Looking at the Stargate RPG through the Starfinder design lens

Stargate and Spycraft both allowed two attacks per round at 1st level.

Stargate has critical threat ranges for success and failure on skill checks and attacks. For the many reasons WotC and Paizo removed critical threats from their games, skills and attacks would take a lot of time at the table. However that isn’t to say a degree of success system isn’t possible that preserves speed of play such as Cypher

Ambidexterity, starfinder does not have handedness and two weapon fighting there for ambidexterity is not useful.

Armor group proficiency, the starfinder armor proficiencies would be used instead but effectively does the same.

Career Operative, a plus one to all three saves is kind of interesting instead of three individual feeds or six individual feeds each ranting + 2 to only one of the three feets.

Clockwork tactics, basically bringing up the minimum initiative for members of your group to your initiative so that you can all act as a group and may have interesting interplay with surprise rounds since the feet says the start of any combat which clearly a surprise round it is.

Combat Instincts, seems very similar to the rogues opportunist talent but is useful up to your Dex modifier which is like having opportunist and combat reflexes and allowing opportunist to be used as much as you have attacks of opportunity this is way too broken for 3.5 much less Starfinder.

Confident Charge, allows you to make a number of turns during your charge up to 90 degrees and equal to your Dex modifier that seems like a lot of turns for some people I’m not sure this gives you much in starfinder except action economy and maybe solarians would take it?

Coolness under Fire, the benefit of attacks versus someone undercover fire seems like a situational mod they probably shouldn’t get the way starfinder goes and the benefit of you not being suppressed seems like the better of the abilities in offers and starfinder seems to only offer one such as the grapple feats.

The Endurance feat from starfinder has already been changed significantly the Spycraft or Stargate version probably would be redundant.

Combat Expertise, the typical reverse Power Attack that adds to your armor class I’m sure I wrote something about Pathfinders version and this one is a 5 for 5 exchange instead of a graduated progression like Pathfinder’s Power Attack became and so probably makes you unable to hit anyone except on a 20 and gives you a very large boost to AC at low levels.

Great Fortitude, same as the Starfinder version.

Improved Disarm, the starfinder version would take precedence or supersede this version.

Improved Initiative, same as the Pathfinder version.

Improved two weapon fighting, since two weapon fighting has been removed from starfinder this is redundant.

Increased speed, due to speed boosting augments this is a wasted feat.

Iron will, same as the Starfinder version.

Keep your head down, temporary stacking DR while behind cover. There are a lot of bonuses SF doesn’t have and in theory any protection would also work for energy types too?

Lightning reflexes, same as the Starfinder version.

Mobility, is different than the PF or SF versions.

Quick Draw, despite the names of the actions changing this is more specific than other feats in what you can do with a weapons besides draw it from it’s  holster, you can turn off the weapon safety, you can turn on the power supply.

Quick healer, based on a wounds vitality system adds to non surgical healing. Would have to be reworked.

Run, 5x running and jump modifiers

Sidestep, like the Dodge feat uses Dodge bonus which is gone in SF.

Surge of Speed, seems a lot like Heroic Surge from Star Wars. Needs a rework for the SF action economy.

Toughness, built for wounds and vitality, the SF version is different anyhow.

Two weapon fighting, gone for the same reasons the PF one is.

Weapon Focus, like other weapon focus, but has grapple trip always been an option?

Weapon Group Proficiency, SF has weapon groups already.

Zat resistance, very setting specific.

Assassin, increased critical threat range in melee.

Blind fight, compare to the SF monster ability.

Blindsight 5ft radius,

Cleave, the SF version supersedes this one.

Cleaving charge, this one allows you to move 5ft between every cleaving attack. May need to look at the step up feats in SF to model free movement that counts against the next turn’s movement.

Darting weapon, take melee attack penalty for a temporary initiative bonus. Not sure how their fluid initiative would work on SF.

Disarming twist, add a gear bonus to disarm checks with a specific weapon bonus, and add to the threat range of the disarm check. The bonus type, weapon property and threat range all need rework.

Double blow, 2x melee attacks at -5 to all, Soldier and Solarian both have ways to increase number of attacks already that are balanced for SF.

Drag down, really these just modify a +2 bonus to a +4. The bonus type, weapon property and threat range all need rework.

Flashing weapon, use the Soldier or Solarian abilities instead.

Great cleave, fueled by RP in SF.

Improved weapon focus, adds to damage like specialization?

Improvised weapon, more interesting than PF improvised weapons, but without scaling damage improvised weapons won’t keep up in SF.

Master assassin, widen melee threat range even more. Removes resource requirement to confirm a threat.

Master duelist, stacking feats that grant extra BAB with a chosen weapon. SF doesn’t grant a lot of those.

Power Attack was removed from starfinder and the Pathfinder version is more balanced than the Spycraft or Stargate version which is still a dungeons & dragons legacy. Deadly Aim is the Starfinder version.

Snake Strike, when you draw a weapon against an opponent you haven’t attacked before you can feint them to do some sneak attack type damage this is totally superseded by the operatives trick attack which they can use literally every round.

Swift strike, is kind of like spring attack so you can move before and after your attack and use up to half your movement so you should just use the starfinder version of spring attack.

Trail of blood, they took their cleaving charge and now will let you take up to fifteen feet of movement between attacks so long as you don’t exceed your total speed.

Ultimate Duelist, makes + 4 out of what had been the master duelist at + 3.

Weapon finesse, kind of like the Pathfinder version only in starfinder we have operative weapons and we can already swap strength for Dex on melee attacks.

Weapon Master, As part of a feat tree this adds to both previous weapon focus feats.

Whirlwind Attack, for the same reasons that they removed the Pathfinder version from Starfinder obviously the Stargate or Spycraft version of whirlwind attack cannot come back to Starfinder.

Bullseye, they took the old dungeons & dragons Power Attack and made a ranged combat version. Deadly Aim isn’t exactly like the Pathfinder Power Attack, but it essentially does the same thing.

Controlled Burst, adds +1 to hit and damage with controlled burst weapons, sounds like a Soldier Gear Boost to me.

Controlled Strafe, reduces or modifies penalties for actions that don’t exist in Starfinder.

Coordinate Fire, +1 to hit bonus for every teammate or ally that has attacked the same target, YET this is not a teamwork feat. Star Wars had a similar rule for Stormtroopers all aiming at the same target IIRC. Only the character with the feat gets the bonus, also it actually makes it better to go later in initiative? Note the allies don’t need to hit, or do damage, just shoot, this may be the weirdest Aid Another in the history of D20.

Diving Shot, essentially this is Shot on the Run, but also adds +2 to Defense. You also don’t actually Dive Prone like the name implies.

Double Tap, taking a single attack, and benefitting from the Aim action, you increase the Threat Range of the attack by one and use up two shots. There is a lot there that doesn’t exist in Starfinder. If we modelled it after the Plasma Immolation Gear Boost would you burn two shots to Crit on a 19-20?

Extreme Range, doubles the range of ranged weapons, triples the range of thrown weapons. This isn’t how Starfinder worked Far Shot and other similar feats or abilities. The feat should be reworked to be similar to other ranged feats otherwise it would become a loophole to break a game where Sniper rifles can already shoot incredible ranges and everything can shoot off the map.

Far Shot, adds 50% range to ranged weapons and doubles the range of thrown weapons.  This isn’t how Starfinder worked Far Shot and other similar feats or abilities. The feat should be reworked to be similar to other ranged feats otherwise it would become a loophole to break a game where Sniper rifles can already shoot incredible ranges and everything can shoot off the map.

Grenade Basics, replaces the grenade proficiency, adds 5ft to range, reduces your critical fumble range and doubles the number of grenades you receive from picking gear in their equipment mechanic. So despite not having a gear pick equipment system, not having crit ranges on weapons, there are other abilities in Starfinder that increase your abilities with Grenades and you should use them in preference to this feat.

Grenade Mastery, make a reflex save for a grenade to miss you, reduce the fumble threat range even more, you get 3 grenades for every one you requisition. I still prefer the SF grenade abilities, but there might be something to salvage from this like the Unfriendly Fire or Deflect Projectiles feats. Unfortunately neither of those feats work when the target of the attack is a square.

Hail of Bullets, lets you make two ranged attacks instead of one. Soldiers and Solarians already have multiple attack abilities, use those instead.

Increased Precision, allows limited precision ranged attacks to occur at one range increment further. Can be taken 3 times and the effects stack, would change the way Operatives work.

Lay down fire, changes the bonuses and penalties of cover fire and suppressive fire actions which aren’t called the same or work the same in SF. Covering Fire is +2 circumstance to AC in SF, Harrying fire is +2 circumstance to hit in SF. SF Suppressive Fire feat lets you use either Covering or Harrying fire with Automatic Weapons in SF.

Lightning Draw, another draw and fire on an opponent you haven’t been engaged with to get 1d6 sneak attack type damage, totally superseded by the Operative’s Trick attack useable every round.

Machine-Gun Basics, attack bonus for autofire and strafe attacks, consumes less ammo, recoil penalties are less, good candidate for a Soldier Gear Boost.

Machine-Gun Mastery, hit more often with autofire and strafe attacks, use even less ammo, use an MG one handed.

Marksman, increases the benefits of the Aim and Bracing actions. Starfinder would need to have those or similar actions to  truly make this feat worthwhile. In SF aiming is done as a Move action with Sniper weapons and grants a greater range increment. The reduced penalties for using a Bipod or gunner’s Harness are probably closer to the intent of the Bracing Action.

Master Sniper, increases threat range by the same amount you would receive from Aiming or Bracing, since SF doesn’t have threat ranges we should ignore this feat.

Perfect Stance, changes the action economy for Aiming and Bracing as well as confers a benefit to minimum strength to operate the weapon.

Point Blank Shot, no PBS in SF, and this one extends it to the entire first range increment instead of the 30 ft in most D20 variants.

Precise Shot, since shooting into melee doesn’t have a separate penalty in SF, we don’t need a feat to alleviate it.

Quick Reload, makes reloading into a free action instead of a move or standard like half action. Some SF weapons come with the Quick Reload property.

Rapid Shot, there are Solarian and Soldier abilities that grant multiple attacks, use thopse instead.

Sharp-Shooting, is essentially the same as Sniper’s Aim.

Shot on the Run, SF shot on the run is better.

Snap Shot, trade accuracy for a temporary boost to initiative.

Sniper, increased threat range and you no longer need to spend resources to confirm a crit.

Speed Trigger, you can make burst attacks with non automatic weapons if you have enough shots left.

Zen Focus, reduces target’s concealment bonus by half.

Zen Shot, negates target’s concealment bonuses.

Blocking Basics, grants sunder and a reposition on miss that grants allies attack bonuses.

Centered Stance, grants temporary vitality points.

Chi Strike,

Closed Stance,

Coiled Stance,

Dodging basics, deflect one attack per round, take 5 ft of movement on a missed attack.

Five Style Adept, 1d8 unarmed strikes and 19-20 crit range. A static dice increase in a scaling damage system will not keep up.

Forward Stance, uses old style Charge, uses threat ranges, I like the idea of a charging unarmed strike, and that you fall prone if your attack misses. It would need some work to fit in Starfinder.

Guard Stance, reduces the threat range of some types of attacks against you, maybe this could be like fortification in Starfinder.

Holding Basics, grants a bonus to keep people pinned in grapple, allows you to grapple or pin with just one hand, Starfinder grapple already only requires one free hand.

Inverted Stance, grants Tumble (Acrobatics) as a class skill, uses the fluid initiative system, not enough mechanically there to justify a feat.

Iron Fist, reduces a target’s break DC, treats unarmed strikes to Sunder as if you are using a melee weapon, double Str bonus to damage for Sundering objects.

Kicking Basics, free 5 ft movement before an unarmed strike, make an unarmed strike against two adjacent opponents. I like that they mix it up, but as the roundhouse kick is basically Cleave you need some of the same mechanical balance., this has no attack penalties, the free movement doesn’t provoke, doesn’t draw down total movement or movement from your next round or even the 3.x compatible 5 ft step. Without scaling damage or iterative attacks, unarmed strikes won’t keep up with damage at level.

Martial Arts, establishes a basic damage dice for unarmed strikes, eliminates the lethal damage penalty to hit for non lethal weapons, grants a threat range of 20 on unarmed strikes. Well all attacks in Starfinder crit on a 20 anyhow so that’s 1/3 of the benefit gone. If the unarmed strike damage scaled with level that would help. This bleeds into the territory covered by Improved Unarmed Strike in SF.

Open Stance, free grapple or trip attack if an opponent’s unarmed or melee attack misses you, opponent is drawn into your square, you only get to use this once per round. I like the Aikido or Judo flavor here, but this would need some work, does the forced movement provoke? Do they only get the forced movement if you decide to use the feat’s benefits by taking the free grapple or trip attempt?  If you fail the grapple/trip do you all return to your neutral corners?

Prone Stance, you’re prone, don’t suffer the standard penalty to unarmed strikes for being prone, opponents only get half the bonus to attack you while prone, and if you’re already grappling somebody and take this stance you get a +2 bonus for that round. Sounds a lot like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to me. Since shooting into melee no longer carries a penalty, savvy front line fighters might want to exploit the ranged penalty for shooting prone targets.

Punching Basics, basic strike adds 1/2 strength bonus to damage, reposition an opponent 5 ft on impact. While there is a solider benefit that adds damage to melee strikes I like that each feat grants you two kinds of attacks. I liken it to the Starfinder ability that lets you pick from a menu of feats and use one for a minute, this gives me game world versatility and makes me thing my character is more capable without enabling game breaking combos.

Ready Stance, impose a -2 on all attacks to an opponent hit by your unarmed strike during the current round. Seems like this would be the default unless you needed the effect of some other stance.

Reverse Stance, +2 bonus to feint actions and then grants sneak attack damage, the operative’s trick attack supersedes this feat.

Rooted Stance, +2 bonus to all saves, make no movement, I think I’d rather have full time bonuses from other feats.

Rolling Basics, grants Tumble (Acrobatics) as a class skill, take 5 ft extra movement before an unarmed strike, gain +2 AC vs your target after a successful unarmed strike. Kind of a reverse flat footed.

Shattering Blow, the sequel to Iron Fist, increase unarmed strike damage to 1d8 or higher, lowers break DCs by 8 instead of 4, same double Str bonus to damage against objects. Mechanically this isn’t so bad except the break DCs of some things might be ridiculous.  Damage that doesn’t scale at level wouldn’t keep up.

Shifting Stance, halves an opponent’s dodge bonus, allows you to move to the opposite side of your attacker as a free action if they score a threat on you. Do you resolve the threat normally? Does the free movement provoke? Dodge bonuses don’t exist in Starfinder, threats don’t either, there’s a lot that just doesn’t translate, but as a flavorful feat it might be worth reworking.

Throwing Basics, take 5 ft of free movement before making a trip attempt, while flying tackle is aptly named, foot sweep really should be ground and pound, you get a free attack if your successfully trip an opponent. The 5 ft movement thing isn’t insurmountable other feats in Starfinder do it. The ‘free’ attack should still be a Reaction same as an AoO.

Warrior’s Grace, grants an extra attack at -2 kind of like rapid shot but for unarmed strikes. Starfinder has other ways to get extra attacks, use those.

Bludgeon, allows you to do nonlethal damage with a sneak attack, using a normally lethal weapon, at no penalty, operatives can already do that with trick attack damage so this feat is unnecessary.

Break Fall, very much like the Monk ability, take 10 ft off of falling damage and further reduce falling damage by Tumble checks.  Would need to be reworked with the Starfinder Acrobatics rules which allow you to do this as a Dc 15 check, but don’t mention greater DCs for heights greater than 20 ft.

Concealed Weapon, +8 bonus to conceal weapons on your body or in a location, this doesn’t work against full body scanners. This might be too much bonus if you added Starfinder’s Conceal weapon property which adds +4 to Sleight of Hand checks to hide object. A professional Spy or Thief might take Skill Focus in Sleight of Hand for a +3 to Hide Objects, Pick Pockets,  Palm Object or Entertain. The same character could have tailored compartment to grant +4 Circumstance bonus to hiding things on their person, the bonus from the Conceal weapon property is a circumstance bonus as well so they wouldn’t stack. While the Insight bonus from Skill Focus is only +3 it’s to the entire skill, and despite the fact Hiding Objects might be the most used part of the skill, this ferat only grants +8 to hide weapons which is a very narrow focus. Spies should be hiding jewels and secret data files and all sorts of non weapon things too.

Flawless Identity, ok there’s a lot to break down, you get a perfect cover identity for every 5 character levels, your documents and known associates are air tight, and YOU are even proof against hypnosis and mind probes wow! This seems too powerful in a game with all kinds of psychic powers and stuff, but maybe more like non detection and mind shielding or see if Ultimate Intrigue has anything to similar to add.

Hidden Run, alters the penalties for stealth at up to your total movement, when moving faster than your normal movement there are other penalties which aren’t as bad as normal or just allow Stealth which you ordinarily couldn’t do while running.

Improved Equilibrium, modifies the movement speed or penalties of climb and balance checks, these would need to be changed to Acrobatics and Athletics checks, but otherwise aren’t game breaking. Cheap flying exists in Starfinder as well as lots of climbing gear.

Jump Up, same as Kip Up or Instant Stand, you stand up from prone as a free action. They add some other positions such as a crouch, low and high crawls.

Mingling Basics, allows blending into crowds and shadowing people. You’d have to import or recreate the pieces in Starfinder for this feat to be useful.

Mingling Mastery, changes movement rate penalties and other DCs.

Moving Target, Expertise is gone, Dodge is gone, Tumble bonuses to Dodge and Synergy bonuses in general are gone. Fight Defensively still exists.

Nimble Fingers, like Heroic Surge  you get this once per session and an extra use per 4 levels, escape artist, open lock or sleight of hand in half the time, 1 round on a crit success OR free action. I like that it rewards degree of success with reduced time, I like that it’s not three separate feats granting reduced time to each skill use on all attempts like Star Wars did. No crits  on skills in Starfinder Otherwise mechanically it doesn’t break the rules.

Private Identity, papers and a little cash,but no witnesses. XP penalty to get a new one if compromised seems harsh. You get the ability to make a new one if this cover is blown.

spiderr walk, lower wet surface penalty, attackers get no attack bonus when attacking you while climbing, scal9ng checks get modified by Dex?  The wet penalty in SF is already +2 not +5, climbers are considered flat footed in SF so this would likely just remove both the wet and flat footed penalties. In a game with cheap flying I don’t know that a climbing fest is worth it.

Traceless, adds Int mod to attempts to track you, Spycraft still uses the Track feat for tracks over 10. SF uses Survival for following tracks and Perception for noticing the target. Doesn’t apply to hidden items, just the person. Nothing mechanically wrong here, the no take 10 or 20 note is interesting.

Whack, more non lethal sneak attack damage and you attack doesn’t cause the target to lose the flat footed condition. Seems like a narrow specialty but it might be in character for somebody. Changing d6 to d8 and scaling with trick attack damage isn’t how Starfinder has been doing things, 1s count as 2s and extra half levels or whatnot. I don’t know all the damage mods out there to say the design space is settled. So Operatives Trick Attack leave the opponent flat footed and the damage dice are only d4 and d6 early on before they become d8 so we’d need to rework the damage progression and the flat footed benefit isn’t.

Gear Feats

Bandage, modifies first aid kit uses, modifies vitality and wounds recovery, adds ranks or half ranks to healing. You’d need to. Be cognizant of other healing abilities and how Starfinder healing works,but this isn’t unworkable.

Basic Skill Feats

A lot of these feats are going to be Skill Synergy in Starfinder, the Spycraft version grants +2 to two to three skills and widensthe critical success range of that skill. Starfinder makes them class skills or adds the +2 insight bonus if they were already a class skill. I kind of like the idea that cringing is easier, but if I replace crits with degree of success system then the feat might make DC +10 for better effect into a DC +9 and so on. Reference Dungeon World and Cypher System for degree of success mechanics. Also the Pathfinder 2e playtest had succeed by 10 or more was a crit even if it wasn’t a Natural 20.

So many of these skills are collapsed in Starfinder, they’re all replaced by Skill Synergy, move on.

Advanced Skill Feats

Advanced Skill Mastery, change +2 skill bonus to +3,widen the threat range of critical successes and make it more expensive to invoke critical failures against you.

False Start, only burn half the time on a failed skill check with a skill you have the basic feat for. Only waste half the materials, take 20 in less time. This reminds me of some of the Mechanic’s computer hacking tricks.

Grand Skill Mastery, +3 to +4, don’t spend resources to confirm critical successes, wider crit success range. Errol a failure once per session.

Perfect Skill Mastery, +4 to +5, wider critrange, GM spends two dice to activate your failures and you can use your reroll three times per session, but not on the same skill or crit failures. This is problematic on two skill feats as the thirdrerollgoes where?

Talented, screws wit max skill ranks, relies on old class skills and would be problematic for Starfinder. I don’t think it’s necessary because of the things Paizo did to the skill systems. Although it supposed to be for one skill, I wouldn’t mind a feat like Toughness for skills that gives you one extra skill point per level maybe?

Training, four skill points that act as class skill points even for cross class skills. So glad all that garbage is gone. Take Skill Synergy and be happy.

Unlocked Potential, more extra rank in a skill and breaking the skill system stuff that you don’t need with cross class skills gone.

Species Feats

Everything except Rapid Healing is very specific to the setting.

Style Feats

Bloodthirsty, there are a lot of knock a guy down make a free intimidate check feats out there.

By the book, extra bonus from Tactics which don’t exist in Starfinder, however they might be a new source of Officerthemed Envoy abilities or something to add to the Captain in Starship combat.

Charner, +1 bonus on Charisma skill checks and wider crit success range on NPCs that are already neutral or better disposition. Seems like a waste over Skill Synergy with Charisma checks equivalent that grants +2and the wider threatrange.

Command Decision, once per session you get to confirm a crit for free when following orders.

Extrapolate Connections, +5 bonus when the monster of the week is based on a real earth culture.

Fortunate, extra d4 action die.

Glint of Madness, double effects of your intimidate check.

Hard Core, +1 Charisma skill checks and wider threat range when the NPCs are less than neutral to the party. A blanket +2 bonus and wider threat range on all rolls is better than this situational garbage.

Intuitive Linguist, +5 languages check when the monster of the week is based on an earth language.

The Look, +1 Charisma based checks when dealing with members of the opposite sex. There is a Pathfinder Trait like this IIRC, not really worth a feat.

Mark, name three skills and pick a target, the GM must tell. You if the target has those skills?  Which is highest and lowest, only once per session in the same target and Wisdom bonus number of uses per session.

Old School, if you have a base class in common with someone and a higher class level than them in that class you get +2 bonus to Charisma based checks with them. You get +2 in dealings with other Dwarfs, these thinly veiled racial bonus as feats are very situational and just awful feat design. Hey GM, I buy the old soldier a beer and ask him about the good old days, GM gives you a +2 bonus.

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