Okay the first things that are different I notice is Point Buy is now the default method. And you apply racial BEFORE you apply your point buy. You start at 10 still, get a stat mod for your background theme, and then 10 points for customization. The points trade 1 for 1 but you can't put any score above 18. You can go past 18 later but 18 is the cap for starting characters.
They do have in that section the racial and theme boosts you'd get from each so there's no need to flip back and forth, you can do all ability scores from that section which is nice. IT also has what every classes key ability scores are for easy reference. Ability scores seem to still basically judge the same stuff so Cha still seems to be the short stick.
Every 5 levels, pick 4 ability scores. If they are at 16 or lower, increase that score by 2. Otherwise, increase it by 1. You can exceed 18 this way.
Every class now effectively has a pool of effectively easily replenished temp hp and some solid hp for full on injuries. HP is determined solely by race and class, while Con and class determines your temp hp pool. They call the temp hp Stamina points as temp hp still exists and is lost before stamina.
The example given indicates the primary combatant class, the Soldier if human starts with effectively 20 hp before dropping at level 1, assuming 14 con. 11 hp and 9 stamina. At level 2 he'd have 36 as he gains 7 hp and 9 stamina. I'll compare it to average damage at level 1 when I get to weapons but first glance indicates very durable characters.
Evidently everyone has some sort of hero points. Classes can use them uniquely each, but everyone can burn one to regain all their stamina after a 10 minute rest, burn 1/4 of them to stabilize from dying, or burn 1 to regain 1 hp on your turn if you're unconscious and stable.
Oh hey alignment. Alrighty then... It's basically copy pasted out of the Core Rulebook, with some extra stuff about alignment not being a straight jacket and discussions about alignment shifts. Nothing particularly extreme, though I'm amused that they agreed that you can be LG and a bigot still, though basically say it's decided by the group ultimately and such. They also call out that alignment on monsters is the norm not the be all, unless it's like outsiders who are alignment embodiments and such.
Seems like there's only one exp track now. Multiclassing is still a thing, and now there's only one caster level, so multiclass spellcasters add their combined spellcasting levels to determine caster level. You're still limited on spells known by class level though. It also comes with a warning about spreading yourself thin which is nice. And the game has retraining built into it now via a brain rewrity device. Though a later sidebar basically says the GM can decide you don't get to retrain or don't need the device or whatever.
Theme's are the replacement for Traits. You pick it at level 1 from several types or a general themeless one if they do not fit. You get a +1 to one ability score, and a special ability at level 1, and a new ability every 6 levels. Themeless has a bunch of general always useful bonuses. The other themes are more specific, and are a bit of a mixed bag but can be quite useful.
Languages, no more specific bonus language lists. You start with Common, your race, and any languages from where you were born. You can pick any languages via high int, and get more via culture. You can spend an extra bonus point to learn that languages braille or sign language version. If for whatever reason you start blind or deaf, you get the related choice for free, ie signed for deaf.
Races are short and sweet. You've ability score's, two positive one negative, and 3-4 abilities. Vesks strike me as the Dwarves in this case as far as racial abilities with reliable benefits go, though it's nowhere near as overwhelming as before. Humans are identical to core rulebook, and remain the next best race. The Ysoki being the token small race get half to 1/3 the hp of everyone else, which strikes me as concerning, but since you only get the racial hp at level 1, it matters less after a couple levels.
Classes. Well, they now instead of saying "at level 1" in things now have a little bar that says what level x is at, so that's a nice editing change. They also now have specific symbols to indicate whether an ability is mind affecting, sense reliant or language dependent or other such modifiers which I feel is a nice way to save space.
The Envoy appears to be the Investigator without extracts and less combat boosts but more debuffs for everyone. They add a 1d6 to specific social skills, which increases over time, capping at 1d8+3. They do have a little team utility but they're definitely designed to be a face type infiltrator character. They primarily cause flatfooted for team mates with feint or something called offbalanced, or give their teammates their hero points. Or give a +1 to hit on That Guy in Particular. But overall, face skills.
The Mechanic is more like the Summoner sans spells. They've a heavy heavy focus into computers and ships, but are the experts in this field, to the point of being able to remotely control spaceships from the planets surface eventually. They can either have a Drone ally who eats up some of your actions to take theirs and has various utility and combat abilities, or you can elect to have it in your head and turn yourself into a cyborg killer. Later you can do both, dividing your level between both as you wish.
The Mystic is basically the Sorc/Oracle or Soracle if you will, for this. There is no divine/arcane distinction anymore, though. Bonus spells from ability scores are now listed in the class page, which is nice. All casting is spontaneous it seems. And it get's a super version of Project Image as a class feature at level 19. That's scary. Literally a project image that can fly, doesn't need line of sight to your body and can cast spells. It has a minor healing ability and a bunch of telepathic stuff, but most of it's abilities are in it's Connections, which are basically sorceror bloodlines. These bloodlines can be roughly broken down as: Divination and Knowledge, Emotiony Stuff, Healing (Literally what the name is), Mental Assault, Mind Control, Druid, and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCONduEJVtQ .
The Operative is the Rogue/Swashbuckler. Where the Envoy is hyper specialized into supporty moves and social randomized boosts from their inspiration thingy, the Operative just flat out get's flat +1 to all skills, capping out at +6. Their version of Sneak Attack, is they get to make a full move action then make a single attack with either a small arm or a "operative weapon." While attacking, they have to make a skill check at dc 20+enemy cr. If they succeed, they deal extra damage, and later apply various debuffs. This is also one of the classes that can make many many attacks. The Operative also has Specializations which are very similar looking to Cleric Domains, a few skills, an ability, and another at later levels. They seem really good.
The Solarion is... Weird. They're sort of like the Soulblade/Aegis combined with the Investigators combat style. They have to pick armor or melee weapons though. They may only use their combat abilities in, well, combat. Not so much an issue for the weapon user, but the armor guy has reduced armor then. He can use other abilities without them, though many only last one round. He has some attunement thing where he slowly moves over rounds towards one polarity or the other where he can do some big move at full polarity before dropping to 0 again. What's especially odd is their talents have to be balanced. If you have two or more abilities attuned to one polarity over the other, you will need more rounds to fully attune.
The Soldier is very much the Fighter. Weirdly has less iterative attacks than the Operative. Still, when it comes to hitting things good, the Soldier is quite good at it and has a lot of different methods for it depending on ones fighting style chosen. Be it flatten someone under your armor, sniping or lobbing a few dozen grenades, or slapping magic runes on their guns, they;ve got it going. They don't have too much skills but more than the old fighter.
The Technomancer is the other sorceror, though he get's the Arcane Item Bond of the Wizard essentially, just without the downsides. Much like the Arcanist they get a bunch of abilities, but unlike the arcanist they actively have to sacrifice spells to use them if they require points, or Resolve points as needed. They;re also the wielder of Metamagics, which all require resolve points to use. Huh, they have Magic Missle. Damn, that means they're the ultimate counterspellers, since counterspell is exclusively part of dispel magic now and there's no concentration.
Archetypes exist but they apply to any class that wants them. You have to go into it on the first level that it replaces an ability, so if it replaces an second level ability, that's the level you become said archetype. What is removed is standardized across all classes. IF you;re an envoy, you always lose the same things for the new abilities. Only two are in the book however, one to give yourself minor psychic ability, and the other a roguey thing.
As Skills go, everyone has 4 points, except for the mystics 6 and the operative and envoys 8. Plus Int of course. They specifically state now that you can't take 10 during combat without special abilities, and times when the GM says it's too hectic. Or when it'd be dramatic evidently. The Identifying Monster cr has changed a bit. It's now 5/10/15+ 1 and 1/2 xcr. So a Goblin would be dc 6 still, but a cr 2 creature would be dc 9, and something like a dragon of cr 15 would be something like dc 32. Identifying creatures is Life Sciences or Mysticism, except robots who are engineering. There are 20 skills total. Knowledge is gone, the knowledges are now Culture, Life Science, Physical Science, Mysticism and Profession. Craft is gone (Now part of several other skills), as is Climb and Swim (Fuzed into Athletics, which now has jump instead of acrobatics as well), Ride, Escape artist (Fuzed into Acrobatics), Fly (Acrobatics again), Heal (Is now Medicine), Linguistics (Is now Culture), Disable Device (Part of Engineering), Handle Animal (Part of Survival), Spellcraft (Now Mysticism), Perform (Part of Profession), And Use Magic Device (Sort of part of Mysticism.) Bluff, Stealth and a few others have been expanded on further.
Combat Feats are back, and still basically things that soldiers can pick up. There seems to be a bit more variety now in whats good. One that stands out is the first I saw, which basically is the Brawler's Martial Mastery thingy where they pick feats they don't have but meet prerequisites for and can use em for one minute once a day. Also, shot on the run for spellcasting, that's amusing. Antagonize is back, but it;s been completly rewritten to instead deliver a debuff until that person attacks you in some manner or the duration runs out. making a barricade or cover out of piles of stuff is a feat, something I personally think should be part of the engineering skill, but whatever I guess. Your engineering does affect it's hp after all. Power Attack is gone, Deadly Aim now does all attacks. -2 to hit for 1/2 your BAB in damage. Overall they;re not quite 5e feats but they're not ridiculously overloaded feat chains either, so it;s overall an improvement.
Equipment selling has changed. Everythings in Credits, but selling items now get's you only 10% of the items cost, though a few classes and backgrounds can get it a bit higher. Tradegoods still sell for 100%, so generally speaking selling equipments not useful. Carrying Capacity has changed too. Items have a certain amount of Bulk. You can carry an amount of bulk equal to half your strength score. This means having low strength and high dex is not a good plan if you want to be a beefy minigun toting tank with good accuracy. Going above half makes you encumbered. Going above that makes you overburdened. Generally a 10 lb object is bulk 1, less than that is light, a few ounces is negligible and doesn't count, and about bulky awkward things are possibly higher bulk. Items now have a character level for when they're generally accessible. You can generally buy an object at your level +1 at any settlement and cl+2 at a major settlement. You can use an object at any level but that's their recommended time. The level also standardizes hardness and hp of items.
Hands now have a rule, it's a swift action to change how many hands are being used with a weapon. So it's a swift to take a hand off a gun or put it back on. For those with Improved Unarmed though, you are explicitly allowed to kick now, and the feat scales up unarmed damage over time like a monk, so there's that. Weapon sizes only matter for large+ or Tiny-. Small and medium weapons are interchangeable. Enchantments no longer have +1's, they're all abilities. You can get them in straight formats or in portable interchangeble forms to swap around weapons of a specific level. The costs of the enchantments is based on item level rather than the enchantment. you can have multiple enchantments on a weapon, but the fusions combined levels cannot exceed the items level.
Armor needs to fit your size and species. You can make a check to adjust it or pay 10% of the armor's cost to have a shop do it for you. It comes in Light and Heavy, no Medium armor. Speed reductions are no longer standardized but armor specific. Armor also comes with a variety of inbuilt bonuses, like protection from various environmental effects. Even a level 1 character can last a day in a total vacuum as long as they're conscious to switch on the protections, or a nearby ally can do it for them. There are also Powered Armor, which are basically small scale mech suits. They have a battery charge, their own strength score and speed score you use instead of your own, and a dex limit. They require special proficiency feats, or to be a specific soldier style. Armor can have various upgrades, but it has a set amount of slots for them and many armor upgrades require batteries due to charge limits.
Cybernetics are a thing. You can have one cybernetics per slot and it goes on to explain physiological differences and such. There's biotech too. Obviously you can't have two of anything occupying the same slot. There's also Personal Upgrades, which are your stat enhancers. It's basically pure fluff for what does it, but you can only ever have +2 in one, +4 in another and +6 in a third. Also unlike almsot any other enhancement, you can just pay the diffrence between these and the upgrades to enhance them.
There's general tech, magic items and mixtures of the two. Magic seems generally kinda inferior but more powerful as it can't be recharged but has potent abilities. And you can only have two, total. A third magic item is non functional. Hybrid items count as magic for the amount you can have on. Looks like they cleaned up the text on the sex change potion though.
Craftings a skill check and takes no time. But it saves no money either and you can make items up to your ranks. the only real advantage to crafting is that you don't have to find a settlement to sell stuff, and it's got more hp and hardness, and you can repair it faster if it breaks. Given you can buy items +2 above your level in major settlements though, that's basically identical to the hardness boost you'd get on an item your level. Soooo, not sure if it's a great benefit.
Combats got a new rule called Significant enemy. Basically if an enemy is your level -4 in cr they don't count as an enemy for any abilities that benefit you when you do something to an enemy or they do something to you. So like a move that restores stamina to an enemy taking damage from a robot who does 1 damage in a round is not significant and thus you can't use your healing move on them, they have to use their own.
Spellcasting still provokes, but there's no concentration. Take a hit, lose the spell. There's several more versions of aid another now that can be done at range since melee is the less common combat style now it seems.
Spells now have static dice, though it has spells that scale with what slot you know them as which boosts the dice. So a spell that does 3d8 does 3d8 regardless of caster level. Caster level only affects things like duration and range in most spells, or spells that use your caster level as your bab. There's a few exceptions but for the most part caster level doesn't have a huge significance.
Dying is totally diffrent. When you hit 0 you start hemorraging Resolve Points. Can't spend anymore, you die. If you drop to 0 when already had 0, you get one round before you die. Stabilizing on your own requires a con check. roll 20+, you're at 1. Get 10-19, Still stable. get 1-9, you're dead. With extended medical care, the medic, assuming they beat dc 155, gives you +2 to the check and you don't die for less than 10.
Cover and such still works the same. the unseen rules not in the stealth area, kinda annoying. Calls out can't use displacement or Blur to stealth, only concealment that doesn't leave obvious visual stuff. That Blur is literally what camouflage does (blurs outline of yourself so you blend into your surroundings) seems to not matter.
Evidently spellcaster resting is no joke. while you don't need to sleep for it, you cannot move, talk, fight, use a skill, or anything else considered arduous or distracting. conversation costs you an hour each time it happens.
Senses are now a bit straightened up. Lowlight makes dim light not exist. Darkvision ignores all light conditions out to a range. Blind sense and blind sight now cover all other senses. Scent for example on a dog is now Blindsense (Scent). If you can somehow negate scent, blindsense doesn't work. This goes for Blindsight too. If they have Blindsight (Scent) and you negate scent, you can hide from blindsight.
Incorporeals mostly the same, except they take half damage from energy, so that means a peasent with a torch can burn ghosts to death which is an amusing thought. Shove the ghost in the furnace!
There's a new type of sense called Sense Through. This allows you to use that sense through things that would block line of effect/sight. They might be blocked by specific materials though. The Example given is a Werewolf can smell you through walls so can rolle eprceptions even if there's walls between you, but not if there's a bunch of silver in the wall. Though Energy fields block all sense Throughs, as does the usual x-ray rules for material densities.
Traps are as nasty as ever. Possibly nastier. Mindcontrol chip implanting dart launcher, and soul ripper that uploads your soul into a computer with a wipe command if improperly accessed, thus deleting your soul. Poisons are a good bit nastier as regardless of pass or fail of the save you take some straight hp damage from it. In fact, all afflictions are nastier because after a certain point they become permanent without miracle or wish. So cure em early else you're probably crippled or worse for life. Not all afflictions have an End State mind you, and some actually have way shorter state tracks than usual. Black Lotus for example, you get four saves before you're just plain dead. Meanwhile Blue Whinnis knocks you unconscious, but it cannot do so permanently. There's a sort of default track for these things.
Bubonic Plague uses this track. If you fail the initial save, you hit the latent stage. Contagious but no symptoms. If you pass two consecutive saves, that's the end of it. But if you fail one, you move to the next step, sickened and fatigued until you're cured. Spells like remove sickness/fatigue do nothing. Fail another one,
and you become exhausted and if you take a standard or full round, fort save or be nauseated for one minute. After that, you also take 1 damage if you take standard action. The steps after that are bedridden, coma, then dead. some afflictions have extra riders on certain steps or stop short. But they can be quite lethal if allowed to run their course. So make sure to bring a Mystic with all parties, cus medicine just gives you save bonuses and it's dcs are not small. As the ONLY healing class for hp, the envoy having a few for stamina, Mystic seems mandatory also for status removals. Though nothing removes poison track states but full days of rest.
So Poison is a Big Deal.
Re: Talk to Ashiel About Anything Mark II
