Exploring the Galaxy Exploration Manual: Envoy talents


General Discussion


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2nd

Expert guide *

Negating difficult terrain is pretty good. The problem is this won't scale at all. While airborne difficult terrain is possible its rare, and Starfinder characters take to the air far earlier than in any other system.

It could use either some way to scale, or perhaps an overland travel component.

Shoo **

This one is hilariously thematic and I love it on flavor. Good way to scare the poor critters away from the heavily armed starfinders before they get too hurt. The details get to me though.

It has a skill check AND a save AND only works on a limited set of critters. Starfinder has a lot of sentient plants, robots, oozes, robot oozes filling in some of the niche of critters. The creature moves away from you with frightened... and then the condition ends. Its free to move back to you if it wants.

Spectacle ** **** at 6th ***** with the improved version

Both thematic and useful. It even scales without a greater spectacle on its own. Trading your own standard action for a -2 to hit when NPCs have so much hit piled on isn't the best idea, but against a room full of people it's pretty good. This works either for the back line envoy (who isn't being shot at) or a front liner envoy tank.

4th

Perfect Insult *

The action economy here is more than a little off putting. JUSTIN....How long would you have to spend in combat for a +2 to matter? 10 rounds on average? Ouch. If your combat are shorter than that you've just spent a feat to succeed at fewer checks (kind of like Deadly aim)

The one minute duration probably keeps this from being used in dinner scene and non combat encounters. Working longer out of combat could have helped this one a lot.

Quickshoo *

Not sure if you're going to be using shoo so often you want to use half your improvs on it. This probably should have been built into shoo at 6th level on its own.

You've Got this ***

I debated with the voices in my head between 3 or 4 stars, because opening reactions to envoy improvs vastly improves their action economy without their abilities competing with each other for attention. I think it's amazing for crossing cliffs and narrow bridges (and am looking how to fit this one into my build). If you have a good acrobatics/athletics score, you can get an entire party of clutzes over a ravine or up a hill without any trouble.

What Makes it a 3 rather than a 4 to me isn't this ability itself, but the fact that the person most likely to have enough acrobatics to tumble, the operative, doesn't have the action economy to tumble. So a tumbling party member in combat is rare.

6th

Fast Camoflage ****

This is effectively skill expertise for stealth for you, and your party scout if you want to spend the resolve point. A biome, as listed in this book, isn't just a forest or a jungle. Its also a desert, a city, even in space. About the only place it wouldn't apply is on a space ship.

Natural Spectacle *****

Something REALLY epic to do with your swift action. Sign me up. Your action economy should now be +2 for your party to hit, -2 for the bad guys to hit, and what you do with your move.

Quick perfect insult **

Better, but by this level you could be making the same check with that move action instead of improving your chances slightly with it.

Shocking Weakness ****

People forget that envoys get almost as much out of int as charisma. With this you can flat foot an entire room. It's real flat footed, so your party members can move up on those ogres while they're feeling self conscious about their SAT scores.

Take em alive * or ***

As a Saranite I absolutely love this one. But you have to get some non lethal damage on someone ,have this ability, and they STILL can't hit the bad guy too hard. Most of its viability stems from whether your DM uses the Quentin Tarantino rules (where NPCs explode into chunky salsa at zero HP) or the GI joe rules where opponents drop to zero and you have three rounds to stabilize them.

8th

Changing Circumstances *

Readied actions in starfinder are pretty bad. The one thing you'd want to change would be the reaction, not the trigger. I can't see why anyone would be using them often enough to justify this, especially as a top level improv.

Early warning * with the possibility of getting better at some point.

You can use a reaction to use an improv, but it doesn't say that it lets you use a non reaction improv. Since reaction imrpovs are currently few, far between, and not something you'd want to use before the combat this ability doesn't have much use.

Yet.

Just Like that

Probably the only use for early warning, lets you give improved critical effect on one target once per fight. I'm not sold on how often something that has already taken one critical hit needs a second critical hit overlap the venn diagram of this ability giving them the crit (one shot in 20)

Quick Study *

By this level a weapon you pick up off the ground isn't YOUR weapon. your weapon is not only a weapon you can use well, but has been chosen to work with your build, outfitted with modifications, and has just the right fusions on it for you to do your thing. You should also have proficiency with a non pistol weapon before now.


Thinking about You've got this, if you pump your acrobatics score you could let a complete clutz with one rank in acrobatics attempt to tumble away , fail, then use your modifier...

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