Hello, and welcome to Iconic Design! I’m Alexander Augunas, the Everyman Gamer, and on last week’s Guidance I mentioned that there’s this rad new solarian manifestation in Starfinder AP #35 that I’m completely obsessed with called lunar weapon. So this week on Iconic Design, I’m building a Starfinder character who can make the most out of this awesome option. No need to wait for a phase, let’s get started!
The Build
- Ability Scores: Str 10 | Dex 16| Con 12| Int 10 | Wis 10 | Cha 14 (These stats assume you picked a species with only a bonus to Dex. If you get a second +2 and a -2, try for +2 Cha / -2 Wis or Int)
- Theme: Any (Add +1 to whatever ability your theme is associated with; I didn’t calculate theme bonus to AC in).
- Class: solarian 12
- Class Features: flashing strikes, solar manifestation (lunar weapon 4d4), stellar revelations (black hole and supernova plus 5), zenith revelations (2)
- Stellar Revelations: blade in the night (2nd) | stellar rush (4th) | defy gravity (6th) | vital reinforcement (8th) | gravity surge (10th) | glow of life (12th)
- Sidereal Influence: Stealth (2nd; graviton) | Diplomacy (2nd; photon) | Sense Motive (11th; graviton) | Intimidate (11th; photon)
- Zenith Revelations: solar acceleration (11th; photon) | wormholes (11th; graviton)
- Feats: Weapon Focus: Advanced Melee Weapons (1st) | Improved Feint (3rd) | Weapon Specialization (3rd; Bonus) | Skill Focus: Bluff (5th) | Greater Feint (7th) | Coordinated Shot (9th) | Deadly Aim (11th)
Playing the Build
So, if you haven’t heard, the lunar weapon solar manifestation allows a solarian to manifest a solar weapon that’s an operative melee weapon. The lunar weapon has some pros (you get full Weapon Specialization to its damage rolls and its a feint weapon, if you want to build a Bluff solarian build) and some cons (it uses solar flare damage despite being a kinetic weapon and you can’t trick attack with it), but overall its a very cool, very flavorful option that I absolutely adore. Now, there are a bunch of different ways to build this character, but I personally think that one of the more interesting methods is to go lean all-in on the lunar weapon’s feint weapon property and make a solarian that’s surprisingly good at exploiting their enemies.
Overall, this build is pretty simple. You take Weapon Focus with advanced melee weapons so your lunar weapon hits more and both Improved Feint and Greater Feint so your feinting exploits weaknesses in your enemies’ defenses. Skill Focus: Bluff is kind of a necessity because like the soldier, the solarian doesn’t get inherent insight bonuses to skill checks that matter in combat. (Sidereal influence specifically doesn’t work during combat, which is why I did not choose Bluff as a sidereal influence skill. Outside of combat Sidereal wouldn’t stack with Skill Focus and during combat Sidereal does nothing.) I love Coordinated Shot on melee characters, especially ones that are already using their actions to leave their foes vulnerable; between Greater Feint and Coordinated shot, this soldier is causing a 3-point swing for allies’ attack rolls, which is pretty crazy to be honest. Deadly Aim is also pretty good here, since this solarian will probably be Feint + Attack instead of Full Attack, so taking the -2 penalty for a small damage bonus is pretty good.
Regarding revelations, I really like blade in the night because it essentially gives graviton solarians the same damage bonuses that photon gains, making graviton a very attractive option. Stellar rush is so good for weapon solarians that it’s basically mandatory and defy gravity is delightfully useful, giving our solarian a limited fly speed they can use whenever they want. I’m a big fan of gravity surge, as ripping weapons out of your foes’ hands will never be a bad play, and vital reinforcement is a reaction that your allies will love you for having. Finally, glow of life is a source of personal healing when things are bad. As for zenith revelation, I’m expecting photon to be a very frequent choice for this build starting at level 11, because solar acceleration is absolutely insane for it. The ability to use Greater Feint and then make a full attack as a standard action is insanely good for this solarian build!
And that’s my lunar weapon solarian build! Hope you enjoy it, and please continue to stay safe while quarantining and check out all of our awesome Know Direction Network content throughout the week!
