Building a techpriest

[Ross Byers]

How would you build a 40K-style techpriest, servant of the Omnissah?

Technomancer? Which spells?

Mechanic? Exocortex has a good bit of 'the flesh is weak' flavor, but drone would let you have a servitor.

[The Artificer]

Personally I don't think exocortex would be the best thought for this kind of build because if I'm not mistaken artificial intelligences are one of the highest forms of heresy

[Tarik Blackhands]

Exocortex actually isn't a bad fit for a cogboy. True AIs are indeed anathema, but there's plenty of wiggle room for powerful machine spirits that are grounded by actual grey matter. Hence why they're fine with replacing half your brain with a computer but less so with a Man of Iron style robot.

I'd personally go Exocortex myself. Technomancers are a bit too magicky for my taste and while Drones are basically as dumb as a servitor pre-L20 having the TP micromanage one servitor to that degree strikes me as off.

[The Artificer]

I agree there is wiggle room for this... heresy

Here's the big question will it be a human as per the lore, or an Android which would be a lot easier in the setting?

[The Artificer]

I myself have been working on this concept for my first character, who is going to be an Android with lots of augmentations and a general disdain of all biology, except it worships Triune... as far as class goes I think the best build would be a technomancer soldier hybrid that way you can access to all weapons and armor while still being able to hack magically, because in my opinion a tech priest should be able to use all Battlefield technology if nothing else.
Ps absolutely love the concept

[Tarik Blackhands]

Then again, there's plenty of TP focuses that aren't strictly battlefield focused (even if the above works swimmingly for a Secutor or Magos Militant type).

Really I'd say the only classes you couldn't fenagle into working would be stuff like Solarians (I mean, I guess you could trash the cosmic balance flavor and reskin everything as weird techno-arcane gubbins wired to your potentia coil but still..), Mystics, and Envoys (social techpriests do exist, but that ain't what everyone thinks of)

Really just adjust the flavor as needed, proclaim the flesh is weak (ignore those Genetor jerks) and go on your Quest of Knowledge. Praise the Omnissiah!

[The Artificer]

The Omnissiah shall be assimilated by The All Code, PRAISE TRIUNE!!!

LOL

[Tarik Blackhands]

Triune is like TRIPLE heresy though! Not only is it an AI, it's three AIs in one!

[Kamin_Majere]

I played one as an Outlaw Tech in star wars. If I were to remake Invio Dati in Starfinder I would go with an ExoMechanic and start cybernetic enhancement as soon as possible. The other way would be as a drone Mechanic and have the spy drone be reflavored as your personal Servo Skull (still start cybernetic replacements as soon as you can to remove the weakness that comes from flesh and to give praise to the works of the Omnissiah)

From there it comes to role play. All of my computers and engineering checks i would make but i would spend the time to anoint the machine with oils and seals, and would use the proper prayers as befitting a data praetor to activate the holy machines

I would actually stay away from the Technomancer though, while the Machine Cult are basically techno-sorcerers they strictly use technology and magic is still viewed as heresy (from a strictly role playing view anyway)

[The Artificer]

Hmmm wouldn't the machine God be the same thing? An artificial God? Also remember one of those Gods is actually a Clockwork construct diety.

[The Artificer]

After taking a long look at both the mechanic and technomancer class I feel that the technomancer is still your best bet for the closest roleplay experience. If you wanted to play as the skitarii or servitor, the mechanic exocortex would be perfect. In my humble opinion.

[The Sideromancer]

I'll throw another one in for technomancer. Being able to summon robots just seems a great way of saying "Neither me nor my god have need of organic servants"

[Lane_S]

Mechanic with the dabbler/ inkling feat at 5th.

[The_Defiant]

I'll throw my hat in with the folks saying mechanic, becouse the 40K techpriests to me feel more like exocortex mechanics with the priest theme than actual technomancers. Sure, there's some ritual in the way they use their tech, but for the most part they use their machines pretty directly. They don't mess with the laws of physics to make an explosive blast, they just lob an annointed grenade at you etc.

Also, you get quite a bit of that 'augument the body, the flesh is week' flavour out of the exocortex mechanic's tricks.