Jean Grey
Marvel Girl. One of the most famous, most storied X-Men, and Marvel characters in general. One of the few to go by her real name most of the time, which is a bit of a flex.
The first issue of X-Men features Jean arriving at the Xavier Academy as the new student among the original team. The earliest panels feature Angel, Beast, Cyclops. Iceman and the Professor looking out the window of the mansion as the car approaches, watching her arrive.
Just a few issues later, 3/5 of those watchers had crushes on her, a theme that has continued for 60 years.
As Marvel Girl, Jean was the only one of the X-Men who had similar powers to another mutant in those early days. Her telepathy was reminiscent of the Professor himself, though raw and untrained. But even Xavier knew that in reality, Jean's power vastly outmatched his. With training, she would discover that one day.
Jean is also at the center of one of the most famous storylines in comic history, the Dark Phoenix Saga. This story saw Jean be posessed by a powerful entity from the cosmos – the Phoenix Force – altering and unlocking her powers even more.
Jean Grey is my favorite mutant, and favorite Marvel character. The well of "untapped mutant power" is something they go back to a lot, but Jean holds a special place for me as the first version of that I experienced. Yes, the Phoenix Saga is cool, but being Marvel Girl and the matriarch of the Summers clan is as cool.
So how do we build her in Pathfinder?
Keys to the Character
A Marvellous Mask
Like the Wasp, the 1960's Marvel writers didn't always know what to do with the only woman in the group – so Jean's fashion changed a lot. That's what girls like, right?
Power of Pink
In the panels of the comics, Jean's telekinetic powers manifest in an awesome pink glow. It looks good when Gambit does it, but it looks better on Jean.
X-Woman
As the first woman in the X-men, Jean had a lot to shoulder. Even though she was introduced in the same issue as the other originals, she was the fish out of water.
Phoenix Phuture
Twenty years after her debut, Jean grey absorbs a mysterious solar flare – reaching her psychic potential and dubbing herself "Phoenix". Nothing bad happened after that. Let's move on.
First thing's first, building a satisfying Marvel Girl and Phoenix combined isn't possible. Like we said with The Hulk, going halfway between the two builds to fit them all on the character sheet leaves both feeling underdeveloped and (more importantly) underpowered.
So we will build the Dark Phoenix in the future, and this build will focus solely on Jean Grey as Marvel Girl, the first woman in the X-Men.
With that in mind, the Psychic class goes so much of the way for us on it's own. Features like Unleash Psyche and feats like Emotional Surge seem tailor made for Jean, maybe even designed with her in mind somewhat. To make Marvel Girl feel right, we don't have to venture out of the Psychic class at all, it's just about picking the right combo of feats.
On the battlefield, Jean Grey is primarily a controller – but she is no slouch as a nuker either.
Her ability to control the battle and her opponents comes in two forms – telepathy and telekinesis. The first part is from her Conscious Mind, the Silent Whisper, which grants her many controlling spells – like Telepathic Demand or Synaptic Pulse. Additionally, it gives her some unique cantrips that can render her foes much less useful, forbidding them form certain actions or stunning and stupefying them on failed saves.
She also grabs Parallel Breakthrough for the amped Mage Hand – as well as some telekinetic spell choices – to be able to physically move her enemies around the battlefield, into more favorable positions for her allies.
Oh, and when she gets really upset, she makes everyone's head explode.
Outside of battle, Jean can use her telepathy to be the best negotiator the team has ever seen. No negotiation goes un-won, no request goes unfulfilled. The perks of having Marvel Girl.
Build OVERVIEW
Ancestry
Seer Elf
It is not often in these builds that we don't need an ancestry feat to fulfill some pivotal aspect of the character. This is the case with Jean, and it makes her ancestry a largely aesthetic choice.
Of course, there are important implications of our choice – attributes and nice to have feats among them. So Elf is a great start – it is like human but mutated, first of all, which is a good start. The boosts to Dex, Int and free (Cha) get Jean started off on a high note.
Plus, some of those Elf feats, like extra speed and stepping, are good to get out of danger for a character who's main defense is "telekinetically push away".
Background
Academic (Arcana)
Jean attended on of the most prestigious private schools in the country: The Xavier Institute for Gifted Children.
To be fair, I don't exactly know what the curriculum is, or if the credits transfer to other institutions. But you learn to fly a jet on the weekends and fight Magneto's brotherhood whenever they're around.
This background gives an extra Charisma boost, which is Jean's key attribute. Plus it gives the Academia Lore, which seems fitting.
Class
Psychic - Silent Whisper / Emotional Acceptance
In the overview of this site, I say that I started it because my Pathfinder characters were always the sum of my influences from pop culture. I, of course, am not alone in that.
It isn't a stretch to imagine that the designers at Paizo, when designing these additional classes, aren't as affected by their influences as I am. I think that this mostly manifests itself in the ability to build a class like a specific character. In the case of the Psychic, that could be Jean Grey.
The Silent Whisper / Emotional Acceptance conscious & subconscious mind combo seems uniquely designed to ensure that Jean Grey could be imagined within its rules. It makes this build somewhat easy to construct, but it also makes playing it feel very satisfying. With each feat, you are one step more powerful in the model of Marvel Girl – no feats are used trying to go down a line to fit another prerequisite or dedication, to fill a character theme.
In fact, this is one of those builds that feels a lot like the character right from level one, with the help of the Focus Cantrips – Daze, Forbidden Though and Message. Right from the get-go, Jean is attacking minds and talking to her team through telepathy. Go Marvel Girl!
Skills & General Feats
Is Jean really a legendary negotiator, or is she just able to affect the mind of the one she's negotiating with? We won't ask, in Pathfinder it's all the same.
Alongside Jean's legendary negotiation skills, she is also highly trained in Society (look at how fancy that school is) and Occultism – which stands in for Mutant Studies here.
Legendary: Diplomacy, Society
Master: Occultism
Expert: -
Attribute Increases
Equipment
Suggested Starting Equipment
Key Spells
Changelog
Related Builds
