The tale of Steve the Witchwarper

[Cyrad]

He has many names across the Pact World, but the enigma's current incarnation called himself "Steve," resembling a scruffy traveler with a rugged trench coat and a five-o-clock shadow. His new comrades asked if he was a man called The Doctor, to which he replied, "Maybe an David Tennant if he was high and could reshape reality. If you knew who I was, I doubt you would venture with me." One his comrades then "Googled" a photo of his face on the infosphere and found reports of a strange man ending bank robberies by turning guns into snakes or ending gang wars by transforming a city street into gingerbread.

Knowing he would cease to exist after 16 Abadius, 319, Steve lent his services to the Starfinder Society for the first and final time. He was surprised his party welcomed him with open arms despite the news reports about him. In fact, they even felt safe knowing Steve had their back. He was friendly to them, especially to the halfling he knew was a 7-foot tall hero in another reality. One party member asked if he gambled.

"Not after I got kicked out of a casino when my dice turned into a pair of rubber ducks."

"Dude, we gotta go out gambling together!"

Steve was selfless and took no gear for himself. He offered one of his tools (a null-space chamber) to store an alien creature, though warned to remove the creature before he (and the chamber) stop existing. When the party encountered a decent Freebooter armor, they gave it to the halfling.

"Perhaps we should call it a Half-booter armor," snickered the dwarf.

Steve, who knew the halfling to be a 7-foot hero in another reality, looked to his friend and said, "Don't worry. You will always be a Full-booter in my eyes."

"Aw, thanks, Steve! You're a great guy!"

The mission involved infiltrating a hostile base. After a failed attempt of Steve disguising himself as an alien, the party sneaked into the base and took out many hostiles. Steve helped by hobbling enemies, by turning an alien into partially Morgan Freeman and startling robots by merging their reality with that which they were human. He also blocked enemy reinforcements by lowering the floor and raising a catwalk upwards (and turning it into candy canes). He attacked an enemy spellcaster with a spell of his own (explosive blast) where a duck flew out of his sleeve and transformed into a grenade that exploded. This bought enough time to complete the mission and escape safely, which Steve helped by transforming the dwarf into a flying dragon-like person.

After the mission, Steve treated his allies to a massive party with booze for the dwarves and gambling for the gambler. After handing off credit of the mission to a future incarnation, Steve gave his new friends a final farewell before departing. Alone by himself, he said "I don't want to go" as his body glowed with radiant energy. Just as it seemed his very being would explode, Steve vanished from existence with a subtle "POP."

BUILD (Level 8):

Ability Scores (Pre-upgrades/levels):
Str 10; Dex 15; Con 10; Int 10; Wis 10; Cha 18

Ability Scores (Post-upgrades/levels):
Str 10; Dex 19; Con 12; Int 12; Wis 10; Cha 23

Defenses: EAC 24; KAC 24; Fort +3; Reflex +10; Will +2

Offenses: Melee +7; Ranged +11; Thrown +7

Skills: Invested heavily in Buff (+16), Culture (+10) and Diplomacy (+18)

Feats: Weapon Focus, Improved Initiative, Spell Focus, Improved Feint, Deadly Aim

Paradigm Shifts (DC 20): Disrupt Creature, Thwart Ability, Hobble Creature

Gear: Vesk Brigandine III, advanced semi-auto pistol, null-space chamber mk 1, storage goo, advanced morphic skin, personal upgrade mk 1 (Dex), personal upgrade mk 2 (Cha)

Spells:

0: charming veneer, token spell, mending, ghost sound, energy ray, detect magic
1: comprehend languages, grease, disguise self, shifting surge
2: make whole, invisibility, see invisibility, knock
3: polymorph, dispel magic, explosive blast, remove affliction

NOTES:

I tried building a 1st level and 4th level version of this character. However, they looked too boring to play. Until 7th level, the witchwarper is essentially a technomancer that gets a worse version of the grease spell instead of an extra spell per day. And I already have a poor opinion of the technomancer because it gets few class features and doesn't live up to the theme of a spellcaster that manipulates and controls technology.

Weird that Will is not the class's good save.

Could not find an appropriate theme. I wanted something like a wanderer or an infamous enigma. I ultimately went with Icon which ended up working out when one of the PCs Google'd Steve. I wish there was a reverse Icon where you're an infamous celebrity.

Hobble Creature requiring Disrupt Creature creates an annoying issue where I have only three talents and two of them have the same role. So in essence, it feels like I only have two talents instead of three.

During the playtest, I wish I took Inhibit instead of Hobble Creature. At 8th level, Inhibit is more versatile and accomplishes the same goal of preventing an enemy from full attacking while hampering their movement. Whereas, I had to saddlebag my build by taking Disrupt Creature, which becomes redundant.

Many of the paradigm shifts seem to do roughly the same thing. While I appreciate the options, I would like to see more variety.

The 7th level ability of Infinite Worlds raised many questions during the playtest. How does raising or lowering the ground work on a thin surface like a catwalk or bridge? How does it work in a starship? I used the ability on a section of catwalk just outside a door and we were unsure how the catwalk would reshape. I believed it would block the door, but the GM decided that the catwalk would essentially disconnect from the door and rise up 10 feet ending at above the door instead of below it. One player argued the door should raise up with it.

I used Infinite Worlds to block a corridor from incoming enemies approaching. One of the attempts lowered the floor so enemies could not reach the door.

GM was initially unsure whether Hobble Creature could affect constructs because it allowed a Will save but was not a mind-affecting effect. He had to double-check the rules on constructs and read Hobble Creature. Considering that Hobble Creature does not say it's mind-affecting and that the ability is flavored as reality warping that can be resisted by force of will, he decided to allow it.

Hobble Creature does not mention a duration. I didn't notice that there's a default duration until after the session. It really should be directly in the ability description, especially when there's two listings for the class feature.

I got excited to finally use the extremely situational 4th level effect of Infinite Worlds to change an environment energy type, but the mechanic ended up disabling the hazard anyway.

I couldn't use Alternate Outcome on an ally because I already used a reaction. While I think limiting paradigm shifts using action economy is great, it does significantly reduce the usefulness of Alternate Outcome when it also must compete for my one reaction per round.

I used about 40% of my resources, but the scenario was unusually short and only lasted about 2 hours. I used Infinite Worlds twice, two 3rd level spell slots, and one 2nd level spell slot.

[StarfinderHomebrewer]

That dialogue just made my day!

[Cyrad]

Steve gazed over a large room in the space station where the computer terminals were separated by deep gaps in the floor. "Any of ya need me to make you fly?"

The halfling turned to Steve. "Wait, you can fly?"

Steve nodded. "And make others fly, too. Lots of realities where that's possible."

"That's amazing! But I'll be able to reach the computer terminals. You should save that for later," replied the halfling.

The dwarf then looked at Steve. "Dude, Steve, you need to make me fly before the end of the mission. At least before you disappear."

"Happy to do so!" I double-checked my character sheet and noticed that I had polymorph instead of fly for my 3rd level spells. "Though, there is a possibility you might turn into a dwarven dragon warrior when I do so. Hope that wouldn't be too inconvenient."

"Aw, man, fricken sweet!" Exclaimed the dwarf happily.