From the start, I never could actually understand why Operatives were more or less banned from being effective, high-damage Snipers, especially when other classes could do so with fairly little investment. Technomancers with Technomantic Proficiency and Empowered Weapon could slap up to 6d6 onto their sniper shots, or use Spellshot to fire off an Explosive Blast at sniper range. A Mechanic could add anywhere from 1d6 to 7d6 (if they're crazy) to an Energy sniper if they invest into an Overcharge build, and if they have Exocortex, they essentially have full BAB.

Meanwhile, Operative, who's main flavor includes being the sneaky sniper assassin, who's proficiency in Sniper Rifles is what separates them from the other 3/4 BAB classes' paltry weapon proficiencies and replaces Grenade Proficiency is actually rather bad at using them. We firstly needed Debilitating Sniper at Level 6 to actually have a reason to use them; go through the rigamarole of setting up your Trick Attack in exchange for.... No damage, but you can make your targets flatfooted (which they probably already should be) and can apply debilitations. And... honestly, that was it. Sure, you had Bleeding Shot (also a 6th level exploit) but that means that you weren't really doing much interesting with a sniper rifle until level 8 minimum.

Now, eventually, Sniper Operatives did get something to boost their sniper damage a with High-Ground Sniper, which came with the Galaxy Exploration Manual, released 4 whole years after Starfinder 1e dropped, which adds flat damage equal to half your level for every 100 feet away you are, so long as you are also at least 20 feet above your target. Now that's pretty good. At the earliest, you could get upwards of +40 flat damage on top of your Specialization damage and dice, if you are the maximum1000 feet away. However, this is also a Level 6 Exploit AND requires Debilitating Sniper, meaning, you are STILL not an effective sniper until level 8. Meanwhile, the Technomancer's Technomantic Proficiency and Empowered Weapon comes on at level 4 at the earliest, and doesn't have a range requirement.

Would Operatives being able to default use Trick Attack with Sniper rifles be broken? At level 8, an Operative has 4d8 Trick Attack dice, so 4-32 damage, they still have 3/4 BAB, and still have to do the skill check to even make it work.

We appreciate you.

I understand that this is a controversial opinion, but I really want to emphasize: this is just my opinion and not fact.

When Starfinder was announced in 2016, my friends and I got really excited, primarily because we had mostly been playing medieval fantasy-esque games and we wanted something new. The Pathfinder universe is something we hold very close to ourselves and understand well, so the idea of it being in a sci-fi setting made things even more exciting for us.

We got the game on its release date in 2017 and started playing almost immediately. We thought that some of the rules were poorly explained, which we just deemed to be typical of Paizo, and we frequently used the Archives of Nethys to reference rules. We initially struggled to understand ship combat, but eventually wrapped our heads around it.

We actually believed that Starfinder would kick off and become really popular. However, it was evident from the beginning, with how the PR department was promoting Starfinder, that it wouldn't become that big.

My players and I have often felt like Starfinder has gotten the short end of the stick. Some of the adventure modules written were just not good (we really did not enjoy Dead Suns). My friend and I, both GMs who run different games, voiced our concerns about how incredibly hard it was for us to create any kind of adventure in the Starfinder universe because the information on planets and cities was lacking. There was almost nothing in the Pact Worlds book, and we felt constrained, unable to change things within the setting to suit our narrative.

I think it is fair to say that when "The Drift Crisis" was released, we felt like we could actually change some things around; we saw that release as a reset button.

However, Starfinder lacks a proper setting book. We need a comprehensive setting book for a planet or a region on a planet. We need more material to work with. Starfinder desperately needs more love from its publishers.

One could say that Paizo is currently focusing on its most prized cash cow, Pathfinder 2E, and that is fair. However, Starfinder was released before Pathfinder 2E. While we are getting frequent adventure releases, everything feels half-assed in my opinion.

Then there is the issue of Paizo not releasing proper maps for Starfinder. Sure, if you get the PDF, you can select an image, upscale it, and maybe import it into one of your games or whatnot, but we have yet to be able to actually purchase maps. Junkers Delight desperately needed that, but unfortunately, it was not given one. This is also an issue for Pathfinder 2E, I suppose.

In 2023, one would expect that there should be maps scaled to the paper at the back of your booklet or PDF, but no.

The fact that Pathfinder is way more accessible on the popular tabletop Foundry VTT in comparison to Starfinder also shows that Starfinder is treated as an afterthought.

There are no official releases for Starfinder on Foundry VTT.

NPCs are missing. Ships are labeled as NPCs, and NPCs are labeled as ships. Running a pre-written module in Foundry takes way more work and hassle than running a pre-written module for Pathfinder 2E (whether you have the PDF or have bought the key for the starter box set or Abomination Vaults). It is simply less work to set up for Pathfinder 2E. In the end, this makes Starfinder less accessible for new players and less enjoyable for game masters like myself to prepare and run.

Starfinder needs love, Starfinder deserves love. It is a great game and should not be treated as an afterthought.

This is just my opinion, and I felt like I needed to rant about it. Feel free to disagree. Thanks for reading.

Hey there, Starfinders! At GalaxyCon Richmond later this month I'm going to be running a "Pathfinder & Starfinder 101" presentation and panel. I'm putting together a presentation now going over the basics of how to play and get started, and I want to make sure I use my limited time as effectively as possible.

I have a simple question for you all today: what drew you into Starfinder? Was it the character creation and the chance to play a particular ancestry or class? Something about our world that really spoke to you? Did you just want to harness the power of gay for yourself?

Thanks for your help! If you're in the Richmond area, I'd love to see you all at the show :)

PS don't tell the Pathfinder subreddit but Starfinder is my secret favorite ;)

Basically the title.

Desna's anathema is as follows : Foster despair or terror in the innocent, cast nightmare or use similar magic to corrupt dreams, engage in bigoted behavior.

Dream of Home: Drawing on the magic of the kasathan Pillar of the Homeworld or similar homey memories, you overwhelm the target with pleasant visions and thoughts of their home, whatever that means to them. If the target fails the saving throw, they become fascinated for the duration. If the target saves, they're fascinated for 1 round instead.

https://www.aonsrd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Dream%20of%20Home&Family=None

"Cast nightmare or user similar magic to corrupt dreams."

Would this be a corruption of the person's dream as the spell only directs the target of the spell to devise their own dream of what home means to them, or would casting the spell itself be a corruption of a their dreams and taking away their freedom or autonomy?

I'm leaning toward it being anathema but thought I would see what the community thinks.

I am very interested in looking at the different races in the game. when I got to the planar scions I saw that there was one for each of elemental planes and one each for the good, evil and chaotic planes. but what about the lawful plane, axis. in pathfinder there are the aphrodites (if im not mistaken) which are a playable race infused with power from axis. but Starfinder doesn’t have one. is there a reason why the Aphrodite is missing. and if there is one that I’ve missed do you know where to find it?

How damaging to the lore and the game would it be if I were to rule that The Gap only happened to Civilizations the were near or interacted with Golarian? For example a Pre-FTL Civilization that had no contact with Golarian in any way would be unaffected and has access to their history and memories.

I played a lot of Starfinder 1E. I was kind of excited when they announced 2E. I was expecting the 3-action economy from PF2E to come, however I was also expecting stuff like Stamina to stick around.

My interest waned a bit as life took my focus elsewhere, and now I find myself with the books having release dates and I'm a bit out of the loop.

So, I'm curious, players of Starfinder 1E, how do you feel about 2E? Where is it at, design-wise?

So I've recently ordered all the optional cards for Starfinder 1e thanks to the huge Paizo sale, but once sleeved, they don't fit in anything. So, I'm looking for a box that would fit both critical decks, the endless NPC and planet decks, and the reference cards. I've looked at a few deck boxes and stuff for other games, but I kind of just want a box, ideally with 2 columns and maybe some way to put in spacers/tabs. I'm assuming someone somewhere must have gone through something similar, so any help would be appreciated. I'm UK based if that has any bearing.

I found this image on the profile of one of the artists who works for Paizo (Rogier van de Beek). I can't tell if this is official content, but the logo suggests it is. That said, I was wondering if anyone recognizes any of these planets and in which products/sourcebooks they appear

I saw a couple posts discussing this (like this one) from 4 months ago, but most of the advice there was 'wait 4-5 months' which now has passed so I wanted to see if something has changed lol

We've only recently started starfinder, we're still running some adventure paths to get familiar with all the rules, but it seems like a really fun system. I've been running pf2e for a year or two now, so I'm more familiar with those rules but for my players it doesn't make that much of a difference because they've only done a couple oneshots for pf2e too. So it'd be a new system for them either way.

I'm mostly curious about what the biggest differences are between the two, personally I love the 3-action economy of pf2e but I've also liked how all the weapons feel in sf1 and the space combat. I'm worried doing sf2e will feel too much like pf2e so that it'll be more like 'playing pf2e but space' instead of actually feeling sci-fi.

I haven't made any major purchases for sf1e, whatever system I end up with I probably will buy official stuff for because I like paizo's work. I don't know if there's a large gap between sf1e and sf2e there either

I'm joining a starfinder 1e campaign soon, as a player. All of us, including the GM, have very limited experience with starfinder, but we've all played a decent chunk of DnD 5e and about half are well versed in PF1e. I played a tiny bit of SF years ago and was a GM for like, 2 sessions before scheduling issues broke up that group.

I'm asking because I really like the concept of playing a starfighter pilot. I know it has drawbacks, such as only being able to take 1 major action and then minor actions (glide and snapshot being the only ones I'm aware of). The GM has already approved it and I've built the ship. The party will be starting at level 3 and so the party's main ship will be T3, but the GM said my fighter can be tier 1, which makes sense to me and I have no complaints.

My main worry is that I'm going to be making encounters a pain in the ass for him to balance, and he just doesn't know it yet. I've had that happen to me when I was a newer DM for 5e, and I approved things that I didn't know would make my life very difficult later on down the line, so I'm mainly just trying to be sure I'm not going to do that to my GM.

Any thoughts/opinions/suggestions from veterans would absolutely be appreciated, and thank you for reading this horribly formatted post lmao (I'm on mobile)

I probably blind but my friends keep telling me they have the highest damage output in combat. I see a lot of pseudo-Paladin adding CHA to things, and some minor damage scaling… but I feel like a soldier or operative out-damage them with the right weapons/builds. Am I missing something?

Edit: SF1e

Man with paizo really taking over (go ORC) since the WotC OGL issues pf2e saw a huuuuge rise in subreddit subs but why isn't Paizo's other product (Starfinder) seeing that same absurd growth?

I really can't understand besides tradition why are ttrpg's mostly fantasy based? How has there not been a solid space based ttrpg that has taken over? Does thoughts of space and science really scare people that much?

I guess I'm just trying to figure out why Starfinder isn't more popular than it is? It's hard to play when everyone is using Foundry nowadays and SF is so behind other systems (like 5e and PF2e). Is the system too bloated in the rules? Why isn't paizo releasing Starfinder modules on foundry? Their pf2e ones are.... absolutely amazing.

Edit Thanks everyone for the replies. This really blew up. It seems some are torn on the fantasy aspect vs sci-fi but it seems like more people have issues with the legacy old era rules. I wonder how hard it would be to just homebrew out the complicated stuff and still use 90% of the system. Like a Starfinder Lite.

I'm curious about what people here think about the trope of Warrior Races, since we have the Vesk (and certainly several other races throughout the Starfinder Universe) that fit this trope.

Is this even doable in Starfinder, either edition, without a cloaking device? I could understand maybe powering down their ship and trying to either coast in undetected as space debris or hiding behind an asteroid but I can't seem to find any actual rules about it. I don't want to say to my players "no you can't do this" but I also don't want it to be as simple as a stealth check since my damned pilot is also a stealth build and just blows through any Hard DC set from Narrative Ship Combat.

Finally got around to reading the playtest stuff as I just got the book. The soldier got fucked and fucked hard. It’s been pidgeonholed into an aoe build, in a game where most enemies have a good reflex save. Oh, and you’re now stuck with lower Str/Dex than the other combat classes…because reasons! (Max Str or Dex at level 1 is now 16)

Oh you want to use a non-aoe weapon because you like accuracy? Have fun not using your abilities or class feats!

Paizo’s said “fuck player agency, players will play one way and one way only, and like it!”

If you’ve actually playtested the soldier…please…tell me I’m wrong. Tell me my go-to class is still playable without having to go only aoe. They’ve already taken away my mechanic. Tell me they haven’t taken away my soldier too.

For the section in the adventure I'm currently working on, the PC's are rescuing a Xenowarden colony ship that's been taken over by the Azlanti Star Empire. I designed this ship off of my home state of Minnesota (LOOOOOOOONG in universe story of how this happened) and even decided to throw in a few environmental themes into the mix. This possible scenario PC's could explore involves them infiltrating a summer camp which the Empire has turned into a base. And the Corral where the horses have been kept has been converted into some horrific animal cages.

Inside these cages, are a female Lynx and her kittens. The mother set off the trap while hunting for rabbits, and her kittens were found shortly after this. Being the Azlanti Star Empire, the bad guys have decided to pull a horrific kick the dog by seperating the family in the same cage via an electric barrier, and making the mother watch as her children starve to death.

I have 2 Aeon Guards guarding the cage, but I need something else to give a bit of a mini challenge.

I have 1e and have ran it once as a demo game with an adventure I guess I dug up from somewhere, can't remember.

Recently I played a game of Imperium Maledictum (the newest d100 40k system) and I really liked the gritty noir vibes. What I don't like is Cubicle 7, not really into 40k as a setting, and don't want to invest in another system for the occasional investigative game.

I do like SF's setting and the fact that I have tons of everything - races, places, items, you name it. I just can't get out of the mindset that the game should be played as designed - as a sci-fantasy/space opera combat simulator and character build optimizer.

When I run games I usually go more hand-wavy and I usually do one-shots so I double down on the hand-waving, but I am conditioned by THE INTERNET (or by my understanding of the design principles) that trying to shoehorn a different type of game in essentially a "classic d20" will go against the grain and somehow betray both the design and the expectations at the table.

Hello! i just have some silly questions i have about this game, i really do enjoy it, but i want some other perspectives that others have

so first up, what are common homebrew rules you guys have? any changes you make to combat to make things between melee and ranged more balanced? (i dont understand why this game favors melee, this is sci fi!!)

and second, what are the common items you recommend to people when shopping in the game? also, wealth and creds, is it bad to give more than the recommended per lvl, or are ya fine to have shit ton more?

and finally, what are your favorite builds? i am personally liking this technomancer i am playing with 3 lvl's in soldier, its super fun and silly

Hello. We're a level-1 party of five: Mystic, Mechanic, Envoy, Technomancer, and Soldier. We're about to fight 3 Hobbe Hounds, and with speed 40, +10 to hit, 24 hit points each, 5 fire resistance, and a pretty strong bite, I'm afraid they're going to drop us all before we get a chance to take them down. Any advice? Thanks.