Timeshifted Heroes

The ancestries and heritages from Lost Golarion still exist in the Pact Worlds, especially on Absalom Station, where many of them took refuge in the chaos after the amnesiac Gap. You should be able to use these options with minimal adjustments. If a character is from the Pact Worlds, you should be prepared to describe the character's home world, lifestyle, and culture. You might determine this lore yourself or allow players to collaborate, which can be a great way to build investment in the campaign. Changes to these details might inspire new ancestral weapons, languages, lore skills, or even heritages using those of other ancestries from the same planets or who remain in close contact with the Pathfinder ancestry. As many versatile heritages are created by the influence of interplanar exploration and unique circumstances that vary from character to character, most Pathfinder versatile heritages fit seamlessly into a Starfinder campaign.

Starfinder ancestry feats that modify movement speeds and senses might be initially stronger than Pathfinder options, as these abilities often come online at lower levels and are more easily available in Starfinder using armor upgrades, augmentations, and other equipment. You can discuss adjusting these ancestry feats to match the pace of feats from other existing Starfinder ancestries, but be wary of those with physiological disadvantages that are intended to offset their ability to fly or use special senses. The human ancestry is a good benchmark to compare other ancestries to, and to make sure there are no mitigating circumstances beyond these similar feats. Additional bonuses like a Lore skill proficiency can also help offset ancestry and heritage abilities like darkvision that Starfinder characters can get relatively cheaply as an augmentation or armor upgrade. You can also decide to add darkvision and flight to Pathfinder ancestries, choosing to balance the campaign by empowering all the players rather than taking options away.

While most Pathfinder backgrounds fit in the Starfinder setting, some that specialize in preindustrial skills might need to be updated—assuming the character is from the Starfinder era. This adjustment is especially important for skill feats and Lore skills that might not be relevant to your campaign, and these options should be reviewed as per the guidelines in the feat and skills sections. For characters using archaic methods, consider granting History Lore to reflect a character's knowledge in ancient traditions. When replacing a skill feat that doesn't fit a Starfinder campaign, you should look for other skill feats from the same skill or consider Assurance in one of the skills conferred by the background.

The Pathfinder classes and archetypes both exist and are compatible within the Starfinder setting. When allowing multiclass archetypes between games, you should always be wary of allowing characters to mix Pathfinder and Starfinder class feats from classes that share similar roles. Class feats are balanced under the assumption that no other class in the game has access to these abilities, so neither game is prepared for the influx of similar abilities that could stack in unforeseen ways. Keeping a careful eye on which feats a PC wants to select should prevent game-breaking situations.

Class features that refer to specific types of gear, especially runes and firearms, need to be adjusted to fit Starfinder's technology. Pathfinder classes that use technology with a notable failure effect, such as firearms with a chance to misfire, should apply those rules when using that technology with feats or features balanced around that chance of failure. When using firearms, you'll want these especially risky actions to have a chance of a misfire to offset the increased range and magazine capacity of Starfinder weapons. These risks can be ignored when the character is using the equipment with actions available to a character of any other class.

Gear-dependent classes that Craft their own equipment are much more challenging to use with tech items, such as the alchemist and the inventor. While these characters can still function using Pathfinder gear, they might want to use a Starfinder class with the alchemist or inventor archetypes, after they get a taste of more advanced technology. These classes could easily adjust the theme of their key items as tech items without destabilizing the game. For example, an alchemist's bombs could be a type of grenade, and an inventor's innovation could be considered a suit of experimental technological armor.

Classes with similar roles and features might overlap in ways that make players feel less valuable, for example, in the case of a bard playing with a rhythm connection mystic. Likewise, some classes might synergize in unexpected ways, such as bard, commander, and envoy stacking buffs on the same party. Parties with characters using classes that cover similar niches might find themselves struggling in some encounters, like an operative and a rogue being the primary damage dealers against a creature who's immune to precision damage. Be aware of these overlapping niches when designing campaigns and encounters to make sure they are a challenge without being impossible.

Archetypes tend to be more specific and can be more challenging to convert. For example, the eldritch archer could conceivably work with a gun, but it's also possible that certain spell combinations and Starfinder feats might destabilize the archetype in unexpected ways. If players want to choose archetypes like the talisman dabbler that rely on items that don't exist in Starfinder, you will need to convert those items into tech items or use a similar Starfinder equivalent instead. For example, a scroll trickster who got lost in the Dimension of Time and ended up on Absalom Station in the year 325 ag might learn how to use spell gems instead of scrolls for their class abilities.

Many of your favorite Pathfinder deities are still openly worshipped in Starfinder. Some have changed since the time before the Gap, and a character might be viewed with unusual curiosity or suspicion for their outdated views. Most deities still accept these followers, and if they're powerful clerics or the like, a god might even send guides to help their faithful find their way home. For example, Zon-Shelyn still cherishes those followers who refuse to acknowledge their fusion, appearing in their separate forms when answering their prayers. Many deities also have updated their repertoire with tech weapons but still accept followers who use the ancient armaments of their church. Characters who gain proficiency in their deity's favored weapon should choose one or the other. So, a cleric of Besmara can choose to be trained in the breaching gun or the rapier, but not both. Once they do, this decision can only be changed by retraining, and any feats or spells that specify having to use a deity's favored weapon must select one or the other. For an adventure featuring a party that splits their time between eras, you might allow a character to swap their proficiency depending on the time period.

Be wary of items that don't normally exist in Starfinder, especially alchemical items, talismans, and runes. Classes and archetypes that use these archaic items might instead use tech equivalents or not be allowed in the campaign. See Anachronistic Gear for more information.

Most of the skill and general feats from Pathfinder can be used in Starfinder without any challenges. PCs should avoid feats that rely on incompatible equipment that might be difficult to obtain in the Starfinder setting. Alchemy has been supplanted by grenades and pharmaceuticals, while scrolls and wands have been replaced by spell gems and spell chips, and runes have been replaced by upgrades and the item grade system (commercial, tactical, and so on). Additionally, PCs should be aware of augmentations and tech gear that can make certain feats superfluous, especially those that provide new movement speeds and senses. These feats might still prove useful in campaigns where players don't have reliable access to their technology and for characters who can't spare the slots for additional augmentations and equipment upgrades.

Technology has also made some skill feats less useful. The Legendary Linguist feat still has its uses in campaigns exploring uncontacted worlds, but within the Pact Worlds, most PCs can get by through purchasing a translator app and investing in the lower-level Digital Ambassador skill feat. The theme of the campaign should always be considered. For example, players investing in Survival will appreciate being told beforehand that the campaign will likely not include wilderness adventures but might include some interplanar or urban survival.

Starfinder has two skills not available in Pathfinder: Computers and Piloting. The Piloting skill replaces Driving Lore and Sailing Lore, and any archetypes, equipment, or feats that used these skills should use Piloting instead. While there's no direct analogue to the Computers skill, the GM might allow PCs to use similar skills, such as Occultism or Thievery, to accomplish similar tasks until they have an opportunity to gain proficiency in these skills. A GM should consider finding an opportunity for PCs built using Pathfinder rules to retrain skill proficiency choices into Computers or Piloting. Lore skills should be considered based on the theme of the campaign, and some specific lores players could gain from backgrounds and ancestry feats might not be applicable for use in a Starfinder campaign. Switching those to another vaguely related lore, such as Hellknight Lore instead of Cheliax Lore, or a broader lore, such as Golarion Lore or History Lore instead of Cheliax Lore, can help make the skill more relevant for your campaign.

The sheer volume of spells printed in both the Starfinder and Pathfinder Player Core rulebooks represents the timeless nature of magic's universal efficacy. That said, many Pathfinder spells that modify equipment can cause problems in Starfinder, especially those that apply armor and weapon runes, which aren't effective on Starfinder equipment. Furthermore, spellcasters selecting non-damaging spells should spend some time reviewing Starfinder options, as abilities like darkvision, flight, and other utility options might be necessary to compete with the augmentations and other tech items that can affordably replicate these spell effects, or might become less desirable choices because of the existence of such technology.