u/Justnobodyfqwl

Hey everyone, it's time for another Paizo Class Playtest, and therefore it's time for more debates about what to name the class. Now, I like Luminary, but it wouldn't be a new playtest without people throwing their hat in the ring for new names. My current suggestions:

-Thespian-Illusionist (Because Luminary is just too concise)

-Sparkle Sparkle Color-Fun (To give an accurate view of what the class does)

-The Flasher (Because you flash them with spotlights! Why else?)

-Judgemental Member Of The Party (What do you MEAN, the genre of my outfit today is "comedy"?)

-Theater Kid (if we're being BRUTALLY honest)

-Daredevil (Well, people didn't like it the FIRST time, but maybe they'll give it a chance THIS time?)

OBVIOUSLY these are the best names, and Paizo is just too cowardly to use them. But what would YOU pick? Sound off in the comment section!

Hi everyone! While the tropes and classes you expect to see in fantasy RPGs are pretty well known, Sci-Fi class-based games like Starfinder don't have all the same expectations. I think it's interesting trying to think of scifi archetypes that are common in media, but there aren't space for yet in Starfinder 2e. Off the top of my head, I think of things like

•Shapeshifting and Physical Transformation (Like the Shifter Class homebrew I did!)

•Nonmagical Intellectual Doctor/Scientist 

•Portals and Wormholes 

•llusionist with Special Effects, Holograms, etc 

I've been thinking about how to expand these concepts into classes that tap into common sci-fi-fantasy tropes and design space SF2E hasn't gotten into yet. Here's a couple that I have so far- and I wanted to hear about your ideas as well!

The Drifter: A movement-based dex/str martial class built around the fantasies of Portals, Wormholes, and Teleportation. Drifters are travelers, lone wanderers, and anyone touched by the call to see the galaxy. They specialize in unique positioning and movement during combat, with most of their power budget on being the only class that can Teleport at will. I imagine Paizo would connect this thematically to The Drift, so the name is a double meaning gag. 

I imagine it as a class kind of like the Necromancer, Runesmith, and Mechanic where it specializes in putting game objects on the battlefield. In their case, to make them stand out from the Witchwarper, i'm imagining it set up like the Portal game series- two portals that take up a 5foot square each and can be moved around the battlefield. Their gameplay gimmick would be using portals the Drifter could freely move between, move allies and enemies on the battlefield with, use to redirect attacks from/against you, etc. 

Various feats would tap into other common fantasies of using portals and teleportation. You might send objects to allies, store objects, or retrieve objects you need retroactively. They're a great class to give a feat line for enhanced creature summoning, tapping into the idea of opening portals to dump robots and aliens on the battlefield. It might also explore more Nightcrawler-style "blinking" teleportation too- I could see that as a supercharged version of Stepping. 

The Illusionist: A Starfinder take on the classic fantasy gaming class, the Illusionist combines magic, advanced hardlight technology, and good old fashioned parlor tricks to bedazzle, befuddle, and beguile the galaxy. 

I feel like the fantasy and appeal of the class is obvious, but the execution could be done in a lot of ways. Obviously, you want to be able to do illusions at-will as a Charisma-based class. Starfinder's hardlight technology allows a very convenient excuse to have "hardlight" illusions you can interact with, and that opens up a lot of possibilities for what the class could do- creating stairs and bridges, making illusions that can convincingly fire weapons at enemies, creating walls on the battlefield, dealing psychic and force damage, etc. You also get to play with a million fun tropes and abilities: Messing with light, making things invisible, redirecting enemies, creating diversions and feinting, hypnosis-like effects, granting conditions like dazzled/frightened/off-guard/blinded, etc. 

However, I would honestly wonder how to best capture all of this mechanically. The obvious answer is "a caster", but I think that's messier than it seems. There's a million illusion spells in PF2E, with a wide range of specificity in purpose. They're spread across 9 levels AND focus spells, spread across books and adventures (a LOT of adventures have very specific illusion spells), and most of them aren't in SF2e. 

So..do you just translate them all? Do you make it a caster with only spells with the illusion tag? A caster of a different tradition, but it just gets all Illusion spells? Do you have to use your known spells on them, or are you getting "all the illusion spells + random Occult spells tacked on"? I think I could see them as something like the Necromancer- half-caster with a focus in a specific group of spells, a super-charged cantrip that allows them to keep "doing their thing" and put stuff on the battlefield, they get a lot of specific focus spells through feats that involve the illusions/thralls they put on the battlefield, etc. (Although, truth be told, I think the best thing to do would just be to Kineticist it entirely)

That's all I have so far, and i'd love to hear what y'all think- and your own ideas for the tropes and classes SF2E could tap into! Thanks for reading!