My son is playing an Envoy in our current campaign. Geared towards being the Combat Medic of the group. The kind of character everyone wants to be near them in combat, and afterwards.
Lots of different ways to build the Envoy in the Combat Medic role as well as being a good buff/debuffer.
Looking at the playtest Biohacker class. Lots of possibilities there as well. Haven't played it so only looking at the class features.
If you were going to build a Combat Medic character, or even the 'ships doctor/surgeon, which class would you chose between the two? What are your reasons and how do you think you'd build him/her?
Biohacker. Possibly dip envoy just for the staminia booster, but after that the envoy doesn't gain much in the way of the healing department.
Your hit points rise linearly (and the amount of HP damage you take over your staminia doesn't even do that) Your income rises geometrically. That makes it very easy for a six pack of healing serums and a 10 minute rest to cover most if not all of your healing needs out of combat.
Inspiring boost really only matters if it results in one of the following.
-It keeps you from having to rest and spend a resolve after combat
-It keeps you out of hitpoints
-It keeps you from dropping
-It keeps you from dying from a really big hit
1-It keeps you from having to rest and spend a resolve after combat
This almost never happens if you think about it. People that you've healed up are almost certain to be the ones that expect to get hit again. They need to rest up again even if you healed them up to full, because if they don't you can't inspiring boost them again.
Hit points are an easy matter of popping a few very cheap healing serums. If you need to heal someone in combat a highly overlooked option is to run up to the tank with a gem of mystic cure 1 in a level 4 spell storing weapon and transfer all of your HP to them.
But other players really DO tend to like the inspiring boost.
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Well, with intimidate not being a connection skill, and the effort of scraping up Stat points for charisma, it can be somewhat difficult to make a star knight healer mystic who is scary enough to use their level 4 ability. There is the option to use base attack bonus for a fairly difficult skill check, but that's almost completely useless, and I've never figured out why someone thought it was a good idea.
I play a Doctor Envoy in the APs, and, even with the Medicine Expertise talents, I don't end up needing to do a lot of HP healing most of the time, but I will disagree with BNW that it is rare for Inspiring Boost to make a difference; some of the AP enemies hit HARD, and there have been a number of occasions where one of our front liners would have gone down if not for a timely boost.
I have a 3rd level Nuar Blitz soldier in Society that I am putting on hold until the Character Operations Manual comes out because her Profession is Paramedic and Biohacker is simply perfect for her. I'll get a Painclaw for her and specialize in melee debuffs and some front-line healing.
This almost never happens if you think about it. People that you've healed up are almost certain to be the ones that expect to get hit again. They need to rest up again even if you healed them up to full, because if they don't you can't inspiring boost them again.
I agree with you on the 10-minute rest being an important thing to accomplish, if possible, before heading to the next mission/task/fight.
Inspiring Boost has come in quite handy during and after combat for our group. That an the healing serums. As this is our first time doing SF (group has previously done PF) it is a learning curve with the feats and various abilities to learn the most effective ones of the type of character we're building.
Git em has also been quite useful and I would imaging he'll take improved Git em next level. Also looking for the one that doubles the range.
I can see Bio-Hacker with a dip into Envoy as you suggested though for a Combat Medic character.
How is inspiring boost coming in handy out of combat? Are you cutting yourselves, in order to become valid targets for the peptalk?
How is inspiring boost coming in handy out of combat? Are you cutting yourselves, in order to become valid targets for the peptalk?
I misspoke, appreciate the catch.
I am currently playing a Bio-Hacker healer. We are doing Again the Aeon Throne AP. I plan on hitting 3 levels of envoy.
1. Inspiring Boost Skill expertise in medicine
2. Get’ em
3. Surgeon
With med bay I can perform treat deadly wounds up to 3 times a day (having access to my med bay of course). Once normally, second from med bay and 3rd surgeon.
In theory at 5th level with advanced med kit the DC is 20 (25 surgeon) I would have a base medicine skill of 16 (5 ranks, 21 int, 3 class bonus, 3 skill focus) now when I roll my expertise die, if it comes lower that 3 I already have +3 from skill focus (seeing how they both are an insight bonus, I always go with the highest bonus).
I go 4 levels biohacker, 3 envoy, then back to biohacker. With biohacker 2, 4 I took field dressing, quick load. I also plan on eventually taking the speedy serums so I can eventually make MK1 serums in like 7.5 minutes. Or something crazy like that. I hope we get more feats/ med items that can help with medicine or heal.
My character doesn’t care for the spell casting or he would have gone with mystic, believes more in science then magic.
Dr. Tentacles M.D. (Thats how he introduces himself) He is a Scyphozoan.
On a side note, I read this in a conversation on Envoy's 'Git em' and 'Improved Git em'.
"I may be late to the game on this one, but I was just looking at the wording of Get 'Em (CRB pg 62) and Improved Get 'Em (CRB pg 63) and realized that you could give you and your allies the +2 morale bonus to 2 enemies without using a Resolve Point. If you use Get 'Em as a Move Action on Enemy A and then use a Standard Action to make the attack using Improved Get 'Em on Enemy B, you are then providing a +2 morale bonus against both enemies.
Since you can't actually get Improved Get 'Em until level 6, this means you could still also have the [seemingly well-known] option of alternatively Clever Feint (or even Clever Attack) to instead potentially provide an effective total of +4 to just one of the enemies."
So if that is correct i.e. using a move action Git em in conjunction with a standard action Improved Git em and attack, you can get a +2 on two enemies without having to burn a resolve.
If that is correct, it brings up the question; does Git em and Improved Git em stack on one enemy to get a +3?
If that is correct, it brings up the question; does Git em and Improved Git em stack on one enemy to get a +3?
Until the start of your next turn, you and your allies gain a +1 morale bonus
Morale bonus won't stack with another morale bonus
Thanks, we looked at this further and what this guy stated in the post I quoted just didn't make sense. Improved Git em provides a +2 and an attack for the Envoy. If a resolve is used then it's a +2 to-hit and +2 to damage for everyone on all enemies within 60 feet.
Don't know how the guy arrived at a +2 on two different enemies without using a resolve?
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The way to arrive at +2 on to different enemies without using a resolve is simple.
Move Action - apply Improved Get Em to enemy 1.
Standard action - apply Improved Get Em and shoot at enemy 2.
When you take the improved version, the bonus from the move action application also increases to +2. You don't have to be using the standard action to get the higher bonus.
Treat poison can be, since each step down the poison track takes a day of recovery, but it doesn't take a lot of optimization, and people slapping med patches onto themselves has a pretty solid chance of success.
The way to arrive at +2 on to different enemies without using a resolve is simple.
Move Action - apply Improved Get Em to enemy 1.
Standard action - apply Improved Get Em and shoot at enemy 2.
When you take the improved version, the bonus from the move action application also increases to +2. You don't have to be using the standard action to get the higher bonus.
It's making more sense to us now. I asked this question in the rules section to get some more input. Originally we were concerned it was cheesing the rules. But with your input and the comments in the other section it looks like a fair balance of 'cost to effect' since it does consume most/all of the Envoy's round (not counting the attack that it provides). Sounds more reasonable now.
Appreciate it.
I am currently playing a Bio-Hacker healer. We are doing Again the Aeon Throne AP. I plan on hitting 3 levels of envoy.
1. Inspiring Boost Skill expertise in medicine
2. Get’ em
3. SurgeonWith med bay I can perform treat deadly wounds up to 3 times a day (having access to my med bay of course). Once normally, second from med bay and 3rd surgeon.
In theory at 5th level with advanced med kit the DC is 20 (25 surgeon) I would have a base medicine skill of 16 (5 ranks, 21 int, 3 class bonus, 3 skill focus) now when I roll my expertise die, if it comes lower that 3 I already have +3 from skill focus (seeing how they both are an insight bonus, I always go with the highest bonus).
I go 4 levels biohacker, 3 envoy, then back to biohacker. With biohacker 2, 4 I took field dressing, quick load. I also plan on eventually taking the speedy serums so I can eventually make MK1 serums in like 7.5 minutes. Or something crazy like that. I hope we get more feats/ med items that can help with medicine or heal.
My character doesn’t care for the spell casting or he would have gone with mystic, believes more in science then magic.
Dr. Tentacles M.D. (Thats how he introduces himself) He is a Scyphozoan.
I took another look at your post and I appreciate the information. First 4 levels of biohacker and then 3 levels of Envoy sounds good.
Can you get surgeon in 3 levels of Envoy? I was thinking you needed Battlefield medic as a pre-req. But I'd have to look at it again.
I'll have to take a long look at this for my next character.
Battlefield medic came out after Surgeon.
Battlefield medic came out after Surgeon.
Ah, thank you.