[SFS] What are some good Mystic builds / plans / guides / spells?


Advice

Grand Lodge

I *really* like Greater Mindlink, and am thinking about building a Mystic (Mystic 3 at least) around it. But the rest of the class is kind of falling flat for me.

What sort of cool Mystic character and build ideas do people have for SFS?
1st-11th level, and particularly 1-7 or so.

Reflecting Armor looks neat, and automatically scales fairly well without using an action.

I really like the way Mystic Cure has been re-done, with the excess healing the Mystic, letting you feed HP to heal more, and the extra scaling (and BoL!) for higher level versions. I wish they'd collapsed Restoration, Remove Affliction, and Remove Condition into a single scaling spell too.

I normally like buff/support, but I don't see a lot of buffs jumping out at me.

Silver Crusade

I've made an Empath build. In combat will pretty much suck except when using spells but has some quite nice out of combat face ability together with the usual wisdom based skills that an Empath gets. Hopefully the base healing abilities will make it a worthwhile party member (stabilize is basically a free Reaction point AND a free round when somebody goes down). Makes a reasonable captain in ship combat.

I'm a bit concerned that the scaling difficulties will eventually doom the character but
1) It will take awhile for that to happen in SFS :-)
2) By the time it happens, splat books may have resolved the issue (enchantment bonuses for the win :-)).

Obviously, if you want a Mystic who is good in combat you use one of the usual solutions
a) Longarm proficiency
b) Dip a level of soldier.

Grand Lodge

Yeah, I'm a little concerned that Dex really is needed by everyone to contribute much in combat, except for the occasional Str hitter.

Removing effective buffs seems to be a core design decision, I don't see a lot of splat books adding good buff options.

Healing in combat does seem viable after the first couple of rounds. But it's not clear to me what a Mystic without Dex is doing in the early rounds. Maybe Intimidate, Covering Fire, or Harrying Fire?

Silver Crusade

Wisp ally is a nice little combat spell. So far the SFS adventures have seemed to massively support the 1 minute adventuring day so you can reliably use at least 1 spell per combat. Not sure if that is a feature or a bug


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Well, there's always the Star Shaman connection: worship Desna, probably human to pick up both Advance Melee Weapon Proficiency and Heavy Armor Proficiency at level 1, purchase a Tactical Starknife* with either the Called or Returning fusion (230 cr) as a starting weapon. Possibly also the pilot for starship combat.

Alternately, the Mindbreaker or Overlord connections work well for caster/combatant switch-hitters. More as "blasters"/battlefield controllers/debuffers than buffers, though.

The Akashic connection, with the Skill Synergy (add Computers and Engineering to class skills) feat and some investment in Int, could work for a "holy hacker." Possibly adding Skill Focus (Computers), as well.

Starfinder has really cut down on the available buffing spells. If you want to provide in-combat buffs, the envoy improvisations seem to work much better. A 2 level dip in envoy to pick up the Get 'Em and Inspiring Boost improvisations might be something that could be worthwhile, although the hit to spell progression and delay in attaining connection powers may be a steep price.

*- uses Str bonus on ranged attack rolls, as well as melee attack rolls

Grand Lodge

Yeah, I've definitely been looking at Envoy. I'm trying to decide whether there's much else past maybe Mystic 4 for second level spells, or if Envoy 2, the rest Mystic has something cool later in 3rd/4th level spells.

It's weird to think that just having Bless or a first level wand would be a nice power boost.

Any idea on an effective Empath Mystic/Envoy buff build?

Dataphiles

Empath Mystic/Envoy would have some nice synergy and would be closer to the classic support-Cleric role from PF... however it would also be pretty MAD.

Grand Lodge

Like Dragonchess said, buffs are mostly gone from spellcasting classes. Once Dwarf becomes available, the Desnan Star Shaman with the star knife was a build I was looking at with "heavy armor" and free advanced weapon at level 1. You got Magic Missile for free to take care of medium range and since dwarf is a con/wis race, the idea was to have good DCs.

The xenodruid's first level power is pretty much a throwaway, but the "entangle" at level 3 is pretty boss actually, if you go for more controller support, this is the way I'd go. Otherwise, envoy is the true support class.

Dataphiles

It's not just the lack of buffs, the spell lists are quite limited overall. I wouldn't mind the half-casters-only thing if the spell selection wasn't also so underwhelming. Casters got borked hard in Starfinder. I'm having a hard time coming up with an excuse to play one aside from flavor.

Liberty's Edge

Keshon wrote:
It's not just the lack of buffs, the spell lists are quite limited overall. I wouldn't mind the half-casters-only thing if the spell selection wasn't also so underwhelming. Casters got borked hard in Starfinder. I'm having a hard time coming up with an excuse to play one aside from flavor.

Huh? Spellcasting remains one of the most powerful abilities in the game and the spell lists are perfectly adequate in terms of utility effects and direct offensive ones. The defensive and buff lists are more limited, but that has to do with design goals and works fine in the context of Starfinder.

Grand Lodge

I guess I just have to shift my mindset from support through buffs to support through CC and debuffs.

I'm not convinced casters are particularly powerful, but I'm also focused on SFS level, and really 1-5.

I mostly wish Mystics had more choices. Technomancers get a class power choice every 3 levels, everyone else gets a class choice every other level. Mystics get a choice at level 1, and are then locked in except for spells.


The one bit I would add, other than I agree the Mystic class alone is a little underwhelming, is that their lvl 20 capstone is pretty incredible.

1 minute 1/day = +4 insight bonus to attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks, and you gain 20 temporary Resolve Points for use on connection powers. PLUS a free miracle 1/week.

Oh, also, you're going to live forever.

Now... show of hands: How many people have created a character and leveled it (via legit playing) from 1 to 20? Oh, look, a few hands there in the back... So, the capstones may not be of major importance, but if you DO intend to do that, just be careful that you're not trading your classes most powerful ability (arguably) for some other class's noob abilities.


I love the Star Shaman. I think about how much trouble the zero gee action inflicted on my party in the first AP, and just having a fly speed at 1st level would have been huge.

Plus magic missiles... you can't go wrong with magic missiles.

I have a SFS dwarf and I'm thinking of going

Star Shaman Mystic 1
Explorer Operative 1 (uses Survival, a Wisdom-based skill, for Trick Attack)
Sharpshooter Soldier 1
Mystic 2+

By the time I take that Soldier Level I will have Specialization in Advanced Melee Weapons through the Dwarf racial and can take Versatile Weapon Specialization to get specialized in all of the Soldier weapons immediately. The Operative level gives a dang reliable trick attack...thinking of even going up to Operative 3 for the Operative's Edge +2 and +10 speed to cancel out the dwarf's slowness (I could just go Blitz soldier, but I feel that's a bit played out).

This all results in a mystic that can actually hold her own in a fight before and after the spellcasting happens.

Community / Forums / Starfinder / Advice / [SFS] What are some good Mystic builds / plans / guides / spells? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.