Emotivores in Archive 2 immediately strike me as interesting - we haven't gotten any vampires yet, but the look and need to feed reminds me of it. They don't have very much extra fluff to them, but I wonder if it makes sense for them to actually live as a society?
The first indicator being the clothes they wear - depicted as fairly clean and even having trinkets and utility pouches. Given that they are shapeshifters, they seem to fit that role that vampires often did well - be able to manipulate a group of people from behind the scenes, and laying out the framework for perhaps "raising" a society as cattle, much like vampires do in many fantasy settings.
It doesn't seem to indicate, though, whether they work as a group, or are just single isolationists that come out to feed. Do they have complex thought, or are they basically just cunning, hungry zombies? Also, what does psychically feeding on feelings do to the victim - do they die or are they left stunned? Do they become a thrall to the emotivore?
I really like these creatures and would love to hear your thoughts. I think it'd be super interesting if they introduce vampires, as these emotivores would probably have a place in that society.
They resemble PF1 psychic vampires a little bit.
Emotivores remind me of mall goths lurking in Sephora.
Absent any specific outside factor, I would tend to assume that emotivores are loners, or at most one senior emotivore with a couple of enslaved spawn. After all, even an ordinary emotivore is a powerful monster, who wouldn't normally need to rely upon numbers for defense. Combine that with the need to feed on people, and you wouldn't want to concentrate, lest you overfeed and expose yourself.
Generally speaking, vampires in fantasy are also very powerful creatures, often necromancers. Still, though they see the advantage of working together. The book does outline a "mastermind," which going back I noticed a bit of info I didn't see before:
and the regular emotivore:
So that kind of answers part of the question. I'm still curious though how these small groups or individuals interact with a society. Do they try to live among the people? Seclude themselves in a sewer? Solitary political manipulators?
Also, the book outright says what happens to someone fed upon: they gain a negative level. So, no, being fed upon is not good at all.
Ye, I meant more from a... "normal" person perspective. Generally NPCs that just ekk out a living aren't as tough as PCs, so what happens to those weaker people? Do they remember the encounter? It doesn't go into detail whether this always has to be an active feasting, or if they can subtly draw power from a creature if, say, they pretended to be their lover.
I guess that's all up to the GM, I just like to know more about the canon lore from personal intrigue.
It's not only vampires they resemble. Change the type to chaotic evil outsider, adjust it's defensive abilities a bit, add some spell-like abilities, and describe its emotion-draining attack as being more sexual in nature, and you've got yourself a succubus.
Isn't there a rule saying that non-visible save effects send a hostile mental ping alert thing to the victim?
In PF that rule applies when you succeed at the save, not when you fail. In SF I'm not sure.
Yep, looks like you're right on that one.
Unless you’re an Overlord Mystic, there is nothing to keep the target of a charm or compulsion effect from remembering the spell casting and realizing that’s linked to your inexplicable behavior once the spell ends.
Well, yes, but in this case, the whole point is that the behavior is not *inexplicable*. The only thing that the Suggestion does is "you want to let this person touch you", as combined with the requirement that they not make an obvious attack.
Do you let a lot of strangers touch you without finding it odd behavior? Coworkers? Acquaintances?
As an SLA, the casting itself is visible and identifiable. You won't care that he cast a spell while you're under the effect, but once it's over you'll remember that he did and presumably wonder why you didn't object or ask about it at the time.
Starfinder mind controlling magic is not designed to be a long term solution to manipulating or controlling people. Even Overlord Mystics have to deal with detect magic or sense motive used on their victims by third parties while their targets are under the influence.