Stellar magic is a unique and powerful form of magic found in the science fiction role-playing game Starfinder. Unlike traditional fantasy settings, where magic is often associated with mystical sources such as ancient spells or divine intervention, stellar magic harnesses the cosmic energy of the stars themselves. In Starfinder, the universe is teeming with magical energy that originates from the mysterious energies of the stars. This energy is known as stellar energy, and it is the cornerstone of stellar magic. **The main idea** is that stellar magic allows characters to tap into this energy and manipulate it to cast spells and perform supernatural feats. Stellar magic practitioners, known as solarians, are able to channel and shape stellar energy to create devastating attacks or protective barriers.
Modulate Frequency - Make a target unable to tell its voice activated devices and constructs what to do. Pretty niche, but cool when it matters.
Round level after concentration ends and ongoing high medium radiation emitting from one side can actually be decently nasty, I kind of like this one a lot as a potential gimmick. Magic Seal - Fail a will save and your first attempt per round to cast magic or use Su abilities on anyone but yourself are subject to a counterspell attempt.
Stellar magic practitioners, known as solarians, are able to channel and shape stellar energy to create devastating attacks or protective barriers. These solarians draw their power from either the gravitational pull of a star, known as a graviton, or the heat and radiance of a star, known as a photon. By attuning themselves to one of these aspects, solarians become conduits of stellar energy, allowing them to unleash powerful abilities.
Galactic Magic spells discussion
Let's talk about spells here. I'm going to go through them in order alphabetically.
Accelerate Step - I'm not sure you want to invest in this with the plan to run around enemies and get attacked so often that it will probably negate a hit or two. Would be ok if it lasted an entire round when you moved rather than just the movement. And why is step on here, since you can't be attacked while stepping, some weird readied action aside?
Acid Puddle - Persistent Explosive Blast, but with acid. Effectivley does 8d6 to start (6d6 on cast, 2d6 when targets start their turn), so you only need them to spend one more turn in the area to push the damage ahead of Explosive Blast, and the area denial is worthwhile as well. Plus acid is less resisted than fire. Good spell, I think.
Adamantine Shot - Like Ectoplasmic Barrage, but you can hit up to three targets instead of two and you can't hit one target with more than one projectile (which you probably can with EB). AS does more damage overall if you have three targets, EB does more if you have 1-2 targets, but AS also can try to force doors or break things. It's fine, not great. I wouldn't take it given all the other Techno/WW damaging spells. I don't know why SFS banned it.
Adhere: This seems like it can adhere a door to a door frame, so that's nice to slow down pursuers. The entangle trap feature is nice, too. I'd pick this up with Reality Glimmer or Techmantic Dabbler for sure.
Akashic Investigation: It's fine as an investigation spell, I guess, with decent limitations on being too usful (i.e. identifying people who did the things or hearing exactly what they said). Is it enough different from Retrocognition to exist?
Anchor: You can, uh, tie something to an immovable object or terrain feature at medium spell range for a long time. Cool? But it as a spell gem mid career than shock yourself at actually finding a use for it late campaign, maybe.
Antimagic Burst: It's PF1 disjunction, sort of, but still with a CL check, and effects supernatural effects, short duration on magic/hybrid items, and no artifact destruction. Greater Dispel Magic will usually do enough, but this is nice for just messing up all magic of all types.
Autopilot: It should exist in the world, it might be useful on a spell gem, but unless you're running magical uber without investing real autopilots in your cars or you have a bunch of cheap car bombs to send out you aren't learning this.
Battle Sonata: Decent sonic damage for Mystics, but very short range cone. The stagger round on failed save makes it decent, I guess. It's no competition to TM/WW blasting spells, though.
Biome Adaptation: Ignoring nonmagical difficult terrain in a given biome is pretty good, but you'll train out of this later and there's already plenty of ways to avoid or mitigate difficult terrain at all levels.
Blessing of Youth: Heals stamina at range at the same dice progression of Mystic Cure (but without ability score added or the ability to transfer your own health, and no big dice boost option at higher levels). The speed bonus is negligible and covered by a very common augmentation, but if you want to spam healing as soon as someone gets injured, rather than after they're in HP and close to going down, this exists and is a nice Precog niche ability.
Broadcast Message: I feel like a bullhorn with recorder could probably do most of this cheaply, but can those receiving the message tell where it came from? Good for social campaigns where you need to use proganda. Definitely a spell gem or for a prepared caster, though, not something you learn.
Bypass Password: I don't understand how this works. Identify is (maybe) supposed to give you passwords that then give you a bonus on hacking. This just lets you bypass any feature that incorporates a password? Is this an autohack spell if they have a password, useless if they don't have a password (but do have a keycard or neither but you still have to hack for access?)? What "the DC of the computer password"? Do they mean the hacking DC of an item that has a password? I think I'd use that DC and then let it give you the "I know the password" bonus for three separate hacking checks. Identify learning passwords easily was too cheap.
Calm the Storm: It's weaker than Mind of Three (AP spell) but at least it's higher level and shorter duration. Also available to PC and WW, which Mind of Three isn't even if allowed. But with all the reroll save abilities out there I don't think this spell is worth it. Maybe at level 3. (Compare to Probability Prediction, which doesn't last longer but give broader reroll options without the +2 bonus to mind affecting saves.)
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Yeah, I love the cantrips in Galactic Magic - Adhere, Misfire, and Stumble (and maaaaybe Psychokinetic Shove?) do a lot to make a non-weapon focused spellcaster a viable option.
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Channel the Outer Sphere - This is impressively terrible single target (unless you have vertically stacked fliers) every round damage for a 6th level spell that only lasts until you take damage and break your concentration. But alignment permitting you have between 3 and 5 options to choose from for buff/debuffs, and some of those are mediocre on top of the terribad damage. And 1 full round casting time! Yikes.
Cheat Time - Pathfinder Time Stop, but 1 full round casting time makes it riskier to try to get it off. Buff and battlefield control spells (you don't have summons) are the obvious choices, but don't sleep on spamming disarm/manipulate object/move actions to try to take weapons away from 2-3 enemies who will suffer greatly without them. Then end with a blast/explode weapon attack or spell attack.
Chrono Leap - I think you're supposed to use this to toss a melee ally into a crowd, do some minor damage, and hopefully knock them prone right before he attacks and before they can stand up. Is that worth a 5th level slot? I dunno. If he's a Solarian he can have a pretty decent zenith revalation or two that does the same thing for him but better.
Climate Adaptation - Environmental old/heat became even less of a threat if you learn this cantrip. I've seen some people mad about this, but there were already plenty of ways to deal with it. Yes, one part of one AP module just got easier (if you know about it and if you learn this cantrip, which why would you if you don't know about it?). Deal with it.
Command Icon - +2 morale(!) bonus to intimidation is very nice for some builds, don't care about the light and save bonuses.
Communal Bond - Affects the whole party, long lasting, level 1. Minor effects, but a fear save bonus is fine, I guess, and the bonus to aid/harry/cover fire could be useful. If you're using those options at mid level this is a decent 1st level spell.
Companion Bond - Share feelings (thoughts if they're smart enough) with your pet. Mostly a flavor thing, but maybe a smart animal companion can serve as a telepathically linked scout or lookout in some circumstances.
Dampen Spell - This is a very nice reaction, low level (1-2) counterspell option. Make the CL check and you can change some aspect of an offensive spell. At level 1 you can half the range (effectively negating in some circumstances), make an aoe do an off target grenade-like miss, or exclude one target from an aoe/multitarget for most effect. At level 2 you can half the number of targets or half the damage. Not a bad use of low level slots to limit higher level spells.
Day's Weariness - Some damage plus fatigue, good if you can fatigue stack to exhausted, but you'll grow out of it at higher levels.
Death's Door - The Precog's signature single target damaging spell, the damage itself isn't good (you have longarms proficiency for free!), but the ability damage may be useful at higher levels.
Dissonance Strike - It's fine, it's a 1st level touch spell that you'll outgrow. Eliminating a reaction for 1 round is niche but certainly can be useful.
Distant Speech - See Broadcast Message, but this is outloud and a cantrip. I can definitely see this used to cause chaos or distractions by making announcements to crowds or inside buildings.
Distract - Would you use a 2nd level spell that gives a save just to be able to attempt a ranged feint action with mysticism instead of bluff? Yeah, that's a yikes from me too, dawg.
Dream of Home - It fascinates and it's only level 1. Still too high level for this condition, but until the fascinate cantrip appears it's the best fascinate spell in the game. Charm Person still exists, though.
Duplicate Data - Copy data to your own storage media then take it away and hack/decrypt at your leisure away from guards and other threats on site. More hacking support is always nice for Technos playing a shadowrun style campaign.
Elemental Convergence - It's a 4th level Explosive Blast that does 1 die less damage, but a bigger area, but centered on you, and lets you mix two elemental damage types of your choice. It also leaves difficult terrain (which you're trapped in, but at this level you have Force Soles Mk2, right?). Hmmm. Maybe for a Mystic, WW already has blasting and control options better than this.
Empathic Communication - Help mime awkward first contact situations at 1st level.
Empathic Support - 2nd level, this is a very strong support buff if you can afford a character to do nothing but give aid/coverying fire/harrying fire every round. Instead of numerical bonuses, you (or the enemy) rolls twice and takes the better/worse. As an aid on hacking where you might have to make multiple attempts over several rounds, this is fantastic. If you're a bad shot or have a bad weapon and want to just use harrying/covering fire every round this isn't a bad use of your first action and a spell slot - help that soldier or operative try to get a crit or land that all important first hit.
To be continued.
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Fist of Damoritosh: Weak line damage, plus prone on a failed save. Sixth. level.
Fluid Morphism - 1st level, decent duration, a +2 enhancement bonus to ability/skill checks, and you can chance what attribute it keys off. Enhancement bonuses are very hard to come by for skill checks, I think (vampire voice for intimidation is the only thing I can remember off hand), so this is quite strong for tech, social, and stealth/acrobatics skills depending on what you're doing.
Fluidity of Form - Choose a benefit every round, you have to change every round. Additional Arms seems useless, because you'd have to use actions to draw items to hold, then the arms go away and you drop them next round. Legs is a speed bonus you probably already have from augmentations or another source, amorphous is a great option to swap into when entangled or grappled, damage reduction/energy resistance are always good, shrink is unlikely to be useful, and stretch is good if you're melee. So, meh? A melee guy can swap between reach/DR every other round, maybe, and amorphous if he gets grappled? I don't see this as a wise investment, wish the arms were actually useful, maybe if you allow an auto draw/stow of equipment when they grow or go away.
Forecage - If you go barred it's a bigger and tougher, I think, Resilient Sphere. Is it worth 2 extra spell levels? I dunno, maybe for trapping big melee things then shooting through the bars, even with the granted improved cover. Note that the spell doesn't list Precog as a caster who can use it, but it does show up on the separate Precog spell list.
Furious Shriek - It's fine! Variable level 1-6, 30' spread centered on caster, sonic damage, shaken and eventually staggered debuffs at higest spell levels. You also get some bonus damage when you're seriously hurt. Downside is that it targets fort save, not reflex, but I'd rather have this as a 6th level than Fist of D.
Glowing Wall - Long duration, large area, stationary light source. Horizontal plane means you can put 8x10' squares on the ceiling or floor, so this is Light Up a Room, But Disco, the cantrip.
Gravity Tether - Melee spell with weak damage that makes it harder for those hit to move away from you and you can burn actions to pull them closer. This doesn't do anything for me, but maybe there's a Spell Sergeant build for it.
Grim Insight - Melee spell with decent damage and can inflict shaken. But explosive blast is the same level and does the same damage, so nooooooooo. Unless you really like Spell Sergeants.
Harness Lightning - Provides cover against electricity only spells/weapons (so not plasma), and if someone actually shoots some at you it provide a standard action attack with no save or attack roll. Very niche, no thanks.
Helping Hands - free move action to draw/reload/activate, and +2 circumstance on engineering or sleight of hand checks. Very good for a build that needs lots of actions for item activation or drawing items while still wanting to move. Still decent for th eengineering boost, maybe, although I think specialty tool kits have that covered.
Holographic Interface - Remote hacking for Technos via cantrip. It's not subtle, but if you don't want to stand next to the computer you're hacking you don't have to. Suck it, shock grids.
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Ice Prison - Level 6, it's basically Hold Monster (level 4), but not mind affecting, targets reflex instead of will, does cold damage every round, and you can't effectively attack your target while it's paralyzed. I say Forcecage is probably better, don't worry about them escaping, maybe trap multiple creatures, and if they're melee focused or short ranged you can shoot at them and they can't shoot back.
Injury Echo - The Precog version of Telekinetic Projectile, but will negates rather than an attack roll, so this ages poorly even if you take the scaling cantrips rule.
Locate Hive - Why? GPS exists. Inertial guidance exists.
Magic Mark - Finally, sigil comes to SF and we can sleep.
Magic Seal - Fail a will save and your first attempt per round to cast magic or use Su abilities on anyone but yourself are subject to a counterspell attempt. Great way to mess up a caster, but also those with bad Su attacks, like dragon breath weapons or weird mind control abilities. I reall love the anti-magic spells in this book. Magic Seal, Greater can affect everyone in an area, but they get to save every round, and it has a 1 round casting time, so it's worse from some viewpoints.
Measure - Niche cantrip that could be useful in rare situations. "Gee, why does that huge creature [who happens to a small creature under a Veil spell] register as weighing so little and being so short?"
Misfire - It's daze, but for a weapon that uses ammo, so no mind affecting issues. Not bad!
Modulate Frequency - Make a target unable to tell its voice activated devices and constructs what to do. Pretty niche, but cool when it matters.
Mystical Aegis - Amazing! +2 morale(!!) bonus to save against spells and Su abilities, half damage from spells and Su (lol breath weapons), evasion against spells and Su (double LOL breath weapons), half damage from summoned creatures, and 45 temp HP against spell/summon/Su damage. When depleted the spell ends. Basically this no sells spell/Su damage, for more and for longer the better you can make your saves. The Greater Mystic Aegis gives 100 temp HP and a Death Ward (lucky Technos), and there's a Mass version, too. Poor Precogs and WW don't have access.
Negate Spell - Reaction counterspell, burn a 3rd level spell to try to negate a spell of 3rd level or below. Better than Dampen Spell in that it can totally negate, but worse in that Dampen can reduce the effects of spells level 4+.
Omnitool - Cantrip to change anything into a tool kit, but no bonuses like you get from the speciality tool kits. An always prepared cantrip that can save you some money if you didn't want those bonuses.
Orient - If you're on an undeveloped planet and really need to know where you are and get some survival help this exists, but you probably don't need it.
Osmose - If you have 1 minute to cast this spell and scan a data source for relevant information, you might have the many minutes or even couple of hours necessary to do it without spending a 2nd level spell. But maybe it's a spell gem for high stakes learn and react missions.
Physical Stability - It's the same level as Dispel Magic, but is a worse Dispel Magic against transmutation effects while alternatively giving a save bonus against transmutation effects. Why are you so worried about transmutation effects?
Plasma Snare - Complicated. Reach melee spell that entangles, continues to damage while the entanglement lasts, can be reaction detonated for extra AOE damage and some burning condition damage, including after the creature escapes. This seems like a cool Spell Sergeant option.
Proximity Alert - Alarm, but weird that higher CR creatures are somehow immune.
Psychokinetic Shove - Ranged Bull Rush cantrip, but they get a reflex save first. Cool for helping melee allies even if unlikely to work often.
Quick Change - Cantrip disguise self, but for armor/clothing only. So you can "put on" a uniform or special set of clothes to try to influence or convince someone, but only 10 minutes duration, so make it quick.
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Radiation Ray - Not good, Bob! Ranged attack to do some fire damage plus exposure to high radiation to a single target. Compare to Irradiate, two spell levels lower, which can expose a lot more targets to radiation, eventually even severe radiation. Both grant a save, and this one can miss.
Realign - Stabilize in zero-gravity. Didn't GEM give us a fly in space cantrip that is better than this?
Remembrance - Divination but for the past. Get knowledge of what happened in the past rather than a prediction about the future. Pretty good research spell, imo.
Remote Pilot - I think this is just straight better than the auto pilot spell for PCs and they're the same level. You can (touch range, so be careful) cast this on an occupied enemy vehicle and then fight them for control every round, which they're going to auto fail at if they don't have a pilot skill, probably succeed at if they do.
Restore Consumable - Use 2nd level spell slots and reactions to flexibly buy consumables as they are used. Let's the party keep just one of a broad range of potentially useful consumables on hand then replenish them in the field via a pool of UPBs or credits as they're used. Great for things like fringe spell gems that you think you might need to use again or nanite hypopens for condition removal if more than one of your party is suffering. Please for the love of god don't spend money on grenades this way, you fool.
Rewrite Time - Wish/Miracle for Precogs.
Rhapsodic Aegis - 10 temp HP for the whole party, plus 5 sonic resistance. 3rd level Mystic only, so pass unless you have a huge party to benefit from temp HP or suffer lots of sonic attacks.
Shared Gravity - Long lasting big spread of changed gravity up/down one level, great for long term adventuring in annoying gravity zones. Less useful for trying to jerk enmies around, since they get a save and your allies would also be affected. But level 4, so a big investment unless you do lots of high/low gravity adventures you want to counter.
Sharpen Senses - +3 insight bonus to Perception is good, blindsight is good, but no range listed on it is bad. Maybe it's 60'? If you do already have blindsight that range doubles. Note that GEM already had a good spell to provide blindsense/sight, but Precogs can get this one and the bonus to perception is useful.
Sniper's Edge - This is too high level. There are just too many double roll abilities to burn a 5th level spell on this. (Compare to Probability Prediction, a 3rd level spell.) The move action and double up with a sniper aim action are fine, I guess, if you can't precast or use a reaction on an alternate double roll ability, but 5th level is just too steep to improve your expected damage on a single shot with a sniper, not exactly the most powerful weapon class.
Social Reset - A reaction and a 2nd level spell to negate failed social blunder to improve someone's attitude or gather information. Hope you can explain why you cast a spell with no warning!
Sonic Scream - 4th level, sonice cone damage, slightly more damage than exposive blast, slightly more damage if cast underwater plus a 1 round nauseate underwater on a failed save. Good for underwater campaigns and environments, maybe not otherwise, but Mystics at least don't have that many better blasting options.
Soul Surge - Variable level 1-6 ranged attack that uses your key attribute, but damages you in the attempt equal to your number of damage dice. At 6th level it does 108 vs 93.5 for a Mind Thrust, but also does 24 damage to the caster, does nothing on a miss (vs half on a save for Mind Thrust), and doesn't have the debuff that Mind Thrust does at that level. But force descriptor and no mind affecting, so. I would probably give it a miss, but it may have its place if you're a full BAB equivalent Warmonger or Mystic Smith option you hits more often and doesn't mind hitting yourself in the face while eschewing weapons.
Spark - It's a big lighter. Cantrips are too good now to waste one on this.
Spiritual Bonds - +1 morale bonus to all saves is nice, and it allows party members with RP to stabilize/get up a downed ally who might be out of RP, although it costs a standard action to do it. Good support spell for tough encounters.
Star Touch - High level melee spell, has some radiation and knock prone side effects and potential spread effects to get more than one target. Definitely a good Spell Sergeant option at high levels.
Star Wall - Wall of Fire, but stronger, and plasma damage, and radiation emission. Round/level after concentration ends and ongoing high/medium radiation emitting from one side can actually be decently nasty, I kind of like this one a lot as a potential gimmick.
Stumble: Cantrip to make a target half speed and off target for one round. It's fine compared to something like daze if you don't want CR and mind affecting limitations.
Summon Corpse: This is a 6th level spell to get the body you left behind for Raise Dead purposes. Contrary to what I've seen on the discord, there's no reason to believe this creatues a body that was destroyed or disintegrated, just brings you what, if anything, still exists somewhere. May I suggest just doing reincarnation until you get a result you're happy with?
One of the defining features of stellar magic is the connection between the solarian and their stellar mote. A mote is a small, celestial object that orbits the solarian and serves as a manifestation of their stellar powers. This mote grows in power as the solarian gains experience and levels up, granting them access to more potent abilities. Stellar magic also incorporates the concept of attunement, which allows solarians to align themselves with either the graviton or photon aspect of stellar energy. This attunement affects the way solarians can use their stellar powers, with each aspect granting different abilities and bonuses. For example, solarians attuned to the graviton aspect gain the ability to manipulate gravity, allowing them to control the battlefield and weaken their enemies. On the other hand, solarians attuned to the photon aspect become radiant beacons of pure light, dealing devastating damage to their foes. Overall, stellar magic is a fascinating and unique form of magic in the Starfinder universe. It allows characters to tap into the cosmic energy of the stars and wield incredible powers. Whether it's manipulating gravity or harnessing the power of light, stellar magic adds a dynamic and exciting element to the game, allowing players to explore the mysteries of the universe and become powerful guardians of the cosmos..
Reviews for "Exploring the Mysteries of Stellar Magic in Starfinder"
1. Sarah - 2 stars - I was really excited to read "Stellar magic of starfinder" because I love the Starfinder universe and was curious to see how magic would be incorporated into it. However, I was disappointed with this book. The magic system felt forced and out of place in the science fiction setting. It didn't feel well-integrated into the world and the explanations of how it worked were confusing. Overall, I was left feeling underwhelmed and wishing for a more natural blending of magic and technology.
2. John - 1 star - I couldn't make it past the first few chapters of "Stellar magic of starfinder" because the writing was simply unbearable. The prose was overly descriptive and filled with unnecessary jargon, making it difficult to follow the story. Additionally, the characters were flat and uninteresting, and it was hard to care about their journey. I had high hopes for this book, but unfortunately, it fell far short of my expectations.
3. Emily - 3 stars - While I didn't hate "Stellar magic of starfinder," I didn't find it particularly enjoyable either. The plot was predictable and filled with clichés, making it feel like a generic fantasy story rather than something unique to the Starfinder universe. The magic system, while interesting in theory, never felt fully explored or explained, leaving me with more questions than answers. Overall, it was a mediocre read that didn't live up to the potential of its concept.