Following up on the Solarian class feedback thread I wrote, here's my feedback on the Soldier based on playtesting the class for about a month. I'll split my post into sections, spoiler them, and add a TL;DR just so it's all a bit easier to navigate.
Methods:
Here are the methods I've used for my playtest:
As with the Solarian and the other classes, I playtested the Soldier mainly at levels 1-5 through the official playtest scenarios. I used Pathfinder monsters to playtest the class at higher levels, but treated those findings as secondary.
I ran the Soldier in a variety of party compositions mainly using other Starfinder classes. I also tried some scenarios with Pathfinder classes in the party, but also treated those findings as secondary.
I ran the scenarios RAW for the most part, only adjudicating when something broke or was missing from the rules (which happened a few times). I then started playing with certain parameters, like enemy behavior and compositions or the Soldier's features, and treated those findings as secondary.
I ran my Soldier under various different ancestries, as I was playtesting those too.
I maxed out my Soldier's Constitution first, then my Dexterity, and then increased my Wisdom and Strength for the most part. I experimented with Charisma or Intelligence as a fourth stat instead of Strength but didn't get much out of it, for reasons I'll detail below.
I went with the Aegis Series armor, as it gives a +6 to AC for the least Bulk. I experimented with various AoE weapons, but eventually settled on a stellar cannon for area weapons, and a machine gun for automatic weapons, for reasons I'll detail below.
TL;DR: I ran the Soldier many times mainly through the official playtest scenarios at their low level range, using a variety of ancestries and party compositions. As I put the class through the same encounters, I altered some parameters over time to see how they would affect the its performance.
AoE Weapons:
It's going to be impossible to discuss the Soldier without discussing AoE weapons, so this would be a good occasion to discuss them and the various issues I took with them:
Because weapon proficiency doesn't matter on AoE weapons (their saving throws use your class DC), I had total freedom of choice over which ones to pick, on any class. This is not a good thing in my opinion, and is one of the interactions that AoE weapons break.
Unfortunately, for some strange reasons the majority of advanced AoE weapons felt worse than their martial counterparts: The magnetar rifle can only target up to three opponents with an Auto-Fire, the plasma cannon has worse stats than the stellar cannon in nearly every respect save for its damage die, and the screamer is way too short-ranged for a weapon that can only fire within its first range increment. Even with a full range of options, I ended up going for the stellar cannon and the machine gun, which I felt performed the best overall. If an actually strong advanced AoE weapon were to ever be released, however, it would easily run the risk of invalidating every other AoE weapon due to this, and causing problems if it were strong on any one class irrespective of proficiency.
When I gave one of these weapons to a Commander, they ended up using these weapons better than anyone else besides the Soldier alongside single-action tactics like Reload!, gaining access to more AoE than they could otherwise access despite being a class whose damage is entirely single-target: if AoE weapons didn't have so many problems, I'd consider this a genuine compatibility risk, and the fact that a class with a legendary class DC wasn't enough to redeem AoE weapons is, in my opinion, a damning indictment of those weapons in their current state.
On any other class but the Soldier, AoE weapons did not perform well in my opinion. Even when just a trained DC would've been enough, casters couldn't afford to take two actions to make an attack instead of casting a spell, and martial classes using these weapons dropped significantly in damage output overall, and felt about as rigid as a caster due to needing to spend two actions to do their main thing of attacking, while often operating from only a limited range. Starfinder martials actually did worse overall than Pathfinder martials, surprisingly, because SF2e's martial classes often have to spend at least one action doing their class's thing before taking the rest of their turn, and a three-action rotation was just too inflexible even for a Guns Blazing Envoy.
Worth noting that even on the Soldier, AoE weapons often fell dramatically in effectiveness due to having a hard range limit on their AoE attacks, another interaction with normal weapon stats that these weapons break (in this instance, range increments). Fighting Amnieka in A Cosmic Birthday when the creature was flying high above ground meant my automatic weapon-wielding Soldier could only make regular Strikes at a steep accuracy penalty, and my area weapon-wielding Soldier couldn't attack with their cannon at all. A similar problem occurred when I made the flying repair drones fly a bit higher than prescribed in the scenario.
To top it all off, one of the consistent issues I ran into with AoE weapons was that in Starfinder's combats, enemies often were spaced too far apart for the AoE bit to kick in. In the Fire Team Fiasco encounter from Field Test #5, for instance, every enemy starts 20 feet away from the next, and the distance only increases as combat plays out. In the instances where I did catch multiple enemies at a time, usually 2 and often with the help of a graviton Solarian, it still didn't feel like this amazing burst of damage for the actions I was spending, even if it was satisfying catching more than one enemy in my AoE.
On a more minor note, I found it tiresome for the Soldier's entries to keep repeating "Area Fire or Auto-Fire". I find it strange that these two extremely similar types of weapons that basically do the same thing (range and expend aside, Auto-Fire is functionally just a cone Area Fire) required different rules, which added a lot of text to the Soldier's entry especially.
While it didn't come up often, the interaction between Disarm and AoE attacks is ambiguous, as they don't make attack rolls. I ruled in favor of Disarm applying the penalty to the DC, but can't confirm whether this is RAW for sure.
I discuss the problem with the underlying math and mechanics with AoE weapons at even greater length in another thread, and one of the changes I tried out was making AoE weapons into regular guns that dealt splash damage in various different areas. Although splash damage is unpopular among some members of the community, these altered weapons (whose stats are listed in the thread) performed significantly better than vanilla area weapons as written, and were genuinely desirable to use on many more characters. I adjusted the Soldier around these weapons, in ways I mention below, and the class felt significantly improved overall.
TL;DR: AoE weapons in my experienced performed so poorly that I don't believe they are fit for purpose as written. They are clunky, altogether weak, and don't actually feel like real weapons so much as a different mechanic altogether shoehorned into a few guns, breaking several basic interactions along the way that risk causing even bigger problems further down the line (if an actually strong advanced AoE gun gets added, for instance, literally anyone could take it). Because the Soldier is made to use these weapons, these are a major contributing factor to the problems I experienced with the class. As loath as some people would be to see this, I very much recommend Paizo try implementing these weapons as regular guns that deal splash damage in bursts, cones, and lines alongside their Strike damage, perhaps even also add the agile trait to automatic guns, as trying out versions of these guns significantly improved the gameplay of AoE weapons in my experience and made the Soldier feel a lot better to play (after adjusting the class around these mechanics).
Core Class:
Splitting my feedback on the class's core chassis and its feats for readability:
Suppressing Fire felt useful in distinguishing the Soldier and giving them a unique contribution besides AoE damage, but the suppressed condition felt lackluster, especially against ranged enemies who didn't need to move. If I were able to hit more enemies at a time with AoE weapons, perhaps the condition would've felt a bit better, and the Speed penalty did help against melee opponents (I ruled that the penalty was -10, as there's currently a discrepancy between the condition as listed on the Soldier class and as listed in the general rules, the latter of which lists the penalty as -5), but in practice I was often just suppressing one target at a time, if that.
The Soldier's general contribution of AoE damage generally did not materialize, as enemies did not clump up often enough for it to really kick in. This I think is an issue with Starfinder's ranged combat in general more than the Soldier themselves, and when I experimented with adding some universal actions that incentivized people to group up, the Soldier felt better to use, though still not great against groups of 2 at a time.
Because the Soldier wasn't really getting to lay down all that much threat overall, I found that intelligent enemies had a better time just targeting other party members. As such, despite the Soldier being made to tank damage, they often just got ignored, and this along with a similar problem on the Solarian I suspect is why Starfinder's casters needed more base defenses.
Primary Target was helpful as a means of making me feel like I wasn't just spending two actions on just about a Strike's worth of damage oftentimes, but it also still didn't feel great to use for a number of reasons: my Soldier's Strikes were less accurate due to relying on my Dexterity, the fact that I had to max out Dexterity as my second stat to make good use of Primary Target felt really inappropriate on such a bulky class, and making Area Fires all the time, including with feats, felt strangely more repetitive than a martial class making Strikes, perhaps because I knew in the back of my mind that Strikes are a thing martial classes normally do that would often have been more appropriate for the situation I was in. I would've much preferred to have the option to make regular Strikes against single targets and AoE attacks against crowds instead of nailing every problem with the same hammer, in this case Area/Auto-Fire + Primary Target.
One interaction worth reporting as well is that Primary Target easily leads to a Soldier spending their entire turn focusing a single target with an automatic weapon, as the third action spent making a Strike only has a -5 MAP after Primary Target. This was something I could easily do all throughout an encounter with a machine gun due to its large magazine size. This also ended up making the Soldier strangely effective at single-target damage relative to other ranged martial classes besides the Operative, which I really didn't think was appropriate for the class and their niche.
Walking Armory and especially Fearsome Bulwark felt a bit janky: these features weren't interesting to use, didn't particularly evoke anything thematically interesting that couldn't already be achieved with existing options (Intimidating Prowess, for instance), and merely served to make the Soldier use Constitution for more things in a way that both felt unnecessary (Strength is an appropriate secondary stat on the Soldier, and Charisma ought to be a good fourth stat option), and seemed to miss the problem of the Soldier still being overly reliant on Dexterity for Primary Target. The fact that Fearsome Bulwark happens only partway through the Soldier's progression also creates this bizarre shift where Charisma starts out being a decent score to have on a Soldier, then drops massively in value once it gets replaced by Constitution at level 3. Most of the effects of the features I feel could've been easily dropped in favor of just one level 1 feature that lets you easily wear heavy armor as a Constitution class (which you can do already with just +3 Strength and the aegis series), and keys your two-handed weapon attack rolls to Constitution.
The Soldier's base stat progression makes the class more durable than the Champion, with more HP and legendary Fort saves. This should not happen, particularly in a game where damage is lower overall due to coming much more often from ranged attacks. At legendary armor proficiency, a Soldier has more AC than a caster taking greater cover, further disincentivizing enemies from focusing the Soldier over another, more impactful party member. I think the legendary Fort saves are fine, but the class could stand to have just master AC at most and perhaps even trained-to-expert Ref and Will saves, as I do think Starfinder classes that fight at range generally ought to have fewer defenses than their melee Pathfinder counterparts.
The Bombard felt like its benefits ought to be baseline to the class. Suppressed on a successful save is a significant power boost that doesn't induce any playstyle alterations, and no longer friendly-firing my Solarian feels like a basic convenience that any soldier ought to know.
In general, the subclasses felt like they could use some improvements. Auto-Fire basically meant my Soldier only used machine guns and didn't really alter my playstyle so much as make me straight-up stronger, Armor Storm made me even more needlessly durable and undesirable to hit than I already was, Close Quarters didn't interact well with the Soldier's core features and felt like it required Whirling Swipe to properly start working, and Erudite Warrior basically just let me spend the rest of my turn suppressing one more target, which was nice but not terribly interactive. In general, none of the Soldier's subclasses felt to me like they really helped shape the class's identity or add variety to their playstyle, to the point where they mostly felt superfluous.
Despite Strength having its function mostly overtaken by Constitution due to the Soldier's features, I still ended up increasing it just in case I ended up fighting in melee, which happened from time to time due to the short range of AoE weapons. Charisma didn't really offer that many benefits once Fearsome Bulwark kicked in, and Intelligence just didn't do much for the class at all.
When I started playing a bit more with certain changes, I tried a version of the Soldier that used single-target guns that dealt splash damage, keyed their two-handed attacks to Constitution, and instead of Primary Target gave them a feature that let them spend two actions to Strike every target in the splash area of their gun instead of making just one Strike with splash damage. The end result was a class that felt immensely more varied and flexible, with real choice over how they got to engage their targets. They also felt like their contributions aligned more with what the class was meant to do, as their single-target damage wasn't great but their AoEs felt really good, especially in combination with other bonuses and penalties to Strikes and AC.
TL;DR: The Soldier generally felt samey, repetitive, and overly simplistic, with a feature list that mostly just pushed the class to do the same thing all the time and max out a very specific stat list. Despite this, I was very reliant on Dexterity for Primary Target, which I disliked, and didn't feel like the Soldier's contributions shone through: the class didn't really get much of a chance to deal lots of AoE damage, they didn't really apply all that much crowd control, and as a result they often got ignored by an enemy who often targeted the Mystic or Witchwarper instead, which to me explains why the latter classes needed more defenses. More than anything else, the class just felt extremely rigid due to the implementation of AoE weapons and all of their class features that ride on their use, and felt like they were being given just one big hammer to smash against every problem instead of having a slightly more varied toolset.
Feats:
I mostly focused on level 1-4 feats during my playtests, owing to the level range at which I mostly played:
Not the most important part of the Soldier specifically, but Quick Swap, an effective feat in and of itself, highlights a compatibility issue in my opinion with having multiple pairs of hands: if the option to switch hands specifically has to be mentioned on an option for it to work as an alternative to swapping weapons, then this means any ancestry with more than two hands is going to have a lot of trouble with many Pathfinder feats, which assume only one pair of hands and just have you draw an item or swap items. Switching hands ought to be a default alternative option to drawing or swapping an item, which would give ancestries with more than two arms the added benefit of using those feats without triggering reactions that normally occur when using a manipulate action.
Despite using a machine gun, which has a reload value of 2, I had to reload so infrequently in any given fight that Ready Reload really did not feel worth it. In general, I don't believe most Starfinder guns ought to be balanced around needing to reload.
Warning Spray as written still lets the Soldier use Primary Target to make a Strike and damage the target, which doesn't seem to be the feat's intention.
Menacing Laughter still has your Demoralize check take a penalty if you don't speak the target's language, even though the flavor text suggests you're not really speaking so much as shouting or laughing in an intimidating fashion. "Laughs in Vesk" is canonically how the feat works right now, and that's just plain weird.
Shot on the Run is another example of Starfinder movement abilities lacking the option to let the user move using a different movement type. This caused my Barathu Soldier to use Shot on the Run and Stride a grand total of 5 feet, with no option to Fly instead. There needs to be a consistency pass for these movement abilities to let the character use other movement types, like with Sudden Charge and other equivalent Pathfinder options.
Punishing Salvo is outright designed to make the Soldier focus down single targets across their entire turn with area weapons just as they would with automatic weapons. This is really not a good idea in my opinion, and ends up causing the Soldier's single-target damage to brush up dangerously close to the Operative's when single-target damage is not meant to be a great strength of the class, at least not as I understand it.
Stock Striker was a really fun feat to use. I really enjoyed the flexibility and action economy benefit it gave me of letting my Soldier make melee Strikes as needed without having to switch to a different weapon.
I did not enjoy using Widen Area: although its improvement to my machine gun's cone was quite significant, spending my entire turn on doing just one thing really did not feel good on a martial class, even if it would normally be fine for a caster. On line weapons the effect wasn't as significant, I feel, and the stellar cannon is the only burst area weapon that can currently benefit from the feat.
Bullet Hell looks like it ought to use the rules for hazardous terrain to describe the damage taken when moving into the area, rather than the current save effect that looks like it could add a lot of time to combat rounds.
Run, Cowards! is strange in that it applies an effect that clearly looks like it ought to be fear, but lacks the fear and mental traits. Unlike suppressed, which I think doesn't need to be a mental condition due to it being the Soldier's bread and butter (and could also be explained in ways other than messing with a creature's mind), here I think there's more of a dissonance that I think is harder to justify.
There are quite a few action compression feats that have you make an Area/Auto-Fire and something else, and while I quite enjoyed them in general, I also feel this feeds into a problem right now where the Soldier just wants to make AoE attacks all the time even when there's just one target around. When I experimented with adjusting the Soldier around AoE guns that made Strikes rather than two-action Area/Auto-Fires, I made these feats single actions with a Strike and gave them the flourish trait, and the Soldier overall felt like they had many more options at their disposal, and more interesting turns overall.
On a more positive note, there were several Soldier feats that I found really exciting: Rocket Jump, Special Delivery, and Damoritosh's Grip are among my favorites, and in general I do think most of the Soldier's feats do a good job of digging into the class's flavor in a way that feels distinct from other martial classes.
TL;DR: Although several of the low-level feats I tested had some issues, I actually quite enjoyed the Soldier's feats overall. I don't think they give the class as much variety as I'd hoped, but that I think is a problem with the base class mainly, and there are quite a few flavorful options that are fun to use.
My concluding TL;DR is that right now, the Soldier suffers mainly because their design is built around the giant pile of clunk that is AoE weapons. Their feats are largely fun to use, and the class stands out from other martials, so that I think is a success for what was originally "Fighter in space", but AoE weapons felt so bad to use, and the class is so overly-focused around making two-action AoE attacks and increasing their attributes in a certain way, that right now the class feels like it's got the worst of both worlds, with the rigid action economy of a caster and the restricted options of a martial class.
Based on my experience with both the class and AoE weapons in general, the one recommendation I'd make is to just take AoE weapons back to the drawing board, and work from there. Based on the experiments I'd made with tweaked versions of both AoE guns and the Soldier, making those guns work like actual weapons, Strikes and all, made them worth using on many more classes besides the Soldier, and made the Soldier themselves feel like an actual full class, with a proper range of options and a greater feeling of agency. Other factors, like tweaks to ranged combat, also brought out the Soldier's AoE capabilities more, and once the Soldier started laying down more threat, they started getting targeted more, which took the heat off of the party's casters in particular. For those wondering, the Soldier also still felt distinct from classes like the Fighter even when making more Strikes, as the class's contributions and feats differ quite significantly from the Fighter's.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
I think there's some definite validity to these criticisms. So much of the soldier feels like it's trying to make two jank ideas (area fire and base CON) work that it leaves little in the class budget for cooler stuff.
I will add to the above that Greater Weapon Specialization is missing from the class's core features, in what seems to be a series of accidental omissions from several classes' core progression. Perhaps this one might be deliberate, though, because the Soldier deals a surprisingly large amount of single-target damage for what is meant to be an AoE-focused class.
