|
I got another idea for an awesome character stymied by my indecisiveness: the base concept is she's a living elebrian who believes that Eox is stagnating as a culture because the undead don't evolve and are so resistant to change, so she decides to start studying to create gene therapies to help other elebrians like her and establish a more stable living population on other worlds so they don't eventually end up extinct except for the necrovites and other undead, an evolutionary dead-end.
Problem is, there's two ways that both seem equally cool to go about that: the biohacker, or a mystic with the geneturge connection. On first glance, Studious Biohacker seems the obvious choice, as elebrians have a bonus to INT and a penalty to WIS, but I also like geneturge's cool powers and feel like what's the point of having that big brain if you don't get limited telepathy with it?
What do you folks think would be cooler/more interesting. She's going to be a CG follower of Oras either way.
I feel like the geneturge and their chaotic mutations better fit the alignment and worship of Oras.
I would try out the Geneturge with the Theme Priest, also consider Feat Divine Blessing (Oras) for more versatility.
Overall Mystic feels right as well, it even has life science as a class skill! And the mystic cure spell guarantees you will always be valuable for combat situations.
I would happily trade away all but the first three geneturge connection powers. And almost all the bonus spells, alas.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Both? Both.
The level 1 Geneturge power is so good, especially the brain augmentation, that it's worth taking a level in for plenty of Biohacker builds. I took a level for my Exocortex mechanic just to be able to always take 10 on Computers checks. This is a viable tactic for a Geneturge/Biohacker as well. Imagine being able to Take 10 on Medicine and always be able to crack the high DC on Medicine checks to add Int to Treat Deadly Wounds healing.
|
|
So which is the dip? I've kind of developed an aversion to dipping because while it's undeniably useful, I feel like it breaks character for the character, if that makes any sense. Why would you start out as a Soldier and then almost immediately after the story starts switch gears to learn magic? Or interrupt what you've supposedly spent your entire backstory training for to take a detour into the basic training of another career? And it also locks you out of the capstone for your class, which in the case of the Mystic is IMMORTALITY.
Biohacker is a very dipable class. You get a lot for that one level
|
|
So would it be better to build the first level character as a Biohacker and then go full Geneturge Mystic? Or one level of Mystic, multiclass once I hit level 2 and immediately go back to Geneturge for 3rd level?
How do I rationalize that in terms of narrative, especially if I'm doing this in the opening of an AP...like, say, The Threefold Conspiracy, which has a bit of a cold-open compared to other APs?
So would it be better to build the first level character as a Biohacker and then go full Geneturge Mystic? Or one level of Mystic, multiclass once I hit level 2 and immediately go back to Geneturge for 3rd level?
How do I rationalize that in terms of narrative, especially if I'm doing this in the opening of an AP...like, say, The Threefold Conspiracy, which has a bit of a cold-open compared to other APs?
Naratively you're going so deep into the science of genetics you pop out into the magic of genetics. Which given starfinders magitech is probably a fairly common occupational hazard of biohackers. Or maybe you're a mystic of Yaraesa studying the world through science to better understand it and make use of those discoveries. maybe you used a little too much of your own product and had a hippy vision quest a la Albert Hoffman discovering LSD. (spirituality in a bottle? Try it yesterday!)
Perhaps the stress of war pushes you so much to try to solve it with science, but the whole rationale for so much death and destruction pushes you to seek something with deeper meaning behind it.
Starfinder mystic spell progression is so slow already i wouldn't dip more than the 1 level. I don't see a theorum worth a new spell known or new spell level.
My multiclass geneturge is a verthani God Avatar of Yaraesa who abandoned her caste duties to study computer science because of a data plague. She's also from the future. Listen, Starfinder Society goes some weird places.
In game terms she started as a Roboticist-themed Geneturge and then went all in on Exocortex Mechanic; her study of organic brain interaction with AI has made her an exceptional hacker; she's so good that she literally hacks (and pilots ships) in her sleep.
Having a few cantrips and 1st level spells is helpful, but that 1st level Geneturge power is nigh game breaking.
Which system do you find game breaking for the Geneturge ability? Brain? You’re just a bad operative.