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ServoShell seems like it is stuck in ServoHell.
Overclock Boost targets a minion, and from the Overclock section, it must be a tech minion. When you command that minion, you get to sustain a spell.
There aren't any familiar feats, and your ancestry-provided familiar won't work because it's not a tech minion. Even if there's a general feat to get one, that's level three. At level 1, all you have is Summon Robot.
Unfortunately, Summon Robot is three actions. Overclock Gear is one action, and must be used on the same turn, so Summon Robot can never be overclocked off of. Well, fine. We'll get ourselves a minion the first turn, and we'll cast a spell next turn.
Second turn, cast a spell for two actions (preferably a sustained spell- Animate Rope or Leaden Boots seem to be the only Pathfinder options). We're out of slots, but we'll be sustaining two spells at once, and can use a cantrip alongside it! ... Except no, we've just used all three actions, with none left to sustain our robot. It vanishes.
All right, let's go check our focus spell. Signal Relay- for one action, if the next action is casting a spell targeting you, it affects your minion instead. This is normally just a three-action setup that will result in our minion getting dismissed because we can't sustain it. If we somehow Jailbreak it, we copy the spell to target both ourselves and a minion. We'll have an action to sustain with then, but at first level, we can't use this even if we solved the action issue, because we need one non-cantrip spell to get a minion, one non-cantrip spell to overclock, and one non-cantrip spell to make this worth our trouble... but we only have two non-cantrip spells.
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Summon Robot doesn't work with any of the abilities because it's three actions. The subclass needs to go outside the class to have any of its features work. Even with an archetype, you're spending the first level with two spells, five cantrips, and your only feature being the ability to hide the fact that you're casting. And, I guess, you can use a focus point to spend an action to be able to cast a self-only buff on a familiar if you got one from your ancestry?
I love the great illusion/minion support the subclass has going on! But I think a class that doesn't do anything until you go take an archetype is the sort of thing that playtest feedback is important for fixing.
Illusionary Creature at 2nd rank only takes two actions to cast, but has it's own issues since while it's an excellent spell, a minion that pops as soon as someone hits it is not something you want to tie your class features to. It's a pity, because commanding a familliar while also getting to sustain a spell would be amazing.
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Illusionary Creature at 2nd rank only takes two actions to cast, but has it's own issues since while it's an excellent spell, a minion that pops as soon as someone hits it is not something you want to tie your class features to. It's a pity, because commanding a familliar while also getting to sustain a spell would be amazing.
Illusory Creature can't be targeted for Overclock- it is neither a minion, nor does it have the tech trait (which the Overclock Gear action lists as a requirement). Sure, outwardly it looks like one (that being the point of the spell), but it is not one, nor do you ever Command it. You just sustain the illusion and make it take two actions.
*face palm*
Well that's just great.
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At the moment, ServoShell seems fundamentally just sort of unusable unfortunately. I'm honestly surprised there wasn't an option to acquire a familiar with the Tech trait, just as a nice flavor thing and also because one subclass just straight up doesn't work without such an option. Of course, having access to the robot companions the Mechanic gets would be even better! That would still require an archetype likely, however. I'm hoping this gets rectified eventually, but there was certainly a big oversight with that specific programming language.
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At the moment, ServoShell seems fundamentally just sort of unusable unfortunately. I'm honestly surprised there wasn't an option to acquire a familiar with the Tech trait, just as a nice flavor thing and also because one subclass just straight up doesn't work without such an option. Of course, having access to the robot companions the Mechanic gets would be even better! That would still require an archetype likely, however. I'm hoping this gets rectified eventually, but there was certainly a big oversight with that specific programming language.
Yeah. Part of the reason I named the thread what I did is that even adding a familiar feat or branching out into an archetype doesn't fix level one.
There might be a way to get a tech familiar or pet via the Pet feat in the Core book (or the Tech book this class comes in), but that will still require you to invest an ancestry feat to play this class option.
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There might be a way to get a tech familiar or pet via the Pet feat in the Core book (or the Tech book this class comes in), but that will still require you to invest an ancestry feat to play this class option.
I mean, that's still level 3 for most characters. I'm certainly not playing Starfinder to play a human.
Android might be able to get a tech construct familiar (with 0-1 useable other features), you never know.