Sample Characters: Starfinder

    I did a post earlier about making a character for the My Little Pony RPG, Tails Of Equestria.  At the time it was because I had nothing else to write :) but I decided to make it a thing.  So from time to time I'm going to create a character for an RPG and post it - and today we're going with Starfinder. Now, I know nothing about Starfinder except that it's "Pathfinder in space."  So I am not going to make an optimized character, heck I might not even make a playable character.  But it might be interesting for any of you who haven't played the game before.  So let's jump in.

    I'm only using the core Starfinder rulebook for this build, and it has a list of character creation steps on pages 14-15.  And then the following sections totally disregard that order.  So I'm going to write this in the steps that I went through.  In this case, both the book and I agreed to start with "a character concept."  I have no idea if I'll ever play this character, or with whom, or in what kind of a campaign.  So I want to make the most broadly applicable character possible.  And that means fighter.  Any RPG can use somebody who can kill monsters.  But I don't really like the "tank" fighter, I like the smart Batman (which sadly no filmmaker on Earth seems to also like), so I want to do a smart fighter.  With guns/ tech I think I'm looking at a Dex-based, quick kind of fighter.


    The next step (in my process) was to look at the "Themes."  These are little ways to flavor your character, kind of like the Backgrounds in D&D 5th Ed.  There are 10 of them, each one comes with 4 leveled abilities:

• Ace Pilot - you're good at driving and flying and all that stuff
• Bounty Hunter - you hunt people
• Icon - you're a pop star, or have some kind of audience 
• Mercenary - you're used to carrying stuff and working in a group
• Outlaw - you have contacts in the criminal underworld
• Priest - you're connected to a deity and church/ religion
• Scholar - you're smart and good at reading
• Spacefarer - you're a jack of all trades
• Xenoseeker - you know about alien life forms
• "Themeless" - you can choose to not have a theme, in which case you still get a small benefit (not quite as much as having a theme though)

    For a "fighter" the obvious choices would be Bounty Hunter or Mercenary.  But I don't really want to go that route, I feel like making something a little more unusual.  My first thought was the Icon, that maybe I was some kind of popular fighter, like a YouTuber of the future (maybe Xander Cage from XXX would be a better role-model though :) - but then I really liked the idea of Priest.  There is a list of 20 deities in the back of the book (starting on page 482).  The descriptions are very, very brief, and don't describe the kinds of churches or religious organization in very much depth, but one did strike me.  "Desna" is the goddess of dreams, luck, stars and travelers.  She jumped out at me because it says that she communicates with her followers through dreams, and they rely on instinct.  That seems like it would be a great tool for my GM.  If my character follows the dreams and hunches of his Goddess, then the GM can use me as a way to guide the party, a two-legged plot device.  I now from my GMing that sometimes it's great to have a way to tug on the party "in character" to help guide them when they get stuck or off course.  So with this character I can be the mouthpiece of the GM if necessary.  And it isn't the stereotypical military fighter.  So I'll go with that.


    With a Theme, let's skip over to the class.  Your class is the biggest thing about your character, since it'll have an impact on your character through the entire game.  The "fighter" of the Starfinder setting is the Soldier.  But there are 7 classes in the book:

• Envoy - the space Bard
• Mechanic - the summoner or cyborg
• Mystic - the spacde Magic User
• Operative - the space Rogue
• Solarian - the space Soulknife (guy who summons weapon or armor for non-psychic fans)
• Soldier - the space Fighter
• Technomancer - the Magic User who uses technology

    As I mentioned I knew I was going to be a Soldier.  The Solarian would also fit with the "fighter" concept, and might even go a bit better in a way with the Priest Theme, but I didn't feel like making that character.  So a Soldier I will be.  At level 1 a Soldier has one class ability, they have to choose a "Primary Fighting Style."  They'll get 5 abilities from this style, starting at 1st level and every 4 after.  There are 7 styles in the book.  And I have to admit, they all looked pretty good on average.  The "Blitz" rushes into melee, which didn't sound like fun for me.  The "Bombard" throws grenades/ explosives.  The "Guard" is defensive, which would have worked with my concept but I didn't feel it.  The "Hit-and-Run" is a mobile fighter, while the "Sharpshoot" (yeah, no "-er" at the end of it) stays at a range.  Neither appealed to me.
    The two that I really liked were the "Arcane Assailant" who is basically the Magus from Pathfinder, and the "Armor Storm" who eventually wears Power Armor.  I love the idea of the Power Armor, the suit of armor with it's own weapons and abilities, basically Iron Man.  But I also really like the Wizard/ Fighter hybrid of the Magus, though the Arcane Assailant doesn't cast spells, just enhances weapons.  This was a really, really hard choice.  I actually wanted both, and I think I am going to make both down the line, but for right now I'm going to force myself to commit to the Armor Storm.  One of the things I like about Power Armor is that you use it's Strength in place of your own.  So I can focus on Dex, and eventually I'll let the armor handle the Str.


    Okay, with a Theme and Class, let's get the last major leg of the character and decide on a Race.  There are 7:

• Android - sentient robots, tough and smart but not very sociable
• Human - versatile, gain a bonus feat and choose an ability (exactly the same as Pathfinder)
• Kasatha - 4-armed warrior poets
• Lashunta - psychics, choose either the  smart or tough sub-types
• Shirren - hive mind insects
• Vesk - space Orcs
• Yoski - space Hobbit-rats

    The description of the Androids talks about how they used to be slaves of the Humans and have some baggage over that.  I'm not really interested in that troupe, but I do like the idea that this character has chosen to be a servant of the Goddess instead of any mortal power.  I kind of have this idea that he's sort of broken though, or maybe considered defective by other androids.  Not sure if I really want to explore that, but it was an idea.  Also, Androids also get bonuses to Dex and Int, which are the two attributes I am aiming for, and the penalty to Cha is not a big deal since the typical fighter is not expected to be the talker.


    Okay, with the big three - I am an Android Priest Soldier - I've got the major part of my character.  Time to start filling in the details and actually playing with some numbers.  Let's get our Attributes fixed.  I've got +2 Dex +2 Int +1 Wis -2 Cha.  I like Starfinder for making Point Buy the default and rolling an optional rule.  I actually don't like rolling for attribute scores, I think point-buy is a better system to keep everything level.  So here are starting scores:

• Strength             10
• Dexterity            12
• Constituation     10
• Intelligence        12
• Wisdom             11
• Charisma            8

    To these scores I can add 10 points, with no score going over 18.  You can't lower a score, only raise them.  After some beard-scratching I settle on these...

• Strength            10 (+0)
• Dexterity          16 (+3)
• Constituation    12 (+1)
• Intelligence       14 (+2)
• Wisdom            13 (+1)
• Charisma           8 (-1)

    Forcing the odd score is annoying to me.  I think the whole odd-scores-for-feat-prequisites is stupid.  I doubt anybody would notice anything if we dropped the scores and only used modifiers.  But it is what it is.  So those will be my attribute scores.  Are they the best scores?  Are they a good base for developing in the future?  I have no idea, but they look good to me.


    On to Skills.  As a Soldier I get 4 skill points, and with the Int mod that's 6 total.  So basically I can pick 6 skills and have them always equal to my level.  While I could put points in skills one level, and then different skills another level, I think that would be stupid.  Might as well pick some skills and stick to them.  I have 8 class skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Engineering, Intimidate, Medicine, Piloting, Profession, and Survival.  From the Priest Theme I add Mysticism as a class skill.  All of those skills will get a +3 bonus if I put at least one skill point in them, but I can choose any skills I want.  There are 20 skills total - I'm so not going to list them all here.  Here are the skills I went with, and my modifiers...

• Acrobatics        1 sp + 3 class + 3 Dex = +7
• Athletics        1 sp + 3 class + 0 Str = +4
• Engineering        1 sp + 3 class + 2 Int = +6
• Medicine        1 sp + 3 class + 2 Int = +6
• Mysticism        1 sp + 3 class + 1 Wis = +5
• Perception        1 sp + not class + 1 Wis = +2

    To be honest, I have no idea what skills to take.  None of them really jump out as something my character should be able to do.  I went with Acrobatics and Athletics to give me the ability to move around, and since the character is Dex based, so he seems like to should be mobile (through, granted, Athletics is Str based).  Engineering sounds good for a robot, and Medicine is something that he can use to help others.  Mysticism just goes with his spiritual side, and the last was a toss-up.  Stealth sounded like it could be useful, but I wasn't sure how well it fit with the character concept.  He doesn't seem like a sneaky guy.  Neither Diplomacy or Culture sounded right, though I'm still not sure about Culture, it might work to represent the places he's been and different kinds of people he's helped.  In the end I settled on Perception because it's never a bad skill really.  I'm not sure it should be a skill in the first place, and since it isn't class it's not very high, but nothing else seemed like a better choice.


    Now for the Feats.  Well, feat singular.  This is the part of Pathfinder I hate.  Feats can let you do cool stuff, but they have such incomprehensibly long feat chains and prerequisites, in some cases, and are totally useless in other cases.  And there are too damn many of them.  Thankfully I've only got one book, but even still there are a lot of feats to look over and choose from - 98 if my count is right (not listing that many).  After giving them all a quick look there were a few that looked good.  "Bodyguard" would let him boost an ally's AC, though he isn't a real tanky-tank fighter.  "Blind-fight" kind of works with the "follows instinct" background of his god's followers, and it isn't useless though you likely won't see enemies in cover all the time.  "Mobility" might work, though I don't see him dancing through enemies, I think more and more he's likely going to be a ranged attacker.  "Suppressive Fire" would let him pin down enemies with a ranged attack, which might be very helpful.  And "Weapon Focus" applies to a whole group of weapons now, instead of the single weapon of Pathfinder.  But what's better, there is another feat called "Versatile Focus" that lets you extend Weapon Focus to all weapons you're proficient in, and as a Soldier that's all the weapons.  A Soldier does get a bonus feat at 2nd level, so I would take Weapon at 1st and Versatile at 2nd and then get a bonus to hit with all weapons.  I think I'm going to go that route, even though I'm not sure if the bonus to hit is really that great, having a better chance to hit seems like a good thing for a soldier to have.  Okay, feat chosen and even my next level's feat to boot.


    The last big step is Equipment.  Fantasy Pathfinder has quite a bit of equipment, sci-fi Starfinder has pages and pages of really small lists of equipment.  Oh boy is this going to be a pain.  Well, I've got 1,000 credits so lets see how far they go.
    After a lot of small print, here's what I've got...
250cr        Pulsecaster Pistol (does non-lethal damage)
350cr        Laser Pistol, Azimuth
250cr        Second Skin (light armor)
120cr        2 spare Batteries (for either weapon)
7cr        Personal Comm
1cr        Flashlight
20cr        Engineering Tool Kit
which leaves him with 2 credits in his pocket.  Wow, that doesn't seem like a lot of gear, but so it goes.  The leveled gear like D&D 4th Ed. is kind of a pain in the backside since it makes the lists so damn long.


    And the final choice to make is Alignment, which I'm going to make Chaotic Good like his deity.  The rest is just copying down the numbers, which I will do and post the character sheet on my Google Drive here.  I used a great fillable PDF character sheet I found here.

   Well, this has been an interesting experience.  I do like the game from first impressions, there seem to be some neat potential characters from the races, themes and classes.  Picking feats is not as horrible as Pathfinder, but isn't really fun - and the equipment lists are a bear to navigate - both could use being listed by level, there are a lot of feats and gear that a beginning character cannot choose or afford.  It is a little daunting to wade through the options, and the skill list does not seem really evocative.  Making a character without any real knowledge of the system is kind of a pain, but I've done a lot worse.  No doubt with some experience it will be easy enough.  The character did seem to grow pretty well from concept to final details, so I liked how everything fit overall.  I'd give it a thumbs-up if I was bothering to rate it, but one character is not much to formulate an opinion.
    So there you go, there's a Starfinder character that you can use, and a little insight into how the system works.  Hope you enjoyed our little project, and if you were a Patron of mine (see the link at the right) you could choose what game you wanted me to make a character for next (shameless plug, hey, I like to eat).  Until next time then!

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