As I started having fun with the Starfinder system designing these character, I realized that I wanted to advance them quite a bit. I took this crew to the highest level I’ve done for a Card Catalog all the way out to 7th level. This means that I got to make use of a lot of the options provided in the advancement and start to show off how a character comes together over levels. There is also a suggested wealth table in the book … that I promptly ignored. I wanted to give the crew a full load of weapons as well as cybernetic, magical, and other augmentations to show off the system so I may have been a bit generous there. Without further ado, let’s take a look at Valaeyo, the Lashunta Xenoseeking Mystic Captain of the Troublemaker Beta.
Design Notes
The first character from the Troublemaker Beta is it’s putative Captain, Valaeyo. For an overall concept, I have in mind a charming but somewhat arrogant leader who has no qualms about proving their superiority in the stars. Starfinder provides quick start Ability Score options where instead of rolling for your Ability Scores, you can start with a preset list of rolls to assign as you wish. If you recall from the overview, no Ability Score can start over 18, but we will get well past them later. With a spread of 18, 14, 11, 10,10, and 10, I am starting our leader character with STR 10, DEX 10, CON 10, INT 11, WIS 18, and CHA 14. Valaeyo is a Lashunta Xenoseeking Mystic, so we will start by unpacking those choices.
Species – Lashunta. I knew that I was going to use a lot of the new races the Starfinder book and the Lashunta, with their dimorphism definitely attracted me. This is one of the new species in the Starfinder book which is dimorphic, not along sex but along role in the species. The Korasha is a warrior style character while the Damaya is a more diplomatic suited character. This means that for Ability Score modifiers, Vaelayo takes the Damaya Lashunta modifiers of -2 CON but a +2 CHA and +2 INT. Also, the Lashunta are a psionic race that have a handful of psionic powers such as Daze which are the same as the spells of the same name, can communicate telepathically, and gain a +2 Racial Bonus to two skills of the player’s choice!
Theme – Xenoseeker. One of the things I am most excited about in Starfinder is the use of Themes as a third descriptor and part of a character. The Xenoseeker is a chatacyer who is intrigued and obsessed with meeting and finding new life forms in the Pact Worlds and the Vast. They are the seekers and greeters all in one with knowledge based around cultures and life forms as well as advancing to being able to create quick pidgin languanges. Finally, a Xenoseeker Theme provides a +1 CHA
Class – Mystic. Finally, for Vaelayo’s class, I went with Mystic. The Mystic is one of two spellcasting types and is superficially similar to Clerics. They have a similar overarching connection to the magic, called a Connection, and their spell list holds a lot of the healing spells. The earlier concept about the somewhat arrogant and domineering character type lends itself well to the Overlord Connection from a mystic, so we will work with that. The variety provided from each Connection, like the nature of the deity worshipped in Clerics, allows for significant variance in Mystic builds!
As part of the Overlord Connection, Vaelayo will always seek to be the dominant force in social interactions and when he uses Charm spells, the target will think that the ideas were the targets own. Diplomacy and Intimidate both receive bonuses from the Connection and as he increases in level, further special powers will manifest. At first level, the best Feat I could think of for Vaelayo is Spell Penetration where he gets bonuses to overcome opponents spell resistance. Looking at spell lists, I specifically load up on spells that are controlling or mentally manipulative to further the Overlord theme.
Obviously, the skills like Sense Motive, Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate are highly sought after for a Mystic Diplomat or leader character. I am looking at wanting to have a lot of Medicine, Perception, and Mysticism as well. Finally, Culture is one of my favorite skills because it functions not only to help you understand the worlds and people you encounter but also provides additional languages per rank and I am a sucker for languages. Since that is coming out to more skills that I want to take than skill ranks per level available, Vaelayo will start without the extra rank of Culture and see when he can grow into it.
Hit Points are a set amount based on your species and class (10), while Stamina points are a set amount from your class plus your CON modifier(4). Finally, Resolve Points start as half your level, rounded up plus your class chief ability score modifier, WIS for Vaelayo(4). Finally, thinking about Vaelayo and his desire to for power, even if it is just soft power, a Lawful Neutral Alignment seems good. He certainly respects traditions and structures, but has no inclination to use them for the general betterment of the Pact Worlds.
Advancement
Like I said earlier, I took these characters all the way to 7th level, so we are going to cover a lot of choices in the advancement section, but not every single choice that ended up on the character sheet. First, the initial Ability Score improvements at level 5 took DEX to 12, CON to 10, WIS to 19, and CHA to 18. Also, I am going to provide a personal upgrade Mark I to him. For his Wisdom, I have listed the “Holy Markings of Communion” which are magical tattoos aligned to the higher understanding of Abadar providing the Wisdom boost of +2 to a WIS of 21.
On skills, I spread them out so most of them are at 6 ranks, while Culture is at 5 ranks and Life Science at 2 ranks to back up the Medicine skill. With the other bonuses, such as the Connection bonuses, Vaelayo has some pretty strong +12 to +16 in his main skills.
For augmentations I kept with magic items instead of cybernetic augmentations. I decided that he got Fusions on his Battle Staff, which function like enchantments, for it to be a Called & Holy Battle Staff so he can’t leave it behind and it is … well … Holy. Also, a Staff of Mystic Healing for your healer in the party is something everybody would chip in to acquire and I gave some Aeon Stones to orbit his head negating the need to breath, eat or drink. It is important to note that the stones don’t count to your maximum number of magical items.
The additional spells learned continued in the same basic theme of mind control with healing secondary. The overlord Connection continued to provide spells and powers to further that theme you can see on the sheet.
For additional Feats, I added the Spell Focus and Antagonize feats to round out some of his utility in combat and to fit his Overlord theme to respectively increase the spell Difficulty Check and to anger an opponent to penalize their skill checks. Finally, he picks up Greater Spell Penetration to further his ability to overcome Spell Resistance with spells like Daze Monster.
As with other d20 based systems, the Base Attack Bonus and Saving throws also increased. Check out the character sheet linked below for the full write up. The gear and armour have also been upgraded to reflect the character advancement.
Character Notes
On the world of Castrovel, Vaelayo was out of place. Born to the Lashunta, and expressing as a Damaya Lashunta, Vaelayo was certainly well suited to be a part of the meritocratic ruling of his city-state. Castrovel was full of predators and jungles, and while the Lashunta worked well together, it was a constant dance with the corporations who want to take more and more of Castrovel for their own purposes, the insectoid formorians that share the world and wars, and the elves who settled on Castrovel after the Gap. The Damaya led the City States and the Lashunta with the words and insight, while the Korasha were the forefront in the battles against predators and rivals.
While the Damaya and Korasha are no longer strictly expressed along gender lines, it was Vaelayo’s misfortune to be born to a city-state where the ruling Matriarchy still held institutional power. He was clearly a gifted leader and scholar following in the Lashunta traditions, but it was obvious that his advancement would eventually plateau. His deep Connection that blossomed with his Mystic calling was incompatible with being sidelined like that, and so he began to search for ways out. His parents loved him dearly and recommended the Corporate life, enmeshed in the games of money and power across the Pact Worlds. There were, after all, no shortage of them on Castrovel. He looked to other City-States where the meritocracy was not as traditionally repressive, or the Threefold House of Lady Morana Kesh who spoke for the largest spaceport on Castrovel but they too didn’t call to him. He sought the new.
It was a drift ship that carried him to Akiton. He needed to see over the horizon. A chance meeting with elves in his youth showed him that there was much more to the worlds than he knew. The corporations brought many new species to Castrovel, but he couldn’t be locked into their path. He set out to claim his path forward and to claim it in his own way.
Travelling between Akiton and Absalom Station, he struck up a conversation with Besu and “Chitter”. He had his first deep conversation with a Kasathas and Ysoki there and he found them intriguing. It was on Absalom Station that Vaelayo simply took command and volunteered himself, Besu, and Chitter to assist in solving the mystery of a stolen data card. Hiroko Benandetti ended up being not only the victim, but another person that came along for the following adventure and Clausweld-7 rounded out a mercenary crew that could find ways deep into the Vast. Or so Vaelayo hoped.
A quick job or two on Absalom Station earned them a reputation good enough to be hired by Ulrikka Clanholdings. They were to bring the profitability of their Diaspora mining operation back to acceptable levels as several pirate bands had taken a particular liking to Clanholdings products. On board the Troublemaker, the newly formed crew set out for adventure. It may have taken a few years to finally put an end to the Pirate’s predations, but it was well worth it. The Troublemaker was valiantly lost in the process, but the crew gained a Dwarven power armor wearing Soldier named Stoli Kilaim who lightened up the Troublemaker Beta as it was being retrofitted by Ulrikka Clanholdings as a bonus for a job well done.
Vaelayo couldn’t let one thing go from that job. The Pirates had other clients as well and one of them was very clearly a Castrovelian corporation that had no real business in Diaspora pirate operations. It was a textile oriented company after all. Vaelayo needed to know and the crew came along to help find out why. It turns out a faction of Elves had taken fully to their xenophobic trends and had infiltrated the company as a cover for working with an Eoxian Bone Sage. The Pirates were going to become new additions to the Corpse Fleet that was in fact still receiving aid from certain Bone Sages if the Pirates would further clear the formorians and Lashunta away from the Elven continent on Castrovel… killing untold numbers of them in the process.
Thankfully, The Troublemaker Beta stopped this, even if it was only seen as a poorly hidden corporate takeover instead of a plotted undead genocidal attack. The latter being kept secret came with Vaelayo receiving something he always wanted – recognition on Castrovel and the beginning of the fame that comes from it.
Vaelayo Lashunta Xenoseeker Mystic
Starfinder & Troublemaker Beta Crew Overview Here.
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Sheet by http://paizo.com/people/Gilfalas
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