Academic {Wizard}

Academics, as an adventuring class, are more than your average university's scholar or scientist as they have bonded to a symbiote, whether by accident or design, and can put their education to direct use in bending the natural laws of the universe around them. These individuals are able to leverage their deep knowledge of their fields of study into clear, precise instructions to their symbiote on how to alter the fundamental building blocks and processes on which the universe appears to run which enable an unparalleled level of control, scope, and/or power over their symbiotic abilities when compared to other symbiotic hosts.

Beyond Experiment and Theory

Whether already accomplished or well-regarded within their field of study or someone who has worked on their own or for more shadowy scientific organizations, an Academic has invested countless hours into the investigation of one or more aspects of the natural universe and could be considered experts in their fields of study. Now, as a host to a symbiote, an Academic is able to put their fine-grained knowledge of the universe to a vast and often terrifying array of practical uses.
Whether it is to further study unique topics of interest, gain access to or survive more dangerous environments, push their experiments past the limitations of technology, work for the public good, or to further their own goals and schemes, an Academic is driven to use their symbiotic abilities to further their own knowledge and, by extension, power. Everything else is secondary.

The Lure of Knowledge

Academics' lives are seldom mundane due to the highly illegal nature of being functionally bonded to a Symbiote. The closest an Academic is likely to come to an ordinary life is working as a professor in a library or university, hiding their symbiotic connection, and teaching others about their chosen field of knowledge. Some are occaisionally recruited into military service as part of black ops teams or fall into lives of crime or domination of others on the fringe of society.
However, the lure of knowledge and power calls even the most unadventurous Academics out of the safety of their offices and laboratories and into exotic locales and unexplored corners of the galaxy in pursuit of answers to unexplained phenomena, strange tales from history, and more. Many Academics believe that the Yesk, now vanished from the galaxy at large, knew even more secrets of both the universe and symbiotic manipulation but these have been lost to time or buried in the ruins of their embassies and cities, yet if they were discovered, could unlock the path to new technologies and greater advancement throughout the galaxy.

Creating an Academic

Creating an Academic character demands a backstory dominated by at least one extraordinary event. How did your character first come into contact with a symbiote? Did you bond with the symbiote willingly or was it forced upon you by an accident or an organization? What was your area of study/expertise that allowed you to have an aptitude for managing the symbiote's effects? Does acquiring knowledge and learning to manipulate your symbiotic powers come easy to you or does it require long hours of study and incessant practice?
Second, what drew you out of the lab and/or your life of study into an adventuring lifestyle? Did your first taste of extradimensional power leave you hungry for more? Have you received word of a hidden repository of Yesk secrets that has not yet been uncovered by another Academic, corporation, or government organization? Perhaps you are simply eager to put your newfound reality-bending skills to the test in the face of danger.

Quick Build

You can make an Academic quickly by following these suggestions. First, Intelligence should be your highest ability score, followed by Constitution or Dexterity. Second, choose the Sage background. Third, choose the Minor Telekinesis, Light, and Endothermic Blast cantrips, along with the following 1st-level powers: Flamethrower, Charm Person, Microgravity, Electromagnetic Barrier, Lasers, and Sleep.

Academic Table

Features

Symbiotic Powers

As a host to an extradimensional symbiote, you gain access to a creature that has the capability of manipulating the very fabric of reality in both very subtle and potentially catastrophic ways. Using your deep learning and knowledge about certain aspects of the universe, you are able to communicate to this symbiote complex ideas about how you would like your local reality changed in precise detail. To do this quickly, you keep with you a set of Crib Sheets that you can refer to on-the-fly to ensure your formulae and theoretical constructs are correct as you convince your symbiote to create each powerful effect.
Disciplines
As a scholar/scientist you have spent a significant amount of time studying various subjects whether through formal education or self-guided research. As such, you have specialized knowledge in one or more disciplines of study: Biology, Chemistry, Extradimensional Space, Geology, Linguistics, Physics, Psychology, and Time.
At 1st level, choose one of these disciplines and mark down that you have Level 1 of that discipline. Each time you gain an additional Academic level, either choose a new discipline to mark down as Level 1 or increase the level of an existing discipline that you know.
Powers have specific disciplinary requirements in order to be available to you which represents a specific amount of knowledge in that field to know how to manipulate/create the effect.
Cantrips
At 1st level, you know three cantrips of your choice from the Powers list for which you meet the Disciplinary requirements. You learn additional cantrips of your choice at higher levels as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Academic table.
Crib Sheets
At 1st level, you have a set of crib sheets (either physical or on an analog or digital device) that contain your notes, formulae, and important theoretical or experimental data that are required to convince your symbiote to break reality in certain, specific ways. Cantrips are powers that are so simple, you have created so often, and require so little from your symbiote that they have been memorized and can be produced at will. Higher level powers, however, require you to glance at the notes in your crib sheets and also have a certain level of synergy with your symbiote (see Preparing and Using Powers).
At 1st level you have crib sheets detailing your notes and data to produce six 1st-level powers of your choice.
Preparing and Using Powers
The Academic table shows how many power slots you have to use your Academic powers of 1st level and higher. To use one of these powers, you must expend a slot of the power’s level or higher. You regain all expended power slots when you finish a long rest.
Power slots represent how much reality-bending power you can squeeze out of your symbiote within a given day. Higher level slots represent powers that are more difficult to describe to the symbiote and/or require the symbiote to expend more energy to produce than lower level slots. As you become a higher level Academic, you can more efficiently communicate intent to your symbiote and manage its energy expenditure which allows you to use more powers and powers of even higher levels.
Each day, you prepare the crib sheets for Academic powers that are available for you to use. To do so, choose a number of Academic powers from your crib sheet notes equal to your Intelligence modifier + your Academic level (minimum of one power). The powers must be of a level for which you have power slots.
For example, if you’re a 3rd-level Academic, you have four 1st-level and two 2nd-level power slots. With an Intelligence of 16, your list of prepared powers can include six powers of 1st or 2nd level, in any combination, chosen from your crib sheets. If you prepare the 1st-level power lasers, you can use it with either a 1st-level or a 2nd-level slot. Using the power doesn’t remove it from your list of prepared powers.
You can change your list of prepared powers when you finish a long rest. Preparing a new list of powers requires time spent studying and organizing your crib sheets to memorize the data and formulae you typically need to use the power: at least 1 minute per power level for each power on your list.
Power Use Ability
Intelligence is your power use ability for your Academic powers, since you learn your powers through dedicated study and memorization. You use your Intelligence whenever a power refers to your power use ability. In addition, you use your Intelligence modifier when setting the saving throw DC for an Academic power you use and when making an attack roll with one.
Power save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
Power attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
Manual Derivation
You can use an Academic power without having it prepared at the beginning of your day so long as it has the Manual Derivation tag and the power is known to you and is in your crib sheets. It takes 10 minutes + the power's activation time to use the power if using it via manual derivation.
Learning Powers of 1st Level and Higher
Each time you gain an Academic level, you can add two powers of your choice to your crib sheets for free as long as you mee the disciplinary requirements for them. As mentioned in the Disciplines section, you also get to mark a level in a new discipline or level up an existing discipline.
Each of the powers you add to your crib sheets must be of a level for which you have power slots, as shown on the Acadenuc table. On your adventures, you might come across other powers that you can add to your crib sheets (as detailed in "Your Crib Sheets" below).
Further Crib Sheet Details
The powers that you add to your crib sheets as you gain levels reflect the research you conduct on your own, as well as intellectual breakthroughs you have had into the nature of the universe. You might find data, formulae, or other research that enables other powers during your adventures. You could discover a formulation for a new physics-based power on a computer within an ethically-questionable research station.
Copying a Power into your Crib Sheets: When you find an Academic power of 1st level or higher, you can add it to your crib sheets if it is of a power level you can prepare and if you can spare the time to decipher and copy it.
Copying that power into your crib sheets involves reproducing the basic data and equations that detail the physical, chemical or other processes that are fundamental to the nature of the power, then deciphering the unique system of notation used by the Academic who wrote it down. You must practice communicating the details of the power to your symbiote which takes time until you understand the details of the formulae required, then transcribe it into your crib sheets using your own notation.
For each level of the power, the process takes 2 hours and costs 50 gp. The cost represents any material components you expend as you perform experimental verification of the new formulae while you master it. Once you have spent this time and money, you can prepare the power just like your other powers.
Replacing your Crib Sheets: You can copy a power from your own crib sheets into another book or document—for example, if you want to make a backup copy of your crib sheets. A digital copy of a single power can be made in 1 minute if you have access to the required equipment. A written copy of your notes for a single power require 1 hour to transcribe.
If you lose your crib sheets, you can use the same procedure to transcribe the powers that you have prepared into a new set of crib sheets. Filling out the remainder of your crib sheets requires you to find new powers to do so, as normal. For this reason, many Academics keep backup sets of crib sheets in a safe place.
The Appearance of Crib Sheets: Your crib sheets contain a unique compilation of powers with their own decorative flourishes and margin notes. It might be a plain, functional leather volume that you received as a gift from a favourite professor, a cutting edge electronic tablet, or even a loose collection of notes scrounged together after you lost your previous set of carefully researched notes in a mishap.

Symbiotic Synergy

You have become more efficient at coordinating your symbiote's limited daily energy reserves. Once per day when you finish a short rest, you can choose expended power slots to recover. The power slots can have a combined level that is equal to or less than half your Academic level (rounded up), and none of the powers can be 6th level or higher.
For example, if you're a 4th-level Academic, you can recover up to two levels worth of power slots. You can recover either a 2nd-level power slot or two 1st-level power slots.

Academic Faculty

When you reach 2nd level, you choose the academic faculty to which you belong. This faculty shapes more than just what you study but also how you put those studies into practice. This choice grants you features at 2nd level and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th level. See the faculty descriptions at the end of this class description for more details.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking this feature to take a feat of your choice instead.

Power Mastery

At 18th level, you have achieved such mastery over certain powers that you can use them at will. Choose a 1st-level power and a 2nd-level power that are known to you and recorded in your crib sheets. You can use those powers at their lowest level without expending a power slot when you have them prepared. If you want to use either power at a higher level, you must expend a power slot as normal.
By spending 8 hours studying your notes, you can exchange one or both of the powers you chose for different powers of the same levels.

Signature Powers

When you reach 20th level, you gain mastery over two formidable powers and can use them with little effort. Choose two 3rd-level powers known to you and recorded in your crib sheets as your signature powers. You always have these powers prepared, they don’t count against the number of powers you have prepared, and you can use each of them once at 3rd level without expending a power slot. When you do so, you can’t do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
If you want to use either power at a higher level, you must expend a power slot as normal.

Academic Faculties

Faculty of Alchemical Enhancement

You focus your study on creating effects such as bitter cold, searing flame, thunderous force, crackling lightning, and burning acid from careful combinations of chemical elements. Unlocking the potential within chemical reactions brings the damage of your powers to new heights causing some members of this faculty to find employment in military forces, blasting enemy armies from afar, or using their spectacular power to protect the weak. Of course, some seek their own gain as bandits, adventurers, or aspiring tyrants.

Periodic Table of Expertise

At 2nd level, gain a free discipline level in Chemistry in addition to your chosen discipline level.

Precision Powers

Beginning at 2nd level, you can create pockets of relative safety within the effects of your powers, guiding the effects via chemical tracers. When you use a power that affects other creatures that you can see, you can choose a number of them equal to 1 + the power's level. The chosen creatures automatically succeed on their saving throws against the power, and they take no damage if they would normally take half damage on a successful save.

Scarring Cantrip

Starting at 6th level, your damaging cantrips affect even creatures that avoid the brunt of the effect. When a creature succeeds on a saving throw against your cantrip, the creature takes half the cantrip's damage (if any) but suffers no additional effect from the cantrip.

Exploit Weakness

Beginning at 10th level, you can add your Intelligence modifier (minimum of +1) to the damage roll of any power that you use. The damage bonus applies to one damage roll of a power, not multiple rolls.

Catalyzed Powers

Starting at 14th level, you can increase the intensity of your simpler powers. When you use a power of 5th level or lower that deals damage and isn't a cantrip, you can deal maximum damage with that power.
The first time you do so, you suffer no adverse effect. If you use this feature again before you finish a long rest, you take 2d12 necrotic damage for each level of the power immediately after you use it as the extra energy to catalyze the reactions is siphoned from your body. Each time you use this feature again before finishing a long rest, the necrotic damage per power level increases by 1d12. This damage ignores resistance and immunity.

Faculty of Extradimensional Studies

Your focus is on better understanding the nature of symbiotes and their existence in dimensions that are outside the typical, known, physical dimensions of your universe. The promise of uncovering new knowledge about the fundamental workings of reality and proving (or discrediting) established scientific/philosohpical theories is ususally required to rouse members of this faculty from their laboratories and universities to pursue a life of adventure.
Sometimes known as savants, members of this faculty are usually a bookish lot who can see and appreciate the beauty and mystery of the most abstract aspects of existence. The results of a symbiotic power are less interesting to them than the process that the symbiote itself uses to create it. Some members of this faculty take a haughty attitude to those who follow more narrow specializations of research, seeing them as lacking the sophistication needed to truly understand the universe. Others are generous teachers, countering ignorance and deception with deep knowledge and good humour.

Data Mastery

Starting at 2nd level, you become a compendium of knowledge on a vast array of topics. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses the Extradimensional, History, or Science skill if you are proficient in that skill.
In addition, your analytical abilities are so well-honed that your initiative in combat can be driven by mental agility, rather than physical agility. When you roll initiative, it is either an Intelligence check or a Dexterity check for you (your choice).

Extradimensional Tweaks

At 2nd level, you discover the first in a series of extradimensional breakthroughs uncovered by your extensive studies.
When you use a power with a power slot and the power deals acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, radiant, or thunder damage, you can substitute that damage type with one other type from that list (you can change only one damage type per use of a power). You replace one energy type for another by altering the power’s formula as you use it.
When you use a power with a power slot and the power requires a saving throw, you can change the saving throw from one ability score to another of your choice. Once you change a saving throw in this way, you can’t do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
Note on Altering Powers
While the Extradimensional Tweaks feature offers increased versatility, at the table its effects can be difficult to spot by the other players. If you’re playing a savant, take a moment to describe how you alter your powers. Think of a signature change your character is particularly proud of. Be inventive, and make the game more fun for everyone by playing up the sudden, unexpected tricks you character can employ. For example, a Fireball that has been tweaked to require a Strength save might become a sphere of molten rock torn from the ground tha slams into its target. A Charm Person that requires a Constitution save might take the form of a vaporous narcotic that alters the target’s mood.

Alchemical Amplification

At 6th level, you learn to augment powers in a variety of ways by employing uniquely catalyzed chemical reactions. When you use a power with a power slot, you can expend one additional power slot to augment its effects for this use, converting mundane chemical elements from the environment into exotic isotopes that intensify the power. The effect depends on the power slot you expend.
An additional 1st-level power slot can increase the power's raw force. If you roll damage for the power when you use it, increase the damage against every target by 2d10 force damage. If the power can deal damage on more than one turn, it deals this extra force damage only on the turn you use the power.
An additional 2nd-level power slot can increase the power's range. If the power's range is at least 30 feet, it becomes 1 mile.
An additional 3rd-level power slot can increase the power's potency. Increase the power's save DC by 2.

Prodigious Memory

At 10th level, you have attained a greater mastery over preparaing your crib sheets for the day. As a bonus action, you can replace one power you have prepared with another power that you known and is recorded in your crib sheets. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

Extradimensional Improvisation

At 14th level, your knowledge of how symbiotes manipulate the world from extradimensional space allows you to duplicate almost any power. As a bonus action, you can attempt to improvise any power that you know or have seen before, regardless of whether or not you have it recorded in your crib sheet notes and regardless of the power's disciplinary requirements. The power must be of a level for which you have power slots, you mustn’t have it prepared, and you follow the normal rules for using it, including expending a power slot. The ability to use this power is a fluid, impromptu direction of your symbiote through extradimensional space and is not permanent knowledge. You are not able to remember precisely how to create this power's effect after the current turn ends.
You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

Faculty of Genetics

You are facinated with the potential locked within the genetic code that makes up all known living things. To you, a creature is not a fixed entity but something that is mutable and you enjoy being able to orchestrate such change as you learn to alter both aspects of physical forms and mental qualities.
Some in this faculty enjoy a prankster's disposition, giving people an unconventional skin colour or growing them an extra nipple. Others pursue their biological studies with deadly seriousness, some trying to heal, some trying to refine life into some ideal form, and some trying to engineer that immortality which has been lost to so many of the galaxy's inhabitants.

Protein Proficiency

At 2nd level, gain a free discipline level in Biology in addition to your chosen discipline level.

Body Modder

At 2nd level, you gain the genetic fluidity to modify certain apsects of your appearance over time. At the end of a long rest, you may choose to apply one of the following effects:

• Change hair color by up to 50 points
• Change eye color by up to 50 points
• Change skin or fur color by up to 25 points
• Create or remove up to 4 square inches of birthmark/natural tattoo in a design of your choosing (single color only)

Technical Note: The point system for color change is based on the root mean square (RMS) distance between the starting color RGB value and the desired final RGB color. The GM will assist with determining how many long rests are required to change from one color to another and what any intermediate colors would be (if any) along the way. Interactive Color Transition Visualizer

Pharmacist

Starting at 6th level, you can spend 2 hours creating a small pill of symbiotic gel and programming it with genetic mutations. You can consume this pill yourself or give it to another creature. The pill embeds itself into part of the creatures digestive tract and begins to apply its programmed mutations to that creature. The target creature gains the chosen benefit of the pill until you decide to dissolve the pill which is linked to your symbiote for this purpose. When you create and program the pill, choose the benefit from the following mutations:

• Darkvision out to a range of 60 feet
• An increase to speed of 10 feet while the creature is unencumbered
• Proficiency in Constitution saving throws
• Resistance to acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage (your choice whenever you choose this mutation)

You can choose to dissolve an existing pill at any time. If you create a new symbiotic pill, the previous one dissolves automatically as its link to your symbiote is severed.

Shapechanger

At 10th level, you add the Minor Genetic Splice power to your crib sheets, if it is not there already. You can use Minor Genetic Splice without expending a powerslot. When you do so, you can target only yourself.
Once you use Minor Genetic Splice in this way, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest, though you can still use it normally using an available power slot.

Master Medical Manipulator

Starting at 14th level, you can use your action once per long rest to radically manipulate a creature's cells in a single burst. When you do so, choose one of the following effects:
Panacea
You remove all debilitating conditions, diseases, and poisons affecting a conscious creature that you touch. The creature also regains all its hit points.
Resuscitate
You use the Heal power on an unconscious creature that you touch, without expending a power slot or needing to have the power in your crib sheets.
Restore Youth
You touch a willing creature and your symbiote rejuvenates the creature such that its apparent age is reduced by 3d10 years, to a minimum of 13 years. This effect doesn't necessarily extend the creature's lifespan but may change its physical capabilities.

Faculty of Gravitation

Understanding and mastering the forces that draw bodies of matter together or drive them apart, those in the Faculty of Gravitation learn to further bend and manipulate the violent energy of gravity to their benefit, and the terrible detriment of their enemies.

Adjust Personal Gravitation

At 2nd level, as an action, you can alter the weight of one object or creature you can see within 30 feet of you. The object or creature must be Large or smaller. The target's weight is halved or doubled for up to 1 minute or until your concentration ends (as if you were concentrating on a power).
While the weight of a creature is halved by this effect, the creature's speed increases by 10 feet, it can jump twice as far as normal, and it has disadvantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws.
While the weight of a creature is doubled by this effect, the creature's speed is reduced by 10 feet, and it has advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws.
Upon reaching 10th level in this class, you can target an object or a creature that is Huge or smaller.

Gravity Well

When you reach 6th level, whenever you use a power on a creature, you can move the target 5 feet to an unoccupied space of your choice if the target is willing to move, the power hits it with an attack, or it fails a saving throw against the power.

Violent Attraction

At 10th level, when another creature that you can see within 60 feet of you hits with a weapon attack, you can use your reaction to increase the attack's velocity, causing the attack's target to take an extra 1d10 damage of the weapon's type.
Alternatively, if a creature within 60 feet of you takes damage from a fall, you can use your reaction to increase the fall's damage by 2d10.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Event Horizon

Starting at 14th level, as an action, you can generate a singularity on your person to create a powerful gravitational force that tugs at other creatures (of your choice) for up to 1 minute or until your concentration ends (as if you were concentrating on a power). For the duration, whenever a creature hostile to you starts its turn within 30 feet of you, it must make a Strength saving throw against your power save DC. On a failed save, it takes 2d10 force damage, and its speed is reduced to 0 until the start of its next turn. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage, and every foot it moves this turn costs 2 extra feet of movement. You are able to sculpt the gravitational well such that creatures friendly to you are unaffected.
Once you use this feature, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest or until you expend a power slot of 3rd level or higher on it.

Faculty of Militarism

Often members of the military or military-aligned research facilities prior to becoming a symbiotic host, members of this faculty see their powers as both a weapon and armor, superior to any other piece of military hardware. These Academics act fast in battle and use their powers to seize tactical control of a situation. Their powers strike hard, while their defensive skills foil their opponents' attempts to counterattack. These individuals are also adept at turning other symbiotic hosts' effects against them.

Reality Armor

At 2nd level, you have learned to generate a field of warped reality around yourself to fortify against harm by deflecting or absorbing incoming weapons/ammunition. When you are hit by an attack or you fail a saving throw, you can use your reaction to gain a +2 bonus to your AC against that attack or a +4 bonus to that saving throw.
When you use this feature, you can’t use powers other than cantrips until the end of your next turn.

Tactical Wit

Starting at 2nd level, your keen ability to assess tactical situations allows you to act quickly in battle. You can give yourself a bonus to your initiative rolls equal to your Intelligence modifier.

Power Surge

Starting at 6th level, you can store a reserve of extradimensional energy within your symbiote to later empower your damaging powers.
You can store a maximum number of power surges equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of one). Whenever you finish a long rest, your number of power surges resets to one. Whenever you successfully end a power with Nullify Power or Counter Power, you gain one power surge, as you steal extradimensional energy from the power you foiled. If you end a short rest with no power surges, you gain one power surge.
Once per turn when you deal damage to a creature or object with a power, you can spend one power surge to deal extra force damage to that target. The extra damage equals half your Academic level.

Durable Symbiote

Beginning at 10th level, your symbiote has learned to help ward off harm. While you maintain concentration on a power, you have a +2 bonus to AC and all saving throws.

Reality Pulse

At 14th level, your Reality Armor gains a damaging counterattack capability. When you use your Reality Armor feature, you can cause a ripple of warped reality to pulse outwards from you. Up to three creatures of your choice within 60 feet of you each take force damage equal to half your Academic level.

Faculty of Phantasms

Focusing on a combination of subtle mental manipulation and physical bending of light and sound, members of this faculty create illusions that make the impossible seem real. Some in this faculty enjoy playing the benign trickster who uses their symbiotic powers to entertain but others employ their skills for more sinister ends, using their projections to frighten and fool people for personal gain.

Illusion Specialist

At 2nd level, gain one free discipline level of your choice from either Physics or Psychology in addition to your chosen discipline level.

Improved Minor Illusion

At 2nd level, you learn the Minor Illusion cantrip. If you already know this cantrip, you learn a different cantrip of your choice. The cantrip doesn't count against your number of cantrips known.
When you use Minor Illusion, you can create both a sound and an image with a single use of the power.

Malleable Illusions

Starting at 6th level, when you use a power that creates some kind of illusion (holographic or mental or other) and has a duration of 1 minute or longer, you can use any of your subsequent actions to change the nature of that illusion (using the power's normal parameters for the illusion), provided that you can see the illusion.

Holographic Self

Beginning at 10th level, you can create an holographic duplicate of yourself as an instant, almost instinctual reaction to danger. When a creature makes an attack roll against you, you can use your reaction to interpose the holographic duplicate between the attacker and yourself. The attack automatically misses you, then the hologram dissolves.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Hard-light Holograms

By 14th level, you have learned how to manipulate photons into a tangible, solid form which you can integrate into your illusions. When you use a power of 1st level or higher that creates a holographic illusion, you can choose one inanimate, non-symbiotic object that is part of the hologram and make that object solid and physically interactable. You can do this on your turn as a bonus action while the power is ongoing. The object remains solid for 1 minute. For example, you can create a hologram of a bridge over a chasm and then make it solid long enough for your allies to cross.
The object can't deal damage or otherwise directly harm anyone.

Faculty of Probabilities

For those in this faculty, the statistical analysis of the uncertainties seemingly inherent to the universe are fundamental to how they leverage their powers. Such individuals learn to break down natural phenomena into quantum level components and, through the manipulation of those, alter reality on a whim. Their talents range from abilities to stimulate the fundamentals of biophysics to rapidly multiply plant growth, redistributing elements of probability and acceleration, and all the way to bizarrely theoretical exercises that warp the fundamental interactions within space and self.

Functions of Probability

At 2nd level, by iterating on the mathematical patterns of reality you can nudge the probability waveforms around a creature to collapse in a favourable way. When you use a power with a power slot that targets at least one creature, you can choose that creature or another creature within 30 feet of it (including yourself) and add one of the following effects:
Diminishing Function
The chosen creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your power save DC, or the creature must roll a d6 and subtract the number rolled from the next attack roll it takes before the start of your next turn.
Supplemental Function
Once before the start of your next turn, the chosen creature can roll a d6 and add the number rolled to an attack roll or a saving throw of its choice. The creature can roll the d6 after rolling the d20 but must decide before any effects of the roll occur.

Velocity Shift

At level 6, you learn to manipulate kinetic formulas and alter the velocity of another creature. When a creature you can see starts its turn or moves to a space within 30 feet of you, you can use your reaction to force the creature to make a Wisdom saving throw against your power save DC, which it can choose to fail. On a failure, the creature is teleported to an unoccupied space of your choice that you can see within 30 feet of you.
You can use your reaction in this way a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Biophysical Confusion

At level 10, through careful calculations you beset your enemies with manipulations of the formulae that govern their biophysical processes to reduce their physical capabilities. Once per turn, immediately after dealing damage to a creature, you can force the creature to make a Constitution saving throw against your power save DC. On a failure, the creature has disadvantage on Strength and Dexterity saving throws, and its weapon attacks deal only half damage. These effects last until the start of your next turn.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Quantum Phase Mastery

At level 14, your mathematical expertise extends to altering the probability waves that comprise your physical self and collapsing them in beneficial ways. You gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.
Additionally, you can phase through other creatures and objects, moving throught them as if they were difficult terrain, but you take 1d10 force damage for every 5 feet you move while inside another creature or object. If you end your turn inside a creature or an object, you are shunted into the nearest unoccupied space you last occupied.

Faculty of Psychoanalysis

Members of this faculty specialize in quickly and efficiently pinpointing and exploiting (for good or ill) psychological vulnerabilities in others. Some act as peacemakers and healers who, with subtle telepathic manipulations, convice the violent to lay down their weapons, charm the cruel into showing mercy, or ease the fear in a terrified individual. Others are megalomaniacal and use their insights and control over others' mental states to forceably bend them into submission to their will. Most members of this faculty, however, fall somewhere in between.

Copious Case Studies

At 2nd level, gain one free discipline level in Psychology in addition to your chosen discipline level.

Dazing Analysis

Starting at 2nd level, you can quickly ascertain how to verbally and telepathically manipulate a subject to stupefy it into a state of shock. As an action, choose one creature that you can see within 5 feet of you. If the target can see or hear you, it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your Academic power save DC or be charmed by you until the end of your next turn. The charmed creature's speed drops to 0, and the creature is incapacitated and visibly dazed.
On subsequent turns, you can use your action to maintain this effect, extending its duration until the end of your next turn. However, the effect ends if you move more than 5 feet away from the creature, if the creature can neither see nor hear you, or if the creature takes damage.
Once the effect ends, or if the creature succeeds on its initial saving throw against this effect, you can't use this feature on that creature again until you finish a long rest.

Mental Redirection

Beginning at 6th level, when a creature you can see within 30 feet of you makes an attack roll against you, you can use your reaction to shift their mental attention away from you to divert the attack, provided that another creature is within the attack's range. The attacker must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Academic power save DC. On a failed save, the attacker must target the creature that is closest to it, not including you or itself. If multiple creatures are closest, the attacker chooses which one to target.
On a successful save, you can't use this feature on the attacker again until you finish a long rest.
You must choose to use this feature before knowing whether the attack hits or misses. Creatures that can't be charmed are immune to this effect.

Two Minds Are Better Than One

Starting at 10th level, when you use a psychological power of 1st level or higher that targets only one creature, you can have it target a second creature.

Alter Memories

At 14th level, you gain the ability to make a creature unaware of your symbiotic influence on it. When you use a psychological power to charm one or more creatures, you can alter one creature's understanding so that it remains unaware of being charmed.
Additionally, once before the power's effect expires, you can use your action to try to make the chosen creature forget some of the time it spent charmed. The creature must succeed on an Intelligence saving throw against your Academic power save DC or lose a number of hours of its memories equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). You can make the creature forget less time, and the amount of time can't exceed the duration of your psychological power.

Faculty of Time

Focusing on the manipulation of time, members of this faculty learn to alter the pace of reality to their liking. Using their symbiote as thrusters or anchors in extradimensional space, these Academics can bend the flow of time as adroitly as a skilled musician plays an instrument, lending themselves and their allies an advantage in the blink of an eye.

Temporal Awareness

Starting at 2nd level, you can add your Intelligence modifiers to your initiative rolls.

Chronal Shift

At 2nd level, you can symbiotically exert limited control over the flow of time around a creature. As a reaction, after you or a creature you can see within 30 feet of you makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can force the creature to reroll. You make this decision after you see whether the roll succeeds or fails. The target must use the result of the second roll.
You can use this ability twice, and you regain any expended use when you finish a long rest.

Momentary Stasis

When you reach 6th level, as an action, you can force a Large or smaller creature you can see within 60 feet of you to make a Constitution saving throw against your power save DC. Unless the saving throw is a success, the creature's physical body is placed anchored into temporal stasis until the end of your next turn or until the creature takes any damage. While in temporal stasis, the creature is incapacitated and has a speed of 0.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Delayed Powers

At 10th level, when you use a power with a power slot of 4th level or lower, you can place the effect of that power into temporal stasis which appears as a mote of crystallized symbiotic gel. The power is frozen in time at the moment of activation and held within the gray, crystalline bead for 1 hour. This bead is a Tiny object with AC 15 and 1 hit point, and it is immune to poison and psychic damage. When the duration ends, or if the bead is destroyed, it vanishes in a flash of light, and the power is lost.
A creature holding the bead can use its action to release the power from its temporal stasis, whereupon the bead disappears. The power uses your power attack bonus and save DC, and the power treats the creature who released it as the one using the power for all other purposes.
Once you create a bead with this feature, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

Convergent Future

Starting at 14th level, you can skim through the quantum murk to see possible immediate futures and symbiotically anchor yourself to one of them such that you ensure a particular outcome. When you or a creature you can see within 60 feet of you makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can use your reaction to ignore the die roll and decide whether the number rolled is the minimum needed to succeed or one less than that number (your choice).
When you use this feature, you gain one level of exhaustion. Only by finishing a long rest can you remove a level of exhaustion gained in this way.

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