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Yeah, as the subject line states, these are ideas for improving the Solarian I thought of, and I wanted feedback on them.
Before I start, a note: This is based on reading the playtest Solarian and reading other people's thoughts on the forums here, rather than actual play.
I'll be putting each major idea in spoilers, just to keep this from turning into a massive TLDR.
Solarian, as is, is clearly meant to be the 'melee guy' of the Starfinder 2e initial classes, which wouldn't be a problem except the development team have frequently mentioned the desire for a 'Ranged Meta', which means that the melee guy has to be able to get into melee range to do any damage, and it feels like Solarian does not have enough means to close the gap.
So, my idea for this issue is to give Solarian an ability called Stellar Celerity.
Stellar Celerity:
At 1st level, the Solarian gains a +10 feet circumstance bonus to their movement speed and gains a benefit depending on their attunement:
Photon: Can move through the space of an unwilling creature once per Stride.
Graviton: Ignore difficult terrain and treat greater difficult terrain as difficult terrain.
At 5th level, the Solarian gains a Fly speed equal to their speed while Attuned.
At 9th level, the Solarian applies the circumstance bonus from 1st level to their Fly speed.
Obviously, this would require replacing the Defy Gravity and Solar Wind revelations with something else.
Okay, this is just me copy and pasting my post from the Solar Flare/Solar Shot thread:
1) Double the range of the initial ability! I get that Paizo wants the Solarian to be a 'solar knight' (to quote 'Playtesting the Solarian'), but in a game where the average Simple ranged weapon can be fired from at least 30ft away, I really don't get why you'd give a class an ability that has a MAXIMUM range of 15ft. So, make the initial range 30/60ft for graviton/proton Solar Shot.
2) Either give the ability range increments or lower Homing Mote (which triples the range of Solar Shot alongside allowing Solar Shot to ignore concealment and cover in the original range) from a Level 18th feat to a Level 6th feat! If that sounds too overpowered for a 6th level feat, then how about this:
When you initially take Homing Mote (6th level), it doubles the range of Solar Shot, but once you get to 12th level it gets tripled, and gains the 'ignores concealment and cover' at 18th.
Or better yet, integrate a range increase into Solar Shot's Level Scaling. After all, it's clear Solar Shot is meant to supplement the Solarian rather than be something you focus your build on (at least for now), so why have it competing for feats?
3) Either have it gain an item bonus with each level it scales or make Solarian Weapon Crystals affect it too. And maybe have it count as a ranged version of the Solarian Weapon for the purposes of proficiency while you're at it.
As for the idea of 'Make a ranged Solarian Weapon'... I'm guessing that might happen as a Class Archetype for Solarian. Could be interesting.
I feel like, as you level up, you should be able to add additional traits to your Solar Weapon as well as get additional 'trait slots' as it were.
As an example: at 5th lvl and every 4 after, you get one more trait to add to your solar weapon when re-forging.
As another: at 9th lvl, you can give your Solar weapon the Two-Hand d10 or Deadly d8 traits.
Okay, this one is more of a person headscratcher, but I feel like Solar Nimbus and Shield should be integrated together, with the Nimbus granting a +1 AC circumstance bonus in addition to the Nimbus Surge reaction.
Obviously, this is the least thought-out idea.
So yeah, these are my ideas for ways to improve Solarian. Let me know what you think, everyone.
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I like all of these suggestions a lot. The criticisms resonate with my own playtesting experience of the Solarian, and while I ended up making slightly different suggestions, each of the proposals here I think touches upon an aspect of the Solarian I think needs addressing, and would improve the class in my opinion. In broad lines, the Solarian needs better gapclosing and more flexibility, with the above would provide.
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I like all of these suggestions a lot. The criticisms resonate with my own playtesting experience of the Solarian, and while I ended up making slightly different suggestions, each of the proposals here I think touches upon an aspect of the Solarian I think needs addressing, and would improve the class in my opinion. In broad lines, the Solarian needs better gapclosing and more flexibility, with the above would provide.
Glad to hear it.
I also thought of replacement revelations for Solar Wind and Defy Gravity:
Solar Wind (it keeps the name) (Two Actions)
Frequency: Once per 10 minutes
Teleport up to 100ft in a straight line. Any enemies occupying spaces in that line take persistent fire damage equal to half your level.
Gravity Vortex (Single Action)
Frequency: Once per minute
Target one creature up to 100ft from you. The enemy must attempt a Fortitude save against your class DC.
Critical Success: Target is unaffected
Success: Target is pulled 30ft towards you. If an obstacle stops the target, the forced movement immediately ends.
Failure: Target is pulled 30ft towards you. If an obstacle stops the target, the forced movement immediately ends and the target is knocked prone.
Critical Failure: Target is pulled 30ft towards you and knocked prone. If an obstacle stops the target, the forced movement immediately ends, and the target and obstacle take bludgeoning damage equal to your level.
Also, another neat idea I just had, more for flavor than crunch, is for the Solarian's to gain the use of a cantrip while attuned.
Photon gets Light
Graviton gets Mage Hand (but can only use it to pull objects toward them.)