Ancient Android weirdness

[DMurnett]

Well, more specifically Warrior Android weirdness. This technically applies to PF Androids too but since those guys are fairly old and I can only hope due for a remaster any time now, I'm surprised this hasn't been addressed in this playtest. How come the heritage (sub-heritage?) specifically called out for being the fighty one is the worst pick for a martial character? It gives you absolutely nothing if you already have martial proficiency. It's also more generally kind of bad, this martial proficiency doesn't scale at all so even if you're a caster that really wants to shoot the bigger shooty guns you're better off playing a human and taking the general feat for that. It's always a feel-bad moment for me when making a character when the flavorful thing to pick entirely overlaps with a different flavorful thing I've already picked, and I don't think I could begin to imagine a worse example than "Warrior" being bad for warrior characters. I feel like at the very least rolling medium armor proficiency into it too would make it feel less underwhelming at least a little bit, but more generally I think Warrior just needs some form of a rework. Also unrelated but what happened to Impersonator Android, why was that one not grandfathered into SF2? I get that it's more thematically appropriate on lost Golarion and Androids' situation there, but I wouldn't think it's by such a huge margin that it's lost alongside the planet...

[Driftbourne]

I see 2 issues with it as you pointed out. One flavor the not stacking Warrior Android seems an obvious choice for a martial character. I feel it's an option best suited for non-martial classes to get better weapon access. I'd flavor that by having my Ancient Android having been created as a warrior for a long past war, and their non-martial class reflects their new occupation. That works for me, but if it is meant for non-martial to take, then maybe a name change might help.

This brings up your second point that this martial proficiency doesn't scale at all so why not take a general feat to get it instead. If it is meant for non-martials classes maybe it should scale.

If it is meant for martial classes, or all classes, then it really needs something that stacks well. Maybe something like

You gain warfare lore as a class skill. If you already have warfare lore you get +1 to that skill instead. Your Ancient knowledge of warfare and tactics helps you predict the start of battles, and spot an ambush, you may use warfare lore to roll initiative checks, or when surprised. Since Ardroids are an Int Dex ancestries this fits them well, this also helps classes that don't have high perception.

[DMurnett]

Those suggestions are a lot better than what I was gonna say which is just raise their ancestry HP to 10

[Sebastian Hirsch]

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, unless the idea is for this one to update some less fighter builds a tiny bit.

[Wgskeletor]

Also, what Playtest classes don't already have martial weapon training other than Mystic? Witchwarper? And it feels to me like Androids get stuck with the bulk of the responsibility to do anything remotely technology based on the absence of a Mechanic class and the elimination of the Operative 's rogue-y array of many trained skills.