Third Strongest Mole's page

I would add for races that any with a racial bonus to medicine is worth considering when starting at level 1, as dc 25 medicine checks can be difficult to make then. This includes shirren with individual obsession, ramiyels, and ghorans.

Also, I'm not sure about the statement that crafted poisons gain +2 DC. I suspect this came from the core rulebooks statement that crafted items treat their level as higher for saving throws. I believe this refers to instances where an ability targets a piece of equipment (i.e. mechanic's overcharge ability), not saves made against the equipment. At any rate, this would be shaky for poison DCs anyway since their DC is not determined by item level but the poisons own stat block.

Thought I'd list out the spells mystics can increase duration to 24 hours using the lingering spell epiphany by connection to see which connections benefit the most from this ability. hour/level spells don't really make much difference (actually worse than doubling duration after level 12), so they are excluded. I'm including concentration up to 1 minute/level spells, assuming the duration could be expended if concentration could be maintained. Your mileage (and your GM's) may vary.

Crusader: reflecting armor (still ends when dismissed), Death Ward, Resistant Aegis, Resistant Armor, greater

Devastator: Carnivorous

Empath: Detect thoughts, Zone of Truth, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance (remote stakeout!), Telepathy, True Seeing

Geneturge: detect augmentation, Spider Climb

Hive Mind: Share language, Status

Melophile: Clairaudience/Clairvoyance

Shadow: Shadow Body

Shaper: grease

Star Shaman: Darkvision

Warmonger: resistant armor, resistant aegis

Xenodruid: Fog Cloud

Empath can do some very interesting things with this epiphany. 24 hour remote stakeouts with clairvoyance, True seeing/telepathy all day. Detect thoughts could be good if concentration spells are allowed, and zone of truth could let you enforce a "no lying on the ship" policy by recasting every day.

The only other one jumping out at me is shadow for shadow body. Cast once and reap the benefits all day. Crusader isn't bad either, but there are other ways to get energy resistance.

That being said, there are some other options. There could be interesting uses for a day-long fog or grease puddle. Though the fog could still be blown away.

Weapons of war seems like a good secondary connection power for anyone using high-level attack-roll spells like dominate person, feeblemind, and flesh to stone. Use your move and standard action, burn a 1st level spell slot, (which don't have much use in combat at that point), and substantially reduce the risk of wasting a high level spell slot from a wasted attack roll.

If I'm not mistaken, a Devastator mystic could achieve the highest bonus to hit by combining weapons of war with blood mark and greater blood mark, capping out at +23 before ability score modifiers, weapon focus, etc. You could even stack destructive frenzy on top of this for up to +4 more using a 6th level spell slot, but this locks you out of using that attack for spells or weapons other than small arms and basic melee. Unfortunately, since weapons of war is an insight bonus, it does not stack with the +4 insight bonus to attack rolls from mystics' level 20 ability.

RiverMesa wrote:

On an adjacent note, The Four Pilots of the Apocalypse?

Good idea!

Maybe a little reworked, for example:

- Death -> Decay (in the sense of matter dosgregation, for the universe expansion)

- Pestilence -> Radiation

- Famine -> Exhaustion (of energy)

- War -> War?

War. War never changes.

There is a general rule, though it took until alien archive 2 for it to be written, it seems.

P. 4 of Alien archive 2 under "Racial Traits and Alien PCs"

"While there is a preponderance of nonhumanoid aliens with strange morphology, all playable alien races are considered to have two hands for the purposes of holding or wielding weapons and other equipment (unless otherwise noted)."

On the subject of caster's that don't use spell slots, I've always looked for ways to build a solarian more focused on revelations than tanking/melee damage, and they tend to look weaker. A counterpart class to the solarian that loses solarians high BAB for stronger revelation like abilities would be neat.

If anyone else played star wars knights of the old republic, I'm talking about a "Jedi Consular"(focus on training force powers) to the solarian's "Jedi Guardian"(focus on lightsaber mastery).

With COM's addition of alternate class features, it's difficult to think of character types that couldn't be tooled as an alternate class feature, archetype, or other additional build option.

I'm most excited about the possibility for alternate/additional features for biohacker, though I'm not sure what you could replace. If you replace biohacks, most other class features don't work. Still, a biohacker equivalent to the exocortex and drone mechanic options could be really cool flavor-wise if nothing else, focusing on personal biotech type augments or a custom chimera creature companion. I suppose there's room to support this somewhat through theorem choices. For example, a theorem that lets you DNA splice a creature companion to give it the abilities of a different creature companion. As it is, I feel like biohacker could be so much more than "guy who shoots people with needles"

Not sure what you would replace them with, but alternate features for vanguard and witchwarper would be easier to do. Replacing entropic strike and infinite worlds with some other mechanic still fitting the flavor of the class would be a big enough difference while still letting the character fundamentally feel like the base class.

Regarding naming conventions, the contemplative in Dead suns 2 had a name like Ailabiens 21:32, (probably not quite right) which was explained to be a citation by his favorite author, and that this was the typical naming convention for contemplatives.

Taking that in a slightly different direction, I always wanted to make a contemplative character obsessed with mathematics that had an equation for a name.

"hello stranger, what's your name"

*telepathically beams a bunch of math into person's brain*

"but you can call me "cauchy-schwarz inequality" for short."

The most obvious that comes to mind is the Dragon Gland, which combos well with the genetics inhibitor that inflicts energy vulnerability (full attack into a crowd, hoping to tag 1-2 people, next round move up and breath on them, spend resolve to repeat 1-2 times if prudent). This also fills an AOE attack space that they can otherwise only cover with grenades.

Don't forget dragon gland requires the enemy make a reflex save, which can be reduced through the pharmacology school (encumber, entangled condition) and coagulant medicinals.

Regarding energy vulnerability from genetics: the dart weapons could fire explosive darts to do piercing/fire damage, which would still benefit from the vulnerability. The rest of your party may not use acid weapons, but some of them probably have lasers.

Mentioned this on another thread talking about a specific envoy grappler build, but shirrens qualify not only for the helpful telepath feat listed in their section, but also the spot of luck feat listed in the gnome section (requires a d20 reroll feat or racial ability and 5th level). This allows them to, once per 10 min rest, with a successful harrying fire attempt (trivial at high levels), allow the next ally attack to roll 3 times and take the best result. Particularly useful if you have a grappler who wants to go for broke on trying to pin a target, or a spellcaster casting a big spell that requires an attack roll, such as dominate person or disintegrate.

This also works the same for the other uses of helpful telepath (skill check reroll on aid another, attack reroll and take worse on enemy for covering fire).

This works well for any shirren character using a ranged weapon regardless of class. Envoys taking the fire support or superior covering fire options could potentially do slightly better at high levels since they can harry/cover two targets.

So, the esotericist 9th level ability spell shaping seems like a very powerful ability, well worth the trade of a single feat (or healing touch) for a 9th level mystic. The ability to make a single target spell hit two creatures within 15 feet of one another in particular is very strong in terms of getting 2 spells for one action and using only one spell slot. The range condition is particularly easy to meet for harmless spells (just tell your allies to group up before casting). It does, however, restrict its usage to a single spell school of the player's choice. Let's compare the school choices for a mystic based on the most appealing spells to use the ability with:

Divination: it's not just mind thrust, but mostly for mind thrust

Mind Thrust (extra target): an obvious choice at any level for the double targeting option. Realizing mind thrust is actually a divination spell made me want to see what other options the school provides, though, given that most of the other immediately appealing options are enchantment spells.
Battlemind Link (extra target, duration could be helpful)
Clairvoyance (increased range, duration)
Predict foe (2 targets): if nothing else, helpful at low levels if you want to stretch a spell slot to not run out but still get to do something magical every turn.
Mind Probe? (target, duration could be useful)

Transmutation:
Baleful Polymorph (extra target)
Polymorph (extra target)
Psychokinetic strangulation? (extra target) : see predict foe.
Flesh to stone (extra target)
Control Gravity: area

Conjuration:don't overlook this one
Mystic cure (extra target): Double heal! And only the first target needs to be at touch range!
Remove condition (extra target)
Miasma (expand radius) : 40 ft radius means many creatures will not be able to move out in a single turn, if centered on them.

Enchantment:Probably the most versatile options
Hold Person/Monster (extra target)
Charm Person/Monster (extra target)
Inflict Pain (extra target)
Mental block (extra target)
Synaptic pulse (increased radius, duration) : potential for 8 round stun to multiple targets? actually makes one reconsider divination. Dream big.
Dominate Person (extra target)
Suggestion (extra target)
Confusion (range, radius)

Necromancy:Not a ton of spells, but the options here are fairly solid
Ray of Exhaustion (extra target)
Crush skull (extra target): not mind thrust, but I guess it'll do.
Bestow Curse (extra target): again, only first target needs to be in touch range.
Command Undead (extra target) : reminder that mindless undead get no save
Enervation (extra target)

Abjuration:not the best pick of the lot, but if you like buffs, it's okay.
Dispel magic: the archetype can provide other ways to do this
Resistant armor(extra target)

Illusion:I guess if you are already shadow connection, you might pick this
Paranoia (extra target)
Umbral Tendrils (area increase)

Evocation: Not a mystics strong suit, but could be good at low levels for connection spells in particular.
Call cosmos (range, area)
Star storm (range, area)
Wall of fire (area)
Caustic conversion (duration)

So it's not just a toss up between divination and enchantment. Transmutation and Necromancy, even conjuration have some appealing possibilities.

Did I miss any cool spells to shape? What are the best schools for Technomancer and witchwarper? Gut says transmutation for disintegrating 2 targets.

I find the new maneuver expertise option interesting. It technically provides an envoy with a way to have the single highest bonus to a grapple attempt. There's also the coordinated maneuvers improvisation, which grants a different bonus to an allies maneuver attempt roll.

Imagine a pair of tag team wrestlers classed as envoys. A shirren with the new helpful telepath and spot of luck feats, plus the coordinated maneuvers improvisation, and a trox with maneuver expertise to do the actual grabbing.(Bugs that hug!) After the appropriate setup, you could get the best of three rolls with a 1d4 + 1 + expertise on top of other bonuses.

At 8th level, when coordinated maneuvers is available, the trox could make a grapple attempt of

6 (base attack) + (5) (20 str) + 1d4+1 (coord maneuvers) + 1d6 + 1 (expertise) + 2 (racial bonus) + 2 (grapple weapon) + 4 (improved combat maneuver) = 20 + 1d4 + 1d6

For comparison, a CR8 combatant has a KAC of 22, meaning a result of 30 is needed to grapple, 35 for a pin. For simplicity's sake, take the average result from the d4 and d6 and combine them (2+3 = 5) for a total bonus of 25. This means a successful grapple on a 5, and a pin on a 10! Lest we forget, we get three rolls to choose from. Rolling under 10 3 times in a row is less than a 12.5% chance. This without applying any debuffs to AC, say from the shaken condition due to combat expertise. For added hilarity, assume we have a biohacker pharmacologist on the team who manages to inflict encumbered and entangled with his biohack. The combined penalty to acrobatics checks is so severe that, once pinned, they will likely never escape.

Edit: any corrections to this calculation graciously and humbly accepted.

Does taking one of these archetypes block you off from taking any other archetype? Obviously it prevents you from taking options at the same level that the other archetype grants you a feature -- but I can't recall whether there is a general "only one archetype per class" or "only one archetype per character" rule.

Core Rule book page 126 "You also cannot add more than one archetype to a specific class."...."If you multiclass and gain a level in a new class, you can add a new archetype to that class when you reach the appropriate level."