Hey @Taking20 You can make an extremely powerful tech healer with the medical subclass for Biohacker with the Combat Medic theme, this feat, AND the Medic archetype. This allows you to essentially take care of a party size of 10 or less at once.
A good feat for ranged characters is Barricade. With a low-cost prerequisite (1 rank in Engineering), it allows you to build a square of partial cover (+2 AC, +1 Reflex) as a move action. If that square already granted partial cover, you instead temporarily reinforce it to normal cover (+4 AC, +2 Reflex). This can be vital when you're a first-level Mechanic or Technomancer, both of whom get Engineering as a class skill and need all the protection they can get. It's only slightly less vital to the Dex-based operatives, since they have more armor choices.
Miss the Starfinder videos... this series was the best resource for learning the game, and building caracthers ... you have such great didatics! Hope you come back to it some time.
I'm really enjoying this Starfinder series! I just picked up the book and am preparing to run my first Starfinder campaign (and my first time GMing in general) and your vids are helping a lot. Thanks!
Honestly I think Versatile Focus and Versatile Specialization are probably some of the best possible feats specifically for a soldier. The fact that you have both focus and specialization with basically every single weapon out there is just insanely good for that specific class. They're not that great for anyone else since Soldiers get so many feats that they can just pick these up with no regrets at all and they're also the only class that's proficient with all weapons aside from exotic ones. now technically this means that you ''wasted'' a feat getting normal weapon focus first,but if you play a human that wasted feat is simply a non-issue. My first starfinder character was a human soldier who started at 6th level so since I had 7 feats to burn I went with those two after the really important ones and oh boy did I not regret it. The fact that I carrier a sniper rifle,laser longarm,laser pistol and had different types of heavy weapons at my ship while being specialized and focused with every single one of those weapons made my character extremely versatile. Also since I went with guard fighting style I simply had power armor proficiency so when I eventually picked up stuff like flight frame I also picked up some melee weapons,and once again I was both focused and specialized with those too. It's really nice to pick two feats that make it so you are about as effective as possible with anything you see when you're playing a class that gets a feat every single level.
Thanks, man. Spellfinder CRB is arriving today via Amazon, and this is going to be the system I use to get my old gaming group back together after nearly 2 years. We love that, to us, it seems like a Star Wars meets DnD/ Pathfinder (we were Pathfinder players previously) and are hoping the change in "scenery" will be nice. I've watched a bunch of the videos thus far in the last three days, and I wanted to say how much I appreceiate you making and posting them, and how helpful they have been so far. I went through about 4-5 before I decided to order the system. Thanks again. Great vids!!
Considering how important cover is, it seems that Fleet is a really solid choice when combined with Shot on the Run, Spring Attack, or Agile Casting. It does limit your character to using light armor, but it still seems like one of the best choices for improving positioning.
I was thinking technomantic dabbler is a good feat to take if you want a little magic but don't want to multi-class. I was thinking taking the feat as the bonus racial feat would add some interesting character to a human mechanic. I also figured it would be a good way for a team to have detect magic covered if no one wants to play a caster.
Nice list Cody and thanks for the videos. My Entire family Plays RPG's This year for Xmas I received a Hint that they wanted to try Starfinder. IE ,... found out I have all the core RB's arriving Saturday. LOL Had to check in with Taking 20 for advice and reviews before digging into it . Looks like an excellent System.
I'm currently playing an Android Technomancer Bountyhunter, kinda like Battleangel Alita but with more magic. Currently got the feats Jet Dash and Mobility, and because our DM gave us an additional feat for the heck of it (it's very beer-and-pretzels) I also have Mystic Strike. And I got the Jump Jets + Quick-Release Sheath armor upgrades installed. All that at lvl 3 D: next feat on the list will be agile casting probably...
I think power armor proficiency definitely has a place on there. Massive amounts of AC, flight, modular armor with weapons ? You literally turn into a mech !
Bit late to reply, but I'll add my opinion anyway. I think Power Armour is nice, but in practice I've seen it isn't as effective for a couple of levels at a time. This is purely down to the lack of options, meaning your AC will start to drop behind Heavy options until you can afford the next one. The other problem is charges. The only "self-sufficient" Power armour is the Level 5 Battle Harness. As it uses 1 charge per hour, fitting it with a Backup Generator can recharge 1 charge every 10 minutes. So as long as you have a few moments to get out of the armour and swap the batteries (or have someone fo it for you) you never have to be without your armour for extended periods. Sadly, all other Power Armour uses 1 charge every minute, so they mostly only useable in short bursts, when you know you'll need it. These problems will most likely be solved by the Starfinder Armoury (July 2018) and the Pact Worlds (March 2018 (4 days from now)). Until then, the best thing to do is to actually to just keep the Level 5 Battle Harness and wear Light armour underneath (you get the KAC and EAC of the better of the two armours, Light or Power). As a side benefit, even when new Power Armour is released, still wear Light armour underneath. There is no mention that it stops working, so if you DO stick to a Battle Harness, you can put the Backup Generator into the Light armour, and saved the Power Armour slots for more fun things. TL;DR Power Armour is probably gonna be great, but lacks options right now.
Energy Resist (kinetic) covers a lot of damage types, so I think it's a good investment for anyone. Likewise, Fleet- +10 feet of ground movement is nice for offense or defense.
Why neither of the Skill feats? Skill Synergy makes two skills Class Skills (A +6 benefit) or enhanced existing class skills (A +4 benefit). This is pretty awesome when you consider how important skills are outside of combat (and even IN combat in some cases). Skill Focus isn't as good (+3 to a single skill) Unless you're seriously concentrating on a single skill, like Stealth perhaps. It's also a huge boon for the classes that only get 4+int skillpoints to spend. It really makes them count.
Eh operative can bypass longarm because of weapon focus and it's fellow, specialization. On a 18 dex operative, thats a +4 bonus and a +1 weapon bonus on all hit attempts with the chosen weapon. Get both to versatile and basic melee, small arms, and sniper weapons get a lot harder to miss with.
09:23 - Medical Expert feat doesn't looks good enough to be worthy of be taken as one of your precious feat slots. Serum of Healing can stabilize a dying character _and_ restore 1d8 HP (not just 1 HP). And I'm considering the cheapest version (mk 1) that costs only 50 credits (by comparison, I spend almost the double - 90 credits - with just 20 bullets for heavy weapons). Every member in the party should always carry _at least_ 2 Serums of Healing mk1 in order to avoid unnecessary deaths.
I am a level 3 mechanic with skill focus and skill synergy since you can only take each once for each skill, but you can stack them they really add up if you are aiming for a skills based character
I agree with almost all of these but I'd also say fleet for any melee character or character's who just need that extra movement. As well as Heavy Weapons for characters with the strength to use them because they are basically the martial classes "spells"
Maybe its just me, but I thought Jet Dash sounds both thematically and technically pretty awesome. Extra movement when chasing down enemies (or running away) and also extra jump distance and height, not to mention you aren't flat-footed.
I'm thinking of just adding a "bonus slot" and "bonus spell" feat for the casters, similar to 3e. Other than spell focus, doesn't seem much in the way of magic improving/empowering feats
Deadly Aim is interestingly compelling for Biohackers. Not when you're applying the limited biohacks/medicinals. But for your Minor Inhibitor shots-which have no limit- that means you don't mind missing occasionally with them. But if you have Weapon Focus AND Injection Expert you're basically Full Bab (base wise). So you can rock that penalty a little bit. it makes minor inhibitor + Hampering Inhibitor Theorom + Deadly Aim + either full attack or Aimed range attack (or arguablly Cleave) rather tasty in fact. Decent damage, two fantastic debuffs (-1 to hit, and 50% all movement speeds). Later levels adding in +1/2 Ability Score theorm too is fun also. If "additional damage" that the Theorom and Feats both use, means you can add it to "-" that means you can actually use it with the one Injection Sniper Rifle. You wouldnt' roll damage, but you could still do base damage, and debuffs with it. Won't come up too often but man its nice when you have it for the right moment. Such as a Chase Scene and you're far away. SLowing down the chase enemies while adding penalties to hit your friends and doing minor damage is fantastically fun. Maze core that Sniper with your standard Long Arm. I don't know if you can add to - weapon damage though. I'm not sure if the game counts athat as 0 which can be added or if it negates all damage. But if you can add to "-" then the biohacker is just about the only class that can reliably use that sniper injection rifle. Which.. honestly is the main reason I think it would be good.
Actually longarm proficiency is a 2 feat investment as you normally add your level to weapon damage for weapons your class gives you proficiency in starting at level 3. You'll have to spend another feat to make longarms not neuter your damage output.
Versatile Focus is great for Soldiers or any class with multiple weapon proficiencys. Extra Resolve seems useful for any melee build or a build that uses their resolve for things other then healing. It is worth noting that Step Up uses your reaction so while you can follow them you can't so anything about them shooting you or casting a spell. You need Step Up and Strike to actually do anything useful after following them.
Good for Bombard Soldier: + Heavy Weapon focus + Heavy Weapon specialization + Versatile specialization? + Spell Bane = Mobility --> = --> Then Shot on the Run (BA 4 required). Would be good, but conflicts with 5th level Heavy Fire which requires a full action. = Improved initiative = Improved resolve
I wouldn't recommend deadly aim. Part of what makes its Pathfinder counter part "power attack" good is that you have bonus to hit feats and magic weapons that give you plus to hit. Also none of Pathfinder's weapons have scaling versions of weapons that do more damage. A Starfinder longsword is 1d8, a dimensional slice longsword is 14d8. Starfinder has no plus to hit magic weapons and it's plus to hit feat is +1 if you have full bab. Also in starfinder you already add your level to damage (starting at level 3). So you take a -2 penalty to do half of your bonus damage. In general you're better off making 2 or 3 attacks at -4/-6 without penalizing your accuracy too much. Overall your attack damage is already ridiculous no need to sacrifice to hit for a tiny amount of damage.
Agree with longarms, should take with every character. I think you missed out on Skill Synergy, getting +2 on 2 skills of your choice is amazing at low levels.
True but... is it the 'best' feats? Longarms, Improved Initiative, Spellbane/Combat Casting to start a character off for first three feats... I don't know if Skill Synergy would be a better choice in front of any of those.
marder111 I would disagree on one point. I don't think Operatives need long arm proficiency. It does not work with their trick shot and if they want long range ability they have sniper rifle access.
late to the party, but i currently play an operative and agree with Lord Zeev. Long arm proficiency is essentially pointless on operative, especially w/the sniper rifle/trick attack errata.
Since they took out the fact that with a reach weapon you can`t Attack a craetur adjacent to you , combined with the lunge fat ( 1resolve to augment your reach by one step ) you can treathen an area of 3 squares around you ... that helps a lot for great cleave !!!!
I agree with Longarms and Combat Casting for Technomancers and Mystics. I think its going to be difficult to cast spells in combat so using a longarm or having combat casting will pay off.
Just some notes on your assessment: Mobility: While I agree that Shot on the Run and Agile Casting are worthwhile for the ability to dip in and out of line of sight while attacking, Spring Attack is not. If you are a melee character your goal is to plant yourself in front of the target, and very rarely will it be necessary to move after you get into your desired position. And in all cases, Mobility is almost worthless on its own, taken only as a feat tax taken to get something really useful. The only class that might find use out of Spring Attack is a melee focused Operative, who can take advantage of Trick Attack while denying foes the ability to retaliate with full attacks. But I should also note that melee Operatives are worse than melee Solarians and Soldiers in most respects, such as overall defense, damage, and survivability. Longarm and Grenade Proficiency: I agree that these are often much better weapons than small arms. I do not agree that it is worth spending a feat to get them for all characters. Again, an Operative using Trick Attack will net much better average damage per round using small arms than they will with Longarms or Grenades, up until about level 8 when they get Triple Attack. So they should't even consider the feat until then (and if an Operative is focusing on Trick Attack for damage it's not useful at all). Additionally there is the following to consider: a Mechanic or an Operative at level 1 can take Longarm Proficiency to up from a 1d4 to a 1d8 damage die, adding about 4 extra average damage per round on full attacks. Or they could do a 1 level dip in Soldier at level 2 to gain advanced melee weapons, longarms, heavy weapons, sniper weapons, grenades, and heavy armor, then take the Blitz primary fighting style for a +4 bonus to initiative and a +10 bonus to movement speed. That's essentially five feats for a one level dip. Iron Will: Agree with Iron Will, although Fortitude Saves are just as important. As is seen with Flesh to Stone, Inject Nanobots, and Overload Systems, failed Fortitude saves can often result in outright death or being effective disabled for the duration of combat. Cleave: Decent but not as good as some other choices. It only functions when you are fighting multiple adjacent enemies that you can reach, which is a fairly specialized situation. Extra Resolve: Good in general, but overall usefulness will vary depending on class. Envoys and other classes that use it frequently get much more mileage out of it than others do. Everything else is pretty spot on.
Maybe not the "best" feat but since healing is such a hard thing in starfinder ( except that mk1 healing serums cost 50 credits) the connection inkling feat and if ya just want more fire power, the tecnomancer dabler feat are pretty good! And fusiliade looked fun ( but without agumentations only the kasathas can fully utilize it)
So as a sort of addendum to this, never ever take any feat that relies on a character's ability to make a combat maneuver; KAC is always higher than EAC, and for every -4 to hit you suffer your odds of hitting decrease by approximately 50%. 9 times out of 10, the combat maneuver, which you make at -8, will be impossible; and if it is possible, the opponent is likely insignificant and not worth the effort.
This, of course, makes 'stand still' completely worthless, as chances are it'd be impossible to succeed; any player would be far better served just making the attack of opportunity instead. Of course, you may be able to bargain with the DM to make combat maneuvers less worthless, I tend to house rule it as a competing strength check, but in the base game you aren't using it ever.
Versatile weapon focus, Weapon specialization, and versatile weapon specialization combined with deadly aim you will do 1.5x your character level with any weapon melee or ranged add in multi weapon fighting or fusillade if you have 4 arms (they can be cybernetic) and you are a dps machine as a soldier or solarian. soldier gains more feats so its the better choice.
I'm surprised there's no Improved Resistances. If your playing a tank character it's really good to get the damage reduction equal to your base attack or energy resistance equal to your base attack bonus.
I know it's not related to this video, but is your Call For Aid series still going? Seen something come up on the Starfinder discord (the one set up by the Starfinder reddit community) that sounds right up that series' alley. But it's been a few months since the last video in that series and I can't see anything for sending the questions in other than the email address that's marked as being for business enquiries. Is there anywhere I can direct the person who's been having the problem to to get some solid advice on how to handle their problem player?
I wondered about that myself, but as I understand it, it only grants to you the feat in regards to the proficiencies you get from the class itself, e.g. technomancer gets only weapon specialization for small arms and simple melee weapons, even if you take the longarms feat.
"grenades do a lot of damage"...?! Does my book have a misprint? Lvl 1 grenade damage is so laughably low as to make them almost pointless. Higher level grenades are very expensive and still have very low damage for what they are. House rules may happen once our group is more au fait with the rules... Anyone else find this?
If your'e using them against groups or swarms they do actually do a fair bit of fine damage. Over all generally you don't buy them, most of the time you drop them from enemies I think is the supposition. Or Blitz Soldier (i think its blitz?) the grenade soldier one does it really well with a Grenade launcher underbarrel on their main weapon.
I might not have a good grasp on the movement rules of starfinder, but what exactly does shot on the run do for you that you couldn't do otherwise? all I am seeing here is "you can attack then move, or move than attack, or both if you are an operative"
Spetseify its more that you can move some of your speed then shoot and then move again, like in the exeample he gave with running in to a hallway, shoot down the corridoor and then run to cover again
I see the bonus if you are a operative, but if you are not an operative, that would be the same as your normal action economy wouldn't it? or is the movement treated as part of the action?
no not really, normally you need to finish your movement until you can do an attack action, so if you move 15 feet, then shot at something, without shot on the run your stuck there, cant move anymore, even if you movement is more than 15 feet. But with shot on the run you could move 15 feet, shot something and then move 15 feet again ( considering you have 30 feet of movement ) This is true for Pathfinder as well and even 5e!
I haven't quite gotten there yet, but my plan is using Shot on the Run along with a jet pack to allow my character to move significant distances, take a shot, and then fly back far away for cover.
The only thing important about the operative is it allows them to take this action as their trick attack, so they can move, trick attack, and move again. Everyone else can do the same, but as I said, the operative can use their trick attack.
combat expertise will rise again. with the attempt at reduction of numbers its a feat that has the opportunity to shine maybe not like an LED flashlight but perhaps a hooded lantern.
Just my opinion but Improved Unarmed Strike is a great feat to pick up at 3rd or 5th level as it will let you do considerable damage when you are unarmed. Going to a social function where weapons will not be allowed? If you have this feat and are mid to high level you can gladly fork over an arsenal knowing full well you still have options as you always have a weapon at the ready. And as you get higher in level the damage it causes just keeps on escalating.
Man I think it’s been asked a lot but can you PLEASE boost your mic. You are so incredibly quiet I have to max out the volume to hear you. Just up the mic boost please! As for the video it was great can’t wait to play sunday
For someone who took and is stuck with a Soldier level. Its a short term gain, but by 3rd level your doing more damage on average when you can get your Trick Attack off. Taking Weapon Focus instead and later Deadly Aim will work out better in the end.
Page 331. "You are most at risk of taking damage while casting when a spell’s casting time is 1 round or longer, you have provoked an attack of opportunity, **or a foe readied an action to attack you when you began to cast.** However, if you are taking ongoing damage (such as if you are bleeding or on fire), your spells are not disrupted in this way." So it seems there is a bit of conflicting information here. On readied actions, it reads that the action happens, but here, it seems as though Paizo intended for spells to be interrupt-able- which I believe makes the most sense to me. "I aim my gun at him and the moment he starts to cast something magic I fire at him to disrupt his casting" seems pretty reasonable to me. I'm sure we'll get clarification from Paizo on this, but I would have no issue house ruling that you can attempt to disrupt someone's casting. Both Players and NPCs alike.
@@Taking20 late to the party, but this kind of action would not make Dispell as counter less usefull? If any thug with a gun could attempt to do it why bother spend a 3rd level spell?
I mean great list and all. But it kind of seemed a bit underwhelming. I'd be lying if I said that your choices didn't make sense. As these feats save for a few. Most characters can and prolly should take. But it also kind of seems like a reskin at least feat wise of Starwars D20 and 3.0 Still, great content and thanks for what you do
Combat casting is bad because in starfinder everything hits you on a 6 IF you invest in armor, which most mystics don t .+ 2 More AC won t help. Just get out of the way
is it supposed to be a build guide? :)) I thought Starfinder is a ROLE PLAYING game.. not a ROLL Playing game... Sorry but this video is so ridiculous. Nowadays people forget to ROLEPLAY their characters instead they think that they're playing with the sh|tty Diablo or some other kill-loot, kill-loot videogame.
I agree with Longarms and Combat Casting for Technomancers and Mystics. I think its going to be difficult to cast spells in combat so using a longarm or having combat casting will pay off.
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Hey @Taking20 You can make an extremely powerful tech healer with the medical subclass for Biohacker with the Combat Medic theme, this feat, AND the Medic archetype. This allows you to essentially take care of a party size of 10 or less at once.
Honestly, i like how there isn't a "must have" feat in the game, yet plenty that you could give a good argument for.
Totally agree
A good feat for ranged characters is Barricade. With a low-cost prerequisite (1 rank in Engineering), it allows you to build a square of partial cover (+2 AC, +1 Reflex) as a move action. If that square already granted partial cover, you instead temporarily reinforce it to normal cover (+4 AC, +2 Reflex). This can be vital when you're a first-level Mechanic or Technomancer, both of whom get Engineering as a class skill and need all the protection they can get. It's only slightly less vital to the Dex-based operatives, since they have more armor choices.
Miss the Starfinder videos... this series was the best resource for learning the game, and building caracthers ... you have such great didatics! Hope you come back to it some time.
I'm really enjoying this Starfinder series! I just picked up the book and am preparing to run my first Starfinder campaign (and my first time GMing in general) and your vids are helping a lot. Thanks!
Honestly I think Versatile Focus and Versatile Specialization are probably some of the best possible feats specifically for a soldier. The fact that you have both focus and specialization with basically every single weapon out there is just insanely good for that specific class. They're not that great for anyone else since Soldiers get so many feats that they can just pick these up with no regrets at all and they're also the only class that's proficient with all weapons aside from exotic ones. now technically this means that you ''wasted'' a feat getting normal weapon focus first,but if you play a human that wasted feat is simply a non-issue. My first starfinder character was a human soldier who started at 6th level so since I had 7 feats to burn I went with those two after the really important ones and oh boy did I not regret it.
The fact that I carrier a sniper rifle,laser longarm,laser pistol and had different types of heavy weapons at my ship while being specialized and focused with every single one of those weapons made my character extremely versatile. Also since I went with guard fighting style I simply had power armor proficiency so when I eventually picked up stuff like flight frame I also picked up some melee weapons,and once again I was both focused and specialized with those too. It's really nice to pick two feats that make it so you are about as effective as possible with anything you see when you're playing a class that gets a feat every single level.
Thanks, man. Spellfinder CRB is arriving today via Amazon, and this is going to be the system I use to get my old gaming group back together after nearly 2 years. We love that, to us, it seems like a Star Wars meets DnD/ Pathfinder (we were Pathfinder players previously) and are hoping the change in "scenery" will be nice. I've watched a bunch of the videos thus far in the last three days, and I wanted to say how much I appreceiate you making and posting them, and how helpful they have been so far. I went through about 4-5 before I decided to order the system. Thanks again. Great vids!!
Considering how important cover is, it seems that Fleet is a really solid choice when combined with Shot on the Run, Spring Attack, or Agile Casting. It does limit your character to using light armor, but it still seems like one of the best choices for improving positioning.
One thing I love about Weapon Focus is it's more beneficial for non Soldiers/Solarians.
I was thinking technomantic dabbler is a good feat to take if you want a little magic but don't want to multi-class. I was thinking taking the feat as the bonus racial feat would add some interesting character to a human mechanic. I also figured it would be a good way for a team to have detect magic covered if no one wants to play a caster.
Would love to see some videos that include some of the newer class and racial options
Nice list Cody and thanks for the videos. My Entire family Plays RPG's This year for Xmas I received a Hint that they wanted to try Starfinder. IE ,... found out I have all the core RB's arriving Saturday. LOL Had to check in with Taking 20 for advice and reviews before digging into it . Looks like an excellent System.
Did you consider Jet Dash? It’s not for every character, but it lets you build an Operative that can outrun an enercycle.
I'm currently playing an Android Technomancer Bountyhunter, kinda like Battleangel Alita but with more magic. Currently got the feats Jet Dash and Mobility, and because our DM gave us an additional feat for the heck of it (it's very beer-and-pretzels) I also have Mystic Strike. And I got the Jump Jets + Quick-Release Sheath armor upgrades installed. All that at lvl 3 D: next feat on the list will be agile casting probably...
@@QuantumFluxable 11months later but I gotta ask. How did that character turn out??
I think power armor proficiency definitely has a place on there. Massive amounts of AC, flight, modular armor with weapons ? You literally turn into a mech !
Bit late to reply, but I'll add my opinion anyway.
I think Power Armour is nice, but in practice I've seen it isn't as effective for a couple of levels at a time. This is purely down to the lack of options, meaning your AC will start to drop behind Heavy options until you can afford the next one.
The other problem is charges. The only "self-sufficient" Power armour is the Level 5 Battle Harness. As it uses 1 charge per hour, fitting it with a Backup Generator can recharge 1 charge every 10 minutes. So as long as you have a few moments to get out of the armour and swap the batteries (or have someone fo it for you) you never have to be without your armour for extended periods.
Sadly, all other Power Armour uses 1 charge every minute, so they mostly only useable in short bursts, when you know you'll need it.
These problems will most likely be solved by the Starfinder Armoury (July 2018) and the Pact Worlds (March 2018 (4 days from now)).
Until then, the best thing to do is to actually to just keep the Level 5 Battle Harness and wear Light armour underneath (you get the KAC and EAC of the better of the two armours, Light or Power).
As a side benefit, even when new Power Armour is released, still wear Light armour underneath. There is no mention that it stops working, so if you DO stick to a Battle Harness, you can put the Backup Generator into the Light armour, and saved the Power Armour slots for more fun things.
TL;DR Power Armour is probably gonna be great, but lacks options right now.
Energy Resist (kinetic) covers a lot of damage types, so I think it's a good investment for anyone. Likewise, Fleet- +10 feet of ground movement is nice for offense or defense.
Why neither of the Skill feats?
Skill Synergy makes two skills Class Skills (A +6 benefit) or enhanced existing class skills (A +4 benefit). This is pretty awesome when you consider how important skills are outside of combat (and even IN combat in some cases). Skill Focus isn't as good (+3 to a single skill) Unless you're seriously concentrating on a single skill, like Stealth perhaps.
It's also a huge boon for the classes that only get 4+int skillpoints to spend. It really makes them count.
but you can stack them, you just can't stack multiples of each on the same skill. drop one at 1st the other at 3rd and you are a god with those skills
Eh operative can bypass longarm because of weapon focus and it's fellow, specialization.
On a 18 dex operative, thats a +4 bonus and a +1 weapon bonus on all hit attempts with the chosen weapon. Get both to versatile and basic melee, small arms, and sniper weapons get a lot harder to miss with.
I wonder if you've done a review on the newer feats since this is from 3 years ago
09:23 - Medical Expert feat doesn't looks good enough to be worthy of be taken as one of your precious feat slots. Serum of Healing can stabilize a dying character _and_ restore 1d8 HP (not just 1 HP). And I'm considering the cheapest version (mk 1) that costs only 50 credits (by comparison, I spend almost the double - 90 credits - with just 20 bullets for heavy weapons). Every member in the party should always carry _at least_ 2 Serums of Healing mk1 in order to avoid unnecessary deaths.
Spell focus is CR 3, not 7. It that says right there on the screen 6:27
Thank you so much for all of the videos! It's been so helpful to me for character creation!
I am a level 3 mechanic with skill focus and skill synergy since you can only take each once for each skill, but you can stack them they really add up if you are aiming for a skills based character
I agree with almost all of these but I'd also say fleet for any melee character or character's who just need that extra movement. As well as Heavy Weapons for characters with the strength to use them because they are basically the martial classes "spells"
Maybe its just me, but I thought Jet Dash sounds both thematically and technically pretty awesome. Extra movement when chasing down enemies (or running away) and also extra jump distance and height, not to mention you aren't flat-footed.
Thanks for doing these... Hope you continue on starfinder after the initial ones are done
Glad you dig em!
I'm thinking of just adding a "bonus slot" and "bonus spell" feat for the casters, similar to 3e. Other than spell focus, doesn't seem much in the way of magic improving/empowering feats
Not sure how storng it is but i think "Fusilade" is an amazing feat (basically use a bunch of small arms as if you had a minigun aka "Auto")
Deadly Aim is interestingly compelling for Biohackers. Not when you're applying the limited biohacks/medicinals. But for your Minor Inhibitor shots-which have no limit- that means you don't mind missing occasionally with them. But if you have Weapon Focus AND Injection Expert you're basically Full Bab (base wise). So you can rock that penalty a little bit.
it makes minor inhibitor + Hampering Inhibitor Theorom + Deadly Aim + either full attack or Aimed range attack (or arguablly Cleave) rather tasty in fact. Decent damage, two fantastic debuffs (-1 to hit, and 50% all movement speeds). Later levels adding in +1/2 Ability Score theorm too is fun
also. If "additional damage" that the Theorom and Feats both use, means you can add it to "-" that means you can actually use it with the one Injection Sniper Rifle. You wouldnt' roll damage, but you could still do base damage, and debuffs with it. Won't come up too often but man its nice when you have it for the right moment.
Such as a Chase Scene and you're far away. SLowing down the chase enemies while adding penalties to hit your friends and doing minor damage is fantastically fun. Maze core that Sniper with your standard Long Arm.
I don't know if you can add to - weapon damage though. I'm not sure if the game counts athat as 0 which can be added or if it negates all damage. But if you can add to "-" then the biohacker is just about the only class that can reliably use that sniper injection rifle. Which.. honestly is the main reason I think it would be good.
Actually longarm proficiency is a 2 feat investment as you normally add your level to weapon damage for weapons your class gives you proficiency in starting at level 3. You'll have to spend another feat to make longarms not neuter your damage output.
Versatile Focus is great for Soldiers or any class with multiple weapon proficiencys. Extra Resolve seems useful for any melee build or a build that uses their resolve for things other then healing.
It is worth noting that Step Up uses your reaction so while you can follow them you can't so anything about them shooting you or casting a spell. You need Step Up and Strike to actually do anything useful after following them.
What?????!!!! They made an AoO a reaction that is STUPID. That is feat bloat, take step up then take step up and strike, ugh, disappointing.
Starfinder looks extra Dope
Good for Bombard Soldier:
+ Heavy Weapon focus
+ Heavy Weapon specialization
+ Versatile specialization?
+ Spell Bane
= Mobility -->
= --> Then Shot on the Run (BA 4 required). Would be good, but conflicts with 5th level Heavy Fire which requires a full action.
= Improved initiative
= Improved resolve
Could you make a video on combat, and combat flow? Could you include vehicles, and space combat?
I wouldn't recommend deadly aim.
Part of what makes its Pathfinder counter part "power attack" good is that you have bonus to hit feats and magic weapons that give you plus to hit. Also none of Pathfinder's weapons have scaling versions of weapons that do more damage. A Starfinder longsword is 1d8, a dimensional slice longsword is 14d8. Starfinder has no plus to hit magic weapons and it's plus to hit feat is +1 if you have full bab. Also in starfinder you already add your level to damage (starting at level 3). So you take a -2 penalty to do half of your bonus damage. In general you're better off making 2 or 3 attacks at -4/-6 without penalizing your accuracy too much.
Overall your attack damage is already ridiculous no need to sacrifice to hit for a tiny amount of damage.
Agree with longarms, should take with every character. I think you missed out on Skill Synergy, getting +2 on 2 skills of your choice is amazing at low levels.
True but... is it the 'best' feats? Longarms, Improved Initiative, Spellbane/Combat Casting to start a character off for first three feats... I don't know if Skill Synergy would be a better choice in front of any of those.
marder111 I would disagree on one point. I don't think Operatives need long arm proficiency. It does not work with their trick shot and if they want long range ability they have sniper rifle access.
late to the party, but i currently play an operative and agree with Lord Zeev. Long arm proficiency is essentially pointless on operative, especially w/the sniper rifle/trick attack errata.
Since they took out the fact that with a reach weapon you can`t Attack a craetur adjacent to you , combined with the lunge fat ( 1resolve to augment your reach by one step ) you can treathen an area of 3 squares around you ... that helps a lot for great cleave !!!!
I agree with Longarms and Combat Casting for Technomancers and Mystics. I think its going to be difficult to cast spells in combat so using a longarm or having combat casting will pay off.
Just some notes on your assessment:
Mobility: While I agree that Shot on the Run and Agile Casting are worthwhile for the ability to dip in and out of line of sight while attacking, Spring Attack is not. If you are a melee character your goal is to plant yourself in front of the target, and very rarely will it be necessary to move after you get into your desired position. And in all cases, Mobility is almost worthless on its own, taken only as a feat tax taken to get something really useful. The only class that might find use out of Spring Attack is a melee focused Operative, who can take advantage of Trick Attack while denying foes the ability to retaliate with full attacks. But I should also note that melee Operatives are worse than melee Solarians and Soldiers in most respects, such as overall defense, damage, and survivability.
Longarm and Grenade Proficiency: I agree that these are often much better weapons than small arms. I do not agree that it is worth spending a feat to get them for all characters. Again, an Operative using Trick Attack will net much better average damage per round using small arms than they will with Longarms or Grenades, up until about level 8 when they get Triple Attack. So they should't even consider the feat until then (and if an Operative is focusing on Trick Attack for damage it's not useful at all). Additionally there is the following to consider: a Mechanic or an Operative at level 1 can take Longarm Proficiency to up from a 1d4 to a 1d8 damage die, adding about 4 extra average damage per round on full attacks. Or they could do a 1 level dip in Soldier at level 2 to gain advanced melee weapons, longarms, heavy weapons, sniper weapons, grenades, and heavy armor, then take the Blitz primary fighting style for a +4 bonus to initiative and a +10 bonus to movement speed. That's essentially five feats for a one level dip.
Iron Will: Agree with Iron Will, although Fortitude Saves are just as important. As is seen with Flesh to Stone, Inject Nanobots, and Overload Systems, failed Fortitude saves can often result in outright death or being effective disabled for the duration of combat.
Cleave: Decent but not as good as some other choices. It only functions when you are fighting multiple adjacent enemies that you can reach, which is a fairly specialized situation.
Extra Resolve: Good in general, but overall usefulness will vary depending on class. Envoys and other classes that use it frequently get much more mileage out of it than others do.
Everything else is pretty spot on.
Maybe not the "best" feat but since healing is such a hard thing in starfinder ( except that mk1 healing serums cost 50 credits) the connection inkling feat and if ya just want more fire power, the tecnomancer dabler feat are pretty good! And fusiliade looked fun ( but without agumentations only the kasathas can fully utilize it)
What about Enhanced resistance? It gives you DR or energy resistance of a chosen type equal to your BAB.
I think Skill Synergy and Mystic Strike should have some honorable mentions at least lol
So as a sort of addendum to this, never ever take any feat that relies on a character's ability to make a combat maneuver; KAC is always higher than EAC, and for every -4 to hit you suffer your odds of hitting decrease by approximately 50%. 9 times out of 10, the combat maneuver, which you make at -8, will be impossible; and if it is possible, the opponent is likely insignificant and not worth the effort.
This, of course, makes 'stand still' completely worthless, as chances are it'd be impossible to succeed; any player would be far better served just making the attack of opportunity instead. Of course, you may be able to bargain with the DM to make combat maneuvers less worthless, I tend to house rule it as a competing strength check, but in the base game you aren't using it ever.
Versatile weapon focus, Weapon specialization, and versatile weapon specialization combined with deadly aim you will do 1.5x your character level with any weapon melee or ranged add in multi weapon fighting or fusillade if you have 4 arms (they can be cybernetic) and you are a dps machine as a soldier or solarian. soldier gains more feats so its the better choice.
Can I use Weapon Focus on my Solarian weapon?
Hey Taking20 I was wondering how much it costs to ship to Europe? Love your stuff thanks :)
Um. What?
I apologize if this was already answered but will you be doing a video on the classic Golarion races as they relate to Starfinder?
I'm surprised there's no Improved Resistances. If your playing a tank character it's really good to get the damage reduction equal to your base attack or energy resistance equal to your base attack bonus.
I know it's not related to this video, but is your Call For Aid series still going? Seen something come up on the Starfinder discord (the one set up by the Starfinder reddit community) that sounds right up that series' alley. But it's been a few months since the last video in that series and I can't see anything for sending the questions in other than the email address that's marked as being for business enquiries.
Is there anywhere I can direct the person who's been having the problem to to get some solid advice on how to handle their problem player?
So help me out Cody... If I pick Longarm Proficiency, will that mean my character automatically gets weapon specialization in longarms at level 3?
I wondered about that myself, but as I understand it, it only grants to you the feat in regards to the proficiencies you get from the class itself, e.g. technomancer gets only weapon specialization for small arms and simple melee weapons, even if you take the longarms feat.
L.M. is correct. Also, be mindful that if you multiclass this feat applies at class level 3, not character level 3.
How would cleave work with trick attack?
Miniature market doesn't ship to Canada does it?
So how about the heavy weapons and armor feats with a technomancer with high strength? Is heavy better than long arms?
"grenades do a lot of damage"...?!
Does my book have a misprint? Lvl 1 grenade damage is so laughably low as to make them almost pointless. Higher level grenades are very expensive and still have very low damage for what they are. House rules may happen once our group is more au fait with the rules...
Anyone else find this?
He assumes your hitting multiable people at once which in that case they do stupid damage
If your'e using them against groups or swarms they do actually do a fair bit of fine damage. Over all generally you don't buy them, most of the time you drop them from enemies I think is the supposition. Or Blitz Soldier (i think its blitz?) the grenade soldier one does it really well with a Grenade launcher underbarrel on their main weapon.
Do the Solarian Stellar Revelations count as spell-like abilities when in regard to Spellbanes prerequisites?
I might not have a good grasp on the movement rules of starfinder, but what exactly does shot on the run do for you that you couldn't do otherwise? all I am seeing here is "you can attack then move, or move than attack, or both if you are an operative"
Spetseify its more that you can move some of your speed then shoot and then move again, like in the exeample he gave with running in to a hallway, shoot down the corridoor and then run to cover again
I see the bonus if you are a operative, but if you are not an operative, that would be the same as your normal action economy wouldn't it? or is the movement treated as part of the action?
no not really, normally you need to finish your movement until you can do an attack action, so if you move 15 feet, then shot at something, without shot on the run your stuck there, cant move anymore, even if you movement is more than 15 feet.
But with shot on the run you could move 15 feet, shot something and then move 15 feet again ( considering you have 30 feet of movement )
This is true for Pathfinder as well and even 5e!
I haven't quite gotten there yet, but my plan is using Shot on the Run along with a jet pack to allow my character to move significant distances, take a shot, and then fly back far away for cover.
The only thing important about the operative is it allows them to take this action as their trick attack, so they can move, trick attack, and move again. Everyone else can do the same, but as I said, the operative can use their trick attack.
combat expertise will rise again. with the attempt at reduction of numbers its a feat that has the opportunity to shine maybe not like an LED flashlight but perhaps a hooded lantern.
This comment made me laugh. +1
Just my opinion but Improved Unarmed Strike is a great feat to pick up at 3rd or 5th level as it will let you do considerable damage when you are unarmed. Going to a social function where weapons will not be allowed? If you have this feat and are mid to high level you can gladly fork over an arsenal knowing full well you still have options as you always have a weapon at the ready. And as you get higher in level the damage it causes just keeps on escalating.
Man I think it’s been asked a lot but can you PLEASE boost your mic. You are so incredibly quiet I have to max out the volume to hear you. Just up the mic boost please! As for the video it was great can’t wait to play sunday
The last three videos have had a higher gain on the mic. Today's video (Starship Building) should sound louder. Glad you dig the content!
Taking20 awesome you da MVP man
great series!
How do you feel Longarm proficiency works out for an Operative?
For someone who took and is stuck with a Soldier level. Its a short term gain, but by 3rd level your doing more damage on average when you can get your Trick Attack off.
Taking Weapon Focus instead and later Deadly Aim will work out better in the end.
Another thing, will readied actions really disrupt spells? In the core rulebook it says that offensive spell goes off before the readied action.
Page 331.
"You are most at risk of taking damage while casting when a spell’s casting time is 1 round or longer, you have provoked an attack of opportunity, **or a foe readied an action to attack you when you began to cast.** However, if you are taking ongoing damage (such as if you are bleeding or on fire), your spells are not disrupted in this way."
So it seems there is a bit of conflicting information here. On readied actions, it reads that the action happens, but here, it seems as though Paizo intended for spells to be interrupt-able- which I believe makes the most sense to me. "I aim my gun at him and the moment he starts to cast something magic I fire at him to disrupt his casting" seems pretty reasonable to me.
I'm sure we'll get clarification from Paizo on this, but I would have no issue house ruling that you can attempt to disrupt someone's casting. Both Players and NPCs alike.
@@Taking20 late to the party, but this kind of action would not make Dispell as counter less usefull? If any thug with a gun could attempt to do it why bother spend a 3rd level spell?
So glad you made these videos. I keep going back and riveting them for character ideas.
I'd add Barricade to your list.
Tough. Its just solid. Its one of those generic but really good feats.
Deadly Aim is a trap. Mathematically, it's rarely beneficial for your DPR.
I mean great list and all. But it kind of seemed a bit underwhelming. I'd be lying if I said that your choices didn't make sense. As these feats save for a few. Most characters can and prolly should take. But it also kind of seems like a reskin at least feat wise of Starwars D20 and 3.0
Still, great content and thanks for what you do
I have some new players to teach, so, more note taking.
I'm surprised Skill Focus and Skill Synergy aren't in there.
I like, it thank man.
I know it is situational but pull the pin is just dumb fun.
I so so so wanted to put it on this list. I just couldn't though.
Combat casting is bad because in starfinder everything hits you on a 6 IF you invest in armor, which most mystics don t .+ 2 More AC won t help. Just get out of the way
QuickDraw
I hate Feats.
First
Since Feats is Starfinder is designedly a way of making your character special and unique, the whole "Best Feats" idea doesn't feel right..
is it supposed to be a build guide? :)) I thought Starfinder is a ROLE PLAYING game.. not a ROLL Playing game... Sorry but this video is so ridiculous. Nowadays people forget to ROLEPLAY their characters instead they think that they're playing with the sh|tty Diablo or some other kill-loot, kill-loot videogame.
Nerd
I agree with Longarms and Combat Casting for Technomancers and Mystics. I think its going to be difficult to cast spells in combat so using a longarm or having combat casting will pay off.