Counselor (Starfinder Archetype)
(art by Diyaru4500 on DeviantArt)
There’s a running joke in a lot of media about how a lot of plots would not happen if the characters just got therapy. And that is probably true. Rivals wouldn’t slide into full villainy if they actually talked to someone about their feelings instead of stewing over their resentment and the version of their rival they have in their heads, pretty much every contrived romance plot could be solved by just someone actually making their feelings known, and so on.
But they don’t go to therapy. Either it doesn’t exist in the time period the show takes place, or it isn’t available to the person, or they are otherwise unable or unwilling to self-analyze, assisted or otherwise. And so, the plot happens. Romances contrive conflict out of misunderstandings, tragedies brew from fatal flaws left unchecked, and so on.
But in the far future of a setting like Starfinder, therapy does exist, and not just that, but characters can straight up BE the therapist or psychologist.
Now, that probably seems a little silly in a setting of science fantasy adventures. Sure, you get your occasional adventuring medical professional, but surely a counselor is strictly in the realm of something you see an NPC doing, if at all.
But scifi has it’s share of psychologist characters, not just helping fellow crewmates on larger crews handle the stress of their profession, but also in understanding the minds of other species that the crew might come across. Alternatively, games that feature more sedentary settings like a space station or colony world might have a counselor that works the day job of keeping everyone in the right headspace and moonlights in helping an adventuring party.
By speaking at length with their allies, counselors can get a read on their mental state, allowing them to instantly recognize most mental effects on them while also offering sound advice that helps them resist such effects in the first place.
From here, the archetype has split options at two points. The first one either allows them to use a short chat while resting to help an ally recover a bit of their mental energy, while the others learn to chat with their allies during a short break to help them better resist a particular hostile effect they’ve experienced recently.
The other gives the option of either granting allies the ability to help process the trauma of a mental effect, staving it off for a few precious seconds, or they can instead become a soothing presence that allows their nearby allies they’ve counseled to better resist being affected by such things in the first place.
Finally, more powerful therapists straight up learn a little magic to help heal others mentally, letting them transfer harmful mental effects to themselves to free their allies and letting them try and resist to negate the effect themselves.
Obviously envoy with their charisma is the natural pic for this archetype, with biohackers as medical professionals being a close second, especially since they might have chemical solutions to neurochemical disorders. Other classes have potential though, such as mystics with their concern over body and mind, witchwarpers with their own charms, and any other class as well. Solarian is a possible good choice, even, becoming a warm presence for others to learn on. Either way, this archetype works good for those seeking to bolster the saves and resistances of their allies from a nonmagical standpoint.
While you don’t have to be a psychologist yourself to properly understand how to roleplay a character like this, it could definitely benefit you to do a little research on how they operate to better depict it. At the same time, of course, remember that there are also a lot of different playable species out there, with their own mentalities which might alter how they operate anyway.
It’s a common misconception that the Great Old Ones and their servants can drive mortals mad with their appearance, and while that may be true for creatures whose very appearance speaks to wrongness on a cosmic level, such as qlippoth, the real madness more often lies in trying to reconcile how these entities expand the definition of reality that many are not prepared for. Dr. Emri Kantos specializes in therapy for those who have witnessed such horrors, not only helping victims cope, but also preventing them from becoming obsessed with such powers.
Worrying that many other species can’t relate to his rocky mollusk features, Ilganbopop endeavors to be a clever jokester and an attentive listener in his career as ship therapist aboard the Principality. However, there are some folks the jovial quorlu cannot reach, including the grim-faced captain.
After a lunar expedition resulted in several deaths thanks to disturbing a hibernatory predator called an umbracygot, the party is called in to speak with the survivors due to one of them having a background in counselling. However, the more they learn, the more this accident seems more like a convoluted attempted murder, sending multiple science team members to their doom.