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Last night, February 16th, Know Direction Beyond had an interview with John Compton about how the Evolutionist had changed since the playtest. It's a great interview and I recommend everyone check it out (as of now it's just on their twitch) but I know that videos aren't everyone's cup of tea. So I am going to summarize most of the points made here!
A very important note - John wasn't, for the most part, reading from a script or even the text from the near finished project (still has to go through copyfitting). In addition it really sounds like there has been a lot of changes to the evolutionist, both before the playtest and after. Mix all that with numerous other things he is in charge of and it wouldn't surprise me if there were some confusion in regards to specifics. For example there were a few things that he had said were in the playtest but weren't. I am 1000% not throwing blame or upset at all, just wanted to say that this write up may not be 100% accurate to the final product.
- Evolution points have been renamed to Mutation Points (MP). Sounds like they work the same way they did in the playtest, gaining them over time in combat.
- When asked about out of combat focus there was a little confusion in regards to how they worked in the playtest (unless I'm the one who didn't understand) in that evolutionist could spend RP to gain MP, and thus spend them outside of combat. I didn't think it worked that way, looks to me like they only were gainable in combat, but that could be one the the things that they went back and forth on. John also mentioned that out of combat you lost your MP fairly fast, whereas it had been clarified on the forums you lose them when combat ended. In looking at feedback, they found there wasn't a long enough period that the buffs you gained from spending MP lasted long enough outside of combat. So they have adapted some of the adaptations we had see in the playtest to have either a constant benefit that you could spend MP to briefly augment, or they have a slightly longer period that they apply, so you're not just resisting something for a couple of rounds. An example that stood out was some of the sensory adaptations, like gaining darkvision constantly, but spend MP to make it longer range or see through stuff.
- Talk about how complex everything is, and how they made simpler. Big one here is Evolutionist is going to be a full BAB class! No more spending MP to get full BAB. There has been other simplifications, less things to juggle (nothing specified other than BAB)
- Augmentations are talked about. Little confusion here as its said in the playtest you got a free augmentation of your level that you could upgrade on level up as part of the augmented evolutionary focus (you only got a discount). Now though, you get a free augmentation (based on your niche) at either level one or two (I'm assuming two, in the playtest that's when the augmented form class feature is unlocked) that you can upgrade as you level, and if you go the augmented focus, you gain another one at a slightly lower level. In addition to being able to plug more augments into one system as in the playtest.
- Drawbacks were discussed, mostly the eldritch niche because it got some pushback. The drawback was changed so you only take extra damage from nonmagical kinetic damage. Also as a new benefit to the eldritch niche, as long as you have at least 1 MP remaining, you gain a reaction where you can gain extra resistance when damaged by a spell. Most of the niches are going to look very familiar.
- Fulcrum was discussed a little, but one of the issues is that it levels as you do, and how that works with fusions. It wasn't clarified how that was changed (normally you have to pay an amount for fusions depending on the level of the item you install them on, how does that work when the item levels up?)
- Adaptive strike is discussed. It's been worked out that adaptive strike g e n e r a l l y has the same damage output as a solarians solar weapon or a solar flare for adaptive strikes that target EAC. You get (he thinks) two different adaptive strikes at first level, you can change what it is when you level, and you gradually add in more as you level. Eventually you get the ability (if he recalls correctly) to manifest multiple adaptive strikes at once, but early on you can only manifest one at a time. This was another thing John thought might have been in the playtest (must have gone through a lot of iterations)
I was already excited for evolutionist, and now am even moreso. The main issues with the class have been dealt with, it sounds like, and we got some wicked bonuses like multiple adaptive strikes and free augmentations. What do you all think of these changes? Have they got you excited for this new class?
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I rather enjoyed the interview. They still sound limited in regards to their out of combat potential, but the more skills + free augments are definitely appreciated & now that they're full BAB I feel more comfortable with that.
Yeah we'll have to see how it all shapes up. Hopefully senses and movement adaptations are made more easily useable out of combat, but I guess both of those are easily attainable through augments so it's not the end of the world. Also very curious about using mp outside of combat; maybe we'll be able to spend rp to use mp outside of combat now.
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I'm still not really a fan of having it just be another variation on Solarian/Vanguard, and I feel like Drawbacks are not really in line with other Starfinder design philosophy (most drawbacks in Starfinder that are related to classes are just opportunity costs, such as, "if I only take 1 level of operative I don't get Evasion but if I take 2 levels of operative my main class's power DCs suffer too much of a penalty" or "this Envoy alternative class feature is pretty sweet, but I lose Expertise dice, which sucks!").
Still, most of the changes John talked about were in a good direction. I had been hoping that we would get more permanent and OOC abilities, and it sounds like we are.