So, I'm playing a Level 1 Envoy and I'm loving it. But, I'm useless in combat. So, I was thinking of taking a dip into Operative for trick attack, while keeping up with the whole party face thing.
So, I took the feat Skill Focus Bluff at 1st level. If I was to take a level Operative and go with the Spy specilization, would I get anything in replacement for skill focus bluff?
Also I'd like to note that gaining trick attack isn't going to help much with your combat effectivness unless you are going to put in the levels to scale it. ie become an operative with an envoy dip.
The skill focus will still be useful after your Expertise gets too high to use the bonus. After Envoy 9 you get the following...
Beginning at 9th level, you have even greater expertise with skills to which you can add your expertise die that you have also selected with the Skill Focus feat. For each such skill, once per day when rolling your expertise die to add to that skill, you may roll the expertise die twice and take the better of the two results.
As the others have said, I don't think trick attack would be worth it, long term, though. I do think, though, that if you want to use sniper weapons (instead of longarms) as an envoy you can make that work. A lot of your improvisations take away your ability to do full attacks anyway, so the extra damage with the sniper over longarms may be worth it for you. Going Operative 3 gives you sniper prof, specialization, +2 to all skills, 2 skill focus feats, and a Operative Exploit (which could be spent on a Combat feat, if you needed one). The trick attack would only be worth it for a level or two, if at all.
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Also you gain evasion and +10 monument speed.
Wow, yeah, forgot about that. Operatives get a lot starting out.
Operative is a terrible dip for any Envoy.
It strikes me if you're not happy with your combat capabilities as an Envoy 1, becoming an Envoy 1/Operative 1 is not going to solve your problems.
1) Your BAB is still +0, so you're now a full point to-hit behind if you had just gone Envoy 2.
2) Trick attack is a full round action. It doesn't work with any Envoy combat improvisations, which are nearly all standard or move actions.
3) Unless you go Envoy 1/Operative X, your trick attack damage is going to be far behind everyone else's damage.
If anything, if you want more combat capability, grab a level of Soldier, rebuild to 13 strength, and start wearing heavy armor and using Unwieldy heavy weapons. Grab Blitz (+4 Initiative, +10 speed) or Sharpshooter (reduce cover penalties by 2).
Unless otherwise stated, you generally do not replace those things. But there's an easy credit option with the Mnemonic editors to modify feat choices.
Unfortunately, Mnemonic editor is a level 5 item, which generally means not purchasable until level 3, which prevents level 1 or level 2 rebuilds. Talk to your GM though if you want to try this route. Although you can grab weapon specialization at 3rd as a feat, and use the Mnemonic editor to retrain it at the end of 4th into Weapon focus, and then grab Versatile Specialization at 5th.
Compare a 13 Str/14 Dex/16 Cha Human Envoy 1/Soldier 1 to a 16 Dex/16 Cha Envoy 1/Operative 1:
Soldier with Get 'EM at level 2: Move action to give +1 to hit to everyone. Roll effective +4 to hit, 1d10 (5.5 average damage) with an Azimuth Artillery laser.
Operative trick attack: Roll +14 vs DC 22 (CR 2) to trick attack (maybe flat footed for yourself), effective +5 to hit, 1d6+1d4 (average 6) with a static arc pistol
or +3 to hit, 1d6 (average 3.5) if you fail the trick attack
In one case you are supporting the team, in the other you're not. Expected damage is about the same.
Alternatively, tweak your current Envoy build and just go straight Envoy, and make selections with an eye to damage output. Grab Longarm proficiency in that case, not sniper proficiency. Problem with low level core rulebook sniper rifles is they hold 1 round, so you're reloading every other round. If you use Diasporan rifles from the Sarcesian entry in the Alien Archive, you might as well just use a longarm laser rifle. The laser rifle has longer base range, twice the charges, a critical effect, you can make full attacks if you want, and does the same base damage damage (1d8 F). Also less bulk at higher levels.
By 4th level (5th if you're Soldier 1/Envoy 4) if you want combat capability, your Envoy improvisations should be a combination of:
Get 'Em, Clever Feint, Clever Attack: Move action to give +1 to everyone, make the target flat footed and attack.
That is an effective +3 to hit for yourself guaranteed, and possibly an effective +3 to hit for your allies. Although with such a build I probably would have taken Bluff as the Expertise skill rather than skill focus in Bluff.
Out of curiosity, what is your current Envoy build?
For the Soldier dip to use heavy weapons you don't need a 13 Str. The Soldier gets proficiency in heavy weapons, not the feat to get that proficiency, so the PC doesn't need to meet the feat's requirements.
That said, you need a Str 12 or you get a -2 with heavy weapons, then at TL 10 you need a Str 14. Since heavy weapons only give a modest damage boost until after the 5th level stat bump, a Str 10 works fine. Use longarms until 5th, bump Str to use heavy, then bump again at 10th to use TL 10+ heavy.
A combo Envoy/Soldier is one of the few multiclass options (other than Soldier dip) that works. Envoy 4 (to not lose too much BAB) or Envoy 6 (to unlock best offensive boost) are good ways to improve not just your attacks, but the party's. Boost w/ a move followed by a boost linked to your attack and you have a solid 1/round attacker (so get those powerful, unwieldy heavy weapons.)
Despite all the Envoy levels, this makes for a fine Soldier who has lots of skill points and unlocked class skills, not a regular Envoy with a huge range of maxed skills and a few super-boosted ones.
So if you're a face Envoy, and want Cha as your highest stat, don't dip like this. There are many choices to buff/debuff, and you have access to one of the rare methods of boosting Stamina (which is dependent on being pure Envoy to keep relevant.) The fact you aren't doing so much with weaponry can make you feel the odd PC out, but while debuffs are a bit common, buffs are not. If you travel with PCs that full attack (and who shouldn't?), your buffs will aid a lot.
And buy a Dragonwyrm gland. That's more than enough damage for when the combats are tight.
Operative is not a bad dip, but you need to know what it is you are looking to get out of it. Trick attack is not something that is good for a dip, but you can build a nice soldier or solarian with an operative dip if your goal is to be more well rounded in the skills department.
Yeah, I think Operative is a great dip if you're looking for help with skills. Anyone that starts any build with Operative 1 or 3 is automatically better at all of them, by default, and generally better than you would be on your 'focus' skills up to level 10 than you would be if you waited on your class bonuses. It changes the way you play a bit, depending on how big that dip is. If you want Op1, I'd wait to take it til level 4 so that you don't screw up your specialization(s), which the game sort of assumes you have at that level. If you want Op3, you take it first, and play your first three levels like an operative, then start your main class afterward.