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Anyone have any archetypes they like in this book? I think some of them are one of cool, situationally powerful, or fill interesting niches for some classes that can't ordinarily do things like that.
Battleflower and Esotericist
Both are noteworthy for having some useful/powerful abilities that you can pick ala carte and not commit to the entire chain. Melee and spellcaster attacks should take a look at the one appropriate to their class/build.
Espionage Specialist
Good flavor for a Shadowrun style campaign.
2nd: Bluff, Disguise, and Stealth as class skills are particularly useful to Technos and Mechanics trying to add social/physical infiltration to their tech skills or Soldiers and Vanguards stretching out, and the double roll to these skills (unlimited per day with RP expenditure) is useful to everyone, both non-charisma dabblers who want to be reliable and specialists who want to be almost perfect.
Lots of archetypes give two class skills, but I think this is the first to give three, and the reroll is a lot more powerful skill boost than I can recall for similar features.
9th: A full round action cover identify complete with credentials and some infosphere backup is nice, and the Computers check to replace your disguise roll is very nice indeed for hacker operatives, technomancers, studious biohackers, and mechanics who aren't fully funding their disguise skill ranks and/or charisma modifier. Also saves player time having to describe and set up elaborate cover stories as part of play.
12th: The bonus feats are all fine, but I like Fast Talker for getting a surprise round on a guard when bluff or negotiation fails and a party member has to pull a gun.
The d8 bonus damage on all attacks on flat-footed is very nice, much better than the disappoinging Divine Blessing for Lao Shu Po worshippers. I forsee an infiltrator/assassin biohacker build who uses his medicinals to inflict flat-footed and enjoy this damage that is better than the the Painful Injection theorem.
Information Fixer
Great flavor for a Shadowrun style campaign, but unlike the Espionage Agent your GM is going to have to build around it to make its abilities really work, they aren't generally portable to standard AP-style social challenges that will come up.
Free Trader
Another one for a Shadowrun campaign (or straight smuggling), this is notable in that it only costs you your 2nd level ability, and the three skill rerolls per day can be more generally applicable to normal campaigns for things like recalling info on corporations or negotiating services/goods purchases.
Instructor
Skill fu option if you're not an operative, but only in one skill. An operative could still benefit from some of this, though.
9th: Twice per day you can take 10 even when you normally can't. If you can take 10 (via this ability) or 20 (normally), you can instead or also expend a use to reduce the DC by 5! This stacks with one other DC reducing effect, like your theme! You get an additional daily use 12th and 18th.
So. Consider taking this on an Intimidate build to reduce the DC and/or take 10 to ensure you land that shakened effect (as a move action) before casting your spell. Or do it with Bluff and the Deadly Boast feat to reduce an entire encounter's saves by -2 against a named spell the next round. Like to hack really difficult computers or try for root access? A reduction to the DC will help, and you can ordinarily take 10 anyway or use many of the skill reroll options. And so on.
12th: Aid Another faster. If you take the usual time, you instead give a +4 bonus. At 18th both fast and normal bonuses rise by an additional +2.
18th: Take 20 twice per day even if you normally can't. I'm a little vague about how the language regarding hazards like computer countermeasures works here, anyone else understand what this means?
Medic
2nd: Lots. What PCs care about is that healing to HP spills over to SP once they hit their maximum.
9th: Lots. (1) Add level in addition to Int when you Treat Deadly wounds and beat the DC by 5. (2) If you treat disease/poison and the patient still fails their save, you can spend 1 RP to ignore the failure and not advance on the track. (3) You can treat non-fatal endstates for poison/disease and allow an additional saving throw to recover.
18th: Raise dead, but most better if you're quick. Treat a dead character within 1 minute of death for 1 minute and they're alive again. The single negative level goes away after 24 hours.
Power Armor Jockey
This one really takes off at level 12+ with the strength boosts and eventually damage mitigation, but it can make a really dangerous (extra +1-3 to your PA strength bonus?!) and tough character.
Starwright
Only trade 6th level for a very flexible 1/day all day gear boost. You can choose to buy additional uses at 12th and 18th. You can reduce the usage of armor/ugrades with usage values higher than 1 (I can only thin of 1-2 upgrades off hand, but it may grow), get all day spell resistance, get a free stackable Spell Penetration feat, bump a hybrid/tech item's level (might get you a DC bump at odd levels), and walk through all doors and walls up to 5' thick all day stand out to me as particularly useful.
I'm currently planning to use Battleflower, Power Armor Jockey, and Instructor.
Battleflower: Combined with Aesthetic Warrior and Qi Adept, turn a ferocious uplifted bear into a graceful ferocious uplifted bear. I like the stun attack, but I am curious about the number of uses per day... at one per level, you can pretty much spam the ability all day.
Power Armor Jockey: I am taking the unorthodox action of multiclassing into an Experimental Armor Mechanic Power Armor Jockey after the first five levels of Shock & Awe Soldier for my SRO. I already designed a spreadsheet detailing his power armor's capabilities and variants at each level. So the build doesn't actually come into full bloom until 14th level or so, but what a hilarious pile of destruction that will be!
Instructor: My Skittermander Envoy has an Expert Advice build, and this is tailor-made for that style of play. Expertise die Insight bonus + 4 to an ally's check is serious business.
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Powered Armor Jockey: I love the flavor and I run a Soldier who is already in the theme/flavor wheelhouse. I'm def all in for this one.
Starwright: My "Main" SFS character is an adrenaline junkie Operative who is going to be all over this (if it becomes Society legal). He builds a lot of his own gear, has a garage to house his vehicles, and honestly the vehicles options are really good. Frankly I'd take this one even if they only allowed me to boost the speed of my vehicles, it's such a quality of life improvement to anyone who wants to be a vehicle character :)
EDIT:
Espionage Specialist: I'm head over heels. It's a lot of things I want in one package! This is the one I'll probably end up building something from scratch for.
Power Armor Jockey: I am taking the unorthodox action of multiclassing into an Experimental Armor Mechanic Power Armor Jockey after the first five levels of Shock & Awe Soldier for my SRO. I already designed a spreadsheet detailing his power armor's capabilities and variants at each level. So the build doesn't actually come into full bloom until 14th level or so, but what a hilarious pile of destruction that will be!
Remember, you apply archetypes to a specific class, not your total character level. So you wouldn't get anything from PAJ until you were a Soldier 5/Mechanic 6, and not much from that.
Instructor: My Skittermander Envoy has an Expert Advice build, and this is tailor-made for that style of play. Expertise die Insight bonus + 4 to an ally's check is serious business.
Instructor only works with one fixed skill. Which one would you pick, remembering that you don't get this boost until 12th level?
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Remember, you apply archetypes to a specific class, not your total character level. So you wouldn't get anything from PAJ until you were a Soldier 5/Mechanic 6, and not much from that.
I'm well aware (he actually has the Augmented archetype for his Soldier levels).
Dragonbot's thing is that he wants to evolve into a giant robotic dragon someday, and Power Armor Jockey simply adds to his eventual ridiculousness. More slots, more damage, etc.
tructor only works with one fixed skill. Which one would you pick, remembering that you don't get this boost until 12th level?
Why Computers, of course! My skittermander's name is Bobbobs, and he heard you have a case of the Mondays.
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I believe you'd get your ass kicked for that.
Why Computers, of course! My skittermander's name is Bobbobs, and he heard you have a case of the Mondays.
No jury in the Pact Worlds would convict, no jury in the Veskarium would fail to lynch the victim.
