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Rules > Tactical > Bonuses and Penalties
Throughout the course of her adventures, a character often
comes under the effects of conditions, circumstances,
magic, technology, or other factors that provide her with
bonuses or penalties to certain game statistics, such as her
Armor Class (AC), attack rolls, or saving throws. The situations
that can grant bonuses or impose penalties in Starfinder are
practically limitless, but bonuses and penalties all function
using the rules described in this section.
While it’s always a good idea to keep track of all bonuses and
penalties affecting your character at any given time, such tracking
is particularly important during combat. After all, that +1 morale
bonus to attack rolls from the envoy’s get ’em improvisation
might mean the difference between either landing the blow
that fells a security robot or allowing it to remain standing (and
subsequently take out a wounded ally). GMs should take care to
note all bonuses and penalties that are in effect during combat,
but ultimately, it’s usually up to the player to track the bonuses
and penalties affecting her character at any given time so that
she has an accurate handle on how she performs in combat.
The rules that govern bonuses and penalties, as well as the
different specific types of bonuses, are described below.
The term “bonus” in Starfinder can refer to a benefit you receive
outside the typical framework, such as if a monster gains a bonus
feat. Sometimes the total you add to a die roll after all calculations
is referred to as a bonus, such as your initiative bonus or an attack’s
damage bonus. Other bonuses are divided into specific different
types, representing the varying conditions and circumstances that
provide bonuses to various numbers or values within the game.
When multiple bonuses apply to the same value, different
types of bonuses all apply, but in most cases bonuses of the same
type do not add together (or “stack” with each other), unless a
source specifies otherwise. (For an exception, see Circumstance
Bonus below.) Bonuses that do not list a bonus type do stack, both
with each other and with all typed bonuses. Such bonuses, often
referred to as “untyped” bonuses, are among the most utilitarian
of all bonuses in the game.
For example, Keskodai has a +2 morale bonus to his saving
throws, because an angelic being is protecting him with aura of
mettle, one of its special abilities. While benefiting from the aura,
Keskodai casts the death ward spell on himself. As a result, when
attempting a saving throw against death spells and death effects,
he can add the +4 morale bonus granted by his death ward spell,
but he cannot also add the morale bonus from the angelic being’s
aura of mettle. Only the higher of the two bonuses applies,
because they are both morale bonuses and therefore do not
stack with each other. While benefiting from the angelic being’s
aura of mettle ability, though, Keskodai still gains the +2 morale
bonus to saving throws other than those against death spells and
death effects, because such saving throws are not affected by the
death ward spell.
The following describe the most common forms of bonuses,
what they represent, and the kinds of things to which they apply.
When your ability modifier is positive, it can be referred to as an ability bonus. If an ability says to add your ability bonus, it means to add your ability modifier, but only if that modifier is not a negative number.
An armor bonus represents a protective barrier that makes attacks less likely to reach and harm a target. It applies to Armor Class and is granted by armor or by a spell or magical effect that mimics armor. Armor bonuses don’t stack with other armor bonuses, but they do stack with all other bonuses to Armor Class (such as a Dexterity bonus). Armor bonuses sometimes specify that they apply only to your Energy Armor Class (EAC) or your Kinetic Armor Class (KAC). Most suits of armor (see Chapter 7) provide armor bonuses to both EAC and KAC, though the specific armor bonuses a suit provides to each value often differ, as noted in the armor’s description. An armor bonus that doesn’t specify which Armor Class it applies to applies to both.
Characters receive base bonuses to attacks and saving throws
from their class levels. Your base attack bonus is added to all
your attack rolls and is determined by your class and level. A
higher number means you’re better at combat. Similarly, the
three categories of base saving throw bonuses, also determined
by your class and level, are added to saving throws you attempt
against various effects (as indicated by each effect that calls for
a saving throw).
You receive the base bonuses listed for your level in a class on
the class’s level progression chart. For example, if you are a 5th-level
soldier, you have a base attack bonus of +5, a base Fortitude save
bonus of +4, a base Reflex save bonus of +1, and a base Will save
bonus of +4 (see page 111). If you take levels in more than one class
(known as multiclassing), your base bonuses from different classes
stack with each other. Add together the base bonuses from each
of your classes to determine your base values. For example, if you
have 5 levels of soldier and 1 level of operative, you have a base
attack bonus of +5, a base Fortitude save bonus of +4, a base Reflex
save bonus of +3, and a base Will save bonus of +6.
Circumstance bonuses arise from specific conditional factors
affecting the task at hand. Circumstance bonuses stack with
other circumstance bonuses unless they arise from essentially
the same source, in which case they do not stack.
For example, you might use a firecracker as part of a Bluff check
to create a distraction. The GM decides the firecracker grants
a +2 circumstance bonus to the skill check. The GM also knows
the guards in this situation are extremely nervous, and thus their
attention is easily drawn to any sudden or unexpected occurrence.
The GM grants you a +2 circumstance bonus as well. Since these
two bonuses result from distinct circumstances that both affect
the task, they stack, granting you a +4 bonus to the Bluff check.
A divine bonus stems from the power of a deity or another potent supernatural creature, such as a demon lord. These bonuses are most commonly granted by spells and magic items, though priests of deities can sometimes access them through different special abilities they can use.
An enhancement bonus is a rare kind of effect, normally a supernatural one, that accentuates the useful qualities of an object or bolsters a specific attempt to accomplish something, improving your total effectiveness. It almost never applies to attack rolls.
An insight bonus represents improved performance of a given activity from either specialized competence or a certain form of precognitive knowledge.
A luck bonus represents good fortune powerful enough to alter the outcome of events—or at least to provide the little nudge needed to turn the tide of events in your favor.
A morale bonus represents the effects of a boost in courage, determination, and hope in a situation that tests your mettle. Nonintelligent creatures (meaning creatures with an Intelligence of 0 or no Intelligence at all) cannot benefit from morale bonuses.
A racial bonus comes from the culture in which you were raised or results from innate characteristics of your creature type. If your race changes (for example, if you die and are reincarnated), you lose all racial bonuses you had in your previous form and gain any new ones you now have access to, as appropriate.
Various effects can cause you to take penalties to ability
scores, Armor Class, die rolls, movement, or other statistics.
Unlike bonuses, penalties do not have types. However, multiple
applications of the same penalty generally don’t stack—only the
highest penalty applies.
For example, suppose the GM assigns a penalty to Acrobatics
checks on a frozen lake because its surface is slippery, and
one of the PCs’ enemies has a device that applies penalties to
Acrobatics checks in an area by freezing the ground so that it
is icy and slippery. Causing the already-frozen lake to again be
frozen doesn’t make it any more slippery and in fact doesn’t
change it much at all. Therefore, only the highest of these two
penalties applies to Acrobatics checks creatures attempt on the
doubly frozen ice.
The GM serves as the ultimate arbiter of whether or not two
situations that apply penalties count as the same source and
thus whether the penalties stack. A GM might decide that while
freezing a lake twice doesn’t make it any more slippery, pouring
oil on its surface does, and additional penalties might accrue
from other environmental factors, such as a strong wind, an
earthquake, or the lake’s surface having frozen unevenly into a
series of inclines and depressions.
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