Meet the Iconics: Iseph

Friday, May 12, 2017

The countdown to Starfinder is on! We're highlighting the iconic characters and core classes that appear throughout the pages and covers the Starfinder line. Today we meet Iseph, the iconic operative!

Illustration by Remko Troost

As biomechanical entities, androids can theoretically live forever with the proper repairs. While some embrace this form of immortality, most androids live what they feel is a full life—usually around a hundred years—and then voluntarily instigate a process called renewal, in which the android's soul leaves its body, allowing a fresh android soul to inhabit it. Most people consider this a joyous occasion, metaphorically equivalent to the old android giving birth to a child, and understand that a post-renewal android is an entirely new person who just happens to inhabit the same body. Yet not all people are willing to honor this change or forgive past debts and slights, and such is the case with Iseph.

Iseph awoke in an abandoned storage facility on the machine world of Aballon, standing upright in a black-market renewal crèche. Around them, the place was completely empty, save for a note and a pen left in the center of the concrete floor. Clearly hastily scrawled, the note read only: Run. Hide. Retaliate. Beware the mark. Next to the words was a drawing of a symbol—the same inexplicable design branded on Iseph's chest. Yet the biggest shock was when Iseph picked up the pen, as the note's writer had clearly intended—for the handwriting on the note matched Iseph's own.

Confused and disoriented, with only some basic downloaded knowledge of the world they'd just been born into, Iseph did as the note instructed, doing their best to disappear into Aballon's bustling android population. It was here that, among other things, they first met other androids and discovered that some identified with particular genders, though Iseph never felt any such personal connection. But the questions raised by the note continued to plague them. Who had worn their body before them? Who were they running from, and why? What was the mysterious symbol? Eventually, Iseph worked up the courage to begin making surreptitious inquiries into the planet's infosphere. All of these searches failed, yet in curious ways, as if the information was being actively scrubbed and redacted. Worse, Iseph began to get the sense of being watched, faces in the crowds that seemed strangely familiar. After a month of tentative forays into they city's silicon underworld, Iseph at last tracked down someone who claimed to recognize the mark, but who insisted on meeting in person at a nearby virus bar.

Iseph was almost to the tavern when it exploded in a massive fireball, the blast consuming an entire city block.

Thoroughly spooked, Iseph fled Aballon, taking passage on a ship to the Diaspora. Yet as they worked there, quickly finding themself a deft hand at piloting rock-hopper shuttles and mining tugs, Iseph's fear turned to anger. Wider Pact Worlds society proved far messier than Aballon's orderly machine culture, and Iseph was first confused and then disgusted by the prejudice and jealousy androids still encountered from some humans. They met android escapees from illegal colonies in the Vast, bearing blatant symbols of corporate ownership and scars from cruel disciplinary implants, and began to suspect what their own mark might say about their origins. Incensed, Iseph made contact with the Android Abolitionist Front, learning to fly more combat-oriented craft, to sneak through the shadows, and to put down the enemies of their people with ruthless efficiency. Under the AAF's guidance, Iseph became a black ops expert, until a disagreement with their handler over a messy job led them to go independent. Today, Iseph officially hires on with freelancer crews as an elite pilot specializing in dangerous transport or exploratory missions—and if those jobs sometimes require a little infiltration or a bullet from the shadows, well, that costs extra.

Though paranoia over being hunted by their mysterious enemy (as well as friends of former assassination targets) makes Iseph something of a loner, the android desperately craves companionship, and is fiercely loyal to those few who prove themselves trustworthy. As a result of their early days on Aballon and personal experience as an android in a largely biological society, Iseph questions or rejects many aspects of mainstream Pact Worlds culture, and enjoys exploring the countercultures on different worlds. Iseph believes the ends often justify the means, yet strives to only take on jobs that fit with their sense of morality. An initial focus on android rights has broadened into a tendency to identify with oppressed people and underdogs everywhere, no matter how alien, and to hate any form of slavery with a passion. While Iseph finds the most joy in flying any manner of ship or vehicle—usually too fast and recklessly for the comfort of their passengers—their infiltration abilities remain as sharp as they ever were, and the former assassin has no objections to pulling out their trusty sniper rifle again when the cause is just.

Unrelated Starfinder Note: We've been doing a lot of previews recently, both here on the Paizo blog and on other websites. There's more than we can contain on the blog, so if you want to see more of the neat stuff that's been revealed (including new art for planets, races, ships, and more—and that's just in the last week!), be sure to bookmark the new Starfinder News Hub thread!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

Class Preview: The Operative

Monday, May 8, 2017

Illustration by Miroslav Petrov

Last Friday we took a look at the envoy. As soon as we announced the operative as a class, many fans began to theorize it would act as the "star thief," and wondered how it would be different from the rogue class in Pathfinder. There are certainly some thematic similarities between the two classes, but just as a 16th-century highwayman's tactics and skills were different from a modern hacker's, a character with a knack for stealth, security systems, and unexpected attacks in Starfinder should be significantly different from a Pathfinder rogue. We need a class that can easily serve as spy, assassin, thief, hacker, investigator, and trailblazer. That was the spark for the operative, which gets the following description in the Starfinder Core Rulebook:

You're a shadow. You move swiftly, strike suddenly, and always have an escape plan. You're a consummate professional, and always get the job done, whether it's scouting enemy lines, hunting down criminals, stealing and smuggling items, or assassinating key figures. As an operative, you're skilled in a wide variety of disciplines and specialties, and use speed, mobility, and your quick wits rather than relying on heavy weapons. You excel at the art of surprise, whether it's sniping targets from cover or striking while their backs are turned. Your cause may be righteous, but you have no problem fighting dirty—achieving your objective is all that matters.

The operative is very much a character skilled at working outside the norms of society. Whether committing crimes, hunting criminals, or just living on the fringes, operatives find ways to get things done, though their methods don't always meet with public approval. This takes skill, so the operative gets 8 skill points per level, and 16 class skills. Operatives also get the operative's edge class feature granting a bonus to all skill checks (as well as initiative checks). The class also receives special bonuses at 7th level with any skill in which the character has the Skill Focus feat.

The operative knows that sometimes getting things done means doing some damage, and the class gains a fair base attack bonus, poor Fortitude saves but good Reflex and Will saves, light armor, and proficiency (and eventually specialization) with basic melee weapons, small arms, and sniper weapons. The operative can augment the damage done with basic melee weapons and small arms with his trick attack.

Trick attack may sound on the surface like Pathfinder's sneak attack, but it works very differently. An operative can attempt a trick attack regardless of the combat situation—it's not restricted to targets that are flanked or have the flat-footed condition. Instead, the operative must make an opposed skill check (normally Bluff, Intimidate, or Stealth, though class features can alter that) to gain an advantage over his foe for the trick attack to function. At higher levels, the operative can also apply penalties to foes hit with a trick attack, beginning with the flat-footed and off-target conditions and expanding from there (potentially even applying such effects to sniper weapon attacks).

Because operatives have different methods and thus focus on different techniques, each operative selects a specialization. We present seven specializations in the core rulebook—daredevil, detective, explorer, ghost, hacker, spy, and thief. Each has an effect on that operative's trick attack (a detective can use Sense Motive to activate her trick attack, for example), and grants bonuses to specific skills and access to new abilities.

Finally, operatives also have exploits—special tricks they learn as they gain levels to help customize their abilities. While the selection of exploits is fairly small at first, they expand as the operative levels up, making increasingly powerful exploits available. Here's a sample of a 10th-level exploit (though the ghost specialization receives it at 5th level):

Cloaking Field (Ex)

You can bend light around yourself and muffle any minor sounds you make, allowing you to nearly vanish when not moving. Even when you move, you appear only as an outline with blurry features. This cloaking field doesn't make you invisible, but it does make it easier to sneak around. Activating the cloaking field is a move action. While the cloaking field is active, you can use Stealth to hide, even while being directly observed and with no place to hide. Attacking doesn't end the cloaking field, but it does end that particular attempt to hide. If you remain perfectly still for at least 1 round, you gain a +10 bonus to Stealth checks (which doesn't stack with invisibility) until you move.

Your cloaking field lasts for up to 10 rounds before it becomes inactive. While inactive, the cloaking field recharges automatically at the rate of 1 round of cloaking per minute.

We already looked at the envoy last week, and we'll present more information on the remaining five classes in the coming weeks. And, of course, you can read the full classes this August when the Starfinder Core Rulebook is released at Gen Con!

Owen K.C. Stephens
Developer