Excited for the technomancer/mechanic playtest; should be anytime now! This is a last minute thread for speculation and hopes. The necromancer chassis has me very interested for what they could do with mechanic. What are y'all's thoughts?
So I'm pretty sure it's a given that the Mechanic will have both an augmentation subclass and a drone subclass. I hope they get a subclass that emphasizes boosting armor, shields, and weapons.
Id like that; not sure how they'll differentiate from inventor at that point though.
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So I'm pretty sure it's a given that the Mechanic will have both an augmentation subclass and a drone subclass. I hope they get a subclass that emphasizes boosting armor, shields, and weapons.Id like that; not sure how they'll differentiate from inventor at that point though.
Do you really want an inventor working on a starship's reactor core? I think playing an inventor is a great option for a space goblin, or working at spaceX where you can blow things up until you get it right.
I'm hoping they have a subclass of mechanics for dealing with starships vehicles, and mechs.
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I'm honestly still a bit surprised that they're bringing in the Mechanic before the Nanocyte. Given we already have an Inventor, the design space for the Mechanic feels a lot 'smaller' - unless it's getting a big overhaul, like the 2e Operative. On the other hand, Nanocyte doesn't really have a 'competing' (for lack of a better term) PF2e class, and has loads of very original, very 'uniquely Starfinder' flavour to it. Bringing Nanocyte in sooner rather than later would've been an easy way to differentiate Starfinder more, similar to how the Witchwarper, another 'uniquely Starfinder' class, is the Core arcane/occult spellcaster. Plus, it still has that 'vaguely technological' vibe to it, what with being empowered by tiny robots and all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Nanocyte aside, it will be interesting to see the degree to which Mechanic and Technomancer interact with rules stuff we haven't seen yet: vehicles, starships, mechs, and power armour.
I'll counter and say we already have not one but two archetypes focused on creating equipment on the fly in the forms of the Mind Smith and Soul Forger so the design space is also narrowed there. Additionally, Nanocyte is fairly high concept compared to Mechanic and Paizo probably wants to get their bases covered before approaching something like that. It would make no sense that to play an engineering-based class, someone would have to reach back to PF2e for it and play a class who's tech is flavored as wildly unstable and primitive.
We also have not seen what SF2e's archetype situation looks like. I would definitely not be surprised to see Evolutionist and Nanocyte show up early as archetypes. We've already seen Precog get blended into Witchwarper so there might be more of an effort to unify concepts in some places or turn what ere previously whole classes into more broadly applicable archetypes. Vanguard, for instance, feels like something that will show up as a Solarian class archetype.
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The OG technomancer got some beautiful updates in Starfinder Enhanced. I hope those updates make it into the core class concept for 2e, even though the technomantic talents will definitely need a rework both to fit within 2e's guidelines and divest from OGL spell schools. Being able to (de)buff other people's casting is so cool, and it's a largely open niche.
Also, I doubt we'll get either until much later in the edition, but the three alternate subclasses--divine tutor, drone technomancy, and junk technomancy--are so flavorful. Junk technomancy in particular sounds like a nice way to make a funny gish.
I have a personal little conspiracy theory that the runesmith and necromancer helped influence and were influenced by whatever the mechanic is turning out to be, as one spawns a mass of minions while the other enhances party gear. I have no idea whether it'll be a blend of these (and other) classes (like the envoy mashes up commander/investigator/bard/rogue), or if it--like soldiers and solarians--will be its own thing entirely.
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I'll counter and say we already have not one but two archetypes focused on creating equipment on the fly in the forms of the Mind Smith and Soul Forger so the design space is also narrowed there.
Fair point, but, "gear" is only 1/3 of what a nanocyte does. Now, I don't know everything about the PF2 class ecosystem nor what's available re: archetypes, but the other arrays - sheathe array, the very interesting (to me, anyways) cloud array, or going even farther afield, the spellcasting eldritch array or Enhanced's defensive-minded body array - are ripe for some sci-fant shenanigans!
You're right that nanocyte is high concept, though. But I think that's just another way of saying "this is something cool, fresh, and unique to Starfinder." Which seems like exactly the kind of thing you'd want in your first supplement, after a healthy covering-of-bases in the Core Six.Of course I don't think anything's actually to change; I'm just surprised, is all.
The OG technomancer got some beautiful updates in Starfinder Enhanced. I hope those updates make it into the core class concept for 2e, even though the technomantic talents will definitely need a rework both to fit within 2e's guidelines and divest from OGL spell schools. Being able to (de)buff other people's casting is so cool, and it's a largely open niche.
Also, I doubt we'll get either until much later in the edition, but the three alternate subclasses--divine tutor, drone technomancy, and junk technomancy--are so flavorful. Junk technomancy in particular sounds like a nice way to make a funny gish.
I have a personal little conspiracy theory that the runesmith and necromancer helped influence and were influenced by whatever the mechanic is turning out to be, as one spawns a mass of minions while the other enhances party gear. I have no idea whether it'll be a blend of these (and other) classes (like the envoy mashes up commander/investigator/bard/rogue), or if it--like soldiers and solarians--will be its own thing entirely.
It's definitely interesting looking at those two; id enjoy technomancer being a two slot caster that gets to use the rest of its budget for repeatable cc, buffing, and/or debuffing
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The idea of taking Starfinder's 'Space Wizard' hat firmly away from Technomancer and making it do something more weird has a certain amount of appeal.
So I'm pretty sure it's a given that the Mechanic will have both an augmentation subclass and a drone subclass. I hope they get a subclass that emphasizes boosting armor, shields, and weapons.
I suspect the armor/shield/weapon boost class will be inventors which honestly fits pretty well when you take inventors up into starfinder setting.
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I suppose it's not off the table for them to roll the nanocyte into the mechanic, the way they rolled the precog into the witchwarper.
I hope they don't, in a world built around tech there are going to be different ways to deal with tech, just like there is different ways to be a melee character in PF2e The way I see it is
Inventor is kind of a tech barbarian (takes risk to do damage)
Mechanic is tech support, engineer
Nanicite is a tech oddity class
Technomancer is the tech caster
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I'm really hoping for Technomancer to be a standard bearer for virtual reality, augmented reality, and software. I think manipulating hardware is easily handled by other classes, so junkbots and tech-flavored-fireballs shouldn't be the focus.
I want Radagast, but stepping out of the Matrix, wearing a blue screen of death as a cloak, carrying a staff from a video game boss, with a wild look in his eye.
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I'm really hoping for Technomancer to be a standard bearer for virtual reality, augmented reality, and software. I think manipulating hardware is easily handled by other classes, so junkbots and tech-flavored-fireballs shouldn't be the focus.
I want Radagast, but stepping out of the Matrix, wearing a blue screen of death as a cloak, carrying a staff from a video game boss, with a wild look in his eye.
I think both virtual reality, and augmented reality benefit from hybrid magitech. Makes for a good explanation of how they work, and a reason they could directly affect/harm the user.
The PF2e hazard system could easily be used as a hacking system, or hazards for a hacking system. The hazard system also allows for multiple ways to disarm or defeat the hazard. One of the problems with hacking is it tends to be a subsystem that leaves the non-hackers out of the game. With the hazard system, the hacker could face one set of challenges to overcome, which could include vitural combat. While those outside of virtual reality could help the hacker with computer checks, or by having to locate and destroy or depower the server the opponent is on.
A Reddit post said the Paizo live tonight announced the playtest is delayed. Tentatively spring.
Drat! O well, paizo is always sprinting in terms of writing and publishing content; I won't begrudge the date needing to be farther back. Back to speculating! I need to look closer at runesmith (I was mostly drawn by necromancer) to see a possible mechanic base.
I definitely hope that they don't assume every nanocyte player wants to be cloud obsessed. Felt very restrictive originally at higher levels that the class started running out of options that weren't tied to the cloud.