#aspis mastermind

(art by ZandoArts on DeviantArt)

And once again the topic of the Aspis Consortium comes up. In Pathfinder, the Aspis Consortium is a collection of wealthy but ruthless merchants, slavers, and thieves all having the goal of increasing their profit and status by any means necessary. They’re everything wrong with capitalism and wanton greed made manifest, right down to spending a relatively tiny fraction of their wealth on charity and other efforts to improve their image and conceal their wrongdoing.

It only makes sense, to the chagrin of all who know their true nature, that the organization persists into the far future of Starfinder. Whether there is a direct line of connection between the two iterations or someone was inspired by records of the original is ultimately a non-factor. What is important is that they’ll do anything to make a buck, exploiting anyone and stealing anything to make ends meet. It’s actually a bit of an in-joke that there is a class of specifically Aspis-made weapon in the setting, the Serpent Laser, that technically has better average damage than a laser weapon of the same level, but is so grotesquely inefficient that it drains the battery in 2 shots, all so the Consortium could sell more batteries to mercenary companies and their own rank and file agents and thugs.

But today we’re not looking at the rank and file. We’re looking at an archetype for those with the brains and the charm to plan all sorts of misdeeds and tricks and bullshit their way out of repurcussions. I speak of course of the Aspis Mastermind archetype.

To be clear, this archetype is available outside of working for the consortium, both with those with their own criminal enterprises and those that use their skills in a more noble, Robin Hood-esque fashion, but the core of this archetype is setting up plans ahead of time and being brilliant deceivers as well.

While this archetype does have elements taken from the Aspis Agent prestige class in Pathfinder, keen-eyed readers will also note that this option borrows very heavily from the mastermind archetype for investigators, which makes a lot of sense.

So let’s give it a look, shall we?

As aggressive businesspersons, these brilliant minds are of course skilled in their chosen profession and at browbeating others into going along with their schemes and behavior, even able to adjust the result of such intimidation to last longer, leave less hurt feelings, or to linger as minor dread for later exploitation.

Where they really excel, however, is coaching their allies and minions to perform actions at their signal rather than on their own initiative, setting up their master plan. However, that does require them to actually have a plan, choosing the action ahead of time. Such actions might be aiming a sniper weapon, providing covering fire, create a distraction, slip free of bonds, manipulate objects, and anything else non-harmful that the GM allows for, for that nice cinematic feel of a master planner triggering the right actions at the right time when needed.

They are also gifted at lying through their teeth, pretending to have no knowledge or involvement in any illegal or untoward activities that may have happened in their proximity or by the actions of known associates, giving them opportunities by assuaging the suspicions of their foes and the authorities. In fact, they can even spend resolve to conceal their involvement in outright hostile actions, implicating others by disguising the source of the attack.

Later on, their cinematic ability to direct and coach others becomes even more cinematic as the player no longer has to specify what action they coach their allies on, letting them take any action on the list or GM-approved when triggered by the mastermind. What’s more, the inspiring brilliance of these tricksters bolsters the vigor of the coached individual, granting them a reserve of temporary vitality when they carry through their part in the plan.

This is a fun archetype for a character trying to be the face of the party with a heaping helping of the Magnificent Bastard trope. Naturally envoys, witchwarpers, and the occasional operative have the key ability score and/or skill set most directly suited for this sort of character, but don’t discount other classes here. Brilliant mechanics or biohackers with dastardly creations, combat classes sporting tactical genius and a mercenary mind, and of course mages of all descriptions can make use of this archetype quite easily. Regardless of the form they take, however, what remains true is their utility in tricking foes and setting up carefully laid ambushes and master plans.

I feel like there are two things to consider with this archetype. The first thing is actually making them feel like a genius, and that requires collaboration on the part of both GM and player. First, the player cannot be incurious or take things at face value. They have to ask questions, look for details, weaknesses, vantage points, exploits in social and physical systems, and so on. Naturally, the GM has to be willing and able to provide those details. How does a mastermind sneak the party into the building? You may have to provide answers for guard or employee schedules, security systems, what kind of fast food an executive insists on getting on Tuesdays rather than make use of the services of his 5-star chef, and so on.

The other thing is to establish and understand up front the difficulties of the heist story structure in a tabletop format. There’s an unwritten rule or understanding in heist stories in fiction that if the plan is shown to the audience, it’s going to fail, and if it’s not shown to the audience, it will succeed. Because telling the audience exactly what’s going to happen and it just goes off without a hitch only works in suspense stories where the question isn’t what is going to happen, but when will it, and how will things turn out as a result. But in a game, you kinda have to explain what your plan is to the other players (and the GM) to actually have a plan in the first place. So the GM has to figure out what parts to introduce hiccups at, and how to handle if things go south, potentially having a prison break scene or the like in the wings in case things go tits up (assuming you don’t have a foregone conclusion secretly in mind. Don’t let them know though, keep the suspense.)

The thought of kidnapping the mortal avatar of the Wise Sage is utterly insane by most metrics. Not only are they beloved by the people and heavily guarded, but such an act would surely bring down the wrath of the divine on the perpetrators. But one such team, led by weapons dealer Angelar Krodd, is willing to try to break the peace the planet has been under and make a mint selling weapons to every side of the fractured nations that would surely result.

The corporations have come to the vlaka colony world of Hope, greedy for the many natural resources that have been discovered there. As a frontier world, the reach of the Stewards doesn’t go out that far, and so the companies are willing to lie, cheat, steal, and murder to get what they want, pulling in agents capable of elaborate plans to get what they want, but the vlaka aren’t going to just roll over for these corporations, and have assets of their own, particularly in goodwill with other planets and organizations.

Woof, sorry about the late entry, folks. Got caught up in some real-life stuff last night. Expect this entry and today’s entry both today!

 David Xanatos, ah yes. A man who not only embodies the “Magnificent Bastard” archetype, but inspired the coining of another trope term, the “Xanatos Gambit”, i.e. a plan in which even failing the plan’s primary goal will result in either some objectives being fulfilled, or an entirely separate but valuable goal succeeding.

But who is he, and how can we replicate him in an RPG? Well, for this, let’s make him a Starfinder build.

Born to a humble fisherman, David Xanatos seemed like nobody special. That is, until the day he received a mysterious letter with a coin minted in the 10th century inside. This coin was worth a veritable mint to collectors, allowing David to quickly establish a financial base from which he could play the stock market and found a massive corporate conglomerate. However, the mysterious nature of that letter sparked his father’s disapproval.

Despite his wealth, Xanatos still wanted to prove to his father that he was a self-made man, and so constantly labored to improve himself and do things no other man could do.

Which is where he learned of the legend of Castle Wyvern and the gargoyles which were supposedly more than statues, cursed to remain bound in stone “until the Castle rose above the clouds”. No doubt meant to keep the curse in place forever with a seemingly impossible task.

But such curses have a way of getting fulfilled anyway, especially when a billionaire creates a money-sink project of literally moving the entire castle, brick by brick, on top of one of his skyscrapers. That must have been a hell of a boardroom meeting.

It did, however, work! The titular Gargoyles awoke from their curse for the first time in centuries, and found themselves in an unfamiliar world. David set himself up as their friend, but manipulated them into stealing technology from a competitor and betraying them, becoming their nemesis.

However, despite his unscrupulous ways, David Xanatos was not a man without principles. Sure, he was a manipulator who would lie and steal, not to mention creating an army of robot drones in the shape of the Gargoyle leader Goliath as well as a suit of power armor in a similar shape, but he would never stoop to murder or genocide, and would often side with the Gargoyles whenever a villain with such goals would arise.

Eventually, Xanatos relented in his vendetta against the Gargoyles and his more villainous pursuits. Turns out your greatest enemies saving your skin and those of your loved ones several times puts things in perspective. But a crafty man he remained.

 David is human, but it’s not super integral to his build.

For this sci-fi build, we will be using the Envoy class with the Aspis Mastermind archetype. Xanatos rarely get’s his hands dirty directly, though he can when he must. However, his plans require a lot of coordination with his minions, so being able to grant planning-based buffs to allies that follow the plan is perfect for him.

As an envoy, Xanatos has both skill expertise and improvisation abilities. Among the former, Analyst, Convincing Liar, Gregarious Mien, Reasonable Excuse, Slick Customer, Stone-Faced Liar, Well-Informed, and You Don’t Say. Basically anything that can give him a social edge and get others doing his work for him.

Meanwhile, his improvisations are more for when he is forced to do things himself, such as Clever Feint, Get Em, Sow Discontent, Clever Attack, Exactly As I Would Have Done, False Flanking, Take ‘Em Alive, Hidden Agenda, and Seize the Advantage. Basically anything that improves his chances in a fight while also making him that much more cunning.

Despite being a fabulously wealthy manipulator, assuming that David Xanatos can’t put up a fight on his own is foolishness. As such, he has several feats to shore up his combat abilities, such as Improved Unarmed Strike and others to make him a competent martial artist, as well as various proficiency feats to let him use a wider range of armaments, most particularly Powered Armor Proficiency for the Steel Clan bodysuit.

Xanatos is willing to use any equipment, be it technological or magical, to get an edge, but if there is one piece of signature equipment that he has, it would be the Steel Clan bodysuit, a flight-capable set of power armor modeled after the Steel Clan drones, which were in turn modeled after Goliath. Said drones would most likely just be reskinned or homebrew robots if he is used as an NPC, or perhaps as robotic creature companions in the case of a PC build.

But maybe you’d prefer a different build? Perhaps if you want to play up Xanatos’ various technological toys, you could go mechanic (with a Steel Clan combat drone) or technomancer. Alternatively, if you want a build for Pathfinder 1st or 2nd Edition, consider the rogue, bard, or investigator classes, as well as prestige classes that offer a lot of social and economic power, such as Noble Scion.

 Fabulously wealthy villains that spend their money on high-tech toys and manipulate others are fairly common, so don’t feel like you have to use this build for replicating David Xanatos.