Geno
When the Smithy Gang attacked Mario's World, during the events of Super Mario RPG, Exor smashed through the Star Road on his way down to Bowser's Keep.
The collateral damage had a bigger effect than initially thought – the pieces of the smashed Star Road were scattered around the world, and without the Star Road being whole, no wishes could be granted.
To restore the road and bring back wishes, the Stars sent down a warrior, known in their language as ♡♪!?, to defeat the Smithy Gang and find the star pieces. Upon reaching Mario's World, ♡♪!? took control of a small toy doll. Calling himself Geno, he went out to complete his mission, and a legend was born.
Geno's niche popularity has endured over the last 30 years, despite depictions of him being few and far between because of an ownership disagreement between Nintendo and Square Enix. He has popped up in cameos here and there, but never in a meaningful way – despite calls for him to appear as a fighter in Smash.
Count me as part of that group. I loved Super Mario RPG, it was one of my favorite SNES games for sure. And Geno was, as many agree, my favorite character. The game had all those markings of Square, that I would come to recognize in the future with Final Fantasy. The interesting or off-kilter character backstories is one of them. You can imagine Geno fitting in alongside Vivi or Barret (concidentally an automaton and a guy with a gun arm).
But how do we build him in Pathfinder?
Keys to the Character
I'm a Mother-effing Starboy
The entity embodying Geno is really named ♡♪!?. He is a member of the Star species, who call Star Road home. This is really all very straightforward.
Hello Dolly
When ♡♪!? came down to Mario's World, aiming to defeat the Smithy Gang, he chose a small toy doll as a vessel for his earthly form. Like a cosmic Pinocchio.
Starlight, Starbright, Starblast
As a member of the team in Super Mario RPG, Geno is a heavy blaster. One of his moves, the Geno Whirl, deals 9999 to an enemy. Goodnight!
A New Type of Handgun
Geno's weapons in Super Mario RPG alter his doll hands into different types of guns and lasers. The best, the Star Gun, fires three star-like projectiles at enemies. Can we call them shooting stars?
There is no question what role Geno filled in the party in Super Mario RPG. He had only one team support skill, which was an attack boost, and had one of the lowest defenses in the game. He was DPS, pure and simple. Big, blasting DPS to be specific.
So in Pop Culture Pathfinder terms, Geno will be a Nuker – either using giant single target spells to delete a foe, or wide ranging AOE spells to rain down damage over many enemies.
To accomplish this, Geno will be a Wizard with a focus on Evocation – blasting, learning spells, and blasting some more.
On the battlefield, Geno is a backline blaster who does not want to be up-close-and-personal with enemies in any way. He has feats to carefully manage his spell slots and focus points, getting the most use out of his daily spell limit as he can.
When those are spent, Geno continues blasting with cantrips and his integrated hand blaster, which apparently is standard issue on this child's doll. The 90s were a different time in terms of safety standards.
Outside of battle, Geno is just kind of nice to have around. Despite being trained at the base level in many skills, Geno is not specialized in almost any. He can sure recognize magic and other spells though!
Build OVERVIEW
- Big power in a small package
- Ancestry feats provide backup power
- Who doesn't want a living toy?
- Automaton fits better than Poppet
- Focused solely on damage
- Will leave back to Star Road one day
Ancestry
Mage Automaton
This one was a real problem.
Geno is a Poppet. He is. He is a Star Warrior inhabiting the body of a toy poppet. It is one of the most cut and dry, 1-to-1 ancestries we've done so far.
But the thing is, after the initial choice of Toy Poppet, the ancestry does not do very much as far as helping us make the build come to life.
Automaton, on the other hand, makes the build feel more like Geno with every feat! The energy blast is an excellent stand-in for Geno's handgun, and the level 17 feat even lets him turn into a cannon – one of his actual abilities from Super Mario RPG.
The kicker, though, is that the ancestry also allows for the Small size, like Poppet. That is enough for us to choose practical over perfect, and imagine that the Star Warrior inhabited some kind of wooden marionette, bringing it to life like an automaton.
Background
Emissary
♡♪!? is on a mission from Star Road, bring word to Mario and his team about the trouble the Smithy Gang has wrought there, and the importance of defeating them on Mario's World.
Class
Wizard (Evocation) - Metamagical Experimentation Thesis
When it comes to "magic" users in pop culture, more often than not they fit the bill of Sorcerers, rather than Wizards. Perhaps the "born-with-power" nature of spontaneous casting lends itself more easily to storytelling than meticulous, hard-earned study in magical skill.
With Geno, there are a lot of blanks to fill in when it comes to the Star race and the source of their power. We know Geno (or ♡♪!?) is a Star Warrior, so we can assume he trained to reach his current skill level. We also know that he uses giant, star-based blasts, discs and waves. So, let's assume that he trained to achieve his magical prowess, and that Star Warriors are Wizards. Deal?
As an evocation-focused Wizard, Geno gets access to feats that bump up his power even more – like spell penetration, splash damage, and other metamagic abilities. All the more power for Geno, the nuker of the Super Mario RPG team!
Besides the Wizard class, Geno also takes an archetype at level 2 – the Living Vessel Dedication. We won't go any further down the feats list with this, but the first feat offers a lot of flavor, and some decent functionality too.
Living Vessel represents the fact that Geno is being puppeted by a greater being – the Star Warrior ♡♪!?. The archetype offers a get-out-of-death free card, where upon reaching 0 health, ♡♪!? takes over completely. Geno is saved from dying, but the Star Warrior calls the shots entirely – acting through the GM for one minute.
Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Skills & General Feats
Skill-wise, Geno isn't the most advanced character out there. He has a legendary Arcana, which helps him learn new skills – and even avoid those of enemies. Beyond that, Geno needs some decent Deception, to fit in among the non Star species on Mario's world. Though, they may ask how a toy is talking.
Legendary: Arcana
Master: Deception, Diplomacy
Expert: Performance, Survival
Attribute Increases
Equipment
Suggested Starting Equipment
Key Spells
Changelog
