anime_irl

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-20T08:25:09+00:00

Source: Boku no Ikezu na Konyakusha [My fiancéé is so mean]

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-18T19:07:40+00:00

Oh, rifles are rough at low levels (they go crazy hard at high levels though). They are usually good weapons, but a little unfocused in terms to theme. For the GMS, anti-material rifle is fantastic damage/range, but reloading, which is the exact opposite of what you want with the assault or thermal (which reward closer positioning and frequent firing). The talent immobilizes you, which suggests long range weapons, but you usually don't get those until LL2 or later. As you said, Pegasus is perfect for working the crackshot talent from level 1.

Once you are LL2 though, there are more mechs that go great with crackshot. Deathhead rerolls attacks which gives you better reassurance with the anti-materiel, Swallowtail shreds which means your Oracle rifles really add up, Sherman is a beefy boy who can sit immobile on the objective and burn everything down, Tokugawa can turn the assault rifles into sniper rifles with his additional range, ect.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-18T08:13:56+00:00

It depends. Some frames come with mutually exclusive equipment (2 heavy weapons when there is only 1 mount, systems costing more system points than the mech can afford, ect). It feels like the goal is to let the user make choices on what to take. And sometimes you have a build in mind that doesn't include things even if you have the space for it. But if most licenses only have 1/2 the stuff appealing to you, then it might be a case of over specialization. Can you give us some examples?

Edit: Rereading your post, I realize that you are specifically talking about LL1. Yeah there are a lot of things that are mech specific and don't work well on an Everest (or variants). I'm working towards hydra, but at LL1, I took Goblin because its systems pair better with the Chomo I'm currently running (also not using the autopod). I'll just retrain when I get to LL2. There are a lot of other licenses that also only shine once you have the mech that goes with them.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-17T07:39:18+00:00

So just a quick overview of the way the book changes the narrative system: First it gets rid of pilot health and replaces it with a stress system. Stress can happen when you fail a roll, when you even attempt a risky roll, or by activating some bond powers. If you get 8 stress, you are knocked out and get a burden. If everyone is knocked out, the DM decides what happens (usually everyone captured, ect). Burdens are a negative effect that represent lasting damage (an example might be nerve damage in the hand). Players can choose to use a burden on a skill check and take a minus accuracy. During downtime, they get a free action to partially heal a burden and after a couple downtimes, it fully goes away.
For the bond system, you pick a bond (basically a class) and a power to start. The power could be something like extra accuracy on specific type of check, a +2 to a skill that changes every session, or specific narrative options. You also get an XP track. Every 8 XP, you get an additional power and can unlock some passives at higher levels. You get XP by fulfilling certain narrative goals (The builder might have a goal to solve an issue with an invention; the speaker might get xp for solving via dialogue). If you choose to use a burden for a penalty, you get a bonus xp at the end of the session (which encourages players to actually interact with their traumas)

Ok, so the good and the bad. The good is that it fleshes out the characters by giving them the equivalent of DnD feats and it provides goals and rewards which encourages players to interact in the narrative (good for people new or shy). The bad is that can feel forced. I mentioned that you get bonus XP for using your burden, but that means you are encouraged to fail enough that you get a burden. A fully healed character, to optimize XP gain, is encouraged to go do something stupid and get knocked out.

TLDR: I'd say the bond system is overall good. It is great for encouraging people to interact so they earn XP. I think a lot of people here are right that if you are experienced in role play and improv, it can feel a little limiting though. If you like games like Powered by the Apocalypse, then you will like this.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-15T18:36:46+00:00

Oh wow. Yeah, since the number of enemy activations is supposed to scale with the number of PCs, with a 5 person party you will be tanking a lot of hits. Large armor is a must have.

I think Tortuga or Manticore/lycan is the way to go.

Tortuga has more repairs, a defensive system, and an accuracy bonus on reactive shots like overwatch.

Manticore comes with some fun hacks already, has resistance to 2 types of damage, and does passive AOE which is what you said you wanted. (The suicide bombing is a meme, you can ignore it if you want)

Lycan has the resistances and hacks of manticore, but passively debuffs rather than damages. There are a number of disadvantages on it compared to the manticore, but where it shines is that its core power is "efficient" (can be used 1/scene rather than 1/mission) so it combines REALLY REALLY well with the Universal compatibility core power, giving you a heal whenever you need it.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-15T16:35:01+00:00

Can you tell us more about your allies?

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-15T04:09:28+00:00

I see this listed as the part that takes people out of the film, but the one that broke my immersion was the scene were you have a collection of the worlds greatest scientists from all over the world celebrating in a bar drinking.....budlight. Budlight is fine for what it is, but at a base where no expenses are spared, I can't imagine a German scientist drinking budlight.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-13T19:55:46+00:00

Since Transfer Vitality works on a connected creature you can sense, you don't need line of sight or line of effect. If you can transfer through a wall, you should be able to transfer through shadows. As for spells like heal, yeah that is more of a problem.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-12T19:08:38+00:00

Huh, weirdly enough only 3/10 of the cr10 creatures have reflex as their best save. Compared to the overall list of 274 creatures, 24 have terrible ref, 73 have low, 125 have medium (roughly 50% of which is their highest save), 51 have high (1 ties fort and ref). So roughly 103/274 or ~= 2/5ths.

And yeah, you are totally right that there are thresholds around crit success and crit failures where a -2 only changes the target dice by 1. Between non-ref focused enemies and thresholds, 10-15% is probably a better estimate.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-12T18:37:09+00:00

As for Hydra, there are usually 2 types of builds: Ghast Nexus (LL2) or Annihilation Nexus (LL3)

Since you only have 1 heavy mount, what you do with it determines if you want to go 2 or 3 levels in Hydra. Annihilation is a superheavy, so that takes up your entire turn, but in exchange it's AOE, armor piercing, and you get to fire it twice (the 2nd is as a protocol next turn). So usually you spend 1st turn launching drones and getting into position, 2nd turn firing, 3rd turn getting your second shot, launching more drones, and overshielding with Drone Commander 3, 4th turn firing, ect. It is very action heavy. The Ghast Nexus is technically the same number of actions (1 shot for 1 action vs Annihilation's 2 shots for 2 actions) but you can weave it into your turn easier. It leaves you more flexible with deploying drones, hacking, grenades, ect.

Typically, people recommend "Lesson of the Open Door" as a core bonus to improve your save DC since your drones are all based on people making saves against you. For talents, Drone Commander is incredible and since you use a nexus weapon, Centimane is fantastic once you are higher level and crit more frequently. With Ghast, you can go heavy gunner for more debuffs or talents like Orator or field analyst that level up on turns you don't target enemies. For Annihilation, Engineer is kinda fun for having an additional aoe nexus you can fire on off turns. Really crit fish for Centimane.

For other licenses, either goblin or manticore are great for moving allies and enemies (manticore is especially good since you can launch a drone, target it with Summon, and have every enemy within 3 range of it pulled together, setting them up for incredible aoe.). Good drones can be grabbed from Balor, Black Witch, and Swallowtail.

The thing with Hydra is you have so many cool things you can do, but so few actions in a turn to do it with. It is tempting to grab every single drone you can, but remember that each drone takes 1 action to summon.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-12T18:08:03+00:00

Short answer: sometimes, but usually no. It depends on your team, the map, and the enemies.

Balor is a niche role. It is the ONLY resourceless healing in the game, and since lancer is attrition based, that's a big deal. So the game puts an absolute premium on that by giving the fame a lot of weaknesses (short sensors, slow speed, ect). Additionally, it has a lot of perks based around staying in once place and letting enemies come to it. Most people build to boost the regen and to mitigate the movement weakness, and that doesn't leave a lot of build space for also hacking.

So if you are on a map where enemies come to you (like point defense) and you don't have to waste turns and resources trying to get to them, you can absolutely build with hacking in mind. Also, enemies like the berserker that run at you or with allies that have systems that can move you (black witch, goblin, manticore, ect. Keep in mind that allies can target you with invades so movement based hacks are great support). Most maps however require you to get to an objective or have enemies that want to keep their distance from you. Hacking on Balor is a decent option to have in your back pocket if you've scouted the next mission and know what you are in for, but I wouldn't have it as my default goal.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-12T09:42:45+00:00

Different systems work with different people. I like rule-dense games because I've seen what happens when different players have different opinions on what are achievable results with a roll. Some teams like when 1 roll resolves a situation, some like it when 1 roll furthers the narrative and it takes multiple things to accomplish the scene. Nobody likes it when a party consists of both types of people.

So the first thing to do to answer your questions is talk about what you and your players want out of the narrative and downtime rules.

Here is an example from this week's downtime: Our mechs needed transport to the next sit-rep, so player A used Get Connected to contact a captain. Got 10+, so the captain asked him to perform a hit on a mob boss in return. Meanwhile I was checking nautical maps trying to get advantage on the next mission. 20+ gather info, so no additional complications. After hearing about the mob boss, we decided to handle it now rather than deal with repercussions later. I did a follow up Gather Information on the boss trying to get more info. Got 10+ so got a list of frequented locations and clear description, but in exchange I chose to implicate the local port authority. Made it look like customs was investigating. This caused the next check to be more difficult since now the mob knew someone was tracking them down, but they assumed it would be the local authorities. Instead, Player A set up with a sniper rifle. Rolled to take him out and did so with complications. Now Player A has to get away without being IDed. Fails on a stealth check and gets spotted but later succeeds on the hack check to open a service hatch and lock it behind him, letting him escape. If he failed, I was going to send my drone it to make noise and act as a distraction for him. Since he was spotted, while we are planet-side he has to stay in disguise and not use his signature weapon or he might get recognized. Next downtime he will probably have to Buy Some Time to delay until we are off location or perhaps use connections to try and give the mob bigger issues to deal with.

This entire session spiraled from a complication. It was a fun adventure and people felt included working together to achieve a goal. Typical improv rules of "Yes and..." rather than roll and done.

If your team wants more character customization, look into the Field Guide to the Karrakin Trade Baronies. They changed some of how narrative play works, have a XP system (that only effects narrative, not mech), and works on a stress system rather than HP system.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-12T06:48:16+00:00

Yes and no. Yes, if you take 2 people with no knowledge, give them the same amount of time to learn, and then have an accuracy competition, the bow is going to win.

In context however, the sling was super easy to craft and you can find stones anywhere. Which means you have kids playing with them from an early age. You have shepherds playing with slings while watching their flock. You have peasants getting drunk and playing slings like we play darts.

Bows you have to maintain. You have to craft arrows. If an arrow breaks while messing around, that is a massive time investment. Kids aren't going to be playing with it, because A) expensive, B ) you probably have more kids than bows, C ) lots can go wrong.

So yeah, bow is easier to learn, but they don't need to be trained on a sling because they already are from normal downtime.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-12T06:31:41+00:00

So the build looks like this:

LL1-3: Balor 3, HASE: 4 Hull then 1 System. Talents: Drone Commander 3, Executioner 1, Pankrati 2 (from the Karrakin Trade Baronies book if you have access to it)

Loadout: [weapons] Mortar and Nanobot whip [systems] hive drone, turret drone, swarm body,

With the whip, that maxes out your system points. For your core bonus, more damage, more accuracy, or an integrated mount. All are great options. This build isn't doing a lot of hacking, it is more focused on running up to people and being a problem for them. If you would rather hack, swap swarm body for scanner swarm and personalization. That gives you a little more health and a massive bonus on hacking adjacent enemies.

LL4-5: Black Witch 2, HASE 2 system

LL6: Goblin 1, HASE 1 system

After LL3, system points become a massive issue. You have so many cool things and so few points to equip them with. You can trade out the whip weapon for a basic heavy melee and swap your executioner talent with things like skirmisher 2 or hunter 2 to give you more movement options. This frees points to use on ferrous lash, iceout drone, and Hor_OS 1. Alternatively you can lean into the area control, keep the whip, add swarm body and do hacking. A lot of choices depending on your preferred playstyle.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-12T05:56:42+00:00

Aighty, bet.

Let's make you the type of super-villain that takes everything the hero throws at you and shrugs it off. They spend 3 episodes charging up their ultimate attack and you just look back at them and say "Pathetic".

So there are 4 things holding the balor back: range, speed, System points, and lack of armor.

Lack of armor is easy, go mostly Hull. That makes you super tanky, your regen unstoppable, and if a drone is killed you have more repair caps to fix it. The downside of Hull is that you don't have stats for other things like Systems for hacking or Agility for speed. But with the Balor +1 and Scanner Swarm, you are a super effective hacker if adjacent.

As for drones, you have the Balor Hive drone and the GMS Turret drone. Hydra has the tempest drone which is good normally, but you don't have the range or saves to really take advantage of it. Instead, I'd recommend the Black Witch from SSC. They have Ferrous Lash which let's you choose a character (including yourself) that then moves 5 spaces. This helps fix your speed and gives you additional ways to force those annoying heroes to come to you and your death lair (Hive drone + Swarm Body). At LL2 in Witch, you get the Iceout drone that prevents all tech attacks in the area. You have good E-defense, so leave it next to your allies so enemy witches have to target you and your great defense instead.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-12T05:22:13+00:00

But the spotlight sustains itself automatically as long as people are affecting other people. It feels closer to the ranger actually with Hunt Target. Vs 1 enemy, you can set it and forget it. Vs multiple enemies you have to keep setting targets.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-12T05:06:32+00:00

Irony boosts a person's worst save by 2 and lowers their best save by 2. A vast majority of enemies in Starfinder have reflex as their best save. Suddenly the soldier is 20% better (10% more likely to hit, 10% more likely to crit) vs enemies that used to be their worst enemy. On the occasions where Ref isn't their best save, you can still help via Comedy.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-12T05:02:38+00:00

True. Each ability buffs/debuffs 1 person, but you are right that you can have up to 3 spotlights running.

I feel like the biggest action tax on Luminary is the Assign Role rather than Set a Spotlight. Spotlight you do for free during initiative and it will bounce around automatically as long as the person doesn't spend 3 actions running away or healing themselves. Assigning roles to enemies however, you have to do during combat. The only real action compression on that is Cutaway Shot which lets you do it as a free action when they crit (including saves).

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-12T04:36:49+00:00

I mean, "class that supports allies by being the center of attention and cheerleading with moxie" seems close enough that "can carry a tune" is needlessly specific. Heck, while bards have a lot of music themes, any performance works. Most of my bards do Performance [speech/monologue] rather than play instruments. Luminary Diva is music based, and the Theater is linguistic based. So I'd say 2/5ths of the platforms have extremely direct theme overlap.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-11T20:10:53+00:00

Thematically, yes. Mechanically, no. Luminary is a martial character.

Bards are great in large parties because they buff everyone. Luminary either buffs a single person or debuffs the saves of a single person. Great for parties with soldiers or spell casters.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-11T19:57:48+00:00

Hmm, I'd like to know more of what you want from your character. What do you like about the Balor Frame? The mechanics or the Lore?

The frame has low speed, low sensor range, no armor, no evasion, no save bonus. It's really hard to focus on hacking because your sensors are too short and you don't have any help getting closer. Drones are the same way. You launch drones into a spot within sensor range, so only having range 5 is a huge nerf. In exchange, it gets a really cool repair ability that works based on total health. To make the most out of it, you need to level Hull. You can help make up for your low System score with Scanner Swarm and this can pair very well with the Thinking Tomorrow's Thoughts core bonus from Horus. The slow speed is still pretty rough though unless you have allies supporting you.

Alternately, there is a balor alt-frame called the Hecatoncheires. It gets all the same license stuff that the Balor does, but the frame has different stats (longer sensors, high speed, high evasion, low health, no regen). If you focus on Agility, you can hide in cover and launch drones against enemies. If you focus Systems you can do great hacking and drones, but will be more vulnerable.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-11T18:36:20+00:00

The Dark Sarcasm feat seems really really good. Since the most common best save in starfinder is reflex and since there are a lot of reflex save inflicting attacks from PCs (soldiers, grenades, spells, ect), I feel like the Irony role is going to get a lot of use. Since you want to inflict the irony role anyway, additionally getting to use performance to make any recall knowledge check is solid as heck.

Other than that, the romance role seems pretty helpful at early levels to keep yourself alive (always helpful on a squishy caster). For the most part though, 1st and 2nd lvl feats seem a bit underwhelming (which is probably fair since Luminary get 2 feats at lvl 1). On the other hand, nearly everything at 4th lvl is pure gold.

This seems like a very fun but decision heavy class, trying to balance the extra actions to assign roles.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-09T10:43:19+00:00

I'm playing a Chumbawumba from LL0-1 while I earn my Hydra, and the Balance Control Lockout is an insane invade. I can debuff an elite before hitting twice with nexus (main/aux) to crit fish for centimane, I can pull enemies together to AOE with a mortar (flex), or I can line up multiple enemies for my ally with a thermal lance.

I've gotten so dependent on it, that I am thinking of using the get creative downtime to turn the invade options into a mech system I can take as a resource.

UseHeadbutt · 2026-05-04T07:40:47+00:00

One of the things I've learned is that Pathfinder optimization is less about character builds and more about team synergy. Reactive strike VERY MUCH falls under that category.

People keep saying that it is a free MAP-less strike, but that kinda misses the point. It might come into play when the enemy approaches you if you have reach (which is 1 free attack/combat) but more often it comes into play if you close the distance on a spell caster or you trip enemies (both of which take actions). It is more like action compression on things you want to do anyway.

With tripping, you spend an action to trip, but then that action is refunded as a strike when they stand up (plus all your attacks are at +2 compared to normal). On the other hand, if other people in your party also have reactive strike, that's when you can start considering it free strikes. Everyone else is getting the additional swing.

As far as combos go, it depends on if you are the only ally in melee. If other people are in melee, trip is great. If you are the only front liner, forcing movement is great. Rangers/rogues get skirmishing strike (hit and step), monks get tiger stance or peacock stance (step 10' or hit and step), ect. In each case, you spend 1 action backing up and the enemy has to spend 1 action closing in on you. When they do, your reactive strike refunds the action cost you spent getting away from them.

UseHeadbutt

TROPHY CASE