Welcome to Guidance, Private Sanctuary’s source for tips and techniques for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, written by Everyman Gamer Alexander Augunas. Today, we’re going to be looking at an Iconic Design for Hiro Hamada and Baymax.

Part Two of my Iconic Christmas! Today, on Christmas Eve, you’re in for a treat: an Iconic Design for two brand-new movie characters with my first-ever use of a Third-Party product! Who did I pick? Why did I pick it? Time to see! Today’s Iconic Design comes from Disney’s latest movie, Big Hero 6. We’ll be building not only Baymax, the robot, but also Hiro Hamada, the movie’s main character! Two for one!

Background

Since this is a new movie that we’re dealing with, I’m going to try to keep this background section spoiler-free. I’m also going to borrow heavily from Wikipedia because those folks are REALLY good at doing spoiler-free character synposises.

Hiro Hamada, is a 14-year-old robotics prodigy who has already graduated high school and is the main protagonist of Big Hero 6. His older brother Tadashi inspires him to gain admission to San Fransokyo’s Institute of Technology. Baymax, on the other hand, is an inflatable robot built by Tadashi to serve as a healthcare companion. Baymax is completely focused on helping people and views Hiro as his patient. Events in Big Hero 6 force Hiro to adopt a super hero persona for himself and Baymax.

Build Concept

In order to bull off this build, I needed a way to give a construct companion (Baymax) to a character (Hiro). Obviously, summoner feels like a great fit for the duo because as a young, brainy character Hiro very much relies on Baymax in combat, but he’s basically giving Baymax most of his orders and commands throughout the movie; very reminiscent of the animal companion / druid dynamic. Now, I mentioned that I’m going to use a Third-Party Product in this build, so let’s get right down to it!

• Summoner (Robomancer): The robomancer is an archetype published by Sean K Reynolds Games in Classy Characters: The Robomancer. Seeing as SKR was one of Pathfinder’s lead designers until earlier this year when he left for personal and business reasons (reasons that include developing his own game), this feels like a great archetype to break my self-imposed “No Third-Party Products” rule with. The Robomancer does exactly what you’d expect: it gives you a half-construct eidolon called a mechrilon to fight with. The robomancer also comes with a number of special evolutions that only a mechrilon can use without GM permission. Overall, it’s a great fit.
• Technology Guide: This build also makes use of the Technology Guide for obvious reasons. I give Hiro a few technology-crafting feats, plus the Technologist feat. Sadly, the summoner can’t gain access to any of the technological spells in the Technology Guide, or I’d give him those too.

Why Didn’t I Use the Technician? As some may know, in August I wrote a big 3PP supplement for Radiance House called Age of Electrotech, which included a lot of cool gadget stuff that would have been very appropriate for a Hiro-style character. Why didn’t I use my class and instead chose to focus on someone else’s clearly magic-focused build? Two reasons. First, I haven’t developed a mech-using archetype for the technician yet, so the Hiro-Baymax can’t be done using Age of Electrotech yet. Second, using a 3PP archetype is less intrusive than using an entire 3PP class. If you don’t like the archetype (or can’t use it because you play in Pathfinder Society), you can still see the underlying summoner build here and make the modifications that you need to use this build without the archetype. If I built Hiro as a technician, it would have drastically reduced the build’s usability for some players.

But we can talk about that later! For now, let’s look at the build.

Early Levels (1–7)

• Classes: Summoner (robomancer) 7
• Feats: Technologist (Human), Skill Focus: Craft (mechanical) (1st), Extra Evolution (3rd), Extra Evolution (5th), Craft Technological Item (7th)
• Abilities: bond senses, life link, maker’s call, mechrilon, robomancer spells, shield ally
• Biped Mechrilon Evolutions (12): ability bonus: Strength 1 (2), basic magic: stabilize 3/day (3), improved damage: slam (1), improved natural armor (2), reach: slam (1), skilled: Heal, Perception (1), slam: one attack (1)
• Summoner 3rd-Level Spells Known: black tentacles, heroism, malfunction
• Summoner 2nd-Level Spells Known: barkskin, haste, heat metal, levitate, make whole, whip of spiders
• Summoner 1st-Level Spells Known: grease, long arm, mage armor, unerring weapon, shield
• Summoner Cantrips Known: acid splash, detect magic, mage hand, mending, message, resistance

As you can see, Hiro is very much a support character to Baymax, who isn’t at all optimized to be killing stuff. That’s very fitting for Big Hero 6, as a matter of fact. Hiro spends most of his feats gaining the ability to augment Baymax and craft cool technological items. His “spells,” on the other hand, are very much different. I’m designing Hiro’s spell list with his micro bots in mind. In the beginning of the movie, Hiro develops a new type of technology called micro bots, which are small robots that he can control with his mind using a headband. The micro bots play a huge part in the movie, and so I’m basing a lot of Hiro’s magic powers on that concept. So you’ll see spells like whip of spiders (or whip of microbots), levitate (being raised or lowered by microbots), and black tentacles (the microbots are often used like tentacles throughout the movie).

Hiro also has a few spells that allow him to “activate” several of Baymax’s special attacks. Between the long arm spell (which he can cast on Baymax thanks to share spells) and Baymax’s reach evolution, Baymax can essentially slam people from farther away by rocketing his fists at stuff. Haste and mage armor are other examples of spells that have been chosen to augment Baymax.

Speaking of Baymax, let’s look at him. Baymax was originally a healing unit, which is why I’ve given him a +8 racial bonus on Heal and Perception checks. I’ve also given him bonuses to his natural armor to represent his titanium frame and the power armor that Hiro eventually designs for him. Other then that, the other evolutions are very standard choices for an eidolon, like improved damage and the like. Let’s move on and see how the duo progress as the game moves on to the later levels.

Mid Levels (8 –14)

• Classes: Summoner (robomancer) 7
• Feats: Technologist (Human), Skill Focus: Craft (mechanical) (1st), Extra Evolution (3rd), Extra Evolution (5th), Craft Technological Item (7th), Craft Pharmaceutical (9th), Improved Share Spell (11th), Extra Evolution (13th)
• Abilities: aspect, bond senses, greater shield ally, life bond, life link, maker’s call, mechrilon, robomancer spells, shield ally, transposition
• Biped Mechrilon Evolutions (22): ability bonus: Strength 1 (2), adamantine armor 5 (3), basic magic: stabilize 3/day (3), construct body (4), flight (2), improved damage: slam (1), improved natural armor (3), reach: slam (1), skilled: Heal, Perception (2), slam: one attack (1)
• Summoner 5th-Level Spells Known: control construct, creeping doom, greater rejuvenate eidolon, whip of centipedes
• Summoner 4th-Level Spells Known: communal protection from energy, hold monster, major creation, unbreakable construct, wall of stone
• Summoner 3rd-Level Spells Known: black tentacles, controlled summoned creature, heroism, locate creature, malfunction, minor creation, rapid repair
• Summoner 2nd-Level Spells Known: barkskin, chill metal, haste, levitate, make whole, protection from arrows, see invisibility, whip of spiders
• Summoner 1st-Level Spells Known: grease, jury-rig, long arm, mage armor, shield, unerring weapon, unseen servant
• Summoner Cantrips Known: acid splash, detect magic, mage hand, mending, message, resistance

Hiro’s same feat philosophy from the early game carries on to her: he’s mostly crafting tech and supporting Baymax, acting as his brain and commander. Hiro gains a few additional spells that allow him to use the microbots in new ways, such as creeping doom (moving the microbots like spiders) and whip of centipede. Another thing I want to note is the bonus spells that he gains from being a robomancer, at the cost of the summon monster spell-like ability. Some great spells are on this list, such as unbreakable construct and control construct, which the summoner doesn’t normally get as spells known.

Baymax’s evolution pool jumps drastically from the early game, giving him some key evolutions such as flight, construct body, and adamantine body. He’s becoming extremely tough now and his focus as a defensive meat shield is really starting to come together. Let’s look at the end game.

Endgame (15+)

• Classes: Summoner (robomancer) 20
• Feats: Technologist (Human), Skill Focus: Craft (mechanical) (1st), Extra Evolution (3rd), Extra Evolution (5th), Craft Technological Item (7th), Craft Technological Gear (9th), Improved Share Spell (11th), Extra Evolution (13th), Craft Wondrous Item (15th), Craft Magical Arms and Armor (17th), Craft Construct (19th)
• Abilities: aspect, bond senses, greater aspect, greater shield ally, life bond, life link, maker’s call, mechrilon, merge forms, robomancer spells, shield ally, transposition, twin eidolon
• Biped Mechrilon Evolutions (26): adamantine armor 10 (5), basic magic: stabilize 3/day (3), construct body (4), flight (2), improved damage: slam (1), improved natural armor (4), large (4), reach: slam (1), skilled: Heal, Perception (2), slam: one attack (1)
• Summoner 6th-Level Spells Known: dimensional lock, discern location, iron body, magnetic field, protection from spells, whip of ants
• Summoner 5th-Level Spells Known: call construct, control construct, creeping doom, greater rejuvenate eidolon, mass lighten object, planar adaptation, whip of centipedes
• Summoner 4th-Level Spells Known: communal protection from energy, hold monster, major creation, mass bull’s strength, purified calling, unbreakable construct, wall of stone
• Summoner 3rd-Level Spells Known: black tentacles, controlled summoned creature, heroism, locate creature, minor creation, pellet blast, rapid repair
• Summoner 2nd-Level Spells Known: barkskin, chill metal, haste, levitate, make whole, protection from arrows, see invisibility, whip of spiders
• Summoner 1st-Level Spells Known: grease, jury-rig, long arm, mage armor, shield, unerring weapon, unseen servant
• Summoner Cantrips Known: acid splash, detect magic, mage hand, mending, message, resistance

Same as before, Hiro gets cool microbot spells (such as whip of ants) and other, general technology-like spells (such as magnetic field) while focusing his feats on crafting and helping Baymax. Baymax, on the other hand, really only gets the enhancement to the admanatine armor and the boost to Large size this level; even then, he’s a very small Large creature instead of being a very large Medium creature. I don’t have much specific to call out for this build, so let’s move on and take a quick look at Baymax’s feats.

Mechrilon

Since Baymax is more the character than Hiro in this build, it seems fitting to list his feat build separately. Below are the following feats that I would recommend for Baymax.

• Feats: Bludgeoner (1 HD), Enforcer (3 HD), Power Attack (5 HD), Vital Strike (7 HD), Improved Natural Attack: slam (9 HD), Improved Vital Strike (11 HD), Devastating Attack (13 HD), Improved Natural Armor (15 HD)

Rule #1 of Baymax is that he refuses to actually hurt anyone, so giving him Bludgeoner (so his attacks are nonlethal) and Enforcer (so people can get the poop scared out of them by being pummeled by a robot) are in. Power Attack ensures that Baymax can deal somewhat acceptable damage despite only having one natural attack to his name and Vital Strike allows him to capitalize on the one attack that he does get. We’ll also be using Improved Natural Attack and Improved Vital Strike, plus Devestating Strike to further up Baymax’s damage.

So is Baymax the god of damage? Heck no. Is this the strongest summoner build that I’ve ever done? Not by a longshot. Its very probable that this is a very weak build, but I’m okay with that personally.

So, what do you think? Did you like this build? Is it something you would play or use in a campaign of your own? How did you feel about me using a Third Party archetype? Should I do more with Third-Party content? I could, for example, restrict myself to 3PP content that’s gotten a certain number of stars from Endzeitgeist. (I’m thinking four stars, because five is a very steep requirement.) Should I rebuild Hiro as a technician after I publish the appropriate mech-based archetype? Let me know in the comments below, and I hope you have an excellent Christmas Day tomorrow if you celebrate the holiday. If you don’t, I hope you find the time to be with your friends and family regardless. That’s all the holidays are for. Family and friends.

Alexander “Alex” Augunas has been playing roleplaying games since 2007, which isn’t nearly as long as 90% of his colleagues. Alexander is an active freelancer for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and is best known as the author of the Pact Magic Unbound series by Radiance House. Alex is the owner of Everyman Gaming, LLC and is often stylized as the Everyman Gamer in honor of Guidance’s original home. Alex’s favorite color is blue, his favorite Pathfinder Race/Class combination is kitsune genius. Specifically, a child genius. Int 18 on a 14-year old, please!