This directive gets the Digital Diversion feat which lets them Create a Diversion using the Computers skill (which is an Intelligence skill). Why wouldn't you just use Deception instead? Envoy's key ability score is Charisma.
Moreover, one if its Acts of Leadership is to Create a Diversion using Computers. Not seeing the reason to pick this.
Computers is a very important skill, and Envoys may want to go legendary in it but not in Deception for certain character themes/builds. If you're planning on a tech driven character who forges documents rather than doing physical disguises and lying a lot, plus crafting and maybe some lore/arcana/occultism investment with a decent intelligence, this is the one for you.
I'm not saying it's great.
Computers is a very important skill, and Envoys may want to go legendary in it but not in Deception for certain character themes/builds. If you're planning on a tech driven character who forges documents rather than doing physical disguises and lying a lot, plus crafting and maybe some lore/arcana/occultism investment with a decent intelligence, this is the one for you.
I'm not saying it's great.
Envoy gets so many skill increases that I doubt they're not going to be able to level both Deception and Computers. This subclass should have benefits for an Envoy who is using their charisma skills. It just seems better to pick another subclass and just take skill increases for Computers.
I do think envoy's... Generally everything needs to be able to apply to the skill your Leadership Style gives you. I'd love to play an In the Spotlight envoy who never makes a diplomacy check in their life, but unfortunately Size Up doesn't help me with that. Neither does Silver Tongue. The fact that it gives you Impressive Performance means nothing because you're patently better off sticking with diplomacy and taking Group Impression. Fascinating Performance would at least have combat utility... Infosphere Director has the same issue for similar reasons but in that case you don't even use your key stat for the skill you're given a potentially redundant feat for.
Envoys are a good class if you want to play a social media personality in which case a Digital Diversion seems perfect.
You already want Charisma and Dexterity to be high, leveling Constitution and Wisdom is also preferable. You just don't have much room for intelligence to be high. Why would I ever use Digital Diversion when I can just use Deception normally for create a diversion?
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I feel like the only real answer here is for Infosphere Director to replace CHA KAS with INT. Not sure how illegal it would be to have a nerdy envoy.
On a semi-related note, I would like a skill feat that lets you use Computers for Make an Impression if you're using your anonymous Infosphere persona. Call it "So Much Cooler Online" or something. Characters who can exert themselves socially online but fail to look a cashier in the eye are very much a thing.
I feel like the only real answer here is for Infosphere Director to replace CHA KAS with INT. Not sure how illegal it would be to have a nerdy envoy.
On a semi-related note, I would like a skill feat that lets you use Computers for Make an Impression if you're using your anonymous Infosphere persona. Call it "So Much Cooler Online" or something. Characters who can exert themselves socially online but fail to look a cashier in the eye are very much a thing.
The issue with this is that Envoy has many feats/abilities that are designed around them being Charisma based.
This directive gets the Digital Diversion feat which lets them Create a Diversion using the Computers skill (which is an Intelligence skill). Why wouldn't you just use Deception instead? Envoy's key ability score is Charisma.
Moreover, one if its Acts of Leadership is to Create a Diversion using Computers. Not seeing the reason to pick this.
Completely agree.
I was excited to see that there was a “computers” focused option.
Reading through the option though, it’s primary effect is essentially to let you use the computers skill to replace deception for a distraction. This might be powerful on a high INT character, but on a Charisma based Envoy, it seems like a bad trade off. For almost all envoys, deception will be higher than computers, even if you build INT as a secondary stat. And this is fine; the problem here is that this ability’s only benefit is to provide Computers as an alternative to Deception and since deception will normally be higher on an envoy, the player is being asked to choose to do something they can probably already do, and just to do it at a lower bonus and with a restricted set of targets (tech). Even if the Envoy uses the ability, they may still be worse at causing distractions than other envoys using deception.
Would love to see an approach where this ability gives some benefit that doesn’t directly compete with deception (or another CHA skill) so that the Infosphere envoy player has a more optimal choice and so that this envoy has some sort of ability that differentiates them (even a little) from other envoys.
Courtly Graces worked similarly to Digital Diversion, and they changed it so that if you use the original skill for the feat, it gets a +1 Circumstance bonus. Just doing this and changing the Act of Leadership should be good.
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This directive gets the Digital Diversion feat which lets them Create a Diversion using the Computers skill (which is an Intelligence skill). Why wouldn't you just use Deception instead? Envoy's key ability score is Charisma.
Moreover, one if its Acts of Leadership is to Create a Diversion using Computers. Not seeing the reason to pick this.
Ignore everything it tells you to do, you can use Automatic Knowledge to get a free action Recall Knowledge, which of course means free action Lead by Example on any directive you want.
Also Recall Knowledge is generally compressed into tons of other actions, meaning infosphere actually has the best action econ of any subclass. You don't actually care what you get as the result on RK, and you can't afford to boost int anyway because you want Cha/Wis/Dex/Con, it's just a free action LBE trigger.
Is this intended? Probably not.
I feel the developers should've made an exception and let you get Combat Hack at 1st level, even if it's a 2nd-level feat that requires expertise in Computers. As Exocist mentions, RK + Automatic Knowledge means free-action Lead by Examples every round, which I suspect was very much not intended. This, to me, suggests the entire subclass ought to be redone, as half of its benefits are useless on a Charisma-based class and the other half are far too good.
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SIZE UP allows you to spend 10 minutes researching a specific individual on the infosphere. So you are already using a computer or comm unit to do so even if you are not rolling a computer check.
DIGITAL DIVERSION lets you Create a Diversion by using Computers instead of Deception on a target carrying, wearing, or wielding a tech item.
Having info on your target is always helpful no matter how you create the diversion. Answering your cell phone while driving is such a dangerous distraction it is illegal in many places. The real internet and social media are one of the biggest sources of deception and distraction. So I feel that SIZE UP should apply to DIGITAL DIVERSION
This could be done with simple rewording;
DIGITAL DIVERSION lets you Create a Diversion by using Size Up and using Computers instead of Deception on a target carrying, wearing, or wielding a tech item.
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Only problem is Envoy is a Charisma & Dexterity class before any other stats. Cha because KAS and Dex because to hit. You could dump all of your Cha into int I suppose but why other then flavor, Intmidation, Diplomacy and Deception are great skills.
SIZE UP allows you to spend 10 minutes researching a specific individual on the infosphere. So you are already using a computer or comm unit to do so even if you are not rolling a computer check.
DIGITAL DIVERSION lets you Create a Diversion by using Computers instead of Deception on a target carrying, wearing, or wielding a tech item.
Having info on your target is always helpful no matter how you create the diversion. Answering your cell phone while driving is such a dangerous distraction it is illegal in many places. The real internet and social media are one of the biggest sources of deception and distraction. So I feel that SIZE UP should apply to DIGITAL DIVERSION
This could be done with simple rewording;
DIGITAL DIVERSION lets you Create a Diversion by using Size Up and using Computers instead of Deception on a target carrying, wearing, or wielding a tech item.
This doesn't change the fact that you want CHA then DEX over any other stat on an envoy, meaning you're stretched thin for ability boosts and will basically always have a better deception unless you intentionally try not to.
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I'm making an Android Infosphere Director Envoy skill monkey with high Int. I always build for flavor first, Unless I'm playing a melee-only character I rarely max my KAS. But in general, I've seen more people besides myself build around flavor in SF1e than I have in PF2e. In SF1e I'm not the only one playing a safety inspector, or Starfinder equivalent of a Youtuber. The Envoy becoming SF2es skill monkey lends itself to a lot of flavor builds. The diverse leadership styles help too. Playing in a band without being a bard is a Starfinder thing too, the Envoy is good for that too, although any class might work with the right skills.
Also Recall Knowledge is generally compressed into tons of other actions, meaning infosphere actually has the best action econ of any subclass. You don't actually care what you get as the result on RK, and you can't afford to boost int anyway because you want Cha/Wis/Dex/Con, it's just a free action LBE trigger.
Is this intended? Probably not.
Thing is, it is very easy for a GM to care. In my experience assuranced RK fails much more often than it succeeds. No GM in their right mind is going to give a thumbs up to a player using automatic knowledge (knowing that they are going to fail) in order to freely trigger a LBE. This all seems to additionally ignore the fact that a singular skill is not going to work for all RK checks. Therefore, you'd have to get assurance and then automatic knowledge in multiple different RK based skills.
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Thing is, it is very easy for a GM to care. In my experience assuranced RK fails much more often than it succeeds. No GM in their right mind is going to give a thumbs up to a player using automatic knowledge (knowing that they are going to fail) in order to freely trigger a LBE. This all seems to additionally ignore the fact that a singular skill is not going to work for all RK checks. Therefore, you'd have to get assurance and then automatic knowledge in multiple different RK based skills.Also Recall Knowledge is generally compressed into tons of other actions, meaning infosphere actually has the best action econ of any subclass. You don't actually care what you get as the result on RK, and you can't afford to boost int anyway because you want Cha/Wis/Dex/Con, it's just a free action LBE trigger.
Is this intended? Probably not.
Hence why the intended? Probably not. As written, you don't have to succeed on the RK (nor could it be phrased as such because RK is secret), or RK on anything relevant to the current combat. You could get Automatic Knowledge (Basketweaving Lore) and recall random different facts about Basketweaving (did you know that 15 years ago, all druids were such basketweaving fanatics that they were excessively skill focused in it?). By RAW, it would trigger Lead By Example every time.
The issue with tying it to specific actions like that is that some of those actions can already be compressed into other actions, RK is compressed into a bunch of stuff.
That is clever to use Loremater Lore to trigger your Envoy stuff. I like that not gonna like, I might need to do that becasue I highly enjoy Lore-master Lore even if it is weak compared to Thaumaturge Diverse Lore...