Let's talk jailbreaking


Technomancer Class Discussion


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Haven't seen a thread for this specific mechanic yet, so here goes: Jailbreak Spell is a core class feature the Technomancer gains at 3rd level, which lets you trade in your gear overclocking for an action compressor on a spellshape, plus an additional jailbreak benefit, plus an additional benefit if you use a specific spellshape granted by your subclass. This probably starts to get to one of the things I want to discuss, but just to lay out the steps, here's how you jailbreak and what you get out of it:

  • First, you cast a non-cantrip spell. Because your only non-cantrip spells from your class at lower levels are spellshapes, it's likely going to be a slot spell.
  • Then, you use Overclock Gear, another Technomancer class action that grants a specific persistent benefit to some of your gear based on your subclass. This and casting the spell will likely take up your entire turn, and you must do both on the same turn.
  • On some later turn in the same encounter, you use Jailbreak Spell. This ends the overclock effect on your gear.
  • You then get to apply one of your spellshapes as a free action.
  • In most cases, your spellshape will also have a special jailbreak benefit, which you apply to your spell in addition to the basic spellshape effect.
  • If you're jailbreaking your spell with the spellshape gained from your subclass (not the focus spell, the other one), you also apply another jailbreak benefit from your subclass, for a total of four separate benefits.

    Now, I'd first like to start with the positives: when you do get to use this, it does actually feel like you're jailbreaking your spell. The Technomancer gets lots of juicy spellshapes that add cool new effects to spells, adding another jailbreak benefit pushes the spell modding element even further, and doing all of this at no added action cost really feels like a huge boost. In the very limited few times I've used this mechanic so far, it felt like a really high moment, and I think the Starfriends really aced the design of a class that can hack magic with this mechanic.

    Now, the less positive stuff: as the above should hopefully indicate, the process of jailbreaking is... well, it's a lot. The mechanic is complicated to set up, can be fairly complicated to use, and importantly, takes up a huge number of actions and resources to put to full use. At 3rd level in particular, your Technomancer will only have 5 spell slots, so you're not exactly going to be able to blow 2 spell slots per encounter at that stage, nor would you necessarily want to. This, along with a bunch of other mechanics on the class, I think contributes heavily to them not feeling fully functional at low levels, because they lack the resources to make proper use of their class mechanics, and have no real fallback options when they run out. It's also in this respect fairly encounter-centric, given how you need to power up and cast another spell beforehand, when I think there's space for jailbreaking spells outside of encounters and in situations where you wouldn't be doing all of that setup (for instance, Incognito Spell in a social encounter).

    The other issue, in my opinion, is how this contributes to another problem some others have brought up: sacrificing your overclocking to gain this benefit puts some of the Technomancer's mechanics directly at odds with their ability to do more with tech. In my opinion, it's part of the reason why the "techno-" aspect feels like it's playing second fiddle to what otherwise plays like what many have wanted an Experimental Spellshaping Wizard to be this whole time.

    Finally, and on a much more minor note, I feel the way jailbreaking is currently implemented is a little... restricted? Most jailbreak effects feel like they could just be regular spellshapes in their own right, and in fact the Double Spellshape feat you can get lets you apply two spellshapes instead of one spellshape and its jailbreak benefit. The same also applies to that extra effect you get from jailbreaking your subclass's spellshape: you might as well just be layering two to three independent spellshapes on top of one another, and breaking some of these jailbreak effects into their own spellshapes and implementing the effect of Double Spellshape as a baseline by letting you mix & match could both avoid overloading individual spellshapes and make it much easier to add new ones in the future, while also unlocking even more options.

    TL;DR Jailbreak Spell giving the benefit of essentially two to three spellshapes plus action compression feels like a major power-up. Unfortunately, I also think right now it's a bit clunky to use and super resource-hungry. I really like the mechanic and definitely should stay on the Technomancer, but ideally I'd like it to be a bit more straightforward to use, and not come at the expense of their interaction with tech.


  • Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

    How complicated have you found it to manage multiple spell shapes loaded onto one spell from a sheer "what all does this spell do" perspective? I'm concerned about that complexity being a roadblock for players who are already shy about the complexity of prepared casters.


    I found it fairly complex, and I'd list myself as someone fairly familiar with 2e. There's certainly a learning curve here where you will probably get used to all the moving parts over time, but the first time I used Jailbreak Spell, the game ground to a halt for a solid three to five minutes as I went to the spellshape (Thermoelectric Phase Change, which by the way does not synergize with the 1st-rank cached spell on DPS++), back to the spell, back to the spellshape for the jailbreak benefit, then back to the spell again, double-checking every time that the spell was valid for the spellshape and that I'd applied the effects correctly. To top it all off, I used my remaining third action to Overclock Gear again, which made me question why I had to turn it off in the first place!


    stealing focus spell with archetype seem as necessary for technomancer as they are to magus

    this does seem to be a design problem paizo keep run into

    viper would not have lacking high level spell slot problem after level 10

    making it obvious and only choice for subclass once again


    25speedforseaweedleshy wrote:

    viper would not have lacking high level spell slot problem after level 10

    making it obvious and only choice for subclass once again

    Currently Viper is in a similar subclass condition that Spell Blending/Spell Substitution are for wizards. You can choose other subclasses due thematic reasons but it's obvious that we have a subclass mechanically better than others.


    I mean really they just need some offensive focus spells and the class be fine...I think. As it stands it once more feels rip for they to Multiclass Dedication dip into Psychic for some sick focus spells.


    I think each language could get a focus spell on the level of a witch hex and the class would be fine. Maybe not something that has to be sustained bc the class is action hungry but something on the level of a one action cantrip and the tehnomancer's tier 1 troubles would go away.

    The easy fix would just be letting overclock gear work on cantrips and tweaking the overclocks on some of the languages.

    Wayfinders

    Keeping your equipment overclocked has its own advantages, so I see jailbreaking spells as something you save for the right moment, not as something you keep cycling through casting spells to overclock to jailbreak another spell repeat.

    As Teridax pointed out, at low levels, using jailbreak will run out your spell slots quickly. Normally in Starfinder, the solution to save spell slots is to "Cast Gun" so having equipment that takes advantage of overclock and or jailbreak that's related to the equipment in addition to your programming language might help.

    Instead of having to give each piece of equipment some ability for overclocking and jailbreaking, if there were special spell chips or something similar that a technomancer could install to enable using JAILBREAK SPELL to trigger an additional minor effect built into the equipment, perhaps using up extra battery charges, and having a cool down period, instead of discharging the spell that overclocked the gear. This would keep "Cast Gun relevant, and give more to the tech side of technomancer.

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