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Space Hot Take: what if the main design space of the Evolutionist, namely to adopt some advantages and a disadvantage of a different type, could better serve the Starfinder game as an archetype (or number of archetypes,) rather than a class?
Let me back up a bit. I was thinking about how you could mesh an Evolutionist with a Biohacker - I know that the playtest specifically says "don't think about multiclassing," but the flavour of "tinkering with your own body" is so strong in both classes that my mind naturally went there. But, trying to think about how the two classes would interact, I came up with...well, nothing. I got sort of excited with the idea of being a Biohacker with a 1-level dip of Evolutionist, so you could pop some claws and gain 1 EP every combat round and just only ever spend it on boosting your BAB, as a sort of Jekyll-and-Hyde idea - but that was dashed when I re-read the EP Spend rules, which (very cleverly) only increase your BAB up to your Evolutionist level, not your Character level. With that foiled, the two classes don't mesh too well, otherwise.
That led me to thinking about what kinds of "class fantasies" the playtest evolutionist caters to, anyways. I came up with two broad ideas:
- The above Jekyll and Hyde situation, where a brainy character turns into a combat beast
- a Shifter-type, i.e. a dedicated combatant that adopts bestial characteristics (or, in a Sci Fantasy setting, bestial or mechanical or undead, etc., characteristics.)
...but, thinking on it, both of things kind of already exist. I say kind of, because the "base" of both of those ideas already exist. Jekyll-and-Hyde is just Biohacker with a transform mechanic, and Shifter is, even more simply, just "any martial character" with a transform mechanic. And, what do we call it when an existing class provides the chassis, with a bit of swapping to change character focus or character flavour a bit?
An archetype.
When you get down to it, the 'meat' of the Evolutionist class (or what we see in the playtest, anyways) is two things: Adaptive Strike, and Niche. If we wanted to try and turn that into an Archetype that you could apply to other classes, I think it's safe to just disregard Adaptive Strike: solarians, vanguards, and maybe even Qi Adept soldiers (...sorta) already do that schtick. So, that leaves Niche. Each of the Niches can, I think, fairly easily become their own Archetype (or, different flavours of a single Archetype.) You get your Niche's Instinct and Drawback at lvl 2, perhaps with a watered down EP mechanic more in line with Attunement where it maxes at 3 or something. Or just declare "they're always on in combat." Then you take each Niche's lvl 10 ability, and either slightly weaken it, or slightly strengthen it, and put it at lvl 8 or 12 (to fit with the Archetype's level dependence.) And you get your lvl 20 Niche ability at level 18.
Obviously this is half-baked: like maybe you need to keep the universal instincts to balance it out, or just weaken the drawback a bit, or re-working EP is just impossible, or whatever. It sort of solves some of the complaints I've seen: namely low skill points and low BAB. Turning Evolutionist into an Archetype side-steps those problems by using your base class for that - choose a skills class if you want skills, or choose a martial class if you want BAB. And, it still doesn't solve that "increase BAB for Jekyll-and-Hyde" conundrum (unless that Instinct and EP-spend stay in, which...shrug.) Maybe the niche's instinct-and-drawback come mandatory at lvl 2, and the other vanilla instincts are "optional" archetype abilities you can take at lvls 4, 6, etc?
Anyways. Just a thought experiment. Maybe a little provocative, but certainly not meant in a malicious spirit. I'm not seriously arguing for the Evolutionist to be scrapped as a Class, and devolved, ah-hah into an Archetype. I'm not 100% sure where I'm going with this, honestly. Mostly, I wanted to share my ramblings. What do you think - am I on to something, or am I out to lunch?
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I want a fun class that revolves around shapeshifting.
I want a fun class that revolves around shapeshifting.
I keep hoping for a Mystic connection that has Polymorph 1-6 as a connection spell (would have worked for Xenodruid or especially Geneteturge if the publishing schedule for AA2 had worked out) and some sort of connection power that works with it. The genehacker cache Technomancer with Polymorphic Adept feat is the best we have until then.
I want a fun class that revolves around shapeshifting.I keep hoping for a Mystic connection that has Polymorph 1-6 as a connection spell (would have worked for Xenodruid or especially Geneteturge if the publishing schedule for AA2 had worked out) and some sort of connection power that works with it. The genehacker cache Technomancer with Polymorphic Adept feat is the best we have until then.
I think transformation, shapeshifting, mutation, etc are things that should get expanded in the game overall. It's highly prevalent in science fiction and science fantasy, and yet the polymorph spell is the most we have.