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I REALLY want to like the released Envoy but I'm having difficulty in doing so.
Part of my problem is that the Pathfinder Rogue has spoiled me. I now expect to be able to be BOTH a kick ass martial AND a skill monkey. Admittedly, the Pathfinder Rogue is arguably too powerful for EXACTLY this reason and reducing the combat power of the Envoy for its skill utility SHOULD seem like a decent tradeoff. But, as I say, the Rogue (especially the remastered one) has just spoiled me so that no longer seems fair.
In the right group it can shine but it is really open to the group composition making it largely redundant.
Get Em (the bread and butter that the class is basically built around) is done better by a Mystic with the Anthem Epiphany spell (ESPECIALLY if it is a Rhythm Mystic) or maybe with just a Bless spell.
The various options the Envoy has to give out reactions are great for characters who don't already have good reactions. But Starfinder characters get LOTS of good reactions and so the value of these reactions is also very group dependent.
And if Pathfinder 2 classes are in the mix its kinda hard to like the Envoy over the Rogue (if you love skill monkeys) or over the Commander (if you love really helping your allies).
If you're in a group where there actually is a session 0 and everybody is aware then the issue more or less goes away. You play the Envoy, nobody takes the Anthem Epiphany. Nobody is taking the Rogue and making your skill monkeyness way less valuable.
But I hope to play a fair bit of SFS. The odds of my walking up with an Envoy and being not particularly useful seem very, very high.
The other issue that I have is with the playstyle. It seems to REALLY incentivize just using a 2 action Get Em every darn turn. Oh, you'll have other options but they'll just rarely be as useful.
If you go the Size Up route you'll often be doing the Lead By Example Get Em as 1 action. But then what do you do as your second and third actions? I mean, you can shoot with an area weapon or just shoot with your piddling little damage but that isn't all that exciting if the group has a soldier or an operative.
I think the class would be SO much better if you could use more than one directive a round. But you can't.
There are definitely combinations that become quite good at mid to high levels. For example at level 13 with Watch Out and That'll Show'Em you suddenly get REALLY interesting. 2 reactions, twice a round you get to both help an ally AND make a reaction ranged attack.
Or you can dip into Soldier and at level 10 with Guns Blazing Ready Arms! you're rocking.
But these are L10+ options. I want to be good at low levels too :-)
I really want to be convinced that I'm wrong and that I'm missing something. So, PLEASE tell me why I should love the Envoy, especially in a group with a Rythym Mystic, a PF2 Rogue or a PF2 Commander
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You’ll probably Demoralize and ranged Feint or Create a Diversion as your second and third actions if you have the mark feat chain. Bonus to your skill checks and potential +4 swing to hit across all three actions.
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*Shrug* I think it functions perfectly fine as a martial bard. I don't think it has to be much more than that. "I wanna be a face, I wanna be a martial, I wanna support"..... I think the class works as intended for these people
This does however bring up the fact Rogues are considered OP. They get too much and hardly anything actually matches that. I don't thin Envoy as a skill monkey is bad but as a stand-a-lone system they needs to be a skill monkey class like Rogue & Investigator or else it just feels weird.Especially once you add in 2 new skills.