Pathfinder Feats through Starfinder Lens

Acrobatic, would be superseded by Skill Synergy becoming class skills or insight bonuses and since Fly is part of Acrobatics now someone wanting to be really good at both might even take Skill Focus instead of Skill Synergy.

Acrobatic Steps, Starfinder clearly combined the effects of this feat and the PF Nimble Moves into the Starfinder version of Nimble Moves.

Agile Maneuvers,

Alertness, would be superseded by Skill Synergy becoming class skills or insight bonuses.

Alignment Channel, I imagine that a Feat similar to Harm Undead could be written to expend a spell slot for a mystic to harm  Outsiders when they use their healing channel. Considerations; this feat chooses the Alignment when taken and chooses Heal or Harm each time it is used. Harm Undead is always harm and it is used at the same time as Healing Channel heals the Mystic’s allies.

Animal Affinity, would be superseded by Skill Synergy becoming class skills or insight bonuses.

Arcane Armor Mastery, there is no spell failure chance in Starfinder, this feat is obsolete.

Arcane Armor Training, there is no spell failure chance in Starfinder, this feat is obsolete.

Arcane Strike, superseded by all characters having Weapon Specialization.

Armor Proficiency, same as their Starfinder equivalents, with the addition of Powered armor and removal of Medium armor types.

Athletic, would be superseded by Skill Synergy becoming class skills or insight bonuses and since Climb and Swim are now both part of Athletics, someone wanting to be really good at both might even take Skill Focus instead of Skill Synergy.

Augment Summoning, +4 to Strength and Constitution doesn’t seem like an overpowering benefit in PF or SF.

Bleeding Critical, many of the Fighter Critical Focus effects would be superseded by Advanced Weapon Critical Hit Effects, Weapon Fusions that cause similar Critical effects and, in this case, the Operative Exploit Bleeding Shot.

Blind Fight, nearly identical version exists in SF.

Blinding Critical, many of the Fighter Critical Focus effects would be superseded by Grenade Special Properties, Weapon Critical Hit Effects, the Dirty Trick combat maneuver, Mystic abilities, Solarian abilities, Weapon Fusions that cause similar Critical effects and, in this case, the Operative Exploit Blinding Shot, the Soldier’s Blazing Strike Gear Boost, Soldiers with the Shock and Awe fighting style and weapons with the Bright weapon’s special property and/or Illuminating Weapon Fusion.

Brew Potion, superseded by the new crafting rules, anyone with enough ranks in Mysticism can make Serums.

Catch Off Guard, the penalties for using improvised weapons in SF are not as severe as in PF and therefore probably aren’t worth a feat to alleviate. However, a feat that always makes unarmed opponents flat footed would invalidate the Feint skill use of Bluff, Clever Feint Envoy Improvisation, Operative’s Debilitating Trick, Soldier’s Sonic Resonance Gear Boost (which is automatic for one creature, but only lasts 1 round). Despite only working on unarmed opponents, give someone an ability that always works under one condition and they will work tirelessly to see that that condition always applies. such as using weapons with the Stunned Critical Hit Effect to make opponents drop their weapons. Flat Footed is different in SF now and there are a lot more ways to cause conditions that make opponents flat-footed, it is probably not worth converting this particular feat. For game balance it’s probably worth noting it might have been better if an unarmed person were flat footed the first round you used the improvised weapon until they have acted in that round and not every round you use the improvised weapon because at some point the novelty value wears off. The Improved version of this feat at least grants the opponent a Sense Motive check to resist the ability.

Channel Smite, channeling exists and is a limited resource, however in SF the variable effect of Healing Channel is normally limited by the type of action you use to cause it, this might limit the amount of damage a Smite would actually receive. The Technomancer’s Supercharge Weapon is probably a better use of a limited resource.

Cleave, nearly identical version exists in SF.

Combat Casting, a reworked version exists in SF.

Combat Expertise, there are a few issues here, Starfinder makes it hard to improve your AC. The Total Defense action and Fighting Defensively both exist and grant untyped bonuses to AC, there are also some class abilities that only trigger while using them. Even though this feat wouldn’t make the math much harder to estimate by level, it would allow 1 for 1 BAB classes to trade their extra BAB for AC and they already likely wear heavy armor. Combat Expertise in PF grants a Dodge bonus to AC which is a type of bonus along with the Dodge feat that has been removed from SF.

Combat Reflexes, in SF Attacks of Opportunity are not their own resource, they are just one type of Reaction which uses up the character’s Swift action. Many PF character builds using Combat Reflexes were designed to use the extra AoOs and some other effect that made opponents provoke them to attack multiple times at the character’s full attack bonus, not only did they do extra damage, this strategy was more likely to hit than their normal iterative attacks. It also wasn’t limited by BAB as iterative attacks were, granting more AoOs at level 1 than the character would normally have in iterative attacks at the same level. This avenue has been removed from the game to speedup gameplay and normalize the expected range of damage per round from a character.

The one saving grace of this feat is that it allowed characters to make AoOs while flat footed. With the more limited availability of AoOs in SF it might not be worth a whole feat to be able to make an AoO while flat footed, I am not certain how much more worthwhile a feat that allows a character to take any kind of reaction while flat footed would be, it would depend on how many optional kinds of reactions the character was capable of.

Command Undead, there are 2nd level Mystic and Technomancer spells by this name, and a 6th level one called Control Undead. Channel exists, Control Undead exists, there isn’t really any reason a feat like this couldn’t be converted and the DC set equal to the Mystic’s normal Channel save.

Craft Magical Arms and Armor, superseded by the new crafting rules, anyone with enough ranks in Engineering can make Weapons and Armor.

Craft Rod, superseded by the new crafting rules, anyone with enough ranks in Mysticism can make Rods.

Craft Staff, superseded by the new crafting rules, anyone with enough ranks in Mysticism can make Staves.

Craft Wands, superseded by the new crafting rules, anyone with enough ranks in Mysticism can make Wands.

Craft Wondrous Items, superseded by the new crafting rules, anyone with enough ranks in Mysticism can make Wondrous Items.

Critical Focus, since you don’t confirm Critical Threats anymore this feat is kind of pointless. Improved Critical adds +2 to the DC of a Critical Effect. If they really wanted to make that crazy, they could have made Focus +2 and Improved +4, but they didn’t and I’m going to assume this feat is dead. They could try to make a feat that extends the duration by a round or so, but they’d probably call it Extended Critical or something.

Critical Mastery, add two effects to your critical hit? That’s already possible with Weapon Fusions although normally you have to pick which ones takes effect. So, having the ability to use both critical effects on an upgraded weapon might be a way forward for this feat. However Critical Effects based on class abilities aren’t consistent across classes, some are automatic while others resisted, this wouldn’t balance very well.

Not quite Related, but worth mentioning;

In 2017 at GenCon Owen mentioned that if a weapon had three effects on it (Plasma = Fire + Electricity and something else) you had to pick two, and the reason for that is they really wanted to stay away from math that wasn’t doubling or halving. The explanation for that was that most people could double or half things in their head, but other math took up too much time at the table.

Dazzling Display, there are a lot of better demoralize effects in SF.

Deadly Aim, already exists in SF. Curiously Power Attack which works exactly the same way, did not get a SF version. I assume that has something to do with the shift from melee to ranged attacks in the system similar to the change to charge.

Deadly Stroke, there are a lot of feat taxes here in order to deal 2 types of critical damage to the stunned or flat-footed target. Though designed for a Fighter, this is more likely an Operative type setup if it translates at all. Bleed is more of a Wounding

Deafening Critical, Soldiers have Debilitating Attack, Deafening Weapon Fusion, Grenade Special Properties, Sonic weapons with Weapon Critical Hit Effects, and the Dirty Trick combat maneuver. There are lots of places to Deafen someone.

Deceitful, would be superseded by Skill Synergy becoming class skills or insight bonuses.

Defensive Combat Training, due to the changes in how Combat Maneuvers are performed, CMD isn’t really a concern.

Deflect Arrows, called Deflect Projectiles in SF, uses Reaction and Resolve Points.

Deft Hands, would be superseded by Skill Synergy becoming class skills or insight bonuses.

Diehard, the SF version changes the action economy of dying.

Disruptive, one of those Class-level requirement feats that properly should have been +6 BAB not 6th level fighter, as if Barbarians never threatened spellcasters. Anyhow the character needs an AoO to threaten and increases the DC to cast defensively for casters in the area. SF does not allow casting on the defensive, therefore this feat does not fit into the new mechanics.

Dodge, there have been several versions of this feat, flat bonus, choose your Dodge opponent, however it granted a Dodge bonus, this feat and that bonus type were both removed from SF. Trading a feat for 1 point of AC doesn’t seem worth it, buy better armor.

Double Slice, In SF the user gets full strength bonus for both their main hand and off hand, there is no off-hand penalty and no 1.5 damage modifier for two handed weapons. Soldier’s Melee Striker ability gets half again strength bonus to melee attacks. SF took away Two Weapon Fighting style as a way to get extra attacks.

Elemental Channel, heal or harm an outsider of the chosen elemental subtype. Changes to Healing Channel make this different, but not impossible.

Empower Spell, metamagic, with the only 6 spell levels available you don’t really want to use higher level spell slots to try and add metamagic juice to spells. There are both plenty of ways to juice your spells with Resolve Points as well as technological ways to perform many of the same damage dealing acts so save your spells for utility casting, weird stuff that guns and grenades can’t do.

Endurance, most of the features of this feat were added to the SF Toughness feat.

Enlarge Spell, metamagic, with the only 6 spell levels available you don’t really want to use higher level spell slots to try and add metamagic juice to spells. There are both plenty of ways to juice your spells with Resolve Points as well as technological ways to perform many of the same damage dealing acts so save your spells for utility casting, weird stuff that guns and grenades can’t do.

Eschew Materials, as there is no metamagic or regular Material components in Starfinder, this feat is obsolete. While some rare spells in SF use a material component, they are more expensive than what Eschew Materials  would ignore and not worth taking a feat for.

Exhausting Critical, unlike PF, it seems like the only way to Exhaust or Fatigue someone in SF is with spells, marching, lack of sleep or environmental factors.

Exotic Weapon Proficiency,

Extend Spell, metamagic, with the only 6 spell levels available you don’t really want to use higher level spell slots to try and add metamagic juice to spells. There are both plenty of ways to juice your spells with Resolve Points as well as technological ways to perform many of the same damage dealing acts so save your spells for utility casting, weird stuff that guns and grenades can’t do.

Extra Channel, in SF Healing Channel is a power that costs Resolve Points to use, so instead of buying Extra Channels, you buy Extra Resolve Points.

Extra Ki, everything is Extra Resolve Points now.

Extra Lay on Hands, a lot of Free Healing powers are powered by resolve Points and some are per encounter powers reset after 10-minute rests. Therefore, this feat would just be Extra Resolve Points now.

Extra Mercy, a lot of classes have abilities to remove or temporarily ignore conditions placed on them.

Extra Performance, Envoy Improvisations either take an action or a Resolve Point, you can’t buy extra actions so this is clearly being replaced by extra RP. In the Legacy conversions Bardic Performances take an action or RP can’t be reapplied to allies until after a 10-minute rest.

Extra Rage, nobody has built a SF Barbarian, but if they do (Barbarian class features are lost features should be lost if the character has the encumbered or overburdened condition) Rage will probably be a RP or once per every 10-minute rest kind of power.

Far Shot, SF version is nearly identical.

Fleet, better version exists in SF that you can only take once.

Forge Ring, changes to crafting make this a Mysticism check.

Gorgon’s Fist, staggers an opponent just like the Operative’s Staggering Shot, Solarian’s Crush or Soldier’s Prepared Shot ability. Also weapons with the Staggered Critical Hit Effects and Special Weapon Properties.

Great Cleave, the same feat exists in SF except that attacking the third and later targets each costs an RP. So, in some ways an extra attack at full bonus is equal to a Resolve Point. Like Attack of Opportunity builds in Pathfinder, Cleave Builds were another parallel attack economy that because they took a standard action couldn’t be combined with Full Round Action Iterative Attacks, however all Cleaves were at full attack bonus. If I had a normal 5 ft reach, I could possibly attack 8 creatures with Cleave at my full attack bonus, if I had a 10 ft reach weapon and was surrounded by enemies two squares deep, I could theoretically attack 22 creatures at my full attack bonus. Even with a Reach weapon there is no way to get 8 or 22 Iterative attacks in PF. Unlike Attacks of Opportunity, Cleave victims don’t even have to provoke their opponent.

Great Fortitude, feat exists in SF.

Greater Bull Rush, the forced movement of the target in a SF Bull Rush DOES NOT provoke an AoO which is something this feat would still add as well as a +2 to performing the combat maneuver.

Greater Disarm, so in SF combat maneuvers don’t provoke AoOs, so Improved Disarm loses half of its utility. The other half is +2 to attack and defend from a Disarm maneuver. In SF they’ve changed it to a +4 to complete the maneuver and no benefit to resist an opponent’s Disarm. The opponent’s weapon landing 15 ft away is something this feat would still add as well as a +2 to performing the combat maneuver.

Greater Feint,

Greater Grapple,

Greater Overrun, creatures knocked prone by your Overrun provoke an AoO. No Starfinder equivalent maneuver?

Greater Penetrating Strike, reduces DR by 5, is one of those Class-level feats with a Fighter level requirement. Penetrating Attack in SF is only for one kind of Energy or all Kinetic damage types. It scales with level and therefore doesn’t need a Greater version to raise the amount of DR ignored.

Greater Shield Focus, you need real shields first. Now that Shields are coming in the Character Operations Manual expect5 some shield related feats.

Greater Spell Focus,

Greater Spell Penetration,

Greater Sunder, excess Sunder damage goes to the wielder.

Greater Trip, creatures knocked prone by your Trip provoke an AoO.

Greater Two Weapon Fighting, they’ve ripped out the whole TWF tree by the roots in order to keep more keenly balanced damage per round.

Greater Vital Strike, roll 4x normal damage.

Greater Weapon Focus,

Greater Weapon Specialization, since Weapon Specialization scales with level, this feat is obsolete. This eliminates a feat tax and makes the original feat more useful across a wider range of levels.

Heighten Spell, no metamagic and only 6 spell levels, many spells are just bigger version depending on how you cast them anyhow so its more like metamagic is baked into the system instead of optional.

Improved Bull Rush, so in SF combat maneuvers don’t provoke AoOs, so Improved Bull Rush loses half of its utility. The other half is +2 to attack and defend from a Bull Rush maneuver. In SF they’ve changed it to a +4 to complete the maneuver and no benefit to resist an opponent’s Bull Rush.

Improved Channel, no reason not to raise the DC of your channel energy.

Improved Counterspell, as spells still have schools in SF I don’t see why this feat couldn’t work.

Improved Feint, SF version is the same.

Improved Grapple, so in SF combat maneuvers don’t provoke AoOs, so Improved Grapple loses half of its utility. The other half is +2 to attack and defend from a Grapple maneuver. In SF they’ve changed it to a +4 to complete the maneuver and no benefit to resist an opponent’s Grapple.

Improved Great Fortitude, in SF the reroll casts an RP.

Improved Initiative, SF version is the same.

Improved Iron Will, in SF the reroll costs an RP.

Improved Lightning Reflexes, in SF the reroll costs an RP.

Improved Overrun, so in SF combat maneuvers don’t provoke AoOs, so Improved Overrun loses half of its utility. The other half is +2 to attack and defend from a Overrun maneuver. In SF they’ve changed it to a +4 to complete the maneuver and no benefit to resist an opponent’s Overrun.

Improved Precise Shot, replaced by a targeting computer and some class abilities?

Improved Shield Bash, still need real shields. Now that Shields are coming in the Character Operations Manual expect5 some shield related feats.

Improved Sunder, so in SF combat maneuvers don’t provoke AoOs, so Improved Sunder loses half of its utility. The other half is +2 to attack and defend from a Sunder maneuver. In SF they’ve changed it to a +4 to complete the maneuver and no benefit to resist an opponent’s Sunder.

Improved Trip, so in SF combat maneuvers don’t provoke AoOs, so Improved Trip loses half of its utility. The other half is +2 to attack and defend from a Trip maneuver. In SF they’ve changed it to a +4 to complete the maneuver and no benefit to resist an opponent’s Trip.

Improved Two Weapon Fighting, ripped out by the roots.

Improved Unarmed Strike, is more useful in the SF version.

Improved Vital Strike, do 3x damage.

Improvised Weapon Mastery, so improvised weapon in SF aren’t as penalized as they were in PF, you don’t need feats to remove the penalties that remain. Increasing the damage dice of an improvised weapon is alright and not game breaking, but since SF scales weapon damage with item level, Improvised weapons are never going to keep pace. Increasing their threat range and critical damage multiplier is a nonstarter as both of those systems we also removed from SF.

Intimidating Prowess, add STR and CHA to Intimidate checks, I don’t see why this couldn’t work classes are a little more MAD than in PF, and attributes will be higher in SF, but I don’t know that it breaks the skill math expectations. Is it an unfair advantage for starship combat?

Iron Will, same as PF version.

Leadership, RGG and Everyman reinstated Leadership in the Advanced Skill Guide.

Lightning Reflexes, same as PF version.

Lightning Stance,

Lunge, same as PF version.

Magical Aptitude, even if Spellcraft didn’t become Mysticism and Use Magic Device didn’t disappear altogether, this would still just be another use of Skill Synergy.

Manyshot, with weapon damage scaling by item level this kind of cartoon craziness isn’t required anymore just to keep pace with other classes damage per round expectations.

Martial Weapon Proficiency, they’re groups now.

Master Craftsman, SF Master Crafter is different because SF crafting rules are so different.

Maximize Spell, no metamagic and only 6 spell levels, many spells are just bigger version depending on how you cast them anyhow so it’s more like metamagic is baked into the system instead of optional.

Medusa’s Wrath, buy one unarmed strike, get two free at max attack bonus. There’s that unregulated parallel attack economy at work again.

Mobility, no Dodge feat tax also the SF version is an untyped version instead of a Dodge bonus that you can lose. +4 to AC vs AoO provoked by moving through threatened squares.

Mounted Archery,

Mounted Combat,

Natural Spell, allow spellcasting while shapechanged into a not spellcasting creature. No shape changing classes currently exist and, in a setting, where anything with hands, pincers or tentacles can all wield equipment equally, casting spells with pseudopods shouldn’t be that hard.

Nimble Moves, already exists in SF, combined with Acrobatic Steps.

Penetrating Strike, already exists as Penetrating Attack in SF.

Persuasive, should be Skill Synergy.

Pinpoint Targeting, denies target Armor, Natural Armor or Shield bonuses against one ranged attack. Ranged attacks from Firearms in Pathfinder attacked Touch AC. SF does not have Natural Armor bonus type or Shields, because touch AC isn’t used in Starfinder, any touch attacks should target EAC instead. To replace this feat, buy an energy weapon. There might be some Operative or Sniper abilities that get something for standing still.

Point Blank Shot, not needed as a feat tax and to hit bonuses are pretty rare in SF.

Power Attack, though they kept Deadly Aim, SF has shifted focus from melee attacks to ranged attacks therefore it was removed. There are Weapon Specialization bonuses and scaling weapon damage by item level as well as strength bonuses, melee weapons don’t really need a whole lot more oomph. As the PCs are given an edge against NPCs and Monsters already, allowing them to trade off extra to hit bonuses in favor of more damage just exacerbates that advantage. As both hands now do full strength damage the extra offset damage for two handed weapons is also obsolete.

Precise Shot, there is no penalty for shooting into melee in SF, therefore this feat isn’t really necessary.

Quick Draw, essentially the same as the SF version.

Quicken Spell, no metamagic, with certain spell effects and abilities doing different effects based upon how long of an action you take performing them, this feat is even more out of place.

Rapid Reload, in SF reloading a weapon is already a move action. Swift actions are useful for other things, so you probably don’t want a feat that uses up a swift instead of just standing behind cover to reload.

Rapid Shot, Operatives and Soldiers already have 3rd and 4th attack abilities, these abilities are already calibrated to the new damage expectations and should/would not stack with a feat granting another attack.

Ride by Attack, like Shot on the Run, although in a modern setting many drive by attack would be more appropriate, SF doesn’t have one for mounted combat.

Run, nothing equivalent in SF, but there are many ways to increase your base movement.

Scorpion Style, reduced movement in targets.

Scribe Scroll, is now creating Spell Gems which are magic items and therefore only require Mysticism and the spell to be encoded.

Selective Channeling,

Self-Sufficient, is just skill synergy.

Shatter Defenses, make an opponent flat-footed who is already subject to other conditions.

Shield Focus, need real shields first. Now that Shields are coming in the Character Operations Manual expect5 some shield related feats.

Shield Master, need real shields first. Now that Shields are coming in the Character Operations Manual expect5 some shield related feats.

Shield Proficiency, need real shields first. Now that Shields are coming in the Character Operations Manual expect5 some shield related feats.

Shield Slam, need real shields first. Now that Shields are coming in the Character Operations Manual expect5 some shield related feats.

Shot on the Run, already exists in SF.

Sickening Critical, available with the Dirty Trick combat maneuver and Psychic Crush ability.

Silent Spell, as there is no metamagic or Verbal components in Starfinder, this feat is obsolete.

Simple Weapon Proficiency,

Skill Focus, exists in SF.

Snatch Arrows, is Deflect Projectiles in SF.

Spell Focus, better in SF.

Spell Mastery,

Spell Penetration, same in SF.

Spellbreaker,

Spirited Charge,

Spring Attack, same as in PF.

Staggering Critical,

Stand Still, same as SF version.

Stealthy, is Skill Synergy.

Step Up, SF version has no language about losing 5ft of movement in the following turn. Sidestep had a similar clause in the PF version and kept it in the SF version?

Still Spell, as there is no metamagic or Somatic components in Starfinder, this feat is obsolete.

Strike Back, same as the Sf version.

Stunning Critical,

Stunning Fist,

Throw Anything,

Tiring Critical,

Toughness, in Starfinder is 1 Stamina Point per level, but also includes the +4 bonuses to Constitution and Fortitude checks from the Pathfinder Endurance feat.

Tower Shield Proficiency, need real shields first. Now that Shields are coming in the Character Operations Manual expect5 some shield related feats.

Trample,

Turn Undead,

Two Weapon Defense,

Two Weapon Fighting, they ripped this feat tree out by the roots.

Two Weapon Rend,

Unseat,

Vital Strike,

Weapon Finesse, in SF any Operative weapon can already add Dex to Attack rolls instead of STR. Therefore, this feat is not quite redundant, one would assume any SF version of the feat would grant this ability to non-Operative weapons or allow Dex to damage rolls or something.

Weapon Focus, same as the PF version, adds a benefit for lower BAB progression classes and drones.

Weapon Specialization,

Whirlwind Attack, though heavily feat taxed, this has all of the same complaints as Combat Reflexes or Great cleave, as a parallel attack action economy, with a reach weapon you would be allowed up to 24 full attack bonus attacks against opponents that only have to be near you, not adjacent to each other, not subject to mathematical uncertainty by requiring previous attacks have to all hit and not requiring non-optimal play on the part of the opponents provoking AoOs. This is the parallel attack economy’s ultimate form.

Widen Spell,

Wind Stance,

If you have any feedback about this post or our books please feel free to contact us.

Paul

Evilrobotgames at Gmail.com