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2017-11-14, 03:52 PM (ISO 8601)
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[Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
Welcome back, folks. You may have caught the news that DSP has been working on a Starfinder-compatible psionics supplement. We're pleased to announce the beginning of the playtest for the Psionics Guide with the first part, Signal Confirmed.
This initial release includes the information needed to play our psionic races (as well as how they have fared in the far future), the aegis class, our soulknife archetype for any Starfinder class, and a scattering of psionic feats. As always, questions, comments, discussion, feedback, and criticisms are welcome and appreciated.
Edit: Now including Part Two, Encryption Decoded, which debuts the specialist class, further psionic feats, and the psionic powers relevant to the specialist class, as well as the mechanical systems needed for manifesting powers.
Now including three brand-new ThemesLast edited by Lord_Gareth; 2018-03-22 at 03:22 AM.
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2017-11-14, 04:19 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
First little bug I noticed; the Improved Damage Astral Suit customization makes no mention of heavy weapons. even if you take a heavy weapon, does this mean that the customization doesn't allow you to affect said heavy weapon? Does it qualify as a longarm for damage? Clarification required.
That said, I'm loving this. I was a big fan of the Aegis in Pathfinder, and with Starfinder coming out and me being a nerd for critters like Zerg and Tyranids, this should give me a nice option to refluff the Aegis suit as living armor. Definitely looking forward to seeing what I can do with that.Last edited by Halae; 2017-11-14 at 04:20 PM.
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2017-11-14, 05:52 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
Alright! Time to get my Mass Effect on. Just as soon as I can convince people to try Starfinder lol
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2017-11-14, 06:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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2017-11-14, 06:09 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
Soulknife seems good, but isn't quite right on the mindblade feat: Mindblade mentions you can take weapon focus mind blade instead of with a specific weapon. Weapon focus et al apply to weapon classes in SF, not individual weapons.
Also, it'd be neat to see some shiniest for a soulknife Solarion!Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-męnu!
My Homebrew:Spoiler
The Clanhold Warden - Dwarf Racial Archetype for Dreamscarred Press' Warder
Glorious Thunder - The God's own wrath as a Paladin's ranged option.
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2017-11-14, 06:42 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
Page 14:
Infiltrator: Elans do not take penalties to skill checks for not being native to an area.
I couldn't find what this is refering to. Are there penalties like this in Starfinder? Not even recall knowledge checks seems to have something related.
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2017-11-15, 01:27 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
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2017-11-15, 01:54 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
I don't know much about Starfinder, but I can at least help with some minor errors:
"Ruled over by ogliarchs at the center of cult-like followings,"
I think you mean oligarchs?My Homebrew Material, mostly focusing on Dreamscarred Press's Path of War and psionics material!
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2017-11-15, 01:58 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
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2017-11-15, 02:03 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
It's interesting that the mind blade stuff is "choose a weapon, the mind blade acts like that weapon except for damage",rather than the PF version's "here're your standard mindblade forms, you can add properties with a feat, or you can spend a feat to emulate another weapon".
Is there a particular reason for that?Last edited by MilleniaAntares; 2017-11-15 at 02:05 AM.
My Homebrew Material, mostly focusing on Dreamscarred Press's Path of War and psionics material!
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2017-11-15, 03:04 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
Just gave it a quick skim but the Aegis doesn't seem to have a power armor option.
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2017-11-15, 04:22 AM (ISO 8601)
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2017-11-15, 10:01 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
Just an editing consideration, in the SF core rulebook, the races ability scores bonuses are displayed in the traditional order: str > dex > con > int > wis >cha (except for damaya lashunta), making it easier to compare them. In this document, they are quite random.
Page 8:
Dromites are excellent members of any team. The bonus provided by a dromites aid another and covering fire actions is improved by 1.
Why not Harrying Fire also?
Page 11:
Whenever the duergar would fail a saving throw or skill check, they can reroll it as a free action. The results of the second roll stand. Whether they succeed or fail, the duergar becomes shaken for 1 minute after rerolling a saving throw or skill check in this fashion, and cannot use this ability again until they take a 10 minute rest to recover Stamina Points.
A free save reroll for every encounter seems a bit too much, even if you remain shaken for the rest of combat. But the skill check reroll kinda breaks it – a skill monkey duergar could get really annoying, using this for every skill check he fails outside of combat, and making the party wait 10 minutes while he recovers before trying again.
Unless you can only reuse this ability if you spend resolve points to recover stamina? So a duergar who didn't suffer any damage can't use it again? That would be peculiar.
The closest thing to this is the Shirren communalism, but much simpler (once per day, ally within 10 feet, attack or skill check reroll, better result, no penalties) to manage.
Page 14:
When an elan takes damage, they can spend power points to reduce its severity. As a reaction, they can reduce the damage they are about to take by 2 hit points for every 1 power point they spend.
So this one can't be used to avoid damage to stamina points? Just to be clear.
Page 19:
Half-giants receive a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against all fire spells and effects
You could include the Burning condition caused by weapons in this one, much more common than anything with the [fire] descriptor.
More to come, I believe, still going slowly over the stats blocks for races.
Something that just came to mind: is there anything planned for starship combat? Maybe a brand new psionic-themed role to act in the gunnery phase, to debuff enemies or try to cause direct damage, making the bloody thing go faster. I wouldn't mind installing in my ships a psionic crystal energy-focusing thingie to turn psionic talent into damage.
I believe Star Trek had some sort of telepathic character, and Star Wars also played with the idea of force users scanning ships for each other (I think the cartoons or video games also have Jedi striking directly against the ships with their telekinesis).Last edited by TheRagi; 2017-11-15 at 10:08 AM.
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2017-11-15, 12:18 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
You know, this is the first thing I said to a friend when I asked about the Aegis. "Does it have a power armor option?"
The answer was basically that there isn't, but that it's not a huge issue because the aegis suit can supply strength (and constitution) enhancements otherwise. I'm not sure I agree with that logic, as it feels like there's room for an aegis suit that makes you physically larger and increases your reach for when you're playing a melee Aegis. Melee is already not great, but having that option would allow for something extra to the concept.
Is it truly necessary? Probably not, but it feels like the "armor user" class missing a power armor option is a bit off. That's just my take on it, though.If You need me to post somewhere, drop me a message, please
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2017-11-15, 12:23 PM (ISO 8601)
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2017-11-15, 12:26 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
The thing is, the actual power armor rules don't fit in well with Aegis; they're built on assumptions like power cells & ability score replacement (not enhancement) that are not a great fit with the idea of summoning a suit. Doing a mode where you create your own power armor would end up weirdly better than all other power armors while also being mechanically inferior to not using power armor (because it replaces your ability scores and a melee concept will have higher native physicals than the armor grants).
TL;DR simulating power armor through customizations and chassis choice fits the Aegis's paradigm better and doesn't involve rewriting the power armor rules.
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2017-11-15, 05:34 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
I must say, I'm a little bit disappointed at the race selection. A vast universe to explore and the player races presented are entirely the same ones that they've always been, plus one new (previously published but recent) selection. I would have hoped to see some new (and, more importantly, alien) races for this book in a similar manner to how races were presented in the SFCRB.
There was something here and in the avatar box, and there will eventually be again. I just need to figure out what I want...
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2017-11-15, 05:55 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
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2017-11-15, 06:19 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
If they went with SFCRB's style, rule conversions and basic fluff would have still happened, it's just that a full race spread would have had new races for most of the options. Alas, it's too late to do anything about this since it's all been written.
Edit (Avoiding double posts):
Typos
In Psionic Meditation, full-round action should be full action.
Critique
I'm not sure if this is an intentional design decision or not, but there are a significant number of free action abilities throughout this playtest (over 30 by my count, including different uses of single abilities), even more than there are swift actions abilities in the same playtest and significantly more than there are free action abilities in the SFCRB (of which I think there might be one or two at most).
Because of this, I would like to take a moment to note that the action types have been shifted around significantly, and most things that were a free action should instead be a swift action under Starfinder rules. In particular, the SFCRB notes that only things that need to be able to be used an unlimited amount of times should be free actions; I don't think the reason is gone into here, but I think it's so that players are forced to make more choices between their different abilities. If this has not already been brought to the designers' attentions, I would ask you all to look over the free action abilities and make changes as appropriate.
Additionally, the Duergar ability Trust Your Fear feels like it should be a reaction when comparing it to other, similar abilities like the Elan's Resilience and Resistance abilities.Last edited by Ilorin Lorati; 2017-11-15 at 07:39 PM.
There was something here and in the avatar box, and there will eventually be again. I just need to figure out what I want...
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2017-11-15, 08:58 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
Untold generations of conspiracy and secrecy will justify some strong distaste among the Elan for the ease of information tracking in a digital space age, but there's one note in the CRB you should consider. It doesn't mention how common it is, but it's very clear when it talks about vital statistics such as age; medical treatments and life extension can allow basically anyone to become "nearly immortal," so I don't think an Elan would need to take extra steps just to hide their longevity. Some might anyway, but it doesn't seem strictly necessary.
Jumping ahead a bit, let's talk mindblades. They need work. A smooth dice per level scaling is nice on the surface, but does not mesh with how Starfinder weapons progress. Basic kinetic mindblades are okay early on and edge slightly ahead since they get their second die two levels earlier, but dueling swords match them at 11, pass them at 15 by three dice, and end 5 dice ahead. It's a decent low to mid level Operative weapon, but loses to daggers at 14 by 1 point and is behind by 3d6 at level 20. Pistols match at 10, pass at 13 by 1 die, and the switch to gyrojets ends with 5d12 at 20 instead of 5d6. Energy pistols come out ahead the moment their second level is available. Soulknife delays but does not completely close these gaps.
I don't know of any energy-based basic melee weapons to compare to, but you'll still fall behind pretty substantially later.
Improved Mindblade is overpowered early on and then falls behind. 2d6 kinetic at level 2 is stronger than all your other options. By the time other weapons get their second die at level 6 or 7, the Mindblade deals 4d6 damage. Energy weapons losing a die doesn't matter yet because you're still ahead of everything. Kinetic melee doesn't fall behind until level 14 or so, when longswords pass them by 3.5 damage. 13.5 at 17, 10 at 18 since you get that extra die, and then 24.5 damage at level 20. A Soulknife's d8s again delay this, but their level 20 49.5 damage does not keep up with the longsword's 63 average damage. You start extremely strong, but eventually fall very far behind.
Ranged kinetic mindblades keep pace with longarms until level 20, when 11d6 at 60 ft really isn't impressive compared to 12d8 at 100. Soulknife is better here, but still slightly behind despite a long career of being better except for range.
An energy longarm will stay ahead of laser rifles until level 17, pulls ahead again the level after, and then is one die behind at 20. A Soulknife's d8s don't fall behind and outperform artillery lasers too, though by an increasingly narrow margin. Soulknife or not, you lose range - laser weapons start at twice the mindblade's range with 120 feet, and work their way up to 150. Energy based melee is strictly superior to normal weapons until the flame doshko gets 10d8 at level 19, and a Soulknife still comes out ahead even then.
Unwieldy melee is powerful early on but loses momentum quickly - giving up your full attack for an extra 3.5 or 4.5 damage is a valid choice at low levels, but not really worthwhile at higher levels. It's unclear to me if an energy based AoE mindblade will lose 1 or 2 dice, but you'll be competitive with normal AoE weapons either way - or substantially ahead at earlier levels.
tl;dr, basic mindblade starts okay and ends up weak. Improved mindblade starts overpowered and ranges from reasonable to pathetic at high levels. A scaling rate of x dice per y levels will not play nice with Starfinder's scaling, so you're going to have to figure it out the hard way. Maybe take a look at the Solarian's solar weapon progression if you want a comparison. Relatedly, I hope to see some explicitly compatibility between them at some point.
Keeping on that topic, you're automatically proficient with your mindblade. Do you automatically gain specialization as well, or do you potentially need to pick that up with another feat?
I'll have to look at the rest later, but I think that's enough for one post anyway.
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2017-11-15, 09:07 PM (ISO 8601)
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2017-11-15, 09:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
Well, isn't this interesting. I was wondering how you were going to handle the Aegis and Soulknife in particular.
I'm curious as to why the Chassis system was implemented and why it cannot be changed with the Astral Suit. Is the intent to keep the aegis' versatility under wraps? Also, I would frankly love to see some of the options for the Starfinder Aegis made available to the Pathfinder Aegis in some way.
Also, several customizations mention a customization called "augmented weapon", although no such cusomization exists.
Personally, I think it would be a good idea to add a customization or chassis that lets you treat your astral suit as power armor for the purpose of determining what upgrades it can get. I had an Aegis in one of my Starfinder games and this was how I handled it.Last edited by Thealtruistorc; 2017-11-15 at 09:50 PM.
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2017-11-15, 09:35 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
You are partially correct. While our goal was to somewhat limit the nigh-infinite options, we wanted to do so in a way that didn't feel restrictive to a chosen build direction. Being able to shuffle the customizations, modes, and suit types should allow some much of the classic Aegis on-the-fly feel, while always having your core concept (your chassis) to fall back on for functionality (plus, it just felt cool).
We have no current plans to backwards port anything at this time, but if that changes, rest assured that its playtest will come through these parts.Author of Psionics Augmented: Seventh Path, Host of Heroes
Contributing Author of Psionics Augmented: Mind and Soul
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2017-11-15, 09:54 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
That was my thought process on leaving off Bladeskills when I wrote Soulknife. Originally, the archetype was predicated on trading freely at given levels for bladeskills off a list, only automatically giving Focused Offense and Improved Mind Blade. That proved to have two major issues. First, it was impossible to future-proof for possible coming classes in further releases. Second and more immediately, it felt highly overwhelming to just tack three extra layers of choices to another class, no matter how cool the outcome would be.
Thank you as well to Jupiter, I'd been getting feedback that the damage was off but yours was by far the most thorough and convincing. The feats were balanced with Long Arms in mind, but I see that was not the right path to take with it. I will be revisiting the scaling, most likely leaving behind a smooth formula to put together a few charts for damage.Avatar by Elder Tsofu
Originally Posted by Forrestfire
PsyBomb's Guides to the Akashic Mysteries (Now with all three classes!)
Fear Itself: the Dread
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2017-11-16, 12:02 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
The augmented weapon customization seems to be missing.
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2017-11-16, 12:36 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
Author of Psionics Augmented: Seventh Path, Host of Heroes
Contributing Author of Psionics Augmented: Mind and Soul
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2017-11-16, 03:46 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
On this, I'd expect the atstreidi to be affected the most by living in a high-tech setting, since they could potentially inhabit vehicles (maybe with some of the largest even becoming "living starships").
It would also be interesting if some race happened to be really good at moving in zero-g conditions and it just never came up in PF.
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2017-11-16, 04:46 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
Still on page 19:
Half-giants count as having 2 additional strength when [...] determining penalties for using heavy weapons.
This is weirdly phrased - should be "when determining appropriate minimum Strength to avoid penalties when using heavy weapons" or something similar - the way it's now, it seems like there's always a penalty.
Add +1 your attack rolls and KAC involving bull rush, disarm, grapple, reposition, sunder, and trip actions.
Missing a "to" after the +1. This means the half-giant gains a bonus to make and resist these combat maneuvers? Maybe "Add +1 to your attack roll when you attempt a bull rush, disarm, grapple, reposition, sunder, or trip. Also add a +1 to your KAC when you are the target of one of such combat maneuvers."
Overwhelming Force: Whenever a half giant damages a creature they can tap into their inner psionic might as a free action, hammering the foe with pure power. When using this ability you may knock the target back 5 feet, plus 5 additional feet per 5 character levels the half-giant possesses. If an obstacle is in the way, the target stops at the obstacle instead. A half-giant can’t use this ability again until they have taken a 10-minute rest to recover Stamina Points.
As it is, this allows me to attack, make a free "standing still" bull rush and use an attack of opportunity as the opponent is moved back in the same breath. You gotta give the opponent a Fortitude save to resist, at least, and probably also add a "Creatures moved by this ability do not provoke attacks of opportunity from this movement" like the solarian power. Or tossing foes in the middle of a group of allies will become a staple of parties with a half-giant in them.
Also something to consider on free actions, from the conversion chapter of the SFCRB:
"Free Actions: Most abilities that require a free action in the Pathfinder RPG instead require a swift action in this game system."
It also states that “For any Pathfinder action that needs to be used an unlimited number of times, treat it as a free action”. So not quite sure if this power fits as a free action, since it has a once per encounter limit. And it seems that no race has any “free action” abilities in the core rulebook – you might prefer to stick closer to the standards. Or not – there's probably a mechanical reason for this change, but it doesn't seem that obvious.
To close this entry, a similar question on recharging this ability as I had with the Duergar - do you need to spend resolve and recover stamina, or just the 10 minute break is enough to regain?
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2017-11-16, 05:09 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
I can't go into any real analysis right now, but I do have a couple questions about the Aegis.
First, what's the item level of an Astral Suit? The Astral Armor and Juggernaut are actual suits of armor, so they should be able to provide environmental protections. But there's no mention of item level, which means they don't actually have a duration. Or anything else derived from item level, like hardness or HP and the like.
Second, how does Craftsman actually work? Is it supposed to give you virtual ranks, and thus let you craft higher level items earlier if you can afford to? Because crafting doesn't care about your total Engineering or Mysticism modifier anymore, and there isn't an actual check. If it's supposed to be early access with virtual ranks, I'm not actually sure how useful that is. On one hand, it might end up being too powerful, since you can get a pretty impressive boost to your effective ranks. On the other hand, you still have to pay for the thing, and that's going to be downright painful with a larger level gap. And a bonus to crafting also won't help you repair anything, since that's a separate function for those skills. Not sure if that's intentional here, but worth noting.
Third, what's the design goal behind Brawn, Hardy, and Nimble? Do they stack with Personal Upgrades, or are they meant to be a more limited alternative to them?
Finally, not actually a question. Astral Repair might be better if it said "non-magical" instead of "mundane," but I'm pretty sure I know what you mean there anyway. I'm also a little leery of it being an uncapped at-will, but its limited enough that it probably isn't a problem? I honestly don't know how to judge that. Still, you can't just hold hands with a Mechanic's Drone for five minutes to patch it back up, so the most important sort of abuse has already been excluded.
I've seen a couple things that look pretty suspect at a glance, but I'll hold off on those until I can break them down a bit more.
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2017-11-16, 06:07 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: [Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest
This one is one that I had framed in my head, but had never actually made it to paper. In all cases, the item level of an astral suit equals the aegis level of its creator.
Second, how does Craftsman actually work? Is it supposed to give you virtual ranks, and thus let you craft higher level items earlier if you can afford to? Because crafting doesn't care about your total Engineering or Mysticism modifier anymore, and there isn't an actual check. If it's supposed to be early access with virtual ranks, I'm not actually sure how useful that is. On one hand, it might end up being too powerful, since you can get a pretty impressive boost to your effective ranks. On the other hand, you still have to pay for the thing, and that's going to be downright painful with a larger level gap. And a bonus to crafting also won't help you repair anything, since that's a separate function for those skills. Not sure if that's intentional here, but worth noting.
Third, what's the design goal behind Brawn, Hardy, and Nimble? Do they stack with Personal Upgrades, or are they meant to be a more limited alternative to them?
As for the design goal - I wanted to both reflect in some of the more quintessential customizations from Pathfinder, as well as display the ways that an astral suit can help enhance the basic aspects of the physical form.
Finally, not actually a question. Astral Repair might be better if it said "non-magical" instead of "mundane," but I'm pretty sure I know what you mean there anyway. I'm also a little leery of it being an uncapped at-will, but its limited enough that it probably isn't a problem? I honestly don't know how to judge that. Still, you can't just hold hands with a Mechanic's Drone for five minutes to patch it back up, so the most important sort of abuse has already been excluded.
As for the non-magical thing, I actually prefer your wording. I've gone ahead and switched it out.
Thanks for the in-depth review, looking forward to more!Author of Psionics Augmented: Seventh Path, Host of Heroes
Contributing Author of Psionics Augmented: Mind and Soul