I've intentionally avoided interacting with anyone else's takes in order to have a completely unbiased opinion on the class, so sorry in advance if any of my thoughts have already been said a thousand times before. Anyway, just wrapped playtesting/survey submission on this thing. Participated in about 3 sessions worth of game time, both as a player and GM, covering levels 1-4. One session was an official SFS game, the other two were at-home stress tests. Didn't have the time or energy to cover high levels, sadly, but maybe I'll get lucky and squeak in one more round before the 10th.
In an unusual twist for me, I will avoid making any references or comparisons to Pathfinder 2e. Although I playtested with mixed content for funzies, I believe Starfinder 2e finally has enough meat on its bones to be judged on its own terms, and it's recently occurred to me that constantly telling the designers to just copy their big sister's homework is kind of belittling.
CHARACTERS TESTED: Android musician (SFS scenario, GM), worlanisi sports caster (home game, player), and pahtra musician (home game, hybrid GM/player solo session).
THE GOOD: Absolutely delightful concept. Spell and feat names yet again made me cackle. The niche of no-save debuffs is a unique one, and it's nice to finally have an off-turn/reactive character in the lineup (via spotlight tracking and some genuinely great reactions, like Blooper and Clear the Frame). I like classes that force me to pay attention and stay engaged when it's not my turn (in theory), and I love being a rotten little backseat puppeteer (in theory). The inclusion of hardlight manipulation was cool, as I'm a big fan of illusionists and battlefield engineers. Focus spells felt really unique, which was a pleasant surprise (and also very important for a class who stakes 75% of their identity on that particular feature). The free Performance boost is a nice treat (although I wish it scaled all the way up automatically, as that would make for a great pseudo-skill-monkey thanks to how so many feats let you sub Performance for another skill). Legendary perception and Will is always nice to see. Finally, I like the core mechanic of playing (de)buff hot potato across the entire battlefield (in theory).
THE BAD: The juice is absolutely not worth the squeeze on this one; spotlight effects are way too small for how much management they require (you have to assign/remember roles AND track your spotlight AND sometimes overtax your action economy, all for a limited-time -1 on exactly one guy). Hardlight was also dramatically underutilized for a class supposedly centered on it, and I guess that's fine as it leaves room for proper terrain manipulators and illusionists in the future, but I'm still disappointed. Worryingly, features seem to scale badly overall, with many tools and spells receiving zero automatic upgrades or heightening benefits. Finally, I know I said I liked the concept and laughed at the feats, but I'm getting a little tired of pop culture/media references. I feel like every other character concept I see for SF2 is a freakin' vtuber. Can we please log off Twitch and explore other sci-fi ideas now?
THE UGLY: The actual battlefield impact of this class is tragically low. The poor guy I GMed for in SFS might as well have not been there at all (which stinks because his player doesn't get to game with us often), and my pahtra musician struggled desperately to contribute before straight up dying in both combats I ran her in. Only my jokey worlanisi gladiator made an impact, and that was mostly because I gave him a really big sword (although Star Player is, despite having zero scaling on the temp HP, genuinely good). Both I and my SFS friend constantly lost track of where our spotlights were and how long they'd been on and what they were supposed to be doing (even though we had physical trackers IRL and Foundry VTT at home), so we wound up playing like otherwise featureless martials who sometimes slapped focus spells on themselves for passive buffs, and that felt extremely contradictory to the class fantasy of "directing" a scene. Also, God, assigning roles in advance feels like such a waste of time; I'd much prefer it if roles just happened automatically as part of spotlight activation.
THE CONFUSING: Why. Is this. A martial. Seriously, how do weapons and armor serve this class conceptually? It's not pulling off risky maneuvers or giving orders like an Envoy, it's not using bespoke spell-like powers like a Solarian, and it doesn't get to make a ton of cool meta-strikes like a Soldier or Operative. Leaning more into hardlight as a concept could potentially give it more nonmagical toys to play with, but the design team doesn't seem to want to go in that direction. But then again, would it really gain anything by being more of a caster? Its features are sadly weak enough that regular spells would easily outshine them. I feel like this class really wants to be a secret third thing--neither a caster nor a martial--but chasing that dream would require a dramatic design overhaul (one that I don't think a struggling Paizo has the time or manpower for currently), and you'd have to add enough sauce to justify cutting off access from traditional martial/spellcasting progression. So like... what are we supposed to do here?
SUGGESTED FIXES: Assuming minimal changes, I'd say drop assigning roles as a separate action, make roles a little stronger, and maybe change spotlight transfer to a reaction instead of a free action to compensate (additional reactions as part of level progression would be a must for this, though). Focus spells and other features also need an editing pass to make sure they stay competitive and worthwhile at high levels. Finally, either add more features that make being a martial thematically justified and worthwhile, or drop the martial angle and bring in proper spellcasting/some other caster-like feature.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Despite the delightful flavor and interesting new mechanics, the Luminary legitimately feels like the weakest class so far. And that is, given how bad the Technomancer playtest was and how underwhelming the Envoy still is, pretty impressive. It's a whole lot of complex battlefield management for nothing, which is genuinely tragic because I feel like I could fall in love with this class if it actually delivered on its design promises. Maybe things change at higher levels, but as a Society GM first and foremost, those high levels are entirely irrelevant to my personal play experience. On the bright side, it does have enough unique features to justify itself as a class rather than an archetype: neither Mystics not Envoys play spotlight hot potato or deal in semi-solid holographic constructs, and the Luminary's not handing out free hit points or spicy reactions. I think there's hope for it yet, but it's gonna take work.
Anyway, I'm gonna go read all the other threads now and see if I actually had any original thoughts here or just stated the obvious, lol.