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After my last idea for an Iron Gods PC was thoroughly shot to pieces in this thread here, I decided it might be a good idea to start from scratch and try to build a character from the ground up. What I want is to make a character that explores the narrative themes and ideas the Iron Gods Adventure Path discusses: Religion and Science combining to make something more powerful, magic vs. tech, nature vs. artificiality, what constitutes life, what does it mean to have a soul, etc.
Obviously an android PC is one of the best ways to explore these concepts in detail, as they have nature vs. artificiality and what is life and souls baked right into their basis. Plus, there's a lot of androids in this AP to compare and contrast with the PC, much like how there are a lot of tieflings in Council of Thieves for a tiefling PC to compare and contrast with.
There are some things I wanna do with this android PC specifically:
- I want the character to be Lawful Good. When I first got the itch to play this AP, I thought, "What if my character had a personality like Optimus Prime? That'd be awesome!" Plus the whole "freedom is the right of all sentient beings" sentiment is one that resonates well with an android in conflict with the oppressive Technic League.
- I want to be able to use heavy armor without giving up anything majorly significant. When I saw the entry for smart armor in the Technology Guide I practically drooled. It gives kind of a "Transformers" or "Iron Man" feel that blends well with the Lawful Good alignment I mentioned above.
- I want to be able to explore the concept of faith with this character, why they believe what they believe. Most people when designing a pious character for Iron Gods go with Brigh, but Brigh's true Neutral alignment doesn't exactly gel with the Lawful Good alignment I envision for the character. Iomedae seems like the best choice, given her faith has a presence in Numeria and matches the character's alignment perfectly, but her faith has very little to do with Numeria's struggles or the plot of Iron Gods. Plus, there's the possibility that I might convert to Casandalee's worship at the end, helping kickstart a church for her, which sort of feels like turning on the belief of whatever god got the PC through the campaign at the last minute, which feels like a cheap move, narratively...
- In addition to the faith angle, I want to explore technology with the character as well, essentially encapsulating the story's primary idea of "Science and Faith combining to make something greater than the sum of their parts." I'm not sure if there's a way to do that, character-wise, as it feels like a lot of technology is just grafting items on, and I'm not sure how best to do that in a coherent manner. My initial idea had been to use psi-tech, but I've learned that it's not a good idea, due to the android's lack of emotions making psychic magic a poor career choice.
I'm playing through it now. My suggestions:
1) Fighter archetype Cyber-Solider (although you'll need to work closely with your GM to make sure you'll have opportunities to buy cyberware) - A fighter that gets all sorts of bonuses with cyberware
2) Fighter archetype Trench Fighter - A fighter that gives up the Armor Training for improved guns.
3) Gunslinger archetype Techslinger - A gunslinger that uses tech guns
4) Paladine archetype Holy Gun - a paladin that uses guns
Make sure to take the Technologist Feat.
I'd say that maybe one of the Oracle archetypes that lets you get heavy armor with a Revelation (there are a few) might be what you're looking for. Plus, I think Oracle works on a thematic level since their whole class theme is "gifted with divine powers and doesn't know why."
I don't normally suggest it, because it seems ripe for cheese, but it sounds like playing a cleric who worships an ideal rather than a god might be perfect for this character concept.
That way you can play the alignment you want and choose domains that suit the themes. And to top it off, it won't be at all bizarre if the character later takes up the worship of an actual god.
Thematically appropriate and useful domains/subdomains would be things like Artifice: Construct, Magic: Divine or Void (or perhaps one of its sibdomains).
Iron Priest archetype seems to fit, too, if you wanted. Would need to grab heavy armor proficiency via feat, however.
Oracle can also work conceptually, but the Charisma penalty hurts.
To work in the tech stuff, you could always dip a level or two from another class, though I think you might be able to achieve the overall flavour you want without it.
Medium focusing on the Hierophant spirit? Either the reanimated medium (very appropriate for an android channeling a "past life") or the relic channeler archetypes could fit. Because the hierophant spirit grants divine spells, not psychic spells, the android can still cast the spells granted by Divine Surge.
Alternately, although there's less of a tie to the divine (without multi-classing), a battle host occultist can start play with a suit of smart armor as their Panoply Bond item. You will need to use Logical Spell or invest in Cha to qualify for Empathy, however.
If you want to possibly focus a divine character on "significant" technological items, you could also look at the relic hunter inquisitor. Just have the character select tech items as their relics.
I'd say that maybe one of the Oracle archetypes that lets you get heavy armor with a Revelation (there are a few) might be what you're looking for. Plus, I think Oracle works on a thematic level since their whole class theme is "gifted with divine powers and doesn't know why."
I remember that both the Battle mystery and the Metal mystery have a revelation that grants an oracle proficiency in all martial weapons and heavy armor. The Metal mystery has a few metal-shaping revelations that add to the Transformers theme.
Yet if your character will be a divine caster, then heavy armor proficiency is not problem: start with a class that has medium armor proficiency and take the Heavy Armor Proficiency feat. Divine casting has no spell failure due to wearing armor. If your character wants heavy armor proficiency only for heavy smart armor, you could wait a few levels before taking that feat.
Heavy armor's max dexterity bonus limits the AC benefit of an android's +2 bonus to Dexterity; nevertheless, high dexterity still benefits ranged attacks. Iron Gods offers plenty of technological firearms starting in the 3rd module, so your characer has 7 levels to pick up Exotic Weapon Proficiency(firearms). Alas, your character will also face technological firearms and they hit touch AC. Adding a Mirrored enchantment to the armor might help a little, if the GM lets its anti-spell defense apply to technology, too.
Nevertheless, I can see an android on Golarion wearing heavy armor to disguise his or her alien nature. With the armor covering everything except the face, a little makeup will let the android pass for human. That has good roleplaying possibilities.
An android's –2 penalty to Charisma favors neither paladin nor oracle, but android oracle has precedent in Iron Gods. The Shattered Psyche curse was designed for the female android NPC Casandalee. You could give your android blue-tinted caucassian skin, blue lips, and dark blue hair so that both androids will appear to be from the same production line, for comedy value.
NEW ORACLE CURSE: SHATTERED PSYCHE
Although Casandalee has [spoiler removed], the rules for this rare oracle curse are presented below for use by other characters of your design.
Shattered Psyche: Your mind is crowded with dozens of voices, fragmented snippets of your past lives. You take a –2 penalty on all Intelligence-based skill checks, Wisdom-based skill checks, and concentration checks. You gain a +4 competence bonus on saving throws made against mind-affecting effects. At 5th level, you’re immune to charm effects. At 10th level, you’re immune to compulsion effects. At 15th level, you’re immune to all mind-affecting effects.
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Medium focusing on the Hierophant spirit? Either the reanimated medium (very appropriate for an android channeling a "past life") or the relic channeler archetypes could fit. Because the hierophant spirit grants divine spells, not psychic spells, the android can still cast the spells granted by Divine Surge.
Oooh, I like it! I LIKE it! Even a vanilla medium could work in a similar way to the Shattered Psyche oracle curse, connecting with multiple past lives! This way I get just the right amount of connection to the divine without necessarily being penalized for possibly converting to another religion later on!
So! What do I need to know to make an effective Android Medium? I know heavy armor won't be an issue as psychic spells aren't going to suffer from it, and I'd start with medium armor, so it's just a single feat to get heavy (yes, the Guardian spirit also grants it, but from what I've read Guardian sucks).
I dunno if an Android psychic caster is the best idea as in the core setting they can't provide Emotion components without taking the feat according to Buhlman.
That said you could also choose a Kineticist, as their abilities don't depend on components, and a Aerokineticist focusing on Lightning would be pretty strong in Iron Gods I should think.
If you do that you will need to wait until 3rd before you can get Heavy Armor Proficiency
So I take the Empathy feat at first level, right? Why does everyone make it seem like it's such a big deal that makes or breaks things?
Because it puts you a feat behind everyone else. Or two feats behind some, like humans. And while it lets you use the spells, it removes other useful abilities from the race, leaving your android weaker than most races and missing a feat.
Also, the prerequisite of 13 charisma is pretty costly for a race that takes a penalty to charisma.