I was scrolling through Reddit and came across the phrase "building a character instead of a stat sheet" This has been giving me some grief lately also.
I want to dual class a mechanic / soldier for character, but don't want fall behind in performance as I go through higher tiers in Society play.
Anyone have experience or insight into dual classing in Society play?
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I was scrolling through Reddit and came across the phrase "building a character instead of a stat sheet" This has been giving me some grief lately also.
That would be the stormwind fallacy: the idea that more optimization equals less role play or vice versa. Its very annoying , pretentious, and its a very specific form of the either or fallacy. As with all recognized fallacies its a fancy way of saying that the idea is horsefeathers.
Yes, your roll play and your role play will interact with each other in different ways. But You can harmonize them, (such as a hippy skippy friend to all living things xenodruid) , play them against each other, blend them pretty much however you want. Getting the parts you want and then deciding how they together is a perfectly valid way of coming up with a character.
I want to dual class a mechanic / soldier for character, but don't want fall behind in performance as I go through higher tiers in Society play.
Anyone have experience or insight into dual classing in Society play?
(I'm going to assume here that you mean multiclassing. Ie, Soldier 2 Mechanic 3 or something Dual classing would be a mechanism from old school 2e that isn't legal in pfs)
Okay, what are you looking to get out of the multiclass?
Mechanic (especially exocortex ones) is already soldiery enough that mixing in more mechanic really doesn't do much for your character.
If you want your character to be a Soldier (as in its what they are in life) you don't actually need to be the soldier class (or more than a level) You just declare thats what your character is, if you want you can put some ranks in profession soldier, and if they're a grunt they should probably pick up longarms.
You can do that with any class. Maybe the universe, seeking some form of balance, granted your death dealing soldier the ability to bring life into the world and his class is a mystic. An exocortex mechanic might make a good cyborg soldier. Operatives are great for special forces. Envoys don't have to be spoony bardsL they make great drill sergeants. (imagine hurry as "MOVE IT MOVE IT YOU THREE LEGGED SLUGS MY GRANDMOTHER CAN RUN FASTER AND SHE"S DEAD")
For my experience multiclassing, My 703 is a soldier 1 /Envoy 3 and (like a lot of soldier dips) works very well. Mechanically soldier works very well as a dip, giving longarms proficiency (which any damage dealer needs) , and +2 to shoot through cover. She isn't a capital S soldier though. She's a gym teacher who just happens to spend enough time in archery class with a crossbow to know how to use it. If a certain weapon from the armory becomes legal then she'll be taking on the bad guys with a portable zamboni.
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Dual classing would be a mechanism from old school 2e that isn't legal in pfs
Lol this was my immediate thought when I first read the title, too!
I have seen many multiclassed characters in SFS already, and certainly an exponentially greater number of multiclass combos over in PFS. They do just fine because the system is set up for them to do just fine.
I do caution anyone against multiclassing for the purposes of hyperspecialization, though. You don't need to add every +1 from every possible source to succeed at Computers, for example. It just ends up devolving into an arms race pitting specialists against scenario authors that leaves casual players in the dust.
But at the same token be sure you're at least as useful as a single-classed character. I have seen the occasional hodgepodge of a build that ended up just being subpar at everything, but no worse off than a poorly built single-classed character.
Above all, enjoy what you build. Give it a voice or a gimmick or a soul that you can have fun getting into character with. You could build an awesome Heavy Weapons specialist Mechanic that's a better socialite than an Envoy, but if you don't enjoy playing it, it'll just drag you down.
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Taking 1 or 3 levels of Soldier and then going drone mechanic can work out well. With a one level dip, you may have a little pain at level 3 or may have to take weapon spec as a feat at 3 and then retrain at 4, but otherwise, you'll be fine.
Taking 3 levels of drone mechanic with a combat drone and then using that drone to be an explode heavy weapons platform and going soldier the rest of the way would also work pretty well, I would bet.
I don't think Exo Mech and soldier mix very well as they double-up on some stuff, Exo-Mechs are already pretty soldiery. But I've been wrong before.
The scenarios are (mostly) designed for any random group of players to be able to play in them, so you don't have to be especially optimized either as individuals or as a group for most of them. Depending on how you go there may be a couple where you might feel left out for part of them, or you might be behind if you built especially poorly. But I'd argue that they're the exception and not the rule.
Appreciate the feedback. This is my first serious RPG experience so I'm just trying to get up to speed.
I guess I should have been a little clearer. I'm not trying to hyper optimize or feel like I can't role play a role playing game. I was just concerned that dual classing through SFS scenarios might lessen my fun by lessening my viability.
I'm also trying to figure out good times to dip. From what I'm reading here and on reddit, I should probably wait until I get to 3 in one class before I start dipping into another, is that about right? After that, does getting another class lvl to 3 make sense or should I just go every other level into each class?
[quot=pithica42 said]I don't think Exo Mech and soldier mix very well as they double-up on some stuff
This is the other problem, it would be several levels into each before they really differentiated in their benefit I think. Again, this isn't for optimization, it's more for character. It's not exactly like Iron Man, but it's not unlike an Iron Man inspired character.
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. I was just concerned that dual classing through SFS scenarios might lessen my fun by lessening my viability.
It might given the wrong combination with the wrong amounts. Equal parts Soldier and mechanic is probably the hardest combination to get anything out of.
I'm also trying to figure out good times to dip. From what I'm reading here and on reddit, I should probably wait until I get to 3 in one class before I start dipping into another, is that about right? After that, does getting another class lvl to 3 make sense or should I just go every other level into each class?
Its usually important to get to 3 in your first classs so you can get specialization.(preferably the class with the best weapons) After that level 3 isn't neccesarily any better or worse a place to dip.
Again, this isn't for optimization, it's more for character. It's not exactly like Iron Man, but it's not unlike an Iron Man inspired character.
You control the vertical.
You control the horizontal.A class is a mechanical construct (especially in starfinder) It provides your character with a set of rules and abilities and thats ALL.
So what you have to ask is what ability or combination do you get from the multiclass that you would not get from the single class that lets your character do the ironman thing? With an exocortex mechanic 5 soldier 5 that is a VERY small list.
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So what you have to ask is what ability or combination do you get from the multiclass that you would not get from the single class that lets your character do the ironman thing? With an exocortex mechanic 5 soldier 5 that is a VERY small list.
This is the advice I needed.
Specific character idea on back burner, but a lot of helpful insight into dual classing in general.
Thanks everyone.