Danielle Moonstar
Psyche. Mirage. Valkyrie. Dani.
However you know her, tragedy struck when Danielle Moonstar, a Cheyenne girl from Boulder, first experienced her powers – manifesting visibile images of people's worst nightmares. She was ostracized from her community, hated by her people and accepted only by her parents and grandfather.
Then her parents were eaten by a Demon Bear. Not great luck.
Even worse luck? The Demon Bear turned out to be one of her manifestations. Yikes.
After being discovered by Xavier, Dani joined his school for Gifted Youngsters in an attempt to harness, or at least avoid, her Illusory Emotional Manifestation power. Going by Psyche, and later Mirage, Dani befriended her classmates and eventually lead the New Mutants.
Later still, after discovering the winged horse Brightwind, Dani became a Valkyrie, able to see people marked for death. Nice addition, Dani!
When a franchise has been around as long as the X-Men, the timeline becomes so relative. Dani, alongside Magik, is part of the "New Mutants". This sub-group of the X-Men may sound hot off the press, but they first debuted 40 years ago – longer than most IPs have existed. The story of these characters becomes convoluted and run-on. But when you boil them down to their biggest beats, you get the things that have made them endure. Dani has endured where so many other mutants have fallen by the wayside because of her devotion, her leadership and the fact that Demon Bears sound awesome.
And yet, somehow they still feel new, as her crew is somewhat lesser known than the teams that debuted 20 and 10 years before – featuring such iconic characters as Cyclops and Jean Grey or Wolverine and Storm, respectively.
I was an X-men fan growing up, but didn't know much about Dani Moonstar until much more recently. I have to admit, I love her power. I am a sucker for those mutants, like Rogue, who feel that their abilities are more curse than gift. The New Mutants movie did a good job of showcasing this power, making a quasi-horror movie where Dani was inadvertently providing the horrors.
But how do we build her in Pathfinder?
Keys to the Character
Bowfinger
Sure, the arrows may be magical. And yes, maybe that magic makes enemies experience their worst fear. But that's all for nothing if Dani has bad aim. She doesn't.
To Catch A Predator (In Dreams)
Hopefully Dani's foes have dreamcatchers up, because she is coming to manifest their nightmares.
From Hell To Hibernation
The "storm" that killed Dani's parents turned out to be a manifestation of her own fears, transforming her parents into an angry Demon Bear.
Dope Helmet, Doper Horse
After bonding with the winged horse Brightwind, Danielle Moonstar became a Valkyrie. It's as cool as it sounds.
Sometimes, characters like Dani Moonstar come around that have wildly different power sets in different eras of their story. Jean Grey is another example of this. We can't build Marvel Girl and Phoenix into one Pathfinder build and feel satisfied, we have to do either (or both, separately).
Dani's the same. I think it would be a trap to try to fill in the Valkyrie aspect of her at the detriment of the Mirage aspect. So we will clearly divide the two, with this build being the Mirage build. Maybe a Valkyrie build comes somewhere in the future.
For Mirage, we need to focus on shooting arrows and scaring the bejesus out of people. And maybe a Demon Bear shows up. Sounds good?
On the battlefield, Dani uses her bow coupled with her Magus Spellshot and her Ranger Dedication to fire arrows from range. Sometimes those arrows just hit and hurt foes. Sometimes they are combined with spellcasts that terrify them and those around them.
With the limited spell slots associated with the Magus class, Dani has to choose the best times to manifest her frightening illusions. Between those times, she is content to rain arrows at foes, waiting for her moment to strike.
Outside of battle, Dani can use her powers to intimidate others, scaring them into helping her team. Plus, her upbringing in Boulder has given her a good sense of survival and nature, making her a helpful companion when moving through wilderness.
Build OVERVIEW
Ancestry
Half-Elf Human
The Human ancestry is needed for this build, as Multitalented is a required feat to hint at Dani's future as a Valkyrie with a splash into a Champion Dedication. As usual with mutant characters, however, it is nice to choose a heritage that represents the mutant gene in some way.
We've gone with the Half-Elf heritage, which will give Dani some extra speed to hunt her foes down.
Background
Hunter
Dani's grandfather, Black Eagle, raised her in the Medicine Bow Mountains after the disappearance of her parents. He taught her as much as he could about the history and customs of her people. He also tried to help her control her powers, until they became too strong for him to manage, and Xavier's school was the only option.
The background gives a Dexterity boost, perfect for an archer, and a Survey Wildlife skill feat.
Class
Starlit Span Magus
At minimum, the Shooting Star conflux spell gives Dani's arrows a nice shining glow that fits the image we've seen all along, making Magus a decent pick. But it's the Spellstrikes that really shine, turning her regular arrows into neural arrows, capable of manifesting horrifying illusions when they strike a foe.
Spells like Weird and Mask of Terror fit this perfect, but require the Expansive Spellstrike feat to make their impact.
We pick up a few extra conflux spells in the build. They don't make too big of an impact, but they are mainly there for their bonus effects: a) additional focus points for b) refreshing spellstrike after a conflux spell.
Since ideally Dani will be spellstriking more often than she has spell slots, Gouging Claw is a nice cantrip to fill the gap. An arrow hits a foe, then a terrifying illusion gashes them. Awesome.
Because we are mainly concerned with only the extra conflux spells for the Magus feats, we pick up a Ranger Dedication early to get a bit better at actually shooting the arrows. The Hunt Prey action is a start, and Hunted Shot is even better.
Finally, we splash a Wizard Dedication through Multitalented. This is for more more more illusions, and some spellslots for casting them.
Skills & General Feats
Magus isn't the most skill-forward class. Therefore, Dani really focuses on raising her Intimidation to legendary. I mean, you gotta be able to scare enemies with the illusions, right? They aren't manifestations of public speaking.
Legendary: Intimidation
Master: Nature
Expert: Arcana, Athletics, Deception
Attribute Increases
Equipment
Suggested Starting Equipment
Key Spells
Changelog
Related Builds
