I like the storyline to this scenario, but in both areas A2 and A5, the primary threat of the encounter is an inhaled hazard. Aren't these going to just be effortlessly negated by the environmental protections in the PCs' armor?
I'm new to running Starfinder, so maybe I'm overlooking something.
Fortunately, I'll be running this as a non-Society home game and thus can fudge things around.
John, I'm happy to discuss with you ways to make the scenario even more...tricky for the PCs, given that you're running it in campaign mode :D
Count me as VERY interested!
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what bonous does target traking give the Torpedo Technicians? The stats dont give its base BaB.
Target tracking for NPCs is always +2. Per the Mechanic Class Graft in Alien Archive.
Target Tracking (Ex): As a move action, this NPC can designate and track a single foe, gaining a +2 bonus to attack rolls against that target. Use this same bonus for twin tracking and quad tracking.
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Do I have to keep the pet? Can I at least get it spayed or neutered?
Apologies for overthinking something that is supposed to be cute and fun, but I feel that the adventure is forcing my character to be, at best, an irresponsible pet owner, and at worst, genocidally criminally negligent. I can see that the beasts need to breed fast so every PC can have one, but invasive species can be really bad news even when they aren't genetically engineered to be WMDs.
If this is the prelude to a tribble-apocalypse adventure, then it was really unfair to give us the pets with no chance to respond in character.
I could play my character as paranoid about this as his player, but I suspect that would not be fun for the other players.
I'm not sure if this is the right sub-forum for this, but it seems too spoiler-ish to put anywhere else.
Perhaps this will prompt your character to become a xenowarden or xenobiologist! Study how they replicate, and see if you can somehow control it (or at least, slow it down)!
Contributor
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Quick question as I'm prepping this. The jinsul techs in area A1 have both "Overcharge Weapon" listed in their tactics and mechanic tricks, but "Overload (DC 15/17)" in their offensive abilities. Should we assume that overload is a typo, since I don't see anything in the class templates that should give them extra mechanic tricks?
Thanks very much!
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Contributor
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Something else minor that I just noticed while calculating Spell Gem DCs - the Spell DCs for the base commander are the same at both subtiers, even though their Int bonus is +5 at the low tier and +6 at the high. This suggests that their 3rd level spell DCs should be 18 and 19, respectively, but instead are 20 at both subtiers.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this!
Edit: Even though he has no listed feats, I just remembered that Technomancers get Spell Focus as a bonus feat, so that would make the 3rd level DCs 19 and 20, so my question is even more minor than I originally thought.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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The armor also doesn't protect them from the ensuing radiation cascade... which has a clear call out along the lines of "hahaha, no armor protection for you."
:)
Also, glad to see that people are enjoying this scenario!
I enjoyed the scenario lots, and I thought this room was a cool idea. I really like the way this scenario is setting up something for the future. I love dungeons where we actually discover something we as players didn't know. (Then again, you know all about that, Mr. Traitor's Lodge.)
However, I have a bit of beef with this encounter. When we went to examine the case with the samples I thoroughly searched it for traps, got a 39 result. But there's no DC listed to notice the hazard. This feels a bit like a bait and switch, presenting something that's pretty much a trap as a slightly different game element to foil people trying to play smart.
Second, the special radiation that armor can't stop - I haven't kept count, but I think by now the number of scenarios with "special radiation" far outnumber the ones with regular radiation. Is it even worth buying radiation protection on your armor if every scenario is going to make an exception anyway? IIRC the one time that armor could stop the radiation was the scenario where being exposed had beneficial effects - but a PC playing down from the high tier in higher level armor would be "protected". The overall picture is starting to look unfair to me.
Starfinder Society Developer
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Second, the special radiation that armor can't stop - I haven't kept count, but I think by now the number of scenarios with "special radiation" far outnumber the ones with regular radiation. Is it even worth buying radiation protection on your armor if every scenario is going to make an exception anyway? IIRC the one time that armor could stop the radiation was the scenario where being exposed had beneficial effects - but a PC playing down from the high tier in higher level armor would be "protected". The overall picture is starting to look unfair to me.
Something I'm keeping an eye on. And you raise some valid points
Generally, my biggest concern when it comes to including any sort of radiation in a scenario is that most armor purely negates radiation, making these effects trivial. So including radiation, except maybe as a small "oh isn't this cute" is otherwise a waste of words in a situation where PCs have fairly solid armor. Conversely, simply "bumping up the radiation to the next level" could result in a situation where a PC doesn't have the higher item armor and has a very large swing in terms of save DC.
I do understand the view of these special radiations being unfair, I'm also trying my best to avoid what I often see online when we do include encounters that reward PCs for being prepare, which could be: "LOL!11!!! There's a radiation trap in this encounter, but basic armor makes it useless. What a waste of an encounter, do these devs even Starfinder?!"
So generally, if you're seeing a radiation threat, it's because it does somehow circumvent the assumed defenses that all PCs should have. :)
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Second, the special radiation that armor can't stop - I haven't kept count, but I think by now the number of scenarios with "special radiation" far outnumber the ones with regular radiation. Is it even worth buying radiation protection on your armor if every scenario is going to make an exception anyway? IIRC the one time that armor could stop the radiation was the scenario where being exposed had beneficial effects - but a PC playing down from the high tier in higher level armor would be "protected". The overall picture is starting to look unfair to me.Something I'm keeping an eye on. And you raise some valid points
Generally, my biggest concern when it comes to including any sort of radiation in a scenario is that most armor purely negates radiation, making these effects trivial. So including radiation, except maybe as a small "oh isn't this cute" is otherwise a waste of words in a situation where PCs have fairly solid armor. Conversely, simply "bumping up the radiation to the next level" could result in a situation where a PC doesn't have the higher item armor and has a very large swing in terms of save DC.
I do understand the view of these special radiations being unfair, I'm also trying my best to avoid what I often see online when we do include encounters that reward PCs for being prepare, which could be: "LOL!11!!! There's a radiation trap in this encounter, but basic armor makes it useless. What a waste of an encounter, do these devs even Starfinder?!"
So generally, if you're seeing a radiation threat, it's because it does somehow circumvent the assumed defenses that all PCs should have. :)
I've seen that more often with gas traps/hazards.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Yeah, gas traps still have some writers flummoxed. It's avoided very well in #LEEE where it's actually a plot point that with their armor, the PCs can go somewhere that otheer people can't.
But every time I run into a gas trap that miraculously penetrate armor, I don't think "oh that's clever", I think "that's a GM who won't take no for an answer".
The thing that irks me with environmental protections is actually: many of those environmental protections should make it hard to use racial abilities.
Blindsense (vibration) while your antenna are inside your helmet? Blindsense (scent) while you're insulated from the local atmosphere? Bite attacks while keeping your armor closed against a hard vacuum?
I feel like the CRB is too generous with "somehow it all works and you can do whatever you like in armor". As a consequence the most reasonable thing to do while you're on the clock during an adventure is to keep environmental protections active all the time. A level 2 armor should be enough to stay sealed for a whole adventure (not counting spaceship travel).
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Venture-Agent, Online—VTT
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I think the problem with gas traps is more one of location, than anything. A gas trap in an area where people don't have a reason to have their suits sealed is a practical trap. A gas trap in an already hostile environment is a waste that no one would build, if it isn't a natural hazard.
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Starfinder Society Developer
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I also go back to word count. While including these sorts of traps/hazards in their likely terrain makes sense in a lot of cases, thanks to the defenses of armor we probably don't want to even waste the word count on them because it's a waste of space in a scenario.
I think the Starfinder rules on armor are exceptionally powerful in a defensive sense, but I also think they're even more powerful in an Organized Play environment where players can game the system and KNOW that most scenarios take place over hours instead of days.
Again, it's something that is on my radar, but it's certainly a case of something I'd like to do when I maybe find the free time (ha ha ha....) to update our freelancer guide for writing scenarios.
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I think the problem with gas traps is more one of location, than anything. A gas trap in an area where people don't have a reason to have their suits sealed is a practical trap. A gas trap in an already hostile environment is a waste that no one would build, if it isn't a natural hazard.
GM: "You land on a horrible asteroid full of nasty monsters and grievous environmental hazards, which you expect to spend only a few hours exploring and discover that it has a thin breathable atmosphere!"
PC: "Oh, yes, I will verily turn off the environmental protections on my armor that could protect me for a full week. Wouldn't want to waste it."
GM: "YOU HAVE FALLEN INTO MY TRAP!"
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Venture-Agent, Online—VTT
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I think the problem with gas traps is more one of location, than anything. A gas trap in an area where people don't have a reason to have their suits sealed is a practical trap. A gas trap in an already hostile environment is a waste that no one would build, if it isn't a natural hazard.GM: "You land on a horrible asteroid full of nasty monsters and grievous environmental hazards, which you expect to spend only a few hours exploring and discover that it has a thin breathable atmosphere!"
PC: "Oh, yes, I will verily turn off the environmental protections on my armor that could protect me for a full week. Wouldn't want to waste it."
GM: "YOU HAVE FALLEN INTO MY TRAP!"
Right... exploring a horrible asteroid full of monsters and environmental hazards is a place where having a sealed suit makes sense, even if you could breathe without it. So it's not a great place to put in a gas trap, and expect it to be part of the challenge of the encounter it's in.
Being ambushed while you were supposed to be meeting with someone, in an air-conditioned building, in civilization (whether a major planet, or a smaller colony that is still in a totally habitable environment), a gas trap would make sense as a real threat, because why would you have seals on in that scenario, if you aren't a Kalo or something? Other than the purest metagamng?
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Being ambushed while you were supposed to be meeting with someone, in an air-conditioned building, in civilization (whether a major planet, or a smaller colony that is still in a totally habitable environment), a gas trap would make sense as a real threat, because why would you have seals on in that scenario, if you aren't a Kalo or something? Other than the purest metagamng?
The other 3 times you were hit with poison gas over dinner? Really it's like the desert menu....
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Venture-Agent, Online—VTT
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Sure, if you have a character that has had that happen repeatedly, maybe they would become paranoid, and not worry about being creepy and off putting by eschewing food and keeping their helmet on at the table.
But "only use things like gas where they make sense" is not the same as "use gas every time a pc might have their helmet (or force field, or whatever else) off."
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Running this now and so far it has scored two "heart-melting squees" from my players. One for the Ziggy-Historia-7 relationship update, one for the alien specimen.