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Okay, so what I mean is that there’s very little you can do with Overclock Boost and overclocked gear, but so many feats and Jailbreak that use overclock as currency or qualifier.
By itself, Overclock Gear does not a lot at all. DPS++ reduces enemy cover and range increment penalties for weapons. As well, it gives a 1-10 damage bonus to the weapon, and a corresponding damage type based on if the requisite spell did any damage.
FORTRUN gives an armor bonus for only one round and a thorn effect that deals 1-10 force damage or a corresponding damage type based on if the requisite spell did any damage.
ServoShell allows a free Sustain action when you command a minion.
Viper lets you cast from spell gems/chips outside of your tradition.
This is literally all that this class feature does without taking a feat. It never scales, never gains any more features, this is all it will ever do. You can use it as currency to enable Jailbreak, but that’s not something that Overclock itself is doing. Now, to be fair, some of these effects are pretty good, and none of them are bad (except arguably FORTRUN), but the base loop of the class is that you don’t get any of this without casting a 1 or 2 action non-cantrip spell. This makes it, by default, an infrequently used class feature. The setup to start it requires the expenditure of limited resources prior to level 10 when you can get a non-spellshape focus spell, and even more, requires, generally, an entire turn to enable. If you do Jailbreak, your gear is no longer Overclocked, and so you have to start over again (though it is usually easier because you’ve just cast a spell).
Once you take into account feats, things open up, but most of those are “if you have Overclock, than you can do this thing,” not anything that encourages you to do something with the Overclock play style.
lvl4 - Alakablam: Who actually knows. This thing is so poorly written, it’s entirely open to interpretation. Best guess is that DPS++ double overclocks on non-damaging spells, and that Viper gets DPS++’s Overclock-lite.
lvl4 - Overclock Focus: Overclock is a qualifier to gain a focus point.
lvl6 - Overclock Spell Database: Overclock is a qualifier to cast a spell from your spell cache.
lvl6 - White Hat Hack: Overclock is a qualifier to reduce the Glitch condition on things.
lvl10 - Soft Reboot: You can Overclock as a reaction after Jailbreaking.
lvl12 - Reactive Firewall: While Overclocked, give disadvantage to an attack against you.
lvl14 - Sleep Mode: On initiative roll, become Overclocked.
lvl14 - Tashtari Cluster: You can have two pieces of Overclocked gear. This would be amazing, except. It’s not any easier or cheaper to Overclock things. You still have to cast a spell to overclock gear 1, then cast another spell to overclock gear 2 (without Jailbreaking), and this is really only useful to ServoShell. DPS++ doesn’t have any advantage to using a second weapon, FORTRUN doesn’t have a second armor, and Viper. Maybe I’m not seeing it, but I can’t really fathom a situation where you want to overclock two spellgems at once to where you pick this feat over other choices. ServoShell having multiple summoned and Overclocked minions makes sense, but it’s also impossible to do with this playtest.
Focus Spells:
DPS++ and FORTRUN don’t actually have any overclock related focus spells. They have rank 5 spells that have Overclock in the name (as does ServoShell), but they don’t actually utilize any overclock mechanics.
ServoShell’s rank 3 focus spell lets you auto-Overclock a minion if you Jailbreak. But. Overclock is an impractical afterthought on this spell.
With Viper’s rank 3 focus spell, the Jailbreak lets you use a non-tradition gem that you’ve Overclocked.
Viper’s rank 5 focus spell, when you Jailbreak it, lets you (potentially) do more if you use an Overclocked gem/chip.
Finally, Speedrun is a rank 9 focus spell that all subclasses have access to. If your gear is Overclocked, you can burn the Overclock to extend the spell’s effects for a second round. Really a cool spell, but once again Overclock is just a currency for something else.
ALL THAT TO SAY the Overclock Bonus effect of each of the Programming Languages encourages you to play a certain way, but none of the feats or features help you do that. Of the eight Overclock related feats, only half of them are not using Overclock as a qualifier for something else, and the other half are not super impactful. 1/hour Overclock as a reaction, 1/hour get a defensive reaction, 1/day overclock on initiative, and “you can have 2 overclocked items”.
I think Overclock is incidental to this class as written. So little is done with it, it almost feels tacked on - the solution to the problem of “how do we limit Jailbreak” rather than its own worthwhile feature. And while it is presented as the driving factor of how each subclass plays, the class as a whole doesn’t do anything to help you play in those directions. DPS++ wants you to be a gish, but Technomancer has terrible weapon proficiency. FORTRUN wants to boost your armor (for one round - I can’t mention that enough) and punish enemies for hitting you - but only in point blank melee. ServoShell wants you to have a minion or companion, but you don’t have access to a companion or familiar, and the action economy makes having a minion and overclocking it impractically difficult. Viper wants you to use all the spell gems and chips, but doesn’t give you any way to alleviate the financial stress of obtaining said gems and chips. While the focus spells do, for the most part, compliment each subclass’s playstyle, they mostly don’t have anything to do with Overcharge either.
As well, with the current requirement of having to cast a non-cantrip spell to even get your Overclock benefits, most combats are going to see all Technomancers play the same. The only difference to gameplay being their two initial spellshapes and what spells each player picks. The spell cache could also have some impact, since those spells are always available without prep, but I don’t see it being that big a distinction.
A lot of this just gets flat out better and becomes less of an issue if Overclock Gear loses its requirement of “Your most recent action this turn was to cast a non-cantrip spell.” On the light end, I think allowing you to use Overclock Gear off of cantrips would be fine, but honestly I think making it a focus cantrip/spell and getting rid of the requirements at all would be better. Firstly, I think casting a spell to Overclock feels better, though that is mostly just a flavor change. Honestly I think the action tax is fine without forcing you to burn a spell as well. Probably the best solution would be to give each subclass a unique focus spell to Overclock their gear with.
2 action cantrip for DPS++.
2 action cantrip for FORTRUN.
1 action cantrip for ServoShell to Sustain a summoned minion and Overclock it.
1 action cantrip for Viper.
You can save on page space by moving the Overclock effects to the individual cantrips.
I’d love to see one or two feats for each subclass that allows you to do more while Overclocked, or changes what you can Overclock (like being able to Overclock ally equipment).
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I agree with this assessment. Overclock Gear I think is at the heart of a lot of the Technomancer's current problems right now, because it clogs up their action economy and makes them even more hungry for spell slots than their focus spellshapes already make them. That two of the subclasses can't benefit at all from the overclock effect I think ties to a slightly different issue (the Technomancer needs 1st-level feats that aren't spellshapes, and that instead cater to their subclass better), but nonetheless make overclocking feel even less relevant on what is meant to be the caster for interacting with technology.
With this in mind, I'd definitely support making the effect a focus spell without needing to cast a spell first, and in general I think the Technomancer could benefit from having this large deck of focus spells at level 1 to have more resource-free things to do, and more choice over what to commit to in an encounter. I'd also perhaps also support making each overclock effect into its own focus spell, which could open the door for more overclock spells and perhaps make it easier to poach overclock effects across subclasses.
While I haven't yet extensively playtested the Technomancer at a high level, I'm also in agreement that the overclock effects on DPS++ in particular may end up not being so valuable: not only does the class have the standard caster weapon scaling, they also lack the scaling class DC to use area weapons and grenades well, which carries its own heap of problems, and have little feat support to overcome this. Giving the class a scaling class DC, potentially even up to legendary, would address this issue, allowing the class to always use AoE weapons and grenades competently.
Minor correction: DPS reduces total range penalty by one, it doesn’t reduce range increment penalties from two to one.
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Yeah, I would agree that Overclock isn't meshing in right. It's giving SF1 solarian. On the surface it looks like an interesting mechanical loop, but when you get down to brass tacks it doesn't jive well with how combats play out in the real world.
The loop I've fallen into at low level was supercharge weapon into Overclock Gear, then injury echo into a Strike (and then stumble into a Strike after that unless I need to spend actions doing something else). It's actually quite strong at that level, but it better be given that you spend your entire first turn setting up. I also fear that at high level, that part of the Technomancer may fall off quite badly, as not even the partial cover negation would make up for the comparative -4 to your attack rolls at that stage.
The loop I've fallen into at low level was supercharge weapon into Overclock Gear, then injury echo into a Strike (and then stumble into a Strike after that unless I need to spend actions doing something else). It's actually quite strong at that level, but it better be given that you spend your entire first turn setting up. I also fear that at high level, that part of the Technomancer may fall off quite badly, as not even the partial cover negation would make up for the comparative -4 to your attack rolls at that stage.
An Area Effect Weapon that is overclocked makes up for not having good attack rolls at higher levels I think. Play tested Wheel of Monsters at 10th level as a Tehcnomancer wit a Stellar Cannon and didn't worry about attack rolls got to do one shot with an unwieldy weapon and one spell around doing pretty good AoE damage with both. Not the Highest damage per round of our group but the most consistent over time
Area fire weapona take 2 actions to fire, leaving not enough actions left for most casting. Technomancer class DC advancement is also worse than their weapon advancement if I recall correctly
I was gonna say: how was it using Area Fire with a class DC that remained stuck at trained? I do agree Area Fire makes it difficult to "cast gun" with a stellar cannon and use a spell or cantrip at the same time, but that can be circumvented by using grenades instead, whose Area Fire uses one action (though you might need to spend an Interact action to draw one first); the thing that can't really be worked around here is the poorly-scaling class DC.
Hmm I missed that Area Attack is two action which does put an end to that tactic, unwieldy seems a little redundant on those weapons then.