Welcome to Iconic Design, Private Sanctuary’s source for innovative and evocative character builds for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, written by Everyman Gamer Alexander Augunas. Today, we’re going to be looking at a build for Moon Girl.

Hello, everyone!

Monstrous Physique blogger Luis Loza came to me with an interesting idea a few weeks ago—what if Guidance and MP teamed up to do “A Boy and His Monster” builds? What do I mean by this? Well, “A Boy and His Dog” is a storytelling trope that features a character (the titular boy) and a creature of some kind that the the character is friends or companions with. The story usually features a close bond and is often (but not always) heartwarming. Today, we’re going to kick off the Marvel equivalent of this trope, starting with my build for Lunella Lafayette, AKA Moon Girl.

Buckle up—I’ll be doing this a little bit differently than usual!

Build Concept

Some notes about the build before we begin.

• Human: Although she has the Inhuman gene, Lunelle is human as of the most recent installment of her comic. She does have the psychic ability to swap bodies with her partner, Devil Dinosaur, but we’re going to be calling that a unique spell-like ability that she has. We’ll say that she trades her human bonus feat for it. Enjoy:

Inhuman Mind Swap (Sp): Lunelle’s psyche has been partially detached from her body as a result of her exposure to the Terrigan Mists, allowing her to swap minds with the only creature present with her at the time of her exposure—Devil Dinosaur. Once per day, Lunelle can cast mind swap (Pathfinder RPG: Occult Adventures) as a spell-like ability, using her Hit Dice as her caster level. She can only target Devil Dinosaur with this spell-like ability, but she does not need line of sight or line of effect to do so. As long as Devil Dinosaur is within the spell’s range, Lunelle can swap minds with him.

• Technician: Apparently my blasphemy has no bounds today! Instead of recommending a Pathfinder RPG class that can’t quite capture Lunella’s abilities, I am going to build her using a Third-Party class of my own design—the technician, from Radiance House’s Age of Electrotech. The class works a lot like the alchemist, except the technician builds wand-like devices called tinkers instead of potion-like substances called extracts. I am pretty fond of this class, and I hope you’ll see why shortly.

Alright, with this in mind we’ll begin!

Early Levels (1–7)

• Classes: technician 7
• Feats: Point-Blank Shot (1^st), Precise Shot (3^rd), Exotic Weapon Proficiency: firearms (Bonus), Gunsmithing (Bonus), Rapid Shot (5^th), Deadly Aim (7^th)
• Abilities: electrotechnology, craftsman trade, innovations, lore master 1/day, upgrades (2 points)
• Innovations: lore seeker (2^nd), additional trade: firearms (4^th), firearm specialization (6^th)
• Craftsman Trade Abilities: self-purposed gear (1^st), versatile crafter: armor & weapons (3^rd)
• Firearms Trade Abilities: firearm proficiency (1^st)
• Battery Points per Day: 29 (Assuming Lunella has an Int of 20.)
• Technician Gadgets: armor gadget (1 pt.), cheetah gadget (2 pts.), glue gout gadget (upgrade 2; 2 pts.)
• Technician 2^nd-Level Tinkers: locate weakness (3 pt.), ricocheting shot (6 pt.)
• Technician 1^st-Level Tinkers: jury-rig (1 pt.), obscuring mist (1 pt.)

Whew! Lots of stuff to explain, so I guess I better get started.

**NOTE** I am not going to be spending ALL of Lunella’s battery points in this build—I just want you to have enough that you’re interested. Fully spending all of her resources would take me a lot of excess math.

First, the class has an “energy system” that’s based on battery power. This system is aptly called “battery points.” Battery points fuel all of your spell-like-but-actually-are-extraordinary-abilities powers, namely your gadgets (which are sort of like spells that you wear on your body until they’re needed) and tinkers (which are like wands in the same way that extracts are like potions). Lunella’s gadgets largely revolve around protecting her fragile, 8-year old body from harm in the form of the armor gadget and enhancing her mobility using cheetah gadget and glue gout gadget (which makes it harder for her foes to move). As a craftsman, she is proficient with any weapon she creates, and at 4^th level she dips into the firearm trade through a talent to get Int to damage—the technician is an Int-based class and Lunella is the smartest person in the Marvel Universe, even moreso than Reed Richards. Lunella doesn’t use her tinkers much, instead relying on the damage she deals to throw foes off-balance while acting as support for herself and Devil Dinosaur.

That said, she’s really not bad at damage. With a typical pistol (hers is likely a nonlethal taser) dealing about 1d8 damage, Lunella is looking at 1d8 + her Int + Deadly Aim. (The technician is a 3/4 BAB class, so likely +4 at 7^th level.) She can certainly ping her foes for damage in a fight.

Let’s go to the mid-levels and see how she progresses.

Mid Levels (8 –14)

• Classes: technician 14
• Feats: Point-Blank Shot (1^st), Precise Shot (3^rd), Exotic Weapon Proficiency: firearms (Bonus), Gunsmithing (Bonus), Rapid Shot (5^th), Deadly Aim (7^th), Master Craftsman (9^th), Craft Wondrous Item (Bonus), Clustered Shots (11^th), Weapon Focus: pistol (13^th)
• Abilities: electrotechnology, craftsman trade, innovations, lore master 2/day, upgrades (4 points)
• Innovations: lore seeker (2^nd), additional trade: firearms (4^th), firearm specialization (6^th), trapfinding (8^th), study weaknesses (10^th), scavenger technician (12^th)
• Craftsman Trade Abilities: self-purposed gear (1^st), versatile crafter: armor & weapons (3^rd), seasoned artisan (9^th)
• Firearms Trade Abilities: firearm proficiency (1^st)
• Battery Points per Day: 77 (Assuming Lunella has an Int of 22.)
• Technician Gadgets: armor gadget (upgrade 3, 12 pts.), cheetah gadget (upgrade 4, 20 pts.), glue gout gadget (upgrade 2; 2 pts.)
• Technician 5^th-Level Tinkers: rapid repair (15 pt.)
• Technician 4^th-Level Tinkers: universal tinker (10 pt.)
• Technician 3^rd-Level Tinkers: force punch (6 pt.)
• Technician 2^nd-Level Tinkers: locate weakness (3 pt.), ricocheting shot (6 pt.)
• Technician 1^st-Level Tinkers: jury-rig (1 pt.), obscuring mist (1 pt.)

As Lunella moves into the higher levels, she starts picking up essential item-crafting abilities while also getting some neat combat tricks. She has ranged character classics like Clustered Shots, as well as the study weakness innovation, which allows her to add a bonus on damage rolls against anything whose weaknesses and abilities she identifies with a successful Knowledge check. Good thing she has the lore seeker innovation too, which gives her a nice competence bonus on Knowledge checks!

I upgraded Lunella’s gadgets to higher level versions of themselves. Armor now gives her a nice AC boost as well as a good chunk of DR, while cheetah allows her to make an extra movement and stand up from prone. I mostly left her tinker slots open, but picked helpful choices like rapid repair and the ever-used universal tinker, which is basically the universal formulae alchemist formulae except for technicians.

Let’s wrap up this build in the Endgame.

Endgame (15+)

• Classes: technician 14
• Feats: Point-Blank Shot (1^st), Precise Shot (3^rd), Exotic Weapon Proficiency: firearms (Bonus), Gunsmithing (Bonus), Rapid Shot (5^th), Deadly Aim (7^th), Master Craftsman (9^th), Craft Wondrous Item (Bonus), Clustered Shots (11^th), Weapon Focus: pistol (13^th), Craft Arms and Armor (15^th), Skill Focus: Craft [electrotech] (Bonus), Craft Construct (17^th), FREEBIE (19^th)
• Abilities: electrotechnology, craftsman trade, innovations, lore master 3/day, upgrades (5 points)
• Innovations: lore seeker (2^nd), additional trade: firearms (4^th), firearm specialization (6^th), trapfinding (8^th), study weaknesses (10^th), scavenger technician (12^th), study attacks (14^th), genius (16^th), fast study (18^th), gadget mastery / master trade skills (20^th)
• Craftsman Trade Abilities: self-purposed gear (1^st), versatile crafter: armor & weapons (3^rd), seasoned artisan (9^th), improved versatile craftsman (15^th)
• Firearms Trade Abilities: firearm proficiency (1^st)
• Battery Points per Day: 151 (Assuming Lunella has an Int of 26.)
• Technician Gadgets: armor gadget (upgrade 3, 12 pts.), cheetah gadget (upgrade 4, 20 pts.), glue gout gadget (upgrade 2; 2 pts.)
• Technician 6^th-Level Tinkers: getaway (21 pt.), reverse gravity (21 pt.)
• Technician 5^th-Level Tinkers: rapid repair (15 pt.)
• Technician 4^th-Level Tinkers: universal tinker (10 pt.)
• Technician 3^rd-Level Tinkers: force punch (6 pt.)
• Technician 2^nd-Level Tinkers: locate weakness (3 pt.), ricocheting shot (6 pt.)
• Technician 1^st-Level Tinkers: jury-rig (1 pt.), obscuring mist (1 pt.)

Wowzers, I don’t think I’ve ever done a build with this much STUFF in it!

By 20^th level, Lunella has all the battery points. The array of tinkers and gadgets she could have access to is staggering—what I have is, like, maybe half of her points spent! In other words, she can prepare and prepare GOOD. She gets some neat tricks like reverse gravity and getaway, and she also rounds herself out with EVERY item creation feat she qualifies for. Sure, there are more combat-oriented options to pick like Improved Initiative or Iron Will, but really, you just KNOW that a girl as smart as Lunella (a girl smart enough to have hidden her own SECRET LAB UNDERNEATH HER SCHOOL) is going to build a giant robot someday!

I’m hoping this build doesn’t like plain or dull, because really the pure versatility in the technician class is astounding. Battery points are a bit like power points for Dreamscarred Press psionics save they require preparation—you have a nice big pool of them and you put them where you need them most. Ergo, sometimes the best thing you can do is just sit on what you have and use it when its needed. That’s smart, and that’s what Lunella Lafayette is all about!

I hope you enjoyed this special 3PP version of Iconic Design. If you’re interested in the class, please check out Age of Electrotech (written by yours truly) for more information about the crazy levels of awesome that exist in that book. Don’t forget to comment below, and I’ll see you next time!

Luis, ball’s in YOUR court now. 😉

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 also cohosts the Private Sanctuary Podcast, along with fellow blogger Anthony Li, and you can follow their exploits on Facebook in the 3.5 Private Sanctuary Group, or on Alex’s Twitter, @AlJAug.