Pathfinder 2 - Building a Medium type investigator

[Dezea]

Hey !

I'm quite new to PF2, having played a lot of PF - and being used to be able to build pretty much whatever I want to thanks to the long list of options provided with PF1.

I'm about to DM agent of absalom for a group of mostly newbies, and I would like them to be able to play whatever character concept they have in mind. For pretty much all of them, PF2 provide option for it, but one of them want to play a medium, employed by the watch as a side-operator to investigate haunt and spirit. She clearly want to be able to talk with the dead and be in that whole "The dead have answers" kind of thing.

I was thinking about having her roll an investigator and just chance the fluff of the classes - You don't get logical deduction, but you instead have the local spirit talk to you - but this is also because of my poor knowledge of PF2. I was wondering if any of you would know how do to this "properly", with the right classes and archetype ?

Thanks a lot for your help, and I apologize in advance : English is not my native tongue and I hope that this text is not a huge pain to read.

[Xihirli]

If you’re familiar with dedications, there’s one called "psychic."
Basically you can make an investigator, and staring at level 2 they can take Psychic feats instead of their class feats.

[Dezea]

I'm looking at it and while it gives some psychic power, they doesn't seems so much in the vibe of "Speaking with the dead and meeting ghost". I could absolutely be missing something tho :/

[Serafina]

Hopefully this is not too late, but anyhow.
First, you can do some amount of "Talk to Spirits" via Skill Feats, particularly from Occultism.
Second, I'd recommend other Archetypes than Psychic.

For Skill Feats, look at Automatic Writing (https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=3771) (Recall Knowledge with any Lore 1/day due to spirits aiding you), Reveal True Name (https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=3028) (if you know a targets true name, get a better Indimidate), Psychometric Resonance (https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=3776)(get visions from touching items), Root Magic (https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=2147) (give 1 ally/day +1 circumstance bonus to saves vs. Haunts - this feat is weak TBH, you could have it apply to each ally/day and it'd be fine) and Consult the Spirits (https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=2117) (spirits information about the environment within 100 feet).

To interact with Spirits, you likely want effects that interact with Haunts (https://2e.aonprd.com/Search.aspx?q=haunt&include-types=feat&display=list), or perhaps also ones that deal with possession. You can get those from several sources:

Pathfinder Agent (https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=13)'s Spiritual Explorer. This just provides "always count as Searching vs. Haunts", but the Dedication is also quite good (use your level rather than +0 for untrained skills)
Haunt Ingenuity (https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=3701) from Thaumaturge. This provides the same bonus as above, but you also need less proficiency to Disable Haunts.
The Lantern-Implement from Investigator. This is available a bit later (level 6), doesn't make Disabling easier, but also comes with +1 to Perception and Recall Knowledge.
Investigate Haunting from the Ghost Hunter (https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=88)archetype. This archetype also provides a good means to bargain with spirits (using Spirit or Haunt lore to Make an Impression or Request), as well as some minor Spellcasting and the also-useful Peer Beyond feat.
Exorcist (https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=171) gains several good ways to interact with Haunts and Possession.
Echo of the Fallen (https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=3750) allows benevolent possession (very Medium-like) and gives a flexible Expert/Master/Legendary skill proficiency and Trained/Expert weapon proficiency



Personally, I'd take the following:

Read Psychometric Resonance
Automatic Writing skill feat
Consult the Spirits skill feat
Echo of the Fallen aftermath feat at 4th level
if allowed, and you have Free Archetype, Exorcist Dedication at 2nd level, Spirit's Absolution at 4th level, and Spiritual Sense at 6th level (this is all 2 levels earlier than otherwise allowed)
otherwise, Ghost Hunter Dedication, Investigate Haunting, and any other feats you can squeeze in


This gives you extra proficiency with Skills, and some dedicated Haunt-related abilities, which feels quite Medium-y to me.

But by all means, take one of the other Archetypes - they all have something nice to offer!