You have no clue how much you help and how much better your videos are compared to others, because the others sounds unexcited or monotone. You on the other hand make me feel like I am watching TV due to your enthusiasm.
This class sounds great. And if any of my players want to play one I think I am going to let them keep their powers instead of saying no the threat is not great enough.
My GM likes to keep the stakes high and perilous, so the question "is the threat big enough?" never really happens. It's usually "Can you guys survive all this?" And thanks to my Solarian, that answer is usually yes.
I am really intrigued by the roleplaying possibilities of a Solarian, especially in the ways that it is not too much like a Paladin in other games! Thank you for this video, I appreciate the breakdown of each of these classes!
Being very new to the game, my first impression of this very cool class is it's sort of like Starfinder's version of a Jedi (somewhat!) with some VERY cool features & abilities. What a tasty class!
Anyone else see the Solarian as a kind of Jedi? They seem pretty similar to me. Also, as I GM, I would try giving a solarian a warning that they will be unable to attune in the next round or two. This would allow the player to finish up a big attack, and provide the GM a fair way to call a combat insignificant.
One thing I like is that there's a clear use case for each attunement. Graviton focuses on defense and lockdown, while Photon focused on Offense and blowing things away
Solarians have several huge problems. One of them is action economy with regards to their control abilities, such as Gravity Hold and Crush. They often inflict penalties that aren't worth the standard action required to use them, especially since they are not guaranteed to succeed. On top of that, in most cases, a creature that successfully saves against them becomes immune to them for 24 hours! A second, arguably bigger, problem is that Solarians are painfully MAD. They require a high stat in literally every ability score in order to function effectively. Str is necessary for accuracy and damage. Dex is necessary for AC and Init, which are especially important for a melee combatant to help them get in fast (before they can be focus-fired) and stay in the fight, as well as for Reflex saves (and remember, Reflex is the class's poor save). Con is necessary to absorb the damage that you will be taking on the front lines, and for Fort saves. Int is necessary to make full use of Skill Adept and Sidereal Influence. Wis is necessary for Perception and for Will saves. Cha determines your Resolve and the save DCs of Supernova and other abilities. A third problem is that the class is heavily feat-starved. This is partially a result of its MAD problem. A melee Solarian will want Heavy Armor Proficiency to make it less dependent on Dex for survivability, and the class does not come with this. Additionally, the class's MAD nature will result in poor saves due to lack of ability investment, making the +2 save feats practically mandatory. In addition, Step Up and Step Up and Strike are vital to any melee character. And finally, a Solarian's need to get into melee will result in them needing Nimble Moves in order to Stellar Rush through difficult terrain. Fourthly, the class provides no incentive to switch modes. Gaining attunement points at double rate if you attune to the opposite mode after using a Zenith Revelation might be a good fix for this. (Also, Black Hole would need to not be terrible.) Other fixes I would suggest: - Cha to AC in place of Dex, if Cha is higher. (This helps remove the need for heavy armour by making Dex a non-issue.) - Cha to Init in place of Dex, if Cha is higher. (Again, this helps make Dex a non-issue, and helps the class act first to get straight into melee.) - Maybe full Reflex progression, to fully remove the need for Dex investment. Even with full Reflex progression, the class will likely end up with a sub-par Reflex save due to total lack of Dex investment, since Reflex is the only thing Dex would actually do for a melee Solarian. - 6 skill ranks per level. - Proficiency in shuriken (one of the two Special Weapons in the game; they're a less expensive alternative to a returning tactical starknife at low levels, if you don't plan on making ranged attacks much) and grenades by default, to place additional emphasis on Str as the attacking stat. (In Starfinder, throwing weapons use Str to hit.) - Allow Sidereal Influence to continue functioning in combat. Every other class's skill boost abilities do, and it's not like Solarians have all the spare feat slots ever to spend on Skill Focus and such like a soldier does. Plus, it means they would no longer need a minute of rest time after every combat to reactivate Sidereal Influence. - Fill the two dead levels with bonus combat feats. Maybe add a few extra at other levels to help lighten the feat load, since unlike a Blitz soldier or an operative, they don't get Init and movement speed buffs by default (so they may find themselves wanting Fleet and Improved Initiative), and unlike an operative's exploits, there's no revelation for "get a bonus combat feat", or "Nimble Moves but better in every way".
I was turned off by this class for seemingly pushing a character toward melee and tanking when most optimal classes for tanking and melee allow you to choose. You can be any kind of fighter, for example, not necessarily a tank or melee. But it's worse than I thought.
This guy gets it. Why Paizo decided to put out Starfinder with no kind of public playtest is beyond me. If they had, Solarian wouldn't feel like several different design styles constantly waging war against others.
I've just started starfinder and I immediately fell in love with it and I thought solarian sounded awesome so I picked it but after reading them more carefully and watching these videos I've realized how bumpy this ride is going to be. Like I'm already planning what feats I need and what ability scores I need to upgrade which is sad because it sounds like an awesome class.
As someone who has been running multiple campaigns of d&d 5e for the past 3 years we're finally jumping into Star finder. I am pulled in by the depth of the game. But when I was reading the class there was one little side blurb that totally confused me rather than clarifying anything hopefully this video will help.
My biggest complaint is that you're "almost" forced to take revelations of both types even if you're focused on one, but you're not given any incentive to use those revelations on the opposite side of the scale from where you start from unless a situation specifically requires it (and it'll still take a bit until you can use that Zenith revelation). What I think would work well to fix it is if it were designed to have you flip flop between photon mode and graviton mode. For example, say it starts normal but once you use a Zenith revelation and become unattuned, you gain 2 points per turn of the mode opposite of the mode you were just in. This would make you flip flop between modes which removed the problems of mostly wasted abilities and also thematically represents the life cycle of a star (even though black holes don't generally make new stars, but whatever).
I mean, Gravity Boost is good regardless of your Stellar Mode. While it unfortunately gives you a 20 ft. climb speed rather than letting you use your land speed (since it acts as spider climb), it _does_ let you run while climbing; your GM might even allow Jet Dash to work with it (Jet Dash's wording is a bit ambiguous on the matter since it specifies land speed), and you can certainly use it to Stellar Rush foes on walls or what have you. Dark Matter is okay even in Photon Mode in the event that you don't have other things to do with your move action, such as if you can't full attack (no foes adjacent) and your Plasma Sheath is already up, since you're going to use your standard to Stellar Rush to your next target if you have a clear path. It's also good if you're on your Supernova turn but don't need to move into position first before exploding. Just activate Dark Matter and then Supernova. Graviton Mode mostly isn't worth using for a melee Solarian in particular until you get Zenith Revelations that aren't Black Hole, such as Wormholes or Time Dilation. Black Hole is trash. A melee Solarian is gonna spend 90% of their time in Photon Mode, since it and Plasma Sheath give a pretty big damage boost when combined and Supernova is just excellent.
Kinda fun reading the comments here. Some associate it with Paladins, others with Jedi. Personally hearing about the weapon and that, these days I can't help but to associate it with Gwyndala from Star Trek Prodigy and her 'Heirloom Weapon' of which could change shape through her telepathy.
There is a solar crystal specific weapon fusion now in the Starfinder Armory that lets you add your charisma modifer to your damage on top of your strength mod. Just made a lvl 3 Vesk Solarian with heavy armor. While in photon mode my weapon does 1d6+10 (+3[str], +1[crystal], +2[fusion/Cha], +1[photon mode], +3[weapon specialization]). On top of that with my heavy armor, I'm sitting on 20KAC and 16EAC (+1 from Vesk, +1 dex). There's also a level 3 armor mod called Juggernaut Boosters found in the Armory which buffs your chances of landing a bull rush (and pushes the target an additional 5ft), and also improves your chances of smashing down doors. Should chain react well with the Stellar Rush photon ability.
Two of the example builds in the CRB used Solar Armor and focused on Dexterity with ranged weapons. I always thought that the scientific minds of the android race would be an interesting approach to understanding the solar cycles of the Solarian from an RP standpoint. On one hand, charisma is a lot less important than the primary ability score of most classes, but on the other hand the race class combo would suffer from being underpowered even in an non-optimized party. Can you think of revelations and feats that would work well with a small arms focused Solarian? The mobility and crowd control stuff would work great and Paizo obviously thinks dexterity would work or two of their examples would not use it. However, I just cannot quite figure out the best way to implement this.
Basically when it comes to attunement a good idea is that if an encounter is dire enough to start attuning, it stays at that threat level until such time as the encounter is completely finished. After all, an enemy can always get lucky.
I think the fix to the significant threat is at the beginning of combat if it is a threat you can use it. When combat ends which means all enemies die, flee or surrender then it stops. Players are very understanding if you only apply this rule at the start of combat.
Solarian with Armor mode + Enhanced Resistance feat at level 5. At level 20 this is DR 20/- (Kinetic) and ER 20/- (Cold or Fire; move). Level 20 Light Armor of choice is Hardlight Series, Specialist which will net me an KAC/EAC of +24 each including the class AC bonus, plus up to +8 Dex bonus, which I will have +6 for a total AC of 40 each... and the aforementioned DR/ER.
Really enjoying your Starfinder videos but for the Solarian in particular it might be worth going into the "Blitzarian" build. a one level dip in Blitz Soldier does a lot to bring the Solarian class features together. As a stand alone class the Charisma requirement is a very odd thing. It only affect three aspects of the class, Save DCs for the few revelations that allow saves, Resolve points and a few points of bonus towards diplomacy (which the class does not get very competitive with against Envoys or Operatives who can both afford investment along with their better skill points and better scaling skill boosts) Without the dip the class is either going strength primary with dexterity and charisma competing for second and third place (a 14, 14, 12 stat spread before racial modifiers?) and at that point you should seriously think about picking up heavy armor; or a dexterity/charisma focus where you can start off with 16s in the two main stats but then you really need to spend the feats to upgrade the class's weapon proficiencies. Either path feels like the base class isn't bringing enough to the table by itself to support it's roles and you have to burn your level 1 feat on better weapon or armor proficiency just to get started. (though this is also a problem with Envoys, Mystics and Technomancers, at least they have options other than attacking and can push out long arm proficiency until later levels). With the dip into Soldier you can move your resolve to a physical stat which better has better synergy with the class's combat orientation, pick up a host of extra proficiencies and the equivalent of two bonus feats with the Blitz initiative and speed boosts... which also have great synergy with revelations like Stellar Rush to move first with a lot of range and lock down enemies on the first turn. Ignoring Charisma and the save based revelations also opens up a lot more races to play with, ones like the Android which can make for great solar armor melee characters even with a starting Charisma of 8 if you take that dip. As a final thought, there isnt really much of a penalty for going unbalanced with your revelation selections. Unless your finisher move was actually going to prevent the combat from going into round 4 you'll probably be better served by staying attuned and keeping the attunement bonuses going.
The chgoice to allow a Solarin's abuility would come down too. A solarin is suposed to be the last ditch effort or saving grace for a pined party... Example being: the party had fought a formadable foe for serveral rounds sercoming to the constant battering and exchange of abuse... The Solarin manages to summon the stregth to stand and step forward to the foe forming a dark matter sword and calling appon the full force of his abuilities to overcome the situation and foe allowing the party to make a last ditch effort of some sort of functional recovery...
On the play throughs the Solarian has come up weaker especially when compared to the Operative or the Soldier. For someone who is suppose to fight it seems they are usually trailing in damage.. they have some minor control ability such as pulling monsters to them.. but without the ability to wear heavy armor and requiring 3 high stats to be successful (STR, DEX, and CHA) they wont be as focused and capable as a operator or soldier or any class that isnt dependant on that many stats.
Totally agree... There is no reason they can't have both Armor and Weapon AND have them both active at the same time. I am house ruling that they can Channel the Solar Weapon through any melee weapons with the understanding that a Natural 1 destroys the weapon dealing the Solar Weapon damage in 5ft burst Reflex for half DC = 10 + weapon level + 1/2 Solarian level (yes friendly fire). So far so balanced but we will see if my Min-Maxers will break it, but at least now they are using the character type.
Now, when it comes to Gravity Shield, and letting players put it diagonally, here's one thing to consider. If you are at least a bit strict about properly employing the tools that the game provides, you help encourage players to be really smart about how and when they use these tools. It can help them feel smarter for positioning themselves to use things like that.
I still don't understand why charisma is the key ability. It says "your charisma lets you channel your connection to the cosmos", is there a difficulty check to enter a mode based on charisma?
I love my solarian. I hit 7th level last session and I have.... _so many_ plans for the next 3-5 levels. One time, my party had a plan to have me attune early. They didn't tell me about it. Then our Vesk (-1 intelligence) punched me in the face for max damage and asked the DM if that was life threatening enough for me to attune. Unfortunately not, as the DM reasoned that, since we fought right next to each other so often, I trusted the Vesk enough that I didn't feel threatened, just very confused. But in game, it would have looked like we were just sneaking down a hallway and suddenly, without warning, this 400 pound lizard just _smacks_ this tiny Lashunta.
Solarian sounded like it would be my favorite class, but once SF was release, I hate it with a passion. I hate that it is so bad at whatever Paizo thought it should do. Two dead levels, no base speed increases, no real utility powers. Look at Kineticist, they split up the talents that change your "weapon" and the talents that are just useful powers. Why not do this with Solarian. Also Solarians should recieve Solar weapon AND Solar Armor.
So I just bought the core rulebook yesterday and I was looking through the classes. I was immediately inspired by the solarian class to make a facsimile of ALL MIGHT from my hero academia. Supernova can even function as the United States of Smash!
The penalty for committing to one side for Revelations doesn't strike me as that heavy. On the other hand the "significant threat" stipulation really looks to need some house ruling if not phased out completely. Also, big thumbs up as a fellow GL fan! Even though I stopped reading around 2011 >_>
I would love to see something Starfinder or Call of Cthulhu get their own critical role. Obviously not just the critical role cast doing a one shot. But a group of entertaining people that enjoy the game and eachothers company playing something other than D&D. I love D&D, but there's more to offer in the world of table top.
you could actually go anime and call it a Bleach Shinigami if you wanted. Create your own zanpaktou, go into a bankai mode..... Over all seems like you could treat it as a pally or a ranger, which is great in my opinion. instead of multiple hybrid classes, this is the one big hybrid class. My opinion anyways.
Wow --- just reading all the hate for the Solarian from 4 yrs ago. I started a Solarian build after reading up on it and I find the class to be incredibly fascinating, while putting it on par with Soldier in terms of combat efficacy (at least in melee). It's true that you are locked into specific paths as far as Solarian builds are concerned, and they look especially rigid when compared to the Soldier, but I think Solarians have gotten some needed buffs in terms of power and versatility since 4 yrs ago. Hopefully, opinions have changed since then.
@@Testosterone.and.Steroids There are some additional revelations in books like Pact Worlds, plus there are feats (not SFS-legal) that are VERY useful for Solarians.
In that, they are attuned to certain aspects of space or physics as a druid is attuned to nature and cast spells taking that shape. But, I don't know anything about mystics yet, that won't happen until Saturday's video!
There you go... I am always hesitant to just say "This Starfinder class is X Class from Pathfinder" but monk is an ok reference I think. Ability-wise, not really, but flavor wise kind of similar.
Looking into SF to crib ideas for my scifi homebrew, and unless I'm wrong... Isn't 'Solarian' a bit of a mistake in terms of lore, as it's derived from 'Sol', the name of our real world star? Like 'solar' is one of those annoying words that is used to mean 'energy from a star', but actually doesn't make sense outside of our star system. (note I had to consciously duck the word 'solar system' there :p). That whole subset of linguistics was formed around the idea of our star, our sun, primitive and shortsighted creatures we were, and now we'll be colonising space in ships powered by 'solar panels', which strikes me as basically the galactic equivalent of your mum referring to every games console as the 'Nintendo'.
Do the math again and you'll see a Max Solar blade and max Longsword, dimensional slice do the same damage but the Solar blade is stronger due to never losing it. Plus the critical bonuses.
Yeah. I am also unimpressed with a class that can get killed at range while trying to use its class ability. Too much situationals and dependencies and luck and grace of the universe. And if you miss, you're unattuned. Start over, suckah.
Solar Armor can be used alongside any light armor you wear and light armor (when you put enough into dex) will only have you slightly under heavy armor in AC.
A Solarian's attunement is not reset after use, that only applies to the zenith Revelations and the starting revelations. Also, according to the rules as written in the CRB, most of the normal revelations dont require Photon or Graviton attunment to use them at full capacity(except for duration). As well as, the fact that none of the normal one require you to be attuned at all.
So would another 2 points of Dex. If I put my Chr points into Dex... This class seems like the wizard class of SF. I can see these guys hiding behind their soldier party mates until they reach lvl 5.
well you convinced me to never play this as the campaign is currently just by how you described most of the features for the first half of the video. I love the uniqueness of the class that fascinates me ... however, the entire class just seems too situational and pretty useless in comparison to other classes with a lot of GM dependent to choke or let them be who they are.. caviates etc . i would definitely suggest only an open minded GM and an experienced player play this class. lets face it .. most campaigns don't make it to the capstone level range.
It's not as bad as you think. I really like the solarian. They made a melee class interesting in combat, by giving it more than just I move up and attack.
One thing is he missed out the rule on significant enemies. It is not a GM fiat thing (well no more than anything else) there are actual rules for what is considered a significant enemy. It is CR -4
I know nothing about this game, but I'd pit one of today's soldiers with a .50 cal sniper rifle against these guys and expect him to win. So, not much of a futuristic science fiction game IMO.
its almost like the melee class wasn't made to fight in range. its almost like snipers are good at killing people. Also, the Solarian kit has stuff for making cover and pulling people closer, and their armor can be good enough to generally survive the ingame sniper rifles, so.......
There's also the problem where the Solarian might very well just… suddenly appear next to you. Regardless of distance. And then slaughter you in melee because ohlol you got caught in melee when you're wielding a sniper rifle.
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You have no clue how much you help and how much better your videos are compared to others, because the others sounds unexcited or monotone. You on the other hand make me feel like I am watching TV due to your enthusiasm.
This class sounds great. And if any of my players want to play one I think I am going to let them keep their powers instead of saying no the threat is not great enough.
My DM treats them basically as combat-only abilities. I rarely have to ask him if I can attune.
My GM likes to keep the stakes high and perilous, so the question "is the threat big enough?" never really happens. It's usually "Can you guys survive all this?"
And thanks to my Solarian, that answer is usually yes.
I really enjoy the kinda stellar paladin vibe from this class and if I do end up playing starfinder I think I'll play this class
Okay okay guys hear me out. This is an amazing idea... SOLAR POWER RANGERS. The Solar Armour is perfect for this.
Haha... oh man, just need some mechs that fuse together
as you could tell by my profile pic, im gonna be trying this and trying to make it work with my friends in some way lol.
YASSSSSSSSSSS TAKE PILOTING AS A SKILL AND GET MECHS!
I retract my previous statement.....GET POWER ARMOR PROFICIENCY, THEY ARE PRACTICALLY ZORDS ANYHOW!!!!
Ship it, green light it, out the door!
I am really intrigued by the roleplaying possibilities of a Solarian, especially in the ways that it is not too much like a Paladin in other games! Thank you for this video, I appreciate the breakdown of each of these classes!
Wait, so you can cover yourself in black hole armor/use black hole weapons?! I'm sold. Done.
Same.
Another great and informative video for us that are new to Starfinder! Thanks, Cody. Keep up the good work.
Being very new to the game, my first impression of this very cool class is it's sort of like Starfinder's version of a Jedi (somewhat!) with some VERY cool features & abilities. What a tasty class!
I agree. I chose this as my current character. Vala
Anyone else see the Solarian as a kind of Jedi? They seem pretty similar to me.
Also, as I GM, I would try giving a solarian a warning that they will be unable to attune in the next round or two. This would allow the player to finish up a big attack, and provide the GM a fair way to call a combat insignificant.
One thing I like is that there's a clear use case for each attunement.
Graviton focuses on defense and lockdown, while Photon focused on Offense and blowing things away
Solarians have several huge problems. One of them is action economy with regards to their control abilities, such as Gravity Hold and Crush. They often inflict penalties that aren't worth the standard action required to use them, especially since they are not guaranteed to succeed. On top of that, in most cases, a creature that successfully saves against them becomes immune to them for 24 hours!
A second, arguably bigger, problem is that Solarians are painfully MAD. They require a high stat in literally every ability score in order to function effectively. Str is necessary for accuracy and damage. Dex is necessary for AC and Init, which are especially important for a melee combatant to help them get in fast (before they can be focus-fired) and stay in the fight, as well as for Reflex saves (and remember, Reflex is the class's poor save). Con is necessary to absorb the damage that you will be taking on the front lines, and for Fort saves. Int is necessary to make full use of Skill Adept and Sidereal Influence. Wis is necessary for Perception and for Will saves. Cha determines your Resolve and the save DCs of Supernova and other abilities.
A third problem is that the class is heavily feat-starved. This is partially a result of its MAD problem. A melee Solarian will want Heavy Armor Proficiency to make it less dependent on Dex for survivability, and the class does not come with this. Additionally, the class's MAD nature will result in poor saves due to lack of ability investment, making the +2 save feats practically mandatory. In addition, Step Up and Step Up and Strike are vital to any melee character. And finally, a Solarian's need to get into melee will result in them needing Nimble Moves in order to Stellar Rush through difficult terrain.
Fourthly, the class provides no incentive to switch modes. Gaining attunement points at double rate if you attune to the opposite mode after using a Zenith Revelation might be a good fix for this. (Also, Black Hole would need to not be terrible.)
Other fixes I would suggest:
- Cha to AC in place of Dex, if Cha is higher. (This helps remove the need for heavy armour by making Dex a non-issue.)
- Cha to Init in place of Dex, if Cha is higher. (Again, this helps make Dex a non-issue, and helps the class act first to get straight into melee.)
- Maybe full Reflex progression, to fully remove the need for Dex investment. Even with full Reflex progression, the class will likely end up with a sub-par Reflex save due to total lack of Dex investment, since Reflex is the only thing Dex would actually do for a melee Solarian.
- 6 skill ranks per level.
- Proficiency in shuriken (one of the two Special Weapons in the game; they're a less expensive alternative to a returning tactical starknife at low levels, if you don't plan on making ranged attacks much) and grenades by default, to place additional emphasis on Str as the attacking stat. (In Starfinder, throwing weapons use Str to hit.)
- Allow Sidereal Influence to continue functioning in combat. Every other class's skill boost abilities do, and it's not like Solarians have all the spare feat slots ever to spend on Skill Focus and such like a soldier does. Plus, it means they would no longer need a minute of rest time after every combat to reactivate Sidereal Influence.
- Fill the two dead levels with bonus combat feats. Maybe add a few extra at other levels to help lighten the feat load, since unlike a Blitz soldier or an operative, they don't get Init and movement speed buffs by default (so they may find themselves wanting Fleet and Improved Initiative), and unlike an operative's exploits, there's no revelation for "get a bonus combat feat", or "Nimble Moves but better in every way".
(If any readers are wondering about the broken spacing, I posted that comment from my 3DS.)
I was turned off by this class for seemingly pushing a character toward melee and tanking when most optimal classes for tanking and melee allow you to choose. You can be any kind of fighter, for example, not necessarily a tank or melee. But it's worse than I thought.
QQ more you Guys. Solarian isn’t a easy class to play. But it is very rewarding.
This guy gets it. Why Paizo decided to put out Starfinder with no kind of public playtest is beyond me. If they had, Solarian wouldn't feel like several different design styles constantly waging war against others.
I've just started starfinder and I immediately fell in love with it and I thought solarian sounded awesome so I picked it but after reading them more carefully and watching these videos I've realized how bumpy this ride is going to be. Like I'm already planning what feats I need and what ability scores I need to upgrade which is sad because it sounds like an awesome class.
I love this class! Jed... I mean Solarians rock! Looking forward to rolling one of these up.
As someone who has been running multiple campaigns of d&d 5e for the past 3 years we're finally jumping into Star finder.
I am pulled in by the depth of the game. But when I was reading the class there was one little side blurb that totally confused me rather than clarifying anything hopefully this video will help.
My biggest complaint is that you're "almost" forced to take revelations of both types even if you're focused on one, but you're not given any incentive to use those revelations on the opposite side of the scale from where you start from unless a situation specifically requires it (and it'll still take a bit until you can use that Zenith revelation).
What I think would work well to fix it is if it were designed to have you flip flop between photon mode and graviton mode. For example, say it starts normal but once you use a Zenith revelation and become unattuned, you gain 2 points per turn of the mode opposite of the mode you were just in.
This would make you flip flop between modes which removed the problems of mostly wasted abilities and also thematically represents the life cycle of a star (even though black holes don't generally make new stars, but whatever).
I like your fix.
I mean, Gravity Boost is good regardless of your Stellar Mode. While it unfortunately gives you a 20 ft. climb speed rather than letting you use your land speed (since it acts as spider climb), it _does_ let you run while climbing; your GM might even allow Jet Dash to work with it (Jet Dash's wording is a bit ambiguous on the matter since it specifies land speed), and you can certainly use it to Stellar Rush foes on walls or what have you.
Dark Matter is okay even in Photon Mode in the event that you don't have other things to do with your move action, such as if you can't full attack (no foes adjacent) and your Plasma Sheath is already up, since you're going to use your standard to Stellar Rush to your next target if you have a clear path. It's also good if you're on your Supernova turn but don't need to move into position first before exploding. Just activate Dark Matter and then Supernova.
Graviton Mode mostly isn't worth using for a melee Solarian in particular until you get Zenith Revelations that aren't Black Hole, such as Wormholes or Time Dilation. Black Hole is trash. A melee Solarian is gonna spend 90% of their time in Photon Mode, since it and Plasma Sheath give a pretty big damage boost when combined and Supernova is just excellent.
Kinda fun reading the comments here. Some associate it with Paladins, others with Jedi. Personally hearing about the weapon and that, these days I can't help but to associate it with Gwyndala from Star Trek Prodigy and her 'Heirloom Weapon' of which could change shape through her telepathy.
I was excited about this class when they posted the preview, and this makes me want to play one for my first character. Good job!
STARBARIANS!!!
Buy your thing of balance all solarian should have duct tape it has a light side a dark side and a binds the universe together
Been getting a judge dread paladin idea for a solarian
There is a solar crystal specific weapon fusion now in the Starfinder Armory that lets you add your charisma modifer to your damage on top of your strength mod. Just made a lvl 3 Vesk Solarian with heavy armor. While in photon mode my weapon does 1d6+10 (+3[str], +1[crystal], +2[fusion/Cha], +1[photon mode], +3[weapon specialization]). On top of that with my heavy armor, I'm sitting on 20KAC and 16EAC (+1 from Vesk, +1 dex). There's also a level 3 armor mod called Juggernaut Boosters found in the Armory which buffs your chances of landing a bull rush (and pushes the target an additional 5ft), and also improves your chances of smashing down doors. Should chain react well with the Stellar Rush photon ability.
I keep getting a Titan from Destiny vibe for the Solarion.
Definitely has the makings of a Sunbreaker Titan.
No way it's warlock vibe for sure we dawn blade and voidwalker
Mystic is the warlock and operative is the hunter if you ask me
Warlock for me
Two of the example builds in the CRB used Solar Armor and focused on Dexterity with ranged weapons. I always thought that the scientific minds of the android race would be an interesting approach to understanding the solar cycles of the Solarian from an RP standpoint. On one hand, charisma is a lot less important than the primary ability score of most classes, but on the other hand the race class combo would suffer from being underpowered even in an non-optimized party.
Can you think of revelations and feats that would work well with a small arms focused Solarian? The mobility and crowd control stuff would work great and Paizo obviously thinks dexterity would work or two of their examples would not use it. However, I just cannot quite figure out the best way to implement this.
Basically when it comes to attunement a good idea is that if an encounter is dire enough to start attuning, it stays at that threat level until such time as the encounter is completely finished. After all, an enemy can always get lucky.
I think the fix to the significant threat is at the beginning of combat if it is a threat you can use it. When combat ends which means all enemies die, flee or surrender then it stops. Players are very understanding if you only apply this rule at the start of combat.
Solarian with Armor mode + Enhanced Resistance feat at level 5. At level 20 this is DR 20/- (Kinetic) and ER 20/- (Cold or Fire; move). Level 20 Light Armor of choice is Hardlight Series, Specialist which will net me an KAC/EAC of +24 each including the class AC bonus, plus up to +8 Dex bonus, which I will have +6 for a total AC of 40 each... and the aforementioned DR/ER.
I wish I had seen this when I started playing Starfinder. I was totally lost playing my Vesk Solarin.
The "attunement" mechanic that the Solarion uses is much like what the Runekeeper class uses in Lord of the Rings Online. And yeah, it's cool.
Does Solarian Radiation cause the DC -10 damage once per day, once per entering the area, or is it having Poison not related to damage at all?
Glad to the see the Star Powered Sentinel (from the Star Power webcomic) gets representation in Starfinder.
Really enjoying your Starfinder videos but for the Solarian in particular it might be worth going into the "Blitzarian" build. a one level dip in Blitz Soldier does a lot to bring the Solarian class features together. As a stand alone class the Charisma requirement is a very odd thing. It only affect three aspects of the class, Save DCs for the few revelations that allow saves, Resolve points and a few points of bonus towards diplomacy (which the class does not get very competitive with against Envoys or Operatives who can both afford investment along with their better skill points and better scaling skill boosts)
Without the dip the class is either going strength primary with dexterity and charisma competing for second and third place (a 14, 14, 12 stat spread before racial modifiers?) and at that point you should seriously think about picking up heavy armor; or a dexterity/charisma focus where you can start off with 16s in the two main stats but then you really need to spend the feats to upgrade the class's weapon proficiencies. Either path feels like the base class isn't bringing enough to the table by itself to support it's roles and you have to burn your level 1 feat on better weapon or armor proficiency just to get started. (though this is also a problem with Envoys, Mystics and Technomancers, at least they have options other than attacking and can push out long arm proficiency until later levels).
With the dip into Soldier you can move your resolve to a physical stat which better has better synergy with the class's combat orientation, pick up a host of extra proficiencies and the equivalent of two bonus feats with the Blitz initiative and speed boosts... which also have great synergy with revelations like Stellar Rush to move first with a lot of range and lock down enemies on the first turn.
Ignoring Charisma and the save based revelations also opens up a lot more races to play with, ones like the Android which can make for great solar armor melee characters even with a starting Charisma of 8 if you take that dip.
As a final thought, there isnt really much of a penalty for going unbalanced with your revelation selections. Unless your finisher move was actually going to prevent the combat from going into round 4 you'll probably be better served by staying attuned and keeping the attunement bonuses going.
Class benefits more from a dip into solider then almost any other. The access to heavy armor and blitz first lvl ability are almost mandatory
The chgoice to allow a Solarin's abuility would come down too. A solarin is suposed to be the last ditch effort or saving grace for a pined party... Example being: the party had fought a formadable foe for serveral rounds sercoming to the constant battering and exchange of abuse... The Solarin manages to summon the stregth to stand and step forward to the foe forming a dark matter sword and calling appon the full force of his abuilities to overcome the situation and foe allowing the party to make a last ditch effort of some sort of functional recovery...
On the play throughs the Solarian has come up weaker especially when compared to the Operative or the Soldier. For someone who is suppose to fight it seems they are usually trailing in damage.. they have some minor control ability such as pulling monsters to them.. but without the ability to wear heavy armor and requiring 3 high stats to be successful (STR, DEX, and CHA) they wont be as focused and capable as a operator or soldier or any class that isnt dependant on that many stats.
Angry Ghost, The Truth.
Totally agree... There is no reason they can't have both Armor and Weapon AND have them both active at the same time. I am house ruling that they can Channel the Solar Weapon through any melee weapons with the understanding that a Natural 1 destroys the weapon dealing the Solar Weapon damage in 5ft burst Reflex for half DC = 10 + weapon level + 1/2 Solarian level (yes friendly fire). So far so balanced but we will see if my Min-Maxers will break it, but at least now they are using the character type.
Now, when it comes to Gravity Shield, and letting players put it diagonally, here's one thing to consider. If you are at least a bit strict about properly employing the tools that the game provides, you help encourage players to be really smart about how and when they use these tools. It can help them feel smarter for positioning themselves to use things like that.
I really want to make a Kasatha Solar Monk now.
I still don't understand why charisma is the key ability. It says "your charisma lets you channel your connection to the cosmos", is there a difficulty check to enter a mode based on charisma?
I love my solarian. I hit 7th level last session and I have.... _so many_ plans for the next 3-5 levels.
One time, my party had a plan to have me attune early. They didn't tell me about it. Then our Vesk (-1 intelligence) punched me in the face for max damage and asked the DM if that was life threatening enough for me to attune. Unfortunately not, as the DM reasoned that, since we fought right next to each other so often, I trusted the Vesk enough that I didn't feel threatened, just very confused.
But in game, it would have looked like we were just sneaking down a hallway and suddenly, without warning, this 400 pound lizard just _smacks_ this tiny Lashunta.
Solarian sounded like it would be my favorite class, but once SF was release, I hate it with a passion. I hate that it is so bad at whatever Paizo thought it should do. Two dead levels, no base speed increases, no real utility powers. Look at Kineticist, they split up the talents that change your "weapon" and the talents that are just useful powers. Why not do this with Solarian. Also Solarians should recieve Solar weapon AND Solar Armor.
My buddy is making a maraquio solarian where his weapon will be a bo staff he wanted to create the monkey king lol
Solairans are sailor moon sailor scouts that tank
So I just bought the core rulebook yesterday and I was looking through the classes. I was immediately inspired by the solarian class to make a facsimile of ALL MIGHT from my hero academia. Supernova can even function as the United States of Smash!
Is it possible for a solarion to manifest a revelation that is not the type they are attuned for? ie gravity hold while photon attuned?
Yes, you just get benefits from being attuned to the power you are manifesting.
If you choose solar armor, you become a cosmic power ranger. You have the colors and everything
The penalty for committing to one side for Revelations doesn't strike me as that heavy. On the other hand the "significant threat" stipulation really looks to need some house ruling if not phased out completely. Also, big thumbs up as a fellow GL fan! Even though I stopped reading around 2011 >_>
The rule for "significant enemies" is that they have to have a CR higher than your level minus 4 in order to be considered significant.
This class is Sephiroth.
I would love to see something Starfinder or Call of Cthulhu get their own critical role.
Obviously not just the critical role cast doing a one shot. But a group of entertaining people that enjoy the game and eachothers company playing something other than D&D. I love D&D, but there's more to offer in the world of table top.
you could actually go anime and call it a Bleach Shinigami if you wanted. Create your own zanpaktou, go into a bankai mode.....
Over all seems like you could treat it as a pally or a ranger, which is great in my opinion. instead of multiple hybrid classes, this is the one big hybrid class. My opinion anyways.
*black hole sun by soundgarden starts playing*
Wow --- just reading all the hate for the Solarian from 4 yrs ago. I started a Solarian build after reading up on it and I find the class to be incredibly fascinating, while putting it on par with Soldier in terms of combat efficacy (at least in melee). It's true that you are locked into specific paths as far as Solarian builds are concerned, and they look especially rigid when compared to the Soldier, but I think Solarians have gotten some needed buffs in terms of power and versatility since 4 yrs ago. Hopefully, opinions have changed since then.
Can you expand on the buffs? Just started GMing Starfinder so I don't know how the class has been adressed since then.
@@Testosterone.and.Steroids There are some additional revelations in books like Pact Worlds, plus there are feats (not SFS-legal) that are VERY useful for Solarians.
Could Solarions be the equivalent of paladins from DnD and Pathfinder?
I see it as more of a space druid :)
Actually Mystics might be closer to druids.
In that, they are attuned to certain aspects of space or physics as a druid is attuned to nature and cast spells taking that shape. But, I don't know anything about mystics yet, that won't happen until Saturday's video!
Solarians are equivalent to Monks. They are mystic warriors that give plus to AC or a Solar Weapon.
There you go... I am always hesitant to just say "This Starfinder class is X Class from Pathfinder" but monk is an ok reference I think. Ability-wise, not really, but flavor wise kind of similar.
Looking into SF to crib ideas for my scifi homebrew, and unless I'm wrong... Isn't 'Solarian' a bit of a mistake in terms of lore, as it's derived from 'Sol', the name of our real world star?
Like 'solar' is one of those annoying words that is used to mean 'energy from a star', but actually doesn't make sense outside of our star system. (note I had to consciously duck the word 'solar system' there :p). That whole subset of linguistics was formed around the idea of our star, our sun, primitive and shortsighted creatures we were, and now we'll be colonising space in ships powered by 'solar panels', which strikes me as basically the galactic equivalent of your mum referring to every games console as the 'Nintendo'.
I can't be the only one who kept thinking "PRAISE THE SUN!!!" through this whole thing, right?
\\[T]/
Oh look Paladins get a really good capstone, again.
SPACE PALADIN.
Solar weapon is weaker than other melee weapons and solar armor is weaker than heavy armor. So sad.
IoKnight that sucks about the weapons, but you could consider the solar amor to be medium armor plus all the energy resistance
Do the math again and you'll see a Max Solar blade and max Longsword, dimensional slice do the same damage but the Solar blade is stronger due to never losing it. Plus the critical bonuses.
Yeah. I am also unimpressed with a class that can get killed at range while trying to use its class ability. Too much situationals and dependencies and luck and grace of the universe. And if you miss, you're unattuned. Start over, suckah.
Solar Armor can be used alongside any light armor you wear and light armor (when you put enough into dex) will only have you slightly under heavy armor in AC.
A Solarian's attunement is not reset after use, that only applies to the zenith Revelations and the starting revelations. Also, according to the rules as written in the CRB, most of the normal revelations dont require Photon or Graviton attunment to use them at full capacity(except for duration). As well as, the fact that none of the normal one require you to be attuned at all.
In my game, I treat the Solarian as a Jedi.
Praise the Sun.
I want to help my friend make a character comparable to a Dark Templar from Star Craft xD
I hope at least one person has made a Solarian called Mordin Solus.
So I can be Kirby?
Solar armor seems a little underwhelming :/
Stacks with Light armor
So would another 2 points of Dex. If I put my Chr points into Dex...
This class seems like the wizard class of SF. I can see these guys hiding behind their soldier party mates until they reach lvl 5.
Solarians would be a good class vs Kryptonians using red sun energy Lol
Oh...so you're saying i could have an Omni Blade
lol they really went for the concept didn't they? they developed it like an event horizon.
As cool as they may sound, sadly, Solarian is a very underpowered class.
The ST's job is to tell players no and make judgment calls. If you take that away - might as well play a computer game.
20th
well you convinced me to never play this as the campaign is currently just by how you described most of the features for the first half of the video. I love the uniqueness of the class that fascinates me ... however, the entire class just seems too situational and pretty useless in comparison to other classes with a lot of GM dependent to choke or let them be who they are.. caviates etc . i would definitely suggest only an open minded GM and an experienced player play this class. lets face it .. most campaigns don't make it to the capstone level range.
It's not as bad as you think. I really like the solarian. They made a melee class interesting in combat, by giving it more than just I move up and attack.
One thing is he missed out the rule on significant enemies. It is not a GM fiat thing (well no more than anything else) there are actual rules for what is considered a significant enemy. It is CR -4
Comparatively, this class seems like shit. Way too reliant on ability scores to be even remotely useful.
I know nothing about this game, but I'd pit one of today's soldiers with a .50 cal sniper rifle against these guys and expect him to win. So, not much of a futuristic science fiction game IMO.
edlaprade well it's a science fantasy game so of course it won't be science fiction
uhhh... we are using magic here. It could go either way.
its almost like the melee class wasn't made to fight in range. its almost like snipers are good at killing people. Also, the Solarian kit has stuff for making cover and pulling people closer, and their armor can be good enough to generally survive the ingame sniper rifles, so.......
Seeing as they can reflect bullets back at the attacker I'd wager not so much.
There's also the problem where the Solarian might very well just… suddenly appear next to you. Regardless of distance. And then slaughter you in melee because ohlol you got caught in melee when you're wielding a sniper rifle.