Full Build Friday - Peni Parker & SP//dr
- bjacobt1
- Aug 8
- 15 min read
This is the first build to start using some Starfinder 2e content - which I'm a little worried about saying because I'm not actually using any of its classes or ancestries. Just some feats from it. But this should be a fun build! I've mentioned before that I have some trouble translating comic book characters over given their number of writers and the differences that can lead to, but having a game like Marvel Rivals codifying stuff for me helps greatly. As always, this build is conceptualized entirely in a vacuum, with choices made in my best attempt to fit the character. These choice may not hold up in a campaign with different themes and should be adjusted accordingly.
I went over options for Pathfinder builds and Starfinder builds in the video, so I hope you check it out!
Let's get into the build for Peni Parker & SP//dr from Marvel Rivals!
SP//dr
CHARACTER Peni Parker
SOURCE Marvel Rivals
BUILD GOALS
o A young woman who inherited her SP//dr mech from her father. She shares a psychic bond with the irradiated arachnid that serves as the mech’s CPU
o Her standard attack is a Cyber-Web Cluster, a swift firing weapon, but her alternate fire entraps enemies in a Cyber-Web Snare
o Spider-Sweeper causes the suit to dash about the battlefield while knocking enemies into the air and laying out Arachno-Mines, Spider-Drones, and Cyber-Webs
o She can place Bionic Spider-Nests to create Cyber-Webs and Spider-Drones
o Spider-Drones chase down enemies before detonating to damage them
o While in a Cyber-Web, SP//dr gains healing over time and a speed boost. She can Cyber-Bond to a web to snap back to it if she goes too far
o The aforementioned Arachno-Mines remain in place until an enemy comes too close, at which point they explode and deal damage
o Like any good Spider-Person, she’s able to Wall Crawl and scale vertical surfaces
Summary of Goals: To build Peni, I’m mainly looking at making her and her suit feel as one. She needs to be able to lay out lots of traps, ranging from her mines to her drones, and also have ways to lock down foes. However, that’s not to neglect her own healing capabilities and the speed that her webs grant her. We’ll also want to keep an eye out for ranged weapon options.
LEVEL 1
Ancestry & Heritage: Spindly Anadi
o Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Dexterity, +Wisdom, +Charisma, -Constitution
o Ancestry Feat: Skittertalk
Background: Battle Mechanic
o Ability Boosts: +Intelligence, +Charisma
o Skill Increase: Crafting (T), Vehicle Lore (T)
o Background Feat: Quick Repair
Class & Subclass: Construct Summoner
o Class Ability Boost: +Charisma
o Skill Increase: Arcana (T), Athletics (T), Computers (T), Nature (T), Occultism (T), Piloting (T), Thievery (T). In a purely Pathfinder game, swap training in Computers and Piloting for Acrobatics (T) and Stealth (T)
o Evolution Feat: Advanced Weaponry – trip
o Spell Repertoire: Cantrips – protect companion, tangle vine; 1st – summon construct/robot, spider sting
Eidolon: Scout Construct (Str +2, Dex +4, Con +3, Int +1, Wis +0, Cha -1)
o Attacks: Claw – 1d6 slashing (deadly d8, finesse, trip); Spider Leg – 1d4 piercing (agile, finesse)
Details
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +0, Dex +2, Con +0, Int +2, Wis +1, Cha +4)
The use of the anadi ancestry might seem weird, especially when you consider that Peni Parker doesn’t actually have any powers outside of a psychic rapport with her irradiated spider, which helps her better control her mech. However, I think the ancestry comes with some fun options, the first of which is Skittertalk, which will allow her to communicate with spiders such as the one in her suit. Regrettably, there’s no mech pilot background or something of that sort yet, so I settled on the Battle Mechanic background, providing her with means of swiftly repairing SP//dr when she has to. However, to properly represent her bond with the mech her father made, she uses the summoner class with a scout construct as we will want to lean into SP//dr as a ranged combatant. Things are a little more off than I usually like as for the time being, she can’t even operate her buddy bot internally. For now, she settles on the Advanced Weaponry evolution feat so that SP//dr can use the trip trait and potentially reference the entrapping effect of its Cyber-Web Snares though better fitting that might be the tangle vine cantrip that she picks up. She’ll also want summon construct (or summon robot if you want to lean more into the Starfinder stuff) so that she can call forth her Spider-Drones while spider sting is purely thematic. As a note on the former, I think the clockwork spy is a good starter creature for this – it’s a tiny construct that vaguely resembles a spider, which is pretty nice.
LEVEL 2
o Class Feat: Ranged Combatant
o Skill Feat: Phreaker (SF)//Crafter’s Appraisal (PF)
o Gear: stalk goggles
LEVEL 3
o General Feat: Robust Health
o Skill Increase: Athletics (E)
o Spell Repertoire: 2nd – final sacrifice, web
o Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+1), cloak of feline rest, stalk goggles
LEVEL 4
o Class Feat: Meld Into Eidolon >> Steed Form at Level 8
o Skill Feat: Electrical Engineer (SF)//Alchemical Crafting (PF)
o Gear: commercial programmer's plushie, handwraps of mighty blows (+1), squire's tabard, stalk goggles
LEVEL 5
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +0, Dex +3, Con +1, Int +3, Wis +1, Cha +4.5)
o Eidolon Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom (Str +3, Dex +4.5, Con +4, Int +1, Wis +1, Cha -1)
o Ancestry Feat: Web Walker
o Skill Increase: Acrobatics (T), Computers (E)//Crafting (E), Society (T)
o Spell Repertoire: 3rd – paralyze, rally point
o Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), golden legion epaulet, commercial programmer's plushie, squire's tabard, cloak of feline rest, stalk goggles
We obviously have to take Ranged Combatant so that SP//dr can unleash its Cyber-Web Cluster attacks. This is an obviously important part of the kit, but we also want a way for Peni to ‘pilot’ her mech. To that end, she uses Meld Into Eidolon. Many decry this feat, and for good reason, but it will serve us well in this regard and it is something that we’ll change out down the line. For now, it serves our purposes well enough. For her skill feats, we’re leaning a bit more into the Starfinder side of things given its recent release, but if you guys want me to, I can look into presenting more Pathfinder options along with it. As for this iteration of the build, she starts with Phreaker, a computers skill feat that means that she can use her skills to Hack without needing a hacking toolkit. This does admittedly lean a bit into the Spiderverse version of the character as we don’t get a lot of information about the Rivals version of Peni given the nature of the game. She grabs Electrical Engineer with the intent of using it to ‘power’ SP//dr in times of emergency though she’ll likely end up doing so for her allies more than for herself. When it comes to general feats, we’ll be focusing on options to make Peni more durable or at least increase her survivability, which starts off with Robust Health. Given her familiarity with webs, she uses the Web Walker ancestry feat. In a Pathfinder Second Edition game, one that doesn’t use any Starfinder content, I would swap the focus on Computers to a focus on Crafting. This applies to skill increases and feats alike as we can see here with Crafter’s Appraisal and Alchemical Crafting.
This might come up when she starts casting webs of her own, which simulate the idea of her Cyber-Webs even if she won’t actually want to step into them. She also uses final sacrifice, something that she can cast on her clockwork spies or other summons to represent the way that her Spider-Drones will make a move on foes before detonating. With her next rank of spells, she can get paralyze for her Cyber-Web Snare and then will slip in rally point with the intent to have it resemble her Cyber-Bond feature. One final spell of note is one that she’s had for a while – evolution surge. This focus spell can now be heightened to third-rank, which means that it can now be used to grant a climb Speed to her eidolon inspired by her Wall Crawl ability.
LEVEL 6
o Class Feat: Inventor Dedication – Weapon Innovation
o Skill Feat: Combat Hack (SF)//Magical Crafting (PF)
o Skill Increase: Stealth (T)//Survival (T)
o Spell Repertoire: 3rd – haste
o Gear: +1 flight suit, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), grippy gloves, commercial programmer's plushie, squire's tabard, lesser everair mask
LEVEL 7
o General Feat: Toughness
o Reconfigured Evolution: Defend Summoner
o Skill Increase: Athletics (M)
o Gear: staff of summoning, +1 flight suit, lesser boots of free running, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), golden legion epaulet, commercial programmer's plushie
LEVEL 8
o Class Feat: Hulking Size
o Skill Feat: Combat Climber
o Gear: wand of the spider (2nd-rank), staff of summoning, wand of noisome acid (2nd-rank), +1 flight suit, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking), grippy gloves
LEVEL 9
o Ancestry Feat: Strand Strider
o Skill Increase: Computers (M)//Crafting (M)
o Spell Repertoire: 5th – instant minefield
o Gear: +1 resilient flight suit, medal of the wolf pack, wand of the spider (2nd-rank), staff of summoninglesser boots of free running, handwraps of mighty blows (+1 striking)
LEVEL 10
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +0, Dex +4, Con +2, Int +4, Wis +1, Cha +5)
o Eidolon Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom (Str +4, Dex +5, Con +4.5, Int +1, Wis +2, Cha -1)
o Class Feat: Skilled Partner – Combat Climber, Quick Jump, Quick Climb
o Skill Feat: Digital Diversion (SF)//Rapid Affixture (PF)
o Skill Increase: Survival (T)//Deception (T)
o Spell Repertoire: 4th – final sacrifice, rally point, summon robot; 5th – instant minefield, paralyze
o Gear: wand of shardstorm (3rd-rank), +1 resilient flight suit, shock weapon rune, wand of the spider (2nd-rank), staff of summoning, handwraps of mighty blow (+1 striking)
Presently, we do have a way to create the effects of her Spider-Drones by combining summon construct with final sacrifice, but that’s a little demanding. It uses up a lot of our very limited spells. It’s going to take us a while, but we can detour into an Inventor Dedication to eventually capture this aspect. She’ll have to take the weapon innovation because she won’t be able to get much use out of the other options, but this is largely taken as set-up. It is followed by Hulking Size, which brings up an important note – it is at this point that I would have Peni retrain Meld Into Eidolon into Steed Form. The ideas of these two feats is similar but the latter is slightly better – while it does keep Peni as a target, it enables her to still cast spells and take advantage of their ability to Act Together. Following on from that, Skilled Partner will aid SP//dr mobility especially when it comes to Wall Crawling. A major benefit is that this will save her on having to cast evolution surge on SP//dr or when she does, she’ll be able to grant it an alternate effect such as the Speed bonus that it can provide. Additionally, as a construct eidolon, Peni can modify SP//dr with an evolution feat at 7th level, which she can swap out given some time. I have it taking Defend Summoner for now to provide her with some protection given that she is supposed to be safely ensconced within the suit. Getting into her skill feats, Combat Hack will let Peni directly interfere with her foes as will Digital Diversion. Outside of these Computers-based options, she does slip in an Athletics skill feat with Combat Climber, largely because it feels requisite on any Spider-Man themed character. As promised, she takes more general feats to enhance her survivability, based on her being a vanguard in Rivals, with Toughness this time around and then grabs Strand Strider. This gives her a climb Speed, but one that is limited to her spider form, so its usage is somewhat limited. There is also a very important spells that Peni picks up in this block – instant minefield. Freshly added by Battlecry (and not Starfinder, shockingly), this allows her to toss out some of the Arachno-Mines that she tends to litter the field with.
LEVEL 11
o General Feat: Fast Recovery
o Skill Increase: Crafting (E)//Thievery (E)
o Gear: handwraps of mighty blow (+2 striking), armbands of athleticism, wand of shardstorm (3rd-rank), +1 resilient flight suit, medal of the wolf pack, wand of the spider (2nd-rank)
LEVEL 12
o Class Feat: Lifelink Surge
o Skill Feat: Tech Crafting (SF)//Quick Setup (PF)
o Gear: +2 resilient flight suit, handwraps of mighty blow (+2 striking), wand of noisome acid (4th-rank), wand of shardstorm (3rd-rank), shock weapon rune, tactical programmer's plushie
LEVEL 13
o Ancestry Feat: Webslinger
o Skill Increase: Crafting (M)//Thievery (M)
o Gear: handwraps of mighty blow (+2 greater striking), +2 resilient flight suit, wand of the spider (4th-rank), impactful weapon rune, armbands of athleticism, wand of shardstorm (3rd-rank)
LEVEL 14
o Class Feat: Basic Breakthrough – Built-In Tools
o Skill Feat: Quick Install (SF)//Wary Disarmament (PF)
o Gear: propulsive boots, handwraps of mighty blow (+2 greater striking), greater Cordelia's construct key, +2 resilient flight suit, wand of noisome acid (4th-rank), impactful weapon rune
LEVEL 15
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +0, Dex +4.5, Con +3, Int +4.5, Wis +1, Cha +5.5)
o Eidolon Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom (Str +4.5, Dex +5.5, Con +5, Int +1, Wis +3, Cha -1)
o General Feat: Diehard
o Skill Increase: Athletics (L)
o Gear: +2 greater resilient flight suit, propulsive boots, wand of shardstorm (5th-rank), handwraps of mighty blow (+2 greater striking), eidolon cape, wand of the spider (4th-rank)
Another aspect of the webs that Peni leaves behind is the enhanced healing that offers. We manage to find something for that through Lifelink Surge, providing us with a focus spell that can be used to grant fast healing to SP//dr. Fast Recovery as one of her general feats is also inspired by this. We need to take Basic Breakthrough for another feat down the line, which we’ll use to take Built-In Tools so that Peni can always run repairs for her bionic buddy. On that topic, she gets into Tech Crafting as well as Quick Install, exploring her Crafting skill in a high-tech setting even if she herself might not make the most use out of it. The Diehard feat provides her with some extra survivability by virtue of increasing how long it takes her to pass on, which is admittedly useful but not something that really comes up in Rivals itself. Through the Webslinger feat, which is perfectly named for this character, Peni gains the ability to cast web for three actions once every 10 minutes. This is highly useful and ensures that she’ll have a casting of web for every battle, which gives us a reason to stop always including it in her repertoire.
Once the Pathfinder Second Edition version of Peni has her Crafting scaled up, she can swap over to investing in Thievery with the idea behind it being that in a world where she can’t hack, she can still illicitly gain access to things and places.
LEVEL 16
o Class Feat: Trample
o Skill Feat: Percussive Maintenance (SF)//Quick Unlock (PF
o Gear: greater shock weapon rune, +2 greater resilient flight suit, major staff of summoning, propulsive boots, handwraps of mighty blow (+2 greater striking), greater Cordelia's construct key
LEVEL 17
o Ancestry Feat: Hybrid Shape
o Eidolon Transcendence: +Dexterity (Str +4.5, Dex +6.5, Con +5, Int +1, Wis +3, Cha -1)
o Ultimate Reconfiguration: Eidolon’s Opportunity
o Skill Increase: Computers (L)//Crafting (L)
o Gear: handwraps of mighty blow (+3 greater striking), major beast staff, greater shock weapon rune, +2 greater resilient flight suit, propulsive boots, wand of shardstorm (5th-rank)
LEVEL 18
o Class Feat: Advanced Breakthrough – Gadget Specialist
o Skill Feat: Magical Crafting (SF)//Craft Anything (PF)
o Gear: necklace of allure, handwraps of mighty blow (+3 greater striking), quickstrike weapon rune, greater shock weapon rune, +2 greater resilient flight suit, major staff of summoning
LEVEL 19
o General Feat: Fleet
o Skill Increase: Crafting (L)//Thievery (L)
o Gear: +3 greater resilient flight suit, necklace of allure, wand of shardstorm (7th-rank), handwraps of mighty blow (+3 greater striking), major beast staff, greater shock weapon rune
LEVEL 20
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Charisma (Str +0, Dex +5, Con +4, Int +5, Wis +1, Cha +6)
o Eidolon Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Wisdom (Str +5, Dex +7, Con +5, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha -1)
o Class Feat: Eternal Boost
o Skill Feat: Craft Anything (SF)//Cat Fall (PF)
o Skill Increase: Society (T)//Intimidation (T)
o Spell Repertoire: 8th – final sacrifice, rally point; 9th – instant minefield, summon construct
o Gear: handwraps of mighty blows (+3 major striking), +3 greater resilient flight suit, mask of allure, wand of shardstorm (7th-rank), greater staff of arcane might, wand of paralytic shock (7th-rank)
Trample is an important part of this build as the dash and damage of this will help to represent the Spider-Sweeper ultimate that she uses. It isn’t perfect as she doesn’t really have a way to spread all the webbing and other effects that this ability usually does. Then, she finally takes Advanced Breakthrough to gain Gadget Specialist, which she can use to create clockwork spider bombs, resembling her Spider-Drones! This will hopefully let her save on spells but transferring the creation of them over to this, but I wish it didn’t come in so late. Similar to her Reconfigured Evolution, she develops an Ultimate Reconfiguration, which I would use for Eidolon’s Opportunity just to take advantage of SP//dr’s reach against closing enemies. She caps off the class with Eternal Boost mainly because the other capstone feats don’t really fit her and getting quickened on the summoner, which operates with insane action economy, sounds like a lot of fun. Even if that extra action is for boost eidolon. Through her Crafting, she gains Percussive Maintenance so that she can fix fancy tech the old-fashioned way. She continues down that trend with Magical Crafting and then grabs Craft Anything simply to take full advantage of her legendary Crafting. She finally takes Fleet for herself. Just in case she ever gets separated from SP//dr, this will help her get back to it faster. She also gains Hybrid Form purely because this will allow her to use climb Speed in a slightly more human form.
FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: This build would greatly benefit from a free archetype game where she could take the Inventor Dedication and gain its feats much faster than she was able to hear. I was slow to put it together in this particular build since she did have an alternate means of creating the effect through summon construct and final sacrifice. Aside from the feats already taken in the build, I’d have her pick up Brilliant Crafter so that she has automatic scaling in Crafting. Outside of that, I would consider a caster archetype – likely a Sorcerer Dedication. She’ll likely want a bloodline with access to the arcane spell list so that she can have more castings of the spells that she’s otherwise been gathering. This is based on the lacking spells of the summoner, and it’s more manageable thanks to the Brilliant Crafter removing some of her skill increases and letting her invest in the skill that she needs to take the higher spellcasting feats.
BUILD CONCLUSION
Peni Parker, the operator of SP//dr, is a spindly anadi summoner of a scout construct eidolon with the battle mechanic background. Anadi may seem a strange choice since she is a human, but they can take on a human form and I couldn’t pass up on the chance for a variant of ‘Spider-Man.’ We establish her psychic bond with her mech through her construct eidolon and the Share Senses class feature, which aids them in acting in perfect synchronicity. She gets a ranged attack through her Ranged Combatant as her basic attack while she uses web or paralyze for her Cyber-Web Snare alternate fire. For the movement speed increase and healing provided by her Cyber-Webs, we rely on two focus spells. Evolution surge can provide a substantial bonus to its speed whereas lifelink surge allows her to grant fast healing to SP//dr to represent that aspect as well. Notably, evolution surge can also be used to grant a climbing speed to our mighty mech though this build also uses Skilled Partner for a few climbing feats while also buffing our Athletics to make it as easy as possible. We even find a way to cover her Cyber-Bond, which lets her snap back to her tether point through the likes of rally point. This largely leaves her Arachno-Mines and Spider-Drones. For the former, we have the timely instant minefields, but it takes a bit more to put together her Spider-Drones. The quickest way will be through a combo of summon construct followed by a final sacrifice to get a nice big boom. However, using the Inventor Dedication to get the Gadget Specialist feat to make clockwork spider bombs, which are a pretty perfect match for these drones! That brings us to the last in the line-up of her abilities – Spider-Sweeper. While a little simplistic, I think the best option for this is Trample, allowing SP//dr to charge through enemies and damage them.
This mighty mini-maiden mashes monsters and more in melee through the might of her mecha, masterfully melding her mind with the mite that manipulates her mechanical mate.
Please let me know what you think and what other builds you'd like to see!
If you want to join in on the discussion of these builds and the ones I do for monsters or just hang out with a bunch of fellow TTRPG nerds, check out the Discord server. We also have a Twitter where we try to post teasers for the blog and a YouTube channel filled with video formats of these blog posts. Coming up next week is a shell of a build - I just hope you'll give it a shot!
Have a fantastic Friday!
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