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So Starfinder's been out for 8 months now, and I've played a fair bit of it, and I think I've come up with my personal top 5 tips and tricks for surviving in Starfinder. These are just tips and tricks, and if you feel different, please feel free to KINDLY comment in the thread.
Remember, just my opinion and experiences, but maybe look into these.
1) Shy away from flame weapons, and doubly so against LASER weapons.
So flame and LASER weapons are probably the cheapest energy weapons for any tier you have. While that's good at first level, there is a reason they are so cheap. It is the most common energy to resist (and be immune to), it does 1/4 damage underwater, and fog and smoke mess it up something awful. At early levels (especially level 1) it may be unavoidable, but in later levels, see if you can't find an alternative. Electricity seems to be a solid choice, as is Sonic.
speaking of:
2) See if you can't pack multiple damage types. Unlike Pathfinder where most people have one weapon that they cast masterwork transformation on and then start enchanting (thus keeping the same weapon from levels 1-20), Starfinder has you tossing weapons when they get too low level for higher level weapons. As that is the case, once you have capitol, try grabbing a few lower-level items that do different damage types, just in case. It is much easier in Starfinder to have a few lower level backup weapons than pathfinder. Maybe a Kinetic weapon and two different types of energy. That way if you run into a beasty that is immune to your disintegration rifle, you can switch to your sonic pistol.
3) Try to get infusions on your kinetic weapons. So there are a few low-level scenarios where PCs fight incorporeal creatures, and if your operative just has a knife, he can't do anything. Even a 'useless' fusion on a level 1 knife makes it magical and can hurt incorporeal creatures, as well as guys with DR/Magic (which show up). Good level 1 fusions are glamoured, trailblazing, and called.
4)Try to work Diplomacy, Piloting, Computers, or Engineering into your build. These are the main skills for Starship combat. Intimidate and Bluff can play into it as well, but they both have limited usage. A character with diplomacy can hand out bonuses, pilots can pilot or shoot, computers can science officer, Engineers can fix. Even if you aren't the primary guy, chances are you can at least aid another by hitting a DC 10.
5)There are multiple ways to attack with strength or Dex, look into them. So thrown weapons use STR to hit, so a Strength based soldier/Solarian can benefit greatly from a Called Starknife. True you can't full attack while throwing it, but using your 22 Strength to hit with a thrown starknife is way better than missing twice with a laser rifle. And on the flipside, a Halfling with 8 strength but 16 dex can use dex to hit with a knife even if they aren't an operative. And while the damage will be sub-par (especially with 1/2 level to damage) hitting for piddly damage is still better than not hitting with a strength-based dueling sword (for no damage)
5)There are multiple ways to attack with strength or Dex, look into them. So thrown weapons use STR to hit, so a Strength based soldier/Solarian can benefit greatly from a Called Starknife. True you can't full attack while throwing it, but using your 22 Strength to hit with a thrown starknife is way better than missing twice with a laser rifle.
Note if you have the quickdraw feat, drawing a thrown weapon you attack with immediately is a part of the attack action or the full attack action. This allows you to full attack with a free hand and multiple starknives. Two returning starknives thrown will both return to you as a non-action, and can be thrown again, assuming you have two hands to catch them both.
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5)There are multiple ways to attack with strength or Dex, look into them. So thrown weapons use STR to hit, so a Strength based soldier/Solarian can benefit greatly from a Called Starknife. True you can't full attack while throwing it, but using your 22 Strength to hit with a thrown starknife is way better than missing twice with a laser rifle.Note if you have the quickdraw feat, drawing a thrown weapon you attack with immediately is a part of the attack action or the full attack action. This allows you to full attack with a free hand and multiple starknives. Two returning starknives thrown will both return to you as a non-action, and can be thrown again, assuming you have two hands to catch them both.
So, Full attacks now eat your swift action, so you'd have to have them out ahead of time (Quick draw is a swift action), but yes, you are right, if you had two returning starknives you could full attack with them. Little expensive, but totally doable.
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Note if you have the quickdraw feat, drawing a thrown weapon you attack with immediately is a part of the attack action or the full attack action. This allows you to full attack with a free hand and multiple starknives. Two returning starknives thrown will both return to you as a non-action, and can be thrown again, assuming you have two hands to catch them both.So, Full attacks now eat your swift action, so you'd have to have them out ahead of time (Quick draw is a swift action), but yes, you are right, if you had two returning starknives you could full attack with them. Little expensive, but totally doable.
You're both right. Quick Draw is normally a swift action (And thus incompatible with full attacks) but Quick Draw states: "When making an attack using a thrown weapon as an attack or full attack action, you can draw a weapon as part of the action of making a thrown attack with it".
if you have Quick Draw, you can make full attacks with with multiple sheathed throwing weapons.
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You're both right. Quick Draw is normally a swift action (And thus incompatible with full attacks) but Quick Draw states: "When making an attack using a thrown weapon as an attack or full attack action, you can draw a weapon as part of the action of making a thrown attack with it".
if you have Quick Draw, you can make full attacks with with multiple sheathed throwing weapons.
Ah, didn’t notice that. Sure, that works, although it does require two copies of the same weapon with the same infusion, so not the most optimal thing, though if you are willing to be a few levels behind I suppose it could work. Still leaves you disarmed between turns for AoOs. Unless you were a vesk with a natural attack. . . Hmmmm.
Any other thoughts on any of the other tips?
It's a good, but disappointing, point on lasers. I hope we can get a cheap weapon fusion to allow them to act like every other ranged weapon in terms of environmental factors.
I expect that we'll eventually get something like the Trailblazer fusion for smoke.
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Something else I recently discovered was that cold weapons are also sub-par, as many indead are immune, and it seems to be the second easiest damage type to resist (winterborn ryojorians, the thermal armor upgrade gives both cold and fire resist) So far it seems that electricity and sonic are the best ways to go.
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Don't forget acid! (never forget about acid.)
I didn’t. But some creatures, especially oozes, are immune to acid, and so far the only acid weapons I know about are short range (disintegration guns are range 15, or 30 for the longarm, and the AA has an acid-squirter that is similarly short range.) I didn’t so much forget acid as I just didn’t think it was worth mentioning. Electricity and sonic seems good, cold and fire seem not-so-much, plasma, and acid are somewhere in the middle.
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The only problem with sonic is that, depending on your home game GM, it may not work in a vacuum.
As far as every other damage type, it seems to me that everyone having the ability to do two types of damage without a lot of duplication would be a good thing. Which... I mean, in the game I play in, I'm the only person out of 6 that isn't using a laser. And no matter how hard I try to explain how bad that is, the answer I get is 'But... lasers!'
So, your mileage may vary.
My Kasatha Soldier uses Lasers in my Dead-Suns game too, but that’s because he’s found them and picks them up, not because he actively seeks them out to buy. He has a dispiriting laser rifle (2d8) and the upgraded Artillary laser (2d8) Like I said, they aren’t terrible, and he’s done a lot with them, but he would never buy one for himself.
Another tip is to never start at level one with a 17 in an ability score. You end up with the same modifier as if you had a 16, but can still only raise it to an 18 at level 5 (which you could also have done with a 16, effectively wasting one point of your starting point buy).
Another tip is to never start at level one with a 17 in an ability score. You end up with the same modifier as if you had a 16, but can still only raise it to an 18 at level 5 (which you could also have done with a 16, effectively wasting one point of your starting point buy).
I would go farther and say that you should almost never put an odd point into a stats you plan raising past 16. The odd point should almost exclusively be use for feat prerequisite.