I think the distribution of “oomf” is a big sticking point in Solarions. They're a VERY useful class, because from what I've seen in playtesting, they can absolutely churn out damage. However, it's kind of hard to tell that through reading! I think this has partially contributed to a feeling of disappointment towards Solarians from the online buzz I've seen.
While starfinder has a really great “wow factor” in making abilities clearly fun and useful, the Solarian feels like it back loads a lot of their really evocative and interesting abilities until later levels- and sometimes just spreads them unevenly across options.
I think the first attunement abilities you get are a GREAT example. Supernova and Black Hole are IMMACULATE - the “hookability” of getting to tell a player “you can drop a black hole or a supernova at level 1!” is amazing! They're unique, bold, and most of all- RELIABLE things your character can do.
Both abilities clearly communicate the play styles of their attunements- repositioning vs damage- which are invaluable in teaching players. Make their big fun abilities that leave an impression be the ones that do the job of educating players on the differences between their attuned states! It's like edutainment, or cheese on your broccoli.
But most of all…. These abilities are BIG, splashy, memorable, and fun!! Pathfinder 2e has increasingly over time doubled down on the idea of going “over the top” with flavor and aesthetics, but I think it has especially just been making things more appealing as a reader and as a player.
A lot of SF2E’s new skill feats and skill actions are a great example of this- you can actually read one and recognize “this is a fun trope or signifier that reminds me of things I like, and this feat lets me do that and make that my characters ”thing”.
The very piecemeal and granular approach of character creation can often make it hard to feel like players are making an interesting, character-influencing choice with each feat. But when i'm THE GUY WHO MAKES BLACK HOLES? That's lightning in a bottle excitement, and the team has done a great job at it.
And then you have…the balanced one. It's a double strike. You whack them twice. I didn't even bother remembering it's name, and neither did you I bet! (It's Binaric Assault, by the way)
I feel like there are some Solarian features that just... Really drop the ball in matching the same level of distinct, unique, cool abilities. You want to do a double-stride and leave a trail of light that lingers on the battlefield, but do you want to have a small shield that has a lot of technical conditionals? You get Solar Armor, but it has exactly one use without dedicating feats to it. And you can't customize it nearly enough to make it feel distinct and "yours" like you would with the solar weapon. You get a small ranged weapon that many have already spoken about being disappointed by before.
It's a bit odd how conservative so many of the early level Solarian features feel. If I had to guess, I would say they probably seemed strong in initial playtesting because of the flat damage boost, but also complex because of the cycle mechanic. Making it's early level options be more minor or functional is a reasonable response.
But even more so than mechanical strength, I think they need…well…more “oomf!”! I would love to be able to customize my solar shot or solar armor, as well. I'd love for Balanced Solarians to have a unique and flashy ability, and I'd love for some of the early level feats to be as consistently fulfilling that cool core class fantasy as their later level ones!
I have high hopes for the Solarian, but what do you think? Do you think it's better to tone down the flashy abilities of the Solarian at early levels? Do you think that its issues as a class are more mechanical than play experience?
The Solarian only deals high damage compared to Starfinder's ranged damage, in my opinion, and even then several classes can easily get close or outmatch them, like the Operative or Soldier (or simply a Mystic or Witchwarper dropping a nuke spell). Bring in a Barbarian or a melee Fighter from Pathfinder, and both blow the Solarian out of the water in damage output. I imagine the perspective will be different depending on whether or not a player has experience in PF2e, but in my opinion one of the issues with the Solarian is that they actually lack a fair bit of "oomph" when they're not blowing their big once-an-encounter ability.
In my experience, what's stymied the Solarian at early levels is that even though they can do some impressive stuff when they get in range, getting in range is a major issue. It takes a lot of actions even in smaller maps for the class to get where they need to be, let alone in the scenarios' larger maps, and if the enemy can both shoot and fly, then there's nothing the class can do until at least level 3, where ultralight wings become pretty much mandatory. Even Solar Shot only goes so far, literally, as it's held back by an extremely short range. I don't think the Solarian should be pushed to shoot by default, though, and instead I think they should be made an extremely mobile class, specifically so that they get to close gaps in Starfinder's battle arenas and reach enemies more easily. As much as I like the big explosive abilities the Solarian gets at level 1, I'd rather bump them up to a higher level (they could easily replace the class's anemic advanced revelations) in exchange for giving the class features they actually need to function at level 1, rather than stuff that's more nice to have. Let the class fly and Attune freely, let them use their initial revelation to Attune to a specific attunement and close the gap at the same time, and generally just let them cook, instead of saddling them with poor mobility without Stellar Rush and extremely limited range.
The answer is a very clear "absolutely not".
Apart from a pretty cool super-ability that two subclasses get, the Solarian doesn't really have anything going for it that would allow it to hold up when you get into rougher encounters.
I guess the CC is pretty ok, but nothing exceptional that would excuse the subpar damage (or terrible even, if you aren't in photon mode) or general lack of good combat feats. Its durability isn't very good either.
The Solarian is currently straight-up outclassed by most PF2 martials. And certainly all of the good ones.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
A bit late to this discussion, but I only recently experimented with an idea I had back in August.
The improvement in "doing what a solarian should be able to do" by 1) choosing the korasha lashunta ancestry with Psychic Talent (shield) and 2) taking the multiclassed kineticist archetype* is, I'll admit, a little disappointing. Don't get me wrong, the solarian is "functional" (other than the extremely short range of the Solar Flare); more so at low levels than high levels, granted. The improvement with just Through the Gate (Weapon Infusion), however, shows how limited the playtest version is; adding Improved Elemental Blast twice, Expert Kinetic Control, and Advanced Element Control (Solar Detonation; a.k.a., "Little Bang") just puts the cherry on top.
*- fire element (Radiant arrangement); only taking Stellar Rush, Constellation Vortex, Flicker Strike, Stellar Paragon, and probably Perfectly Attuned out of the solarian class feats (only 5 out of 11 feat choices seemed "worth it")
Honestly with no way to opt allies out of your super move they are kinda worthless, several encounters later in a test campaign as a Solarian and in the end I couldn't use Supernova because we had other melee AND flankign was superior because the -2 to the enemies AC.
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I've been struggling with some things about the Solarian- uninteresting low level feats, not enough motivation to really "stance dance", and the shield feat just being SO fiddly for so little benefit.
So I think I've touched upon an idea I like for a replacement 1st/2nd level feat-
"Pulse of Protection
You can summon temporary pulses of protective plasma into a simple solar shield
Choose an attunement. You get a free hand shield in that attunement. Raise a shield gains cycle"
Simple, stupid, and cycling. You get a shield with way fewer restrictions, but only half of the time- I think creating asymmetry between your attunements is a good way to make them feel more distinct.
However, I didn't want it to encourage players to ONLY stick to one attunement in order to just have a free shield. So, giving it cycling forces you right out of the attunement that you were in. Because raising a shield is redundant multiple times a turn, its not useful to try to spam it again to cycle back- it just becomes the regular attunement action at that point
This also creates a few fun decision points- do I pick this ability for my primary attunement, to make it even better? Or do I do it for my backup attunement, so it'll cycle me right into my primary? And that's not even getting into the combos it opens up mid-combat, as a way to do a quick cycle between attunements and be forced to change up your plan if you want to play defensively.
I imagine that free hand or not, +1 vs +2 ac, etc would all be dials to adjust for power level. I just went for the simplest version
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
The abundance of narrowly useful class feats was one of the reasons for my disappointment. Solarians without an archetype get a bit "boring," because they almost always end up with only one or two routines that are effective in most situations. For the example above: Stellar Rush to get to the enemy, activate Constellation Vortex, and then repeat Flicker Strike each round while sustaining Constellation Vortex.
And compare the Big Bang greater revelation gained at 15th level to the kineticist Solar Detonation gained at 16th level with the multiclassed archetype. Other than 4d6 more fire damage instead of adding 2d6 vitality damage (and the different riders for a failure/critical failure), they are pretty much the same; but Big Bang can only be used once per hour (!) while Solar Detonation can be used again after re-activating the kinetic gate (granted, it has the Incapacitation trait).
Dragonchess Player wrote: The abundance of narrowly useful class feats was one of the reasons for my disappointment. Solarians without an archetype get a bit "boring," because they almost always end up with only one or two routines that are effective in most situations. For the example above: Stellar Rush to get to the enemy, activate Constellation Vortex, and then repeat Flicker Strike each round while sustaining Constellation Vortex.
That's such a good point! I really do love how instantly it sells the fantasy of a Solarian to be able to say "you can summon a black hole/supernova every 10 minutes" as a reliable Cool Unique Thing you can do. However, your solar nimbus is so niche and your solar shot is so fiddly, it doesn't really feel like you have many OTHER cool, reliable abilities.
I would love more low level abilities that are flashy, reliable, and heavily interact with solar cycling. Just for example, i'm shocked that there isn't a feat or ability that triggers whenever you change from one attunement to another! It could be something simple (whenever you cycle, you may do X for free or gain X resource), or a bit more complex (create an object on the battlefield- every time you cycle, the object makes a strike, is sustained, or moves around)
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Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
That's a very good point with the cycling between attunements.
Maybe they should look at the exemplar for examples to make feats with the Cycle trait act a bit more like the Immanence and Transcendence abilities on the ikons: get a small benefit when maintaining attunement, but a bigger one for changing your attunement (instead of forcing the switch each time; there are many encounters where changing attunement every round is counterproductive).
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