So now that I've had time to digest the rules, build a few nanocytes, and even play a game with a nanocyte alongside other classes, I figured it was time to dump my impressions out into the survey (and of course put them here on the playtest boards as well). My play experience is with a 5th level Regeneration Faculty Swarm Strike nanocyte, playing through SFS 1-25 (Beacon Code Dilemma).
Overall, I thought the particular nanocyte I played was pretty fun, and it felt distinct enough from other martial characters thanks to some unique tricks. The class has enough depth that I had several other ideas for character builds I'd like to try as well.
Here's some categorized thoughts on the various aspects of the class and the class options available to choose from. Fair warning that each section is big and the post as a whole is a bit of a monster. I've summarized some thoughts at the end of each spoiler.
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Nanocyte Class Chassis:
HP and SP being 6/level seemed more than adequate given the CON Key Ability Score. Speaking of CON though, Constitution is an awkward Key Ability Score. By providing an incentive to pick up a lot of CON, the resulting character is weak with skills (none of which scale with CON), poor in Starship Combat, and sturdy in regular combat to a degree that saps drama out of encounters. The Vanguard already fills the "unkillable melee combatant" archetype, and there's nothing about nanites as a concept that screams good constitution to me. I would love for this to be WIS or INT or CHA key ability score, leaning towards WIS because it feels underrepresented among martials. I can see good thematic arguments for both INT and CHA.
The class skill selection makes sense, though it does imply a more "learned" character that somehow understands nanites as a science rather than using them through force of will. Given the nanocyte's combat role and Key Ability score, you never end up being particularly good at any skills, playing second fiddle to most other classes. My 5th level nanocyte did a lot of aiding another.
Nanite Surges are decently plentiful, especially from 11th level onward. Some builds are much much hungrier for nanite surges than others, but I think the base scaling is fine. Letting you trade RP -> Nanite Surges seems like overkill. At 20th level, you can easily have 16 nanite surges + 16 RP x2 + any bonus surges from knacks + any bonus RP from feats/abilities x2 + 10 surges from Living Legion. All told, you end up with >60 surges every day. At 5th level, I already felt like I had quite a few to play with, even though I only had 7 plus any extras from trading RP.
I quite like the Sheath Array. It fits a mental image of an augmenting nanosuit pretty well. But mechanically its quite frustrating. It grants a number of useful passive bonuses, but that's all it does on its own. You have to switch out of it to do cool things. For example, imagine you're exploring, and you want to jump over a chasm. You'd think that the sheath array might be able to help you with that, because its augmenting your physical capabilities, and it does (a bit), but your better solution is to drop sheath to use the gear array to produce bionic knees. Doesn't feel right that the "enhance the body" array is dropped in order to actually enhance the body. It would be nice if sheath array natively allowed you to form cybernetic augmentations, rather than that being an aspect of the gear array.
Cloud array doesn't really do much by default (though concealment seems nice at higher levels). Its also *really* clunky to control. You can't move it very far from yourself, it doesn't move with you at all, and spending a move action to reconfigure means that you can't move yourself on the same round if you also want to attack. Moving your cloud and then guarded stepping feels like a downer of a turn.
I love the concept of the Gear array but the limitations on it (especially nanite investment's mechanics and the rules around when and how you select forms) felt unintuitive and annoying. Other folks on the forums here have covered the way the rules currently don't work. But here's some other feel bad moments: Imagine leveling up before you had a chance to absorb new items - you're stuck with picking low cost forms despite your level up. I'd like if you could select forms you don't yet have the level or nanite investment for! Let me choose anything as a known form, and then actually creating the object is when my character's investment is checked.
And Nanite Investment! Really unintuitive with how its value is equal to just the most recently gobbled item. Really really unintuitive with how you can add some extra UPBs, but, you know, not TOO many.
Wow Defensive Dispersal feels positively busted. Every time I used this, I felt like I was doing something unfair. You can't die while you have nanite surges available. It prevents a ridiculous amount of damage, and that reduction stacks with DR, temp HP and your other defensive mechanics. Its stronger and more flexible than the Vanguard's mitigate too, since you can use it more or less on demand rather than relying on the ebb and flow of EP.
Manifold Array felt like something I shouldn't have to wait for 7th level for, but maybe I'm just being spoiled. Is it intended that the level penalty for a secondary array doesn't matter when creating gear? The gear array only determines which gear you KNOW how to make using your level, not which gear you're actually able to form.
Overall, the base chassis in-play felt defensively oriented, pretty flexible, and resilient. Some mechanics worked in clunky ways that I wasn't a fan of, but as a whole it wasn't too bad. I never used the cloud array on my Swarm Strike nanocyte, as losing sheath array felt like "shields down", while the cloud did basically nothing for me. My Will save was in the gutter despite spending a feat on it, but I never needed to use it in the adventure I played.
Faculties:
Discorporation is great. Its full of really thematic and exciting abilities. Turning yourself into a cloud or puddle of nanites is right on the money. Infiltration, scouting and escape all benefit from this faculty, and its just good clean fun. The "Reactive Spray" ability talks about "significant damage" which I don't think is a defined term anywhere. Maybe they meant "significant enemy".
Infestation misses the mark for me. The image of a ravenous nanite mist being manipulated in combat is awesome. But what we have here does not allow you to do that as a primary combat style. The action economy, low damage, and high resource cost make the malignant mist a secondary action you'll take some combats that'll provide some incidental damage and later also debuff. What I'd really love is a dedicated cloud nanite attacker who spends their standard actions moving and attacking with their swarm of nanites for damage closer to a spellcaster's AoEs. I'm also surprised that this deals piercing damage when previous nanite related effects all dealt acid damage.
Obliteration doesn't feel like it has anything to do with nanites. In general, unexciting. The 1st level ability is mostly worse than full attacking. The 5th level is definitely useful, but not very nanite-related. The 9th level ability adds a negligible amount of damage 1/round with restrictions and a save. The 13th level ability is a solarian 7th level ability mixed with a 5th level sharpshooter soldier ability. The 17th level ability makes the 9th level ability a little better. Overall, it doesn't feel like anything particularly nanite-like is happening here. Even just a "when you reduce a creature to 0 HP, it disintegrates" ability would do wonders for flavor, if not power.
Redirection suffers from some clumsy action economy. Seeking strike requires you to set up a nanite cloud (that is already limited in how far away it can be from you) then spend another move action just to get a minor bonus. Taking a full attack will almost always be better, and doesn't require set up. Particle push on the other hand is awesome. Bend Bullet is flavorful, but suffers again from the clunky action economy of seeking strike. Rebounding Strike is powerful, providing mostly free retaliatory damage. Particle Tsunami is a neat capstone, giving you another cool trick to your arsenal. Overall, if not for seeking strike, this would be a great Faculty with neat flavor and mechanics. Though, it does feel a little like a Vanguard Discipline instead of something I'd expect nanites to do.
Regeneration feels surprisingly powerful. Reactive Repair has low action economy cost and delivers equal or more SP restoration (over time) than an Envoy, with fewer restrictions. For allies under fire, this provides extra value by granting regenerating temp HP. Nanosurgeon is minor, but flavorful, letting you treat people with your nanites. Flesh donor is a neat tool for evening out damage and focusing healing where its needed. From the Brink is an at-will Breath of Life with some restrictions (neat!). And the capstone provides even more free healing at no action economy cost. So much flexible healing that can be done while still taking offensive action! Probably too strong?
I had Regeneration as my character's faculty and felt I could run right into the thick of things with the confidence that I'd be up to full SP or close abouts by the end of combat. It just cost so little (1 surge/combat + swift action) that I'd always have it up. The other Regeneration faculty abilities look fun too, especially for a build that sits at range and uses the cloud array.
Otherwise, the faculties were pretty hit and miss for me. Some didn't really grab my attention with mechanics or flavor (Obliteration), while others had mechanical clunkiness and low impact that made them unappealing (Infestation and Redirection).
Knacks:
Just some thoughts I had while working out which to take for my character, and which I'd want to take if I kept leveling them up.
2nd level (the good): Myriad Forms I briefly considered but there just isn't enough desirable minor forms that made this something I'd want. Still, I like having this as an option. Swarm Strike was really solid, giving a nice scaling attack that deals flexible damage and lets you focus on your key stat. I made good use of it. Versatile Nanites seems like the best way to give your character a chance to participate in out-of-combat skill challenges. I like the flexibility.
2nd level (the rest): Abundant Nanites seems like overkill past the very lowest levels, considering how many surges per day you eventually have access to. Agile Host is kinda boring and worse than taking improved initiative for most (or all) of the time you have your character. Esoteric Edge seems like it might enable some specific character concept, but it didn't really do anything for me. Split Manifestation seems like a good thing to have as an option, but again it didn't interest me. Surgical Host seemed sort of useful, but the benefits were really minor considering that most of what you get can be accomplished by spending a few credits.
6th level (the good): Instant Architect really inspires me. It feels like a cool tactical ability (as it lets you make cover for you and your allies at a distance) while also giving a handful of universally useful utility "forms". I particularly like the idea of sealing up doorways to delay or separate foes. Sensory Nanites provide a weaker blindsense than say the equivalent Vanguard or Operative talents, but the flavor is top notch - you probe around with your cloud array to find invisible things.
6th level (the rest): Enhanced Immunities suffers from Fort effects rarely having a partial effect on successful save. The worst Fort effects are diseases and poisons for the most part, and thanks to all the Fort-related benefits already in the class chassis, they don't particularly worry me. Facial Reconfig feels like a good nanite-related power, but the lack of disguise bonus associated with it (and difficulty of investing in cha with this class), leaves it with an easily detected disguise. Heavy Armor and Weapon edges are OK, but seem out of place at 6th level knacks. If I've built my stats for heavy armor, I'll want that much earlier. Hungry Nanites are A+ thematically, but with a 1/10minRest frequency and a Fort save to negate, I'm skeptical how often I'll get more than a few points of bleed damage a couple of times per day out of them. I can't help but compare to bleeding shot on the operative.
10th level (the good): Adaptable Weaponry likely enables some interesting maneuver-related builds (grapple on a reach weapon?) and provides some minor flexibility. I'd definitely consider it on a higher level nanocyte. Alacritous Form looks great. More move speed is always good and 1/day personal haste for a brief boost as a free action is even better. I'm a little disappointed that some move speed isn't baseline for the sheath form, and that this knack is only available from 10th. All-Seeing Nanites is something I'd definitely want to grab, considering both the overall value of blindsight and the awesome narrative ability to let you track people you tag. Defensive Doppelganger seems like a no-brainer for ranged nanocytes that are already using the cloud for concealment. Stacking defensive abilities like this should leave the nanocyte feeling very comfy indeed. Speaking of stacking defensive abilities, Group Dispersal seems bonkers to me. Now you can grant a whole cooperating team the benefits of your incredible defensive dispersal.
10th level (the rest): Biometric Theft is what I feel Facial Reconfig should have been, granting a solid bonus to make up for your poor CHA and letting you impersonate people. Shame it takes 3 knacks to get there. For an intrigue campaign or infiltration heavy game, I might consider this, but otherwise its too much of an investment. Feasting Nanites sounds really powerful until you remember than hungry nanites is 1/rest and grants a Fort save, meaning that this will *sometimes* heal 10 or 20 stamina before the foe you affected falls. Sometimes this SP healing will just be wasted. Rapid Reshape appears to be an editing error, as its ability to form a nanite array as a swift action is just a baseline capability. Thousand Stitches doesn't let you bypass the 1/day restriction on Treat Wounds, but more importantly, I find SP healing way more important than HP healing in Starfinder.
14th level (the good): Menacing Pall provides a really cool effect that feels high level. Attacking with melee weapons at a distance and getting flanking or other neat positioning bonuses. But even more than the mechanical benefit, there's something about weapons forming out of the scary cloud to attack people. :)
14th level (the rest): Charge Vampire seems like something nanites should be able to do, but its not exciting as a 14th level ability. Most of the time it won't change anything in a combat (since it won't drain enough charges). Deconstructor seems really good in the potential "Against the Machine God" adventure path, but otherwise underwhelming as a 14th level knack. I'm not sure why nanites should be particularly well suited for taking down inanimate objects rather than flesh.
18th level: I like the 18th level abilities thematically, between turning into a nanite fog and teleporting around your cloud, but I don't have a good sense of how well adapted they are for the challenges of that level range since I have yet to play or GM that high.
Overall, there are enough attractive knacks for multiple interesting characters. I think low levels could use more neat, thematically interesting knacks instead of "feat-cheaters". I'm surprised there's no knack for adding more major forms. I would love more knacks like Instant Architect, which I think is my favorite overall knack.
- I would hate to see the class moved to Wis. It feels really unintuitive for the class, and none of the associated skills are thematic fits for the class. I agree that Con not having any skills hurts, but switching to Wis based would be a solid downgrade to that for me because I'd be losing my "unkillable" feeling without being better at any relevant skills.
- Trading RP for surges feels like a good and easy way to give the class an outlet for extra RP. If they took it away, they'd need to introduce a bunch of RP-spending talents for additional outlets.
- Discorporation's Reactive Spray soured me on the otherwise cool faculty, because it doesn't help with infiltration, combat, or scouting, and only helps with escape on a crit.
Everything else matched my take, which is impressive considering how many knacks there are.
(As an aside, "significant damage" was something my group took to mean "twice your level in damage from one hit", basing it on the Vanguard's threshold for getting entropy points.)
I get you on Wisdom not being a great match. I'm just hoping to see a bit more WIS representation out there.
I think INT is the most obvious choice from a flavor and skills standpoint, but INT is already the key score for three classes, two of which are martial. Its a little overrepresented already. CHA can represent exerting force of will upon the nanites, but CHA is also already the key score for three classes. CON is a tenuous flavor fit, "My body is tough enough to house all these nanites, I guess?".
I think Reactive Spray is not a great fit, but the other abilities definitely are, so I got a good overall impression from the Faculty. At higher levels, getting a free cloud array that you don't have to spend actions on is a pretty neat bonus, especially if you have the Doppelganger knack.
I get you on Wisdom not being a great match. I'm just hoping to see a bit more WIS representation out there.
I think INT is the most obvious choice from a flavor and skills standpoint, but INT is already the key score for three classes, two of which are martial. Its a little overrepresented already. CHA can represent exerting force of will upon the nanites, but CHA is also already the key score for three classes. CON is a tenuous flavor fit, "My body is tough enough to house all these nanites, I guess?".
Con seems like the strongest flavor fit to me by a long shot. Why isn't everybody running around with a personal nanite colony? "Because it puts a lot of strain on the body" is a pretty good answer. Int is also a good thematic fit, but I think more than "there are already three", the issue is that it's the key ability score for the already similar Mechanic class.
When we get a second Wis-based martial class, it should probably be one focusing on the skills not well covered- Survival, Sense Motive, and possibly Perception. Mystic has Mysticism well in hand. Slapping Wis onto Nanocyte wouldn't solve either the Nanocyte's issue or the Wis-based class issue, because it's still more focused on Int skills (Computers, Engineering, Medicine) or Cha skills (Disguise, Bluff).
Cellion wrote:
I think Reactive Spray is not a great fit, but the other abilities definitely are, so I got a good overall impression from the Faculty. At higher levels, getting a free cloud array that you don't have to spend actions on is a pretty neat bonus, especially if you have the Doppelganger knack.
I guess I just put a lot of weight on the first ability. I'm probably not going to play a game where it isn't at least half of the faculty. Even at high levels, you're spending a reaction on that instead of just blocking the damage.
Personally I've been debating on whether or not to suggest Str as an alternate key ability score. Maybe do the soldier/biohacker thing of making it a choice between Con & Str.
Though I admit that's mainly because soldier is the only class with Str as a key & Str ties into the "strain on the body" flavor. Doesn't do much for skills, admittedly.
I've always taken "significant damage" to mean "damage inflicted by a significant foe". Its not about the amount of damage, its about being inflicted in an actual meaningful fight by an actual meaningful enemy. IOW, it can't be from an ally, and it can't be in a fight against trivial opposition.
Personally I've been debating on whether or not to suggest Str as an alternate key ability score. Maybe do the soldier/biohacker thing of making it a choice between Con & Str.
Actually this would be an interesting idea.
On one hand, making it Str/Con would allow for more effective multiclassing... multiclassing is a bit of a fraught proposition in Starfinder, anyway, but can be effective, especially for front-loaded classes... and Nanocyte definitely has some front-loading going on. Also allowing some prime stat flexibility would allow for less MAD builds... a ranged attacker could go Dex/Con to make use of Gear Array guns.
On the other hand, it seems like most people would just choose Str because it is an attack stat, funneling nanocytes into melee builds. That could of course be countered by making more abilities like Swarm Strike that use Con to attack... or give Con Nanocytes a compensation bonus to attack like how Wis Biohackers get bonus skills while Int Biohackers get bonus Will saves.
The Gamma World game released for 4E D&D allowed bulky weapons to be used with Str or Con, while light weapons used Dex or Int, and it was frankly a relief to let players choose their attack stat.
You could go:
Constitution Nanocyte: +1 melee or thrown Attack and Damage per 4 Nanocyte levels
Strength Nanocyte: +1 Stamina point per level and +1 Fort Save per 4 Nanocyte Levels
