I've got a character that I would like to build using mainly small arms and operative weapons. I really liked the idea of Fusillade and some of the other options for small arms.
Looking ahead, I am having trouble coming up with a way to keep that as a viable choice. If you are not an operative, it appears the damage will be about half what it would be with advanced melee weapons or longarms.
I even looked at various multi-classing options and still didn't find anything that looked good. The options for multi-classing generally only make small dips in other classes any good. I am not finding many synergies between the classes.
As far as I'm aware, there's no way to build a high-dps character using exclusively small arms and/or basic melee weapons without the operative's trick attack feature. That doesn't mean you can build a pistol-slingin' character outside of the operative class, however - you just need to pick another class feature to improve your usefulness (like envoy improvisations, spellcasting, or a mechanic's drone).
The character I'm looking to advance is a ranged Solarian with Solar Armor.
I made them Kasathan because they are the race that created the martial form. Unfortunately, nothing about Solarian aids in becoming a Solar Armor Solarian. In many ways, the Lashunta make superior Solarians to the extent that I wonder why it wasn't them that came up with the class.
Mechanically I can make the other parts of the character work. Ace Pilot currently allows them to be either the Pilot or Gunner. It will allow eventually allow them to switch between Captain and Pilot as needed, using the Lone Wolf ability to do Encourage crew action when it is simpler than using Diplomacy.
The charisma helps them with the social skills. Not every party will have an envoy, especially in SFS where the party makeup is pretty random.
Since the character is a Solarian, they can switch to Advanced Melee weapons without too much of a hit to accuracy when needed. I would love an Advanced Melee Operative weapon for them.
I still would like a better answer than "Play an Operative" for ranged small arms. Although an Operative dip would be useful, it still doesn't do it long term. A Solarian dip on Operative would work, just not the other way around.
For a solarian, I think your best bet would be focusing on graviton-based area control and peppering foes from a distance. Unfortunately, there's not that much in the solarian class abilities that synergizes with ranged attacks of any sort, and the CRB doesn't have a whole lot of feats for small arms.
There are many builds that can rely on small arms for primary weapon damage, but only operatives can really make that the focus of their build. That may change as we get more character options in future publications, but right now you're a bit up a tree, unfortunately.
If you are going with Longarms, you will want to take Versatile Weapon Specialization in order to add your level to the damage.
My problems are:
* The race doesn’t give any bonus to either Dexterity or Charisma.
* The class doesn’t give a good way to make up enough of the damage difference between long arm weapon damage and reduced damage with small arms weapon specialization to make it viable.
* Other than being able to hold a longarm and an advanced melee Weapon at the same time, there really isn’t anything to take advantage of the Kasatha’s multiple arms.
I could still do it as a melee Solarian using advanced melee weapons, but that isn’t the feel I was going for.
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A small arm is going to do less damage than a longarm. And an operative weapon is going to do less damage than an two-handed melee weapon. That's pretty clear a deliberate choice in game design.
What you can do is look for ways to minimize the differences. That means adding other sources of damage. Such as the Mechanic's Overcharge trick or the Technomancer's Empowered Weapon hack. The damage from those abilities is not dependent on the type of weapon. So while a longarm would still do more damage than a small arm, the percentage difference between the total damages would be less than without the abilities (not half damage, more like 85%).
There is a somewhat strange way to use the abilities of a kasatha while going ranged: two hands on a gun, one hand on an energy sword, and one on a physical sword. Deflect/Reflect Projectiles on both sides of the spectrum gives you another way of running denial/tank, the usual style for ranged graviton.
Unfortunately that comes in very late (minimum of 8th and 16th level) but Solarians can get a lesser version of it with the 6th level revelation Reflection. That one only works on shots that miss you.
A small arm is going to do less damage than a longarm. And an operative weapon is going to do less damage than an two-handed melee weapon. That's pretty clear a deliberate choice in game design.
What you can do is look for ways to minimize the differences. That means adding other sources of damage. Such as the Mechanic's Overcharge trick or the Technomancer's Empowered Weapon hack. The damage from those abilities is not dependent on the type of weapon. So while a longarm would still do more damage than a small arm, the percentage difference between the total damages would be less than without the abilities (not half damage, more like 85%).
Overcharge only gives +1d6 but doesn’t have the limit on number of uses, although it does have a limit on what sort of weapons it can be used on.
Empowered gives at least +1 to hit as well as the +1d6, but at that point you could use Supercharge Weapon for +4d6 every other round or every round for someone else’s weapon.
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If I saw more people using Acrobatics, something like the Spry Cover feat or Covering Fire combat action on people with Mobility could help the team. That still doesn’t feel like it would make up for the reduced damage.
Right now, it is looking like I transition this character to be mostly Operative and create a different character to be my Solarian.
I am disappointed that there is no way for Soldiers or Solarians to make small arms a viable choice. Given the above, it might still work somewhat for some Mechanics and Technomancers. I still suspect many will need Sniper or Longarms proficiency and specialization.