Solarian Weapon Form?

[AdamFox]

Why is there a restriction on the form a solarians weapon can take? Ie "Once you’ve selected the general design, you can’t change it until you gain a new solarian level." It also states that the form it takes adds no other special property, so why would it matter?

[BigNorseWolf]

It might be more of a flavor thing that you have a connection with it, or it may be that people want to keep you identifiable so you can't throw in a different set of clothes and be the guy with the axe instead of the guy with a sword.

[Nyerkh]

Considering it is a matter of "general design", I'd say you could alter it as you wish, up to a reasonable point.
Really angry right now ? Enough that you wanna add spikes to your gauntlets or nails your solar baseball bat ?
Want to look serious and prepared but not overtly aggressive, blunting edges and whatnot ?
Sure, go for it.

Of course, considering the lack of effect, you could houserule it to look however you want, whenever you want.
I'd be wary of it being useful as part of a disguise but if it's a known fact that solarians can do it, people will not judge based on that anyway.
Either way, it does not matter a whole lot, flavor aside.

[Metaphysician]

I actually kind of suspect its a ruling left over from some earlier portion of the class's development. Requiring a Solar Weapon to have a fixed form makes a lot more sense if you were assuming that Solar Weapons had different properties depending on that form.

As is, since Solar Weapon forms are purely cosmetic? I'd probably rule that minor modifications by circumstance are fine, as are "form" alterations that are purely SFX for normal actions or feats or whatnot. Gross modifications would be banned for the same "disguise" issue as mentioned above. Thematically, a Solar Weapon ( or Armor ) is *supposed* to be emblematic of the wielder's personality and "soul", not something where you can just casually swap stuff out.

( All of this, needless to say, would probably be completely changed by my "rewrite the Solarian from scratch" thought project. *eg* )

[Magyar5]

"Your solar weapon’s general design has no impact on its function, and doesn’t give the weapon any special abilities such as reach."

This statement gives me pause to reconsider. If your weapon's general design has no impact on it's function, then I can't see why changing it's form would have any impact in the game.

The description goes on to give you the specifics on what the weapon can do.

Now, all that being said, I think the reason that caveat exists is because different weapons do different types of damage. However, you decide what type of damage your weapon does. You could have a mace that does slashing damage, or a sword that does blunt damage.

If your player is fine keeping the damage type until the next level gained, I don't see why changing the look of the weapon would be problematic. You could have a broadsword one encounter and a flail the next encounter, and as long as your damage type doesn't change how could this offer you any advantages. The damage is set by the level of the Solarian.

I just don't see how the form of the weapon matters as long as all the other rules are obeyed. Nor do I see that this could impact the gameplay in any unfair way.

As I understand it, these are the actual rules of the weapon itself.
1). Must be a melee weapon
2). Slashing, piercing or bludgeoning must be chosen and can't be changed until the next level.
3). Damage is set based on solar weapon.

I would take that argument to your GM and see what they think. Personally I wouldn't have a problem with a solarian weapon changing in style as long as it doesn't change in function.

[Captain Cosmodrome]

The Solarian weapon seems to be a less powerful/customizable version of the Soulknife mind blade in pathfinder.

A souknife could spend a full round to change the type of weapon which would also adjust the damage. However, in Starfinder, the solarian weapon shape doesn't have any bearing on the damage, where it does for the soulknife.

It feels to me like a feature that could be expanded upon later - like a class archetype that focuses on the solarian weapon, (e.g change the weapon as a full round action) at the expense of some other class features.