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This is for Starfinder Society.
I've played a GM baby on level 2, trying out witchwarper for the first time. This was a mistake, because I should have tried the class out on level 1 when I could still rebuild. A mnemonic editor is level 3, and won't let me wipe out the first level of choices.
Now I'm stuck with this character, and I want your advice... How do I make them at all relevant in society play? They have so few skills, and their special abilities use up their skill slots. What can I do to make a witchwarper at least a great specialist? Failing that, is there a decent multiclass that I could build off 2 levels of witchwarper plus something else? What am I missing?
Part of my problem here is that I have some interesting psychic boons from an AP here that I want to make good use of, so I can't abandon the character entirely. So I want to make her work, but this character's personality and character concept are still vague to me. Usually, a character idea 'snaps' into place and I know who this person is, what they want, and I can then roleplay them to the hilt.
I know that she came from Asanatown on the Sun, and saw a coup attempt. I know she's interested in psychic phenomenon, and being an investigator (especially tough with the lack of skills.)
Can you help me find her hook and niche?
Hmm
If you want to make a skills based character, I suggest multiclassing into operative; 10+Int Ranks per level is amazing.
For making a spellcaster a specialist, I usually pick 1-2 schools of magic to focus on, possible Divination, Enchantment or Illusion to go with the Psychic Theme.
Speaking of Psychic, have you considered archetypes? the Phrenic Adept is a psychic Themed archetype that might work for your concept. I believe there are also a few investigator style archetypes that might help flesh out the mechanical side of the character.
The big problem here is that spellcasters in Starfinder are not great, and the Witchwarper is IMO, the worst caster(I have one of each in SFS)
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I've loved mystics, and I think Dani's concept might have been better on a mystic empath. They get 6 skill points per level, and have so many interesting abilities that are not dependent on their spell slots. Even two more skill points would have made a huge difference.
I'm wondering with those stats if I should just multiclass envoy. But I'm hoping someone could give me tips to salvage what I have. Actually, I should double check the Starfinder Society guide and see if it is possible to purchase a mnemonic editor with fame.
The other thought that I had -- and this may sound dumb -- is that maybe I should double down on the whole GM baby thing and level her to level 5, when I could increase her attributes and maybe find some higher level witchwarpery things to do. Maybe witchwarpers would be more effective / interesting at higher level play.
What do you do with your low level witchwarper?
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Oh, wait. I am SAVED! You can purchase a mnemonic editor with fame, and it wipes out two levels of decisions. I can completely wipe and rewrite Dani. Alright... now, what do I build her as? I would really like to play with the psychic thing with this character. Empath mystic could be good, or if I want to do a non-spell caster, an envoy could be fun. I should also look at just how overwhelming a choice phrenic adept is... My main issue with the archetype is that it wipes out class choices, but I've already played most of my favorite classes, so it would be like its own thing...
Suggestions of what to do with this precious rebuild?
Hmm
PS I just realized that the core rulebook mnemonic editor is even more frustrating, since it is Level Five, and would mean that you would never be able to wipe out bad first level choices.
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Okay, so is this viable? Wise?
In exchange for one of my spells at top level, I gain Phrenic Awakening:
You gain limited telepathy, as per the lashunta racial trait (see page 48). If your race already grants you limited telepathy (such as with the lashunta and shirren races), you instead increase the range of your limited telepathy by 60 feet. You can also select two additional languages to act as languages that you can use only to communicate telepathically with creatures that know the language. If you learn the full version of a language in which you can only communicate telepathically through other means (such as investing ranks in the Culture skill), you can select a new language to be able to communicate telepathically in at the same time. Additionally, you no longer need to meet the minimum Charisma requirement of the feat Minor Psychic Power or of any feat that has Minor Psychic Power as a prerequisite.
Increasing the range of the telepathy would be kind of cool. I am much less excited by minor psychic power which really I would have from being a mystic and a lashunta... Is increasing the range of limited telepathy worth a spell at top level? Maybe not. But it is kind of nifty. And when you combine it with my Esper theme, at 6th level the limited telepathy would be 90 feet, which easily covers most battle maps. And given that I have the Psychic Insight feat that gives an insight bonus on all the social skills with anyone that I communicate with telepathically, having range on this might be useful.
Still, I would be losing a spells on a spell caster. Ouch!
At fourth level, in exchange for delaying my top level connection spell, I gain Phrenic Defense. So this means giving up Zone of Truth at 4th level and Clairvoyance / Clairaudience at 7th. On the other hand, both those spells might be good candidates for spell gems... And both are normal mystic spells.
Your psychic powers give you additional defenses against mental attacks. The first time you fail a saving throw against a spell or effect with the emotion, fear, mind-affecting, or pain descriptor (see page 269), you can spend 1 Resolve Point as a reaction to immediately reroll the failed saving throw. Even if the second saving throw fails, your stronger defenses might reduce the effect of the spell or ability. If the spell or ability deals damage, reduce the damage done by an amount equal to your class level. If the spell or ability has a duration of 2 rounds or longer, reduce its duration by half.
I think this one is more than a fair trade -- a situational spell vs rerolls on mind affecting and pain? Yes please!
At sixth level, the trade is more problematic. I’d give up an always on Emotion Sense for a Phrenic Sense that requires a resolve point to activate.
You gain the power to sense mental abilities and the creatures who have them. As a standard action, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to activate your phrenic senses. This acts as the spell arcane sight, except you see only magic sources with the emotion, fear, mind-affecting, or pain descriptor. If you succeed at a Mysticism check to determine a source's school of magic, you also learn which of these descriptors apply to it. If you concentrate on a specific creature within 120 feet of you as a standard action to determine whether it has any spellcasting or spell-like abilities (see arcane sight on page 340), you learn only that it does if at least one of those abilities has one of these descriptors, and you learn the caster level of only the most powerful of these abilities. While your phrenic senses are active, you also gain blindsense (emotion) with a range of 30 feet. See page 262 for more details about blindsense.
So... When it is active, I would also have emotionsense plus a limited form of arcane sight. But it would not always be active. The emotion sense would come back at 9th level -- which is kind of late for Starfinder Society.
At ninth level, in exchange for a feat I’d get a spell-like ability:
Your psychic abilities have grown strong enough to allow you to duplicate the effects of a few specific spells. Once per day, you can cast a spell from the following list as a spell-like ability: charm monster, clairaudience/clairvoyance, and psychokinetic strangulation. At 13th level, you can use this ability twice per day, and at 17th level, you can use this ability three times per day. The save DC of these spells is equal to 10 + the spell level + your key ability score modifier
This one isn’t so bad. Charm Monster is fairly useful.
So the big question is... would the trade be worth it? I'm not looking at anything higher, because play above 9th level in Starfinder Society is rare anyway.
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I guess what it comes down to is this... Is it worth trading off spell versatility for 30 feet more of limited telepathy and the Phrenic Defense's save rerolls and reduced damage -- considering that mystics already have kickass will saves? Is it worth trading an always on emotion sense for a resolve point based arcane sight + emotion sense that I would have to activate? Perhaps... Invisible / hidden enemies aren't that common in adventures for extended periods of time, and the phrenic sense might detect undead and constructs who resist mind-affecting spells.
This is actually an interesting choice to consider.
Hmm
OK. To help anyone else reading this and getting confused. The OP is an alias of Hmm.
Also,
They have so few skills, and their special abilities use up their skill slots.
I'm fairly certain this should say 'spell slots'. The special abilities of a Witchwarper consume the characters spell slots in order to use them.
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Now, with that out of the way. It appears that the trouble of being locked in to Witchwarper is resolved for the character in question. Which is good. It does still leave the question open of how to build/play a Witchwarper character, but more as a whiteroom/theorycrafting question rather than a problem with an actual character.
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As for the archetype question:
Generally I find that the archetypes are slightly less powerful than the abilities that they replace. So they are useful for creating a hybrid character than would be difficult to create otherwise - at a cost of overall character power.
So if a main point of the character is to be throwing around mental abilities, then take the archetype for the role-playing.
The other thing I have noticed about archetypes is that they are a lot less useful when doubling up on things that the base class could already do. I noticed this when theorycrafting a Technomancer with Starfinder Data Jockey archetype. It just felt that the archetype was doing nothing other than costing abilities from the Technomancer class.
So combining a spellcasting class (Mystic) with a spellcasting archetype may not be so useful.
As an alternative, maybe use feats like Extended telepathy, Helpful telepathy, and the Psychic Power line in order to get the feel and mechanics of the character similar to what the Phrenic Adept archetype would give.
Part of my problem here is that I have some interesting psychic boons from an AP here that I want to make good use of
I know that she came from Asanatown on the Sun, and saw a coup attempt. I know she's interested in psychic phenomenon, and being an investigator
Combining Envoy and Phrenic Adept is looking good for this. Massive amount of skills. Especially good at a lot of the skills that would be of use to an investigator.
The Phrenic Adept archetype would take out most of the Envoy Improvisations. You would get one at 1st level, but then none until 8 and 10. But then you would instead be getting the Psychic abilities and eventually minor spellcasting.
A fun Witchwarper character would be one that is slowly going insane. All the alternate realities are driving you mad, yet you continue to add levels to Witchwarper taking over any other class/archetypes as you slowly go down the rabbit hole....
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OK. To help anyone else reading this and getting confused. The OP is an alias of Hmm.
Also,
They have so few skills, and their special abilities use up their skill slots.I'm fairly certain this should say 'spell slots'. The special abilities of a Witchwarper consume the characters spell slots in order to use them.
Good catch on both those things! Thank you for clarifying things for our readers!
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As an alternative, maybe use feats like Extended telepathy, Helpful telepathy, and the Psychic Power line in order to get the feel and mechanics of the character similar to what the Phrenic Adept archetype would give.
Oh my goodness, thank you for finding those feats!
You've just solidified my choice of Phrenic Adept -- even though that might not have been your intention.
Source Pact Worlds pg. 191
You have expanded your latent telepathic powers.
Prerequisites: Limited telepathy racial trait.
Benefit: Increase the range of your limited telepathy by 30 feet.
Special: If you are a phrenic adept or have the Major Psychic Power feat and you also have Extended Telepathy, you can try to communicate telepathically with creatures you don’t share a common language with, as long as the creature understands one or more languages. This requires a full action to initiate and a successful Mysticism check (DC = 15 + 1-1/2 × the creature’s CR). On a failed check, you can’t try to communicate telepathically with that creature again for 24 hours.
This opens up telepathy with EVERYONE who has a language, even if you don't share a language in common. Yes, I have to make a Mysticism check, but this character will be great at Mysticism. For Starfinder Society, this will be huge! I wonder if there are any other feats that are especially helpful for Phrenic Adepts?
Hmm
EDIT: Nothing I can find right now!
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A fun Witchwarper character would be one that is slowly going insane. All the alternate realities are driving you mad, yet you continue to add levels to Witchwarper taking over any other class/archetypes as you slowly go down the rabbit hole....
That would be a fun concept, but I already have one character who is currently a mental patient.
Nananana BAT ELF!
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As an alternative, maybe use feats like Extended telepathy, Helpful telepathy, and the Psychic Power line in order to get the feel and mechanics of the character similar to what the Phrenic Adept archetype would give.Oh my goodness, thank you for finding those feats!
You've just solidified my choice of Phrenic Adept -- even though that might not have been your intention.
Happy to help. In any fashion.
I wonder if there are any other feats that are especially helpful for Phrenic Adepts?
Hmm
EDIT: Nothing I can find right now!
Scanning...
Soothing Telepathy Somewhat similar to the 4th level Phrenic Adept ability. But it should stack with it. And Soothing Telepathy can help your allies too.
Telepathic Scream I'm not terribly impressed with this. I guess it would let you get past language barriers when doing intimidate. If you happen to be using intimidate.
Telepathic Spy For listening in on other telepathic communications. SFS has special rules for this one, but it still seems viable.
Intuit Relationships Not really referencing telepathy. But for an investigator character it could be cool. I also think that using the telepathy you could do it at range - psychic eavesdropping. Not sure if that would fly in SFS though.
Psychic Insight A nice boost to investigation skills when using telepathy.
Psychic Sense Somewhat similar to the 6th level Phrenic Adept ability Phrenic Senses - but this one is always on.