I dont have any concepts at the moment that included being in the pilot seat.
I might arm wrestle you for ownership of the ship, if I follow the concept of the Freetrader, but im not there yet.
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I’m more interested in the Ace Pilot part, so I could split it down the middle with ya. Maybe that sets up an association between your character and mine. Maybe I’m the pilot that has flown the ship for you a few times and it worked out. Or maybe I’m a pilot that you hired to fly the ship just recently.
Or maybe I play one of the Izalguun and I arm wrestle you for the ship with one of my gigantic ass gorilla-like armlegs 
You know who really owns a ship??? The one that keeps it tuned up and running!!!
It’s like that scene from Kelly’s Heroes…
Big Joe: Why are you just sitting there…
Oddball: Hey Man the Tank is busted we are just sitting here soaking up the rays…
Big Joe: Why aren’t you helping fix the tank.
Oddball: I just drive them, I don’t know what makes em run…
Big Joe: :throws up his hands in exasperation: and walks away
Oddball: Definitely an antisocial type…
Cackle
Mith
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ok, possibly a 3 way arm wrestle for ownership of the ship.
@Ryuken I get the idea you have played in one or more SF games, but this will go to anyone else that has as well. How necessary is it to have “the (un)/holy Trinity” in Starfinder? Or for that matter any of the classes? In the combat test we did a month or so ago I dont think I got a good feel for necessity of classes, or roles might be a better indicator.
My current character concept is a Bleachling Gnome Outlaw Biohacker (back-alley doctor). Initially he was using his knowledge to manufacture some quality mindbending drugs for himself to stave off bleaching effects, but his knowledge of medicine and biology got around and the less-than-legal types started coming around for treatment.
As to the Operative topic. I’d like to think we’re all adults here and can abide by the “Let’s try not to intentionally break the system” . Possibly naive, but so far nobody’s complained about not being able to break the system 
Actually the only time I have played Starfinder is in the same test game you played in. But I do plan on GMing Starfinder in the future and I have been collecting the books/modules for Fantasy Grounds as well as reading up a lot on it and playing around the Starfinder stuff in Fantasy Grounds.
As far as the Holy Trinity, I would say it depends on the size and/or composition of the group, but you can get around the Holy Trinity in Starfinder. Gadgets and tech by way of equipment can offset not having a healer and a tank is relative…a melee tank would want to have some ranged abilities and vice versa for a ranged tank, but I would lean towards ranged tank with a bit of melee being more viable than a mostly melee tank.
As for healing…that’s tricky. With the split damage types and the damage to stamina and HP, healing almost has to be a anticipatory thing where the healer can sorta predict where the healing is going to need to be. There can be a good amount of “spike” damage so to speak in Starfinder and the healer needs to be keyed to drop that big heal to try and keep someone up rather than trying to get them back up.
Everything what @Ryuken is a yes, 'cept I might disagree about the tank. As we saw from the playtest you can’t half-ass melee combat; you will get squashed if there’s no one up front who brought a knife to the knife fight. Melee far out-damages ranged in Starfinder. That being said, there’s waaaay more ranged combatants in the game than your typical fantasy game, but if/when melee does happen you want someone there who can do the job well.
You can build a soldier or solarion to be tanky, butthe tank is the vanguard. Also look at shields that were added in the Character Operations Manual. A dex-based character could do the tanking and still be shooty, but their (melee) damage will suffer.
A lot of things that you might take a caster for (AE, healing, debuffs, buffs, etc) can be replicated with technology in Starfinder: grenades, medpatches, serums, even heavy weapons that do AE.
Casters in Starfinder are only “2/3” casters (get up to 6th level spells at max level) and are expected to use their weapons waaay more than their fantasy counterparts; Starfinder cantrips are nowhere near as awesome as 5E and PF2 cantrips. That being said, casters will be bringing renewable spells that refresh on a long rest and don’t cost the party any credits to use. (Getting longarm proficiency if your class doesn’t provide it is a thing for most characters in Starfinder at level 1.)
Stamina healing happens easily outside of combat. As the party gains levels they’ll have waaay more resolve points to burn so getting back stamina after every fight is going to be a breeze. Stamina healing within combat is the purview of the envoy.
Mystics are the hitpoint healers in combat. Healing hitpoints outside of combat is a pain without using consumables or spells. Long term care from a hospital or a ships medical bay (with high DCs on Medicine skill checks) is not a option for low level characters; they can’t afford it or can’t make the DCs on their own.
You know, if one person played a human or humanish Mystic Star Shaman and another player played a Mercenary type of the Spanthinae race you could essentially roleplay the characters Supernova and Million Ants of the Vindicators from the show Rick and Morty.
Another thing to keep in mind. Every class gets weapon specialization at level 3 but only with weapons that they have proficiency with from that class. If you multiclass or gain weapon proficiency via a feat you have to pay another feat tax (Versatile Specialization) to gain weapon specialization with weapons you grained proficiency with that are not from your (main) class.
Every plus is sacred. “Boring” feats like Iron Will, Improved Initiative and Weapon Focus are really good.
Wealth-by-level is almost never reached by players - especially those in published Paizo adventures. Players only get 10% of the value of loot that they sell. There’s no rune-transference mechanism like from PF2. Most GMs resort to some sort of shenanigans to get their party the appropriate wealth that the game is balanced around.
As a game balance mechanism, players are assumed to only be able to buy item level = (character level + 2) items in major settlements based on who they know, what weapon licenses they have, etc.
You can be a true 40k Space Marine with chain sword and bolter in this game. Pretty bad ass. But do you really need strength as a tank in this game? If you go the power armor route, doesn’t the armor provide your strength? Of course, getting caught out of your armor is another thing altogether.
Is there any way to setup something like an “over watch”?
What I mean is, if I am at one end of a hallway holding a laser gun or whatever, and some dude charges me with a chainsword or otherwise enters my field of fire. Intuition says that I should be able to get in a shot or two as a “reaction” before the melee dude closes the gap.
Okay, I think I may have found an answer to my character conundrum.
Somewhat counterintuitively, it appears that Solarian would let me do most of the things that I’d like to do with this character.
I could “fly”, take a fair amount of damage and use some weird fire and gravity powers to blow things up.
There was the ability to hold an action, Which is essentially what over watch is, " I wait till i see something to move, then I blow it to smithereens." There are also reactions that I saw some classes/archetypes get, especially at higher level, I dont know if any of those necessarily included getting off a shot or additional shot when approached.
Overwatch:
- Win the initiative
- “Delay” and hope your intended targets move into your cone of fire OR “Ready an Action” to shoot your target if/when they move
Thanks Findy, Rando.
Another question. @Rando, will you allow soul fire fusion with solar flare?
Also, I see that Solarian has both Flashing Strikes for full attack with 2x strikes and Solarian’s onslaught for full attack with 3x strikes.
Soldier has Soldier’s Onslaught for full attack with 3x strikes but apparently no corresponding feat for full attack with 2x attacks. Am I missing something?
On the subject of ship ownership. I’ll step out. After hearing Rando saying the APs themselves starve people for credits, the only way I would make money as the ship owner would be to sell it for parts. And then people would need to become space hitchhikers or hobos to get from one world to another.
Mith
Anything that specifically affects solar weapons (such as solarian weapon crystals) affects your solar flare in the same way, though it can’t gain any weapon special property, critical hit effect, or weapon fusion that can’t be applied to a small arm. - Character Operations Manual, pg. 84
The soulfire fusion (and soulfire fusion seals) can only be applied to solarian weapon crystals. - Armory, pg. 65
Um… so just to be clear, we’re agreeing that soulfire fusion does work with solar flare, yes?
Yes.
/happy-bday
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