


The exocortex doesn't take up your racial armor slot. It's in your brain. And it's a self upgrade regardless.

I think you may be better off abandoning melee except with operative weapons as a last resort and dropping your strength. Use those points to up Dex (for more hit chance), Int (for more skill points, resolve points, and skill bonus), or Wis (your will save sucks). I came up with 11/14/12/16/12/8 when I built something similar, but I honestly went back and forth on whether the int or dex should be 16 and I haven't played it yet to give you a valid, in play critique.

I take it you took Weapon Focus-longarms as your first level feat? If so, the dip in Blitz seems okay (improved init and fleet are definitely worth it) and taking VF at 3 and VS at 5 is probably solid, but really only necessary if you plan on switching to heavy weapons or you're definitely going to switch hit early on. If you're going to stick with longarms even just 75% of the time, I think those are wasted feats.

I think you're definitely going to want to take Enhanced Resistance-Kinetic at some point for the DR (especially if you switch hit), and you're probably going to want to go with the energy shield, overclocking, and overcharge tree of mechanic tricks.

This is the tree I did for my Android Exo-Mechanic 20 Bounty Hunter. Again, I haven't gotten to play it yet, so you should take it with a heavy bag of salt, but maybe it will help...

Feat Tree: Skill Focus-Floating (B-1), Weapon Focus-Longarms (1), Weapon Specialization-Class (B-3), Amplified Glitch (3), Iron Will (5), Enhanced Resistance-Kinetic (7), Slippery Shooter (9), Extra Resolve (11), Spellbane (13), Improved Critical (15), Penetrating Attack (17), Deadly Aim (19).
Mechanic Tricks: Energy Shield (2), Overclocking (4), Overcharge (6), Hyperclocking (8), Resistant Energy-Acid (10), Improved Overcharge (12), Ultraclocking (14), Improved Resistant Energy-Sonic (16), Saboteur (18), Superior Overcharge (20)
Exocortex Mods: Resistance-Electricity (7), Echolocators (11), Flight System (14), Invisibility Field (17)

If you took Blitz soldier at 2, traded out Amplified Glitch and Iron Will for VF/VS and removed Sabateur and replaced it with Superior Overcharge, I think it's probably close to what you're looking for. With the Thermal Capacitor armor upgrade in your Android Slot, you're resistant to all energy, have DR/-, and Temp hitpoints to soak up damage that gets through with the above. Overclocking and Overcharge give you more offense. The rest are utility. I hope it helps. Let me know how it goes if you use any of it please (for my own edification).


I went back over my notes for this character and thought about what you wanted and I think I gave you bad advice on the stats. You probably already noticed, but just in case, I wanted to correct myself

Since you're dipping into Blitz soldier, you can change your primary stat to Dex for RP when you dip, so Int is really unimportant past that point except for skill points. You're going to want it to start at 14 so you have 3 RP per day for your first level, but beyond that, you aren't going to want to raise it. I don't think Con is as important for the first few levels, as long as you aren't switch hitting off the bat. It's only 1-5 stamina from 1st to 5th. Every point helps, certainly, but I'm not sure how often that will come up as long as you use your higher init and movement speed to stay at range and behind cover most of the time. I still think the wisdom bonus is important (I hate not having Will saves at low levels in my games, because my DM will Daze the crap out of me if he can), but the more I think about it, the more important having max dex is.

So I think, to get you what you want, I'd recommend 12/18/11/14/10/8. Though, since Str is the only ability that gives you anything (other than feat pre-reqs) on an odd number, it might be better to switch to Mercenary over Bounty Hunter for this, but I digress.

From 1st-5th, stay at range and use longarms. Then at 5th, raise Str/Dex/Con/Wis and switch to heavy weapons and advance melee as backup and a full fledged switch hitter. Between overclocking and blitz + high dex, you should be the first to go (or close) in every round.

Furthermore, the more I think about it, the more Improved Critical is a trap, since it's probably going to work like twice, ever, so I'd probably trade that out for Improved Init or Iron Will.

All of this is still with a heavy bag of salt, I'm making guesses based on how I think it will play out. I still haven't played it yet. I'm just correcting what I think was my own bad advice.

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