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This programming language was originally developed by a thrifty university student building their own coffee-serving minibot. This code is primarily used with an operating system that maximizes compatibility by converting all system checks between different proprietary software while routing driver keys to simulated virtual drones, which makes sure parts from different manufacturers (and even other worlds) will work with the same minibot. The increase in sales for individual components and nonprofit status of the freeware have kept minibot companies from attempting to outlaw the software, and some companies have even adopted the controversial practice of anonymously leaking drivers on the infosphere.
Oh boy. This is the one I’ve been looking forward to. First though, this subclass description is nonsense. It’s a little blurb about the history of the programming language, but doesn’t actually tell you anything about what it does. The bolded part is the actual language description, and it’s just a litany of buzzwords that doesn’t have anything to do with anything. Anyway.
It’s the pet subclass! Except no. It’s not. It’s the summoning subclass. This. This presents problems. ServoShell and Viper both run into the problem that their Overclock targets are limited resources. Viper has to purchase spell gems or chips to overclock, and those are consumables or limited use. ServoShell has to burn a spell slot (or a spell gem) to even have something to Overclock. More than any other subclass, ServoShell really drives home the feeling that the devs just don’t want you to use your core class features. I’m not saying that they don’t, but man does it feel like they don’t. The hoops you have to jump through to get this subclass moving. Anyway.
Each subclass has several features: a given spell line, focus spells, a level 1 spellshape feat, an Overclock Boost, and an additional Jailbreak feature for their given spellshape feat. That’s. Honestly a lot. Almost all of it does revolve around your minion(s), so at least this subclass understood the assignment.
So, Spell Cache, the list of always available given spells. We’ve got:
- Summon Robot: Summons a minion creature with the Tech trait.
- Illusory Creature: Summons an illusory creature you can control like a minion. But! It’s not a minion.
- Discharge: De-engergize a tech item, or Glitch a tech creature.
- Speak With Computers: Speak with computer spirits. Like Speak With Animals.
- Control Machine: Literally Dominate, but only for tech creatures and tech hazards.
- Dominate: Take control of a creature until daily prep. Can’t force them to harm themselves.
- Wall of Steel: Create a 120ft x 20ft wall of steel.
- Phantasmal Fleet: Summon an illusory starfleet to damage enemies. And/or allies. YMMV.
- Telekinetic Tantrum: Do a psychic knockback, TK throw, or TK slam each round up to a minute in a BIG area.
Almost an A++ list. Telekinetic Tantrum doesn’t fit the theme, and Dominate feels redundant with Control Machine on there. Otherwise, excellent selection. Rank 1 is your bread and butter summon, and everything else is tech or summon focused, often both. Except for Dominate and TK Tantrum. Illusory Creature I give a pass to because you can easily flavor it as a hologram, and you’re set.
Next, Focus spells:
- Signal Relay: If you would cast a spell that would only effect you, effect your minion instead.
-- Jailbreak: Effect you and the minion.
This is the only one I’m going to look at for now, because it’s the only one you get for sure. The other two Focus Spells for ServoShell are for ServoShell, but are locked behind feats.
ServoShell’s only guaranteed spell is a summon spell, so not one you could use this spellshape on. Therefore, the player must pick a spell that it can be used on to get any use out of this. This is not actually guaranteed, as the Arcane spell list only has a couple of low level buff spells. This is a great spellshape on paper, but I think in practice, it will be far too easy to accidentally prevent yourself from using it. Especially for newer players who are likely to already be overwhelmed by prepared casters and all of their nonsense.
Moving on to the Given Spellshape Feat. ServoShell gets an initial spellshape of:
- Incognito Spell: Add the Subtle trait to your spell, so as to pretend you’re not casting the spell.
-- Jailbreak: Demoralize with Arcana as an added effect.
Personal preference, I hate this. Some people might play in a campaign where this matters, but I never have. The Jailbreak is fun, but the whole Subtle trait feels so pointless. And more to the point, has nothing to do with the subclass.
Finally, the pièce de résistance, the Overclock Boost, the core of the subclass. It does only one thing:
- When you Command an Overclocked minion, you can sustain another spell for free.
This is. Lackluster. It’s a good way to save on action economy, but is predicated on having and using sustain spells at the same time that you have a minion that is Overclocked. Now, to be fair, several of the Spell Cache spells are sustain spells. But. The action economy to get to the point where this even matters is atrocious.
Now, interestingly enough, the ability says “Command”, not “Sustain”. Per the Minion trait description in PC1, you Command a companion and Sustain a minion. Perhaps the devs were, or are, considering giving ServoShell a companion. Alas, there’s no sign of it in the playtest, so this is just irrelevant trivia.
Moving on, at level 3 you get Jailbreak, and that comes with ServoShell’s super special Jailbreak bonus for Incognito Spell.
- FORTRUN Jailbreak: Cast the Jailbroken spellshaped spell from a minion you control.
This is awesome. This is a great effect, as it considers the origin point for the spell to be the minion, which greatly increases your range and line of sight/effect options. Too bad it’s attached to Incognito Spell, and not just a spellshape of its own. And also, you’ll never be able to use it.
Okay, so that’s your guaranteed kit. As with all of the subclasses, ServoShell only has one feat and its two focus spells specific to it down the line.
- lvl4 - Spell Protection Protocol: You or an ally gain an aura that gives a status bonus to saves versus spells and magic effects. It’s a larger bonus if they’re your spells or magic effects that are being saved against. You can also sustain it for up to 3 rounds.
This is the same feat as FORTRUN. The two subclasses share it, and I kind of hate it for ServoShell. It feels rushed, as this is clearly a FORTRUN feat that does work with ServoShell, but isn’t really ServoShell flavored. The fact that you can sustain this one action ability more feels like a tacked on excuse to give you a thing to sustain for free with your Overclocked minion. This does not feel like an ability designed for this subclass. But it does work, if you’ve happened to pick up AOE spells and feel like dropping them on your minion. Which, to be clear, is a bad idea since your minion is always going to be lower level than you.
- lvl6 - Advanced Magic Hack: Rank3 Hardlight Simulacrum: Summon a non-tech summon as a hologram, giving it the Tech trait and other hologram/construct things.
-- Jailbreak: Overclock the summoned minion.
This is, frankly, a mandatory feat for this subclass as it is presented in the playtest. Or it would be, except that you have to have an Overclocked minion in order to Jailbreak anything, so really all this is letting you do is trade your current Overclocked minion for a different Overclocked minion. Which is a waste of a minion. So the Jailbreak is bogus, but the base spellshape is still really good. It’s a free action spellshape that lets you use all of the other Summon spells and Overclock what you summon. This lets you summon Animals, Constructs, Dragons, Elementals, Undead, and other summons that have been lost to the premaster.
- lvl10 - Greater Magic Hack: Rank5 Overclock Minion: Your minion becomes Hasted.
A++. No notes.
There are other feats, and of course spells, that fit the theme, but this is everything Technomancer has specifically for ServoShell. Incognito Spell is baffling, SPP feels tacked on, and there are a couple of spells that don’t fit, but otherwise very on point for the Summoner theme. Not so much the subclass description, but idk what that’s even about. Doesn’t seem to have anything to do with anything.
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Alright, so. How does it play?
Frankly, it doesn’t. At level 1, your focus spell is useless unless you have a minion, Incognito is pointless, unless you’re specifically in a campaign where it matters, and you only have two spell slots. So, until you hit a big combat, you’re just Generic Arcane Spellcaster #3, throwing around cantrips and probably shooting a gun. Once you get to the big combat, round 1 is Summon Robot. The summoned robot then immediately gets its two actions. Round 2 starts with casting Signal Relay, then using Overclock Gear (which causes Signal Relay to do nothing), and finally Sustaining your robot, giving it its two actions. Round 3, you’ll cast a Sustain spell and Sustain your robot. Round 4 and on, you’ll just be Sustaining your robot, which sustains your other sustain spell, and casting cantrips. Or moving and shooting. But the important part is that it took you 3 rounds of setup to get a robot summon and a spell you can sustain for free.
Alternatively, if you don’t have a Sustain spell to cast, you can just. Not Overclock your minion. Go on Sustaining your bot and just casting your cantrips from round 2 on. Maybe use your second spell slot.
Level 1 kind of sucks for this subclass. You don’t really get to do your thing at all. Importantly, the only cantrips with sustain are non-combat spells. And while they can be used in combat, that’s going to be a rare exception. They aren’t buff or summon spells that you for sure want to keep up. Which means you’re more than likely using both spell slots in one combat to get any benefit out of Overclocking your minion. Or, you just have two combats per day where you even have a minion. Which functionally means that you don’t get to do anything with your subclass features at this level. That sucks. A lot.
At level 3, Jailbreak comes online and you have five spell slots. Which means almost nothing. It still takes two full rounds and a spell slot to summon and Overclock a minion. Round 3 you can Jailbreak a spellshape into a spell and sustain your minion. But. If you use a spell slot spell, then you are reducing the amount of times you can have a minion. You can use a cantrip, but that’s pretty limited. Maybe you’ve got some spell gems or chips you can use, but that’ll get expensive. And regardless of what spell you use, unless it was a 1 action spell, you can’t Overclock your minion again. It’s really just one-and-done, unless it’s a really long combat.
And this is kind of the point where it sets in that this subclass is largely unplayable on its own. Maybe you can multiclass into Mechanic to get a drone, but that’s speculation since we don’t have rules for the Mechanic Archetype yet. It takes so many actions to set up Overclock on a summoned minion that Jailbreak is pretty much off the table except for long fights. And if you’re saving your spell slots for Summon Robot, then you’re not casting any spells besides your cantrips. So then, with no minion, you’re just playing a generic arcane spellcaster without class features. Well. You still have your Spell Cache, which is pretty cool. But that’s just versatility in how you use your spell slots. There isn’t anything unique about those spells.
At level 4, you have a delightful choice of SPP or Delete Root Access. SPP is not terrible to have, but it takes a lot of setup to get any use out of it. DRA is a great way to gain a minion out of an enemy, though only if you’re fighting enemies 3 or more levels below your own. I hate Delete Root Access as a feat. It’s literally “cast Delete to cast this spell”. It’s not a spellshape, it’s a spell overwrite. It should just be a whole different spell.
At level 6, you’ve got choices. Advanced Magic Hack will let you overclock from all kinds of summon minions. Booming Bootloader damages and frightens (when Jailbroken) enemies around a minion when you summon them. Hardlight Illusion makes it harder for enemies to disbelieve your illusions, and you for sure have some illusion spells in your Spell Cache. Importantly, none of these really effect your play experience. They do not make it easier to Overclock, and definitely do not make it easier to Jailbreak. They just make summoning more versatile.
At level 8 there isn’t anything for ServoShell specifically, but you might consider picking up Cross Platform Application to get the Rank 1 focus spell from another subclass to give you a focus spell spellshape that doesn’t revolve around minions.
At 10 you can take Greater Magic Hack to get Overclock minion to 1 action haste your minions. Which is good! But, again, doesn’t solve any of the problems or fix your action loops. By this level, you do have plenty of spell slots, but spending a turn to summon a much lower level minion doesn’t feel great. You’re either burning your highest level spells to summon a minion half your level, or burning lower ones to summon even lower level minions.
Alternatively, instead of Greater Magic Hack, you could pick up Compressed Casting to help with the action economy of summoning things, but you can’t use it on your two highest rank slots. So, at level 10, you can use it on a rank 3 Summon Robot to summon a level 2 minion for 2 actions. Feels bad, man.
That’s pretty much it. There isn’t ever anything to help this subclass work. There’s nothing after level 10 specifically for ServoShell, or even tangential to it. The subclass just doesn’t function in anything other than 4 or more round fights. And that’s assuming your much lower level summoned minion survives long enough to be useful.
So. Fixes. It doesn’t actually need a lot! First and most importantly, ditch Incognito Spell and replace it with a Druid style Robot Companion feat. This fixes just about everything. With a companion, summoning becomes a choice rather than a necessary tax to do your thing. Alternatively, give them a familiar, and change the Overclock requirement to “a familiar with the tech trait.”
Change the Overclock benefit. Make the current one a level 4 ServoShell only feat, “While your companion is overclocked: when you Command it, you may also sustain a spell as a free action.” In its place, make overclocking a focus cantrip that boosts your companion’s saves or attacks. Or maybe just let you cast spells from it.
As with all the other subclasses, I think this needs a feat at 14, 16, or 18. That all subclass support ends at level 10 just. Feels bad.
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Great analysis. I agree that as written the core features of this subclass don't seem to work together right, especially at the lowest levels (This is generally a problem with technomancer as a whole, but particularly bad here). My own thoughts regarding the subclass largely echo yours, but to reinforce how much of a problem this design is, I've highlighted the biggest pain points.
Fundamental issues as I see them:
- When doing the thing the class seems to want you to (summoning minions), you don't have actions left over to apply most spell shapes or overlock. Sustaining spells or Commanding minions similarly "gums up" your action economy on turns after the one where you've cast a summon, leaving you unable to indulge in all the neat spellshapes available unless you want to miss out on casting a 2-action spell.
- The Overclock Boost does nothing since you don't have access to minions that you would Command rather than Sustain. This is (mostly) a dead feature as written without dips elsewhere. However even with a robot companion, activating Overclock Boost and getting value out of it requires way too much jumping through hoops.
- Neither Incognito Spell nor Signal Relay make much sense as first level features, with the first being too niche while the second isn't practical due to your limited access to tech minions. I also question how relevant casting buffs on minions is over casting them on your martial allies. Only spells that are actually locked as self-targeted seem like good candidates for this focus spell, and even that is probably highly dependent on the specific spell.
Parts I like:
- The higher level subclass focus spells are *absolutely* what I want out of a minion-focused character. Enhancing your minions to make them significantly more effective is enticing.
- Good "tech interaction" spell list. Discharge, speak with computers, control machine and wall of steel are very appropriate and should be useful. The rest of the list largely enables the core concept. Very satisfied with this one.
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As it currently is written, this subclass looks pretty neat at higher levels where you have flexibility to use its powerful high level focus spells. On the other hand the relatively weak jailbreaks, questionably useful Overclock boost, and the difficulty in overclocking with its action economy make it look like you'll waste more time trying to overclock than it'll ever be worth.