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Hello, everyone!
I'm a huge fan of Starfinder and, after playing it for many many many hours, I've decided to give back to the community and write something that a lot of people (especially new players) are often looking for: a Class Guide.
I have decided to start with one of my favorite classes - the Technomancer. It is a very complex class with a whole wealth of choices added in the recent (and not so recent) books that haven't been broken down in any guide so far. To help ease people into the class and suggest some interesting builds and options, I have written this guide. And so, without further ado:
Check it out, tell me what you think and I'd be glad to hear criticism and suggestions on how to improve it.
You can find the link to the original reddit thread here.
Cheers!
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Hi Yoonki, nice beefy guide. The organization is excellent! I especially appreciate how you've highlighted a bunch of good build concepts over the course of it.
I'm not sure I agree with some of the ratings you gave. I also definitely disagree with the assertion that every technomancer will want to use a weapon. Having both played as and GM'd for weapon-less technomancers, the class works perfectly well using spells and supplementing with spell gems.
A few points to highlight:
Average longarm damage: 17.5+level
Small arm DPR: 27.5*0.75 = 20.625
Longarm DPR: 31.5*0.7 = 22.05
Hello, Cellion. Thank you for your response!
I'm not sure I agree with some of the ratings you gave.
Please, go ahead and tell me which ones you're skeptical about. I'll try to explain my thought process and it might show me that I need to explain why something is good/bad better.
I also definitely disagree with the assertion that every technomancer will want to use a weapon.
I'm not sure what you mean? At level 1 a Technomancer probably has 3 spell slots (or four if they didn't replace Spell cache). That's enough for 3 rounds in an entire adventuring day. A Hail Pistol costs 120 credits and allows you to fire every single turn outside of those 2 rounds when you cast spells. A single solitary lv1 spell gem costs 140 credits, making using them entirely unsustainable if you follow the Wealth By Level table. How is it even remotely sustainable to have this little to do? I'm sorry, I genuinely don't understand how you can play without a weapon at those low levels.
At mid levels, when you unlock cache hacks, you could try to get infinite spells, but a 2d8+half level overheat at level 10 is going to be absolutely pathetic damage compared to firing even a small arm.
At high levels it does become a bit easier, as you probably have a lot of ways to increase your spell efficiency and may have the spell slots to do nothing but cast spells all day, but dedicated damage-dealing builds will probably want to weave them into weapon attacks (spellshot or spellstrike) anyway. If you built a support caster then yes, at high levels you can probably get away with just spellcasting, but you still have less flexibility if you do not have a good weapon at your side. If the rest of the party is predisposed or down, sometimes you'll have to be the one to clutch.
Double Tap is a good feat if you want to stick to small arms for flavor reasons, or if you desperately need a free hand, but its strictly inferior to using longarms for damage.
I actually have something to say about that. Technomancers are a class that has a reasonable amount of good move action abilities to use, and any class can get fun uses for their swift actions through gear options. While yes, Longarms will be dealing more damage on a full attack, at certain level breaks you will be dealing the same damage as longarms using double tap with a standard action attack. Or even more, if you have a Boost small arm. Additionally, it saves you a feat that you could put into something else.
As such, for Technomancers who did not go for the spellshot build (buff/debuff builds, for example) - double tab is a fairly attractive option. It requires less feat investment, and gets lesser results. A fair balance. That being said, it's fair to knock the rating down to green.
You can play around with the DPR calculator and see for yourself.
Spell Countermeasures is something you're really underselling.
Hm, you're right! I did know about Supernatural abilities, but now that I've leafed through the alien archives a bit, quite a lot of abilities I thought were (Ex) are actually (Su). I'll knock it up a rating, since it does indeed affect quite a lot of abilities in that case. That being said, can still be situational if you're fighting a lot of martial enemies (a more urban campaign, perhaps). This is good feedback, thanks.
I think you're overrating all the effects that extend spell duration or give you additional casts of low level spells, including Extend Runtime and Cache Hacks.
I disagree. Plenty of games (both homebrew and AP) could benefit from you having high protection or exploration bonuses for a long time. It's less useful for hour/level spells, but 10 minute/level spells really shine, as it gives you more spell slots to burn on an important task.
As for spell gems, I feel like you overrate them somewhat. First and foremost, they cost money. Buying a bunch of level 2 spell gems at level 10 may still be quite expensive and can add up, something you just don't need to worry about with duration-extending spells.
Finally, do spell gem spell durations even count by your own caster level? I've tried to look into it, but couldn't find an answer.
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I completely disagree about double tap, precisely because technomancers have some sweet move action abilities that 'alters the effect of your attack or damage', which double tap explicitly does not work with. Longarms and DEX>INT all day with that build.
Spellcaster/spell gem casters do want a weapon, but even in early levels, that weapon is just there for mop up rounds. I'd say magic missile + harmful spell is superior to small arms for many, many levels. It probably stays superior even at high levels as if you haven't been putting everything into DEX, you're going to be missing with small arms. As a bonus, most level 4 small arms (vendor trash) sell for a level 1 spell gem and some pocket change. Other spell gems are typically for utility and once in a while spells so you can use your spell slots for combat spells instead.
There's also the dragon gland alternative to weapons my technomancer player went with that was surprisingly effective. Followed the solarian in after throwing out an explosive blast and got in extra AOE. He tended to chew through resolve, but they could get through several fights a day that way.
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RE: Weaponless Combat At 1st and 2nd level, a single cast of magic missile (automatic avg. 10.5 damage) is worth three rounds of most other longarm based ranged characters attacking (4.5*0.7 = 3.15 damage). Each supercharge weapon on the soldier is a similar big swing of damage. A grease that lands on the boss character's weapon has a decent chance of neutering a whole encounter. What I'm getting at is that a technomancer's "mop up" rounds don't need to be using 1st level slots.
Dragon glands (at 2nd level), the daze spell, harrying or covering fire with energy ray, or even firing the energy ray directly are all perfectly fine filler while your team wraps the encounter up after you set the most dangerous foe on the back foot. Obviously, using a ranged weapon instead of these tactics will dole out a bit more damage. But in mop up rounds its just not necessary.
By 3rd level, you can start purchasing spell gems to use when you want to extend your adventuring day, or if you think you'll need more burst to put down sturdier enemies.
At mid levels, you don't need infinite spells. One of my players purchased a half-dozen spell chips at the beginning of book 3 of an AP and has happily been recharging them as needed while never reaching an empty tank on spells. The total expense is minor when you don't buy weapons or their accessories.
Ultimately though, your comments on this front seem like they're trying to justify a "one true build" mindset. The weapon wielding technomancer is great. They have options for burst damage and sustained damage and they can burn through spell slots quickly for big and impressive nova rounds. But the pure spellcaster technomancer generally has better save DCs, has more credits and feats open for utility options, and is perfectly capable of holding its own. I recommend you don't knock it before you try it. I've both played characters built this way and GM'd for other people playing them and it works.
RE: Double Tap Longarm damage dice are higher at every level, so even if you're comparing single attack vs. single attack, they come out on top. I'm not sure why you're invoking boost as a benefit, when empowered weapon uses up your move action and many longarms also have boost.
RE: Long Duration Spells My experience from APs and SFS scenarios has been that this is a rare enough situation that expending permanent class resources on it is not worth it. Generally whenever there's a longer travel sequence, there's enough time to either stop and rest before or during the travel.
To be clear, I don't think these options (like Extend Runtime) are red. But I don't think they're anywhere close to blue.
A spell gem explicitly allows you to cast the spell without expending a spell slot. Since you are casting a spell, it uses all your own statistics to determine its characteristics, including caster level, DCs, etc.
RE: Double Tap Longarm damage dice are higher at every level, so even if you're comparing single attack vs. single attack, they come out on top. I'm not sure why you're invoking boost as a benefit, when empowered weapon uses up your move action and many longarms also have boost.
not to mention that boost and empower weapon cannot be used with double tap anyway.
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Regarding spell grenade: I'm not seeing anything preventing the grenade being owned/thrown by someone else. I'm not sure that's intended, but it becomes better with a bombard soldier buddy.
First and foremost, thank you all for your replies! They're very useful and informative. I've updated the guide based on some of your well-structured replies. That being said, I don't agree with all of your assessments. Unfortunately the quoting function on this forum is really cumbersome, so I'll be replying in a similar fashion to Cellion:
I understand that longarms deal more damage and even said as much in the guide. However, you also pay for that extra damage by spending an extra feat to pick up the proficiency with them. There genuinely are builds and campaigns where you might prefer to pick some other feats, or want the benefits of small arms. In those types of games, double tap certainly isn't the worst choice your Technomancer could make. As I've specified in my build, if you're making a dedicated damage dealer, you obviously wanna pick up a longarm. Otherwise you can totally make do with just double tap.
RE: Dragon Gland. That's actually a pretty fun alternative to weapons at some levels. However, that range is spooky. Dragon Glands use up your credits just as much as weapons do and also burn through your resolve points, and require you to approach within 15 feet of the enemy (not exactly optimal for one of the most fragile classes in the game).
RE: Weaponless Combat. Yes, Magic Missile and Supercharge Weapon slap. I'm not sure what you mean by saying "What I'm getting at is that a technomancer's "mop up" rounds don't need to be using 1st level slots" and then providing examples of exclusively 1st level spell slot actions. You can slap an enemy with that magic missile for 3 rounds worth of damage, but there's no reason to just stand there with your hands crossed on your chest doing nothing for the next few rounds, when you could then also be pew pewing or using some other actions.
Secondly, you can not use harrying fire and covering fire with energy ray, because "Cast A Spell" action and "Harrying/Covering Fire" actions are two distinct actions.
Daze works exclusively on humanoids of CR 3 or lower. That means that even at level 2 significant enemies may be immune to it.
I'll have to trust you on the spell chip part, as the math seems a bit sus to me. I feel like you'd spend way more on the gems than you would on just buying a weapon every now and again, especially if you want to have a reliable option that you could spam when you're not casting spells.
Overall, all of these are interesting exercises in character building, but I don't think it should be a base guideline for Technomancers and runs the risk of newbies making unviable builds and becoming annoyed/disappointed in the class.
RE: "One true build" mindset. Not at all, I actually even encourage people to try to look for their own builds and options and just use the guide as a general guideline, not dogma. I can kinda see how the spell gem thing could potentially work, depending on the game you run, but I know that a lot of people wouldn't feel very "secure" trying such a build. It is cool, and I'm sure it's not the only weird non-standard build you could create and make work with the class' chassis!
RE: Psylore. You made a good argument for why it should be a grade lower, though an argument of "high level games are irrelevant" is a bit unfair, since we do already have a high level AP.
RE: Robot Influence. You probably haven't read my guide intro. I don't rate abilities based exclusively on combat applications. "APs have few robots" is not a fair argument, because people run homebrew games as well, and every single AP had robots. Additionally, robots are just common in the universe and can be controlled or affected in interesting ways. Definitely stays green, as it's a very interesting and good pick.
RE: Spell Grenade. The spell says that "You must throw the grenade before the end of your next turn, or the spell is wasted." As such, I don't think it's possible to give it to a Soldier buddy.
As for the autohit part of the spell, I always read the "touch" part as the enemies being within reach, so you'd need to make the attack roll in addition to the attack. Basically this is like a Reach Spell of Pathfinder. Has there been any clarification that "you have successfully touched" means "you succeed on the attack roll"? That does make sense, actually. In that case I should reconsider that hack. Hmm...
RE: Debug Spell. Yes. That is why I rated it yellow. It's great for disintegrate.
RE: Energy Alteration. It can be either very good, or completely useless. As such, it largely depends on your campaign. I think my assessment is fair.
RE: Spell Static. Recall Knowledge is a free action and the Technomancer is excellent at them. Knowing the enemy may have spellcasting, spell like or supernatural abilities is pretty dope. Pretty much the majority of non-humanoid creatures have some Su, Sp or Spellcasting abilities.
RE: Tech Countermeasures. I have personally used it several times as a Melee Technomancer, when I knew the enemy would target me for the lack of other targets. It's a life-savior. And technological weapons are very common. I'll drop half of it to red, though, that's a good point.
RE: Arcane Spyware. Once again, I rate features based on what they're trying to achieve. Not all Starfinder games are the same and a social/urban mystery/investigation campaign may happen just as casually as a dungeon crawl filled with evil monsters you need to blast. That hack does what it sets out to do very well.
Happy my comments were of some help. I think with any guide there's a lot of room for the individual author's experiences and impressions of what works well and what doesn't. So inevitably any guide is a reflection of the kinds of games you play. Other people's experiences end up sounding strange when they contradict what you've seen.
I think this is especially true for the technomancer for players that have only played it in Starfinder Society. Society play has shorter adventuring days, more enforced long rests, and more liquid income than APs or (I assume) the majority of home games. So the technomancer plays quite differently in that environment.
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RE: Spell Grenade I've not aware of any official clarifications, but I don't believe it needs any. The wording doesn't seem ambiguous to me. "Successfully touched" seems pretty clear cut.
RE: Tech Countermeasures Good point about the melee technomancer, where you're more likely to be targeted in any given round. Still a steep cost in term of actions and RP.
There genuinely are builds and campaigns where you might prefer to pick some other feats, or want the benefits of small arms. In those types of games, double tap certainly isn't the worst choice your Technomancer could make.
The problem with double tap for the technomancer is that it is only really useful in the specific case where: A) they are using small arms instead of longarms, almost always as a backup, not primary damage, B) they aren't using a move action to enhance their weapon in any way, C) they aren't full attacking, D) they aren't just casting a spell.
Basically, you're taking a feat to improve your backup option. I'd rate it orange at best simply because you probably aren't even using it every combat. Feat selection isn't great in starfinder yet, but even then I think I could find 10+ more useful options for a non-weapon user to grab than increasing their backup attack's damage.
RE: Dragon Gland. That's actually a pretty fun alternative to weapons at some levels. However, that range is spooky. Dragon Glands use up your credits just as much as weapons do and also burn through your resolve points, and require you to approach within 15 feet of the enemy (not exactly optimal for one of the most fragile classes in the game).
To make dragon gland really work you need to visit absalom at level 8 and 14 with your collected credits. It doesn't cost as much as upgrading your weapons every two-three levels, but it does ebb and flow as you level, being more effective at certain levels than others.
It does require a melee buddy as far as my experience goes. A solarian and/or soldier or vanguard rushing into melee and tying enemies up is crucial to the strategy. Going into melee the second or third round after dropping spells tends to leave you as less of a target. The 15' range helps you here against medium enemies as they take AoOs to get to you away from your melee allies already in combat. That plus a con focus to make dragon gland work... well, my technomancer had more stamina than his solarian and soldier allies. By just their level, but still.
RE: Weaponless Combat. Yes, Magic Missile and Supercharge Weapon slap. I'm not sure what you mean by saying "What I'm getting at is that a technomancer's "mop up" rounds don't need to be using 1st level slots" and then providing examples of exclusively 1st level spell slot actions. You can slap an enemy with that magic missile for 3 rounds worth of damage, but there's no reason to just stand there with your hands crossed on your chest doing nothing for the next few rounds, when you could then also be pew pewing or using some other actions.
I think the point was that magic missile and supercharge weapon tend to be standard combat round actions all the way into the teens and remain better than plinking away with a small arm that you haven't the dex to hit anything reliably with.
I feel like you'd spend way more on the gems than you would on just buying a weapon every now and again, especially if you want to have a reliable option that you could spam when you're not casting spells.
If your weapon is your backup choice you shouldn't be buying it anyway. Past a certain level, you'll get more mileage out of buying spell gems of magic missile and grabbing harmful spells than you will out of keeping looted pistols.
Just think about the number of combats you get into. Maybe 4-10 a level? Let's call it worst case at ten. 200 fights in a campaign. If you use two level 1 spell gems a fight that's 56,000Cr on magic missiles. If you end up using a higher level spell gem once every other fight... assuming you're using gems one level lower than your current spell level, that's 242,000 extra credits over the course of twenty levels.
If you buy a small arm every five levels, that's somewhere around... 400,000Cr to 1,000,000Cr.... using looted ones is obviously more efficient, but they tend to be 2-3 levels behind, and you are dead last on the priority if you loot a nicer one than that. Might as well sell the vendor trash for spell gems instead.
Spell gems look expensive levels 1-7, but they become incredibly cheap as you get to higher levels.