[Starfinder] Dreamscarred Press Announces: the Psionics Guide Playtest

[Kaidinah]

The races have been updated with a few changes. Hopefully you will all find them more fairly balanced now. Thank you TheRagi in particular for your detailed analysis.
Changelog:

• Duergar racial Trust Your Fear is now a reaction instead of free action.
• Elan racial Infiltrator has been changed to the following “Elans do not increase the DC of Disguise checks made to disguise themselves as members of another race of the same type. They still suffer the usual DC increase to Disguise checks made to disguise themselves as a creature of a different size category.”
• The following has been added to Atstreidi’s Assimilate Armor: “For all intents and purposes, an atstreidi’s armor shell is their body. It cannot be targeted individually or sundered.”
• The Half-Giant ability Overwhelming Force now costs a reaction, psionic focus and specifically does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
• The Half-Giant ability Heat Acclimated also applies to the burning condition now.
• Dromite’s teamwork ability now applies to Harrying Fire.
• Maenad outburst no longer grants +1 damage. It now allows the Maenad to reroll 1s on damage rolls.
• There have been a variety of grammar corrections

[Air0r]

Not sure if this has been addressed yet, but Noral's Symbiotic Surge seems to indicate a temporary buff, but instead provides a permanent benefit. what is the intent on that?

[Lord_Gareth]

Not sure if this has been addressed yet, but Noral's Symbiotic Surge seems to indicate a temporary buff, but instead provides a permanent benefit. what is the intent on that?

They permanently have an extra point of Resolve, which represents the extra reserves they can tap from their symbiote.

[birbthulhu]

Based on the low values and the slower scaling, we don't currently feel there are any significant math issues with these customizations at this time, even though they _do_ stack with Personal Upgrades.
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.

I do have some understanding of how central these customizations are in Pathfinder, where getting that enhancement bonus is a vital part of your character's progression. And in principle, I'm leery of breaking the functional hardcap of 28 for ability scores but not completely opposed to it. As it stands, though, the Aegis has much more going for it than just that, and the extra accuracy that +2 or +4 provides just pushes it even further.

Unless I've very critically misread several things, the Aegis is currently the most accurate and damaging melee combatant in the game with just Brawn and Improved Damage. It holds that title at range as well until about level 13, and still puts in a very strong showing to compete for it. This is without accounting for the bonuses the modes give, or the extra damage that I've seen skimming over the Chassis options.

Compare to the Soldier. Full BAB, most of the same proficiencies, similar role as a dedicated combatant. In melee, the Soldier gets no unique accuracy bonuses, and unless you're a level 17+ Blitz Soldier gets only Melee Striker for extra damage for most weapons. The Aegis gets +1 to +2 attack from Brawn. For damage, it gets an extra +1 or +2 from Brawn, plus Improved Damage. Let's compare Improved Damage to the bonus a Soldier with maximum achievable strength per level gets from Melee Striker; since we're assuming dedicated melee fighters, they're both using advanced melee weapons to determine Improved Damage's bonus. They're both proficient, and the weapons are clearly stronger, so there's no reason not to for the baseline.

Spoiler: It's not in the Soldier's favor.

Show

Level	Melee Striker	Improved Damage
2	N/A	+2
3	+2	+4
4	+2	+4
5	+2	+4
6	+2	+6
7	+3	+6
8	+3	+6
9	+3	+8
10	+3	+8
11	+3	+8
12	+3	+10
13	+3	+10
14	+4	+10
15	+4	+12
16	+4	+12
17	+4	+12
18	+4	+14
19	+4	+14
20	+4	+14

That's concerning.

The melee Aegis can be more accurate or damaging at level 2 than the Soldier. At level 4, the Aegis does not have to choose. Several levels later, the Aegis is not even sacrificing that much utility space for its customizations to have both.

At range, Soldiers get +1 attack if and only if they use Laser weapons. They get +1-6 damage with kinetic weapons, and Sharpshooters get +2d6 for every shot against the first target in a full attack once they reach level 13. The Aegis gets the exact same bonuses to accuracy and damage at range as it does in melee. The Soldier does have a slight edge with access to heavy weapons, so I'll include the advantage a reaction cannon has over equivalent projectile rifles this time.

Spoiler: Still lopsided.

Show

Level	Bullet Barrage + Focused Damage	Heavy Weapon Advantage	Improved Damage
2	-	1	+2
3	+2	1	+4
4	+2	1	+4
5	+2	1	+4
6	+2	1	+6
7	+2	2	+6
8	+3	2	+6
9	+3	2	+8
10	+3	3	+8
11	+3	3	+8
12	+4	3	+10
13	+11	3	+10
14	+11	6	+10
15	+11	6	+12
16	+12	6	+12
17	+12	3.5	+12
18	+12	3.5	+14
19	+12	3.5	+14
20	+13	12	+14

That's also concerning.

The Aegis again has higher accuracy, and has higher damage until level 11. Even then, the Soldier's damage is limited to a single target when making a full attack; in all other situations, they lose 7 damage and fall behind the Aegis again until they get to level 20 weapons. And this is assuming they use a specific weapon - the reaction cannon - to maximize their raw damage. The reaction cannon is very impressive, but far from perfect.

The Aegis has overall better accuracy and damage than the Soldier and by extension everyone else, and they also have greater mobility than the Soldier. They also have more money since they can ignore buying armor or mobility enhancements like jetpacks. And again, this is not even considering everything the class grants you; I still haven't really looked at the modes, and just skimming over the Chassis options I'm seeing even more ways to boost damage.

Perhaps these numbers would be more consistent with the rest of the system in Pathfinder? Because it feels like you may be trying to take numbers that would work there and use them here instead, and it isn't quite working out nicely. Of course, that's the entire point of showing things this early on. You've got good ideas, but I don't think you're quite working in sync with Starfinder yet. Still, I'll be very happy when the Aegis gets there.

[PsyBomb]

@Jupiter

Thank you, seriously. Catches like this are why we beta. At this point, we believe they warrant killing Improved Damage. It seems to be the primary culprit here. Going forward, we will also be keeping a very close eye on the three stat-boost customizations as well.

I will be going back and doing more thorough benchmarking as well.

[Ilorin Lorati]

I didn't see anything responding to this, even a "we think this is fine," so I wanted to make sure it's seen. Essentially, I think there's far too many free action abilities in the playtest when Starfinder at base has gone out of its way to reduce the number of swift actions, slow down combat, and open up more than full attacking.

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.

[Lord_Gareth]

I didn't see anything responding to this, even a "we think this is fine," so I wanted to make sure it's seen. Essentially, I think there's far too many free action abilities in the playtest when Starfinder at base has gone out of its way to reduce the number of swift actions, slow down combat, and open up more than full attacking.

We did alter a few of the racial abilities. Sorry we didn't address you directly, we kinda got caught up in doing that part, but - we've heard you here and are re-examining the ability costs both here and in the upcoming classes. However, some of these abilities (admittedly moreso in later material that's upcoming) are free actions with heavy non-action costs because they're meant to be activated as riders, such as to enhance an attack or alter your movement. Those costs might include psionic focus, Resolve Points, power points, or combinations of the above. Something to keep in mind as we move through.

You can expect tweaks to aegis Soon(tm), once we've had the chance to peel back through it in response to the total feedback to date.

[Ilorin Lorati]

There's no need to apologize, I just wanted to make sure what I noticed was seen. It's good to hear that it's being looked into, and look forward to seeing the changes. It's a new system to all of us so iteration and tweaking mechanics is certainly warranted. I will also make a note to keep what you're saying in mind in the future.

[TheRagi]

Pg 21
Sonic Affinity: Maenads add a +1 to the DC of any spell or power with the sonic descriptor and an additional +1 damage with any weapon that deals sonic damage.

There’s only one spell with the sonic descriptor, and it has no saving throw - it’s nice to place it here since more are probably on the way in the next years, but right now is a little amusing. And I might be overlooking something, but I couldn’t find a sonic ability that would benefit from this - unless there are a lot of sonic psionic powers on the way.

The +1 sonic damage is nice, but other than a level 2 advanced melee gauntlet, sonic weapons only really start to be available after level 4. That’s a long way to wait for a racial bonus.

[birbthulhu]

You're quite welcome, Psybomb. I'm very interested in seeing the Aegis, Mindblade, and Soulknife in a more balanced state, and crunching the numbers is an important part of helping that happen. Speaking of which, I've done some more crunching for you; today it's about the armor itself.

First, the Astral Armor. With Nimble available, let's look at how your maximum achievable dexterity modifier compares to its max dex bonus.

Spoiler: Astral Armor Dex vs. Max Dex

Show

Level	Dex Mod	Max Dex
1	4	4
2	5	5
3	6	5
4	6	6
5	6	6
6	6	7
7	7	7
8	7	8
9	7	8
10	9	9
11	9	9
12	9	10
13	9	10
14	10	11
15	10	11
16	10	12
17	10	12
18	10	13
19	10	13
20	11	14

At level 12, your maximum dex bonus in astral armor is higher than your maximum achievable dex modifier, and increases faster than you can boost your dex. I'm not worried about it since it's not a problem as such, but it is a little weird. Anyway, figuring that out actually was important because it let me look at your maximum achievable AC from armor and dex, and to compare that to the best you can get out of normal light armor with the same constraints. So it's purely armor AC + max achievable dex.

Spoiler: Astral Armor AC Bonus vs. Light Armor

Show

Level	Astral Armor AC	Light Armor EAC	Light Armor KAC
1	5	5	6
2	7	6	7
3	8	7	8
4	10	9	9
5	11	10	11
6	12	12	13
7	14	13	14
8	15	15	16
9	16	17	18
10	19	18	19
11	20	18	20
12	21	21	21
13	22	22	23
14	24	23	24
15	25	25	26
16	26	26	27
17	27	27	28
18	28	28	29
19	29	29	30
20	31	30	31

On the whole, Astral Armor tends to have slightly better EAC and slightly worse KAC than the best comparable light armor values, though if you look carefully those are not usually both true at the same level. I think this is probably reasonable on its own. So, Astral Armor is fine thus far.

Now, the Astral Juggernaut. Again, let's start with achievable dex vs. max dex bonus.

Spoiler: Astral Juggernaut Dex vs. Max Dex

Show

Level	Dex Mod	Max Dex
1	4	2
2	5	3
3	6	3
4	6	4
5	6	4
6	6	5
7	7	5
8	7	6
9	7	6
10	9	7
11	9	7
12	9	8
13	9	8
14	10	9
15	10	9
16	10	10
17	10	10
18	10	11
19	10	11
20	11	12

I'm a little concerned at this point, because the max dex bonus is scaling extremely fast for heavy armor. Starfinder heavy armor starts at +2, improves to +3 consistently at around level 6, +4 around level 12, and +5 at 18. It never goes beyond +5 innately. The Juggernaut starts at +2, immediately rises to +3, and then keeps going every other level. It takes longer than Astral Armor, but it ends up outpacing your ability to boost your dexterity at the end too. That doesn't feel right for heavy armor. Still, let's see what the actual AC bonuses look like.

Spoiler: Astral Juggernaut AC Bonus vs. Heavy Armor

Show

Level	Astral Juggernaut AC	Heavy Armor EAC	Heavy Armor KAC
1	6	4	6
2	8	6	8
3	9	7	9
4	11	8	10
5	12	10	12
6	14	12	14
7	15	13	15
8	17	15	17
9	18	17	19
10	20	17	20
11	21	20	22
12	23	21	22
13	24	22	24
14	26	23	25
15	27	25	26
16	29	26	30
17	30	26	30
18	31	28	30
19	32	30	31
20	34	31	32

That's a bit concerning. If you have enough dexterity, the Juggernaut will always have better EAC than equal level heavy armor by an average of 2.3 points. There's not a strong trade-off here either, as the KAC is usually comparable and only lags behind at two levels while actually getting ahead at a few more. Still, there is one other thing to check, which is how it compares to a Guard Soldier with Armored Advantage; except for possibly a dex based Solar Armor Solarian, I believe that's the highest you can get purely from equipment, ability score, and class, since it raises the max dex bonus by 1 and gives an additional +1 KAC.

Spoiler: Astral Juggernaut AC Bonus vs. Guard Soldier Heavy Armor

Show

Level	Astral Juggernaut AC	Heavy Armor EAC	Heavy Armor KAC
1	6	5	7
2	8	7	9
3	9	8	11
4	11	9	12
5	12	11	14
6	14	13	16
7	15	14	17
8	17	16	19
9	18	18	21
10	20	18	22
11	21	21	24
12	23	22	24
13	24	23	26
14	26	24	27
15	27	26	28
16	29	27	30
17	30	27	32
18	31	29	32
19	32	31	33
20	34	32	34

Perhaps this is more reasonable? The Aegis has better EAC, but by a reduced margin. KAC is now consistently worse, though it matches at 20 with superior EAC. I'm not entirely comfortable with this, though. The Aegis has no more investment than boosting their dexterity modifier, which is useful for much more than just AC, whereas the Soldier invests both a fighting style and a gear boost. The Juggernaut will always have better AC than the Armor, so there's much less incentive for a dex Aegis to ignore it than there is for a dex Soldier to skip the Guard style, meaning that parity is possible, but unlikely. And it just doesn't feel right to me for it to get so much of its AC from dexterity; the entire point of heavy armor is that you can get comparable results with less investment in dexterity, though with the costs shifted elsewhere. The Aegis who doesn't invest as much in dexterity can't get the most out of their armor, and if they do maximize their dexterity, they're exceeding their max dex bonus until level 16.

There's a caveat worth noting for both the Armor and the Juggernaut as well; the Aegis's AC simply scales with level, whereas everyone else must pay to maintain and improve their armor. While this is pretty obvious, it's worth considering that this may frequently mean the Aegis has slightly better comparative AC than all this indicates, simply because they wouldn't otherwise be able to have equal-level armor. It's expensive!

Finally, looking briefly at the rest of the class, this can interact fairly potently with Modes, Chassis, and a couple Customizations. Modes can situationally give another +2 to +4 AC, and that's not terribly difficult to manipulate. Chassis can provide another +1 or +2 via the Astral Shield, and it even stacks with the Phase Shield's +1 Enhancement to EAC. And while Customizations can't directly increase your AC in general, they can certainly help you boost it even more against certain combat maneuvers.

I think this is a potential problem area, though not as obviously as Improved Damage. It's worth giving it some thought.

As a side note, I also checked the upgrade slots the Armor and Juggernaut get against normal armor. It's not terribly interesting; they largely progress at the same rate as their counterparts, though they sometimes have more or less than equal level armor because sometimes equal level armor has weird spikes or dips in capacity. The level 1 Second Skin has 1 slot, for instance, and the Estex Suit I has 2. But neither level 2 light armors have any upgrade slots at all. In fact, a fair number of light armors don't have any slots at all. The drawback of fancy armored clothing, presumably.

[TheRagi]

Page 16
Easily Augmented: Due their partly mechanical nature, forgeborn tend to have plenty of room for augmentation. A forgeborn can install an additional augmentation (cybernetics only) into one system that already has an augmentation.

This is quite an unique ability. It seems reasonable, though there might be some exploits hidden in it. In the very least I’d change it to “an additional augmentation (cybernetics only) of a different type into one system that already has an augmentation”, to avoid three-legged or six-armed forgeborns going around. There’s probably compatibility issues somewhere as well, but nothing jumps out at me right now… gotta wait for an augmentation book to come out I guess.

Implacable Stride: [...] When standing on the ground they gain a +4 racial bonus to their KAC against bull rush and trip combat maneuvers.

Reposition should be added in this list, thematically speaking.

[TheRagi]

Page 24:
Symbiotic Surge: A noral is able to tap into the power of the symbiote to gain a temporary boost. Norals increase their Resolve Points by 1.

This ability is lacking the action type and the duration of this temporary resolve point.

It this is a passive bonus, the text should be changed to make it clearer.


I think this is all I got from races, everything seems reasonable.

I was actually hoping to see brand new faces in Starfinder, but it's fine having the classics available as well (plus the atstreidi getting bumped to the main league). Let's hope Starfinder becomes a successful platform for compatible products, and you come up with some new psionic aliens next.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Page 24:
Symbiotic Surge: A noral is able to tap into the power of the symbiote to gain a temporary boost. Norals increase their Resolve Points by 1.

This ability is lacking the action type and the duration of this temporary resolve point.

It this is a passive bonus, the text should be changed to make it clearer.

Not a dev, but I believe the idea is that mechanically they passively have an additional Resolve Point, but it's fluffed as "tapping into the power of the symbiote" when they use their last Resolve Point, pushing themselves further than they otherwise could.

[TheRagi]

Not a dev, but I believe the idea is that mechanically they passively have an additional Resolve Point, but it's fluffed as "tapping into the power of the symbiote" when they use their last Resolve Point, pushing themselves further than they otherwise could.

Sure, but why risk causing confusion?

Symbiotic Surge: Due to the power of the symbiote, Norals have an extra resolve point


The current "tap into the power", "gain a temporary boost", suggest action and duration.

[Lord_Gareth]

Pg 21
Sonic Affinity: Maenads add a +1 to the DC of any spell or power with the sonic descriptor and an additional +1 damage with any weapon that deals sonic damage.

There’s only one spell with the sonic descriptor, and it has no saving throw - it’s nice to place it here since more are probably on the way in the next years, but right now is a little amusing. And I might be overlooking something, but I couldn’t find a sonic ability that would benefit from this - unless there are a lot of sonic psionic powers on the way.

The +1 sonic damage is nice, but other than a level 2 advanced melee gauntlet, sonic weapons only really start to be available after level 4. That’s a long way to wait for a racial bonus.

Most energy-based psionic powers have a sonic option, but this is under review internally in any event. Expect edits in the next push.

Page 16
Easily Augmented: Due their partly mechanical nature, forgeborn tend to have plenty of room for augmentation. A forgeborn can install an additional augmentation (cybernetics only) into one system that already has an augmentation.

This is quite an unique ability. It seems reasonable, though there might be some exploits hidden in it. In the very least I’d change it to “an additional augmentation (cybernetics only) of a different type into one system that already has an augmentation”, to avoid three-legged or six-armed forgeborns going around. There’s probably compatibility issues somewhere as well, but nothing jumps out at me right now… gotta wait for an augmentation book to come out I guess.

Implacable Stride: [...] When standing on the ground they gain a +4 racial bonus to their KAC against bull rush and trip combat maneuvers.

Reposition should be added in this list, thematically speaking.

With regards to Easily Augmented, that's actually the 1pp wording (Alien Archive, Verthani entry, page 119 under the Racial Traits sidebar). The ability made sense for the Forgeborn, so we ported it in.

I'll bring up Reposition with the team, but you're not wrong here. I think we can reasonably expect that to be added.

Page 24:
Symbiotic Surge: A noral is able to tap into the power of the symbiote to gain a temporary boost. Norals increase their Resolve Points by 1.

This ability is lacking the action type and the duration of this temporary resolve point.

It this is a passive bonus, the text should be changed to make it clearer.

Expect editing for the fluff text, but it is in fact a passive bonus.

I think this is all I got from races, everything seems reasonable.

I was actually hoping to see brand new faces in Starfinder, but it's fine having the classics available as well (plus the atstreidi getting bumped to the main league). Let's hope Starfinder becomes a successful platform for compatible products, and you come up with some new psionic aliens next.

This has been an interesting subject thus far. One thing to note is that many of the races introduced in Starfinder's core book already existed in Pathfinder, but honestly even if that wasn't true...quite a bit is potentially changing about psionics, both to fix legacy errors and to keep it in step with the new system. I feel like bringing the classic psionic races into the future provides both a sense of continuity (and a touchstone to the previous content) & an immediate example of what that change can look like, y'know?

Folks should expect an update push Soon(tm). I did also wanna ask how the fluff on the races and Aegis are shaking out; does it make sense, or grab your attention? Provide interesting plot hooks?

[TheRagi]

I feel like bringing the classic psionic races into the future provides both a sense of continuity (and a touchstone to the previous content) & an immediate example of what that change can look like, y'know?

I don't mind it that much now, but it felt like a missed opportunity. Opening with the atstreidi gave the doc quite an oomph, but right away we meet the same old gang, and it's all comfortable and familiar, there is no shock and awe.

I did also wanna ask how the fluff on the races and Aegis are shaking out; does it make sense, or grab your attention? Provide interesting plot hooks?

I admit focusing only on the mechanics bits, but I'll take a look at the fluff and compare it with UP as well.

How were the guidelines for the racial fluff? How much freedom did you guys have to update the main races for 7 to 10 thousand years in the future?

[Lord_Gareth]

How were the guidelines for the racial fluff? How much freedom did you guys have to update the main races for 7 to 10 thousand years in the future?

No constraints were handed down from the men upstairs if that's what you mean. In the main, we wanted to present a snapshot of what they look like now, with a bit of how they got there, while still being compatible with many settings. Aside from answering some clingy questions (like, "Why the hell are half-giants psionic?"), we mostly were thinking in terms of how the digital age, space flight, and the stunning diversity of the Galaxy would influence these races and their cultures.

[TheRagi]

No constraints were handed down from the men upstairs if that's what you mean. In the main, we wanted to present a snapshot of what they look like now, with a bit of how they got there, while still being compatible with many settings. Aside from answering some clingy questions (like, "Why the hell are half-giants psionic?"), we mostly were thinking in terms of how the digital age, space flight, and the stunning diversity of the Galaxy would influence these races and their cultures.

Well, no point in pulling punches then. Here is some brainstorming after reading both versions of each race (PF and SF). Some of these have a weird/dark twist in them, with the purpose of surprising the old players and having a lot of different options for the new ones.

Blues: From a sort of evil goblin underdog, blues seem to have become more of a benign force, but still struggling and mostly failing. Since they lost their main characteristic (evil and manipulative) I’d prefer seeing them do a 180º and actually becoming a successful race. Make them the most well-to-do race in the book, by their own means. I suggest even including in their entry an utopic blue planet where the race prospers as an example of serenity and wellness. Maybe with a ruling monarchy? Let the blues occupy the main stage, they suffered enough.

Dromite: These seem to remain mostly unchanged between versions. You do address the problem with the Shirren, but the overlap is just too big, both in story and behavior. Keeping with the swarm/zerg theme, maybe the Dromite, once they relocated to space, where contacted by a different alien insect collective than the one they had fled in the past, one that promised individuality and assistance within their hive. They went towards it to verify their claim, but, obviously, where assimilated, destroyed, hunted, eaten - the only dromite that survived were the toughest, hardest, craziest ones - they were saved by their savagery, that kept them from being swallowed whole by this threat. Almost extinct nowadays, the current dromite are all descended from these fire ant-like survivors and have thus become a warrior race.

Duergar: Another race that lost its main characteristics (madness and the underground horror) and turned more benign. I don’t quite get the “psionic version” of a regular race deal. But why stop with the duergar? Get a svirfneblin one, and I bet the psionic drow would be quite popular. But these all should be more of an appendix to the book, with psionic versions of other races.

Elan: On the other hand, these guys are still keeping their main characteristic (immortality and secrecy), although it’s no longer that much of a big deal in this future, with anti-aging technology. I think it’s about time to reveal an elan secret, if not The elan secret. I suggest a living psionic planet, whose shards are spread throughout the galaxy as elan, gathering information and knowledge for their creator, since it is very interested in all the different cultures and species out there (and bored). The catch? Maybe the planet itself is an elan… and who created it?

Forgeborn: Why is everybody so nice in the future? I think you’re missing quite an opportunity here to go full Borg. Once united in space (loved the Reborn Armada), they should take a fascist turn and become expansionists, conquerors, creating more and more forgerborn. These guys should be the new evil race! And like any textbook fascist, they think they are justified in their actions, conquering to prevent weaker races from being destroyed by bigger threats out there in the universe.

Half-giant: Whoa. Did you just give the “Highlander 2: The Quickening” treatment to the poor half-giants? That’s brutal. And I always assumed they were psionic as a side-effect from the experiments that successfully created an hybrid from men and giants, conducted by some nasty high level psion.

Instead, keeping with the former slaves thirsting for freedom concept, how about going all the way and upgrading them into the most liberty oriented people possible: libertarian merchants. I want to see businessman half-giants, using suits and defending a free interplanetary market. Visiting unexplored alien worlds and closing deals with the native sentient species. C’mon! The visuals alone! A half-giant megacorp would be truly Big.

I’m completely inspired by Poul Anderson’s Polesotechnic League stories, by the way. Nicholas van Rijn would make for a great half-giant.

Maenad: These guys were an odd bunch, with the seafaring theme - you can play a whole campaign without ever going to the sea, and most use ships only between scenes. But now that spaceships are a thing a lot of the time, switching their nautical theme for space is a great move. The moping and depressing part, I don’t really care for. Becoming such an integral part of the system should actually cure them of their “curse”.

They should also be industrialized. The first psionic race to embrace space, make them the pioneers of psionic space ships - they cornered the market, and are the creators of all and any psionic technology related to travelling between the stars. Space ships should be their life and purpose.

Throw in some space ships made out of crystals (maybe the tiny passengers one at least), and we are in business.

Noral: Another one that didn’t change much. With these guys I’d take advantage of all the genetics advancement over millennia and move their relationship with the erliss a bit further. Seeking to improve and integrate more and more with the symbiote, noral scientists managed to inject their DNA into noral embryos, creating a race of hybrids. Instead of carrying symbiotes around, current noral are born with vestigial tentacles and have a much deeper connection with the creatures. As a twist, I’d recommend having the erliss more and more dominant over each generation, with the symbiote DNA eventually taking over in a couple more centuries.

Ophiduan: As civilized snake-people, the ophiduan were always one of my favorites. I see you kept most of their competitive behavior and also gave them a decadent empire. But they have the same problems as the dromite. The main game now has a reptilian as one of their races, and it seems to be the most popular one to boot. In this case I recommend going back to the well and enhancing one of their features: "A leader amongst the ophiduans is often a very capable politician...". Leave the warrior lizardman role to the Vesk, and let the ophiduan go full politics. In any society with a legislature that allows alien representation, the ophiduans will settle, breed and starting winning seats. They will work as representatives, secretaries, ministers, governors, mayors, or as their staff, or even around them as lobbyists. Infiltrating a complex and selective system as politics, and conquering them from within, is the current ophiduan game.

Also, reptile politicians? Amazing social commentary.

Xeph: I never got the Xeph (and just realized I always referred to them as Xev). They never felt different enough from humans to merit a whole new race. I got nothing on this one. Maybe they all disappeared in some weird phenomenon in the past... yeah, make them the tragic fated ones.

[Air0r]

Elan: Fluff-wise, I feel the elan's paranoia as weird and off putting in an age where their immortality isn't as huge a deal. I could see them hold onto tradition and keep the ritual a secret though. and I could certainly see secret shadow cabals doing a space boogeyman thing, kidnapping various alien species to be forced through the ritual to increase their numbers for some unknown purpose.

Ophidiun: so we've kinda been looking for some stranger stuff now that you can play as things like the skittermander and the barathu. I think Ophiduans can fill a unique niche here by way of how they were expanded upon in your Classic Psionic Monsters Revisited book. Noble and True Ophiduans totally fit into the weird stuff you can find in space.

Noral: I feel they should have some sinister groups that are creating other types of symbiotic creatures for some other purpose.

[drafghast]

Well, you guys have given us a lot of good feedback, and we've listened. For my part, I'm here to tell you about some of the new changes to the Aegis, which are now live on the linked doc. More updates will be Coming Soon (TM).

Changelog:
-Added a line stating that the level of the astral suit is equal to the aegis’ level.
-Added to clarification text – whenever you spend 10 minutes to regain Stamina, you can adjust each of your astral suits.
-Adjusted craftsman heavily. This version interacts better with SF crafting, and should be less confusing overall. Adjusted archetype replacement rules to match.
-Adjusted Air and Ground modes to remove attack bonus. Instead, these have been replaced with similar effects that both illustrate theater superiority and balance better in the long run.
-Adjusted Astral Vision to possess a specific type of blindsense. Also removed redundant and inaccurate rules text.
-Cut Improved Damage, Nimble, and Brawn.
-Adjusted the bonus values on Chameleon and Frightful Presence.
-Assorted formatting changes and wording shifts.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Well, no point in pulling punches then. Here is some brainstorming after reading both versions of each race (PF and SF). Some of these have a weird/dark twist in them, with the purpose of surprising the old players and having a lot of different options for the new ones.

Blues: From a sort of evil goblin underdog, blues seem to have become more of a benign force, but still struggling and mostly failing. Since they lost their main characteristic (evil and manipulative) I’d prefer seeing them do a 180º and actually becoming a successful race. Make them the most well-to-do race in the book, by their own means. I suggest even including in their entry an utopic blue planet where the race prospers as an example of serenity and wellness. Maybe with a ruling monarchy? Let the blues occupy the main stage, they suffered enough.

Dromite: These seem to remain mostly unchanged between versions. You do address the problem with the Shirren, but the overlap is just too big, both in story and behavior. Keeping with the swarm/zerg theme, maybe the Dromite, once they relocated to space, where contacted by a different alien insect collective than the one they had fled in the past, one that promised individuality and assistance within their hive. They went towards it to verify their claim, but, obviously, where assimilated, destroyed, hunted, eaten - the only dromite that survived were the toughest, hardest, craziest ones - they were saved by their savagery, that kept them from being swallowed whole by this threat. Almost extinct nowadays, the current dromite are all descended from these fire ant-like survivors and have thus become a warrior race.

Duergar: Another race that lost its main characteristics (madness and the underground horror) and turned more benign. I don’t quite get the “psionic version” of a regular race deal. But why stop with the duergar? Get a svirfneblin one, and I bet the psionic drow would be quite popular. But these all should be more of an appendix to the book, with psionic versions of other races.

Elan: On the other hand, these guys are still keeping their main characteristic (immortality and secrecy), although it’s no longer that much of a big deal in this future, with anti-aging technology. I think it’s about time to reveal an elan secret, if not The elan secret. I suggest a living psionic planet, whose shards are spread throughout the galaxy as elan, gathering information and knowledge for their creator, since it is very interested in all the different cultures and species out there (and bored). The catch? Maybe the planet itself is an elan… and who created it?

Forgeborn: Why is everybody so nice in the future? I think you’re missing quite an opportunity here to go full Borg. Once united in space (loved the Reborn Armada), they should take a fascist turn and become expansionists, conquerors, creating more and more forgerborn. These guys should be the new evil race! And like any textbook fascist, they think they are justified in their actions, conquering to prevent weaker races from being destroyed by bigger threats out there in the universe.

Half-giant: Whoa. Did you just give the “Highlander 2: The Quickening” treatment to the poor half-giants? That’s brutal. And I always assumed they were psionic as a side-effect from the experiments that successfully created an hybrid from men and giants, conducted by some nasty high level psion.

Instead, keeping with the former slaves thirsting for freedom concept, how about going all the way and upgrading them into the most liberty oriented people possible: libertarian merchants. I want to see businessman half-giants, using suits and defending a free interplanetary market. Visiting unexplored alien worlds and closing deals with the native sentient species. C’mon! The visuals alone! A half-giant megacorp would be truly Big.

I’m completely inspired by Poul Anderson’s Polesotechnic League stories, by the way. Nicholas van Rijn would make for a great half-giant.

Maenad: These guys were an odd bunch, with the seafaring theme - you can play a whole campaign without ever going to the sea, and most use ships only between scenes. But now that spaceships are a thing a lot of the time, switching their nautical theme for space is a great move. The moping and depressing part, I don’t really care for. Becoming such an integral part of the system should actually cure them of their “curse”.

They should also be industrialized. The first psionic race to embrace space, make them the pioneers of psionic space ships - they cornered the market, and are the creators of all and any psionic technology related to travelling between the stars. Space ships should be their life and purpose.

Throw in some space ships made out of crystals (maybe the tiny passengers one at least), and we are in business.

Noral: Another one that didn’t change much. With these guys I’d take advantage of all the genetics advancement over millennia and move their relationship with the erliss a bit further. Seeking to improve and integrate more and more with the symbiote, noral scientists managed to inject their DNA into noral embryos, creating a race of hybrids. Instead of carrying symbiotes around, current noral are born with vestigial tentacles and have a much deeper connection with the creatures. As a twist, I’d recommend having the erliss more and more dominant over each generation, with the symbiote DNA eventually taking over in a couple more centuries.

Ophiduan: As civilized snake-people, the ophiduan were always one of my favorites. I see you kept most of their competitive behavior and also gave them a decadent empire. But they have the same problems as the dromite. The main game now has a reptilian as one of their races, and it seems to be the most popular one to boot. In this case I recommend going back to the well and enhancing one of their features: "A leader amongst the ophiduans is often a very capable politician...". Leave the warrior lizardman role to the Vesk, and let the ophiduan go full politics. In any society with a legislature that allows alien representation, the ophiduans will settle, breed and starting winning seats. They will work as representatives, secretaries, ministers, governors, mayors, or as their staff, or even around them as lobbyists. Infiltrating a complex and selective system as politics, and conquering them from within, is the current ophiduan game.

Also, reptile politicians? Amazing social commentary.

Xeph: I never got the Xeph (and just realized I always referred to them as Xev). They never felt different enough from humans to merit a whole new race. I got nothing on this one. Maybe they all disappeared in some weird phenomenon in the past... yeah, make them the tragic fated ones.

I don’t expect this to actually get into the book, but I’m definitely stealing some of it.

[Lord_Gareth]

Elan: Fluff-wise, I feel the elan's paranoia as weird and off putting in an age where their immortality isn't as huge a deal. I could see them hold onto tradition and keep the ritual a secret though. and I could certainly see secret shadow cabals doing a space boogeyman thing, kidnapping various alien species to be forced through the ritual to increase their numbers for some unknown purpose.

At this point it's less about the bit where they're immortal and more about the thousands and thousands of years of conspiracy, lies, manipulation, leeching off of other cultures, transforming (possibly forcibly) some of the best and brightest of other races into their own people, and a laundry list of crimes like political corruption, murder, and obstruction of justice in service to the above. The Councils that rule the elan race want things to keep going. The rebels feel like maybe it's time to stop.

Ophidiun: so we've kinda been looking for some stranger stuff now that you can play as things like the skittermander and the barathu. I think Ophiduans can fill a unique niche here by way of how they were expanded upon in your Classic Psionic Monsters Revisited book. Noble and True Ophiduans totally fit into the weird stuff you can find in space.

Mmmmaaaaybe but that feels like more the arena of a monster book or expanded faction information.

Noral: I feel they should have some sinister groups that are creating other types of symbiotic creatures for some other purpose.

This on the other hand is definitely the arena of factional style material.

[Kaidinah]

Thank you everyone for your feedback. The following changes have been implemented into the psionic races:

Elan’s mind over matter ability reworded to block both hit point and stamina point damage.
Elan’s resistance ability reduced from a +4 to a +2 save bonus.
Forgeborn’s implaceable stride ability now also helps them resist reposition.
Noral’s symbiotic surge had its descriptive text change to better match its benefits.

Maenad's sonic affinity is still under discussion, but you can expect changes to happen to it soon!

[PsyBomb]

Hello folks!

Mind Blade and Improved Mind Blade have been updated.
>The damage has been recalculated to mesh better with the weapons in the game
>Action to draw has been changed from standard to normal for drawing other weapons (move or part of a move),
>They now always target KAC
>Wording has been smoothed out and clarified
>Improved Mind Blades can now count as being a part of a weapon group as long as their damage type is appropriate for it.

VERY slight wording changes in Soulknife to account for these changes, as well. Again, thanks for all the feedback, this wouldn’t be anywhere near as good without it.

[khadgar567]

Any news for the psionic powers in starfinder. I can realy use the fluff

[digiman619]

I was kinda disappointed with the fluff of the Duergar. I know that their "They dug too deep and must fight the horrors beneath the world" schtick was there in 3.5, too, but once you imported them to Pathfinder, the obvious connection to the lore of Golarion is that they are at (least partly responsible for) keeping Rovagug in check.

So when you fast-forwarded the timeline to Starfinder, and Rovagug and the planet itself is gone, it seemed like you had the opportunity to take them in a drastic new direction and didn't. They should no longer be the dour doomsayers that try to push away the apocalypse, they should have joy that their long work is done. They should be happy in that the future no longer holds armageddon. Not "Well, I guess that's done. Wanna go brood some more?"

[Air0r]

I was kinda disappointed with the fluff of the Duergar. I know that their "They dug too deep and must fight the horrors beneath the world" schtick was there in 3.5, too, but once you imported them to Pathfinder, the obvious connection to the lore of Golarion is that they are at (least partly responsible for) keeping Rovagug in check.

So when you fast-forwarded the timeline to Starfinder, and Rovagug and the planet itself is gone, it seemed like you had the opportunity to take them in a drastic new direction and didn't. They should no longer be the dour doomsayers that try to push away the apocalypse, they should have joy that their long work is done. They should be happy in that the future no longer holds armageddon. Not "Well, I guess that's done. Wanna go brood some more?"

evolving this a little, maybe they hire out their expertise in dealing with things that go bump in the... night equivalent in space... hmm, that doesn't flow right. regardless, I imagine the Phrenic Scourge are solid villains to put them up against regardless.

[Lord_Gareth]

I was kinda disappointed with the fluff of the Duergar. I know that their "They dug too deep and must fight the horrors beneath the world" schtick was there in 3.5, too, but once you imported them to Pathfinder, the obvious connection to the lore of Golarion is that they are at (least partly responsible for) keeping Rovagug in check.

So when you fast-forwarded the timeline to Starfinder, and Rovagug and the planet itself is gone, it seemed like you had the opportunity to take them in a drastic new direction and didn't. They should no longer be the dour doomsayers that try to push away the apocalypse, they should have joy that their long work is done. They should be happy in that the future no longer holds armageddon. Not "Well, I guess that's done. Wanna go brood some more?"

That's...certainly an interpretation. I might question the obviousness of it; in perfect honesty, at no point in internal did we ever think of Rovagug, and no intended connection to that lore has ever been made.

The grey dwarves, like a few other races, faced down a loss of purpose among the stars. Given the choice between making the difficult journey to become another kind of people, one willing to confront the horrors of their past and accept that they had done awful things for reasons that maybe didn't justify them, or finding a new way to justify being awful people...

Well, they didn't have the heart to do the hard one.

[digiman619]

That's...certainly an interpretation. I might question the obviousness of it; in perfect honesty, at no point in internal did we ever think of Rovagug, and no intended connection to that lore has ever been made.

Really? Because I double checked my copy of the Expanded Psionics Handbook from 3.5 and all it says about them is that they are joyless artisans who hate pretty much everyone; the 'fighting against the horrors buried beneath the earth' was your idea. Also, near as I can tell, you were trying to avoid Golarion-specific things, either due to copyright or to keep it generic enough to be slotted into any campaign. The horror they are trying to stop, "That Which Slumbers", is described as a being that will defeat all the other gods if ever relaeased and that it sleeps deep within the earth and must be kept sleeping "for the sake of all life". This is a perfect fit for Rovagug, who is, to quite the wiki "imprisoned in a state of torpor somewhere deep within Golarion". It took all the gods working together to imprison him and scores of gods died doing it. Seeing as you can count on your fingers the number of gods who've came around since then, and it is clear that he will decimate them if he escapes. and it is said that he will destroy the world if he gets out.

In short, you may not have inteded for it to be Rovagug, but it's clearly Rovagug

The grey dwarves, like a few other races, faced down a loss of purpose among the stars. Given the choice between making the difficult journey to become another kind of people, one willing to confront the horrors of their past and accept that they had done awful things for reasons that maybe didn't justify them, or finding a new way to justify being awful people...

Well, they didn't have the heart to do the hard one.

I get that a significant chunk of them would go back to the old ways, but this clearly called, in my mind at least, for a schism in the culture, for those who while not sorry for the acts that grim duty their people held required, but are now glad it's over and sought to rejoin Dwarven society.

Eh, it's something for me to tweak in my own games. Don't let me dictate your work to you.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Really? Because I double checked my copy of the Expanded Psionics Handbook from 3.5 and all it says about them is that they are joyless artisans who hate pretty much everyone; the 'fighting against the horrors buried beneath the earth' was your idea. Also, near as I can tell, you were trying to avoid Golarion-specific things, either due to copyright or to keep it generic enough to be slotted into any campaign. The horror they are trying to stop, "That Which Slumbers", is described as a being that will defeat all the other gods if ever relaeased and that it sleeps deep within the earth and must be kept sleeping "for the sake of all life". This is a perfect fit for Rovagug, who is, to quite the wiki "imprisoned in a state of torpor somewhere deep within Golarion". It took all the gods working together to imprison him and scores of gods died doing it. Seeing as you can count on your fingers the number of gods who've came around since then, and it is clear that he will decimate them if he escapes. and it is said that he will destroy the world if he gets out.

In short, you may not have inteded for it to be Rovagug, but it's clearly Rovagug


I get that a significant chunk of them would go back to the old ways, but this clearly called, in my mind at least, for a schism in the culture, for those who while not sorry for the acts that grim duty their people held required, but are now glad it's over and sought to rejoin Dwarven society.

Eh, it's something for me to tweak in my own games. Don't let me dictate your work to you.

I mean, isn’t it usually the standard for PCs to be the unusual ones, in this case rejecting the old ways and moving on? In much the same way you see fewer Drow played straight than as Drizzt clones, I expect all this fluff will do is *encourage* people to play Duergar who are less mopey and tied down, believing they’re “breaking the mold.”