Category Archives: Game Design

Alternate Multiclass Rules for Starfinder (Operative)

Jun 22

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Since we’ve spent this week introducing the Multiclass ThemeType concepts, providing examples for envoy, mechanic (with drone), mechanic(with exocortex), and technomancer, and name-dropping the Really Wild West, it seems a good idea to keep that momentum with another class that has abilities that are difficult to scale—the operative!

Operative ThemeType

You have extensive training in the arts of spying, stealth, subterfuge, or a combination of all of those. It’s not your primary area of expertise, but then, isn’t actually being good at something else entirely the best possible way to maintain your cover?

Theme Knowledge (Ex, Theme, 1st Level): At first level, you gain either Bluff or Stealth as a class skill. If you have both of these as class skills from other sources at 1st level, you instead gain a +1 bonus to one of the two skills. Once these choices are made, they cannot be changed.

If you select Bluff, you may use your Bluff skill bonus as your Stealth skill bonus, and are considered trained in Stealth. If you select Stealth, you may use your Stealth skill bonus as your Bluff skill bonus, and are considered trained in Bluff.

Minor Trick Attack (Ex, Archetype, 2nd Level): You gain the operative’s trick attack ability, subject to all of that class feature’s requirements. Your trick attack does not deal any additional damage, but on a successful skill check it does cause your target to be flat-footed against your attack.

Exploit (Ex, Archetype, 4th Level): You gain one operative exploit, selected from the list of 2nd level operative exploits. You treat your character level as your operative level for all operative exploits gained from this Multiclass ThemeType.

Edge (Ex, Theme, 6th Level): You gain a +1 insight bonus to all skill checks, and to initiative checks.

Basic Trick Attack (Ex, Archetype, 6th Level): Your trick attack now deals 1d8 additional damage for every three full character levels you have.

Exploit (Ex, Archetype, 9th Level): You gain one additional operative exploit, selected from the list of 2nd level operative exploits.

Improved Edge (Ex, Theme, 12th Level): Your insight bonus to all skill checks and initiative checks increases to +2.

Exploit (Ex, Archetype, 12th Level): You gain one additional operative exploit, selected from the list of 2nd level or 6th level operative exploits.

Greater Edge (Ex, Theme, 18th Level): Your insight bonus to all skill checks and initiative checks increases to +3.

Exploit (Ex, Archetype, 18th Level): You gain one additional operative exploit, selected from the list of 2nd, 6th, or 10th-level operative exploits.

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Alternate Multiclass Rules for Starfinder (Technomancer)

Jun 21

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So we’ve presented the Multiclass ThemeType (which uses your theme and an archetype to present an alternate method of multiclassing), and provided examples for the envoy, drone-using mechanic, and exocortex-using mechanic. We’ve even name-dropped the Really Wild West setting hack, for people who are most excited about weird west options.

So, let’s talk multiclass spellcasting.

The Starfinder Roleplaying Game has a number of ways to get just a little magic power, including your race, theme, and archetype, and even combines your caster level among all your spellcasting classes is you happen to multiclass into more than one spellcasting class. But it’s still difficult to have spellcasting be a secondary, but major and ongoing, part of your overall character build. A character that adds just a few levels of solider gets abilities that retain their usefulness throughout a campaign. A character that takes a few levels of technomancer quickly find those options fall way the curve. At the same time, you obviously can’t have a few class levels give you access to the highest-level spells in the game, or the power boost involved is more than a few levels should grant.

The technomancer Multiclass ThemeType tries to get just the right balance, making sure your sacrifices of core class abilities from your archetype’s alternate class features reward you enough to be worthwhile, without making you overpowered.

Technomancer ThemeType

While you haven’t had the opportunity to master the ways theosophy and technology can be blended, you haven dabbled in the area. You understand the basics of how hybrid items function, and how to cast some small number of technomagical spells.

Theme Knowledge (Ex, Theme, 1st Level): At first level, you gain two of the following skills of your choice as class skills: Computers, Engineering or Mysticism. For each selected skill, if you have the skill as a class skill from other sources at 1st level, you instead gain a +1 bonus to that skill. Once these choices are made, they cannot be changed.

Minor Technomagic (Sp, Archetype, 2nd Level): Select one 1st level technomancer spell. You can cast this spell once per day. Select two 0-level technomancer spells. You can cast these spells at will. Your caster level for all technomancer spells gained from this Multiclass ThemeType is equal to your character level, and you use your key ability score for all calculations that normally draw on the technomancer’s key ability score.

Basic Technomagic (Sp, Archetype, 4th Level): Select two 1st level technomancer spells. You have two 1st-level technomancer spell slots per day you can use for any combination of the 1st-level technomancer spells gained from this Multiclass ThemeType. This replaces the 1st level spell you gained from minor technomagic. Also select a third 0-level technomancer spells. You can cast this spell at will.

Magic Hack (Theme, 6th Level): You gain one magic hack, selected from the list of 2nd level technomancer magic hacks. You treat your character level as your technomancer level for all magic hacks gained from this Multiclass ThemeType.

Intermediate Technomagic (Sp, Archetype, 6th Level): Select one 2nd level technomancer spell. You can cast this spell once per day.

Advanced Technomagic (Sp, Archetype, 9th Level): Select two 2nd level technomancer spells. You have two 2nd-level technomancer spell slots per day you can use for any combination of the 2nd-level technomancer spells gained from this Multiclass ThemeType. This replaces the 2nd level spell you gained from intermediate technomagic.

Improved Magic Hack (Theme, 12th Level): You gain one magic hack, selected from the list of 2nd level or 5th level technomancer magic hacks.

Greater Technomagic (Sp, Archetype, 12th Level): Select one 3rd level technomancer spell. You can cast this spell once per day.

Greater Magic Hack (Theme, 18th Level): You gain one magic hack, selected from the list of 2nd, 5th, or 8th-level technomancer magic hacks.

Full Technomancy (Sp, Archetype 18th): You replace all your technomancer spells gained from this Multiclass ThemeType with 4 0-level spells known, 4 1st-level spells known, 3 2nd-level spells known, 2 3rd-level spells known, and one 4th-level spell known. You can cast the 0-level spells at will, and have three 1st-level spell slots, two 2nd-level spell slots, two 3rd-level spell slots, and one 4th-level spell slot.

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Alternate Multiclass Rules for Starfinder (exocortex Mechanic)

Jun 20

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We covered the basic idea behind Multiclass ThemeTypes in the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, talked about why they are especially good for Really Wild West campaigns, and presented two example of how it works—the Envoy and the drone Mechanic. That, of course, immediately suggests there should be an exocortex mechanic Multiclass ThemeType.

And there is! 😊

Mechanic (exocortex) ThemeType

You have an extremely advanced combat brain implant. It may not be the absolute best hardware in existence, but it’s much better than anything you can buy off-the-shelf.

Theme Knowledge (Ex, Theme, 1st Level): At first level, you gain two of the following skills of your choice as class skills: Computers, Engineering or Physical Science. For each selected skill, if you have the skill as a class skill from other sources at 1st level, you instead gain a +1 bonus to that skill. Once these choices are made, they cannot be changed.

Basic Combat Training (Ex, Archetype, 2nd Level): You gain proficiency in either longarms, or heavy armor. If you select proficiency in longarms, this counts as a proficiency granted by your class for purpose of weapon specialization class feature.

If you already have proficiency with both longarms and heavy armor, you instead gain Weapon Focus with longarms as a bonus feat.

Thing (Ex, Archetype, 4th Level): Though still calculated as your character level –1, your maximum effective mechanic level for your drone increases by +1.

Thing (Ex, Theme, 6th Level): You gain the repair drone mechanic trick, treating your mechanic level as your character level -1

Basic Combat Training (Ex, Archetype, 6th Level): You gain the combat tracking ability of the exocortex version of the mechanic’s artificial intelligence class feature, but you treat your base attack bonus from this class as being 1 higher (to a maximum of 1 less than your class level), rather than treating it as your class level.

If your base attack bonus from this class is so high that this gives you no benefit, instead when using combat training you add half your Intelligence bonus (minimum +1) to damage done with weapon.

Wireless Hack (Ex, Archetype, 9th Level): You gain the wireless hack ability of the exocortex version of the mechanic’s artificial intelligence class feature, though your range is only 10 feet.

Exocortex Trick (Ex, Theme, 12th Level): You gain one mechanic trick, selected from the mechanic tricks of 8th level or less that grant an ability to your exocortex (such as neural shunt or overclocking).

Exocortex Mod (Ex, Archetype, 12th Level): Your exocortex allows you to apply any one of the following drone mods to yourself as if you were a drone with that mod installed: armor slot, cargo rack, climbing claws, enhanced senses, hydrojets, jump jets, resistance, smuggler’s compartment, speed, or weapon proficiency (gaining proficiency in advanced melee or heavy weapons).

Twin Tracking (Ex, Theme, 18th Level): You gain the twin tracking ability of the exocortex version of the mechanic’s artificial intelligence class feature.

Intermediate Combat Training (Ex, Archetype, 18th Level): When using the combat tracking ability of the exocortex version of the mechanic’s artificial intelligence class feature, you treat your base attack bonus from this class as being 2 higher (to a maximum of 2 less than your class level).

If your base attack bonus from this class is so high that this gives you no benefit, instead when using combat training you add your Intelligence bonus (minimum +2) to damage done with weapon.

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I have a Patreon, which supports this blog. My patrons are how I can take time to make posts like these. They also sometimes get preview material not yet available anywhere else. Today, for example, they get access to a third mechanic Multiclass ThemeType—the technician—which allows a character to access some of the abilities mechanics get besides drones and exocortexes, but doesn’t have any version of the artificial intelligence class feature.

If you join at any level, you can check it out here!

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The Shape of Gelatinous Evolution

Jun 19

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Idea: Gelatinous Oozes change shape from cubes as they age, and gain special powers, based on their shape.

Gelatinous Torus: Gets increased speed and Spring Attack
Gelatinous Pyramid: Gets Spell Resistance equal to 15 + CR
Gelatinous Reuleaux Triangle: Gains the power of two other oozes, selected as random.
Gelatinous Apollonian Gasket: Can cast enlarge and reduce person, even on oozes, at will
Gelatinous Hyperboloid: Can cast haste and slow at will, and time stop once per day
Gelatinous Lemniscate: Gains the ghost’s rejuvenation ability.

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Alternate Multiclass Rules for Starfinder (drone Mechanic)

Jun 19

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We covered the basic idea behind Multiclass ThemeTypes in the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, talked about why they are especially good for Really Wild West campaigns, and presented one example for the Envoy. That, of course, leaves six more classes to cover just to expand the concept to the classes in the core rulebook. Alphabetically, after envoy, that would bring us to the mechanic.

And we immediately run into a problem.

One of the core things someone wishing just a little of the utility of the mechanic might want is a drone. It IS possible to build a ThemeType that gives you access to a drone… but unless that drone very quickly becomes useless, it can’t do much of anything else. So if we build a mechanic ThemeType that handles drones well, it’s not likely to handle exocortexes or generic mechanic hacks well. It could be done by having every choice at every level being one of three options, but then either what you do at 1st level locks you in to just one of those choices at every level, or you’d have the choice of only occasionally selecting a drone upgrade, which very quickly makes the drone too weak to be of any use for the character.

Ultimately, it seems best to just accept that if you want a drone, that’s pretty much all you are getting from that ThemeType, and break the mechanic into multiple ThemeTypes. This also promotes more spotlight protection for a core mechanic. If a group has a mechanic with an exocortex, a player taking the Mechanic (drone) ThemeType doesn’t overlap at all with the true mechanic. Similarly, if a full mechanic does take a drone, it’ll be obvious among all the players that selecting this ThemeType may step on the mechanic’s toes, hopefully leading to an adult and rational conversation where GM and other players all work out how to proceed to everyone has fun.

A group COULD decide everyone is going to have a drone, for example, and make that a unifying theme of their adventuring party. As long as the mechanic player liked that idea, and everyone else was fine with the fact that the mechanic’s drone is always going to be noteworthily better than theirs.

And now, without further ado, we present the Mechanic (drone) ThemeType.

Mechanic (drone) ThemeType

You may not be the universal miracle-worker or mechanics that some people manage, but you have built a unique drone AI ally that is way beyond what can be bought off the rack. It’s maybe never going to be quite as good as a full mechanic’s drone, but it’s better than what any other non-mechanic can manage.

Theme Knowledge (Ex, Theme, 1st Level): At first level, you gain two of the following skills of your choice as class skills: Computers, Engineering or Physical Science. For each selected skill, if you have the skill as a class skill from other sources at 1st level, you instead gain a +1 bonus to that skill. Once these choices are made, they cannot be changed.

Basic Drone (Ex, Archetype, 2nd Level): You gain the drone version of the mechanic’s artificial intelligence class feature. Your effective mechanic level is equal to your class level –1, to a maximum mechanic level of 3rd. You do not gain any other mechanic class features, but your drone does gain drone special abilities, feat, and drone mods appropriate for your effective mechanic level.

Drone Improvement (Ex, Archetype, 4th Level): Though still calculated as your character level –1, your maximum effective mechanic level for your drone increases by +1.

Drone Improvement (Ex, Theme, 6th Level): You gain the repair drone mechanic trick, treating your mechanic level as your character level -1

Drone Improvement (Ex, Archetype, 6th Level): Though now calculated as your character level –2, your maximum effective mechanic level for your drone increases by +2.

Drone Improvement (Ex, Archetype, 9th Level): Though still calculated as your character level –2, your maximum effective mechanic level for your drone increases by +4.

Drone Improvement (Ex, Theme, 12th Level): Though still calculated as your character level –2, your maximum effective mechanic level for your drone increases by +3.

Drone Improvement (Ex, Archetype, 12th Level): Though still calculated as your character level –2, your maximum effective mechanic level for your drone increases by +3.

Drone Trick (Ex, Theme, 18th Level): You gain one mechanic trick, selected from the mechanic tricks of 8th level or less that grant an ability to your drone (such as drone meld or overclocking).

Drone Improvement (Ex, Archetype 18th): Though still calculated as your character level –2, your maximum effective mechanic level for your drone increases by +2.

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Really Wild West Supernatural Wilderness Feats (for Starfinder)

Jun 15

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While we already added some mundane wilderness feats to our Really Wild West setting, a big part of RWW is that magic (primarily in the form of theosophy) is real, and supernatural powers exist. So in addition to feats for those who are simply skilled at wilderness training, we need some feats that represent a not-so-mundane connection to the wilderness. The core of these feats is the Wildling feat, with the other feats building off of that.

Animal Soul
Your close bond with the animal world allows you to ignore harmful magic that cannot affect your wild side.
Prerequisite: Wildling, Survival 1 rank.
Benefit: You can choose not to allow spells and effects to affect you if they would not be capable of affecting both your original creature type and the animal creature type.

Aspect of the Beast
You have a strong supernatural connection to the animal world.
Prerequisite: Wildling, Survival 1 rank.
Benefit: Your bestial nature manifests itself in one of the following ways. You choose the manifestation when you choose the feat, and then you cannot change it.
Night Senses (Ex): If your base race has normal vision, you gain low-light vision. If your base race has low-light vision, you gain darkvision out to a range of 30 feet. If your base race has darkvision, the range of your darkvision increases by 30 feet.
Claws of the Beast (Ex): You grow a pair of claws. Your unarmed attacks are not considered archaic and can deal piercing or slashing damage, and gain the bleed critical hit effect. The bleed is 1d4, and increases to 1d6 at character level 4, to 1d8 at character level 9, and to 2d6 at character level 14.
Predator’s Leap (Ex): You gain a +5 bonus to Acrobatics checks made to leap or fall.
Wild Instinct (Ex): You gain a +2 bonus on initiative checks and a +2 bonus on Survival skill checks.

Greater Wildling
Your natural empathy stretches across the world of nature.
Prerequisite: Wildling, Survival 3 ranks.
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on wild empathy checks, and you may use wild empathy to duplicate an Intimidate check rather than a Diplomacy check. In addition, choose one of the following kinds of creatures: elementals, fey, lycanthropes, plants, or vermin. You may influence creatures of that type with wild empathy, if their Intelligence score is –4 or –5, or they do not possess an Intelligence score. Once you choose the type of creature, it cannot be changed.

Wildling
You were touched by nature at an early age and share a kinship with wild creatures. Your body might bear animalistic features, such as bestial ears or a tail, or your presence may be subtly unlike that of others.
Prerequisite: Survival 1 rank.
Benefit: You can improve the attitude of an animal with wild empathy. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. You rolls 1d20 and adds your character level and Charisma modifier to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly.
To use wild empathy, you and the animal must be able to study each other, which means that you must be within 30 feet of one another under normal conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time. You can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence modifier of –4 or –5, but you take a –4 penalty on the check. If you have the wild empathy class feature, you gain a +3 bonus to your wild empathy checks.

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I have a Patreon, which supports my writing material like this. When writing this article I found myself going two different directions. Once route lead to the feats presented here, which focus primarily on the Wildling feat as the base. The other was built off a Fylgja feat, which drew inspiration from the nodric concept of an animal spirit that is linked to you in some way, and may even be part of your own soul. While that line didn’t pan out as well in general I still like the core Fylgja feat, which I posted as a Patreon-exclusive for my backers.

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Laser Dress (for Starfinder)

Jun 12

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The always-amazing Crystal Frasier called over the cubical wall “Owen! I want a laser dress for Starfinder!” just as I was going on break.

I mean, who am I to refuse to create a laser dress?

Laser Dress (for Starfinder Roleplaying Game)

A laser dress is a truly outrageous, glittering high-fasion dress that is always considered to be in style regardless of the occasion. It is spectacularly bright, glittery, and fabulous.

A laser dress comes with a battery, but can use up to ultra-capaicty batteries if they are bought separately, and consumes 1 charge per 10 minutes of use.

A laser dress grants you a bonus to Profession (dancer) checks equal to the square root of its item level (+1 at 1st, +2 at 4th, +3 at 9th, +4 at 16th).

A laser dress allows you to make a Profession (dancer) in palce of Acrobatics to for the tumble task. It also allows you to use Profession (dancer) in place of Diplomacy checks for the Change Attitude task, though doing so requires the target be present for at least 30 minutes of your dancing.

A laser dress can also be used to make ranged attacks in a radius, with a range equal to it’s item level x5 feet. This is a full round action, but you can move up to your speed as part of this action if you succeed at a DC 15 Profession (dancer) check. You make a single ranged attack roll against all foes in range, doing 1d6 fire damage, plus double the dress’s item level (critical effect: target makes Reflex save or is blinded for 1d4 rounds). For this purpose, the laser dress is treaded as a small arm in the laser category, and each attack has a usage of 1.

A laser dress has negligible bulk, and costs 50 credits, +its item level squared x100 credits, + and additional 10,000 credits per item level above 10th.

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Wilderness Feats For Really Wild West (in Starfinder)

Jun 11

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The Really Wild West setting hack for the Starfinder Roleplaying game is likely to have characters spending a lot of time in the wilderness. The following feats are designed to allow characters to be better prepared to explore and adventure far from civilization. Of course, these feats can also be used in a typical Starfinder Rolepalying Game campaign, though players should consider if such a game is going to spend most of its time in spaceships and urban settings.

Adaptive Training
You can adjust your movements, attitude, and awareness to match specific conditions while adventuring.
Prerequisites: Three or more general feats.
Benefit: Select three general feats that you do not have but whose prerequisites you meet. Once per day after a 10-minute rest, you can gain the benefit of one of these feats until you next spend 1 Resolve Point during a 10-minute rest to regain your Stamina Points. Each time you gain a level, you can replace one of these three selected feats with a different feat that you don’t have but meet the prerequisites for.

Ambush Awareness
You are always on your toes and are rarely caught off-guard for long, even when an enemy gets the jump on you.
Benefit: If you are unable to act in the surprise round because you failed a Perception check, you can still act on your initiative count in the surprise round, but only to take the total defense action. Additionally, when rolling initiative you can choose to gain a +4 bonus to your roll, but you must then  take the total defense action on your first turn in that combat.

Animal Call
Your mimicry of animal noises is extraordinary.
Prerequisite: Bluff 1 rank, Survival 1 rank.
Benefit: You may use Survival in place of Bluff to mimic animal calls. When you use Bluff or Survival to mimic animal sounds, creatures with no ranks in Survival cannot attempt Sense Motive checks to identify the sounds as fake. You can use your animal calls for the Diversion and Pass Secret Message tasks of the Bluff skill. Creatures that do not recognize your animal calls as fake cannot attempt to make Sense Motive checks to understand secret messages you send in this manner.

Arctic Adaptation
You are comfortable in the driving snow and glaring ice of frigid climes, and you can survive much longer in such harsh environments than those who are unaccustomed to the cold.
Prerequisite: Beast Hunter (cold), Survival 1 rank.
Benefit: You treat cold environments as though they were one step less severe than they normally are. Additionally, you gain a +2 bonus on Perception checks against creatures that gain a racial bonus on Stealth checks in snowy conditions, and you gain a +4 bonus on saving throws and checks to avoid becoming blinded or dazzled.

Beast Hunter (Combat)
Thanks to your experience hunting in the wilds, you are capable of tracking animals in your most often traveled terrains, and you can easily take down animals larger than yourself.
Prerequisite: Survival 1 rank.
Benefit: Select one of the following terrains: Cold, Desert, Forest, Jungle, Mountains, Plains, Swamp, Urban. You gain a +2 bonus on Survival checks to track animals, humanoids, magical beasts, and monstrous humanoids native to that terrain. Additionally, against animals native to that terrain, you gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC and a +1 bonus on damage rolls.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time you select this feat, you can choose an additional favored terrain to gain the listed benefits in.

Desert Dweller
The endless sands and waterless wastes are your home, and neither the heat nor dehydration presents as lethal of a threat to you as it does to other travelers.
Prerequisite: Beast Hunter (desert), Survival 1 rank.
Benefit: You treat hot environments as though they were one step less severe. You need to consume only half the normal amount of water for a creature of your size, and you gain a +4 bonus on Constitution checks to resist the effects of thirst. You also gain a +4 bonus on saving throws and checks to avoid being deceived by illusions (including desert mirages).

Drover
You are comfortable in the wide and endless prairie, savanna, or steppe.
Prerequisite: Beast Hunter (plains), Survival 1 rank.
Benefit: You, your mount, and an a number of allies (and their mounts) equal to your ranks in Survival add +2 hours to how long you can walk or be otherwise active before needing to attempt Constitution checks for a forced march, and you can hustle for 1 extra hour per day during overland travel instead. Youu reduce the penalty for following tracks using Survival while moving at double speed by 5. In plains terrain, you gain a +4 bonus to Survival checks to avoid getting lost, to find food and water, to protect yourself from severe weather, and to predict the weather.

Expert Salvager
You can find useful materials and mystic components off corpses others think of as worthless.
Prerequisite: 1 rank Mysticism or Engineering.
Benefit: If you have 1 or more ranks of Mysticism, when you defeat an aberration, dragon, fey, magical beast, outsider, or undead, and the creature has a treasure entry of “none” and that actually has no treasure, you can attempt to salvage useful components off its corpse. Make a Mysticism check (DC 15 +1.5x the CR of the defeated foe)—you may not take 10 or take 20 on this check and may only attempt it once per creature. If you succeed you recover components with a value equal to 25% of the normal treasure value of the monster which may only be used toward paying the cost of crafting a magical or hybrid item.
If you have 1 or more ranks of Engineering, when you defeat a construct that has a treasure entry of “none” actually has no treasure, or disarm a trap, you can attempt to salvage useful components off its remains. Make an Engineering check (DC 15 +1.5x the CR of the defeated construct or trap)—you may not take 10 or take 20 on this check and may only attempt it once per creature. If you succeed you recover components with a value equal to 25% of the normal treasure value of the threat’s CR which may only be used toward paying the cost of crafting a technological or hybrid item.

Forester
You are a master of woodcraft and forest lore and can move through even the densest of trees with ease and grace.
Prerequisite: Beast hunter (forest), Survival 1 rank.
Benefit: You ignore difficult terrain created by light or heavy undergrowth, and you ignore increased DCs for Acrobatics and Stealth checks in light or heavy undergrowth. In addition, you can use trees to shield yourself from attacks, gaining a +1 cover bonus to your AC whenever you are adjacent to a tree (including while climbing). If you are adjacent to two or more trees simultaneously, you gain a +2 cover bonus to your AC and a +1 bonus on Reflex saving throws.

Improved Beast Hunter (Combat)
You are well trained in stalking and hunting the animals of the wild.
Prerequisites: Beast Hunter, Survival 3 ranks.
Benefit: Your bonus to tracking creatures native to the terrain you have chosen with Beast Hunter increases to +4. Additionally, you gain a +4 bonus on combat maneuver checks against such creatures, and gain a +4 bonus to AC against their attempts to use combat maneuvers against you. Further, you gain a +2 bonus on saving against extraordinary and supernatural abilities native animals, humanoids, magical beasts, and monstrous humanoids.
Special: If you have selected Beast Hunter multiple times, you gain this benefit for all of the terrains you have chosen for those feats.

Jungle Survivalist
Normally pestilential rain forests are a safe haven and home to you.
Prerequisite: Beast Hunter, Survival 1 rank.
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on saving throws against diseases, poisons, and the distraction ability of creatures with the swarm subtype. You also gain a +2 bonus on Acrobatics and Athletics checks when climbing trees and a +2 bonus on Perception checks against creatures that gain a racial bonus on Stealth checks in vegetation.

Thrill of the Hunt (Combat)
The pursuit of prey invigorates you. You revel in tracking down and slaying your quarry.
Prerequisite: Survival 1 rank.
Benefit: Once per day, when you succeed at a Survival check to find or follow a creature’s tracks, you can designate that creature to be your prize for a number of hours equal to 4 + your ranks in Survival. You gain a +2 morale bonus on Survival checks to follow your prize’s tracks and on weapon damage rolls against your prize.
If you find and subsequently render your prize dead or helpless, you regain the ability to use Thrill of the Hunt on the same day.

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Bar Fights and Beatdowns in Really Wild West (for Starfinder)

Jun 1

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Sometimes in the Really Wild West, you need to express your displeasure through violence, but you’re not wanting anyone to get killed over the issue. Maybe someone spilled your drink. Maybe someone hasn’t gotten the message to get out of town. Maybe they didn’t smile when they called out something vile. You don’t want blood on your hands, but you’re ready to bust a lip and blacken an eye.

You’re ready for a Brawl.

Though specifically designed for the Really Wild West setting hack, these rules can be used in any Starfinder Roleplaying Game campaign.

A Brawl is specifically a fight where no one is trying to kill anyone else. Common examples of this are bar fights, campside tussles, and pugilist exhibitions. A brawl stops being a brawl as soon as anyone involved switches to lethal intent, generally by drawing a true weapon (as opposed to an improvised weapon). Even if you draw a weapon with the intent of using it in a nonlethal fashion, such as pulling a pistol to use in pistol-whipping foes, the very fact it is being brandished changes the tenor of the conflict, and it goes from a brawl to a normal fight.

Brawl Rules

In a Brawl, no one has escalated he fight to lethal levels. As a result, the fight goes a little differently. First, everyone is more focused on hitting than avoiding hits, so everyone gets +2 to attacks, and takes a -2 penalty to KAC. Second, unarmed damage increases to 1d6 + Strength bonus + a special Weapon Specialization bonus equal to level. (A character with Improved Unarmed Strike may skip these bonuses and penalties and add their normal dice of damage on top of this, and a character with special unarmed Weapon Specialization, such as a vesk, may use it instead).

A character can attempt to use an improvised weapon, such as a bottle to crack over someone’s head, or a chair to smash over their back. An improvised weapon takes a move action to ready, it adds +1d6 brawl damage, you lose the +2 bonus to brawl attack rolls, and if you ever miss a foe’s KAC by 5 or more, or do maximum damage, the improvised weapon breaks.

As long as the Brawl is still in effect, no attack can do more than 1 Hit Point of damage, even if a target is out of Stamina Points. Instead, whenever a character takes even a single Hit Point, the character must make a Fortitude save (DC 15 + total damage of the attack that deal Hit Point damage) or be stunned. If the target misses this save by 5 or more, they are instead Knocked Out for 1d4 rounds.

You can use 0-level spells as part of a Brawl, but anything higher level counts as drawing a weapon. And once someone draws a weapon, the Brawl switches immediately to normal fight rules.

A character trained in Bluff or Diplomacy can try to Hold Off a Brawl for a round, preventing anyone from attacking them. This is a standard action and requires a check with one of those two skills to be made against each potential attacker, with a EDC equal to 15 + target’s CR. With a successful check, the attacker must either escalate to a lethal attack, or pick a new target.

Getting into a Brawl is generally overlooked by local authorities in frontier regions. The difference between punching and kicking and hair-pulling vs shooting with guns and stabbing with knives is well understood. It’s a public annoyance, rather than a potential murder. However, anyone who escalates a Brawl to a lethal conflict is seen as a thug at best, and a criminal guilty of attempted murder at worst.

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Starfinder Monster Design and Really Wild West Bestiary—Rattle-Cat

Starfinder Monster Design and Really Wild West Bestiary—Rattle-Cat

May 19

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We already looked at some general guidelines for building monsters for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game with the Grizzly Boar, an entry for the eventual bestiary for the Really Wild West setting hack which uses the combatant array for monster creation. Now, we’re going to look at building a monster using the expert array.

The Rattle-Cat

RWW-Rattlecat-color-01

A Rattle-Cat is a predator and scavenger unique to North America, though it’s range on the continent is much broader than the snake it shares some characteristics with (likely due to it’s fur coat and warm-blooded nature). Rattle-Cats are ambush predators, depending on speed, stealth, and a mastery of terrain to get near their prey, before dashing out to bite and poison potential prey or threats. They also use their menacing rattle to intimidate any creature that poses a potential threat, a warning much of North American wildlife knows well enough to heed, and to drive away competition from potential scavenged kills, such as dead herd animals and carrion.

Rattle-Cats often travel alone as wandering creatures, but also sometimes form territorial packs (known as a “dirge of rattle-cats”) of up to 12-16 members, ruled over by the eldest female in the pack. They lay eggs which hatch big-pawed cubs with stubby tails, who can already move about and inject venom within an hour of hatching. A rattle-cat can be trained with some success if raised from hatching, making the eggs valuable in certain markets.

Building and Defining an Expert

The actual rules for building and defining a monster using the expert array are the same as those for any other creature, but the nature of the expert array means the emphasis needs to be different. An expert has a lower attack roll and does less damage per attack than a combatant, and has a slightly lower KAC and about 10% fewer hit points. In exchange, it gets a higher ability DC, base spell DC, and more master skills.

That means when deciding if a creature should use the combatant or expert array, the GM needs to ask “is the core conceit of this creature one that leans heavily on skills or abilities with save DCs?” (You use the spellcaster array if you creature is primarily a spellcaster—that’s pretty straightforward. Anything that is a straightforward fighting monster should be a combatant. But if some creature’s concept is built on special effects or opposed skill checks, it works better as an expert. It’s not able to deal or soak quite as much damage in a stand-up fight, but it is more likely to have the skills needed to be a noncombat threat to PCs, and it’s abilities are harder to resist.

So when building our template graft, we should have a fairly heavy focus on things that work well with complementary skills, and/or that have a save DC of some kind. Once we know the core abilities for the creature, it’s still possible to easily create a graft we can apply to the right array and type and/or subtype grafts to produce a version of the monster at any CR. Using the same format as we did for the Grizzly Boar template graft, here’s the graft for the Rattle-Cat.

Rattle-Cat TEMPLATE GRAFT
Required Array: Expert
Required Type: Animal
Alignment: Neutral
Size: Small (CR 1/3-CR 1/2), Medium (CR 2-CR 11), or Large (CR 12+)
Speed: 30 feet (Small), 50 feet (Large) or 60 feet (Huge)
Ability Score Modifiers: Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom
Special Abilities: 1-Poison bite (see Rattler Poison). 2-Rattle (see Rattle special ability). 3-Evasion. 4-Cloaking field (as the operative exploit). Bonus- Spring Attack (as the feat).
Skills: Master– Acrobatics, Intimidate, Stealth; Good-Athletics, Survival
Attacks: Melee (bite, with poison; critical: injection +2), no ranged.

Rattle (Ex): The tip of a rattle-cat’s tail makes a disturbing, rhythmic noise that most creatures other than rattle-cats and rattle-snakes find disconcerting. As part of a move action, a rattle-cat can rattle its tail to make an Intimidate check to demoralize all foes within 60 feet. Once a creature has been demoralized by this function of a Rattle-Cat’s rattle ability, it cannot be affected again for 24 hours. A Rattle-Cat can also make an Intimidate check to demoralize any creature that can hear it as a standard action.

Rattler Poison

Type poison (injury); Save Fortitude (DC set by array and CR)
Track Constitution; Frequency: 1/hour for 12 hours
Special: Multiple bites cannot move target down the Constitution track more than once per hour.
Cure: 2 consecutive saves

So, you can see that one major element of the rattle-cat is its poison, which it applies with every bite. Given how the poison rules in the Starfinder Roleplaying Game this could be extremely deadly very quickly, but the special restriction means that after the first bite you are just taking damage until the 2nd or subsequent hour. If untreated, the 12 hour duration makes you likely to die without treatment… which is exactly what we’re looking for in a poisoned Really Wild West creature, to help drive storylines. The poison is both a combat enhancer, and an after-combat driver of story and plot.

The Rattle ability is built off Intimidate skill rules, which works well with our Expert build. However, the Rattle-Cat is also well positioned to be a mobile ambush threat, with high Acrobatics and Stealth values as well. A combatant would have trouble being a major threat with Acrobatics and Intimidate and Stealth, all of which can call for checks with DCs based on the competence or skill of the foe. With evasion and the cloaking field, higher CR Rattle-Cats are even tougher to flush out, and the bonus Spring Attack feat (given for the same reason we gave the Grizzle-Boar a bonus ability) and high speed allows them to make hit-and-run attacks from cover in the wild.

A Rattle-Cat written up as a combatant would be more dangerous in a stand-up fight, but less able to use the tactics and abilities that make it interesting.

Here we bring the whole thing together for a CR 3 Rattle-Cat.

RATTLEE-CAT          CR 3          [EXPERT]
XP 800
N Medium Animal
Init +2 Senses low-light vision; Perception +8
DEFENSE     HP 35
EAC 14; KAC 15
Fort +4; Ref +4; Will +6
OFFENSE
Speed 50 ft.
Melee bite +9 (1d4+7 P plus rattler poison)
Offensive Abilities rattle
STATISTICS
Str +4; Dex +2; Con +0; Int -4; Wis +1; Cha +0
Skills Acrobatics +13, Athletics +8, Intimidate +13, Stealth +13, Survival +8
Languages none

Rattle (Ex): The tip of a rattle-cat’s tail makes a disturbing, rhythmic noise that most creatures other than rattle-cats and rattle-snakes find disconcerting. As part of a move action, a rattle-cat can rattle its tail to make an Intimidate check to demoralize all foes within 60 feet. Once a creature has been demoralized by this function of a Rattle-Cat’s rattle ability, it cannot be affected again for 24 hours. A Rattle-Cat can also make an Intimidate check to demoralize any creature that can hear it as a standard action.

Rattler Poison
Type poison (injury); Save Fortitude (DC 14)
Track Constitution; Frequency: 1/hour for 12 hours
Special: Multiple bites cannot move target down the Constitution track more than once per hour.
Cure: 2 consecutive saves

So that brings us through two of the three arrays, while helping to build a set of unique threats for the Really Wild West (though these monsters can be used in any Starfinder Roleplaying Game campaign). We still need to discuss the Spellcaster array, and maybe take a look at class grafts, in upcoming articles!

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