Monthly Archives: August 2021
d20 Design Diary: How Many Class Options is Enough (Starfinder Inquisitor example)
In the long run, this all comes back to the Starfinder Inquisitor I designed a draft version of. And, as a reminder, if you are a supporter of my Patreon in the timespan from today through tomorrow, you’ll get a slight-revised-and-expanded version of the class as a free pdf!
One common format of d20 game class design is to have selectable options as class features. These may be specializations — things you pick once that then give you fixed abilities as you gain levels (cleric domains, and sorcerer bloodlines are good fantasy examples of this, while mystic connections and operative specializations are the same idea in the Starfinder Roleplaying Game) — or may be a long set of talents that are abilities (some with prerequisites) you get to pick from every few levels (with the ur example being rogue talents, and everything from operative exploits, to mechanic tricks, and soldier gear boosts being iconic Starfinder examples).
These are things like will get endlessly expanded in expansions, campaign settings, houserules, and the blog posts of former-design-leads, so in the long run “enough” is “when the game stops being played.” But when the class is first introduced, you need to decide how many of these choices are presented to begin with. How much is “enough” to feel like there are a range of options with different focuses, themes, and effects. Obviously space constraints are always a downward pressure on these questions, but from a design point of view, you want there to be enough options at launch for players and GMs to have a feel for what kind of things you plan for those options to include, and for characters of the same class to feel different.
So, how much is enough? Well… it depends.
First, if you include bonus feats as choices (or the class feature is nothing but bonus feats, as with the fighter/soldier), you can count that as much more than one entry (depending on how many feats can be selected with the class feature). After that, it’s a question of how many different concepts you want to highlight, and how many such options a single character can take.
In this context, a character can only get a single specialization, so you don’t need as many of them. Talents, otoh, you usually get 5-to-10 of over the course of a single character’s career, so you need more to make sure that no member of the class is forced to pick the same talent as a different character with a different concept.
So, let’s look at the number of such class features that appeared in the Starfinder Core Rulebook, when the classes were first introduced. (I counted these by hand, so I might be off by 1 or 2 on one of these entries — which is fine, since I am looking for an idea of the range of options rather than an exacting tally.)
Envoy
Improvisations – 28
Expertise talents – 19
Mechanic
Artificial Intelligence – 2 (One being the drone, which has ANOTHER set of selectable options)
Mechanic tricks – 30
Mystic
Connections – 7
(The mystic also has spells, but that’s a bit different from selectable class features)
Operative
Specializations – 7
Exploits – 38
Solarion
Stellar Mode – 2
Stellar Revelation – 31
Soldier
Gear Boost – 12
Fighting style – 7
(These are in addition to gaining bonus combat feats at regular intervals, making the soldier highly customizable even with reduced number of gear boosts and fighting styles.)
Technomancer
magic hacks – 31
(The technomaner also has spells, but that’s a bit different from selectable class features)
It’s remarkable how similar some of those numbers are. It’s clear if you have an option that runs most of a class’s 20-level career, such as mystic connections, operative specializations, or soldier fighting styles, you want 7 of them to start. If you are doing talent-like choices, you want 20-40 of them (depending on how much the class depends on them, and how many other custom class features it gets).
So, what do we do with this knowledge?
Let’s apply it to our Starfinder Inquisitor., which is schedule to appear in a “full” version in the book Starfarer’s Companion II.
That class has inquisitions, which are very much in the “specialization” category for the kinds of class features we are discussing here. I only have one of those written up for the draft –the Battle Inquisition. I’m not going to have more than at-most one more for the free pdf version going to Patreon supporters, but when I release a “final” version of the class I’ll want 7 of those total. Offhand, I’d likely choose Battle, Madness, Occult, Solar, Technology, Tyrant, and Void for these first 7 slots, to give a wide range of options tied to both common Starfinder tropes, and inquisitor tropes from other science-fantasy fiction.
The class also has inquisitor tactics, which fill our “talent” design space. One of those — Team Tactics — is going to grant option to a range of teamwork feats designed for the class, so we can likely skew toward the lower end of the 20-40 talent number, especially since the class also picks either advanced melee weapon or longarm weapon proficiency at 1st, AND has spells. There are only 10 in the draft, so that number will need to be roughly double in the final version.
Want to see what I add in the slightly-expanded-and-revised pdf for my Patrons?! Back my Patreon now to find out!
Creating With Mental illness: Prioritizing And Impossibilities
I’ve made no secret of the fact I have multiple mental health challenges, including civilian PTSD and depression. This has been true for my entire nearly-25-year career, and I’ve faced a lot of difficulties as a result. As a ttRPG writer and developer, I deal with deadlines a great deal. As someone who can suffer executive disfunction, the core tasks needed to hit deadlines are sometimes impossible for me. There are days I am literally unable to multitask, plan, organize, and, yeah, prioritize.
If I were smarter, I’d have gotten out of the deadline business. But I am stubborn and strongly, weirdly, dedicated to creating (and trying to promote and improve) tabletop roleplaying games.
Which means over a quarter-century, I have developed some coping mechanisms. None work all the time. Many make only a marginal difference. But deadlines, budgets, projects, and deadlines are often won or lost in the margins. If something lets you average 2,050 words per day rather than 2,000, over 52 five-day workweeks, that’s an extra 13,000-word project done every year.
One of the things I have to deal with is the conflict between prioritizing, and the things at the top of the priority list being impossible. I can’t fix that conflict, even though it happens over and over, but I can work to mitigate its impact. In no particular order (see #2), here are some coping mechanisms
1. Don’t Wait To the Last Moment
Your deadline is 4 weeks away and you think you need 2 weeks to do it? See if you can be done in the first 2 weeks. If yes, then you can get a jump on the next thing, and no mental health issues in that last two weeks can make you late. If not, you at least have a feel for what the project is really going to take, and two more weeks to try to get it done. If you wait until the time needed is the time left, a mental health issue sidelining (or even just slowing) you means you will be late.
It’s also helpful if some issue means you are radically wrong when you estimate how much time you need.
2. Don’t Get Sucked Into Doing Work You Don’t Need To
Making a list of coping mechanisms on your blog? You may be tempted to prioritize them to present them in the best possible order. But if that is taking more thought cycles that just tying them out in any order does, maybe you are making work for yourself when you don’t need to.
I have found myself making outlines longer than the final product is supposed to be, spending days researching something that is going to be relevant for just one line of text, and writing the same thing four different ways to see which one is better. If you have the time for that and are ahead on everything else and have no the projects you’d like to start, that’s fine. But in the real world, there are better ways to spend to your time.
3. Attack Any Task You Can From Any Angle You Can Whenever You Can
Sometimes my brain works best by carefully planning ahead, making lists, figuring out what I need to do when and for how long… and sometimes the only thing it can focus on is writing about halfling battle cheese. That’s fine if halfling battle cheese projects are my priority, but even when they aren’t, that may be the only thing I can work on. If I have multiple projects, and I simply cannot make my brain do any of the work three of them need, then I need to prioritize among those things I CAN do.
This is crucial, at least for me. Spending time psychically flagellating myself for not working on the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd most important thing is NOT more useful than actually getting work done on the 4th, 5th, or 6th most important thing. Depending on how disastrously close to failure those 1st three projects are, I may ramp up the internal pressure to try to force myself to get them done — but if I can’t, then I can’t. Acknowledging what is impossible, and then still prioritizing among what isn’t impossible, is the best route forward for me.
Of course, this means I also must regularly re-assess what’s impossible for me. Just because I began work on a lower-priority task doesn’t mean I need to finish it before moving on to something else. Indeed, sometimes there mere act of accomplishing something gives me the strength and focus I need to tackle something harder and more important. My contribution to more than one award-winning game came not in one smooth run, but in jerks and jolts as I tackled some crucial part of it, then had to go away to work on less-important things until I could do the next difficult bit of writing.
4. Be Honest With Yourself
You can’t fix every shortcoming you acknowledge to yourself, but you can’t even try to fix any lie to yourself about. It hurts to say “I am going to miss this deadline, because my cPTSD won’t let me work on it, again, for the fifth day in a row.” But that’s still better than trying to believe you can write 15,000 words of quality work in 24 hours, with enough caffeine and snack food to keep you going the whole time.
And if you USED to be able to do that, in your 20s, 30s, and 4s, and now that you are in your 50s you can’t anymore? You need to be honest about that too.
5. Be Honest With People You Are Working With
This is super-hard some days, but it is the ethical, practical, empathetic option. You can’t build a sustainable, long-lasting career on just not communicating when things go bad (it’s often called “going turtle” in the ttRPG industry, and it’s a well-known bad sign), or constantly claiming the dog ate your hard drive.
Things DO happen sometimes. If you got driven out of your home by a hurricane a day before a turnover was due, by all means tell the people you are working with what happened while you can. But honesty is always the best policy.
6. Track The Impact Different Kinds Of Projects have On Your Mental Health
For many creators, not all creative work is created equal. I, for example, can more easily write about my process and mental health and industry insights than I can write descriptions of fictional worlds and their societies. I can much, MUCH, more easily write crunchy player option game rules within an existing ruleset than I can write an encounter for a GM to run as part of a published adventure. And writing some things is more likely to leave me depressed, fatigued, or dysfunctional.
You often won’t know about these differences until you have done several different kinds of writing. But as you go through the career of a creator with mental health issues, keep track. Was the War Clans of the Half-Pint Bakery a nightmare because you were having a bad month and other factors in life impacted you? Or does any project focusing on warfare set off mental blocks you don’t get on other assignments?
7. Forgive Yourself
All the best intentions, your strongest efforts, and the smartest coping mechanisms may fail you from time to time. If you beat yourself up over that, it’s just more fuel for the next round of executive disfunction. There are plenty of other people ready to castigate you for every delay, dip in quality, shuffled schedule, and dropped ball. They don’t need your help to point out your flaws. Keep an eye on #4 and #5… but then forgive yourself.
Patreon
This writing is work, and it takes time from my other paying projects. If you got any use out of this article, or have enjoyed any of my content, please consider supporting my Patreon to cover the cost of my doing it. You can join for the cost of a cup of coffee a month.
Designing the Inquisitor for Starfinder: Bringing It All Together
Okay, all the posts tagged “SF Inquisitor” in August of 2021 show the design and thought process I used to get to this point: a playable draft of the Inquisitor for Starfinder. But it’s hard to play a class spread out over a half-dozen posts, so here are the game things without all the design theory, all in one place (along with things like the text for Weapon Specialization, and true judgment as a capstone).
Anyone who is a member of my Patreon on Aug 31st and Sept 1st, 2021, will also get this as a stand-alone pdfs, slightly revised and expanded.
SF INQUISITOR
Hit Points: 6
Stamina Points: 6
Key Ability Score – Wis
Your Wisdom determines your spellcasting ability, the saving throw DCs of your spells, and the number of bonus spells you can cast per day, so Wisdom is your key ability score. A high Strength or Dexterity score can also help you in combat situations.
Class Skills
Athletics (Str), Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Medicine (Wis), Mysticism (Wis), Perception (Wis), Profession (varies), Sense Motive (Wis), Stealth (Dex), Survival (Wis)
Skill Points at each Level: 6 + Int modifier.
Proficiencies
Armor
Light armor, Heavy Armor
Weapons
Basic melee weapons, grenades, and small arms. Also, when you take your first level of inquisitor, select either advanced melee weapons or longarms to gain proficiency with.
SF Inquisitor Class Features
| Level | Base Attack Bonus | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th |
| 1 | +0 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Inquisition, judgement +1 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2 | +1 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Detect zealotry, inquisitor tactic | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 3 | +2 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Acumen, adversary codex, weapon specialization | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 4 | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Inquisitor tactic | 2 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 5 | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Inquisition power, judgement +2 | 2 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 6 | +4 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Inquisitor tactic | 3 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 7 | +5 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Acumen | 3 | 2 | – | – | – | – |
| 8 | +6 | +6 | +2 | +6 | Inquisitor tactic | 3 | 2 | – | – | – | – |
| 9 | +6 | +6 | +3 | +6 | Inquisition power, judgement +3 | 3 | 3 | – | – | – | – |
| 10 | +7 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Inquisitor tactic | 4 | 3 | 2 | – | – | – |
| 11 | +8 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Acumen | 4 | 3 | 2 | – | – | – |
| 12 | +9 | +8 | +4 | +8 | Inquisitor tactic | 4 | 3 | 3 | – | – | – |
| 13 | +9 | +8 | +4 | +8 | Inquisition power, judgement +4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | – | – | – |
| 14 | +10 | +9 | +4 | +9 | Inquisitor tactic | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | – | – |
| 15 | +11 | +9 | +5 | +9 | Acumen | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | – | – |
| 16 | +12 | +10 | +5 | +10 | Inquisitor tactic | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | – | – |
| 17 | +12 | +10 | +5 | +10 | Inquisition power, judgement +5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | – |
| 18 | +13 | +11 | +6 | +11 | Inquisitor tactic | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | – |
| 19 | +14 | +11 | +6 | +11 | Acumen | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | – |
| 20 | +15 | +12 | +6 | +12 | Inquisitor tactic, true judgment | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
Spells
You cast spells drawn from the inquisitor spell list (see the bottom of this article). To learn or cast a spell, you must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell’s level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against your spell is 10 + the spell’s level + your Wisdom modifier.
You can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Your number of spells per day is given on the Inquisitor Class Table. In addition, you receive bonus spells per day if you have a Wisdom modifier of +1 or higher, using the same table as the Mystic in the core rulebook. Note that you only receive these bonus spells once you can cast spells of that level normally. You can also cast 0-level spells. These spells are cast like any other spell, but there is no limit to how many 0-level spells you can cast each day.
Your selection of spells is extremely limited. You begin play knowing one 0-level spell of your choice. At each new inquisitor level, you learn one or more new spells, as indicated on Table: Inquisitor Spells Known. Unlike spells per day, the number of spells you know isn’t affected by your Wisdom modifier.
Every time you gain a level, you can swap out one spell you already know and learn a single new spell of the same level in its place. In effect, you lose the old spell in exchange for the new one. You must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time you gain new spells known for the level.
You can cast any inquisitor spell you know at any time, assuming you have not yet used up your allotment of spells per day for the spell’s level. You can also cast a spell using a higher-level spell slot. For instance, if you want to cast a 1st-level spell but have used up all your 1st-level spells for the day, you can use a spell from a 2nd-level slot instead if you have one.
You can also decipher magical inscriptions that would otherwise be unintelligible or, as a full action, identify any spells encoded in a spell gem as a full action. This does not normally invoke the magic contained within, although it may do so in the case of a cursed or trapped spell gem.
SF Inquisitor Spells Known
| Level | 0 | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th |
| 1st | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2nd | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 3rd | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 4th | 3 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 5th | 3 | 2 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 6th | 4 | 3 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 7th | 4 | 3 | 1 | – | – | – | – |
| 8th | 4 | 3 | 2 | – | – | – | – |
| 9th | 4 | 3 | 3 | – | – | – | – |
| 10th | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | – | – | – |
| 11th | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | – | – | – |
| 12th | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | – | – | – |
| 13th | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | – | – |
| 14th | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | – | – |
| 15th | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | – | – |
| 16th | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | – |
| 17th | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | – |
| 18th | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | – |
| 19th | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | – |
| 20th | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
Inquisition
At 1st level you select an inquisition. This represents the thing that empowers you to strike out against the enemies of your order, faith, creed, people, or philosophy. Each inquisition may be tied to deific powers (for example the inquisition of battle is common among inquisitors that worship gods of war), to your role within an organization (a powerful star crusade may have inquisitors of battle as their elite battlefield commanders), or to your personal nature (a battle inquisitor may simply be driven by a warlike nature and conviction to defeat enemies without any outside force driven them on).
Your inquisition grants you a special power at 1st level, and every 4 class levels thereafter. If an inquisition power has a save DC, the DC is determined as 10 +1/2 your class level + your Wisdom modifier.
While the final version of this class will have multiple inquisitions available, for now there is only one written up, the battle inquisition, which is presented after the other class features and before the inquisitor spell list.
Judgment (Su)
You can focus your disapproval and wrath into a supernatural force that grants you additional might against a specific target. As a move action during combat, you can designate a target to direct your judgment against. Until that target is defeated or you designate a new target, you gain a +1 bonus to your attack and damage rolls against it. This bonus increases to +2 at 5th level, +3at 9th level, +4 at 13th level, and +5 at 17th level.
Additionally, at 1st level attacks you make against the target of your judgement are magical. At 5th level they are aligned to your alignment (for example, if you are chaotic good, your attacks against your judgment target is chaotic and good, bypassing any DR that is bypassed by chaotic or good attacks). At 9th level, they do full damage to incorporeal targets. At 13th level they ignore any DR or energy resistance the target has. At 17th level attacks you make against the target of your judgement do full damage even if the target is normally immune to the damage type the attacks deal.
Detect Zealotry (Sp)
At 2nd level, as a move action, you can detect the presence of strong supernatural forces aligned to a specific alignment. This functions as the detect magic spell, except as noted in this ability. Rather than magic, you can detect the presence of the chaotic, evil, good, and lawful subtypes, and of any spell, weapon fusion, or effect that allows an attack to bypass alignment-related DR (such as the anarchic, axiomatic, holy, and unholy weapon fusions). You can only detect a single alignment subtype or damage type (chaotic, evil, good, lawful) at a time. If you detect an alignment subtype in a creature, it must succeed at a Will save (DC 11 + your key ability modifier), or you learn it’s creature type and any subtypes as well. Once a creature has succeeded at a save against this ability, it need not do so again until you gain a new class level.
Inquisitor Tactics
You learn your first inquisitor tactic at 2nd level, and an additional tactic every 2 levels thereafter. Inquisitor tactics require you to have a minimum inquisitor level, and they are organized accordingly. Some require you to meet additional prerequisites, such as having other tactics.
If an inquisitor tactic has a save DC, the DC is determined as 10 +1/2 your class level + your Wisdom modifier.
2nd LEVEL
You must be at least 2nd level to choose these tactics.
Cunning Initiative (Ex): When determining your initiative bonus you can use your Wisdom modifier, rather than your Dexterity modifier. If you have 5 or more class levels, when you roll for initiative you can choose to expend 1 Resolve point to roll the d20 twice, taking the best of the two results.
Team Tactics: You gain a bonus Teamwork Feat. (This class feature is specifically designed to work with the teamwork feats I already created for Starfinder–if Starfinder ended up with official teamwork feats, I’d have to see if this needed to be rewritten). If you have 5 or more class levels, you can change who is considered to be on your team as a move action by expending a Resolve Point.
Tracking (Ex): You gain an insight bonus on Survival checks to track equal to your judgement bonus. If you have 5 or more class levels, when you roll a Survival check to track you can choose to expend 1 Resolve point to roll the d20 twice, taking the best of the two results.
Solo Tactics (Ex): You are always considered to have one team member adjacent to you when determining the effects of teamwork feats. You must have selected team tactics to select this inquisitor tactic.
Stern Gaze (Ex): You gain Improved Demoralize as a bonus feat. Additionally, you may use your Wisdom bonus, rather than your Charisma bonus, to determine your total Intimidate skill bonus.
8th LEVEL
You must be at least 8th level to choose these tactics.
Bane (Su): Your attacks are all considered to benefit from the bane fusion against any creature.
Discern Lies (Sp): You can discern lies, as per the spell, for a number of rounds per day equal to your class level. These rounds do not need to be consecutive. Activating this ability is a swift action or a reaction to hearing a statement.
Stalwart (Ex): If you succeed at a Fortitude save against an effect that normally requires multiples successful saves to cure (such as a disease or poison), that effect immediately ends and is cured with a single successful save.
14th LEVEL
You must be at least 14th level to choose these tactics.
Exploit Weakness (Ex): You have learned to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself. Whenever your attack roll is a natural 19 or 20 (the die shows a “19” or “20”), that attack ignore any damage reduction or energy resistance the target might have. In addition, if the target has regeneration, the creature loses regeneration on the round following that attack and can die normally during that round.
Greater Bane (Su): Whenever your attack roll is a natural 19 or 20 (the die shows a “19” or “20”), you can apply the stunned critical hit effect to the target. If the attack is a critical hit, you may also apply any one other critical hit effect the attack has. You must have selected the bane inquisitor tactic to select greater bane.
Acumen (Ex)
At 3rd level, your constant and disciplined study of topics related to your mission has given you greater talent with one or more skills. You may select two class skills, which now gain an insight bonus to skill checks equal to your judgement attack bonus. Alternatively you may select one skill that is not a class skill of yours. That becomes a class skill, and gains an insight bonus to skill checks equal to your judgement attack bonus.
You gain an additional acumen at 7th level, and every 4 levels thereafter. Each time you may select two new class skills, or one non-class skill, which gain the benefits of this class feature.
Adversary Codex
You are constantly studying information about possible foes you might face or need to track down. You may have a codex provided by an order you belong to, or may be skilled as searching through the dregs of dark infospheres, sorting fact from wild speculation.
At 3rd level, you can make a special check whenever you want to identify a creature and it’s strengths and weaknesses. This acts as am identify creature task of the appropriate skill to identify the creature (Engineering, Life Science, or Mysticism), using the normal DC for that task, but your check is 1d20 + your Wisdom bonus + (inquisitor level x 1.5). You cannot gain any insight bonuses to this check.
You can also use this check to learn more about a group’s or culture’s leaders and prominent inhabitants, and deities and religious figures, as if using the Culture skill for the recall knowledge task to do so. However, the DC for such checks is 5 higher than it is when suing the actual Culture skill.
Weapon Specialization
You gain the Weapon Specialization feat as a bonus feat for each weapon type this class grants you proficiency with. This includes either advanced melee weapons or longarms (whichever you selected to be proficient with when you gained your first level of inquisitor).
True Judgment
At 20th level, you can level judgment against your foes with barely any effort. Whenever you make an attack, you can change the target of your judgement to be the target of your attack without taking any additional action.
Inquisitions
BATTLE INQUISITION
You know the best way to oppose the forces that threaten your chosen order is to face them in violent, final conflict.
Trained for War: At first level, you gain proficiency in advanced melee weapons or longarms (whichever you did not select from the base inquisitor proficiencies) and heavy weapons, and when you gain weapon specialization as a 3rd level inquisitor it applies to these weapons as well. When making attacks with starship weapons, you automatically gain your judgment bonus to attack rolls (but not damage).
Power Fist (Ex): At 5th level, you can wield weapons that normally requires two hands to use in just one hand. This also means you can make attacks with this weapon while grappled (because this is not considered taking an action that requires two hands).
The Tool for the Job (Ex): At 9th level, as part of the first action you take, you can reload any 1 weapon (assuming you have the appropriate ammunition or battery) or change what weapons you are wielding (putting away anything else you were holding as long as it is something you could have dropped). This takes no additional action.
Triple Jeopardy (Ex): At 13th level, when you make a full attack against the target of your judgment, you can make up to three attacks instead of two attacks. You take a –6 penalty to these attacks instead of a –4 penalty.
Deadly Determined (Su): At 17th level, you can focus your will into an attack to increase its effectiveness. Once per round when you roll damage for an attack (including an attack made in starship combat), without taking an additional action you can expend 1 Resolve Point to reroll any damage die that resulted in a 1. You must use the rerolled damage, even if the dice roll more 1s.
Inquisitor Spells
0-Level
Dancing lights
Daze
Detect affliction
Detect magic
Ghost sound
Grave words
Mending
Psychokinetic hand
Starwalk
Telepathic message
Token spell
Void whispers
1st-Level
Acidic mist
Akashic download
Akashic tutor
Aqueous form
Baleful polymorph
Build trust
Charm person
Comprehend languages
Confusion, lesser
Control winds
Detect radiation
Detect thoughts
Disguise self
Ectoplasmic barrage
Erase
Extra sense
Fatigue
Fear
Flight
Gloom mote
Grease
Gyre
Hide weapon
Hold portal
Identify
Jolting surge
Junk shards
Keen senses
Know coordinates
Life bubble
Mental silence
Necromantic revitalization
Phase blade
Polymorph
Pressurize
Quick change
Remove condition, lesser
Scan environment
Shared evolution
Shrink object
Summon creature
Swim
Tectonic shift
Verdant code
Wisp ally
2nd-Level
Akashic tutor
Alter corpse
Amorphous form
Aqueous form
Atavistic howl
Augury
Baleful polymorph
Benevolent synesthesia
Bioluminescent lure
Body double
Cairn form
Caustic conversion
Cavitation sphere
Command undead
Control winds
Dampening field
Darkvision
Daze monster
Ectoplasmic barrage
Ectoplasmic snare
Ego whip
Emberstep
Extra sense
Fear
Flight
Flux density
Fog cloud
Force blast
Hold person
Inflame
Invisibility
Knock
Last gasp
Make mischief
Make whole
Mirror image
Necromantic revitalization
Overheat
Paranoia
Personal gravity
Polymorph
Remove condition
School spirit
See invisibility
Shrink object
Song of the cosmos
Spider climb
Status
Summon creature
Swim
Tectonic shift
Venomous weapon
3rd-Level
Accelerated adaptation
Akashic tutor
Aqueous form
Arcane sight
Archive
Baleful polymorph
Burning ash cloud
Charm monster
Clairaudience/Clairvoyance
Control winds
Death affinity
Dispel magic
Displacement
Ectoplasmic barrage
Entropic grasp
Etheric shards
Explosive blast
Extra sense
Fear
Flight
Glimpse of truth
Haste
Id insinuation
Intellect fortress
Irradiate
Mental block
Meticulous match
Mind of three
Necromantic revitalization
Nightmare
Nondetection
Pinpoint navigation
Polar vortex
Polymorph
Preserve specimen
Probability prediction
Ray of exhaustion
Remove affliction
Resistant armor, lesser
Selective invisibility
Shifting shadows
Shrink object
Sinking ship
Slow
Speak with dead
Suggestion
Summon creature
Swim
Tectonic shift
Tongues
Wall of air
Warpwave
4th-Level
Akashic tutor
Animate dead
Aqueous form
Baleful polymorph
Baleful polymorph, mass
Borrow corruption
Confusion
Control atmosphere
Control winds
Cosmic eddy
Creation
Data dump
Dimension door
Dimensional anchor
Dismissal
Ectoplasmic barrage
Ectoplasmic eruption
Fear
Flight
Gravity well
Hold monster
Invisibility, greater
Miasma
Necromantic revitalization
Planar binding
Polymorph
Polymorph, mass
Reincarnate
Remove radioactivity
Resilient sphere
Resistant armor
Shadow jump
Shrink object
Song of the cosmos, greater
Summon creature
Swim
Wall of fire
Wander warp
5th-Level
Akashic tutor
Aqueous form
Baleful polymorph
Baleful polymorph, mass
Break enchantment
Contact other plane
Creation
Crush skull
Dismissal
Dispel magic, greater
Ectoplasmic barrage
Flight
Hailstorm
Mislead
Modify memory
Necromantic revitalization
Passwall
Planar binding
Polymorph
Polymorph, mass
Private sanctum
Raise dead
Rapid repair
Reanimate construct
Remove condition, greater
Resistant aegis
Shadow body
Shrink object
Summon creature
Unwilling guardian
Wall of force
6th-Level
Akashic revival
Akashic tutor
Baleful polymorph
Baleful polymorph, mass
Bilocation
Control gravity
Control undead
Disintegrate
Ectoplasmic barrage
Enshrining refuge
Ethereal jaunt
Flesh to stone
Flight
Interplanetary teleport
Invisibility, mass
Necromantic revitalization
Planar barrier
Planar binding
Plane shift
Polymorph
Polymorph, mass
Reanimate
Resistant armor, greater
Shadow walk
Shrink object
Star storm
Subjective reality
Summon creature
Summon drift beacons
Terraform
True seeing
Veil
Wall of steel
Designing the Inquisitor for Starfinder: Discipline Becomes Acumen
We’re still working on creating a Starfinder version of the Inquisitor class from PF1 (having already decided what is core to the class, written up a draft of the basics, created a spell list, and written up the adversary codex, detect zealot and judgment class features, and taken a first stab at one option for the inquisition class feature). I thought we were done when we did some inquisitor tactics… but I was wrong for two reasons.
First, while writing a short list of sample inquisitor tactics, I came up with tracking, which let an inquisitor add their inquisition value as a insight bonus to Survival when tracking, and at 5th level or higher expend a Resolve point to roll such checks twice and take the better of the two skills. That felt like a great addition, which lead me to thinking maybe every inquisition should automatically have 1 or 2 skills listed that get the same bonus as part of the inquisition. Expanding on that idea wouldn’t require me to write out all the inquisitions I want to use in the final version of the class, but I did want to explore the design space and see if it makes sense.
That quickly had me planning potential inquisitions and listing skills that might be associated with them. I soon realized I needed to think about class skills vs non-class skills. Getting an insight bonus to kills is nice, but the big +3 for putting a rank in a class skill has more impact up until 13th level. So, I thought, maybe each inquisition has either two class skills associated with it (and they get an insight bonus equal to the inquisition’s attack bonus), or has one non-class skill, which both becomes a class skill and gets the insight bonus.
I did a fair amount of work trying to tie either one non-class skill or two class skills to each of a variety of inquisitions; so the Celerity inquisition got just Acrobatics, while the Deceit inquisition got both Bluff and Disguise. But I wasn’t happy with all the pairings (the Flesh inquisition getting Athletics and Medicine was okay except for the name, and I never came up with one I liked better). Some worked great (the Investigation inquisition got Perception and Sense Motive) while others felt forced (the wrath inquisition got Intimidate, which was great, but the structure meant it needed a second class skill, and none were a good fit.)
Second, I began to see some ways in which linking skills to specific inquisitions might make the class less suitable for cooperative play. If a player is extremely excited to have the Starfarer inquisition, which might offer Piloting as a skill… what if some other players is running a character optimized to take the Pilot role in Starship combat? If the inquisitor maxes out the Piloting ranks, they likely still can’t compete with a high-Dex operative, and if the inquisitor ignores the skill, they feel part of their inquisition’s granted powers is useless.
While pondering that question I went back over all my previous posts. looking at old design ideas and notes is a good way to review what lead you to a new design issue. And, while doing so, I discovered I had completely forgotten an entire planned class feature! I had given the draft inquisitor “disciplines,” at 3rd level and every 4 levels thereafter. But, now that I have versions of inquisitions and inquisitor tactics done, my original idea for disciplines isn’t needed. And if I axe that class feature, the inquisitor has nothing but spell upgrades when gaining levels 7, 11,15, and 19.
BUT! This means I have a concept I want to disconnect from any existing class feature, and a gap where a new class feature needs to go. And thus, discipline gets removed from the SF Inquisitor, and a new feature, acumen, is granted at level 3 and every 4 levels thereafter.
Acumen (Ex): At 3rd level, your constant and disciplined study of topics related to your mission has given you greater talent with one or more skills. You may select two class skills, which now gain an insight bonus to skill checks equal to your judgement attack bonus. Alternatively you may select one skill that is not a class skill of yours. That becomes a class skill, and gains an insight bonus to skill checks equal to your judgement attack bonus.
You gain an additional acumen at 7th level, and every 4 levels thereafter. Each time you may select two new class skills, or one non-class skill, which gain the benefits of this class feature.
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Designing the Inquisitor for Starfinder: Inquisitor Tactics
We launch up this week’s work on creating a Starfinder version of the Inquisitor class from PF1 (having already decided what is core to the class, written up a draft of the basics, created a spell list, and written up the adversary codex, detect zealot and judgment class features, and taken a first stab at one option for the inquisition class feature) by starting on the very last thing the class is missing – inquisitor tactics.
As a starting point, I’m going to design these to serve as the inquisitor class’s equivalent of operative exploits — roughly the same power level, and exactly the same organization, and therefore the same rules language on introducing them and so on. For starters I only need a few of these. Eventually obviously we’ll want enough to support different kinds of SF Inquisitor PCs, but for now I just want to get in most of the PF1 class’s features we haven’t already included in previous features.
This project also has me considering the evolution of some of my previous design choices. When facing the question of tracking as a tactic, I decided to grant an insight bonus to Survival checks made to track equal to your judgement bonus. Now that I’ve done that I like the idea a lot, and I may choose to add a skill or two to each judgment that gets the same bonus automatically.
Inquisitor Tactics
You learn your first inquisitor tactic at 2nd level, and an additional tactic every 2 levels thereafter. Inquisitor tactics require you to have a minimum inquisitor level, and they are organized accordingly. Some require you to meet additional prerequisites, such as having other tactics.
If an inquisitor tactic has a save DC, the DC is determined as 10 +1/2 your class level + your Wisdom modifier.
2nd LEVEL
You must be at least 2nd level to choose these tactics.
Cunning Initiative (Ex): When determining your initiative bonus you can use your Wisdom modifier, rather than your Dexterity modifier. If you have 5 or more class levels, when you roll for initiative you can choose to expend 1 Resolve point to roll the d20 twice, taking the best of the two results.
Team Tactics: You gain a bonus Teamwork Feat. (This class feature is specifically designed to work with the teamwork feats I already created for Starfinder–if Starfinder ended up with official teamwork feats, I’d have to see if this needed to be rewritten). If you have 5 or more class levels, you can change who is considered to be on your team as a move action by expending a Resolve Point.
Tracking (Ex): You gain an insight bonus on Survival checks to track equal to your judgement bonus. If you have 5 or more class levels, when you roll a Survival check to track you can choose to expend 1 Resolve point to roll the d20 twice, taking the best of the two results.
Solo Tactics (Ex): You are always considered to have one team member adjacent to you when determining the effects of teamwork feats. You must have selected team tactics to select this inquisitor tactic.
Stern Gaze (Ex): You gain Improved Demoralize as a bonus feat. Additionally, you may use your Wisdom bonus, rather than your Charisma bonus, to determine your total Intimidate skill bonus.
8th LEVEL
You must be at least 8th level to choose these tactics.
Bane (Su): Your attacks are all considered to benefit from the bane fusion against any creature.
Discern Lies (Sp): You can discern lies, as per the spell, for a number of rounds per day equal to your class level. These rounds do not need to be consecutive. Activating this ability is a swift action or a reaction to hearing a statement.
Stalwart (Ex): If you succeed at a Fortitude save against an effect that normally requires multiples successful saves to cure (such as a disease or poison), that effect immediately ends and is cured with a single successful save.
14th LEVEL
You must be at least 14th level to choose these tactics.
Exploit Weakness (Ex): You have learned to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself. Whenever your attack roll is a natural 19 or 20 (the die shows a “19” or “20”), that attack ignore any damage reduction or energy resistance the target might have. In addition, if the target has regeneration, the creature loses regeneration on the round following that attack and can die normally during that round.
Greater Bane (Su): Whenever your attack roll is a natural 19 or 20 (the die shows a “19” or “20”), you can apply the stunned critical hit effect to the target. If the attack is a critical hit, you may also apply any one other critical hit effect the attack has. You must have selected the bane inquisitor tactic to select greater bane.
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Being The Cruise Ship Singer of ttRPG Design
Years ago, I was watching a singing competition reality show tryout, when one of the judges told a singer they weren’t good enough for the show. They had no chance of being a pop star, or become famous. they were, the judge said, good enough to make a living being an act singer on cruise ships.
The contestant and other judges reacted as though this was a significant insult. The judge was annoyed by this reaction. “I just told them they were good enough to make a living as a singer. That’s not true for everyone. I’m not doing them any favors by suggesting they can be more successful than their talent allows!”
While that obviously simplifies a lot of factors–the ability to improve, a god producer or agent, luck, determination, changing public standards and genre preferences–I suspect there’s a grain of truth in that critique. Pre-pandemic, there were more than 300 cruise ships operating worldwide, each with one or more theaters offering various acts nearly daily. That’s a lot of stages to fill with singers, and while it doesn’t pay as well as being a hit singer, there is a paycheck involved along with travel, room, and board.
And a lot, a LOT of work. Some singers go on for hours every night, 6-days-a-week, with a few 15-minute breaks. Very few cruise singers do the job for their whole career and then retire. Most run contract-to-contract for a few years, and then move on to some other career, possibly coming back for short contracts between other gigs.
In this, I see a lot of similarities to ttRPG design.
Robin D. Laws famously said there are more professional astronauts in the U.S.A. than full-time ttRPG game designers. That’s especially true if you define full-time as making all the money needed to pay all your bills, and cover health insurance, and put away money for retirement. And of those full-timers, many are the equivalent of cruise-ship singers. Going from gig to gig, making ends meet by working hard, long hours and taking work better-known (better paid) designers don’t want. Most of them will put in a few years, often while younger, then go to part-time-at-most, or move on to other fields entirely.
But a few will stay with it for decades. Even fewer will manage the career alchemy to move into more sustainable positions. Some combination of getting better, changing preferences, good connections, and luck will propel them into full-time jobs with benefits.
That’s not a guarantee they’ll stay in those positions of course. My wife and I have moved cross-country for stable, full-benefit ttRPG industry jobs three times. Twice, that ended in a company layoff in less than a year. Once, the cost of living where the job was simply grew faster than the job’s salary. Even getting that rare unicorn of a full-time ttRPG job isn’t a sure thing, just another shot at maybe finding pop stardom… or at least paid insurance. Reaching the peak of the industry can end up being a visit, that raises your visibility, gives you a chance to improve, gets you more contacts… and then ends. So you need to look around for other ways to make it, just now with a better-looking resume.
And the more tourists might recognize your name, the easier it is to get a gig singing on a cruise ship.
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Owen Explains It All! – Forlorn Hope and Gadgeteer Armor
Before we get to any OGL content, an editorial aside:
So, why is this tagged as an “Owen Explains It All” post, when that’s very unlike my normal marketing tone? Well, because this links into a new show from the BAMF podcast, titled “Owen Explains It All!“.
We have a logo and everything!
If you haven’t already gone and watched the August 16, 2021 episode, we talk about The Suicide Squad and how to implement elements of it in a Starfinder Roleplaying Game campaign. We’ll do an episode every two weeks, picking new things from the zeitgeek to use as inspiration for game material.
Superhero movies and TV are particularly good places to pick up ideas for Starfinder, because they are generally modern-or-later settings that include aliens, technology, magic, and small-unit action –and sometimes even starships– much as Starfinder does. While there are lots of other science-fantasy game settings out there (40k, Shadowrun, RIFTs, and so on), it’s a much less common combination in major media such as TVs and movies. And while superhero stories tend to focus on, well, superheroes (or, in this case, villains), a lot of the concepts and set-pieces still work well translated to a less-cape-and-mask science-fantasy setting.
For this movie in particular, I was fascinated by the idea of convict agents as protagonists on a suicide mission, and with Bloodsport’s gadget-armor, both of which seem ripe for Starfinder emulation. So that’s what we’re looking at in this article. If you want game material inspired from other elements of The Suicide Squad, or want to suggest other things for us to feature on Owen Explains It All, let me know!
Now with that explanation out of the way, let’s get to the OGL game content!
Forlorn Hope as Campaign Setting
I won’t dwell on this too much because I actually covered it pretty well in the podcast, but I still think there is a lot of value in using conscription as the framework for a Starfinder game. Note here that i am talking about doing so with the explicit buy-in of the players, not springing it on them as the GM with no warning. But some game groups really enjoy a narrative device that helps keep them on-track, especially for lengthy campaigns adapted from published adventures. Not everyone will enjoy having a controller with their finger on a cortex bomb that can kill the PC, but having an overwatch who tells you when you are wasting time moving away from the adventure can be a big help for larger groups, or those who play rarely enough they sometimes forget what is going on.
Of course just because you are playing convicts doesn’t mean you are doomed to die on a suicide mission. The term “forlorn hope” specially refers to a group accepting a mission from which they are unlikely to return, often a last stand or desperate attack. You can use this term just to refer to characters for whom death is a likely outcome (the idea of the Forlorn Hope Division is kinda too cool to let a little thing like real-world definitions get in the way), or even put a hard timing on how long the PCs will survive. Certainly there’s nothing more definitely going to bring a game to a close and keep players pushing without having their characters fully rested all the time than a 100-day countdown to cortex bombs detonating.
You can also make it almost comical, and assure players if they die, they get to bring in a new convict character at the same level in the next game session. As long as you are okay with players flinging their PCs into air ducks to jam them and wresting dragons to buy friends time to escape, this can ramp up the risk players are willing to take.
Different groups will react to these concepts different ways, so this is very much an idea a GM should pitch to their players and see how it is received before implementing, but for people who find it dramatic, motivational, and potentially funny it can be a great campaign setup.
Gadgeteer Armorer
The concept of a character grabbing various modules and pieces off their armor to snap together into different kinds of tool and weapons is very on brand for Starfinder. The main issues with turning such an idea into a character option is how to make it balanced and something that doesn’t slow down game play, while remaining relevant at a wide range of character levels. Essentially, it needs to act like a class feature, rather than as buy-it-for-credits gear. The easiest way to add class features in Starfinder while maintaining balance is to create an archetype.
There already are some abilities that grant equipment, temporarily, as class abilities. The technomancer’s “fabricate tech” magic hack is a key example, along with fabricate arms at higher level, and the Adaptive Fighting feat offers a way to let a character have a range of options without slowing down gameplay. Drawing from those, and the mechanic’s experimental armor prototype alternate class feature, I wrote up the following:
Gadgeteer Armorer Archetype
While every starfaring adventurer knows that armor is a crucial part of their gear–allowing survival in the airless void of space as well as keeping attacks of fang and laser at bay. But some explorers and mercenaries go farther, turning their armor into a flexible supply of variable gadgets to be used and changed as needed. The gadgeteer armorer archetype represents such people.
When this archetype’s features refer to your class level, use the level of class you have attached this archetype to.
Minor Gadget Block (Ex or Su): At 2nd level, you can adapt a suit of armor you wear to be gadgeteer armor. No one else wearing your gadgeteer armor gains any benefits of this archetype from it. If your gadgeteer armor is ever destroyed or lost, you can convert a new suit of armor into gadgeteer armor after 24 hours of uninterrupted work. You can take a single 8-hour rest during each 24 hours spent working, but any interruption greater than a moment of conversation requires you to add 12 hours to the time required to convert a new suit of armor into your gadgeteer armor. In addition, you can transfer the gadgeteer function of your armor and place it in a new suit of armor with 10 minutes of work.
Your gadgeteer armor has two gadget blocks, pieces of modular technology you can remove from your armor and add to other devices or turn into specific items. One used, a gadget block is inert and cannot be used again until it is renewed when you regain your daily abilities. Select three technological items or weapons (not including analog weapons) and three weapon fusions. The selected items and fusions cannot have a level greater than your class level.
As a move action, you can use two gadget blocks to temporarily construct a piece of technological gear matching one of the three technological items or weapons you have selected. The item appears in your hands or in an adjacent square. The size of the item cannot exceed 10 bulk or Medium size, and the quality of the item is average. The item persists for a number of minutes equal to your class level. At the end of this duration, the item ceases to function, and is obviously not of any value. If you create an item or weapon with limited uses or charges (such as batteries, drugs, or fuel) with this hack, you must separately provide the appropriate ammunition or fuel for it to function.
Alternatively, as a move action you can use two gadget blocks to temporarily grant the effects of one of the three weapon fusions you selected to a weapon that you touch. The weapon gains the chosen fusion for once minute per class level. The weapon can’t gain a fusion it already has or one that can’t be applied to a weapon of its type, but this bonus fusion doesn’t count toward the maximum total level of fusions the weapon can have at once.
Each time you gain a class level, you can change what technological items, weapons, and fusions you have selected.
Split Gadget Block (Ex or Su): At 4th level, you can select an additional 3 technological items or weapons, and an additional 3 fusions. These must have a level no greater than your class level -2. You can use one gadget block to create these lower-level items or apply these lower-level fusions. These otherwise follow the rules for gadget blocks, meaning each day you can either spend 2 gadget blocks for one item/weapon or fusion of up to your level, or twice spend 1 gadget block to create your lower-level item/weapon or fusion.
Gadget Block (Ex or Su): At 6th level, your gadget armor has a total of 4 gadget blocks per day.
Improved Gadget Block (Ex or Su): At 9th level, your gadget armor has a total of 6 gadget blocks per day.
Major Gadget Block (Ex or Su): At 12th level, your gadget armor has a total of 8 gadget blocks per day.
Wrap Up
So, have different ideas for a Forlorn Hope campaign? Got other supers you think could be turned into archetypes? Interested in having me Explain It All for some other media-inspired content? Leave a comment and let me know!
(This is an Extended Post, with additional material discussing operative-trick-attacks-as-flavor, and an Acrobatic Tricks operative exploit, exclusively on my Patreon for my supporting Patrons.)
Designing the Inquisitor for Starfinder: Inquisitions
We launch up this week’s work on creating a Starfinder version of the Inquisitor class from PF1 (having already decided what is core to the class, written up a draft of the basics, created a spell list, and written up the adversary codex, detect zealot and judgment class features) by tackling what is going to be a major part of defining the flavor of any SF Inquisitor — Inquisitions.
In PF1, inquisitions were not originally a core part of the class when introduced in the APG. Instead, each inquisitor got one domain, selected from those offered by their deity. The problem was, with a very different function than clerics, and lacking the bonus domain spell cast and spells known, domains were often terrible choices for inquisitors. This wasn’t clear at first blush, but as the class got more and more play the failings of domains as a noteworthy part of the class becomes increasing obvious as emergent behavior. So, when UM came out, a new option was crafted for PF1 inquisitors — inquisitions. These were built on somewhat different concepts than domains, and granted by specific deities, and were specifically built to be useful to inquisitors.
Most inquisitions had 2 powers (though those with 1 or 3 both exist), and often just gave access to a new options or worked 1ce per day, but had more impact than typical roughly-cantrip-level powers a domain might give at lower levels.
Since I want SF inquisitions to have roughly the same impact as a mystic connection or operative specialization, I want to standardize at what levels each one gives a character something, and at least roughly balance out how potent those are. That’s a trickier design prospect obviously–standardization is often the enemy of flexibility–but it makes later interactions much smoother (such as if we need to swap out the inquisition power gained at a specific level for archetype abilities, or later want to create alternate inquisition powers as choices any inquisitor can take in place of an ability granted at a specific level by their inquisition). This isn’t mandatory, but in my experience the extra work of balancing all of the subchoices you get from a class to give powers of the same usefulness at the same levels is worth it in the long run.
While I’ll want a bunch of inquisitions eventually, all I need to start is one. So, let’s do the Battle Inquisition. This is going to be the most soldier-y of the inquisitions, giving access to more weapon proficiency and specialization, and then having out minor bonuses that may give in edge in specific circumstances, but don’t generally make the inquisitor more effective than a soldier or solarion. Since I want to have multiple minor ability, I put them at the levels when judgment increases its bonus by +1, to make gaining those levels a bit more exciting for a player.
BATTLE INQUISITION
You know the best way to oppose the forces that threaten your chosen order is to face them in violent, final conflict.
Trained for War: At first level, you gain proficiency in advanced melee weapons or longarms (whichever you did not select from the base inquisitor proficiencies) and heavy weapons, and when you gain weapon specialization as a 3rd level inquisitor it applies to these weapons as well. When making attacks with starship weapons, you automatically gain your judgment bonus to attack rolls (but not damage).
Power Fist (Ex): At 5th level, you can wield weapons that normally requires two hands to use in just one hand. This also means you can make attacks with this weapon while grappled (because this is not considered taking an action that requires two hands).
The Tool for the Job (Ex): At 9th level, as part of the first action you take, you can reload any 1 weapon (assuming you have the appropriate ammunition or battery) or change what weapons you are wielding (putting away anything else you were holding as long as it is something you could have dropped). This takes no additional action.
Triple Jeopardy (Ex): At 13th level, when you make a full attack against the target of your judgment, you can make up to three attacks instead of two attacks. You take a –6 penalty to these attacks instead of a –4 penalty.
Deadly Determined (Su): At 17th level, you can focus your will into an attack to increase its effectiveness. Once per round when you roll damage for an attack (including an attack made in starship combat), without taking an additional action you can expend 1 Resolve Point to reroll any damage die that resulted in a 1. You must use the rerolled damage, even if the dice roll more 1s.
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Owen K.C. Stephens 