Awesome Starfinder Teamwork Rules
Posted by Owen K.C. Stephens
Teamwork is a common element of adventure fiction, but it can be difficult for a game to grant bonuses to characters that are better at working together than their players are at making support-based tactical decisions. Previous d20 games have attempted to overcome this difficulty with Teamwork Feats but (with the exception of a few specific implementations as class features), those feats require everyone who is to benefit from them all take the feat, making them so uncommon and reviled I didn’t even want to mention them in this article’s title.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
These proposed Starfinder Roleplaying Game Teamwork Feats assume only one character is going to take them, and that the character then coordinated tactics in advance with a set of team members. The team members can change as the party’s needs evolve, and in this way a character can become an expert tactician and coordinator, even if the character’s player isn’t particularly good at game tactics.
Team Members: Team members benefit from all your teamwork feats. You designate your team members among the people you can talk to and discuss tactics with, in a process that takes 10 minutes. You can have a maximum number of team members equal to your maximum Resolve Points, or your Charisma modifier, whichever is higher. You increase this maximum by 1 for each envoy improvisation class feature you have. If you have telepathy or limited telepathy, you may have 1 additional team member. If you have the mindlink class feature, all creatures in a mindlink with you automatically count as team members.
Each time you get 8 hours of sleep, or take a 10-minute rest and spend Resolve to regain hit points, you can change your team members. If a team member is unable to communicate with your for 24 hours, they stop being a team member.
Starfinder Teamwork Feats
Back-to-Back (Teamwork)
Benefit: Whenever two or more members of the team are adjacent to each other, foes gain no benefit from flanking them.
Bolster (Teamwork)
Benefit: Whenever a team member restores Stamina Points or Hit Points to another team member, the number of points restored is increased by half your character level (minimum +1).
Bounding Overwatch (Teamwork)
Benefit: Team members gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Perception checks, and to AC against attacks of opportunity, when within 15 feet of another team member.
Close Support (Teamwork)
Benefit: A team member can exclude any one other team member from any area attack or instantaneous area effect.
Coordinated Fire (Teamwork)
Benefit: Team members gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls made for cover fire or harrying fire, and the benefit of such actions increases by 1 with regard to other team members.
Duck and Cover (Teamwork)
Benefit: When a team member makes a Reflex save while within 15 feet of another team member, he gains a +2 bonus to his Reflex save. If an initiating team member makes a Reflex save and an adjacent team member fails a save against the same effect, the initiating team member may choose to fail their saving throw as a reaction, and cause the adjacent team member to succeed at their own save.
Elite Ship Crew (Teamwork)
Benefit: When a member of a team makes a skill check or attack roll in a starship combat role, they may use the total bonus -2 of any other team member’s attack roll or skill check rather than their own bonus. No team member may grant their bonus (-2) to more than one other team member each round.
Got Your Back (Teamwork)
Benefit: An initiating team member can take a standard action to grant an adjacent team member the ability to take 10 on a skill or ability check, even when circumstances would normally prevent it, until the beginning of the initiating team member’s next turn.
Load Out (Teamwork)
Benefit: A team member can carry any one other team member of the same size or less, with just a 5 foot reduction to the carrying team member’s speed, regardless of bulk. This takes 1 hand.
Set up (Teamwork)
Benefit: As a move action, an initiating team member can give other team members a +2 circumstance bonus to combat maneuver attack rolls against a target adjacent to the initiating team member until the beginning of the initiating team member’s next turn. Alternatively, as a standard action, the initiating team member can grant a +4 circumstance bonus.
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About Owen K.C. Stephens
Owen K.C. Stephens Owen Kirker Clifford Stephens is a full-time ttRPG Writer, designer, developer, publisher, and consultant. He's the publisher for Rogue Genius Games, and has served as the Starfinder Design Lead for Paizo Publishing, the Freeport and Pathfinder RPG developer for Green Ronin, a developer for Rite Publishing, and the Editor-in-Chief for Evil Genius Games. Owen has written game material for numerous other companies, including Wizards of the Coast, Kobold Press, White Wolf, Steve Jackson Games and Upper Deck. He also consults, freelances, and in the off season, sleeps. He has a Pateon which supports his online work. You can find it at https://www.patreon.com/OwenKCStephensPosted on July 3, 2018, in Game Design, Starfinder Development and tagged Game Design, gaming, Geekery, Genre Feats, PC Options, Starfinder. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.
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