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Some way to either see in the dark or provide large amounts of light. Don't be theone trying to rely on a tiny bit of light from your comm unit.
Someone should have a med kit and know how to use it, and everyone else should have a few medpatches, because untreated poison or disease is incredibly dangerous, and, with how generous resolve and dying rules are, is more likely to kill you than hp damage.
You don't need one every day, but I have seen fire extinguishers save a party's lives. Having one isn't wasteful.
More frequently important, you need toolkits for your skills. Especially your basic engineering kit and hacking kit, if those are things your character should be able to do.
You always need a rope (or cable, or equivalent). I don't know what you need it for, yet, but you need it.
Have something that can deal AoE damage, even if the damage isn't that high, regardless of your class. Swarms still exist in the space future, and single target weapons are useless against them.
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I think the energetic and conserving fusions are amazing. For example, you can put energetic on shell knuckles and instead of having to reload every punch you reload every 20 punches. It replaces the single shotgun shell with a 20 charge battery. I think this also allows a mechanic to apply his overcharge ability.
Conserving makes sure you don't spend ammo if you miss you shot, allowing characters with a lower BAB to save a little money. Or help a drone from reloading sooner.
Energetic fusion is handy, but it can only be used on projectile weapons, so shell knuckles are not valid.
If you were houseruling it to allow it to be used on she'll knuckles, you would have to rule that it grants the powered property, to make overcharge valid. As one other note, a powered melee weapon with usage 1 gets 20 minutes of use per standard battery, not twenty attacks.
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As Hammerjack pointed out, kits. The scanning one is hyper usefull. same for the aura reading one. But most of them are extremely nice.
Dented Kasa. In my opinion, the best magic item in the game. It simply makes you immune to critical hits, so, basically unkillable. And it's cheap.
Kinetic Converter is also absolutely life saving, but can't be used in SFS.
Healing serums MKI. You should have very quickly dozens of them, so you don't care about hp damage between fights. As soon as level 5, you need a dozen to be out of harm's way.
Ammunition :D
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Also, backup weapons with a different damage type, and preferably other properties to justify carrying them (like having a stun setting, or being 1 handed if your primary is 2 handed, because you may be grappled). Don't be that guy who only has a laser, when you find yourself accosted by fire elementals. Especially if you also didn't bring a fire extinguisher.
A lot of people want to find a weapon line, decide that is their character's weapon, and upgrade each time a new one is available (azimuth laser rifle to corona laser rifle, for example). When people ask for gear advice I always advise against this, in favor of upgrading to something totally different, and keeping your previous best weapon as a backup.
If you are a spellcaster, you should budget for some spell gems, for niche spells that you don't know, and spells that you may need to use more than you have slots for on a rough day. If you aren't a spellcaster, you may still want to consider getting a weapon with a spell thrower fusion and some cheap spell gems that never lose their utility, like comprehend languages, or mystic cure 1 (which allows you to transfer as many of your own hit points as you need to, so it is still useful in an emergency, even at high level).
Owning a hygiene kit and some different types of clothing is very cheap, and a bizarre investment to skip, if you are planning to interact with people inside of civilization at all, though less important while dungeon crawling on an unexplored planetoid.
In terms of value for money, it's hard to beat the mk 1 Black Heart necrograft, but not every character is going to want to implant undead organs into themselves.
Laser Drill: Punch holes in all sorts of things. Might replace engineering checks in a lot of circumstances.
Binders: Cheap way to say you tie someone up without wasting your rope.
Nanite Hypopens: Everyone should have at least one.
Aeon Stone, Clear Spindle: No need to eat or drink.
Aeon Stone, Iridescent Spindle: No need to breathe.
Aeon Stone, Opalescent White Pyramid: If you don't have proficiency in a weapon, you can fix that in a jiffy.
Kinetic Converter is also absolutely life saving, but can't be used in SFS.
What is this kinetic converter? I couldn't find it on Archives of Nethys.
Kinetic Converter is also absolutely life saving, but can't be used in SFS.What is this kinetic converter? I couldn't find it on Archives of Nethys.
Starfinder Armory, page 123. For some reason the Archives don't have the rules text for it, so here's the most relevant paragraph of 4 or so.
If you are the target of an attack, spell, or similar effect that deals you damage while you wear the kinetic converter, you can activate the device as a reaction, provided the effect wasn’t a critical hit. Once activated, the converter disperses the kinetic energy of the attack. Instead of taking damage, you are knocked away from the source of the damage a distance based on the convertor’s type, rounding the damage up to the nearest 5. You can fall prone during this movement to halve the distance you move. If you hit an obstacle before moving the distance the converter threw you, you take 1d6 bludgeoning damage per 10 foot increment you would have traveled, rounded up to the nearest 10 feet.
Exact distance you travel and how many times you can use it per day depends on the mark (of which there are 3 tiers), and Mk 1 is level 8 and 10.5k Credits for a 1/day that knocks you twice as far as the damage you would've taken (unless you fall prone). And you can't get around the uses limitation by getting several of them, because using more than one in a day leaves you Sickened until you rest for 8 uninterrupted hours.
Basically it lets you no-sell damage a few times a day in exchange for being knocked across the room.
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Also, as far as the Dented Kasa goes, the 2 Resolve points and Reaction cost for each use is pretty steep, but it's definitely great for no-selling stuff like, say, a Wounding weapon.
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Ammunition. Can't use most weapons without it.
Armor. You're going to encounter lots of nasty environments and enemies. The fact that it has a built in smart phone so you can do anything from light your way to make a call to play games, is pretty gravy too.
Seeing as most batteries are bulkless, and the rechargers aren't, I have a big bag o' batteries.
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That's gonna be pretty campaign dependent.
If you have a ship, and can recharge your batteries on it (both can vary), then you can just carry as many batteries as you think you need to get you through where you're going and back to the ship.
If you spend all your time on space stations and in cities, using recharge stations is cheaper than buying new batteries, and you probably do that, though you could use something else to try to save money long term.
If your campaign has more Ling distance exploration, where you don't know how long you're going to be out in the field, without going back and resupplying, is when I think those type of items have the most value.
So I don't think recharging solutions are universally essential equipment, but they aren't useless, either.
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Energetic fusion is handy, but it can only be used on projectile weapons, so shell knuckles are not valid.
If you were houseruling it to allow it to be used on she'll knuckles, you would have to rule that it grants the powered property, to make overcharge valid. As one other note, a powered melee weapon with usage 1 gets 20 minutes of use per standard battery, not twenty attacks.
Without the shell you don't do any damage with shell knuckles beyond it being used as a improvised. Requiring ammo like this sort of slots it into that catagory of a projectile weapon. Effectively it is a projectile weapon with the range of 5 feet, with no range increments.
Energetic follows the usage of the weapon expenditure to decide the size of battery required to replace the normal ammo type. Shell Knuckles has a ammo capacity of 1 and a usage of 1. So the usage would be 1 with a 20 charge battery. With overcharge you would spend three times the ammo with every shot, so 3 for every punch.
I don't see why you would even rule that as a powered weapon? Now THAT would be game breaking. You would end up being able to fight for 200 rounds? "Gee has it been twenty minutes? I need a reload!"
If you wanted to chalk this up to table variance...sure we could agree to disagree.
I'm not saying that it's game breaking, but since it isn't legal by the published rules, I wouldn't include it as advice to someone before making sure that they are playing with houserules that allow it.
I think the problem you run into is, the benefits are minor that they're not worth having when you only have 2 magic item slots (IIRC).
Aeon stones don't take a slot.
Aeon slots only real problem is they present a "hey, look at me!" sign, which you may not want in combat and you may not be allowed to get away with in some social situations.
Save up for that Aeon Gage for sale by smugglers sneaking out of the empire.
Aeon stones don't take a slot.
They don't take a body slot, but I thought they still apply against the two magic item limit.
Unless I'm recalling the rules on magic items incorrectly.
Aeon stones don't take a slot.They don't take a body slot, but I thought they still apply against the two magic item limit.
Unless I'm recalling the rules on magic items incorrectly.
There is no such thing as a "body slot" in Starfinder. You just get two magic items total, for which Aeon Stones do not count.
It should also be noted that some magic items can be slotted into armor and not count against your two slots, and magic armor and weapons also do not count.
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Right, what you have are 2 "worn magic item" slots. In Armory, they started marking whether items counted as worn or not, because it was much more of a grey area with CRB magic items. If you look at the description of Aeon stones in the CRB, though, it states specifically that they do not count toward the worn magic item limit.
Looks like I was just conflating some Pathfinder rules with Starfinder rules in my head.
It's all good.
To be fair, the cheap stones are more of a nice to have than an essential item.
The one that sustains you saves you some bulk but you won't get your money back unless the GM is rather strict with tracking food even during drift travel.
And the one that removes breathing is pretty rendundant considering the absurdly long environmental protection on every armor and everyone should have at least a second skin to wear all the time.
Still, it is nice to have them in your pocket for when they are needed.The ones with real benefits are expensive enough so that they compete with other purchases.
Granted, the 1 credit per week of field rations is hard to beat, the clear spindle aeon stone looks like a better deal if you compare it against the 5 BP and 2 expansion bays of a hydroponic garden. It also came up when we found ourselves traveling in the Drift for a month without preparation and I could craft everyone an aeon stone. Plus, rations are gross!
The iridescent spindle aeon stone is best used by races like the Kalo who otherwise would be using their environmental protections 24/7.
One of my favorite items has been the mobile hotelier at a size of at least 10 people. It's a portable tent in a box with air conditioning. Mechanically, it lets you convert batteries into environmental protections/air at 1 charge per 8 hours. You won't need it often, but you'll be glad to have it if you do.
Another are cheap level 1 mini computers with a range module. Slip one in unnoticed to any computer and you have a remote access point.
Stabilizing Battle Glove is understated, but solid.
For ~200cr you always have a melee weapon and can move more around easier in zero g.
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Always have a way to cast Life Bubble on yourself. Spell slots, spell gems (with a spellthrower fusion if need be), spell amps, whatever it takes - just have a way. Maybe even two. Better yet, three!
Especially if you work for the Starfinder Society.
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A Trenchcoat of Utility, as of Galactic Magic!
How useful is having a switch-hitting mode -- melee and ranged together? So far in both campaigns I've been in I've made sure to, although I was apparently the main fighter in both too ...
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How useful is having a switch-hitting mode -- melee and ranged together? So far in both campaigns I've been in I've made sure to, although I was apparently the main fighter in both too ...
Unless you're basing your whole character around switch-hitting (like a hit-and-run soldier or an operative with pistols & melee) I haven't found it critical to have at-or-near-level weapons for both melee and ranged attacks. A melee character should have some way to attack at range (bonus points if it does a damage type or targets an AC type different from your melee weapon) and a ranged character really benefits from having some way to make melee attacks, even if just to help flank or make attacks of opportunity as they arise (like a natural weapon graft, or a bayonet bracket on your main ranged weapon) but outside of some dedicated builds it's not necessary to invest a lot in those 'secondary' attacks, imo.
How useful is having a switch-hitting mode -- melee and ranged together? So far in both campaigns I've been in I've made sure to, although I was apparently the main fighter in both too ...Unless you're basing your whole character around switch-hitting (like a hit-and-run soldier or an operative with pistols & melee) I haven't found it critical to have at-or-near-level weapons for both melee and ranged attacks. A melee character should have some way to attack at range (bonus points if it does a damage type or targets an AC type different from your melee weapon) and a ranged character really benefits from having some way to make melee attacks, even if just to help flank or make attacks of opportunity as they arise (like a natural weapon graft, or a bayonet bracket on your main ranged weapon) but outside of some dedicated builds it's not necessary to invest a lot in those 'secondary' attacks, imo.
So, basically, a 'backup' weapon for when your combat style is not good. Even something as simple as a hatchet or laser pistol. Not at full level per se but at least you're not sulking in a corner during a combat.