| Trashloot |
Hi,
Im trying to understand Piloting and i have a few things which don't make sense to me.
Does the Stop Action imply that your vehicle moves on its own if you don't do anything?
If thats the case then i don't understand the Drive Action. 1 Action Drive makes sense. You make a check and you can move your Vehicle just lik you would move any other token. (at least thats how im reading it).
The two and three action version confuse me. You spend twice or thrice the actions and get double / tripple the speed but you can't turn your vehicle. (And it becomes reckless.) This would make sense if it gave you twice/thrice the speed to move per action spend. But the way it is written now im just as fast when i use 3 1 Action Drive Actions.
And if the Stop action implies that my vehicle doesn't stop on its own, then why would i ever waste actions to move in a straigth line.
The next thing which confuses me are the stunts. One Stunt allows you to move at half speed and then turn. But this give you a penalty for your piloting check. Is the gain that you can turn? Because the 1 Action Drive Action allows me to turn as well, right? Or is the gain that i can move at half speed and that the drive action forces me to use up my entire movement?
How do you guys read this skill?
| moosher12 |
1. Yes, if you do not stop, your vehicle continues moving. If you go a whole turn without either driving or stopping your vehicle, it becomes uncontrolled.
2. The Drive action is divided into 2- and 3-action versions so you do not have to make 3 separate driving checks for 1 whole round of continuous movement. Additionally, Pathfinder 2E defines a straight Line for driving as being able to drift up to 45 degrees, but incapable of turning beyond that.
3. It is a valid choice to leave your vehicle uncontrolled, but the GM can impose subtle drift up to several degrees depending on the specifics of the situation, up to 45 degrees. Basically, take your attention off the wheel, you risk a crash. But if you're in an open field, you can choose to do it if you don't see any risk of a crash as a tactical decision.
4. There are turning limits. A vehicle can only turn 90 degrees per vehicle length it travels. Stunts allow you to work beyond this limitation.
The Starfinder Playtest does not explain the full Vehicle Rules, which can be found in the GM Core or the GameMastery Guide, but you can access them on the Archives of Nethys for free on the Vehicle Rules page.
| Trashloot |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Oh damn. Im playing PF2e since release but i never realised we had Vehicle Rules xD. Thank you for the clarification. (I still think this could be explained better in the playtest.)
Is it really worth it to use the 2 Action Drive Action to save a check when tradeoff is that the action becomes more risky and you can't turn? This seems not clever to me. But i haven't played around with it.
| moosher12 |
Oh damn. Im playing PF2e since release but i never realised we had Vehicle Rules xD. Thank you for the clarification. (I still think this could be explained better in the playtest.)
Is it really worth it to use the 2 Action Drive Action to save a check when tradeoff is that the action becomes more risky and you can't turn? This seems not clever to me. But i haven't played around with it.
Yeah, I agree that it should be explained better in the playtest, at the very least, it should be explained thoroughly in the Starfinder Player Copre. I also agree the justification for that rule has confused me some too. I think the idea behind it is you're trading off less checks for simpler movement, and complicated maneuvers need the 3 individual actions.
For example cases, I think the three action version can work on very simple driving situations, like going down a road and drifting around barriers, which would probably have easy DC's, even with a -5 penalty once you reach a certain level.
In terms you're likely familiar with. Think of single action driving as city driving. Lot of turns, and the like. But think of 2- and 3-action driving as freeway driving. You don't need to turn to change lanes. you just shift slightly this way and that.
| Trashloot |
Trashloot wrote:Oh damn. Im playing PF2e since release but i never realised we had Vehicle Rules xD. Thank you for the clarification. (I still think this could be explained better in the playtest.)
Is it really worth it to use the 2 Action Drive Action to save a check when tradeoff is that the action becomes more risky and you can't turn? This seems not clever to me. But i haven't played around with it.
Yeah, I agree that it should be explained better in the playtest, at the very least, it should be explained thoroughly in the Starfinder Player Copre. I also agree the justification for that rule has confused me some too. I think the idea behind it is you're trading off less checks for simpler movement, and complicated maneuvers need the 3 individual actions.
For example cases, I think the three action version can work on very simple driving situations, like going down a road and drifting around barriers, which would probably have easy DC's, even with a -5 penalty once you reach a certain level.
In terms you're likely familiar with. Think of single action driving as city driving. Lot of turns, and the like. But think of 2- and 3-action driving as freeway driving. You don't need to turn to change lanes. you just shift slightly this way and that.
I really like your example. But is freeway driving really more reckless and warants a -1 penalty to the driving check? I think the 2 Action and 3 Action version would make more sense if they either grant you additional speed or if they made you slower but also made the check easier.
| moosher12 |
moosher12 wrote:I really like your example. But is freeway driving really more reckless and warants a -1 penalty to the driving check? I think the 2 Action and 3 Action version would make more sense if they either grant you additional speed or if they made you slower but also made the check easier.Trashloot wrote:Oh damn. Im playing PF2e since release but i never realised we had Vehicle Rules xD. Thank you for the clarification. (I still think this could be explained better in the playtest.)
Is it really worth it to use the 2 Action Drive Action to save a check when tradeoff is that the action becomes more risky and you can't turn? This seems not clever to me. But i haven't played around with it.
Yeah, I agree that it should be explained better in the playtest, at the very least, it should be explained thoroughly in the Starfinder Player Copre. I also agree the justification for that rule has confused me some too. I think the idea behind it is you're trading off less checks for simpler movement, and complicated maneuvers need the 3 individual actions.
For example cases, I think the three action version can work on very simple driving situations, like going down a road and drifting around barriers, which would probably have easy DC's, even with a -5 penalty once you reach a certain level.
In terms you're likely familiar with. Think of single action driving as city driving. Lot of turns, and the like. But think of 2- and 3-action driving as freeway driving. You don't need to turn to change lanes. you just shift slightly this way and that.
Considering the difference between 2-action and 3-action is going 2 times and 3 times the speed.
you can interpret a 2-action plus a seek action being going one speed, while the 3-action would be going a faster speed.
| Finoan |
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is it really worth it to use the 2 Action Drive Action to save a check when tradeoff is that the action becomes more risky and you can't turn? This seems not clever to me. But i haven't played around with it.
2 or 3 separate Drive actions in a round is not allowed.
In encounter mode, a vehicle moves on its pilot’s turn, and the pilot must use their actions to control it. A vehicle can take part in only 1 move action each round, even if multiple creatures Take Control as pilots on the same round.
| moosher12 |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Trashloot wrote:Is it really worth it to use the 2 Action Drive Action to save a check when tradeoff is that the action becomes more risky and you can't turn? This seems not clever to me. But i haven't played around with it.2 or 3 separate Drive actions in a round is not allowed.
Piloting a Vehicle wrote:In encounter mode, a vehicle moves on its pilot’s turn, and the pilot must use their actions to control it. A vehicle can take part in only 1 move action each round, even if multiple creatures Take Control as pilots on the same round.
Good catch, I forgot that one.