Starfinder: All the information from paizo blogs / interviews in one place.

[dj543210]

New: Tons of new updates from a new source that's been brought to my attention, especially info on class descriptions and starship combat. If you find out any more please tell me here. Anything marked with a 5 is newly added.

This is all the information I've found concerning starfinder. Obviously, some of this is subject to change and some of it is somewhat speculative so I won't make promises. I will continue to update as new information comes out.

Rulebooks
-Gencon 2017 - Starfinder AP and Core Rulebook5
-"Shortly After” - Starfinder “Alien Book” Bestiary5
-Core Rulebook will not be limited to the design of the pathfinder Core Rulebook5
- Alien bestiary: A book not just of “things to kill” but also “things to be”5

Included Races:
-7 "Core" Races (Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Halflings, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, Humans) exist within the setting1
-Ratfolk1
-Androids1
-Lashunta2
-Plus other alien races1
-They want to make more monster like playable races2
-Kasatha confirmed1

Included Classes:
-Soldier1: "Fighter++", the best at weapons, pick a weapons specialty, melee or ranged combat5
-Operative1: subterfuge, spy, sniper, skill focused, infiltration, space rogue, the most skills5
-Envoy1: Diplomatic class, Han Solo/Princess Leia, the space bard5
-Mechanic1: Fix things, ai or robot companion, jack into other computers5
-Mystic1: similar to oracle, closest thing to a cleric in Starfinder, channel mystical energies of the universe, does not have to worship the gods, energies not limited to divine, psychic/force like5
-Technomancer1: Space Wizard, combines tech and magics, study magic as if it was code, figure out the laws of the universe and how to break them, hacker-wizard5
-Solerian1: Uses the magic of the balance of the universe, melee-caster hybrid, balance energy and entropy, using energy abilities weakens entropy and strengthens energy abilities and vice versa, energy is light and heat based powers and entropy is gravity based powers, this is basically a jedi without the name5

The God:
-An ascended ai god, which apparently has some link to past Golarion linked to an already known god, has become a god and gifted hyperspace travel to the galaxy2, 3
-Some other gods may disappear/be inexplicably missing1
-The faithful of Abadar God of Commerce created a company called "Adadar Corp."2
-20 Different gods to be described in the main book
-Possible cathedral ships of the Church of Iomedae2

Hyperspace Travel:
-Can only be accessed with technology, not magic3
-Has differing environmental effects depending on distance traveled3
-A small jump has little effect of the outside world3
-A large jump can cause pieces of the multiverse to be sucked into the hyperspace dimension, causing the dimension to grow and sometimes spitting beings and pieces of other planes out3

Golarion Is Gone:
-Golarion has vanished2
-The gods refuse to (SPECULATION: can't?) answer where it has gone2
-The moon has gone with it3
-"Absolam Station" a space station (SPECULATION: Likely the one shown on the starfinder homepage) has taken the place of Golarion. (Unknown whether that means physical location or location as a home base)2
-Golarion has NOT been destroyed4

The Gap:
-A multiverse wide memory gap stretching thousands of years back on anything concerning golarion and it's history2
-The gap is different for different places. On one planet the gap may be 1000 years, on another it may be 1005 years.2

Starship Combat:
-Every player has an important part in combat3
-Has been described as battletech/spelljammer1
-Upgradable ships to act like a separate character sheet shared by the party3
-"Star Trek Inspired with sprinkles of Firefly”5
-Choice of class has no effect on ship role, each ship role has a single skill that influences it5
-New actions are unlocked with additional skill ranks in the relevant skill5
-Ship combat is done “tactically” on a hex grid, and direction the ship is facing matters, very different from normal pathfinder combat5
-Divided into three “phases”: engineering phase, piloting phase, and gunnery phase5
-Each phase happens simultaneously and is resolved among all ships before beginning another phase5
-All damage happens simultaneously5
-Piloting: Initiative check: going last was better; a higher roll meant going last so you could react to what everyone else was doing.5
-Ships have a maneuverability rating number: the number of have you had to move before you could turn the ship one tick on the hex axis5
-The ship has different arcs, or sides, with different stats but only one hp pool5
-When the ship hits a damage threshold or is the target of a critical hit, you have to roll to see if a critical system was damaged5
-Combat requires a lot of communication, you start understanding only what class ship you are fighting5
-Can take an action and a minor action each turn5
-Some ships have computers that can help by attempting skills, not as proficient as players, some ships can be piloted by a single individual5
-Ship combat is two dimensional but moving through opponents is possible, factoring in 3D5
-When your ships hp reaches 0 your ship is disabled, when it reaches 100% your ship explodes so get to the escape pods5

Ship Roles:
-Captain: Acts during any of the phases, encourages his crew members, could give an order using an intimidate check one time per crew member per encounter instead of a diplomacy check that gives a very big bonus, can give a crew member an extra action5
-Pilot: Flies the ship, manages "stunts"5
-Science Officer: Manages knowledge checks to scan enemy ships (shields/weapons/tech)5
-Gunner: Manages the weapons, targets the enemies, attack tricks5
-Engineer: Targets critical systems to aid the ship and direct the ship's power.5

Technology:
-Will include spaceships, power armor, laser and plasma weapons3
-Cybernetics and magical enhancements will be present1

Androids
-Corporations got ahold of technology to produce androids3
-SPECULATION: Possibly a future version of the technic league?

Hellknights:
The hellknights might have battleship fleets2

Other:
Considering a method to work around the language barrier2

Again this is all information found in paizo interviews and statements with some speculation where noted. ALL OF THIS CAN BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Just thought I would post everything I've found. If I find any new information I will try to update.

So what do you think?

References:
1. http://www.nerdunion.us/2016/08/06/27837/
2. http://geekandsundry.com/interview-with-the-creator-of-starfinder-pathfinders-sci-fi-sister-game/
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQzjmVujY5U
4. http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2tp2c?Ask-Gallant-James-S-Enduring-Owen-and-Beloved
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViouD1C4gTk

[digiman619]

I'm looking forward to this, but seeing these class names wants me to import Mass Effect into this just so I can have a Solarian Solerian. ^_~

[dj543210]

Concerning the ai deity, you have to wonder what would happen if you had it take a turing test. Would it succeed? Fail? Smite you for challenging it's omniscence?

[digiman619]

Concerning the ai deity, you have to wonder what would happen if you had it take a turing test. Would it succeed? Fail? Smite you for challenging it's omniscence?

Well, to be fair, the Turing Test wasn't a legitimate AI sapiency test, it was a "how well can it pass for human" test because human were all he had for a baseline.

[Arutema]

Speculation, spoilers for the end of Iron Gods AP:

The ascended AI deity is probably Casandalee, who can ascend in place of the BBEG when the BBEG's plans for godhood are thwarted.

If this is true, it would pass the Turing test.

[dj543210]

Wait?!? Then how do we know the gods are gods? No wonder they never directly act? The people of Golarion have been living a lie!

Arutema
That's what i thought but it could be pretty unlikely considering the whole point of "The Gap" is to prevent campaign choices from having to become stoic in game lore. So anything that the player's have the option of normally (I say normal because no play session is ever truely average) effecting during the adventure path is unlikely to be present in starfinder.

[Akal Saris]

Thanks for collecting this info!

[Sayt]

Wait, Golarion is confirmed absent bit not destroyed? Huh, I was guessing Rovagug had broken free and crunched the planet. But I guess not.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Kasatha look pretty likely as a core-ish race, though I'm happy to see Lashunta. Haven't heard about the solerian class, though. I've heard or have a good guess what the others do.

[dj543210]

As announced at gencon, the solerian uses "the ebb and flow of energy and entropy." You supposedly need to be careful what abilities you use. Using an energy ability will make other energy abilities more powerful but entropy abilities weaker.

[dj543210]

Wait, Golarion is confirmed absent bit not destroyed? Huh, I was guessing Rovagug had broken free and crunched the planet. But I guess not.
According to Owen K. C. Stephens:

Golarion is NOT destroyed, It is missing, which is very different.
So basically Golarion pulled a Gallifrey and left.

[Mehangel]

It would be nice if most if not all the "confirmations" had links or quotes with date/time when the information became revealed.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Ah right, I remember now. Interesting idea, but don't know how... 'core' the idea is. The other classes I can see being either representative of a particular archetype of character, technomancer being important for the setting, but solerian seems new. Interesting, but that seems more mechanics-based.

[dj543210]

It would be nice if most if not all the "confirmations" had links or quotes with date/time when the information became revealed.

The issue is some of them are video sources. I suppose I can look through them again and see what I can do.

[dj543210]

I need to make more posts before I am able to post the links but I am working on finding where all the notes came from until I can finally post the links.

[digiman619]

Feel free to triple post here in order to be able to get the links; I find this fascinating and would love to have the sources in one place rather that dig them up.

[dj543210]

Feel free to triple post here in order to be able to get the links; I find this fascinating and would love to have the sources in one place rather that dig them up.
nine......

[dj543210]

......ten!

[animewatcha]

Hyperspace Travel:
-Can only be accessed with technology, not magic3

One thing developers should not do is tell players that can't do something like this ( cause fluff, etc. ). The playerbase will find a way to turn one of these classes into a wizard 20 and do hyperspace travel via magic, not technology.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Magic has interplanetary teleport, tech can keep its hyperspace.

[dj543210]

The issue with planetary teleport is it can only teleport you to a known location. So you can not explore deep space with planetary teleport, carry large masses like those carried by ships, or discover new planets that have yet to be discovered. You could not decide to teleport "near" the sun. It's great if you manage to create some sort of mass version of the spell as well as a universe wide divination star mapping spell, but that's for your own GM to decide the viability of.

However, speaking as a person who almost exclusively plays a wizard, if my ship crash lands on a planet I am using that spell. Goodbye my meat shields, I'll remember you all vaguely!

Ok. Since I'm able to take the others with me I'll take them so long as they worship me as their god.

[Psyren]

Thanks for this, great resource!


The issue with planetary teleport is it can only teleport you to a known location.

The thing about IPT is that the known location can be very broad; it can be something you've only seen through a telescope or divinations. The example given is "take me to the Xth planet from the sun" - this is knowledge we can have without having physically visited ourselves (just like we do now), so this can indeed be used for exploration. In addition, other planes still seem to be a thing so magic can potentially traverse space that way too.

So to xenomorph's point - magic may not have hyperspace but that doesn't mean they can't explore.

[dj543210]

Thanks for this, great resource!



The thing about IPT is that the known location can be very broad; it can be something you've only seen through a telescope or divinations. The example given is "take me to the Xth planet from the sun" - this is knowledge we can have without having physically visited ourselves (just like we do now), so this can indeed be used for exploration. In addition, other planes still seem to be a thing so magic can potentially traverse space that way too.

So to xenomorph's point - magic may not have hyperspace but that doesn't mean they can't explore.
The issue I have with it vs the space travel on mere non-magical mortals is that seeing it through the telescope does not guaranty it is a "safe location". Even if the spell views the location as safe and livable for your current abilities, safe in terms of a spell is usually to be taken quite literally. For instance, you view a planet through a telescope with a "safe" atmosphere and terrain much like glarion. So the spell allows you to teleport there without problems. However, if you traveled there physically from outside the planet's atmosphere, simple radio scans would have revealed a xenophobic society in the early days of firearms development. The aliens sacrifice anyone who does not conform to their representation of physical beauty. Anyone who does not conform is killed on sight in the name of their god. If you traveled there via teleport, you are shot on sight or at least captured. If you fly their, regardless of who you are facing, you have the time to gather intel. Of course this is an extreme example. If you dm does this he is evil. Maybe Lawful Evil. But in terms of game mechanics space flight is more optimal for new planetary exploration with little previous information gathered.

Also where does everyone get those awesome avatars? I need one for my main character. They're so cool!

[Vhaidara]

However, if you traveled there physically from outside the planet's atmosphere, simple radio scans would have revealed a xenophobic society in the early days of firearms development.

Okay, so they're at the right point for making contact!


The aliens sacrifice anyone who does not conform to their representation of physical beauty. Anyone who does not conform is killed on sight in the name of their god. If you traveled there via teleport, you are shot on sight or at least captured. If you fly their, regardless of who you are facing, you have the time to gather intel. Of course this is an extreme example. If you dm does this he is evil. Maybe Lawful Evil. But in terms of game mechanics space flight is more optimal for new planetary exploration with little previous information gathered.

Since radio scans won't reveal...any of this.


Also where does everyone get those awesome avatars? I need one for my main character. They're so cool!

You can usually find a few artists doing requests in the arts and crafts section of the forums. I suggest the avatar request thread.

[Psyren]

The issue I have with it vs the space travel on mere non-magical mortals is that seeing it through the telescope does not guaranty it is a "safe location". Even if the spell views the location as safe and livable for your current abilities, safe in terms of a spell is usually to be taken quite literally. For instance, you view a planet through a telescope with a "safe" atmosphere and terrain much like glarion. So the spell allows you to teleport there without problems. However, if you traveled there physically from outside the planet's atmosphere, simple radio scans would have revealed a xenophobic society in the early days of firearms development. The aliens sacrifice anyone who does not conform to their representation of physical beauty. Anyone who does not conform is killed on sight in the name of their god. If you traveled there via teleport, you are shot on sight or at least captured. If you fly their, regardless of who you are facing, you have the time to gather intel. Of course this is an extreme example. If you dm does this he is evil. Maybe Lawful Evil. But in terms of game mechanics space flight is more optimal for new planetary exploration with little previous information gathered.

Also where does everyone get those awesome avatars? I need one for my main character. They're so cool!

Well of course such travel shouldn't be devoid of risk entirely, but that's the case for a spaceship landing on that world too. The important thing is that both groups can at least get there, and would need to then protect themselves appropriately.

In addition, tech has another advantage - IPT is a 9th-level spell, but just about anyone can use a spaceship. So the latter is probably going to be much more common as a means of getting around.

Needless to say - if you're capable of 9ths, you have little to fear from most indigenous peoples unless they are too. And even then they only murdered your Astral Projection/Clone/etc.

[Hunter Noventa]

I'd almost forgotten about this whole thing. Glad to see Power Armor...guess we'll just have to wait for the 3rd party giant robot supplements.

[dj543210]

I'd almost forgotten about this whole thing. Glad to see Power Armor...guess we'll just have to wait for the 3rd party giant robot supplements.They may not have said giant robots yet. However they have also yet to say there won't be giant robots.

[Extra Anchovies]

It's kind of baffling to me that the Paizo devs decided to go to all the trouble of having Golarion vanish from space and time when they could've just said on the back of the book that it uses an alternate setting canonically distinct from that of the core Pathfinder game. I hope to gods it's not because there'll be crossovers...


Also where does everyone get those awesome avatars? I need one for my main character. They're so cool!

Aren't they? I was floored with how well mine turned out. There's a thread in the Arts & Crafts subforum here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?448993-Request-an-OotS-style-Avatar-14-Even-More-Revenge); be sure to read the full first post to know the thread procedures.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Eh, I like the central mystery. I like that the Starfinders actually have a purpose (finding out what happened) vs the Pathfinder Society, which just hoards knowledge.

[Psyren]

It's kind of baffling to me that the Paizo devs decided to go to all the trouble of having Golarion vanish from space and time when they could've just said on the back of the book that it uses an alternate setting canonically distinct from that of the core Pathfinder game. I hope to gods it's not because there'll be crossovers...

There's a lot of advantages to maintaining continuity between the two systems. One is affordance - some terms or concepts from Golarion are readily recognizable to Pathfinder players and will make picking up the new game easy. For instance, that Abadar Corporation is probably an organization that my chaotic space pirate would avoid signing up with.

It also adds a level of intrigue to help GMs come up with stories/hooks more easily. What happened during The Gap to make everyone forget Golarion? If both planet and moon are both gone, what of Rovagug and Groetus, are they still chained? What about the other gods? Could a PF character visit Starfinder or vice-versa? Could you have a madcap Doctor Who/Rick & Morty style campaign that involves leaping between the two at breakneck speed? Did the gods know what would happen, and if so, how did they prepare?

There's all kinds of fertile ground there for telling tales.

[dj543210]

It's kind of baffling to me that the Paizo devs decided to go to all the trouble of having Golarion vanish from space and time when they could've just said on the back of the book that it uses an alternate setting canonically distinct from that of the core Pathfinder game. I hope to gods it's not because there'll be crossovers...



Aren't they? I was floored with how well mine turned out. There's a thread in the Arts & Crafts subforum here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?448993-Request-an-OotS-style-Avatar-14-Even-More-Revenge); be sure to read the full first post to know the thread procedures.Golarion will not be present ever. Likely paizo will never tell us where it went until they run out of ideas for new books. Like the death of prophecy, they have only told select people about what actually happens and only drop hints they know we will never piece together. Although now that I think about it, I'm not sure how time travel effects the gap. Maybe Golarion disappeared in time as well as space. The other possibility is that the gap causes anyone who travels to the pathfinder golarion to starfinder times to forget everything pertaining to their life. If this were the case, a time traveler from golarion would forget everything about his life, like a sort of amnesia. Likely one such time travel would only retain basic motor skills and MAYBE language.

Of course the other option is that crossovers can happen. If so, that's a huge gap in The Gap.

[dj543210]

So out of the 7 new classes, which one is everybody most excited for? I'm leaning towards technomancer.

[Psyren]

I would want a psychic class in this setting, so leaning towards Mystic, but the rest of their description sounds kinda generic so I'd have to get more info around their abilities.

[khadgar567]

So out of the 7 new classes, which one is everybody most excited for? I'm leaning ıtowards technomancer.
I hope this time we get proper artificer but like to see technomancer class
my small list of questions
can technomancer create his own stuff?
how cybernetics work in setting and how back portable the new toys?
is there any one have mad idea of converting magus to starfinder( i know magic and tech are diffrent fields in setting but a jedi class would be nice)?

[Extra Anchovies]

From what's currently in the OP, space combat sounds like it'll be pretty tedious, especially in fights with more than two ships. Pathfinder combat (and d20 combat in general) can be enough of a slog as it is without having to handle simultaneous action resolution, facing, and multiple "phases" per turn.

Does anyone know when in source 5 the Starfinder discussion starts? I don't want to sit through all two hours to find out.

The description of Soldier as "Fighter++" makes me pretty suspicious. That sort of language sounds like it would come from someone who hasn't gotten their brain out of the 3.5 "Fighter is garbage" mindset, while the PF Fighter is in fact a pretty good class with the additions of Weapon and Armor Mastery, and even before then it was at least pretty good at fighting (about on par with or just a touch below the other CRB martials).

I don't get the design philosophy behind the Solerian's advertised mechanic. The use of energy powers making subsequent energy powers stronger (and the same with entropy powers) seems like it would encourage focusing heavily on one sort while dumping/ignoring/avoiding the other. More in line with the stated magical-balance fluff (and more mechanically interesting) would be something that encourages using energy and entropy abilities alternately and/or in equal measure.

[Kiton2]

Fighter with all the masteries is still mostly just good at combat. Anyone can do combat, and everyone else has at least as much skills and the like - usually more. Saying "fighter has skills so they're good" ignores the fact that everyone's better there, even the other "2+" classes since their spells bypass the skill system entirely when they need autosucccess. And that's always been its biggest flaw. Even feudal soldiers had a wider variety of skills and things they knew how to do other than "swing, swingmore, swingmost", and modern ones can be very highly trained.

Sure, there's now some archetype stacking that allow the fighter to be pretty decent - good even. But the default, base form of them remains plagued by having less skills than most, minimal non-combat options, and a dependency on magical gear that makes an AMF even more of a threat to them than it is to a wizard (who can actually cast spells straight out of the zone, or even set up buffs,etc that will simply be suppressed while in it).

In other words, while optional parts have been added that can allow the fighter to be comparatively FAR better than it was when it first came out, it's still patches and hotfixes; the original version is ****ty crap. "Fighter++" could simply mean the basic default level is like a Lore-Warden Myrmidon, rather than "we pretend you have feats but really you're buying basic combat abilities and maneuvers that we nerfed or removed from when they were your defaultsin 3.x". It could also be a lie; Fighter++ could be some pathetic "Fighter but 3 skill points per level isn't that ****ing amazing you should thank us *unzip*".



For the Solerian it could go either way. It could be good balancing for something with a 'spool-up' mechanic, allowing them amazing damage/buffs/etc without it being all front-loaded. It could also be actually the "cost" if they were a jack of all trades: Where one class is at full power in their specialty right away, the Solerian needs to build up to full capacity. Chances are, if it's badly done, it'll be too weak and only get up to speed when any encounter would already be well over, making it a worthless piece of crap. So we'll just have to see.

[Ssalarn]

***
The description of Soldier as "Fighter++" makes me pretty suspicious. That sort of language sounds like it would come from someone who hasn't gotten their brain out of the 3.5 "Fighter is garbage" mindset, while the PF Fighter is in fact a pretty good class with the additions of Weapon and Armor Mastery, and even before then it was at least pretty good at fighting (about on par with or just a touch below the other CRB martials).
***

The issue is that the Fighter still isn't a particularly good class. It's raw damage numbers and AC are fine, but there are defenses other than AC, it still has little aiding its mobility issues, etc. The Weapon and Armor Mastery options are nice, but they're splat book bandaids, not signs of a good class.

I would expect a Soldier or whatever fighter variant you're going to have to have options like Weapon/Armor Mastery baked into the core class chassis. I'd also expect to see higher base skills (it is a futuristic campaign setting after all, so average education levels should be way up), easier access to items like jetpacks for improving mobility and probably associated feats for building on that mobility, etc.

Basically, when I hear "Fighter++" on a project with Owen KC Stephens in the lead, I don't think "moar damage", I think "higher facility, mobility, defense, and maybe even the possibility of real asymmetric balance between martials and casters".

[dj543210]

It seem to me that they mean fighter only in the sense of it's feel. Already they are changing how many class mechanics work such as skill points per class. While you' think a high intelligence would mean the technomancers would have the most skill points, it will be classes like the operative that excel at skills. My guess is that the soldier, with it's "weapon trees", will have much better scaling, having learned from pathfinder. The classes are not supposed to be direct analogues of pathfinder classes, especially since those classes can and will be easily portable over to starfinder.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

I think Soldier might be one of the better 'pilot' classes. I hope you can be good at both.

[dj543210]

I think Soldier might be one of the better 'pilot' classes. I hope you can be good at both.

Class will have NO effect on ship roll. You could have a soldier science officer or a mystic gunner. There can also be one-manned ships, and you can even equip the ships with an ai to help you out. The only factor for your character's competency in a ship role is a single skill, with maybe some other skill rolls possible.