Talk to Ashiel About Anything Mark II

[Zilrax]

But titanium is a very light metal. Clearly it should be gold. :3

[Lemmy]

But titanium is a very light metal. Clearly it should be gold. :3

I suppose I could have used steel or gold... But titanium is much better for the healing process for a variety of reasons.

Also, it's "dark steel" coloration is really freaking cool.

[Zilrax]

I love winning the right to lose anyways :p.

Fifth edition, got in a boss fight with a displacer, a cultist fanatic, 4 cultists and an imp at level 3, big boss fight, worth 2500 in the encounter calculator (The hardest encounter state we should face is 2000). Still, after burning basically all our resources, we manage to pull out a win.

For the unconscious imp to wake up, nat 20 a stealth check and pull out a rock an activate it, basically being the equivalent of a primed grenade with her thumb depressed on the detonator. If we kill her, Earthquake, and rocks fall everyone dies. Well maybe not us but everyone we're trying to save. If we don't surrender, she'll trigger it all the same since she'll just be reborn in hell anyways any way she dies.

Evidently some hint was dropped that can get us out of it, but it feels like at BEST a game of "guess what the Gm is thinking." I tried negotiating but the dc is 30 so not a shot in hell.

So we won the battle to lose anyways because we can't guess what the gm thinks the solution is. Surrender and try to break out later it is then I suppose.

[Tels]

I love winning the right to lose anyways :p.

Fifth edition, got in a boss fight with a displacer, a cultist fanatic, 4 cultists and an imp at level 3, big boss fight, worth 2500 in the encounter calculator (The hardest encounter state we should face is 2000). Still, after burning basically all our resources, we manage to pull out a win.

For the unconscious imp to wake up, nat 20 a stealth check and pull out a rock an activate it, basically being the equivalent of a primed grenade with her thumb depressed on the detonator. If we kill her, Earthquake, and rocks fall everyone dies. Well maybe not us but everyone we're trying to save. If we don't surrender, she'll trigger it all the same since she'll just be reborn in hell anyways any way she dies.

Evidently some hint was dropped that can get us out of it, but it feels like at BEST a game of "guess what the Gm is thinking." I tried negotiating but the dc is 30 so not a shot in hell.

So we won the battle to lose anyways because we can't guess what the gm thinks the solution is. Surrender and try to break out later it is then I suppose.

So, firstly, what kind of GM put an earthquake spell in a 3rd level fight?

Secondly, I see two options here: disarm and destroy.

Option 1) I believe, though I might be wrong, you can attempt a disarm in place of an attack roll (not just melee either, ranged works too). So you attempt to disarm the rock and then use your movement to retrieve it as you can "interact as a part of movement".

Option 2) You are still in initiative, so your party has the ability to kill the imp before he acts.

Those are two options I see as methods of resolving that situation as I wasn't there to pick up on any "hints" the GM dropped.

As an aside, I take it you guys are playing with the Nat 20 meants auto success in everything houserule? Personally, I despise that rule as it means that, essentially, there is a 5% chance of anyone succeeding at anything, just because. It also means that 5% of the time everyone fails at everything due to natural 1s.

[Zilrax]

The spells already active. The Imp is in effect the finger pressing down the big red button. It doesn't go off until it stops being depressed. So we kill the imp, the bomb goes off.

Only Fighters , specifically Battlemaster fighters, can disarm enemies in 5e core stuff. We've got a Ranger, Bard with no spells or inspiration left (Me), Dragon Sorceror, Barbarian and Light cleric with no spells left.

So neithers an option I'm afraid.

Right now we're going with surrender until we can get the hostages loose, then kill it and let the rocks fall where they may. I think. Only the sorceress has some sort of plan and I'm just guessing that's what it is but it's not been elucidated on.

[Lemmy]

I wonder if/how the situation in Zilrax' campaign was resolved...

[Zilrax]

We got captured, and they smacked the cleric unconcious and started trying to do something to the tiefling, trying to make her more devil?
I dunno, she passed the check. Eventually the barbarian got sick of doing nothing and distracted the creature and I ended up stealing the rock, and now the mines collapsing, so I'm handing it to the sorceress who hopefully can act as a new finger on the trigger. Otherwise I just buried us and the innocent people. But at least was on our terms I guess.

Turns out it was forcibly trying to bond to her as her familiar. It's sassing us about why we didn't do that sooner and we look like idiots endangering everyone and such so now we either kill it as it tries to finish binding to her or we try to exorcise the evil which seems like we're not likely to be able to do. Since according to it, all conflict benefits her anyways.

The sorceress managed to stop the self destruct for now and we cut the imp of from it's diabolic source though it's still trying to get us to kill it or take it as a familiar. I'm thinking we should tie it up, stuff it in a barrel and bury the barrel in rocks with enough air that it can't suffocate, and no way to off itself. Cus I don't see a reason to put up with this thing.

[Ashiel]

It's hard putting into words the thoughts and emotions that come to the forefront when reading about Zilrax's adventures. It usually involves a lot of eye-rolling concerning the GM, mixed with a certain admiration for the resolve of the player. I'm hoping that Zilrax and company come out on top.

[Zilrax]

The sorceress decided to take it as a familiar after all. So now we have imp which I suspect given it suddenly exploding in direction and exposition on what we should be doing is there to basically act as director about how we should be doing things and such. *shrugs*

[Ashiel]

The sorceress decided to take it as a familiar after all. So now we have imp which I suspect given it suddenly exploding in direction and exposition on what we should be doing is there to basically act as director about how we should be doing things and such. *shrugs*

Why not kill and/or banish it? It doesn't have to remain the sorcerer's familiar.

[137beth]

Keep the imp around, but ignore their advice. When they aren't present, try having the sorcerer scry on their familiar. Bam, you get insight into infernal politics and the imp's real agenda.

That is, unless you are concerned about the imp spying on you and bringing that information back to a more powerful fiend. In that case, just kill the imp.

[Zilrax]

Oh I'd like to but I;ve sorta left it to the sorceress to decide about it. As for why not do that? The fiendish forces aren't all allies, they jsut share a mutual hatred of us. We're kinda stuck between a four way conflict in the area right now.

The authority groups are blackmailed into increasingly draconian measures in order to protect the populace against the gnollish armies attacking. The gnolls we assumed were fiend aligned, are, but not with any of the local fiends so they are a wild card. There's a rebel group who are trying to overthrow the authority group and don't trust us, and happen to use a lot of mind control to do it. And there's another fiend of high power who's playing the rebels, gnolls and authority figure against each other.

And then there's us who basically were thrown in knowing only that there's fiend activity, gnolls attacking, knight being draconian and blackmailed by a fiend, and rebels who are using us to their own ends too. I can only assume the end game is to cause open warefare and then have the gnolls swoop in to clean up, or worse something else we don't know. The Imp actually was just a local small fry who the higher fiend popped in, told us she had us directed her way then popped out saying good luck.

So the Imp basically is mad and wants revenge, a chance to corrupt the sorceress if she can and I suspect is mostly there as a gmpc to drag us along the plot rather than us continuing to play Guess What The GM Is Thinking. My least favorite dnd minigame :p. Since according to the imp, we suck at everything except fighting.

An unrelated bit, I have recently encountered the bull**** that is the combination of Mindblank and Greater Invisibility on a flying creature in an open area with flyby attack and 100+ fly speed.

[Ashiel]

Off topic but, I told my dad about the HRT thing last night after we got home from Bible school. It was both harder and easier than I expected in certain ways and at different times. Overall, I think he took it well. He told me I'm going to make a really ugly woman, and then we watched three episodes of the Twilight Zone on netflix.

[Zilrax]

That... Would probably be me, in said position :p. I'd probably ask if they looked into all the stuff and such though cus well... This isn't something you wanna jump into. You did the research though so yeah, probably where I'd be. Not like I care who has what parts. Long as they aren't trying to become a living barbie. Can never unsee that.

[Ashiel]

That... Would probably be me, in said position :p. I'd probably ask if they looked into all the stuff and such though cus well... This isn't something you wanna jump into. You did the research though so yeah, probably where I'd be. Not like I care who has what parts. Long as they aren't trying to become a living barbie. Can never unsee that.

I think Gigi Gorgeous looks a bit like a Barbie, in the classicly glamorous sense. I used to play dolls with my sister. I remember where in response to criticism about Barbie's doll body figure they changed the body types of the barbies. Ironically, not only did this mean that you often had trouble getting your damn doll clothes to fit the new barbies, but the new barbies with a lot sexier than the old ones, because they had these curves and realistic looking stomachs (whereas before their stomachs were just plastic to be covered by the clothes) that looked a lot like Britney Spears in her heyday.

EDIT: I admit that I'm really hoping my dad's wrong and I don't make a hideous woman. 'Cause, well, nobody wants to be ugly.

[Zilrax]

There's a difference between naturally or using make up, and wanting to surgically remove your ribs to look more like the doll. Which is more what I was getting at :p.

And well, beauty is a bit subjective so who knows. Can't comment, never seen you. But make up matters.

[Lemmy]

I dare you'll probably be more atractive as a woman than as a man...

But then again, I'm a heterosexual male, so my opinion might be somewhat biased...

[Tels]

Have you seen the new Barbie and Ken dolls?

[Zilrax]

I look forward to hearing how these ones are problematic next.

[babyishcare]

So, since we are now on this website, how often do you read/re-read OOTS?

On an unrelated note, what are your general feelings about the scope of "skills" in RPGs? In some games (e.g., GURPS), skills encompass almost everything you can do. In other games (e.g., D&D 3.5), "skills" are ultimately a very minor thing. Do you prefer one of those approaches over the other, or something else? Or does it not matter because what counts as a skill is just a semantics thing?


Yet another unrelated question: I know almost nothing about anime. I don't know that much about American movies, either I'm more of a play person.

[goto124]

In other games (e.g., D&D 3.5), "skills" are ultimately a very minor thing.

Do spells count?

[Ashiel]

So, since we are now on this website, how often do you read/re-read OOTS?

Rarely. Love the series but it's very long (and I hope it gets longer). I'm literally years behind on it, but still frequently make references to it in everyday conversation. Especially "Pretty good actually," in accordance with the likelihood of more traps or hazards being a thing (a reference to Xykon in the early years of the comic).

On an unrelated note, what are your general feelings about the scope of "skills" in RPGs? In some games (e.g., GURPS), skills encompass almost everything you can do. In other games (e.g., D&D 3.5), "skills" are ultimately a very minor thing. Do you prefer one of those approaches over the other, or something else? Or does it not matter because what counts as a skill is just a semantics thing?

I guess it depends on your definition. By one fair definition, the Paladin being able to use lesser restoration on the party's poisoned Barbarian is exercising a form of skill he's brought to the party. Or you might specifically mean the skill system where you invest X ranks or check off a "trained =Y/N" box (depending on your system preference). If you just mean what a character can do overall (the former), it doesn't really matter. If you mean the latter, then I'd say it depends.

It depends on what the system is supposed to do and/or represent. In 3.x/PF, an individual skill point doesn't mean that much. They as much a roleplay tool as a mechanical one, and I'll frequently scatter random points in various skills for various purposes. Because they're a smaller facet of your overall character, you don't have to worry about gimping yourself and suddenly dragging your party down (A 12th level cleric with a few ranks invested in Appraise, Perform (Oratory), and Survival is still a 12th level cleric and won't be a drain on the party). Yet at the same time they can often offer a wide variety of useful perks to a character (getting a skill to certain take-10 benchmarks is very handy) that are not to be underestimated.

However, it often seems a problem when people expect their entire character to be skills. For two reasons. One, it means you're usually useless when not actively using your skills, and two, it usually means you have to have some special exceptions made for you. Rogues spring to mind, especially 3.x rogues, who typically are just pants on head bad but their shtick was "I have skills". Of course, the more diverse your party, the less that matters (for example, a party with a ranger, paladin, bard, and cleric, you've got a great spread of skills right there so there's no need for "the skill guy"). So instead, special restrictions were placed on skills so that rogues were the only ones who could do something useful with a skill (in this case disable traps).

Alternatively, some systems (like 4E) just kind of turn skills into a sort of BAB progression where you're either trained or not. This makes it more akin to the rest of the system but breaks away from any variance between individuals since there's no such thing as not being as practiced in a skill someone else. It's just binary + additional modifiers. So skills mean something different in these systems, and typically are much more limited in their scope as a result.

I feel like I'm rambling or missing the point of the question but bear with me, I've been at work for 14+ hours today.

Yet another unrelated question: I know almost nothing about anime. I don't know that much about American movies, either I'm more of a play person.

I think I missed the question. Are you asking me to explain anime, or make suggestions of anime I'd recommend watching; or something else?

[Ashiel]

I've got a fun little diversion for anyone who feels like playing along.

Free Encounters to Good Home

[Tels]

This channel made some punch activated flamethrowers for an Avatar feel.

[137beth]

I've got a fun little diversion for anyone who feels like playing along.

Free Encounters to Good Home

I'll check it out when I'm a bit less busy....

[Ashiel]

This channel made some punch activated flamethrowers for an Avatar feel.

Omg, where do I order?

[Tels]

Omg, where do I order?

You can't, but if you click a link in the description, they posted directions on how to build them for yourself.

[Zilrax]

(Thank god for this forum having Undo because my mouse freaked out and highlighted my whole text as I was writing and this took a couple hours.)

So I have Starfinder now, so probably give a few thoughts here on this thing. It's only slightly smaller than the pathfinder core rulebook so it's going to take me a bit to get everything. So far they've mostly been explaining terms and such which is fine by me. Character creation, all seems about right, hm hm...

Spoiler: Long Stuff

Show

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.

I'll go through rest another day, this took hours. But yeah. Definitely some interesting, though it needs some playtesting before I'm too up in arms about anything.

[Tels]

(Thank god for this forum having Undo because my mouse freaked out and highlighted my whole text as I was writing and this took a couple hours.)

So I have Starfinder now, so probably give a few thoughts here on this thing. It's only slightly smaller than the pathfinder core rulebook so it's going to take me a bit to get everything. So far they've mostly been explaining terms and such which is fine by me. Character creation, all seems about right, hm hm...

Spoiler: Long Stuff

Show

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.

I'll go through rest another day, this took hours. But yeah. Definitely some interesting, though it needs some playtesting before I'm too up in arms about anything.

So, my initial reading says this sounds interesting, but also kind of "dumbed down" like 5E; which is good for attracting new players, but not so good for the longevity of the game. Also, I spy two house rules right away; selling item prices and magic item limit.

[Zilrax]

I made one mistake in there. Readied Actions now happen AFTER the action that triggered so magic missle doesn;t counterspell anymore.
That said, there's only two BaB, +15 and +20, so the mages can shoot you in the face with a gun as good as many other classes.

Dumbed down, eh I dunno about that. They certainly stripped a lot of the more extreme abilities mages have. Though wish and miracle still exist. And they;ve certainly managed to make classes that interest me, except the Envoy. Skillwise it;s fine, but it;s combat thing is mostly support via debuffs but the debuffs it gives aren;t that great. Flatfooted only gives -2 ac and can;t make aoos. Unbalanced is -2 to attack rolls. That's about it.

I wouldn;t say anything BUT spellcasters have been dumbed down much. Most of the combat classes are roughly equivalent and unlike 5e casters can do something other than spam a 0 level since they;re about as good at shooting as the other classes. Keep in mind a lot of the stuff gone can be replicated with tech too. who needs fireball when there's rocket launchers and grenades?

I wish medical was a bit stronger still, but I haven;t seen anything massively glaring and it;s not nearly as dumbed down as 5e at least that I;ve seen. No bounded accuracy, though accuracy boosts aren;t super common.