Scoured Stars AP: Parts 2 and 3

Spoiler Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Scoured Stars Adventure Path. 

See the Scoured Stars Adventure Path: Index page for links to all of my campaign journal blog posts for this AP.  (Note: Part 1 has been updated to add narrative starship combat stat blocks for the Drake and Pegasus.)

Part 2: The First Mandate

In this adventure, Luwazi Elsebo and Radaszam ask the PCs to attend a gala at which the First Seeker will make an important speech. Their primary job will be to influence certain guests who have instrumental in the Starfinder Society's recovery from the losses of the Scoured Stars incident.

The influence encounter featured 5 NPCs, including two important Starfinders (Venture-Captain Naiaj and Forum member Royo); undead media mogul Zo!; Ykris, representative of a biotech company; and Iteration-177 of the Aspis Consortium. Our heroes struggled at first to learn what skills would be useful to influence these dignitaries, and never did learn any of the mysterious android Iteration-177's personal foibles. However, they did do better in the second half of the encounter, and just barely managed to fully influence all five in the allotted time. 

[Those who had played this adventure before were shocked that they managed to influence Iteration-177, as they assumed this would be more  difficult than the others. However, the DCs were the same across the board, and they just had poor dice luck with the Apsis agent until very near the end.]

The highlight of the encounter was Gambit's interactions with Ykris, who was a symbiotic parasite bonded with a half-elven host. As an evolutionist, Gambit was keenly interested in augmentations (though their own are strictly cybernetic) and proved to be knowledgeable and entertaining on the subject. Gambit also leapt at the chance to experience the symbiotic relationship for themself, very briefly (earning an automatic success).

Once that portion of the ball was done, Radaszam approached the PCs to help him investigate a potential threat to the event. He had reason to believe that a dangerous assassin known as Triloteya was on the station, and that they might intend to target someone at the gala. His sources had provided an address, and the PCs went to check it out. They found a workshop guarded by a shock-trapped door and two electrovores. Once they dealt with these defenses, they found ample evidence of the assassin's plan to target the First Speaker at the gala, using explosives.

Conferring with Radsaszam on the way back, the PCs were given the choice of whether to deal with the assassin while the vesk's Obsidian Spiders dealt with the bombs, or to split the party to try to tackle both threats at once (riskier, but potentially earning more glory for the Starfinders). They decided on the latter, but soon discovered that the two technically-oriented PCs lacked the Perception skills to find the bombs quickly. (Nobody in this party is outstanding at Perception.) I allowed them to change plans on the fly, and call in Radaszam's team to deal with the explosives while those two PCs joined the others in confronting the assassin. Despite the close quarters of the audio-visual booth, Triloteya proved to be hard to pin down thanks to her operative training. The PCs did finally manage to take her down just as she tried to flee the area, and kept her distracted enough to not set off the explosives (which the Obsidian Spiders finished defusing a few rounds later).

With the threat averted--very publicly--Luwazi was able to make her speech. She announced that the primary goal of her tenure as First Seeker would be researching the Scoured Stars, in the hopes of rescuing the Starfinders trapped there. And the PCs would be just the right team for the first mission toward that end...

Part 3: In Pursuit of the Scoured Past

The First Seeker tasked the PCs with escorting Royo to the mysterious library world of Athaeum, which stores knowledge that exists nowhere else, to seek information about the Scoured Stars. They were offered a ride there by Iteration-177, who was already acquainted with the Curators of Athaeum. 

During the voyage through the Drift, Iteration-177 invited the PCS to dinner with their other guests, two Helknights of the Order of the Pyre. The android owned a pencibiter, a device that translated memories and thoughts into food, and they asked each guest to contribute a memory to share. The memories that the Starfinders chose to share were: 

• Sasha: The memory of her death, on the job when she worked for a mob boss. (Tasted fiery and spicy; choleric.)
• Zzyssa: The first time that they were punched in the face during a dance-off (a popular way to settle disputes among hanakans). (Lemony/citrusy taste; sanguine.)
• Sssami: The hatching of his children, after the violence involved in ikeshti mating. (Eggy taste, happy but bittersweet; sanguine.)
• Gambit: They were shunned by their people for becoming obsessed with technology (which  most hanakans strongly distrust). However, this led to them being able to be themself. (Phlegmatic.)

[The italicized descriptors will have an effect later in this adventure path. For now, the PCs only know that the choice had some importance, but not why yet.]

The PCs also experienced memories from Royo (a dry taste and smell of enjoying reading old books) and the two Hellknights: One underwent an ordeal of fire, emerging unscathed. The other was some kind of fiery fiend who inhabited the armor of a Hellknight who died during the ritual that summoned him.

At the Athaeum, each of the three groups (the Starfinders, Iteration-177, and the Hellknights) were met by an axiomite Curator, who reviewed the rules of accessing the archives. One fundamental rule was that no copy of any kind could be made of the knowledge found here, but an exception would be made for information on the Scoured Stars, because the Curators had learned that their copies were no longer the only ones in existence. [As explained in a sidebar, this was a change to the original adventure to fix some plot holes relating to why the PCs were allowed to copy the information they sought to take elsewhere.] The Athaeum teleports from place to place, but had suffered some damage in its most recent transit, so the Curator requested that the PCs do a couple of tasks for them, in exchange for a reduction in the astronomical fee to access the vaults. 

The first issue involved a machine virus that had breached containment and infected some of the library's mechanical guardians. These needed to be destroyed, and the virus downloaded so that it could be safely stored once more. The PCs fought the two constructs, taking a number of injuries from the lore wardens' spells, but prevailed and then easily downloaded the virus for storage. They then rested for a while before continuing. Sasha made the mistake of trying to examine some scrolls floating in special containers in the room, and suffered some Wisdom damage as a result. (Her player played up the fact that Sasha now had only an effective Wisdom of 5 by making her brashly overconfident and eager to be in the thick of things for the remainder of the adventure.) 

The second task required them to track down a ksarik that had escaped its cage, and needed to be returned there. The PCs managed this with minimal harm. 

With the tasks completed, they were able to proceed to the vault containing data on the Scoured Stars. This data was stored in a mindmaze, a psychic device that allowed characters to enter the maze on its surface. Ssamai and Sasha entered the mindmaze, while Royo, Gambit, and Zzyssa provided guidance from outside. They reached the center quickly, without taking any psychic strain, and were treated to a vision of the history of the Scoured Stars--including one detail that Royo thought was a significant lead. 

Almost immediately after completing the mindmaze challenge, the Curator sent a message requesting help. The Hellknights were burning books in one of the library's vaults. The PCs rushed to stop them, being both outraged by the destruction and eager to have their access fee reduced even further.

Fighting the Hellknight arsonists

They reached a vault where two Hellknights guarded the entrance,  while two others and Loomarch (the fiend) burned books in the chamber below. This was a long, grueling fight that pushed our heroes to the limit. Here are a few highlights:

• Sssami cast holographic console to clone the controls to the fire-suppressing cryo-nozzles (located on the other side of the two Hellknights at the entrance), and spent most of the fight putting out fires and dealing cold damage to Hellknights in the line's path. (One Hellknight was knocked out solely, or very nearly so, by repeated blasts from the nozzles.)
• Sasha headed down into the chamber below fairly early on, and played cat and mouse with a couple of the Hellknights there. (She has the combat expertise alternate class feature for envoys, but Hellknights have high Intimidate scores to resist demoralizing, so she rarely did as much damage as she hoped to.) 
• After trading blows with the Hellknights at the entrance for a few rounds, Zzyssa moved down into the lower room to face off with Loomarch. They managed to land a couple critical hits on the fiend, but then the devil grabbed them in its claws. They easily made the saves to avoid losing a limb to Loomarch's incinerating maw, but suffered enough fire damage to go unconscious within two rounds of being grabbed.
• Gambit used their climb speed to mostly keep out of the range of the Hellknights' flamethrowers and pikes. This left them with fewer wounds than the vanguard or envoy, which meant they were able to played a key part in taking down Loomarch late in the fight, when Zzyssa was running out of HP and time.
• The cyro-nozzles had very little effect on Loomarch (despite being a fiery being, it was also cold-resistant) so Sasha did not engage. (Her longarm does cold damage, and she did not like her changes in melee against it.) Instead, she gave some inspiring boosts to her allies and pumped healing serums into Zzyssa to keep the hanakan vanguard standing a little longer. 
• Sssami joined the fight once the lesser Hellknights were taken out, and cast spells at Loomarch. Gambit also moved closer to harass the devil, but got a bit too close, and became its next target after Zzyssa was taken out. A critical hit seriously wounded the hanakan evolutionist, and threatened more pain, except that Sssami took down Loomarch with a junk shards spell before it could try to incinerate any of Gambit's limbs.

With the Hellknight threat ended, the Curators happily waived the Starfinders' fee, and the team was able to leave with a new lead: the path of a relic similar to the one First Seeker Jadnura had discovered and used to enter the Scoured Stars. If they could recover that second relic, perhaps they could use it to reunite with the lost Starfinders. 

Next time: "On the Trail of History," in which our heroes will follow the trail of the strange relic.

Loomarch, unique devil Hellknight

[Update 11/30/2024: Gambit's player has decided to name their evolutionist's augmentations after X-Men: their datajack is Charles, thrusters are Storm, and voice amplifier is Banshee.]

Scoured Stars Adventure Path: Index

This page will collect links to each installment of my campaign journal for the Scoured Stars Adventure Path (Starfinder 1st Edition). 

Spoiler Warning: Unsurprisingly, these posts contain numerous spoilers for the AP. 

• Session Zero and Part 1 (4/22/2024): Meet our heroes; "The Commencement."
• Parts 2 and 3 (7/22/2034): "The First Mandate"; "In Pursuit of the Scoured Past"
• Part 4 (11/30/2024): "On the Trail of History"
• "Reclaiming the Time-Lost Tear"
• "The Scoured Stars Invasion"
• "Truth of the Seeker"
• "Treading History's Folly"
• "Heart of the Foe"
• "Honorbound Emissaries"
• "The Herald's War"
• "Fate of the Scoured God"

Other useful links for reference:

• Scoured Stars Adventure Path: Paizo product page.
• Narrative Starship Combat: We are using these alternate rules from Starfinder Enhanced.

A Brief History of Multiclassing

To multiclass or not to multiclass? That is very good question, and not an easy one to answer.

Multiclassing, or advancing in more than one character class, has been implemented in many different ways over the long history of Dungeons & Dragons, as well as in other RPGs derived from it.  Multiclassing is a way to expand your character's abilities, but there is always a price or drawback to doing so, usually involving slowing (or even halting) advancement in your other class(es). 

Multiclassing in D&D

In 1st and 2nd Edition AD&D, you had to choose whether to multiclass when you first created your character. Only certain combinations of classes were allowed (determined by your race), and except for elf fighter/magic-user/thieves, you were limited to two classes. The costs of multi-classing were that your XP were divided between your classes, and your hit points were averaged between your classes. Typically, a multiclass character lagged behind their single-classed companions by a level or two (or more, if triple-classed), and had fewer Hit Dice and HP as a result. Also, in those editions, some classes cost more XP to advance in, so multi-classed magic-users lagged behind even more than usual. 

In 3rd Edition D&D, the choice to multiclass was made when you advanced to a new level. Each level you advanced was one level in one class, so your levels in all classes added up to your overall character level. You had to keep your classes within one level of each other or take a penalty to XP, but you ignored that limit for your "favored class" (which was determined by race, or was your first class for humans). This method was well integrated with the introduction of feats and skill ranks based on level, and allowed for the introduction of prestige classes. These special classes were slightly more powerful than a base class, but required characters to meet certain prerequisites before entering them (which could not be met before 6th level at minimum, and sometimes much higher). They otherwise used the multiclassing rules, and ignored favored class limitations.

Multiclassing in 3E (and the later v.3.5 revised rules) allowed for a more customized approach to character concepts. Some adventurers would split their levels fairly evenly between their two (or more) paths. Others might only take a level or two in another class (informally called "dipping a class") to pick up an entry-level ability, such as new armor and weapon proficiencies, or a few useful low-level spells. But every level in one class slowed progression in all others you took, which delayed access to higher-level abilities. Casters in particular sacrificed a significant amount of power by slowing down their spell progression. To offset this, a few prestige classes were designed to allow spellcasters to progress in caster level, but not their other level-based class features. And one prestige class, the mystic theurge, attempted to make advancing in two spellcasting classes a more viable option, with mixed results.

(I did not play much 4th Edition D&D, so don't recall how multiclassing worked in that version of the game, or even if it was an option at all.)

In 5th Edition D&D, multiclassing became an optional rule. This iteration of the game keeps the idea of character level equaling the total of your class levels, but adds prerequisites of minimum scores in the new class's key ability score(s), and has some special rules for acquiring spell slots that are shared between spellcasting classes. Prestige classes were removed from the game, though a few survive (in theme, at least) as subclasses.

Multiclassing in Other d20 Games

Most of my gaming experience these days is with Pathfinder and Starfinder, so with one exception, I'll be focusing on them for the rest of this column.

D20 Modern, which was based on the v.3.0 rules, made multiclassing central to every character's career. All characters started in one of six base classes (one focused on each ability score) for their first few levels, then chose an advanced class to distinguish themselves from other characters. I played very little d20 Modern (and only ever as a GM), but the core assumption that every character would multiclass was rather unique and memorable.

Pathfinder First Edition was a direct offshoot of D&D v.3.5, so its rules for multiclassing and prestige classes were almost identical to that game. The primary change was removing the XP penalty for uneven levels. Instead, your favored class (now always your first class) gave 1 bonus HP or skill rank at each level, which gave a new incentive for staying single-classed. Some classes were adjusted to avoid "front-loading" their class features, making it harder to cherry-pick signature abilities by "dipping."  All classes were given powerful capstone abilities at their highest levels, which could only be acquired by single-classed characters. (Pathfinder characters were strictly limited to 20th level.) Finally, some class options and feats could grant a few of the low-level abilities of another class (such as a few minor spell-like abilities, a bonus combat feat, etc.), which could help avoid the need to multiclass.

Starfinder was derived from Pathfinder 1E, but introduced many new rules of its own. It, too, allows multi-classing by choosing one class to advance at each level. However, it provides even more incentives to follow a single class. Most notably, spellcasting progression is slower in Starfinder than Pathfinder, so multiclassing is even more of a sacrifice for casters than in Pathfinder. Most other classes will quickly fall behind in effectiveness, too, particularly the operative and solarian, whose damage output scales with their level in the class. If a character does multiclass, it's strongly advised that they wait until after they've reached 3rd level in their first class, because that's when every class gains Weapon Specialization, which adds bonus damage to weapons with which they are proficient.

Starfinder also offers a new alternative to multi-classing: Archetypes replace some class features at specific levels, but give new abilities instead. This may cause the character to lose or delay access to some class features, or it may simply take the place of a class option like a soldier's bonus feat or an operative exploit. For casters, they typically have fewer spells known at their highest spell levels but their access to those levels isn't delayed. Overall, you retain the full benefits of your class level for purposes of level-based effects and access to most higher-level abilities. Archetypes are also not specific to any one class, but some have prerequisites, particularly if they expand upon the uses for a given skill or proficiency, or modify spellcasting. Finally, unless the GM adopts an optional rule, characters are limited to one archetype (or one per class, if multiclassed).

In Pathfinder Second Edition, multiclassing strongly resembles Starfinder's archetype rules, but you only ever advance in level in one class. However, when you get a new class feat, you can choose to spend it on an archetype dedication feat, which gives some minor initial benefit and allows you to spend future feats on that archetype's feats. Multiclass archetypes give you some (but never all) of the abilities of another class. Other archetypes are unique unto themselves, and may focus on a fighting style, altered ways to cast magic, new ways to use one or more specific skills, or some other theme. (Numerous 1E prestige classes have reappeared as archetypes in 2E, but without the multiclass tag.) Much like in Starfinder, archetypes may be taken by members of any class who meet the prerequisites for the dedication feat, but they are more flexible because you can invest as much or as little in the archetype as you want. There are limits to how many archetypes a character can take, because you can't take another dedication feat until you have taken at least two of that archetype's other feats. That usually means that you can't take a second dedication until at least 8th level, or a third before 16th. (A rare few archetypes include some feats that replace skill feats instead of class feats, allowing faster acquisition.)

When Starfinder Second Edition is released (in playtest at this year's GenCon, and in full next year), it will use the same game engine as Pathfinder 2E, making it fully compatible with that system. Presumably this means that multiclassing will follow the same archetype rules.

My Own History with Multiclassing

In pretty much all of the RPGs I've mentioned above, I prefer to remain single-classed in order to get faster access to the higher-level abilities of my character's first class. There have, of course, been some notable exceptions:

D&D 3E: I once played a fighter who multiclassed entirely for story-based reasons. He took a couple levels of ranger when the party started doing a lot of cross-country travel, and later took some levels in psychic warrior because the campaign's overall story arc involved the emergence of psionic powers among the oppressed classes in a tyrannical empire. I eventually regretted taking so many classes, because while he had an amazing Fortitude save from stacking three martial classes, his Will lagged behind too much, even after taking Iron Will.

At the other extreme, a player in one of my 3E campaigns created a cleric of the god of magic, who multiclassed into wizard. She didn't initially intend to aim for mystic theurge, but once she did, she also picked up a level of loremaster because that class was more interesting than a third wizard level would be. Out of all the characters that I've ever played or GMed, she had the most classes, at four (all by 9th level).

Pathfinder 1E: I have built a handful of characters with the intention of qualifying for a prestige class as soon as possible, including a brawler/living monolith and a rogue/shadowdancer, and a diviner who I never played enough to reach harrower levels. Beyond those, I can only think of four characters offhand who have multiclassed:

• A rogue who took a level of cleric out of thanks to his god for granting him enough luck to survive that long. He later retrained that level back to rogue when it became clear that he could serve his god better by being a better rogue.
• A cleric of Calistria, who multiclassed into rogue as soon as he could. He was originally built as part of an all-cleric party, and they needed to diversify their skill set at 2nd level. (One multiclassed into fighter; the rest stayed single-classed clerics.)
• A ranger who dipped fighter to gain heavy armor proficiency and some bonus feats. 
• A hunter/rogue whose teamwork feats plus sneak attack made for very effective flanking tactics with her animal companion.

Starfinder 1E: Out of my 14 Starfinder Society characters, only one is multi-classed. Shortly after acquiring a creature companion, my gnome envoy took a level of xenodruid mystic so that he could speak with animals, like his ancestors once did. That made his companion easier to control, and allowed him to use his language-dependent abilities to help it as well as his PC allies.

I have more characters who have taken archetypes: 

• An explorer operative who took the Starfinder forerunner archetype. Her specialization and archetype compliment each other nicely (both do interesting things with Culture and Survival skills). I also already had a high-level operative combat monster, so I felt that sacrificing a few exploits to further differentiate this one was perfectly acceptable.
• A phrenic adept whose species communicates primarily via telepathy, but very slowly (using telepathic message). This archetype solved that problem by giving him limited telepathy (on par with other telepathic PC species), and gave some interesting new abilities as well. The character is a mechanic, so suffers less from investing in an archetype than some other classes would.
• A soldier who became a powered armor jockey. (His archetype starts at 6th level, which he only very recently reached, so I am still waiting to see how effective it is.)
• Another soldier who became a Star Knight.

Pathfinder 2E: Out of 9 Pathfinder Society 2E characters, I have 4 with archetypes (only one of them a multiclass archetype):

• A bookish (but still very social) sorcerer who became a linguist. 
• An investigator with the ancient elf heritage, which gives a free multiclass dedication at 1st level. (Normally those are 2nd-level feats.) He took rogue, which provided a few more trained skills to fill in gaps in his already diverse knowledge base. 
• A fighter who took the mauler archetype, which focuses on big, two-handed weapons.
• A rogue who took the juggler archetype because of her background as a circus performer.

The release of the Remastered rules last year means that I will eventually be rebuilding these characters, but I will most likely keep the archetypes they have. The first two have classes that did not appear in Player Core, but that I expect to see in Player Core 2, which releases later this summer. The only archetypes in Player Core were the multiclass ones for that book's classes, so I also have to wait to see how many other archetypes get Remastered in the new book before I rebuild my linguist and mauler. The juggler archetype is from an Adventure Path, so I don't expect that to ever get the Remastered treatment, but will continue to exist as-is.

Update 9/15/2024: See Let Me Tell You About My Character: Remastered Edition about the changes I've made to my PFS 2E characters since writing the column above. The short version: The linguist and juggler kept their archetypes; the investigator changed from rogue multiclass to archaeologist; the fighter lost her archetype; and my champion gained one.