Greetings everyone. So I play games for a long, long time. My last one was Kingmaker and it was great. Now I want something new and oh boy, is Starfinder new! (For me at last). I want your opinions (I know it's a dangerous thing to have on the Internet) because I am trying to play a campaign about colonizing a different solar system. Based on that premise:
1) Too many options?
I'm struggling to grasp everything in the Core Rulebook, and there are the Armory and Operation Manuals, and Pact Worlds and Near Space and I have no idea what else. I'm feeling overwhelmed. I love that there's just so much content, but I nevertheless feel lost. What would you suggest I should do? Focus solely on the Core Rulebook and ignore the rest? Or the classes from Operations Manual are just that good/fill a niche the others didn't? Or the options for the classes raise the power level in such way they're necessary to fight the strongest foes from the AA and AA2?
2) Is the witchwarper... Good? I feel like Infite Worlds are disappointing, the spell list is lackluster and only his last special power (the one that stuns for 3 turns) are actually pretty good. I loved the concept (similar to the Solarian) but I find both him and the Solarian... Erh... "Off"? Can't put to words properly what I mean.
3) I like ships and shipbuilding and shipfighting, but I wish they made a cheat list with all the options each role can use at any given time. Is there in the books somewhere? Did someone make it and if so can you link it to me?
4) Is there a program or something where I can draw the ship to visualize it or something? The blueprint I mean it.
5) I'd like to ask whomever read it all for some tier lists regarding classes (with subclasses if it makes major difference). For instance (and this is just for example):
DPS:
1. Soldier (sharpshooter)
2. Soldier (Blitz)
3. Technomancer
4. Solarian (melee)
Tank:
1. Vanguard
2. Soldier (Bodyguard)
Support (healing and buffs):
1. Envoy
2. Biohacker
3. Mystic
Utility (control and other useful stuff):
1. Mystic
2. Technomancer
3. Biohacker
4. Witchwarper
I'm curious to hear your opinions and why. I understand this is subjective, but I'm eager to listen/read your build ideas.
Thanks everyone.
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I can help you with 3 and 4! Well, mostly.
3) It doesn't include the new starship roles introduced in the Combat Operations Manual, the Magic Officer and the Chief Mate, but this cheat sheet has the actions for the other roles. I have found it quite invaluable as a one-stop-reference. Beyond that, I just rely on AoN for the new roles.
4) This ship builder is pretty fantastic, letting you keep track of BPs as you go. It doesn't have the stuff from the Starship Operations Manual, but, presumably, it's coming soon(tm), per the site's banner!
1) Pathfinder (which is what kingmaker is) has something like 5-10 times as many options as starfinder, so... I'd probably stick to CRB + op manual, but allow other sourced from the archives of nethys case by case if you're feeling overwhelmed.
2) Eh... sort of? It's still a spellcaster and all, but mystic and technomancer have more toys to play with.
5) In general, melee focused classes are kings of DPS, but also get hit a lot .
The envoy and biohacker are good support, but I'd recommend focusing on their attacks first, support second. The support doesn't suffer for being a secondary option, and they can shoot pretty good with a feat or two.
The various spell lists don't actually have a lot of buff spells. They're more utility damage and healing.
And, in general, each class can be built in a few different directions, range, melee, support, spellcasting, etc.
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I can help you with 3 and 4! Well, mostly.
3) It doesn't include the new starship roles introduced in the Combat Operations Manual, the Magic Officer and the Chief Mate, but this cheat sheet has the actions for the other roles. I have found it quite invaluable as a one-stop-reference. Beyond that, I just rely on AoN for the new roles.4) This ship builder is pretty fantastic, letting you keep track of BPs as you go. It doesn't have the stuff from the Starship Operations Manual, but, presumably, it's coming soon(tm), per the site's banner!
It's got some already e.g. the faction drives where I assume they just added a name to a table.
From what I saw when looking into it, the witch warper is considered interesting concept but underwhelming mechanic.
1) Your equipment determines a lot of your character's power level, so Armory will increase that more than Character Operations Manual. But it doesn't increase your power level very much because of the way that item levels work.
2) I haven't actually played a Witchwarper, so take this with that in mind. But Witchwarper is not more powerful than Mystic or Technomancer. It fits a different role - one that is more support and debuff oriented than the raw power of Mystic or the utility of Technomancer.
5) Skills:
For all classes, you have to invest skill ranks in the skills you want to use. But the choice of class can give insight bonuses to some skills that makes the difference in higher levels. At lower levels, skill-improving feats can shore up skills that you want to use.
Operative is king in skills. Operative's Edge gives insight bonuses to all skills.
Envoy does well in many skills, especially social skills. Expertise gives a die roll of bonus to some selected skills.
Witchwarper gets Compound Sight, which gives an insight bonus to up to two skills. For those skills, that is as powerful as the Operative. And it is for any chosen skills, so that is more flexible than the other entries on the list besides Operative (which just gets everything automatically).
Mystic gets Channel Skill to give big bonus to two skills based on choice of connection.
Technomancer gets bonus to Computers and Mysticism.
Mechanic gets bonus to Computers and Engineering.
Solarian gets a d6 die roll bonus to (eventually) up to six skills, but only a small subset of skills qualify, and only half can be active at a time. So it can be more powerful than the feat Skill Focus, but it is unreliable.