solar weapon Vs other melee weapons

[siegfriedliner]

In starfinder 1e the solar weapon was a freely scaling melee weapon that was on the lower range of melee damage which you could supplement with a crystal (that were still cheaper than equivalent weapons) to be roughly on par with the best melee weapons in the game.

So the solar weapon class feature gave you the benefits of free/cheaper melee weapon in 2e solar weapona coat the same to scale as any other weapon.But in practice it's a relatively weak melee weapon compared to other weapons.

It compares poorly to best melee weapon in starfinder 2e, the doshoko (flaming and normal), the pain glaive, the frostpike all do better damage than the solar weapon with better traits. So your class feature isn't giving you assess to a cheaper weapon it's just tying you to inferior weapon.

The class would be stronger if you removed solar weapon and changed any reference to it to melee weapons which isn't ideal. Now I know you could compare if to thief with sneak attack but that feature does add to damage whilst limiting your ability to use the best weapon, solar weapons don't.

[ElementalofCuteness]

I mentioned this in the Errata Wave 3, the Solar Weapon is just too under powered and the standard d12 weapons are just flat out better...

[Sebastian Hirsch]

I am conflicted, I really love how you can express yourself via your choice of Solarian weapon, and I appreciate the idea that someone might want to use other weapons (and likely would enjoy a stronger flare in exchange for a weaker solar weapon).

That said, I think the default weapon is not quite there yet, and I am not sure how their bespoke enhancement system via crystal compares to using a stock weapon, or archaic weapon with runes.

We recently got the ability to get the two-handed trait, but I wonder if 1 or 2 handed could be a choice that might also discount something like reach so it could be combined with another choice.

[Squiggit]

I sort of wonder what the thought process behind the Solarian is. It's the game's dedicated melee martial but it seems weirdly bad at it. Your solar weapon is somewhat limited and your damage bonus (via being in photon) starts off pretty low and doesn't scale that high.

Putting them next to a Barbarian or something and their Strikes are just weirdly not good, even before you consider that you might not spend all your time in photon mode.

[Mangaholic13]

Personally, I think the problem the Solarian Weapon is having is similar to the problem with classes like the Soul Knife (the original version from D&D 3rd edition, not the current version that's a rogue subclass), in that devs are worried that giving a class a free weapon that is ALWAYS on hand, requires no external resources, and gets stronger as you level frightens them.

That isn't to say I feel those fears have complete merit, but I do think that's why Development feels like they have to keep it weak...

I do think the Solarian Weapon could use some more options, traits, and growth potential.

Personally though? I've started imagining a Solarian whose weapon takes the form of a towel/cloth in order to engage in Extreme Towel Whipping!

[Teridax]

I think one of the biggest mistakes with the Solarian's solar weapon was going the Mind Smith route and making the weapon a limited collection of traits, with a limited damage die. Rather than give the player the freedom to customize their weapon however they want it, in my opinion it's made solar weapons feel extremely restricted and ultimately quite samey over multiple uses. Separating solar weapons from the arsenal of melee weapons that are set to appear in Starfinder feels like a missed opportunity to me, because each of those weapons is tailor-made to be balanced around a combination of traits and a damage die. When future weapons launch with new traits, the Solarian's solar weapon is doomed to stagnate in its current iteration without dedicated errata each time or feats just to fill in the gaps.

In my opinion, the better move ought to be to make the Solarian's solar weapon completely emulate a simple or martial melee weapon on the melee weapon list, with crystals emulating both upgrades and increases in weapon grade. I think this would have quite a few advantages:

The Solarian would have access to a far more diverse weapon selection.

The Solarian's weapon selection would scale naturally as the game's arsenal of melee weapons expands.

The Solarian would be able to actually wield two-handed melee weapons. Imagine a Solarian swinging a flaming solar doshko!

The Solarian could easily have their solar weapon made more flexible through feats: for instance, you could have a feat that'd let you forge advanced weapons and use them with martial proficiency, and another feat that'd let you forge ranged solar weapons for a ranged playstyle, which could easily replace the current Solar Shot.

This'd set a basis that'd make it easier to achieve similar effects where the Solarian could also forge shields and armor through feats, allowing for a completely customizable solar arsenal.

More specific to this playtest, but this would make it much easier to actually playtest the game's melee weapons, as right now it's easy to not use them all that much. The Solarian is the perfect class to test out these weapons too.

So effectively, the Solarian could easily be made much more customizable in a way that would auto-scale with the rest of the game, would have much more flexibility to expand their solar weapon's functionality, and would get to actually interact with the game's system of melee weapons as the game's dedicated melee class.

[Happy Little Trees]

You make an amazing point Teridax, I didn't think about it that far and at first just went "cool I can pick whatever crit specialization I want and not be locked to certain traits" seeing your points definitely make me understand how much more power other classes can have for sometimes having to use an action to draw the weapon. I also think just having the solar weapon emulate a different one of your choice maybe with a feat to grab more advanced one would be great. I think the goal was a set of simpler build it yourself and you can reforge every 10 minutes (I thought this was op at first) to what the situation needs but most players don't want to have to think that much about swapping weapons around from what they're used to. Let alone whether they actually have enough intel to know what they'll want from the reforging. I think just giving more power and locking behind a longer reforge time makes much more sense.