Starfinder Differences

[liamfisher]

They both say cast - which is a significant change from Pathfinder.   So they would incur AOO.   Had this come up at Dcon with the spell gems on the Welcome boon and we agreed at the table that it was an AOO.

I pretty much agree. What about cases where the computer with the Spell Chip is in a different location than the person activating it? Remote access is a thing, after all.

So, remote access spell gems for healing?

"Hey, what is this personal comm doing lying here?" followed by Fireball.   
 

Or you could have them on a computer and access it via a commlink?

It says it enables you to cast the spell, so it would be at your location with you doing the dance and taking the risks.

Yeah, maybe even have every caster in the party subscribe to the computer, so they all have access to the team's cache of Spell Chips, rather than purchasing redundant copies just to make sure that whoever needs it has one available (Remove Condition and Mystic Cure IV, I'm looking at you). Also, you just have to hold your computer/commlink to have access to your whole cache, rather than needing to spend actions retrieving the proper Spell Gem.

Its tough to get Pathfinder scroll mechanics out of my head. I think Spell Gems always use the caster's caster level and ability modifier, rather than being set by the creator.

Yeah, they use your level and save mods.