#copaxi

(art by TheGentlemanCupcake on DeviantArt)

The magical crafter, be it a brewer of potions, a blacksmith that forges magical weapons and armor, or the intricate crafters of complex wonder, has long been a staple of fantasy, but while there are plenty of examples in classical fantasy, one usually doesn’t think of them in a far-future science fantasy setting. After all, most magitech is either assumed to have been made in some far-off factory or is a relic of a bygone age, with only a rare few creating custom works with the help of material printers and detailed instructions.

But does that mean they don’t have a place? Certainly when it comes to magical or hybrid tech items in Starfinder, one might naturally think of the technomancer given their focus on blending science and magic, but I feel there’s plenty of opportunity for other casters to get in on the action, and it’s clear that may agree with the mystic smith!

Whether you consider them a natural evolution of the magical craftspersons of old or simply mystics blending a bit of technomancy into their arsenal to keep themselves and their allies outfitted, these mystics forgo some of their healing and telepathic power in favor of mastering the art of binding magic to material.

Due to their specialization, these smiths are able to access and craft items of greater potency than others, and of course their mastery at such skills grows faster than others.

Additionally, they can apply fusion seals to weapons much faster and get them working similarly quickly.

Naturally, they also add repair magic to their arsenal, and gain a special reserve of energy to perform especially drastic repairs.

With a surge of power, they can flood their technomagical weapons (be they inherently hybrid tech or have fusions) with energy that helps guide their strikes and pierce defenses.

Conversely, they can also disperse the energy of a nearby foe’s weapon seals, rendering them temporarily inoperable.

While the crafting side of this option’s abilities isn’t exactly flashy, it is functional, and their combat ability to buff their own attacks with their creations and disrupt any weapon fusions the foe has, making for some good options for a more combat-focused mystic that you’re probably used to seeing. It also can inspire characters to actually create and utilize weapon fusions more often, so there is that as well, tailoring theirs and allied weaponry to the situation on the relative fly.

The workshop of a technomantic crafter in the far future no doubt looks very different than the traditional fantasy workshop, and an option like this is the perfect excuse to explore that. Consider a dwarven mystic that is content to let the machines create the alloys, but would rather personally shape the metal themselves with a hammer and anvil, or a shimreen crystal-crafter that literally cuts stones by ear, feeling the subtle changes in resonance to know when they’re just right.

Normally mustyotal agathions prefer to steal and redirect the weapons of oppressors against them, but when there seems no recourse for change that a war against oppressive upper classes, they sometimes seek out those that can provide. Such is the case with Lost Purse, who successfully managed to rescue a famed craftsman’s daughter and get her offworld where the corporation couldn’t reach her, and in return, said craftsman is churning out powerful magitech weapons in preparation for revolution. Lost Purse only hopes it can be a bloodless one.

The Golden Coins seem impossible to track down, the criminal organization covering their trail with bribes, filing off serial numbers on all their equipment, using potent amnesiac toxins and suicide pills, and the works, but the party catches a break when they find a powerful magitech plasma pistol with a distinctive maker’s mark, dropped by one of the group’s lesser lieutenants.

Xylol Hext - copaxi machinist

(art by Methiston on DeviantArt)

I do love a gadgeteer hero, someone who always has the right equipment for the job on hand, even when it doesn’t always make sense.

An interesting subtype of the gadgeteer hero, however, is the “arsenal” hero. Typically a “battle mage” of some kind, their whole gimmick is that they have a weapon and/or armor set for every situation, often conjuring them to their hands to replace whatever armament they previously held or wore.

And with the witchwarper, a spellcaster that literally calls upon objects and energies from alternate realities, it only makes sense that there would be some among them that utilize their talents in such a way!

I doubt that this specialization would manifest by accident, so I imagine that those that wield this power trained themselves to focus on weapons and armaments when they tap into the possibilities of other worlds and realities. Perhaps they are soldiers or mercenaries, or they desperately wished for a weapon to defend themselves when they were in danger, and their power awakened and answered.

Either way, their gifts have given them a way to answer any question that their foes and the hazards around them may ask.

With an expenditure of magical energy, these mages can conjure a suit of light armor (with upgrades if resolve is also spent), a basic melee weapon, or a sidearm. Though these armaments may resemble familiar models, they are extradimensional in nature and as such the skill of the mage and the amount of energy they expended determines their damage output and defensive capabilities, allowing them to tailor the armor with the upgrades they need, or the weapons with the damage type and special properties they need.

The greater the magical energy they expend, the more potent their creations become. Armor gains elemental resistances, additional upgrade slots, greater durability. Meanwhile, weapons gain critical hit effects, additional properties, and increases to their damage output.

With this specialization, this version of the witchwarper is less a battlefield control specialist and more a secondary combatant able to tailor their gear to the situation at hand, especially if you’re using the enhanced version of the class that gets a lot of extra uses of infinite worlds. I recommend combat feats to flesh out their ability to stand alongside more combat-focused classes, as well as spells that can hamper and damage foes to make hammering them hard with your conjured weapons as well as your more real mainstays easier. From there, make a list of useful armor upgrades so you can quickly pick them out when going on the defensive.

I said before that these weapons and armor may resemble familiar models  despite using a level-generated stat line, but they don’t have to if you do not wish. You might wield armor that resembles medieval designs, or weapons that function but are very different in terms of design aesthetic, such as an electrical pistol that is accompanied by deafening peals of thunder when fired, or a staff that bleeds flame along it’s length. Feel free to be creative with it!

Hoping to starve them out of advanced resources, the Jolin Corporation blockaded the planet in hopes of quelling the copaxi revolts at their facilities. However, they sorely underestimated the flexibility of the coral-folk. Not only have their biotechnicians begun replicating the advanced tech of the outsiders in biotech form, but more than a few copaxi guerillas have a knack for warping reality, conjuring living weapons from their imagination to fight the company’s occupation.

In order to learn about the mysterious weapon-conjuring mercenary the party has repeatedly encountered, they need to sneak into a server room owned by the corporation that he seems to be connected to. Doing so means braving the automated defenses, including a serpentine hybrid tech guardians, an arcane asp!

(art by ProdigyDuck on DeviantArt)

 Though they cover different areas, the mechanic and the technomancer classes in Starfinder are neighbors conceptually, the former dealing entirely with mainstream technology and physics, while the latter combines science and magic together.

It only makes sense, then, that there would be some cross-discipline learning, and today we’ll be looking at one such example, in the form of a technomancer with a drone!

This is a pretty fun combination, conceptually, as some technomancers might have been inspired by companion-having heroes of the distant past, or they might have an interest in AI research. Heck, some of them might simply enjoy the field of robotics!

Regardless, while they may miss out on certain magical tricks that technomancers get up to, these mystical techies are never without a useful support and ally.

 Like most starfinder alternate class features, this is pretty simple overall, the technomancer gains a drone, which they upgrade over time as if they were a mechanic.

What’s more, when the technomancer gains magical hacks, they can choose to gain certain mechanic tricks instead, specifically those that augment their drone in some way, such as granting an extra modification, transforming the drone into armor, altering and repairing their drone quickly, and overclocking their drone with increasing speed.

A simple enough archetype, but remember the technomancer gives up their spell cache’s magical abilities, including the once per day extra spell and the ability to make a single spell last all day. The benefits can easily match what you’re giving up though, as having a pet drone can be quite useful as a spellcaster. You can take one of the lighter models like hover, stealth, and sage and treat them like a familiar, providing scouting and support, or you could have a protocol drone to help with social situations, or a combat or artillery drone to put a body between you and your foes, or just a big gun to stand next to you and increase your damage output. Also don’t forget that just as your drone supports you, you can support your drone, using various spells to provide control or buffs to it, or additional support in the form of junkbot spells.

 Just like the mechanic, these technomancers can draw upon many different aesthetics when it comes not just to themselves but also their drone. They might be junky machines drawn together from scraps, or they might be cobbled-together messes of wires and servos evoking a very experimental stage of development, or they might be beautiful works of art with fitted casings. Regardless, these drones likely also have an arcane edge to them that mechanic drones do not, such as mystic runes, hybrid components, and the like.

  Fascinated with gravity manipulation but extremely uncomfortable in zero gravity, Dr. Gossika built themselves a flying drone to investigate gravitational anomalies while the copaxi monitors them from without with their technomagical instruments. They themselves have mastered all sorts of gravitational spells as well.

 Black, shiney, and elegant, the drone of drow mercenary leader Ithella adheres to the architectural sensibilities of her people, but what really sets the arachnid machine apart is it’s unique weaponry, a stolen technomagical blade set into the machine’s jaws, which supposedly she stole from a laboratory somewhere.

(art by johnsonting on DeviantArt)

Another chapter of the blog has begun today, for it marks the very first time we’ve covered a Starfinder Second Edition archetype on the blog! And what a fun one it is!

Just as pirates hunted ships across the briney seas of old, so too do space pirates ply the spacelanes, targeting shipping freighters and poorly-defended vessels before slipping back into the cover of asteroid belts and other dangerous cosmic phenomena.

In the Starfinder setting, the most common pirates are the Free Captains, a conglomerate organization of crews and their vessels that are beholden to their own code, but certainly other unaffiliated crews also exist.

Regardless of allegiance, space pirates share both the danger of their occupation but also the romanticism with the pirates of yore. After all, when someone abandons civilization to become a pirate, the only law that they recognize are the ones that they impose of themselves, and there is a sort of honor in that. Of course, this also means that encounters with a pirate can vary between a sort of wild nobility that is as good as their word, and unscrupulous captains that will betray any deal or promise if it means a profit, and freighter crews and the like hope that particular gamble goes in their favor. That being said, such a backbiting scallywag can expect to find themselves targeted if their travels find themselves in more honorable pirate crew territory.

In any case, today’s archetype promises to grant some thematic abilities to those that play the starry sea. Be warned though, some of these abilities definitely reflect a moral compass that might unnerve some, but like all feats, they are optional.

The base dedication for this archetype includes pilot training and familiarity with some traditional weapons of piracy. Additionally, they equip their gear with a holographic projector programmed to project the image of their own ship’s Jolly Roger, aiding in their ability to intimidate others.

Adding insult to injury in a very literal way, many pirates send a verbal jab in the direction of a foe that one of their allies damaged, shaking up their confidence in the process.

Others that prefer heavier weapons instead strike fear with their menancing laughter that remains audible even over the roar of their guns, terrifying even as they suppress their foes.

Rushing into battle, many pirates wield a gun in one hand and a light melee weapon in the other, and often use the pistol to soften up a foe as they approach and follow up with their other weapon.

Indeed, this propensity for wielding two weapons means they typically practice to draw and aim with their weapons together in one fluid motion.

Their two-weapon fighting style also lets them block with their melee weapon and fire their pistol at close range into their foe.

Even when not blocking, they can fire and swing in quick unison at close range to keep the pressure up.

A fearsome ability only used by especially ruthless pirates, some that wield phase cutlasses learn an occult trick to trap the souls of their foes inside the blade, releasing them only when forcing them to serve as a wisp ally in combat as a magical form of press-ganging beyond the grave. Such an imprisonment is temporary, but certainly does not sit well with many folks.

Intimidation and two-weapon fighting are the name of the game with this archetype, so playing a space pirate can make a mixed range and melee character even better, or can lend a bit of that to casters and other non-frontline classes. No matter what class you choose, you’ll likely be relying on opening with intimidation debuffs and following up as a whirlwind of attacks on the battlefield.

As far as archetypes go, I’m pretty glad we started our coverage of Starfinder Second Edition with this one. You can’t have interstellar adventures without space pirates, after all! Now if only we could see some space combat rules…

After void oozes were discovered in the derelict ship that came to be called Shadowed Persistence, the craft was given a wide berth by any would-be salvagers. However, that avoidance also means the wreck is a perfect meeting place for space pirates seeking to touch base with other crews parked near the derelict.

There are a lot of rumors abound about Captain Boneforest. Some believe that the copaxi was a former ecologist that left her homeworld when it became clear that her people were driving their planet’s ecology to ruin, other that she left after being ousted from a political position. The only thing that is known for certain is that she is very old indeed.