Getting into Starfinder Second Edition (Help me with my concerns)

[Indi523]

Ok, so here is the deal.

When Starfinder 1e first came out I got the book but was put off by one thing in it which did not appeal to me for a space game and that was the level rule for every piece of equipment.

As I understood it if you were X level and you got hold of equipment be it a vehicle, armor, weapon what have you that was x+1 level you could not use it until you leveled up. I am assuming this was a balance thing to try and make the game less lethal at
lower levels, not sure but it bothered me because it did not make sense. Sure the person may be an inexperienced grunt but if you give them high level tech that is easy to use such as a blaster then it seemed to weird they could not use it.

Any rate I did play a few games with my friends but never really got into the game.

So here is my question. How does that work in 2e and are there house rules maybe that are in the material to maybe deal with that?

How do you handle this issue in game? Party takes out the level 10 boss fight and now can't use any of the weapons he had on him because they'd have to wait five levels. Is it really not an issue? Is it different in 2e?

[BotBrain]

Characters can use items of any level.

Player core chapter 6.

[Justnobodyfqwl]

That rule doesn't exist at all in SF2E. You can use level 20 items at level 1 if your DM was ok with you making a mess.

[Xenocrat]

That rule didn’t exist in SF1, either. It was suggested you make it that no one would sell you items more than level +1 or +2, depending on the size of the settlement and other circumstances, due to licensing issues that fade away as you become more competent and connected. But it was only a suggestion and nothing mechanically prevents you from using any gear the GM gives you. But a party pooling wealth to buy a way over level consumable could seriously screw up a scenario, this was a tool for GMs to prevent that.

[Indi523]

Xenocrat wrote:

That rule didn’t exist in SF1, either. It was suggested you make it that no one would sell you items more than level +1 or +2, depending on the size of the settlement and other circumstances, due to licensing issues that fade away as you become more competent and connected. But it was only a suggestion and nothing mechanically prevents you from using any gear the GM gives you. But a party pooling wealth to buy a way over level consumable could seriously screw up a scenario, this was a tool for GMs to prevent that.

Interesting, for my play group the DM was very strict that you could not use any item you were not high enough level for and insisted it was how the rules worked. I guess I just went along with it.

Thanks

[Finoan]

Xenocrat wrote:

It was suggested you make it that no one would sell you items more than level +1 or +2, ... But a party pooling wealth to buy a way over level consumable could seriously screw up a scenario, this was a tool for GMs to prevent that.

That is also a suggestion (and one that GMs should pay attention to) in SF2.

Item power scales with its level. So giving a character a weapon of significantly higher item level than their character level would be very similar to giving a spellcaster the ability to cast a spell of significantly higher Rank than their maximum spell slot.

[Tim Emrick]

In practice, most treasure that the PCs come across should be at their level or lower, with an occasional item of slightly higher level.

If they are buying something (whether at character creation or during downtime) then the level cap can be used as a way to determine what is available to them. (Society play does this, with some Chronicles giving early access to a specific item featured in the adventure.)

[WatersLethe]

It's also usually completely fine to hand out treasure outside the usual bounds if you know what you're doing.