Starwright (Starfinder Archetype)
(art by 5ofnovember on DevaintArt)
One of the things that Starfinder was happy to take forward into the future setting was the seven starmetals, a group of poorly-understood materials used by magical smiths to make all sorts of wondrous weapons, armor, and equipment.
Now, while these ancient smiths were able to create great works with these materials, there was still a lot to understand and discover about them. It only makes sense then that in the far future of Starfinder, such technology and understanding has only improved, bringing a greater understanding of why these materials have the properties they do.
This has resulted in some serious innovations, and it is a general assumption that individual components in various technologies both material and hybrid incorporate starmetals in various ways. Inubrix components that can pass through steel components for otherwise impossible movements, cold siccatite heat sinks, horicalcum components that help regulate or accelerate the speed of nearby parts, and so on.
The Starforge on Absalom Station is at the forefront of starmetal research and fabrication, and its students are master metallurgists that are well-versed in the properties of these materials, and even if they leave their forges and workshops to go adventuring, they bring that skill with them wherever they go!
And that’s where we get the Starwright archetype, representing the skill of working with these exotic materials and applying their benefits to the gear of their allies!
Starwrights carry with them a toolkit containing small samples of all starmetals except adamantine, as well at the tools to manipulate them. Each day, they can craft a delicate addition to swap into the parts of a suit of armor, weapon, vehicle, or other piece of technological or hybrid equipment, applying the advantages to the affected target for an entire day before the component wears out and has to be removed, melted down, and made ready to reuse the next day.
For armor, an abysium core can reduce the energy cost of any upgrades with battery charges, djezet recepticals can bolster the magic of the wearer and synergize with existing djezet, horacalcum plating wards against time magic, inubrix resonators can briefly give the user’s whole body the ability to pass through metal, noqual coating wards against hostile magic, and siccatite can ward against extreme heat or cold depending on which is used.
Hybrid and tech items can use abysium cores to partially power themselves, djezet bolsters hybrid items and infuses pure tech items with magic, horacalcum can slowly tick back the clock on damage, repairing the item, noqual makes them resistant to magic, and siccatite gives the item immunity to fire or cold.
Enhanced vehicles include abysium-powered environmental reactors to protect the vehicle and passengers, djezet-guided magical autopilot and guidance, horacalcum-based speed boosters, inubrix internal parts making them easier to control, noqual plating for anti-magic, and siccatite heat sinks or warmers to protect both vehicle and passenger from extreme heat and cold.
Finally, weapons get surprisingly the fewest options. Abysium, horacalcum, noqual, and siccatite all either make the weapon count as being made with that material or bolster the effects that said materials normally grant.
Being able to add a buff to your and allied equipment is fun, though it is a pity that it can only be done once per day. While you don’t have to, the theme of the archetype practically begs to be paired with a crafting build so you can maximize your engineering skill and pump out various more permanent starmetal-enhanced items for the party. Mechanics and technomancers are an obvious choice here, as are other mages, but I can also see biohackers eager to test the effects of starmetals on living subjects, envoys that picked up a few tricks, military engineers in the form of soldiers, operatives, vanguards and the like rigging up temporary boosts, and more.
Fantasy metals have been a staple of the genre for a very long time, whether they are truly magical in nature or just titanium for a people that never called it that. The starwright, and by extension the starfinder setting in general, provides a unique opportunity to explore the properties of those exotic metals on a tech level approaching modern knowledge of metallurgy and beyond. With that in mind, if your own setting has its own exotic materials, you might consider a homebrew expansion for this archetype that works with them, bring out even more effects.
Brought on for his expertise in recognizing starmetal deposits by the way that life reacts and evolves around them, the neskinti scientist and xenodruid Bulfaas joined the expedition to Anox-IV. However, now that the corporation has decided to ignore his advice and plans to strip mine the entire deposit, wiping out an entire ecosystem in the process, he is forced to turn to the party, a group hired originally for security and supplementary science team, with the hopes their conscience will win out.
The science station Red Excelsior has many different samples from across the systems, including a treasure trove of starmetal ingots reserved for testing. This tempting target had drawn in a group of daring pirates eager to make off with the whole thing, and they have a plan to release hobgars, a form of electrically-empowered simian, free from the biodeck to create a distraction while they make for the vault.
While the bullets themselves were mundane, examining the footage of the assassination reveals that the senator was gunned down by a weapon with horacalcum components, causing chronal distortions on impact. Finding the perpetrator will be difficult, for they are a skilled starmetal forger, and have already smelted down the components in the murder weapon to throw off suspicion.
