|
So, like, the base chassis of the mechanic is pretty poor. Legendary only in perception, no saves, no weapons, and most importantly, no class DC. I'm not super familiar with the math of companions, can they get magic items to boost their bonus to hit and DCs vs spells? I know the Area of Effect weapons add their enhancement bonus to the DCs to resist them, but I don't know if that can be given to the exocortex mechanics? Anyone know if this math is mathing out?
The Mechanic does get a trained-to-master class DC, I agree though that it could go to legendary on the class (in fact, I'd prefer that to legendary Perception, which I don't consider a great fit here). Companions can only benefit from item bonuses to Speed and AC (and the item bonus to AC is limited to +3), so as far as I know there's no way of boosting the accuracy of their special attacks with items, particularly as those don't use the Area Fire action. Because all of those drone AoEs use a Reflex save, this puts you at a -1 to a -3 relative to the Area Fire action against what is arguably the strongest save in Starfinder, which doesn't sound terribly reliable.
I think legendary perception is because they want it to be a top shelf trapfinder. With computers/crafting and the option to do Arcana/Occultism it will be able to disarm a lot of common hazards/obstacles.
I believe they avoid legendary class DCs on things that do good/repeatable AOE damage, like the mines/exploding turret/drone AOEs all doing fireball equivalent damage that can be spammed many/every round with some action constraints. The one legendary DC AOE class we have is the kineticist, which does notably poorer damage than the mechanic options and what spellcasters can do with their slotted spells.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think legendary perception is because they want it to be a top shelf trapfinder. With computers/crafting and the option to do Arcana/Occultism it will be able to disarm a lot of common hazards/obstacles.
I believe they avoid legendary class DCs on things that do good/repeatable AOE damage, like the mines/exploding turret/drone AOEs all doing fireball equivalent damage that can be spammed many/every round with some action constraints. The one legendary DC AOE class we have is the kineticist, which does notably poorer damage than the mechanic options and what spellcasters can do with their slotted spells.
Soldier gets legendary class dc, and their entire thing is AoE.
Soldier gets legendary class dc, and their entire thing is AoE.I think legendary perception is because they want it to be a top shelf trapfinder. With computers/crafting and the option to do Arcana/Occultism it will be able to disarm a lot of common hazards/obstacles.
I believe they avoid legendary class DCs on things that do good/repeatable AOE damage, like the mines/exploding turret/drone AOEs all doing fireball equivalent damage that can be spammed many/every round with some action constraints. The one legendary DC AOE class we have is the kineticist, which does notably poorer damage than the mechanic options and what spellcasters can do with their slotted spells.
With weapons that do weak damage compared to spells/mines/exploding turrets/drone AOEs. They get to add debuffs to compensate. Same as the kineticist, who slaps you with some moderate damage and the chance of a push/slow 1/whatever on a crit fail or has many ways to control or slow your movement.
Soldier gets legendary class dc, and their entire thing is AoE.
I was going to say the exact same, yeah. Paizo certainly was more timid with legendary class DCs up until the Kineticist, but with the Commander, the Soldier, and the Runesmith all getting a legendary class DC as well, and three of those four classes having access to repeatable AoE, it's clear that classes intended to be good at AoE are now being given the appropriate class DC for it, even when that AoE can be used at-will. I do agree that the Mechanic was likely given legendary Perception to be good against traps, but I still don't think it makes a whole lot of sense for mechanics to always be these eagle-eyed scouts, and I'd much prefer that power were shifted to something more central to the class, like their class DC. It'd certainly help out the Mine exocortex device a lot, and it'd help make those drone feats less piddly too (1d6 damage with a basic Reflex save and a 1d4-round lockout is really nothing to write home about).
The turret doing autofire with Area Denial Turret will have full tracking bonuses if you spend to make it your primary weapon (you will) and only lag the +2 at some levels.
The level 20 turret blowing itself up is averaging 70 damage on a failed save vs a d10 area weapon with damage mods doing 4d10(22) + 3d6(10.5) + 6 (is it 8?) specialization or 38.5. (Plus Primary Target, of course.) If we assume the Soldier gets a fail from all enemies and the Turret gets a success, they do nearly the same damage to any target who isn't the Primary Target. The turret also has a 20' radius, and we don't have a comparable size on an area weapon yet, so in some circumstances the exploding turret hits more targets than the soldier (and more allies).
I don't think it's obviously a problem that the mechanic less often does full area damage with its turret that isn't all about area damage. It's also about drawing fire away from PCs, focus firing individual enemies with two no-MAP shots, providing defense to PCs, occupying squares/firing angles that annoy enemies in cover, setting up a 30' Reactive Strike "no movement" zone, flexible damage types and never having to reload, setting up blocking walls and difficult terrain zones, etc.
Mine mechanics may have bigger concerns, but they also have the ability to stack some really awful spike damage in one round under optimal circumstances and Gravitic Mines crit fail stuff probably won't survive getting legendary DCs. I'd prefer to see them get options that make their grenades have worthwhile effects on succesful saves and more utility options that don't care about saves.
I'm a little worried that if you want a fully customized drone, Mechanic won't bring much to the table over taking an archetype on a better base class, at least before the capstone. It's not nothing, of course - free integrated weapon slot, free "dedication", tandem movement, and eventually a permanent damage bonus. Compared to Envoy boosting everyone's attack and damage while getting way more skill stuff, or Soldier getting to AoE and attack while being nigh unkillable, I'm a little iffy.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm a little worried that if you want a fully customized drone, Mechanic won't bring much to the table over taking an archetype on a better base class, at least before the capstone. It's not nothing, of course - free integrated weapon slot, free "dedication", tandem movement, and eventually a permanent damage bonus. Compared to Envoy boosting everyone's attack and damage while getting way more skill stuff, or Soldier getting to AoE and attack while being nigh unkillable, I'm a little iffy.
I actually think any drone archetype is going to be missing 80% of the drone mechanic's feat options to enhance it via 1 (PC) action AOE attacks, action economy compression via Hunker Down/Instant Deployment, extra MAPless attack with Coordinated Fire, Auto Target reaction, cloaking/concealment options, difficult terrain zone, wall creation, etc.
You need to be choosing wisely among those exocortex enhancement feats, nto just the standard "make drone stronger" feat lines.