Starfinder - Character creation 2

Since Kolrez is a mystic, alignment and deity are defining aspects of his character, so some thought has to go into making these decisions. I wanted Kolrez to be most at peace among the stars, so Ibra, god of the cosmos, seemed the best choice. Ibra is true neutral, so I decided Kolrez would be also.

At this point, I should say a bit about gods in Starfinder. Some of the gods are familiar from Pathfinder. These include Iomedae, Sarenrae, Desna, Abadar, Phaerasma, Zon-Kuthon and Urgathoa. Other Golarion gods such as Asmodeus, Calistria and Lamashtu still exist, though in different and less powerful forms. In addition, there are many new gods and goddesses, some adopting portfolios previously held by other gods of Golarion, while others are completely new such as Triune, god of artificial intelligence and Oras, god of evolution and natural selection. Although the Dark Tapestry, which played such a large, though indirect role in Iron Gods, is not mentioned by name, the Outer God, Nyarlathotep is now a core deity with responsibility for conspiracies and forbidden magic.

At 1st level, mystics select a connection, which is very similar to an oracle's mystery class feature from Pathfinder. A mystic selects only one connection which provides insight bonuses to certain skills, bonus spells and class abilities with increasing levels. For Kolrez, I choose the Star Shaman connection which gives him Piloting and Perception as associated skills as well as the Walk the Void (Su) ability, allowing him to survive exposure to vacuum without harm. As a 1st level mystic, Kolrez also gains Healing Touch (Su), allowing him to heal an ally up to 5 hp/level, once per day. Finally, like in Pathfinder, the character starts with a feat at 1st level. I choose Great Fortitude.

All that remains is to choose spells, skills and equipment and Kolrez is ready to go. Both the mystic and the technomancer have a 0-6 level spell table. Kolrez starts out knowing 4 0-level and 2 1-level spells. He also gains an additional one from his connection. He selects Mystic Cure and Lesser Remove Condition as his 1st level spells and gains Shooting Stars (Magic Missile for mystics) as his connection spell. This makes him a formidable healer with a bit of offensive magic thrown in as well. For skills, Kolrez takes Piloting, Perception, Sense Motive, Mysticism and Diplomacy. The skill list in Starfinder has a lot of overlap with Pathfinder, although there has been a fair bit of streamlining. For example, the Mysticism skill now incorporates both the Spellcraft and Knowledge (arcana) skills as well as any Craft skill needed to make magic items.

-Rognar-

Starfinder - Character creation 1

The much-awaited Starfinder Core Rulebook is finally available at your FLGS and I have my copy. This will be my first in a series of posts on the new game. I will be looking first at character creation. The first step in this process is to conceptualize your character and select your race, theme and class. Pathfinder players will certainly be familiar with race and class, but theme is something new.

Starting with races, there are humans, androids, two subspecies of lashuntas, kasathans, ysoki, vesh and shirrens. Anyone who has played the Iron Gods AP will have some familiarity with androids, kasathans and lashuntas, although the lashuntas have been altered somewhat. The ysoki are simply space-faring ratfolk. The vesh and the shirrens are your obligatory reptilian and insectoid races respectively. The other Pathfinder races such as elves, dwarves and halflings are not core races, but it has been hinted at that they will be introduced later*.

Classes are mostly self-explanatory. They are envoy, mechanic, mystic, operative, soldier, technomancer and solarian. The envoy is the party "face". The mystic and technomancer are the cleric and wizard respectively. The operative is the rogue, while the solarian is a sort of space monk, like a Starfinder jedi.

Themes are aspects of your character that reflect background and/or motivations. The options available in the core rules are ace pilot, bounty hunter, icon, mercenary, outlaw, priest, scholar, spacefarer, xenoseeker and themeless. Somewhat counterintuitively, there are no restrictions regarding combinations of themes and classes, so it is possible to have a priest mechanic or a mercenary mystic. Clearly some combinations will require exotic backstories. The purpose of themes is to provide a starting ability score bonus to one stat and a few minor boons to the character as he gains levels.

I decided to try out the character creation procedure by making a kasathan spacefarer mystic named Kolrez. After making those preliminary decisions, it is time to get to the number-crunching. The point buy system is a bit different in Starfinder as compared to Pathfinder. You start with straight 10s, then adjust your ability scores based on race and theme modifiers. Kolrez gets +2 STR and WIS and -2 INT for being a kasathan and +1 CON for being a spacefarer. So his starting ability scores are: STR 12, DEX 10, CON 11, INT 8, WIS 12, CHA 10. You have an additional 10 points to spend on a 1-for-1 basis, although no ability score can exceed 18 at this point. Note that ability modifiers are the same in Starfinder as Pathfinder. With that in mind, I distribute my additional points to improve CON, INT, WIS and CHA as follows: STR 12, DEX 10, CON 12, INT 9, WIS 18, CHA 12. You cannot transfer points from one ability to another.

Next, we look at hit points (hp), stamina points (sp) and resolve points (rp). Stamina points represent general toughness. They are lost first and relatively easy to recover. Hit points indicate actual capacity to endure injury. Resolve points represent willpower and are used to activate certain class features and regain resources such as stamina. None of these points are rolled, all are fixed based on your character race, class, ability modifiers and level. At 1st level, Kolrez gets 4 racial hit points and 6 class hit points for a total of 10 hps to start. At 2nd level and each level beyond, he only gets the 6 class hps. Stamina points are based on class and CON modifier. Kolrez starts out with 6 class sp and 1 CON sp for a total of 7 sp. Finally, resolve points are equal to half your level (minimum of 1) + modifier of your key ability score. Since Kolrez has WIS 18, he gets 4 + 1 rps.

In my next post, I will discuss class features of the mystic, gods and alignments.

-Rognar-

*Edit: There is a section in the back of the core book which provides some information on Pathfinder races for those wishing to use them to make Starfinder characters.

Iron Gods - The Divinity Drive 1

We continue with our Iron Gods campaign - spoilers ahead.

The party headed up to a cavern known to both Casandalee and the Technic League that provided entry to the buried spaceship. Zernebeth could only provide limited information as to current League activities within the structure since Zaidow had been very secretive and his only confidants were now deceased. Still, the company was confident they could handle whatever lay ahead.

That confidence would be tested almost immediately, however. As they passed through a glaucite door in the wall of the cave, they entered a large assembly bay. Awaiting inside was a fully-functional annihilator robot. The annihilator immediately attacked, strafing the company with its twin chain guns. As the party scattered and dove for cover, Smangtooth charged forth. What followed was a display of martial prowess that will go down in the annals of Golarion lore. Braving the annihilator's plasma lance, Smangtooth darted beneath the massive robot. Her chainsaw cut deep into its structure, overcoming first its force field and then its armour-plating. The adamantium teeth ripped at its interior components, cutting power conduits and overloading circuits. Before it could respond, a second slash of Smangtooth's chainsword cut through its tail, severing the plasma lance. As it staggered and collapsed, Smangtooth thrust her chainsaw once more into its smoking ruin and the annihilator was destroyed.

With confidence at an all-time high after Smangtooth's victory over the annihilator robot, the company moved on. They would soon encounter a small group of Technic League operatives led by a technomancer named Sila Desaulis. She explained that her group had become trapped here when some force had taken control of all the robots in the ship. The exit was blocked by the annihilator robot and a large section of the deck was being irradiated by lethal radiation. She was happy to hear that the annihilator was destroyed and she was eager to leave. She offered the group a gravitic key which they could use to start up a graviton reactor that the annihilator had been guarding. It would allow them to power up a monorail transport to explore deeper into the ship.

The group took to the monorail to a deck called Habitation Pod 1. The deck appeared to be a self-contained jungle environment, complete with appropriate flora and fauna as well as flowing water and high humidity. As they exited the monorail station, they were immediately set upon by several dwarf-like humanoids (lashuntas) riding dinosaurs. Though tough, the lashuntas were quickly dispatched. The party moved on, bypassing a small village with more lashuntas and eventually arrived at a water-pumping station. Inside, they found a service elevator which they took to another deck.

This new location turned out to a recreation deck. After battling several viper vines in an overgrown section of a park, they entered a market square. Dozens of humanoids wandered about talking idly to one another in small groups. Though at first glance they appeared human, upon closer inspection, they were revealed to be androids. They made brief acknowledgements of the party and would reply if addressed, but they seemed remarkably unperturbed by the rough-looking adventurers that just appeared among them. They also offered little insight when questioned, mostly referring repeatedly to someone named Deacon Hope and some future event they called the "Great Advent to Come". Although they did notice a small number of the androids seemed to pay a bit more attention to them than the rest, there was little to alarm the group and they quickly got bored.

Leaving the square, they found a holotheatre. Perusing the selection of available holovids, they found little of interest, although it was clear most of the library had been rather crudely deleted. Looking around, they found a passage to a backstage area. What they found was a nightmarish abattoir of humanoid body parts and viscera strewn about and arranged in a depraved artistic display. A pair of interlocutor kytons, attended by a pair of sacristan kytons were adding to the carnage. The disgusted company slaughtered the vile fiends. They would also find a shrine to Unity and an android creche guarded by more kytons and a particularly powerful kasathan fighter who wielded two chainsaws. With the minions destroyed, it was time to find this Deacon Hope.

-Rognar-