Hello, and welcome to Iconic Design! I’m Alex Augunas, the Everyman Gamer, and Steven Universe is like my favorite TV show EVER. I’ve written about this a buch of times, like here, here, here, and here. It sometimes makes me laugh when people tell me what a kitsune otaku I am, because that’s the most surefire way to tell that someone knows about my professional work but not my personal tastes. I mean, come on. Kitsune are great, but STEVEN UNIVERSE!
Being locked up for what my friends and I are affectionally calling “CoronaCon” gives you a lot of time to do … kind of nothing, right? I mean I’ve been writing and stuff, but what am I DOING? The answer is watching Steven Universe: Future on loop, listening to Steven Universe: The Movie’s soundtrack on loop, and genuinely being a Steven Universe otaku. Introvertism has its perks, right?
And that’s when it hit me — how to build Steven Universe in Starfinder! Obviously I need to share this build with the world, so here we are! Let’s do it!
Character Build
- Race: Human.
- Theme: Sensate (+1 Con / +1 Perception)
- Class: Mystic 12
- Class Features: channel skill +4, healing touch, mindlink
- Connection: Healer.
- Epiphanies: Solar Barrier* (3rd), Expanded Skill Channeling (6th); Spell Bond (9th Level)
- Mystic Spells Known
- 4th: mystic cure plus cosmic eddy, death ward, mind probe, restoration
- 3rd: remove affliction plus divine aspect, haste, lesser resistant armor, summon creature
- 2nd: remove condition plus plus ectoplasmic snare, hurl forcedisk, force blast, shield other, status
- 1st: lesser remove condition plus build trust, identify, life bubble, might of the elicoth, seeking shot, wisp ally
- 0: detect affliction, detect magic, ghost sound, stabilize, telepathic message, token spell
Custom Option
This build includes a new epiphany, which is a slight tweak of an existing one (solar connection). Enjoy!
Solar Barrier (Su)
You have forged a connection to the powers of the cosmos, drawing upon a link to photons and gravity to forge a shield made from the primal stuff of the universe. You gain a solar shield, as the solar manifestation ability of a solarian with a class level equal to your mystic level. If you have levels in both classes, you add them together to determine the effectiveness of your solar weapon. You do not gain any other solar-weapon focused solarian abilities from mystic class levels, and you can’t take the solar connection epiphany.
Playing the Build
Okay! So how does this build capture the spirit of Steven Universe? Let’s get a quick look at his powers, as listed by the Steven Universe wiki.
- Bubble: Starfinder doesn’t have any spells like resilient sphere, which would be perfect for Steven’s bubble, but the life bubble spell absolutely solves the “bubble to protect from drowning / suffocating in space” part of this power. Spells like shield other and resilient armor are currently the closest this build can get to replicating this core Steven Universe power.
- Empathy Telepathy: The mystic has TONS of powers that fit this, namely mindlink and telepathic bond.
- Healing Spit: The healing connection, as well as the mystic cure spell and the healing touch ability, cover this niche perfectly.
- Phytoanimation: Starfinder doesn’t have a good way to make plant soldiers, so the closest we can get is the summon creature spell. The First World template kind of works, but if your GM is flexible you might want to see if you can talk them into letting you put the plant creature graft on your summons. You could also ask for the ghoran subtype graft!
- Shapeshifting: Steven’s shapechanging is kind of weird, as he’s only really able to change his age and transform himself into a horrifying cat monster. As a result, I don’t think this is an important power to give to Steven so I didn’t. If you want it, I’d drop a 1st-level or 2nd-level spell for polymorph personally.
- Shield Fighting: The solar shield connection power does this perfectly! Spells like hurl force disk and force blast are also designed to replicate several of the other maneuvers Steven does with his shield.
- Superhuman Strength Aside from just making Steven a beefy boy, giving him might of the elicoth can help us boost his Strength when he needs it.
That being said, there are a couple powers that Steven has that mystic can’t get. Let’s talk about them.
- Levitation. The big one is levitation, which is technomancer / witchwarper only. You could ask your GM for this if you want, but you could just buy the force soles, which let you walk on air.
And that’s my Steven Universe build! Hope you enjoy it, and stay safe during all this quarantining.
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.
