This is very interesting. The class skill list provide you absolutely nothing except captain skills, which is pretty bad.
But!
Your insight skill boosting class ability, Compound Sight, allows you to choose which skill (later skills) the bonus applies to. Given how easy it is to pick up a class skill via your theme or a pair via a feat, this makes the Witchwarper second only to the Operative in flexibility in choosing any starship role they want to specialize in. Pick at least one of Piloting/Engineering/Computers and you're good to go.
Starfinder Design Lead
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This is very interesting. The class skill list provide you absolutely nothing except captain skills, which is pretty bad.
But!
Your insight skill boosting class ability, Compound Sight, allows you to choose which skill (later skills) the bonus applies to. Given how easy it is to pick up a class skill via your theme or a pair via a feat, this makes the Witchwarper second only to the Operative in flexibility in choosing any starship role they want to specialize in. Pick at least one of Piloting/Engineering/Computers and you're good to go.
We are very much looking at Starship roles. We may have solutions beyond those you mention here, but we want to get the witchwarper settled in one arena before we try to finalize their role in the other arena.
Which is not to say folks shouldn't playtest these classes in starship combat. There are questions specially about that in the surveys.
But do be aware we know we aren't "there" yet on that question.
Thanks for the clarification. It belatedly occurred to me that while you can swap your insight bonus around, you still don't have much of an incentive to invest in intelligence, so good captain or decent pilot/gunner would seem to your best options with the class as it exists.
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Thematically, the witchwarper seems reasonably well-suited to the captain role anyway - I mean, who doesn't want someone in the center chair who can literally bend the odds in the crew's favor?
It is all fun and games until they engage their improbability drive and everybody is a talking fish.
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Thematically, the witchwarper seems reasonably well-suited to the captain role anyway - I mean, who doesn't want someone in the center chair who can literally bend the odds in the crew's favor?It is all fun and games until they engage their improbability drive and everybody is a talking fish.
But then it's fun and games and you're a talking fish.
Clearly this is a win-win.
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Thematically, the witchwarper seems reasonably well-suited to the captain role anyway - I mean, who doesn't want someone in the center chair who can literally bend the odds in the crew's favor?It is all fun and games until they engage their improbability drive and everybody is a talking fish.
Who are we kidding? That was always going to happen.
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If their Infinite Worlds ability could be expanded during ship combat, I could see that being useful in hindering enemy movement (or, if using a suggestion I made in the first impressions thread for having their ability provide beneficial effects, to assist the PCs ship instead). Creating gravity wells or miniature black holes would certainly be disruptive to attacking fleets!
If their Infinite Worlds ability could be expanded during ship combat, I could see that being useful in hindering enemy movement (or, if using a suggestion I made in the first impressions thread for having their ability provide beneficial effects, to assist the PCs ship instead). Creating gravity wells or miniature black holes would certainly be disruptive to attacking fleets!
I personally could imagine a "mythic tier" Witchwarper who can basically become a cosmic god for a few rounds.
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If their Infinite Worlds ability could be expanded during ship combat, I could see that being useful in hindering enemy movement (or, if using a suggestion I made in the first impressions thread for having their ability provide beneficial effects, to assist the PCs ship instead). Creating gravity wells or miniature black holes would certainly be disruptive to attacking fleets!I personally could imagine a "mythic tier" Witchwarper who can basically become a cosmic god for a few rounds.
The 19th and 20th level class features kind of do that in a personal context, allow you crazy action economy as you use multiple Paradigm Shifts per round or toss of a no action Paradigm Shift on top of a big spell.
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The class does not seem to have an issue with starship roles, TBH. As a Cha-based class with all social skills as class skills, the Witchwarper is a natural fit for the captian's chair. However, since they are largely cha SAD and can choose what skills to shove their class bonus into, they can also easily pump Dex along with Cha and become a pretty strong pilot by using the Ace Pilot theme to get piloting as a class skill and shoving one of their flex skill bonuses into piloting. While they can shove their flex skill boosts into engineering or computers to be the ship mechanic or science officer, I think that they are far less suited to this than pilot or captain. Reason being that pumping Dex along with Cha will bring a lot to your character; better AC, better REF saves, higher initiative, and better skill with a gun if you want to go down that road. Int, meanwhile, gives you a lot less than Dex, and as a result is generally not worth investing in unless your an Int class. So while theoretically you could shove a Witchwarper into mechanic or science officer by pumping Int and shoving a flex skill into then relivent tech skill, I'd advice against that since investing in int will hurt your effectiveness in ground combat a fair bit, since the Int contributes nothing to ground combat for a warper and eats precious stat points that could be invested into stats that give you a lot more, such as con, wis and the aforementioned Dex.
If you already have a dedicated pilot and a captian, however, you can always make a solid gunner by investing in the piloting skill to use your piloting ranks in place of your BAB, and then pump Dex along with Cha, which would give you a solid to-hit on the guns.
So yeah, Witchwarper looks fine in starship combat. Its a natural-born captain, can be a surprisingly good pilot, and can be a solid gunner as well with enough ranks in piloting to compensate for its BAB.
Captain is a bad role that is a consolation prize for the otherwise useless, and devoting build resources to pilot never makes sense unless you’re sure your party won’t include an Operative, who can always be a better pilot without really trying.
Like a soldier, gunner is probably the most they should aspire to unless your party is blessed enough to be able to afford a captain duplicating a cheap BP computer.
It’s not really a problem that they are Soldier-tier in starship combat, though.