101 Starfinder Enhanced Builds


General Discussion


5 people marked this as a favorite.

Starfinder Enhanced introduced a lot of new options that alone or in synergy with others in this book or others enable some cool or powerful options. Here are some things I've noticed or seen mentioned, please include your own.

1. Triple Ripple Spellcasters: The enhanced witchwarper (if you count Infinite Worlds as a spell), chronomancy anchor precog, and (uuugh) technomancer with quicken spells can all now cast three standard action spells in one round. What you need is a Hyper Graft (gives an extra move action with no restrictions once per day) and the newly introduced Timeskip Crystal, which lets you downgrade an action - for example a standard action into a move action. All three of the mentioned spellcasters can already cast two things in one round, so now you can squeeze in a third. For a precog it's up to two sixth level spells and one 4th level (and lose your standard action next round), the witchwarper can cast two 6th level spells and one sixth level use of Infinite Worlds, and the poor technomancer can cast two 6th level spells and one 2nd level spell at a ruinous cost in resolve points.

2. Action Economy Explosion: First, reactions. The alternate resolve point use rules and a new magitech augmentation, Hypernerves (spinal colum, level 3-15), let you take 2 reactions in one round. With the Mk3 and the alternate rule, you can do it up to 4 times per day. This makes lots of builds stronger, especially those with reroll abilities to use on a failed or low attack/save/skill roll.

There's also many, many ways to get extra (usually restricted) move actions. Spells, class abilities, a serum, and an alternate resolve rule are a few.

3. More Demoralize Boosts: Want to push those demoralize builds even further? Acid Breath biotech augmentation (lungs, level 5) gives a +2 circumstance bonus that stacks with your throat enhancement bonus Vampire Voice, but only within 10'. There's also a long duration 2nd level spell, Fearsome Reputation, that lets you reroll a failed demoralize check.

4. Biohacker Mushroom Mastery: There's hypermycology field of study (give temp HP that convert to healing to allies, reduce enemy healing/speed/melee attacks, and a versatile breakthrough debuff - I like the surrounding mushroom wall, which can also give an ally a breather) plus a crazy number of mushroom themeed biohacks with progression. Toxic, exploding, moving mushroom spore clouds are here. There's a mushroom elevator, mushroom resistance sheathe, mushroom part network, mushroom climbing cilia, and a (ok, bacterial) wall.

5. Biohacker Weapons Mastery: There was already plenty of support for shooting things with injection weapons for damage and debuffs. But now at 10th level we can start using Digital Disease to use any energy weapon to act as if it has injection quality to deliver biohacks and benefit from injection expert accuracy AND PROFICIENCIES. If you pick up any energy advanced melee, sniper, or heavy weapon, it works for you to deliver biohacks now and you get your near full BAB (requires microlab jack theorem prereq, which admittedly isn't great).

But wait, that's not all! At 14th Major Minor Inhibitor improves the attack penalty your minor inhibitors inflict from -1 to -3. (Per a SFS note changing the language, this does work with full attacks.) Slap on one of those theorems that boost inhibitors (like Decomposing for acid damage, or Hampering to half their speed) and blast away without worrying every again about how many biohacks you're carrying into a fight.

Did I mention snipers? While Digital Disease does make them available at 10th if they're energy, you can instead take Far-Reaching Influence at 8th (and avoid the preq payment of a not great lower level theorem) to put the injection property on any one sniper rifle you modify each day. Unlike the energy weapons, you'll be able to put syringes with poisons and serums in your magazine if it's a projectile weapon, so try to get one with a little bit of capacity. Coil Rifles seem the obvious choice to keep full attacks as an option and have plenty of ammo.

6. Area Biohacks: There's two ways to hit multiple enemies with one biohack now. Hotbox theorem (4th) lets you inject and throw a smoke grenade that delivers the biohack to everyone that breathes it unless they make a fort save (normal choking effect is gone). And Explosive Biohack uses a move action to supercharge your next shot so that any biohack delivered is in a 5' radius around the creature; duration is however halved.


7. Full "Cyborg" Evolutionist: New adaptations let you cram in even more augmentations. Broad Augmentations (6th) lets you treat some augmentation types that don't match your niche as if they were the type associated with your nice. Duplicate System (6th, take again at 14th) lets you pick a system that will hold two augmentations instead of one - we're getting to the point where you can do this in half a dozen systems without trying too hard. Plentiful Augmentation gives you a second free augmentatino of level -3. And Cunning Deactivation (18th) letes you deactivate an augmentation for 1 hour to get a bunch of MP to start a fight.

8. Combat Mechanic: Lots of mechanic tricks to make you a better gun fighter. You can get combat feats (boring), change energy type on yours or an allies weapon for several rounds, reload a designated weapon as a reaction, boost AC by +2 as a move action, reaction ricochet a hit to a new target (works with unwieldy), apply adaptable weapon property to a weapon you're wielding, grant yourself concealment or total concealment miss chance against ranged attacks, evasion, and that envoy ranged coordinated attack thing based off reactions that pulls everyone's next attack forward to your initiative.

9. Ghost Puncher: There's a skin cyber augmentation that give the force trait to one designated unarmed attack. (I don't think it works with Swarm Strikes, sorry Nanocytes. You got 30% of all the "you've got to be kidding me" other things in this book though.)


10. Nanocyte Wheelman: Yes, you got a knack to create a Large vehicle as a known major form.

11. Nanocyte Skill Utility Knife: Intelligent Nanites knack. As a swift action, spend a surge for full ranks in one skill for MINUTES per level. A later knack (Nanitic Genius) makes it a class skill, or if already a class skill can use half your con modifier instead of normal modifier (.e.g if +6 Con and +0 Int, you would use +3 attribute when doing computers ).

Obviously these two together let you completely dump any attribute from a skill point of view and be completely competent at whatever tech or social challenge might come up. Grab a serum for the insight bonus, maybe.

12. Nanocyte Juggernaut: New Transmutation faculty gives you access to a new array called a body array. It gives you quite respectable (and scaling) hardness at level 1 to make you even harder to kill than a normal Nanocyte (Vanguards weep), and also inflicts level+con damage on weapons that hit you (won't penetrate their hardness) and natural attackers (OUCH).

Wait, at 13 you also get extra EAC/KAC, more bonus against bull rush/trip, and a bonus to your cyto-conversion save bonus? At 17 you double your melee strength bonus or swarm strike con bonus to damage? And whenever you damage someone someone with melee you can take a free bull rush at no action and no limit per turn?

This is the dumbest and most OP subclass in the game. Expect all of your encounters to be ghosts after you pick this and swarm strike, and you'll deserve it.

13. Nanocyte Weapon Master: Bow down and accept melee (and thrown) weapon supremacy. (Plenty of the below do work with raned, though.) It's all here. KEEN, a shield, special materials, a fusion, return on thrown, integrated plus reach, death strike.

Defensive Manifestation knack gives you shield proficiency, a shield form, and you can manifest a shield along with a one handed weapon.

Material Alterations lets you give metal qualities to your major form weapons. Also lets you alter normal ammo while loading it - oh, those cheap normal rounds just became abysium or adamantium. (There's a limited list of starmetals and normal metals, no dumpster diving new materials that have been published in APs.)

Eldritch Upgrade gives you a single fusion that you can apply to any of your major weapon forms. No, still doesn't work on swarm strike.

Weighted for Throwing gives the recall property to thrown major form weapons, saving your fusion from Eldritch Upgrade for something else. Also applies con to damage (but not attack) rolls.

One with the Weapon: Create melee weapon with integrated quality, it automatically fits into an empty armor upgrade slot. Also has either disarm (c'mon) or reach (hell yeah) property added on. This works to put a two handed weapon into one armor slot.

Cutting Edge: They f@@+ing did it, guys. It's keen. Form a slashing major form melee weapon, spend a surge, and it has a crit range of 19-20 as long as it's manifested.

Harvesting Nanites: Unarmed or melee strike does extra damage on a failed save, then has to save or just die.

14. Nanocyte Hacker: Nanitic Networking gives you a +1-4 insight bonus to Computers and you can hack at a range of 20'.


15. Nanocyte CLOUD OF NUCLEAR DEATH!!! Impeding Cloud gives your cloud difficult terrain but better than the one in Interstellar Species (party friendly), and Nanitic Excitement adds radiation to your cloud low when you get it at 6th, medium at 12th, and high at 18th. The radiation also extends from teh cloud 5/10/15'. Easy enough to trap people in it while they slowly melt from unavoidable poison damage and eventually start the literal death spiral of failed fort saves. No duration listed on it, SFS note says 1 minute.

16. Nanocyte Mind Controller: You can get a compulsion enchantment spell that you cast with surges and constitution for the DC. "Nanites hacked my brain, man!"

17. Nanocyte Zombie Controller: You can raise corpses as cyberzombies equal to half your level in CR for a few rounds. "Nanites made it want to eat my brains, man!"

18. Nanocyte International Man of Mystery: Look, this class got everything. It flies. It ignores falling, jumps, and walks on air. It gives it's sheath array to mechs. It confuses people in the cloud. It makes the cloud smaller but more concealy. It fires off blast weapons into the cloud that reshape to hit everthing in the cloud. It does half a dozen other things, all of which are extremely cool, helpful, or both.


19. Reactive Ranged Attacker: New feats give reactions to shoot grenades and blow them up, take attacks of opportunity against someone who moves if you put harrying/covering fire on them, or shoot someone who just put an ally at 0 HP.

20. Breathtaking Blasting Builds: A 16th level Precog can use Plurality Strike spell to roll three times and take the best result with a blast (or line) weapon and apply it to all targets. That's three shots at critting everyone! (There's also some special interactions that improve your chance of crit or crit effect against the closest target only.)

The tunnel striker style soldier debuffs those hit with an area attack, and can make them flatfooted (or penalized save against explode weapons) if they're close to a wall containing/restricting your normal weapon area.

Area of One gear boost lets you try to point blank blast weapon a single target and try to avoid the attack of opportunity, make them flatfooted, and add bonus damage.

Xenocrat wrote:


3. More Demoralize Boosts: Want to push those demoralize builds even further? Acid Breath biotech augmentation (lungs, level 5) gives a +2 circumstance bonus that stacks with your throat enhancement bonus Vampire Voice, but only within 10'. There's also a long duration 2nd level spell, Fearsome Reputation, that lets you reroll a failed demoralize...

21. Yet More Demoralize Boosts: Incisive Insight feat reduces the DC of demoralize checks against something you've successfully identified, and Deterring Threat feat lets you demoralize as a reaction against someone within your reach who attacks you with a weapon, spell, or ability. Frightfully Tough lets you reaction sunder a weapon that hit you, and if you break it (better be really strong and have lots of hardness negation) you can demoralize everyone within 60'. Lock Eyes (15 ranks, RP cost) doesn't let you directly demoralize, but does let you taunt/tank with Intimidate by forcing it to either attack no one but you or be shaken for d4 rounds.

22. Making An Offer They're Glad They Can't Refuse: Refined Menace feat builds off Veiled Threat to the point that if you beat a bully check by 5 or more, not only are they helpful for the duration, but they're permanently friendly after the bully wears off. Get Comedic Timing feat to once per day reroll a failed Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate to max your chances when it matters.


23. One Punch Evolutionist: Use Enhanced Strike adaptation (force trait to target EAC), Focused Strike (spend RP to roll next strike twice or three times), and Empowered Strike (at 5 MP increase bonus damage once per turn from half to full level). At level 20 with max strength and Sepulchral niche at max 8 MP, you would do 8d10+30+9+20+16, or an average of 119 on one hit on a living creature, targeting EAC, and rolling 2-3 times to hit if you care to spend the RP.

If you don't use Focused Strike (swift action) you can still full attack and still take a second/third attack, tacking on 5d10 bonus on the second hit if you have the combat evolutionary focus.

I think you can also cram in six iterations of Abundant Adaptations to increase your MP cap to 14 (keep Enhanced Strike for EAC accuracy and Empowered Strike for damage), and 12 more damage from the Sepulchral boost, or 131 on that first hit.

24. Divine Evolutionist: New niche to become celestial/fiendish/entropic/resolute and fight for an alignment. Bypass DR/alignment and ER of opposed outsidders, gain vulnerability to damage and spells by opposed outsides and take constant damage when your MP are 3+. The 1st level Bolstering Aura is a nice party buff.

25. Maximimum Mutation Point Madness: Abundant Adaptations lets you increase your MP max by 1 (it's normally 5-8). You can take it more than once, effectively 8 times, to a total max of 16 MP. Here's some things you can do and have done to you if you are carrying 16 MP if you're crazy enough to invest in this and then accumulate that many at level 20.

Edritch Niche: SR 41. 26 extra damage from nonmagical kinetic hit first time every round.

Mechanized: Your DR/ER is 16 (stacks with another source) to the non-exempt types. Exempt damage types deal an extra 26 first time.

Sepulchral: Do an extra 32(!) damage to the first living creature you hit per turn. Your will save not to waste an action after killing someone is 36(!) + half level. Good luck! Your HP/SP reduction from recieving such effects is...48.

Vital: Gain an extra 48(!) HP/SP per turn if you receive healing. Take a -8 penalty to your Will saves, lmao.


26. More Damaging Operatives: Lightning Draw exploit (10th level) lets you draw a weapon during your trick attack move, then if your trick attack skill exceed the DCs and you hit, you can spend 1 RP to add the skill check excess to your damage. Incentive to use those "roll twice" abilities instead of take 10. Figure out a way to drop and retrieve the weapon constantly, or have extras, it works with the Kick it Up Exploit, so that should be enough.

There's also All According to Plan (10th), which gives you some consolation trick attack damage if your trick skill check exceeds the DC by 10 but your attack misses.

Don't forget Riposte (10th) to reaction attack someone you threaten who rolls a natural 1; spend 2 RP to use it against anyone who misses an attack roll.

How about Execution (14th), which triggers if you roll a 20 on your trick attack skill check: next attack roll gets +4 insight to hit and aplies critical effect of your weapon if it hits. Combined with Lightning Draw bonus for exceeding the DC, that's going to hurt.

27. Frightening Operatives: Once Burned, Twice Shy (10th) lets you will save debilitate to make someone frightened for 1 round. This is generally stronger than stuff like staggered and will instead of most debilitations being fort, a nice change. This does NOT have a subsequent immunity clause; keep applying it.

28. Skill Boosting (Not Hogging) Operative: Pulling the Strings (10th) lets you aid another someone when you have Skill Focus to grant them the aid bonus and your operative's edge. Makes sense if it's a techno or mechanic with (1) a higher int or (2) a class ability that makes engineering/computer checks work differently for them and it's a tough check where taking 10 isn't best. Also for non-dex skills where someone else is maxed out on the attribute, like the rare Mysticism or Medicine operative.

29. Operative Time Out: Pocket Dimension (10th) is a small null-space chamber like the similar precog anomaly, then Obliviate (14th) turns it into a 1d4 round maze effect that works as a debilitation - hit on trick attack, if they fail their will save they vanish for a while.

29. Dumbfoundingly Debilitating Operatives: Triple Debilitation (14th) lets you forgo your trick attack to stack on three debilitations. For example, you could put any three of obliviate (time out on the other conditiosn until they pop back into reality), the frighten one, stun, blind, bleed, etc. If you have enough debilitations without immunity clauses (like the frighten one) you can rotate them to pretty much ensure no actions on a BBEG for a couple of rounds.

Second Seekers (Jadnura)

"Not the first time I hotboxed something. The 60s were wild. The 260s. The 160's. the 60's 60s.... Something about that decade... "


31. Greater Grenadiers: We have a couple dozen new grenade options for bombard soldiers, experimental explosive mechanics, and fools with too much money. Standouts are the Time-delay grenade (BIG damage and BIG radius, but explodes at the beginning of your next turn), Irradiator grenade (big damage and gross radiation "contamination" of the area [is this permanent!?] that goes up to severe), and others that disarm, confuse, make frightened, reposition randomly, heal, and do (severe) wound effects.

32. Serum Suckers: If you want to waste your money and look like a chump, do a build relying on a lot of the serums in this book, most of which are HUGELY overpriced compared to permanent or cheaper consumable items. For example the Locomotion Serums last 10 minutes and 2,100cr to gain burrow 10' or fly 40'. Polymorphic Serum 3 costs the same, lasts 6 hous, and can grant a burrow 20' or fly 20' plus 2-3 other polymorph abilities. The cheaper Locomotion run, swim, and climb are similarly overshadowed by Mk1-Mk2 Polymorphic Serums that last 2 or 4 hours and cost about the same or less.

A lot of other serums (e.g. Firebreather's Serum vs Dragon Gland, Manyhands Serum vs Cyber Arms, Spellcaster's Serum vs Gimmicks) are very expensive and limited ways to reproduce permanent effects that are a hell of a lot more cost effective in the long term.

Quickstep Mk1 Serum is great, though, 350cr that gives you 1 extra unrestricted move action per day. Use it when your Hyper species graft is expended (but get the Hyper graft first). Also take a look at the Mk2 Serum of Rejuvenation, a decent price point to try to reroll and lose a fatigued condition.

33. Attack Attracting Tank Soldier: The new Chaldiralist soldier fighting style (inspired by the goddess Chaldira) HIGHLY incentives GMs to attack your soldier instead of your allies.

At level 1 you get 1d4+half level melee damage bonus against anyone who hit an ally, or can treat them as flat footed when you use one of several combat manuevers.

At 5th you have some condition mitigation, skip over that.

At 9th you get Bodyguard or In Harm's Way as a bonus feat, can use Bodyguard from 10' away, and if you use In Harm's Way your ally damage bonus kicks in at d12+half level.

13th is "let's go berserk and get ourselves killed." You can no action gain the flat-footed condition and get critted on 19-20, get a speed bonus and +1 circumstance bonus to hit significant foes, and crit on 19-20 melee rolls.

17th is standard action melee attack that if it hits can spend 1 RP to try to knock prone for extra damage. The bigger they are the higher the DC and damage.

This has some obvious synergies with certain secondary fighting styles, combat feats, and gear boosts to be a melee lockdown tank.

Community / Forums / Starfinder / Starfinder General Discussion / 101 Starfinder Enhanced Builds All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Starfinder General Discussion