Level 6, captain, not looking to multiclass but not zealously opposed to it either.
Looking for effective and fun rather than super-optimized.
Solar Armour, obviously.
Dex = Cha >>> everything else, or do I need to really heavily prioritise Dex?
Multiweapon fighting small arms viable, or do I need to drop a couple of feats into long arms?
How well can it work as mobile battlefield nuisance?
What are the traps I'm most likely to stumble into?
The biggest problem I had with a solarion in general, was starship combat (if you want to do something other than be a gunner).
So, it's just something to keep in mind when you build. Also, captain isn't really an essential role either so I wouldn't put your eggs heavily in that basket either.
The biggest problem I had with a solarion in general, was starship combat (if you want to do something other than be a gunner).
So, it's just something to keep in mind when you build. Also, captain isn't really an essential role either so I wouldn't put your eggs heavily in that basket either.
Joining a game in progress and the other roles are locked down. I'm ok with that though.
I've got an example ranged Solarian build in my General Solarian guide thread.
Its a Diplomacy and Stealth focus but you could easily switch it over to Diplomacy and Bluff to better mesh with the Captain role.
But yeah, at a minimum Longarms proficiency and versatile specialization are basically required. Your choices are soldier dip and spend a feat, or just spend 2 feats. Solider gets you heavy weapon proficiency, but then requires a minor investment in strength to actually use it effectively. Longarms lets you ignore strength completely at the cost a slightly smaller dice. Like 2d8 vs 2d10 in exchange for 2 to 4 stat points elsewhere, like Charisma or Dex.
I recommend just spend the 2 feats - that is what they're there for. If you really like your feats, take a race that gives you a bonus one like Human.
As for a mobile battlefield nuisance, its hard to beat Blazing Orbit. Move action leave a trail of fire in front of you to deter melee enemies, standard action shoot. The FAQ has clarified enemies take damage for every square they move through so double or triple layer the path to you in fire.
Other things to consider are sitting in Graviton Mode and using Dark Matter and take Enhanced Resistance: Electric or Sonic at 5th. That gets you innate scaling resistance against Physical, Fire or Cold (via Solar Armor), and Electric. Alternatively buy an up to date Electrostatic Field armor upgrade and take Enhanced Resistance: Sonic and you can have scaling resistance to basically everything but force. That plus high AC and spare points into Con makes you reasonably tanky.
As you are in light armor, Fleet is potentially another useful feat for more movement. Speed suspension + Fleet + Blazing Orbit can make you fast enough that melee won't follow up with a charge, because of taking fire damage every step of the way in a straight line following you. Also look into climbing suckers, as a cheap unlimited climb speed can be very handy. Although that probably means putting some skill points into athletics if you want to use it in particularly challenging climbing weather.
If I were playing a 6th level Human Solarian (Armor) with a ranged focus and acting as the party face, I'd probably do:
Str 10/Dex 19+2 augment/Con 12/Int 13/Wis 10/Cha 16
Tempered Pilgrim (doubles languages from Culture)
H) Longarms Prof
1) Weapon Focus Longarms
3) Vesatile Specialization
5) Fleet or Enhanced Resistance or Improved Initiative
Dark Matter, Flare (the blind can be used in Graviton mode, though probably won't get used much - but it can be used at range), Blazing Orbit. All of these work fine in Graviton mode, which is probably where you'd sit most combats.
Full on party face skills I'd do:
Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidate, Sense Motive, Acrobatics, Culture
Sidereal Influence Diplomacy and Bluff first, then at 11th Culture and Sense Motive. Maybe swap the order of Bluff and Sense Motive.
The culture and Tempered Pilgrim is there so you can insult enemy captains in their native language (Common + 12 other languages known).
If there's already a party face and you're just filling in for captain, probably a different skill set, and move the 12 Int over to Wisdom for more saves.
At the end of the day, a ranged Solarian build is trading pure offensive melee power (say 20 average damage vs 15) for higher AC and the ability to hit at long range. And being a maxed out Gunner if you have spare turrets don't need a +2 bonus to someone else.
Yeah, there's already a party face, he's just not sitting in the captain's chair.
So I take it small arms with multiweapon fighting isn't really viable then and any ranged build that's not using at least longarms is just wasting everyone's time?
Is Blazing Orbit better than it looks at first? It seems like insignificant damage that's trivially avoided with the number of 3-dimensional movement options available.
So the main issue is that multi-weapon fighting doesn't give you extra attacks, it only reduces the penalty for full attacking with multiple weapons. And only by 1.
It's like weapon focus, but more limited in application (although it does stack with weapon focus).
And small arms only get half level in weapon specialization damage.
Basically, unless you're an Operative there isn't a strong reason to use small arms. You can have a free hand, or wield a one handed melee weapon, or something to that effect, but no real mechanical advantage beyond that.
In terms of damage, small arms are strictly inferior except for Operatives (and at higher levels longarms might out damage small arms even without trick attack, not sure on the math).
Like any skill, Blazing Orbit is situation. Clearly, there will be some critters that it's ineffective against, but Solarian's aren't one-trick ponies.
Well yeah, but it doesn't really seem like it's ever going to be effective at all. Pitiful damage that's easily avoided, takes a fair bit of set-up to get the most out of, and even then that's more likely to fail than succeed.
There's situational, and then there's pie-in-the-sky, and this pie looks a waste of my first 6+ revelation.
Also, I've seen talk of Enhanced Resistance getting nerfed... is that in official errata/FAQ, or just forum talk for now?
Also, I've seen talk of Enhanced Resistance getting nerfed... is that in official errata/FAQ, or just forum talk for now?
There's been talk, not sure if it will amount to more.
Since multiple types of energy damage are easy to get, and since kinetic damage is a lot like "energy damage" as a type it means that it's not an amazing feat while still being good.
I hope it's not reduced, as the variety of energy types means you still only have a 1 in 6 chance of your energy resistance applying (if energy damage sources are equally distributed).
But as far as I know, there's nothing official.
I wouldn't bet on longarms out-damaging a trick attack provided the Operator didn't multiclass anyway. If it does, it's pretty close and not worth it for an Operator since trick attacks also bring some decent debuffs too that you don't get with a longarm.
The main benefits are making more than 1 attack and getting full level to damage instead of half, and potentially getting that twice. With much bigger damage dice.
Of course, operatives also get an ability to shoot small arms 3 times so it mitigates the benefits there with longarms.
However, ultimately we're not talking about Operatives and a case of whether long arms ever become optimal over small arms for them. We should be talking about "Should a Solarion that is going to focus on ranged combat use small arms instead of long arms?" And the answer is no.
I'm not precious about thread drift.
If they do alter that feat, I'd guess they'll simply remove the DR 5/- (kinetic) and keep it otherwise as is. I hope they don't touch it, I think it's just fine as is to be honest... but a Ryphorian summerborn mystic with kinetic resistance (DR 5/- + 5 fire resistance at first level, and longarms feat as well) on top of any other resistance items it might stack later on is a surprisingly tanky character. (yes, I know this is a solarian thread, but had to go off on a little tangent... the keyboard made me, it's no my fault!)
Am I missing something...that's not what the feat does.
It gives you an option to have DR kinetic or Energy Resistance to one of 5 energy types, equal to your BAB.
It doesn't give you 5 DR at level 1. In fact you have to have a BAB of 4 before you can take it.
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Yeah, there's already a party face, he's just not sitting in the captain's chair.
So I take it small arms with multiweapon fighting isn't really viable then and any ranged build that's not using at least longarms is just wasting everyone's time?
Is Blazing Orbit better than it looks at first? It seems like insignificant damage that's trivially avoided with the number of 3-dimensional movement options available.
Since you're not the face, that puts Diplomacy and various Charisma interaction skills in an unfortunate position. You don't want to invest to much into it, as you're not going to be using the skill except in Starship combat. And even then, there's a question of whether a "captain" is needed at all. Generally if there's more turrets, it better to have the "captain" man an extra gun instead of give someone a +2 bonus. A high Dex Solarian makes an excellent gunner without any skill investment.
One of the traps you can fall into with a Solarian is not having anything to do outside of combat. Do you know what skills the group needs outside of the Starship captain role? Can you fill them? For example, with Stealth Warp, at 10th level a Solarian can be more stealthy than an Operative (+1d6 insight from Sidereal Influence + 4 untyped is better than +4 insight from Operative's Edge). Are they sure they need a captain mechanically?
The issues with Multiweapon fighting seems to have been covered sufficiently in this thread.
As for Blazing Orbit, depends on what you expect to be doing in combat. The nice thing about its free in an action economy sense. You use it when you were going to move anyways, so generally no loss there. I admit it doesn't combo well with the movement plus full attack from haste.
As a ranged striker, you often want to be moving out of melee range if you get engaged, so Blazing orbit gets you a 20% miss chance, and deters enemies from following you with a charge. If you're just taking a single move action straight away from an enemy and are faster than them, they can't afford to follow in a straight line unless they are fire resistant or immune.
Per the Starfinder FAQ, it does 2d6 fire damage per square they move through. If you do happen to be in photon mode, thats 2d6+2 (+2 insight damage per damage roll) per square plus the bonus 1d6 for the Burning condition (which stacks each round you use it). If you have fleet and a minor speed suspension and thus a 50 foot move speed, any melee enemies slower than that either:
1) Shoot you with their ranged weapon
2) Double move around the fire and don't attack
3) Attack someone else in melee
4) Charge you and take 2d6 fire damage 10 times, for an average of 70 (at level 6 - going up 1d6 every 2 levels).
It tends to be more useful in tactical situations with constrained movement, as well as against larger enemies in such environments as then you can cordon off easier. But its true you might get more mileage out of a different power, like Glow of Life, Crush, or Hypnotic Glow.
Then there's the stupid combo which requires a saving throw and slightly unusual positioning, but if you can pull it off can be impressive at high level.
Black Hole + Blazing Orbit + some form of vertical movement (Climbing suckers, Force pack, Fly spell, etc)
Attach yourself to a wall (or fly), 5 feet up. Medium sized melee enemy gets adjacent to you next to the wall and attacks you. On your turn, using Blazing Orbit to climb 20 feet straight up above them. Activate Black Hole. If they fail their fort save, they move vertically through 4 squares on fire, then fall down through 4 squares on fire. Taking damage for each square they move through. At 12th level (perhaps end level for an AP), that is potentially 40d6 (140 average) fire damage on a failed fort save (plus 2d6 fall damage and prone). Admittedly, probably not that likely against a boss unless you've been pump charisma a lot, but its one of the highest damage moves I can think of when if it works, at least against non-fire resistant enemies.
At 12th level compare against 13d6+3 Supernova. Or a full attack of say, an Acid Dart Rifle (4d8+12 (spec)+3 (photon mode) = 66 damage if both attacks hit). Its actually got a pretty high expected damage if you can line it up. Even a 60% save chance means 56 expected damage for this crazy maneuver compared to Supernova's 33.95 expected.
So its obviously combat location dependent but I think it can convince enemies not to take certain actions while you try to get out of melee range. Obviously much less useful if there are no melee enemies in the opposing group.
I readily admit you might find more regular use of other revelations. Glow of Life if you find yourself running our of stamina and dipping into your hit points often is a clear front runner.
Corona is an obvious don't hit me in melee sign, but requires you to be in photon mode and eats up a standard action. I feel its less flexible than Blazing Orbit.
Hypnotic Glow offers some interesting out of combat utility. In combat however its virtually impossible to land because of the +5 bonus enemies get for being threatened or attack by your party.
Astrologic Sense just seems bad to me. Anyways, those are the Photon revelations to compare against.
Really though, all the feat is going to do is negate the weapon specialization damage that someone will have, some of the time (depending on weapon damage type).
I'm not saying it's not good, but since it only applies in limited situations it's not really a problem.
The only real problem is that that they made laser weapons effectively better than the rest, except for maybe kinetic weapons (which have larger damage dice, but also have much more problems with ammunition and reloading, and have to target KAC which is about 2 higher on average).
You're right about the treat concealment as cover bit, though I think that rule probably gets overlooked often.
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I'm considering making a Halfling "hex" build solarian. He's starting out with 18 cha, 16 Dex. His focus is to start combat using his Flare ability, which will blind a target for a round. Picking up longarm prof and versatile spec, he'll be mostly relying on full-bab single shots to consistently land hits when he's not blinding people. At 6th level he'll be picking up Crush, which will stagger opponents for a round. Both of those abilities are only usable once per target per combat, and in combats that last more than 2 rounds will deal ranged dmg with a longarm. Not the best build ever, but it's still cool. Haven't had the chance to actually try out the build in practice, though.
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Also, for the Solarian armor interaction with Powered Armor, the way I read it, you gain the Solar Armor enhancement bonus to your light armor's AC, and only use that number for your actual AC if it is higher than the Powered Armor's own AC bonus.
Your solar armor grants you a +1 enhancement bonus to both your Kinetic Armor Class and your Energy Armor Class. This bonus increases to +2 at 10th level. It is compatible with light armor, but it gives you no benefit if you’re wearing heavy armor.
If you’re wearing light armor while in powered armor, you gain the higher of the EAC bonuses and the higher of the KAC bonuses between the two suits of armor, and you take the worse maximum Dexterity bonus and armor check penalty.
E.g, if you're in a Battle Harness that you're proficient in, your EAC is +9 and KAC is +12. If you also have Advanced Lashunta Tempweave (which gives a +9 EAC and +10 KAC), your Solarian enhancement bonus makes the tempweave +10/+11. Your total armor bonus to AC is +10 EAC/+12 KAC.