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I was going to make a new thread about this, but I'll just necro this one (not sure which the mods prefer, necro or repeating threads).
But yeah I totally agree. I am still a little heartbroken that Qi Adept can't be played in pfs, it's the coolest fighting style by far. I also don't think it's especially strong, I have to assume the reason for not allowing it is because of rules issues, and those are errata'd now.
There are a lot of ways to get decent unarmed or natural attacks, at least. But nothing near as cool as firing qi blasts
Venture-Agent, Online—VTT
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Is there a way to get a 'martial artist' in Starfinder aside from Qi Adept that is not some sort of really horribly mangled Solarian or Vanguard?What sort of 'Pathfinder' 'monk' is there for Starfinder Society, in other words?
Nothing will be an exact match, because nothing is trying to be.
That being said, it's pretty easy to make highly effective unarmed characters out of any class (in the same way that the list of classes that can't be effective melee builds in Starfinder is an empty set), so let's stick with classes that are particularly good at it in some way.
We've got the solarian option that you don't like, either shaping a solar/lunar weapon for flavor, using the solar shield so that you are using unarmed strike mechanics, or going unarmed and solar armor out of stubborness.
We've got the vanguard. This works, one hundred percent, out of the box. Entropic Strike can be used effectively unarmed, saving money in exchange for not getting to play with weapon properties, and there's no need to go heavy armor. Being more accurate than anyone else in the game with combat maneuvers also helps with doing one of the things monks would do.
Soldiers work easily enough. Without using Qi Adept, you've still got the ability to get 1.5xlevel specialization damage with ANY unarmed attack (not just with the specific unarmed attack of natural weapons). With that, full BAB and a 3 strike full attack, some gear and feat boosts that play well into unarmed combat and nasty tricks like the Armor Storm soldier adding unarmed strike damage to bullrushes at level 9 (before taking an AoO on the thing they pushed away), there are a lot of ways to make an effective unarmed soldier, and soldier can be part of a lot of ways to make unarmed multiclass characters (especially that 3 level of Ascetic Warrior to make 1.5xlevel specialization with shield bashes, solar or otherwise, though I don't get the impression that you're looking for shields.)
Mystic taking Wrecking fists can turn spell slots into extra punching fuel, and can combine with other magical abilities to make them into a pretty sturdy frontliner (Healing Channel is a great emergency reserve for a front line bruise, for example).
Operative can take Death Strike at level 2 to gain the ability to make their unarmed strikes have the operative property (trading some damage in exchange for making them work with Trick Attack, Triple Attack and Quad Attack). This is on an attack by attack basis, so with decent strength they still threaten an AoO that matters. Plenty of mobility options in class, as a monk thing, and you can also grab Shuriken Assassin for some extra ninja flavor if you like.
There's no shortage of characters that work well unarmed in this system. Anything with decent STR, Improved Unarmed Strike and a source of increased specialization (natural weapons for a specific attack or an Ascetic Warrior multiclass for a universal solution) will get you to a fully functional level. Many classes can go past that. As long as you aren't trying to match the specific mechanics of PF monk, you've got options.
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Is there a way to get a 'martial artist' in Starfinder aside from Qi Adept that is not some sort of really horribly mangled Solarian or Vanguard?
Minor Quibble: "Martial Artist" includes armed and unarmed martial arts.
From Archtypes:
Battleflowers (or ukara in Triaxian) are elite martial artists from Ning on Triaxus
Doshko specialists are martial artists who study the history and traditions of the doshko
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Venture-Agent, Online—VTT
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I'm not saying people shouldn't want to play the Qi Adept.
As it is though, "Will SFS legality be reconsidered?" is not a question I can answer, so I didn't include any speculation that might by misleading.
"Is there any other way to make a martial artist character?" is something that I could give some answers for, in case they're helpful. So I did.
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I think the reason qi adept is so cool is because it goes beyond martial artistry and goes into the qi stuff. For those who want to take that concept and go even farther with it.
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I'm not saying people shouldn't want to play the Qi Adept.
As it is though, "Will SFS legality be reconsidered?" is not a question I can answer, so I didn't include any speculation that might by misleading.
"Is there any other way to make a martial artist character?" is something that I could give some answers for, in case they're helpful. So I did.
fair point.
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Qi adept is now allowed in sfs! Thank you sfs team!
