I posted this on the starfinder facebook page, I might as well post this here and see what you think.
I have been thinking of theme/class combos, but not things like "he was a scholar but then was drafted and became a soldier" but ones that combine the two. Here are some thoughts I had. I also tried to avoid obvious ones like Fighter pilot (soldier plus ace pilot)
Ace Pilot/Envoy
-courier: You carry messages from one world to another. Some worlds may be hostile or in asteroid fields. Other times you may have to send a message from military command to the soldier in the field. Either way you need the piloting skill to be able to dodge hazards and weapons to get the job done.
-pro racer: You are famous for winning races and are seen as a spokes person for the race circuit. Your skill and personality has ensured you a fan base, the sports popularity, and revenue from advertizers whose products you mention on TV.
Ace Pilot/Mechanic
- Garage Tinker: You have a vehicle you are working on. You built it from scratch and know its every clank and rattle. You drive it very well and keep it well maintained.
- Ship Maker: Making starships is your job, of course you have to give each one a test flight before you can sell it.
Ace Pilot/Operative
- Reconaissance: You are the one who uses stealth vessels to scout behind enemy lines and radio back troop locations and strategic targets.
Bounty Hunter/Envoy
- Negotiator: Not every bounty is obtained by violence. Sometimes someone has to talk a criminal out of a tense situation and convince him to turn himself in, or at the very least hit him with a stun weapon until you can convince him to surrender.
Icon/Envoy
- Celebrity: Famous system wide for your TV show or movie roles. You are a household name on most worlds,
- Social Elite: You may be a politician, Royalty, or a CEO of a major corporation. Either way when you speak the system listens.
Icon/Mechanic: (I thought host of a tech show was too obvious)
- Famous Inventor: You made something that is either revolutionary or bears your name. If they know your invention they know you.
Icon/Mystic
- Emotion Farmer (empath):: You are famous and people love you, and you use that emotion, feed on it, both emotionally and magically. You may use your powers to pose as a medium or a fortune teller, but in truth you use your emotional connection to feed your own emotional link.
- Demogogue (overlord): Their are those leaders who rule through rational debate, not you. Whether a politician or a cult leader you plsy the crowds emotions and they love you for it. You manipulate joys and fears, hates and hoped like an expert musician. What you are missing in intellectual might you more than make up for in force of personality. After all it is not about being right, it is about being SEEN as right.
- Hypnotoad! (overlord): What better way to brainwash the masses than through television, you may not even need to use your powers.
Icon/Soldier
- War Hero: The tide turned and the battle was won thanks to you. your name is celebrated system wide now.
- Gladiator: You battled for sport and you did well. You have a fan base now.
Icon/Operative: (I assume daredevil operative covers acrobats and other agility performers. Plus a detective can be famous for solving cases)
- The Phantom!: Your name is spoken in feared whispers. You are treated more as a supernatural entity than a man. The silent death from the shadows, the theif who steals an object unnoticed while the guards watch you, etc. You are a legend to many, maybe even considered a myth, but you are very much real.
Icon/Solarian
- Enlightened Master: Your wisdom and enlightenment is sought by students from lightyears away.
(couldn't think of anything special for mercenary)
Outlaw/Envoy
- Con Man: You use your people skills to get money for nothing, of course you should leave before the people you conned realize it is nothing...
- White Collar Criminal: Theif? How dare you! You just work with numbers. Moving a few bucks to your bank account here and their. Small amounts build up in the long run and you get rich.
Outlaw/Mechanic: (left out hacker as it is a character option for mechanic (and technomancer) already if I remember right)
- Saboteur: Knowing how to fix machines means knowing how to break them. You know just what modifications are needed to make a star ships drive explode or a vehical lose brake pressure mid pursuit.
- Arms Dealer: You know weapons very well, you build them, fix them, and sell them to the highest bidder regardless of who it is.
Outlaw/Operative: (Since theif is an operative type as is spy I left them out)
- Terrorist: You slip unseen into buildings, plant explosives, and, if lucky, slip away. If not you died for a cause and hopefully will be a martyr.
Outlaw/Soldier
- War Criminal: Maybe you were just following orders. Maybe you were doing what you had to do to win the battle. Maybe you needed to use extreme torture or to hurt innocents to get vital military info. Regardless, you broke the rules of the pact worlds and are now seen as an enemy.
- Losing Side: You lost the war, and the winning nation is not going to let you go home in peace. All the enemy soldiers who survived are now being hunted down.
Scholar/Envoy: (this also works for Xenoseeker if you want a more hands on version)
-Anthropologist/Sociologist: You use social skills and interaction to study societies themselves. The better you know people the better you can manipulate them.
Scholar/Mystic (also works for Xenoseeker)
- Research Ecologist (Star Druid): When you harness the power of nature it helps to know nature. To understand the animals and plants inside and out and to know how the many links of an ecosystem tie together.
Scholar/Solarion
- Mystic Astronomer: You use the power of stars so you might as well understand them. You never know, you may learn how to harness the power of pulsars, neutron stars, and magnetars if you understood how the work. (I later looked them up and discovered pulsars and magnetars are neutron star variants so that is redundant).
Spacefarer/Envoy
- Sales Representative: For a company to thrive someone with people skills needs to seek out new markets and convince them to be customers.
Spacefarer/Solarion
- Void Ascetic: You head out among the stars to learn and be one with them. You meditate in the void to learn of the stellar power you can harness.
Xenoseeker/Envoy
- Diplomat: You find new species and forge alliances with them.
- Trader: You seek new species for financial reasons. To either buy new, never before seen, goods from them or to sell to them.