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The latest AP has some great rules options in the Psychic magic chapter. Let's review.
Drug - Synaptic Sugar: Adds a +2 to mind-affecting spell DCs, will saves, and mind-affecting spell caster checks! When you use a mind-affecting effect, DC 15 will save or be confused for one round. Only 500 credits, this is a great late game for mystics who rely on mind-affecting and can pass the save reliably.
Mystic Connection - Shaper: Six associated deities (Ibra gets his third connection), connection skills chosen from several options (computers, engineering, life science, physical science, mysticism, or a crafting profession). The spells are a couple of the new ectoplasmic attack spells in this same chapter, slow, grease, rapid repair, and make whole. Ah, the connection powers!
1st Matter Field - get 3xlevel rounds per day of a free force field of an item level equal or lower than your mystic level. Doesn't come into its own until level 6/8 (and technically the first force field is level 3 so this shouldn't work when you get it), but quite nice at later levels.
3rd Matter Sense - Blindsense (vibration) 30' and the blindfight feat.
6th Shape Matter - This is my favorite connection power ever. You can craft in the field without any tools or worshop, and it only takes 10 minutes, not 4 hours. (With 5 extra ranks 1 minute, and 10 extra ranks a full round action!!!) You can craft using either UPBs or converting found things at 10% value. Charged items like batteries and magic items need to be charged or wait a day, but serums and other consumables work immediately. This is crazy good.
9th Apportation - Teleport items of bulk 2 or less to/from your hand as long as the destination or origination point is within 500'. I can think of some tricks with this.
12th Phasing - As a move action you can walk through walls, take allies with you (it burns lots of rounds of duration), and you get some modest defensive abilities while phasing. At level 12 you can burn 1 RP to phase four others who are within 30' of you, so this is a great escape or infiltration tool for an entire party.
15th Molecular Wall - 2/day Wall of Force that costs 1 RP. It's fine, I guess, but I could see trading this away.
18th Translocation - 1/day either spend 1 RP to use Interplanetary Teleport, or 2 RP to cast Plane Shift.
Technomancer Magic Hacks
2nd level
Aura Reading: Standard action scan gives an insight bonus to identify creatures/objects, plus one extra bit of information about them. Scan an injured person or damaged object for an insight bonus to medicine/repair checks. Nah, unless you really like getting lots of information on identify checks more than you like attacking things that are nearly in your face.
Psylore: Add your techlore insight bonus to Sense Motive. This is flavor for a Sherlock Holmes techno who isn't a mystic for some reason.
8th level
Spell Static: Extend the Spell Countermeasures hack (2nd level, CRB, +2 to saves against magic) to all allies within 30'. Costs 1 RP and a standard action, but lasts round/level. I'd check and see if it stacks with the spell bane feat and your ally's feat choices before building towards this, though.
11th level
Mind Virus: Anyone who hits you with a mind-affecting effect must also make save. On a failure, nauseated for 1d4 rounds. On a success, sickened for 1 round. I like this. Come at me, mind bending bro!
Spells
They're good!
1 Akashic Download - +4 bonus to recall knowledge out of combat. All casters have access.
6 Akashic Revival - One hour cast to save a backup of yourself that pops up if you die. Very nice, mystic and witchwarper only.
6 Bilocation - Create a second body for rounds/level. One body gets full actions, the other gets a standard or move, you both have full gear but share ammo/consumables, and you can't cast two spells in a round. Techno/witchwarper, this could be fun on a techno who has a big heavy blast, automatic, or explode weapon and wants to fire it twice per turn without any penalties. The duration is too short and the abilities too limited for it to be very efficient for other uses, I think.
1-6 Ectoplasmic Barrage: Attack two creatures in short range against KAC. Knockdown critical effect, and at 5th/6th level they are automatically entangled when hit. I don't think the damage is enough to aggressively beat a longarms build given the limitations on high level slots, but the entangle might be worth at at high levels. Note that you attack with Dex, never your key attribute. Mystic/Witchwarper.
4 Ectoplasmic Eruption: Weak AOE damage, plus entangled for rounds/level on a failed reflex save. Also debuffs incorporeal creatures. Mystic/Witchwarper.
2 Ectoplasmic Snare: Ranged attack against EAC, then they get a save. Save, they're entangled. Fail, they're grappled, take some damage every round, and you can move them 15' every round. Concentration duration, but this is pretty good. Mystic/Witchwarper.
2 Ego Whip: -2 to mental score checks, will saves, and spell DCs, plus staggered. Rounds per level, but even if they save they suffer the effects for one round! A 2nd level slot for a guaranteed 1 round stagger and -2 to will saves is not bad at all, hoping for 4 rounds is just icing. Mystic/Witchwarper.
3 Etheric Shards: This bonkers PF1 Psychic spell comes to Starfinder. Huge area, long duration, slows creatures (and stacks with difficult terrain), inflicts minor damage and stacking bleed. Look for abilities to force movement through the shards, like, say, an Ectoplasmic Snare to drag someone around 15' per turn and keep stacking on an extra 3 bleed per round. All casters.
3 Id Insinuation: 1+ creatures are confused, and have to roll twice and you pick the result on the confusion table. Only short range and concentration+1 duration keep this from being straight better than Confusion in most circumstances. Mystic/Witchwarper.
3 Intellect Fortress: Reaction spell, protects everything within 20' for one round against mind-affecting. They take half damage against damaging spells, and completely negate emotion/fear effects on a save even if there would be partial effect. Not sure it's worth a spell known unless you're getting mind-thrusted or feared regularly. Mystic/Techno.
Theme - Esper:
1st: +1 Cha, Mysticism class skill, -5 DC to all checks to identify creatures/opponents with any psychic or magical abilities. That's...pretty good.
6th: Limited Telepathy 30', or add 30' range if you already have it. That's...pretty good.
12th: Blindsense (hostile thought) 30' (anyone with hostile thoughts, not just aimed at you, so you can see allies in combat, too). That's...pretty good, extremely so if your GM applies it in social situations where people are about to start combat.
18th: Recover resolve 1/day by reviewing a battle plan with a team member, recover 1/day by carrying out such a plan successfully. Not a gimme, not too hard.
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6th Shape Matter - This is my favorite connection power ever. You can craft in the field without any tools or worshop, and it only takes 10 minutes, not 4 hours. (With 5 extra ranks 1 minute, and 10 extra ranks a full round action!!!) You can craft using either UPBs or converting found things at 10% value. Charged items like batteries and magic items need to be charged or wait a day, but serums and other consumables work immediately. This is crazy good.
This is super good, and def won't make it into Society with the current accepted view on what "extra ranks" means :P
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Compare Shape Matter to the Operative’s utility belt exploit and it isn’t that much more powerful. The Mystic can convert UPBs or junk gear into gear out of combat, the Operative's utility belt can convert cash into gear in combat. But utility belt exploit is a higher level ability and has a L bulk and level -2 limitation, so I don’t know if the powers that be will think out of combat only is enough of a limitation on Shape Matter.
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Compare Shape Matter to the Operative’s utility belt exploit and it isn’t that bad. You can convert UPBs or junk gear into gear out of combat, the utility belt can convert cash into gear in combat. But it is higher level ability and has a L bulk and level -2 limitation, so I don’t know if our of combat is enough of a limitation on Shape Matter.
I misread I think and it will probably be fine :D
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This is one of my favorite backmatter articles. I miss my psionics and I've about given up on the Dreamscarred kickstarter. I have a mystic GM baby that I've yet to play at 3rd level, I may just switch him to this connection if it becomes society legal.
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One nice thing about Shape Matter is that it is great support for non-battery using weapons, you can cheaply convert trash loot into projectile rounds and especially cheap but bulky petrol tanks after battles. Plus you can make serums and even spell gems(a 1st level gem is 140, or 1400 worth of junk) to keep going with low level buffs, heals, and utility.
This is one of my favorite backmatter articles. I miss my psionics and I've about given up on the Dreamscarred kickstarter.
I agree, this fills an important gap and is a perfect mix of the new that fits Starfinder perfectly and nicely tweaked Pathfinder psychic magic standard spells.
The Synaptic Sugar drug allows some pretty good stacking for mind-affecting DC boosters.
Synaptic Sugar drug: +2
Espraska Empathic racial trait (via character race or polymorph): +1
Shimmerstone Stave: +1 (charm and emotion only)
So with a cheap drug and a polymorph 2+ spell anyone can add +3 to all mind-affecting spells, and if you pick up the staff you can further boost your Charm Monster or Fear spell DC by 4. And with the debuff options in COM a mystic with an intimidate connection skill can try to initmidate as a move action, Overbearing Stare as a swift, and either Spell Feint or Ego Whip as a standard action to try to put to a -4 or -5 penalty on will saves. Not bad at all before you try to drop a Dominate Person (with attack reroll ability, one hopes) or Hold Monster on someone to take them out. Witchwarpers can do all that except Overbearing Stare, and with a higher chance on intimidate, for a -3 or -4 penalty to saves.
Technomancers don't have many mind-affecting spells (none with the charm/emotion descriptors, I think), but they can also use the Holographic Harrow Deck as a spell cache to spend 1 RP to increase all DCs by +1, boosting them up to +4.
Xenocrat, note that Gadgeteer operatives get the utility belt at level 5. I already have mine!
That’s nicely symmetrical, the operative can get it at level 5/10, the mystic at 6/12.
Drug - Synaptic Sugar: Adds a +2 to mind-affecting spell DCs, will saves, and mind-affecting spell caster checks! When you use a mind-affecting effect, DC 15 will save or be confused for one round. Only 500 credits, this is a great late game for mystics who rely on mind-affecting and can pass the save reliably.
Correction, after refamiliarizing myself with the drug rules this actually does nothing positive for you except the caster level check and is still a big overall negative. By taking the drug you automatically become Weakened on the wisdom poison track, which imposes a -2 to will saves and ability/spell DCs. So the positive effects just cancel out those penalties for some categories. That's probably not intended, so maybe houserule a +4 bonus so that you get a net +2.
I'd thought the biohacker abilities to suppress poison and disease states could make drugs viable, but the penalties are quite severe and you can't have the positive effects while you suppress the poison penalties, plus poison suppression has very limited duration. They all look like terrible tradeoffs.
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It was intended to be a drug that was causing problems in the setting, and peddled by the unscrupulous. Funny story: I wrote up the bad guys that were selling it, then as a side note wrote up synaptic sugar in a comment just for fun. Chris Sims liked the drug enough to put it into a sidebar in the article.
Hmm
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The next update to the cookiemaker sheet will have these options, because they're awesome.