PF2e Character Concept: Starwatcher
I like the small empathic rhino people. Kashrishi is such an excellent idea for an ancestry. So I was browsing classes looking for something that fit with the dwarfy, unicorn-ish vibes I get from the kashrishi, particularly the trogloshi subterranean heritage, and I wasn’t feeling a lot of things. And then I looked at the Oracle, and specifically the Cosmos oracle mystery. And, well. People who’ve been around a while may recognise some thematic echoes from Zaraz, my 5e goblin twilight cleric. Light and dark. The earth and the sky. Stars and abysses. Kashrishi have so many feats around their glowing horns, around empathy, around psychic connection, and that gels so well with mysteries of light and dark, the lure of the stars. And on a trogloshi. A subterranean kashrishi, adapted to sunless regions, making their own light. Finding and seeing the stars. The mystery of these tiny lights in this vast void, this cosmic tapestry of light and darkness interwoven. That’s a thing. That’s definitely a thing. So.
Character Concept: Starwatcher, Oracle of the Cosmos
Ancestry, Heritage
Kashrishi, Trogloshi
Just to pick out a couple of things:
Kashrishi: “Kashrishi have an atypical level of control over their physical forms, thanks to their psychic powers, and can evolve new features over the course of a single generation. Typically, these features are intentionally cultivated to help deal with a particular environmental obstacle, such as a change in weather patterns, or if an invasive species affects available food supplies near their settlements.”
Trogloshi: “You're adapted to the sunless regions of dense jungle forests and deep caves, with soft flesh lacking pigment and unusually clear crystalline horns. You gain the Crystal Luminescence ancestry feat.”
Right. I feel like I should say that my first ttrpg that I played around and made characters in was VTM, and I really loved the idea of the Nosferatu, as these subterranean city-builders who made communities for each other in the sewers because they wouldn’t be accepted anywhere else. I love the idea of subterranean cultures, of making places to live and be happy in the darkness. So, yeah. Dwarves, goblins, drow to some extent, I’m pretty drawn to subterranean options, to functional subterranean cultures, peoples of the underground.
I’m also drawn to unicorns, and the more delicate, sensory end of magic, of psychic powers. Empathy, ESP, foresight, psychometry. I like powers that are built around sensing things, interacting with an extra layer of information about the world around you. PF2e’s Occultism skill is doing wonders for me as an option, just saying.
And kashrishi … they have so many elements of both. They build their culture around the fact that they’re aware of the moods of everyone around them, that actions have tangible ripples through their communities, because they can all feel when something happens. So they have to structure their rules and behaviours around the knowledge that not just what they do but also what they feel will ripple out. That’s … a lot. I love exploring psychic/empathic/telepathic cultures, Star Trek is responsible for a lot. Heh.
And kashrishi also have a strong element of light. This didn’t strike me as much until after I’d read Oracle and the cosmos mystery, but with that sort of a theme in mind … Kashrishi can tailor their physical evolution in real time, and one of the things I find interesting is that the heritage that went underground, the trogloshi, the kashrishi heritage that adapted themselves for low-light environments, did not choose to give themselves low-light vision/darkvision, they chose to give themselves light instead. They made their horns glow. They had the choice, they can control their evolution to an extent, and that’s what they chose. To make light, rather than adapt to the dark.
So. Light and darkness. Walk into the darkness with only empathy to guide you, and should you decide you need light, you just make some.
And while you’re picturing that, that sort of person, that sort of people … what would they see, the first time they looked up and saw the stars?
So. Let’s make a trogloshi. I was going to make one anyway, but now that I’ve read the Oracle entry, let’s make a study on light and dark. A pale, subterranean albino, who went to visit their surface cousins as a kid, who emerged for the first time out of the caves and the trees and looked up, and saw the raw wonder of the night sky for the first time in their life. That saw … gods, maybe, or some force, doing what their people had done. Going out into the darkness, and making light. Just enough. Not to wipe the dark away, not to destroy it, but to enable themselves, enable everyone, to walk among it. Horns in the caves. Stars in the void.
A kashrishi, a dwarven unicorn, a stocky, sturdy, awed little gal, who in that moment saw, felt, some fraction of the answers that lie behind the world.
Starwatcher, the Oracle of the Cosmos.
Languages: Common, Kashrishi, possibly Celestial if she has the INT
Ancestry Feats:
Empathic Sense: Kashrishi are able to get a vague sense of the current emotional state of others within 15 feet of them. This manifests as a general feeling of happiness, anger, or fear, without any specific details. For those with whom kashrishi have an emotional connection, physical touch can heighten this sense to greater degrees of detail and understanding, increasing with the strength of their bond. This also functions as an imprecise sense alerting you to the presence, but not the precise location, of non-mindless creatures within the area. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus on Perception checks to Sense Motive against non-mindless creatures within the area of your empathic sense.
Glowing Horn: Your horn reacts to psychic energy by softly glowing. The horn emanates dim light in a 10-foot emanation until the start of your next turn whenever you use an occult action you gained from an ancestry feat, cast an innate occult spell, or Cast a Spell that has the mental trait.
Crystal Luminescence (action): Your horn glows with bioluminescent color, casting bright light in a 20-foot emanation (and dim light for the next 20 feet). This light can be any color. The most common colors are blue and purple, except for trogloshi, who normally shed white light. The light shuts off when you take this action again or fall unconscious. If a spell or ability would activate your glowing horn while Crystal Luminescence is active, it instead increases the radius of the bright light and dim light by 10 feet each until the start of your next turn. This isn't cumulative, so using another such ability doesn't increase the radius again. Special: If you have the trogloshi heritage, you can select this feat a second time (in addition to gaining it automatically from your heritage). If you do, you increase the area to a 40-foot emanation (and dim light for the next 40 feet). In addition, you can use Crystal Luminescence as a free action the first time you use it on each of your turns.
Mental Sustenance: You can sustain yourself with the power of your mind. You need only a single serving of food and water each week to avoid starvation or dehydration. You can hold your breath for an additional 5 rounds before running out of air.
Planned Future Ancestry Feats:
I was planning to follow the Open Mind – Unlock Secrets – Transcendent Realisation chain of feats, because psychic and innate spells, but musing on Zon-Kuthon below and the dream of walking among the stars, I decided to change it up. We’re going to start at Level 1 with Mental Sustenance, build up some things for surviving the void here. Finishing up on Cleansing Light, because that’s our whole vibe, right there.
Empathic Calm: Once per day, you can cast either calm emotions or sanctuary as an innate occult spell, heightened to half your level rounded up.
Fortified Mind: Your mind is unusually resilient and resistant to influence. When you would gain the fascinated or stupefied condition, you can attempt a DC 17 flat check. On a success, you don't gain the fascinated or stupefied condition.
Kashrishi Revivification (free action): Frequency: once per day. Trigger: You have the dying condition and are about to attempt a recovery check. You can use Kashrishi Revivification even if you're otherwise unable to act. The well of psychic energy held within your mind can exceed the limitations of your physical body. You're restored to 1 Hit Point, lose the dying and unconscious conditions, and can act normally on this turn. You gain or increase the wounded condition as normal for losing the dying condition.
Cleansing Light (2 actions): Frequency: once per day. A burst of light from your horn cleanses your allies of ailments and sends your foes reeling. You and all allies in a 20-foot emanation benefit from a 4th-level restoration spell. All enemies within the emanation are dazzled until the end of your next turn.
Planned Future General Feats:
Ancestral Paragon at level 3 to get the trogloshi’s extra Crystal Luminescence. I just really enjoy the image of a subterranean lighthouse of a dwarf psychic rhino. If I’m reading that right it’s 80 total feet of combined bright and dim light, 100ft if she casts an innate/mental spell or uses Cleansing Light.
Might also pick up some combination of Diehard/Toughness/Fast Healing. Oracles feel a bit on the fragile side. Although the Cosmos mystery benefit should take some of the sting out of a lot of it, so we’ll see.
Background:
Fortune Teller: “The strands of fate are clear to you, as you have learned many traditional forms by which laypeople can divine the future. You might have used these skills to guide your community, or simply to make money. But even the slightest peek into these practices connects you to the occult mysteries of the universe. Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Intelligence or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost. You're trained in the Occultism skill and the Fortune-Telling Lore skill. You gain the Oddity Identification skill feat.”
Not going to lie, I would have preferred the Astrologer background, because that moment where Starwatcher found the stars defined her whole destiny, and I feel like she would have made a study of that first and foremost, and opened to her oracle mystery by that route. But. I did want a Dexterity boost from somewhere, and Astrologer would have locked me into Intelligence/Wisdom instead, and Fortune Teller also posits a route towards the mysteries of the universe, just by a slightly broader field of study.
Although … You know what? I can probably survive on 12 Dex to start out, right?
Astrologer: “Astrologers look to the stars for signs and portents, using their positions to chart courses for those living beneath them. As the celestial spheres move, so does fate itself. You studied the stars and learned to divine your path based on their guidance. Whether the stars directly called you to a life of adventure or you use the stars to guide your wanderlust, you’re living out the stars’ guidance in a life of adventure. Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Intelligence or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost. You’re trained in Occultism and Astrology Lore. You gain the Oddity Identification skill feat.”
Either way I’m going to get Occultism and the Oddity Identification feat, it’ll just be a slightly different Lore skill and the stat boosts in the difference. Whichever one I can best get away with, but I do prefer Astrologer. The stars called to Starwatcher, to the point of defining her name and her mystery. It fits.
Background Feats:
Oddity Identification: Prerequisites: trained in Occultism. You have a sense for spells that twist minds or reveal secrets. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Occultism checks to Identify Magic with the mental, possession, prediction, or scrying traits.
Class, Subclass
Oracle, Mystery of the Cosmos
Oracle: “Your conduit to divine power eschews the traditional channels of prayer and servitude—you instead glean divine truths that extend beyond any single deity. You understand the great mysteries of the universe embodied in overarching concepts that transcend good and evil or chaos and law, whether because you perceive the common ground across multiple deities or circumvent their power entirely. You explore one of these mysteries and draw upon its power to cast miraculous spells, but that power comes with a terrible price: a curse that grows stronger the more you draw upon it. Your abilities are a double-edged sword, which you might uphold as an instrument of the divine or view as a curse from the gods.”
Cosmos Mystery: “Celestial bodies great and small exert influence on you, giving you sublime cosmic power. Perhaps you see the glittering stars as a divine blessing, or perhaps you feel drawn to the infinitely dark spaces between. You might uphold deities like Desna, Sarenrae, or the deific lovers Shizuru and Tsukiyo who represent the sun and the moon—or you might draw power from dark entities from beyond the stars, like certain Outer Gods, or destructive gods of the night like Zon-Kuthon or the rat goddess Lao Shu Po.”
The purpose of light is not to banish but to explore the dark. That’s what I think this little kashrishi believes. That’s the mystery she wants to embrace. Those gods who ventured out and made lights in that absolute incredible vastness, those are the ones she wants to echo and emulate (and possibly surpass?). Desna. The Cosmic Caravan. Perhaps even Zon-Kuthon in some ways, because he walked all the way into darkness and survived, even if not unscathed. Possibly she secretly, blasphemously, thinks she could do better? Walk in darkness. Embrace the darkness. But carry your light with you always, and when you need to, let it shine out.
(Sidenote: It is possibly slightly unfortunate or possibly slightly fortunate that I’m coming to PF2e’s Oracle after watching Exandria Unlimited: Calamity. But, hey! Fun with hubris, here we come!)
The curse for the cosmos mystery, the Curse of the Sky’s Call, I think she looks at that just as the necessary cost of that exploration. Very much like Zon-Kuthon in many ways. She’s not morally aligned with him, and most of what she’s looking to do are actually literal anathema to him, but I think she does still hold him a bit as a flawed exemplar. Pay the cost, but explore regardless. The stretched feeling her mystery and her power gives her, the way it hollows her out and renders her insubstantial, that’s just her price. She’ll take being physically weaker. She’ll take being insubstantial, light enough to blow away. If it means she gets one step closer to the stars, to the void, to that vast stretch of darkness to be explored, then it’s worth it.
(Sidenote: the basic curse manifestation, before you exacerbate it by casting revelation spells, is as follows: “You have your head in the clouds—and not just figuratively. Your body is drawn toward the heavens, making you lighter and less substantial than you should be. Your eyes glow with starry light, and your hair and clothing float and drift around you.” That’s … more cool than curse, let’s be honest. Heh)
I kind of want her to take darkness rather than moon, then, as her initial domain. The spells are kind of interesting balanced around her theme of embracing the darkness but having a light ready. Shrouding someone in shadow to enable them to hide … Interesting, given a subterranean outlook, and from someone who can always just make light. The initial mystery focus spell is themed around stars, so maybe letting her take an element of darkness too balances better. She wants to walk the void, after all, as much as her people made their choice to go below the earth. Yes. I think we’ll take the darkness domain.
Starting Stats (Astrologer): Strength 10, Dexterity 12, Constitution 14, Intelligence 12, Wisdom 12, Charisma 18
Starting Stats (Fortune Teller): Strength 10, Dexterity 14, Constitution 14, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 12, Charisma 18
Starting Skills: Arcana, Diplomacy, Intimidation, Astrology Lore, Nature, Occultism, Religion, Stealth
(If Fortune Teller, swap in Fortune Teller Lore for Astrology Lore, and lose Arcana)
Planned Class Feats:
A lot of the Oracle feats are about building your spell list/repertoire, and yeah, I’ll follow that path. Let’s reach out and take power from sparks of divine mystery.
Divine Access: Your ability to tap into divine magic surpasses the spells traditionally available to you (the divine spell list). Choose one deity who grants one of your mystery's granted domains. Add up to three cleric spells of your choice granted by that deity to your spell list. You can select from these spells when you add or swap spells in your spell repertoire. Special: You can select this feat more than once. You can't choose the same spells more than once, but you can choose a different domain or a different deity with the same domain you've previously selected with this feat.
(Not Zon-Kuthon, I think. She’s still kashrishi, empathetic, she’s not going to follow him into torture and pain. Walk the darkness with empathy. So, yeah. Not Zon-Kuthon. I’m liking the Cosmic Caravan’s pantheon spells, actually)
Advanced Revelation: Prerequisites: initial revelation spell. You learn an advanced revelation spell associated with your mystery. Increase the number of Focus Points in your focus pool by 1.
(Interstellar Void is a very cool-looking spell)
Greater Revelation (vs Domain Fluency): Prerequisites: initial revelation spell. You learn a greater revelation spell associated with your mystery. Increase the number of Focus Points in your focus pool by 1.
(At Level 12, this is basically a choice between Moonlight Span from Greater Revelation or Darkened Eyes from Domain Fluency, and I just like Moonlight Span more)
Mysterious Repertoire: Your mystery holds unknowable depths of magic not always associated with the divine. You can have one spell in your spell repertoire not on the divine spell list, in addition to spells you've added to your spell list from feats like Divine Access. You cast that spell as a divine spell. You can swap which spell you add and from which tradition as you could any other oracle spell, but you can't use this feat to have more than one spell from another tradition in your spell repertoire at the same time.
(I suspect the Divine spell list already gives me most of the light-and-dark spells I could want, but I’d definitely have a browse around for something cool from other lists)
And … that’ll do, I think. A kashrishi oracle of the stars. A slighty hubristic but very well-meaning subterranean Starwatcher who believes that light exists to explore the darkness, and wants to wander out among the stars some day.