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DPS++ is the premier programming language for weapons, incorporating tactical commands, shortcuts, and innovations from programming languages found across the galaxy to cause maximum destruction. This incredible feat of computer science is responsible for the universal compatibility of weapon upgrades.
So. That’s the subclass description, and it sounds really cool. Total gish. Which is great! I love me a good gish! But this is not a good gish. It’s kind of a mid to bad gish. Or that’s what I thought until I realized that nothing in the RAW prevents you from casting your focus spell and then not casting a spell afterwords. I’ll come back to that. Anyway, after that realization, and spending a week writing this and deep-diving the class, I don’t really think it’s that bad.
Each subclass has several features: a given spell line, focus spells, a level 1 spellshape feat, an Overclock Boost, and an additional Jailbreak feature for their given spellshape feat. That’s. Honestly a lot. And not much of it really folds into the gish mission statement. There’s more available to Technomancer as a whole, but what the subclass gives you isn’t really what that blurb at the top implies it gives you.
So, Spell Cache, the list of always available given spells. We’ve got:
- Supercharge Weapon: Your next Strike with a chosen weapon gets a damage boost. Total Gish Spell.
- Caustic Conversion: Spell attack with persistent damage.
- Electrotether: Spell attack with pull.
- Hydraulic Torrent: Save Spell with push. Line.
- Impaling Spike: Save Spell with Immobilize.
- Disintegrate: Spell Attack with Save.
- True Target: Gives advantage to up to 4 people when they attack a specific target. Gish/support spell!
- Arctic Rift: Save Spell with Immobilize/slow. Line.
- Implosion: Save Spell, pulls and damages. Sustained.
So, not a bad DPS list, but there’s only two spells on here that interact with weapons (which is what the description says the subclass is all about). As well, only three of these spells are Starfinder spells, of which only one really is tech related. Two if we include the electromagnetic one. Which. It’s the Technomancer. You could maybe flavor these spells to be techy, but they’re almost entirely elemental attack spells. Regardless, only mildly gishy and only mildly Technomancery.
Next, Focus Spells:
- Thermoelectric Phase Change: Spellshape. Change the elemental damage type of a spell.
-- Jailbreak: The spell deals more damage.
This is the only one I’m going to look at for now, because it’s the only one you get for sure. The other two Focus Spells for DPS++ are for DPS++, but are locked behind feats.
This spell is either really useful or really a nothingburger. Its usefulness is dependent on two major factors, one from the player and one from the GM. The first necessitates that the player pick out at least one spell with an elemental trait. While they will get an elemental spell at level 3, to use it at level 1 or 2, the player must pick an elemental spell to get any use out of this. This is an almost guaranteed thing to happen, but it is not guaranteed, and truly it must be kept in mind that if a player can screw themselves with a choice, a player will screw themselves with that choice.
The second major factor necessitates that the GM use enemies or puzzles that have weaknesses or solutions that need a particular element. To state it another way, if the player has no spell with an elemental trait, they cannot use this focus spell, and if they never run into anything that makes using a particular element advantageous, then there’s no reason to use this spellshape. For a level one focus spell, that’s very unfortunate.
The Jailbreak is not bad, but it’s entirely crit dependent. If you use a spell and either crit on the attack, or they crit fail on the save, you get an extra 1d6 persistent damage of whatever elemental type was used. I actually kind of hate this, mostly because of the crit dependency.
Moving on to the Given Spellshape Feat. DPS++ gets an initial spellshape of:
- Signal Boost: Increase spell range by 30ft
-- Jailbreak: Increase by 60ft instead.
There’s not much to say about this one. It’s not bad, but it feels unnecessary in the context of official scenarios, where I’ve rarely seen the need to extend my range. Works great for touch spells though. I’m more confused why this is specifically DPS++.
Finally, the pièce de résistance, the Overclock Boost, the core of the subclass. It does three things:
- Reduces your targets’ circumstance bonus from cover by a value equal to half the rank of the spell you used to Overclock.
- Reduce any penalty due to range by 1.
- Gain a circumstance bonus to weapon damage equal to the rank of the spell used to Overclock. If the enabling spell dealt damage, the bonus damage for your weapon is of the same type as the spell.
Now, none of this is bad. The cover bonus reduction is actually pretty awesome at later levels, completely negating it in almost all circumstances by level 7.
Reducing range penalties is also great. If you’re firing outside of range. Which, unless you’re using the scattergun, is unlikely to come up often.
Finally, the damage bonus is nice, if low. But that makes sense, as this is a core class feature that’s always available.
Which is where I come back to the focus spell and that whole loophole in the rules with spellshapes. See, being able to just cast the focus spell spellshape and not cast a spell afterwards, while it means you don’t get any benefits from the spellshape, does mean that you have just cast a spell. And one that is not a cantrip. What this does is just add an action tax to Overclock, effectively making it a two action focus spell. Additionally, since the focus spell is, well, a focus spell, it will auto-highten, allowing you at least one instance every combat to activate this Overclock at maximum bonus. Which makes the whole subclass playable.
The only other thing DPS++ gets is their super special Jailbreak bonus to their level 1 feat:
- DPS++ Jailbreak: When you use the Signal Boost Jailbreak, add damage equal to the base damage die of your weapon to one target of the spell.
It’s another damage bonus. For the price of Jailbreaking, you’re just adding 1 additional damage die to a spell. This is good in early game (remember you can’t Jailbreak until level 3), and it’s never bad, but it’s also hard attached to a range boost. The higher level you get the more spellshapes your going to get - law of averages says you’re going to get other spellshapes, what with 21 of the 49 feats being spellshapes (I’m including Advanced Magic Hack, and both Cross Platform Applications in that count), and 3 others being spellshape focused. Your choice to use this spellshape to get this bonus will come at the cost of using any other spellshape you have.
So that’s all the kit you’re guaranteed to get for DPS++. After that, subclass specific options include 1 (one) feat. There’s also the focus spell feats to unlock the other DPS++ feats.
- lvl4 - Alakablam: I. Don’t even know what this does. It’s poorly written, as I have criticized in other threads. Best guess is that, after using a spell gem, you can Overclock a gun and give it bonus damage or change its damage type based on if the spell you cast is non-damaging or damaging, respectively. This, maybe, lasts for the Overclock duration(??).
This is maybe not bad if you plan to blow a lot of credits on spellgems (assuming my interpretation is accurate), but is otherwise kind of bad. Mostly because of the requisite spellgems. Again, assuming the playstyle of most official scenarios, you’re never going to have enough downtime to craft these gems, so you’re going to have to spend a decent amount to always have gems to use this. And since this is (maybe) activating your Overclock(??), you’re going to want to have some high-rank gems, so you can’t just only carry around rank 1 gems.
- lvl6 - Advanced Magic Hack: Rank3 - Virtualized Data Transmission: Required: Wielding a ranged tech weapon.
-- Teleport anywhere in the area of a [ranged spell with an area] you’re about to cast.
--- Jailbreak: Teleport anywhere in the range of the [single target spell] you’re about to cast.
My biggest beef with this spell is that it requires a ranged weapon. There’s nothing in the spell that affects weapons, you don’t get a free attack with it, it is entirely focused on modifying a spell within the parameters of the spell. Just. Why does it need a weapon, let alone a ranged weapon? This is either a get-me-tf-away spell, or a get-me-in-their-face-so-I-can-hit-them spell, but with the ranged weapon requirement, the second option is off the table. (Why does it require a ranged weapon???) Additionally, how does this fit the DPS++ theme? It has, as stated, nothing to do with weapons. Nor, as the name DPS++ implies, anything to do with damage per second. I dunno. It’s not a bad spellshape, it just doesn’t fit the theme, in my opinion. To clarify, my objection is that this is a DPS++ specific focus spell that doesn’t fit the theme. This could be a great general Technomancer spellshape, but it’s explicitly DPS++.
- lvl10 - Greater Magic Hack: Rank5 - Overclock Brain: Gain quickened for 1 minute, for an extra Strike.
This is, finally, finally, something that is universally on brand for the mechanics of DPS++. A 1 action, non-cantrip, non-spell slot spell you can overclock off of, that does something independent of spellshapes, and it gives you an extra strike every turn. This is perfect. Too bad you don’t get it until level 10.
So, there’s other feats you can pick up, and obviously spells you can add to your database, that fit the theme. But out of all of the above things that are for the subclass that supposedly uses “the premier programming language for weapons”, there’s not a whole lot that really ties into that theming. You’ve got one spell (two depending on how you want to count True Target), Overclock Boost [Weapon], a level 4 feat, and a level 10 focus spell (and even then, that focus spell is themed as overclocking you not your weapon).
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So how does it play?
At level 1, with only two spell slots, and (presumably) not enough money to get more than maybe a single spell gem, you’ll be starting every fight with your focus spell (to no effect) and then Overclock. That gives you one more action to either shoot or move. You can’t Jailbreak yet, so you’re casting cantrips left and right, and firing your gun for your third action. Very occasionally, you’ll pop your non-focus spell spellshape to extend your cantrip range. For big fights, you’ll start off by casting one of your two spells. Supercharge is a good contender, as it will further boost your weapon damage, and then Overclock. This gives you +1d6+1 damage to your next shot, so if you’ve doubled-down on gishing, you might start your next turn with a Sure Strike to make sure your boosted attack can hit. But since your to-hit isn’t really more than a point or two worse than anyone else’s, I’d use your second spell slot on something else. And then you go back to cantrips and gun rounds, with the occasional spellshaped cantrip thrown in there if needed.
At level 3, Jailbreak unlocks, and you have three more spellslots. Fundamentally, your gameplay hasn’t changed, other than to allow you to use spell slot spells more frequently. Maybe you’ve spent some money on spell gems, or maybe even a spell chip. Now, you can have a few more combats in the day where you cast a spell that does something to Overclock off of. So, when do you Jailbreak? Since Jailbreaking eats your Overclock, you only really want to use it with those spell slot spells or spell gems/chips, so you can Overclock off of the Jailbroken spell.
If you picked up Ammo Infector Virus at level 2 (highly recommend if you are trying to gish), it’s now online and you really want to fire your gun. Getting a free chance to Glitch things every time you hit something is really powerful, especially since your Computers skill should be pretty high, even if you didn’t put your lvl 3 point into it.
At level 4, if you pick up Alakablam, your decision tree expands to include “how much money do I want to spend on spell gems?” If I’ve interpreted the feat correctly, then every non-damaging spell gem lets you Overclock with an additional damage boost, which, in combination with Ammo Infector Virus, makes shooting your gun really good. But with no way to make your own spellgems, this gets expensive fast. Even if you just buy a bunch of level 1 gems, that’s still 4gp each (sorry, 40 credits). Even if you only purchased and used 1 gem for each combat, that’s going to add up. So now you’re breaking your bank (or at least stealing its lunch money) to enable a damage boost to get the most out of shooting your gun.
That said, if you stock a bunch of Sure Strike gems, you can pop one of them for 1 action, Alakablam for 1 action, the Strike for 1 action, which results (again, assuming correct interpretation of Alakablam) in a ranged weapon Strike with advantage and +1d6+1 damage, followed up with a Combat Hack. And then you still have +1d6+1 damage for the next 5 rounds(??). For another few levels at least, that’s still better damage than using your focus spell (1d6+1 = 4.5 damage on average, whereas your focus spell will only guarantee +2 damage right now). At this point, you’re actually starting to feel gishy, between your spells and a solid weapon damage boost.
Levels 6 and 8 have no clear cut DPS++ options. Yes, Advanced Magic Hack is available at 6, but it’s just a teleport and I’ve already said my piece about it. At 8, there’s Grenade Spell, which can be a bunch of fun, especially if you Jailbreak it. However, it also requires grenades, so if you take it, be prepared to buy those consumables. Personally, I’d pick up Spell Library to really embrace that hybrid prepared/spontaneous caster lifestyle.
Level 10 is special. If you picked up the various feats I mentioned, shooting is your bread and butter, though your to-hit fell behind non-casters a few levels ago (though really, you’re only firing once each turn at 0 MAP, realistically, so it’s not too bad). If you’ve been buying gems to feed Alakablam and/or grenades to fuel Grenade Spell, you’ve maybe been seeing some serious decisions about what you’re not buying instead.
At level 10 though, you finally, finally, can take Greater Magic Hack to get Overclock Brain. This completely reshapes the paradigm. Now your turn 1 is Overclock Brain, Overclock Gear, 1 action of your choice, Strike. You’ve got a solid set of spell slots to burn on bigger fancier spells, which means you’ve got a lot more ability to Jailbreak when you need it, or even just want it.
At level 11, you finally get Weapon Expertise, and you can enjoy two levels of keeping up with the non-casters, until they all get Weapon Mastery at level 13. But that’s okay! You still get a free shot every turn.
There isn’t really anything else after that though. Your DPS++ subclass has achieved its final form, with only your choice of spell after this. There’s nothing after level 10 specifically for this subclass.
So, final grade. I think this subclass (and the class as a whole) is a lot better than I had originally thought. It’s not anywhere near intuitive, and really requires knowing the loophole with the spellshape focus spell to even work. Without that, it’s barely functional until level 10, but with it, I can see being a real menace with it, especially at early levels when you’re mostly just as good at shooting as everyone else. I haven’t yet done a deep dive on the other three subclasses, but I’m pretty sure this is the most functional of them all, and likely is going to be the default subclass for most people.
What I’d really like to see is to just make Overclock Gear its own focus spell cantrip, tailored to each subclass. For DPS++, have it be a two action spell that does the same thing it already does. That’d leave your focus point available to actually use for its intended purpose.
On that note, I’d like either the level 1 focus spell or the level 1 bespoke feat to be not a spellshape. For the focus spell, it could be some kind of tech focused spell, allowing you to buff someone else’s weapon, reduce the glitch condition, give the suppressed condition, something.
For the feat, the first (and I think best) thing to come to mind is to instead give Trained proficiency in Martial weapons, and editing Weapon Expertise and Weapon Specialization to include Martial weapons.
It’d also be nice if the Advanced Magic Hack did something related to the subclass, and for there to be a feat at 14, 16, or 18 that’s for DPS++.