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I've got one I'm preparing for the next time someone holds a recruitment for The Threefold Conspiracy AP, drawing inspiration from the new He-Man shows interpretation of Orko:
She's a vesk who comes from a long line of venomthought vesk that served as psychic special ops for the Veskarium with distinction, which got her enrolled in some of the best psychic training programs the military could offer. She was an almost immediate failure.
While her older and younger siblings showed great prowess and precision with their magic, becoming mystics and technomancers, hers seemed almost "broken," with spells that produced wildly different effects than she intended to cast, sudden shifts and disruptions in the reality around her as she'd cast, and just generalized magical mayhem that resulted in her failing in her training and becoming regarded by her family and peers as an embarrassment.
She quickly developed a habit of acting the fool and deflecting situations with humor to try and get people to like her despite her difficulties with magic, but is haunted by something she was asked once: "Do you play the clown because you want to make people laugh, or because you want people to think that you are funny?" Frustrated and bitter, she dropped out of the Academy and declared she was leaving for the Pact Worlds, hoping one of the magical schools there could assist in "fixing" her broken magic, or at least not be surrounded by reminders of not being able to live up to the expectations that were set up for her before her egg was even laid...
"Witchwapers"... I admit I thought of Cardi B.
I played a Witchwarper in the initial playtest, and did well with it as a sort of battlefield controller, but the class doesn't do a lot for me in the official rules.
In the playtest, I played an elf witchwarper in one of the APs set on Castrovel, which was fun (especially with a Lashunta in the party). Being able to Life Bubble and Fog Cloud turned out to be clutch against that particular AP's dangers.
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I've got a lvl 8 Witchwarper in Org Play, who went all in on Cha, because why wouldn't you, and also to pump up my Bluff modifier. Then, with Improved Feint and Spell Feint to give enemies a penalty to saves, and you're a debuffing machine. Other casters are getting their bread-and-butter spells like Space Fireball or Space Lighting Bolt, and I'm throwing out Fear III and Id Insinuation. For extra softening up, or for salt-in-the-wounds, I took Frightening Display .
I'm having fun being a debuffer/controller.
...until we fight something immune to mind-effecting stuff, anyways :D
Feint leaves them flat footed against you untill end of next turn. Targeting sense motive or CR.
Demoralize leaves them shaken for 1, maybe more rounds. Targeting Intimidate or CR.
Flat footed makes them easier to hit for you, or with the feat easier to spell. Shaken makes them hit you less.
I would guess that being the main reason, allowing them to get their hit or spell working more often, which may be a better penalty then a -2 to hit.
Also, I think Intimidate is a more used skill on your combat looking enemies, so feint would likely have a lower CR.
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Is there a specific reason you went with spell feint over demoralize?
Chiefly, it's because I own the COM (that Spell Feint is from) but not the AP chapter that Improved Demoralize is from, and it's an Org Play character :D
Other than that, as you say, I think Feint affects a larger pool than Demoralize. I don't think Demoralize is specifically called out as a mind-affecting, fear, effect in the Intimidate rules, but that's the way most GMs rule it, I've found. Feint (arguably) works against, say, intelligent undead, whereas Demoralize wouldn't.
I also like the flexibility the Feint allows: Spell Feint lets you choose between making it flat-footed or taking the -1 to Saves. Further, in another level I can pick up Greater Feint which, I think, imposes the Flat-Footed condition to everyone, even if I specifically choose the -1 Saves rider, instead. Like Wesrolter pointed out, sometimes it's better to have one, or the other.
And, lastly - taking Frightful Display gives me a way to potentially Demoralize as a Reaction anyways, should I need to :D In a perfect world, combat round 1 is like a lvl 0 or 1 spell that the target fails against, proccing Frightening Display, letting me Demoralize; and then round two is Spell Feint, and then a big nasty spell at a stacking -3 to saves :D
Huh... I am starting to consider a support Witchwarper... Sounds interesting and a little fun. SO far I have played a Mystic (Team cleric), Vanguard and a Weapons Mechanic (Her personality makes her fun. Wall climbing Halfling with the biggest gun in the collection.)
Never really considered the Warper as the Vanguard was in the same book and I wanted something more combat based at the time...
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Nobody is immune to shaken (unless there's a unique ability somewhere), and shaken does not have the mind-affecting or fear descriptors - if the GM says otherwise, he's house-ruling, and that's not allowed in org play.
Distributing the shaken condition in the battlefield is the primary action of my level 2 witchwarper, before he moves up to spells or augments to debuff enemies.
Spell feint is on the horizon as well.
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Nobody is immune to shaken (unless there's a unique ability somewhere), and shaken does not have the mind-affecting or fear descriptors - if the GM says otherwise, he's house-ruling, and that's not allowed in org play.
Yeah, I've seen the threads :D I agree, the shaken, frightened, and panicked conditions are, RAW, not Fear or Mind-Affecting. Lots of GMs, especially those who are still in PF mindsets, have a hard time with this at the table, though. At the end of the day, Feinting causes fewer rules debates in Org Play, lol.
Huh... I am starting to consider a support Witchwarper
Not gonna lie, it takes a bit for my build to come online: Improved Feint and Spell Feint are the foundation or the build. And, I can count the number of times I've used Infinite Worlds on one hand (and the number of times it's materially impacted a battle on one finger.) But as a support character, I've had fun anyways!
And - we haven't even talked about Paradigm Shifts, yet! As a Support character, I am basically always using my Reaction, every round, to do something. I run out of Reactions and RP before I run out of situations to spend RP and Reactions on :D It helps me to stay engaged with combat, since even when it's not my turn having a ton of Reaction options rewards me for paying attention to what other actions are being taken.
Yep:
Shaken
Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 277
You take a –2 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks while you have the shaken condition.
And if you grab a Grim Trophies armor upgrade: While wearing armor with grim trophies, if you successfully cause a foe to be shaken, the foe applies the –2 penalty from that condition to weapon damage rolls in addition to the other rolls it normally applies to.
Spell Feint
Source Character Operations Manual pg. 118
When you succeed at a feint combat maneuver, instead of the normal effects, your opponent takes a –1 penalty to saving throws against the next spell you cast before the end of your next turn.
One round lowering the target's saving throw, next round you cast your spell. I recommend Grease - when it lands, it's a day wrecker.
Unless you target the enemy weapon maybe?
Only weapons - prone enemies will make the ranged people on your party toss you out the air lock.
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Also daze, fatigue, fear - actually not a lot of debuffing options (baleful polymorph isn't org legal, unfortunately).
Lesser confusion... other than that, there's only utility or damage spells for 1st level.
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My Witchwarper in OrgPlay is a 'shorter' Human
Due to story developments, one of her family members developed an ailment that required expensive biotech to compensate for, so she broke free of the family contract and took a custodial contract with folks who turned out to be from the First World for a period of time.
This changed her mentality a little, her perspective, and gave her the capability to warp reality.
When she ended her term of service with the fey of the First World and returned home, she found out that they'd been helped out of their contractual debt-load by the Starfinder Society.
J. Donohue, aka 'Wageslave' doesn't smile very often. In fact, the wider her smile, the more PISSED OFF she is.
She can fit into very tight spaces due to that otherworldly 'internship'
For example, when she Punctures the Veil, she intones an offer to 'someone unseen' and hordes of tiny sprites come streaming out of Someplace Else and start shanking the target of the spell.
When she really starts smiling, that is the manifestation of her casting Fear as her smile seems to become Impossibly Large and Toothy.
Her broom
Despite the apparent doom and gloom that one might expect from such a character, she's generally a cheerful (if unsmiling) custodian that just *loves* to clean things up
One of her more difficult encounters was being in a dirty seedy bar and fidgeting and twitching to NOT start cleaning the place while the team was undercover.
:>
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I have a contemplative witchwarper. With the concept "I can achieve any reality I can imagine. And with a brain this big, you would be surprised what I can imagine."
Beyond that there isn't anything hugely special about the build (they are only level 1.) Basically a party face, benefiting from charming veneer, with shifting surge for support and ectoplasmic blast for attack.