Hey guys. I've been playing Starfinder for a short while now. I'm GM'ing Dead Suns in my main group, and I'm playing an exocortex Mechanic in sanctioned society play. I'm wanting to build a new character to start working on my Skittermander unlock, and considering what our group has and might need, I'm looking at a Solarian.
I like the class from what I've seen, but I'm having some issues building it. Specifically, I want to make it more caster focused, but a lot of the battles I've seen (GM and playing) haven't lasted long enough to make it viable. It seems that by the time I'd be attuned enough to use my caster abilities, the fight is essentially over anyway.
Specifically, I'm looking for some ideas that others may have done along these lines. I'm really committed to the weapon or armor, so at this point, I can build whatever. Our party does have a lot of range, so having some melee might be better for the group.
I guess I'm curious to see what others have done with the class and really utilized the caster side of it. Any ideas or help would be appreciated. Thanks.
I've built two Solarians. A Skittermander beat-stick with Armor and a Pike. The fairly nice Stellar Rush reach one. He was fun, went 14 Str, 14 Dex, 14 Cha. Niw that was in Skittershot so mileage varied since the rest of our five person party were the pregens (4 pregens, 5 players).
The other one is caster-focused. Drow, again with Armor. Weapon is the Polarity Gauntlets to synergize with the Solarian Onslaught if I ever find myself full attacking (the gauntlets also target EAC which adds to it). Gravity Hold is a lot of fun for the immobilize in Graviton, though people would complain the DC from only having 14 Cha is too low. But yeah, by level 6 you've got Crush, the armor and take Enhanced Resistance at level 5 so you have DR/ER to basically everything (DR from Enhanced, Fire/Cold from Solar Armor and/or Corona, you can get Electric and Sonic from Constructive Interference) and can throw around CC like Gravity Hold, and Crush you're a damage sponging monster with CC that can't be ignored.
EDIT: My build didn't take Enhanced at 5 on the Drow. I went Antagonize with an earlier Skill Focus Intimidate (since Sidereal is out of combat only) so you can force an opponent on you. Or just Demoralize to add to the CC you have available.
Did you run into any issues with the attunement for casting being too slow? I'm also curious to know what feats you went with for each type.
Throwing in my 2 cents, I theory crafted one of these; They had an 18 Cha, 14 Dex, 12 Con, Solar Armor. Gravity hold is OK, but I took Dark Matter for defense, and Flare as my debuff(Save or be blind for 1 round isn't terrible) Then Crush(which is awesome) and Hypnotic Glow(since charm person as a Su is so much fun in social situations).
I dont think you build around zenith revelations; and if you dont, you attune on the first round; with high Cha your DC's are actually good and you carry a small arm for backup ranged damage.
Did you run into any issues with the attunement for casting being too slow? I'm also curious to know what feats you went with for each type.
You don't really get any big Zeniths until 9. Neither character is that high. Nathan is correct though, don't build around Zeniths. They're candy.
For the Skittermander, as Skittershot is level 2, hus only feat was Weapon Focus. I did get to Zenuth twice though (needing to be weary of teammates).
The Drow, Skill Focus: Intimidate, level 3 was open to whichever feat but I also went Weapon Focus just to help the accuracy from 14 Str/Dex (Operative weapon I could use either), 5 Antagonize with 7 Enhanced Resistance, though you can swap the last two. Dark Matter is good, giving you DR, the only reason I didn't pick it was just because I knew I wanted Enhanced Resistance, and you get double the DR for it.
With Zeniths in mind though, Time Dilation is amazing. If your GM notices that combats are too easy (my group last session for example reduced a single enemy encounter to half its HP in the first round) he should be adding more creatures. As a team of 6 level 3 characters, my team gandles 2 CR 4 creatures like it's nothing, but the combat will be 5+ rounds or so.
There's some good stuff here to think on. Sadly I'm restricted to Core as it is a Society game. Still, there's plenty for me to consider. I really like your armor approaches, but my tentative builds so far have my Dex bonus as no higher than 12, so I'm thinking of just taking heavy armor proficiency and a solar weapon.