Arcforge Players Compendium
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Author's Note
In the rework of the spheres options in the Arcforge Players Compendium, the Pilot Sphere was revised and split into multiple talents that are now contained within the Artifice and Athletics spheres rather than being a distinct sphere. The original version of the sphere is kept here for posterity, but the author suggests that players and GMs use the updated rules for mechs and their associated sphere abilities which can be found elsewhere.
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Table of Contents
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Arcforge Campaign Setting: Spheres Left Behind
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Pilots excel at getting the most out of whatever vehicle they command, be it a motorbike, a flying galleon, or a starfaring dreadnought.
When you gain the Pilot sphere, you gain one of the following packages with its included abilities. You may take the Expanded Piloting talent to gain additional packages.
Each package has an associated movement mode and an associated skill. Some abilities require you to be using an associated movement mode to function. When you gain a package, you gain 5 ranks in its associated skill, plus 5 ranks per additional talent spent in the Pilot sphere (maximum ranks equal to your total Hit Dice). If you already have ranks in the associated skill you may immediately retrain them, but you do not get to retrain when only temporarily gaining talents, such as through the armiger’s customized weapons class feature. In addition, you gain the following ability.
Adept Pilot
When piloting a vehicle, you may benefit from any movement-related sphere abilities you possess, substituting your package’s associated skill for any skill checks called for by those abilities. The piloted vehicle must still possess movements modes appropriate to the packages you possess.
Special: Animal companions, Conjuration sphere companions, drake companionsLRW, eidolonsACG, familiars, and other similar companion creatures cannot gain this sphere or talents from this sphere.
The Disrupted Condition
Disrupted is a new condition that can be applied to technological equipment, magical equipment, and vessels with certain abilities. While disrupted, the item’s electronic or magical components cannot be activated, although constant effects remain in place (for example, a character would still benefit from the bonuses to AC granted by their armor, but could not activate enhancements such as determination or armor upgrades such as a forcepack. A disrupted vehicle cannot be made to move or act, its controls locking up for the duration of the effect. The disrupted condition can be removed from a piece of equipment with a standard action.
Vehicle Rules to Use
There are numerous rules that exist for vehicles, not all of them compatible with each other. As a result, designing a sphere based on vehicular combat is rather difficult and forces choices as to what vehicle rules to prioritize. The Pilot sphere is designed with the following vehicle rules in mind and can be used with any or all of them.
- The rules for Mechs and Companion Vehicles (collectively referred to as vessels here) presented in Arcforge: Technology Expanded
- The rules for Starships in the Starfinder Core Rulebook
Pilot Packages
Naval
When you are piloting a vessel and would make a swim check, you may use your associated skill in place of Swim.
Associated Skill: Profession (sailor) or Piloting
Stellar
When a vessel you are piloting is targeted by an attack or subject to a Reflex save, you may spend martial focus and an attack of opportunity to make a Ride check and use the result in place of the vehicle’s AC or Reflex save result, if higher. While in starship combat, you automatically succeed at checks made to Evade.
Associated Skill: Fly or Piloting
Terrestrial
When you perform the mount or dismount action on a vessel, you regain your martial focus.
Associated Skill: Ride or Piloting
Pilot Talents
Assured Repair
On skill checks made to repair a vessel or starship, you may take 20 on checks made to determine how much you repair or how much it costs to repair. Taking 20 in this way does not require extra time.
Bonus Customization
One of your mechs or companion vehicles gains a bonus customization that it meets the prerequisites for. Though you can select this talent as many times as you wish, a single mech or companion vehicle can only benefit once, plus an additional time for every 5 ranks you possess in any of your Associated Skills. Associated Feat: Extra Mech EnhancementATE
Companion Vessel
You gain your own personal mechATE or companion vehicleATE. Your effective pilot level for this companion is equal to your ranks in your associated skill -3 (minimum 1). If you already possess a mech or companion vehicle or if you take this talent a second time, your effective pilot level for all of your mechs and companion vehicles increases by 4, to a maximum of your character level. Your effective pilot level stacks with those from other sources to a maximum of your character level.
You may take this talent any number of times. For every time after the second that you select it, you gain an additional mech or companion vehicle of your pilot level.
Should a mech or companion vehicle be lost or destroyed, you may build a replacement over the course of 1 week. Abilities that grant talents temporarily, such as taking the Extra Combat Talent feat with martial flexibility or gaining it from an armiger’s customized weapon can not be used to gain this talent. Associated Feats: Custom VehicleATE, Mech MasterATE, Mech PilotingATE
Cruise Control
As long as you maintain martial focus, you reduce the action cost required to pilot a vessel by one step (full round > standard > move > swift > free), though you can never reduce the action cost required to utilize an immediate action.
Damage Deflection
When a vehicle you are piloting would take damage, you may expend martial focus as an immediate action to cause the vehicle to take all of the damage for the attack as opposed to both you and the vehicle taking half of the damage. The damage cannot be redirected in any other ways.
Emergency Repair
As a standard action (or as a swift action if you expend martial focus), you can temporarily patch up a vessel that has been reduced to 0 hit points. For 1 round per rank in the associated skill you possess or until the vehicle takes damage, you may pilot the vehicle as if it were not destroyed. A vehicle can only be affected by this talent once per hour.
Additionally, when filling the engineer role during starship combat, once per combat you can perform the hold it together action in the same round you perform another engineering action.
Expanded Piloting
Select a piloting package that you do not possess. You gain that package. You may select this talent multiple times, each time selecting a new package.
Incredible Piloting
You gain a bonus to checks made with your associated skills equal to half your ranks in the associated skill, to a maximum of +10 at 20 ranks. Associated Feat: Skill Focus (any of your associated skills)
Head-on Collision
While charging and piloting a vessel, you may expend martial focus as part of the charge. If you do, you do double damage on the first successful attack you make as part of the charge.
Integrated Mech
You can convert a mech into a set of cybernetic body armor. If your mech is currently larger than your size, it is broken down for parts and converted into a same sized creature; characters with multiple mechs may choose one to receive this reconfiguration. If the mech had previously benefited from size increases for level, it instead increases its base Dexterity bonus by +2 and gains 10 additional hit points; if the mech had taken any size increasing enhancements, it may retrain any that would increase its base size above that of its pilot. While the mech is converted in this manner, you gain several benefits: you gain a +5 bonus to disguise checks to make the mech appear as a standard suit of armor, your arms (if you have any) are not occupied by piloting and may be used to wield weapons as normal, and you may pilot a mech up to one size smaller than yourself. There are also a few minor drawbacks: your mech now causes 15% spell failure due to its more confined configuration interfering with fine movements, you cannot stack weapon slots to wield a weapon more than one size category larger than yourself, and if the mech is smaller than your size, its bonuses to Strength and Dexterity are decreased by two points (minimum 0). You may benefit from the AC bonus from a shield if you are using an integrated mech, but not from armor or natural armor bonuses to AC (such as from an amulet of natural armor) Associated Feat: Cybernetic IntegrationATE
Keep Intact
As long as you maintain martial focus, whenever a vessel you are piloting would take damage, you may choose to take all of the damage rather than only half of it. If you do, the vehicle you are piloting does not take damage. Your vehicle’s hardness does not apply to this damage and the damage cannot be redirected in any other ways.
Moving Target
Whenever you are driving a vessel and move at least 30 feet in a round, you and the vessel gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC until the start of your next turn. If the vessel has the Boost or Throttle ability and you activate it before or during this movement, you instead gain a +4 dodge bonus to AC from this ability. In starship combat, any ship you are piloting gains a +2 bonus to AC and TL any time it moves more than 6 hexes.
One with the Machine
As long as you maintain martial focus, you may use your Strength or Dexterity scores in the place of the Strength or Dexterity scores of any vehicle you are piloting. In starship combat, you may use your Dexterity modifier in place of your starship’s TL bonus from countermeasures.
Pilot’s Savvy
You may use your ranks in one of your Associated Skills in place of your ranks in any other skills for the purpose of repairing or modifying vehicles and for performing any role in starship combat. You may use your ranks in any one of your associated skills in place of your ranks in Craft (mechanical), Engineering, and Knowledge (engineering) for the purpose of meeting prerequisites.
Portable Power
You can supply limited power for up to 1 minute to a computer or starship system that lacks power. If this system is part of a much larger network, this talent does not supply power to the entire network, just to a limited point of access (typically a terminal), which might greatly limit functionality. You may use this on a companion vehicle to cause it not deplete charges for 1 minute. Once you have used portable power on a system or vehicle, you cannot do so again on that specific system or vehicle for 24 hours.
Quick Patching
When you attempt to patch a system on a starship, you reduce the number of actions required to do so by one. This does not reduce the time needed to patch a glitching system, but you can patch two systems with one action. In addition, you may expend martial focus as a move action to heal a vessel you are piloting by a number of hit points equal to your ranks in one of your associated skills. A vessel can only benefit from this healing once every 24 hours.
Rapid Repurposing
The time it takes you to alter a vessel’s body type and enhancements is reduced to 1 hour for every 2 hit dice the vessel possesses. In addition, as long as you maintain martial focus, you grant any vessel you are piloting a bonus enhancement which you may change every time you regain martial focus. In addition, you can spend 1 day to refit any number of starship systems and weapons on a single starship.
Ready for Action
When you perform the mount or dismount action on a vehicle, you regain your martial focus.
Remote Piloting
If you have piloted a vessel within the last hour or the vessel is a companion vessel for you, you may pilot the vessel without having to be inside it so long as it remains within medium range. This requires spending actions as normal. You may also use this ability with Starships.
Seize Control
As a standard action, you may attempt a combat maneuver check against a disrupted vessel. If you succeed, you remove the pilot from the cockpit and enter the cockpit yourself, becoming the pilot of the vessel. You cannot use this ability to pilot another’s companion vessel, although you may still eject the pilot. You must be touching the vessel in order to use this ability unless you possess the Remote Piloting talent, in which case you can use it on a disrupted vessel within range of that ability.
Self-Destruct Sequence
By expending martial focus as swift action, you may set any vessel you are piloting to self-destruct. You may have the vehicle self-destruct immediately or delay its destruction by a number of rounds up to your practitioner modifier. When the vessel explodes, it deals 2d6 points of force damage per hit die to all creatures within 30 feet of the vessel. For every size the vessel is above medium, this radius increases by 10 feet to a maximum of 70 feet for colossal vessels. In starship combat, the starship’s explosion deals 2d6 points of damage per starship tier (minimum 2d6) to all other starships within 1 hex of the self-destructing starship.
Shattering Crash
When you make a melee attack with a vessel’s weapons, you may spend martial focus as part of the attack. If the attack hits, the target must succeed at a Fortitude save or have all equipment it is carrying or piloting become disrupted for a number of rounds equal to your practitioner modifier. Constructs are not immune to this effect.
Speedster
When you’re using a device to move (including magic items, but not spells or natural flight), your speed increases by 10 feet. If you are operating a vehicle, its fly speed increases by 10 (though this has no impact on its full speed or overland movement speed). When you are in the pilot role of starship combat, your starship’s speed increases by 1. You may expend martial focus as a free action to double these bonuses for one round. Associated Feat: Sky Jockey
Sturdy Pilot
Whenever you mount a vessel, the vessel gains a pool of temporary hit points that regenerate at a rate of 1 per minute up to a maximum amount equal to your ranks in one of your associated skills; your vessel starts at 1 temporary hit point when you mount and these hit points disappear immediately if you begin your turn not mounted in that vessel. You may expend martial focus to replenish these temporary hit points. In starship combat, you may add your ranks in an associated skill to the total shield points of any starship you are piloting.
Swift Repair
You may repair mechs at a rate of 5 hp per hour rather than per day using Craft (mechanical) checks. When repairing a starship, you reduce the time spent to 1 hour of work instead of 5.
Temperature Control
You know how to use the heating and cooling systems of a vessel skillfully and can even weaponize them. For the purpose of reducing cold, electricity, and fire damage, the hardness of any vessel you are piloting is increased by half your ranks in one of your associated skills. In addition, you may have any attacks made with your piloted vessel’s weapons deal additional fire or cold damage equal to half your ranks in an associated skill so long as you have martial focus. If you expend martial focus, this bonus damage is doubled for one round.
Thruster Burn
As a standard action while piloting a vessel, you may spend martial focus to blast the area around you with your vessel’s thrusters. This deals 1d6 points of fire damage for every rank you possess in one of your associated skills to all creatures within 10 feet of your vessel (reflex save half). If you have at least 10 ranks in one of your associated skills, the range of this ability increases from 10 feet to 20 feet. While piloting a starship, you may deal 1 point of damage per starship tier to any starship you are sharing a hex with.
Legendary Talents
Autopilot
Prerequisite: cruise control
The action cost reduction from cruise control increases by 1 additional step. You may take this advanced talent up to three times, each time reducing the cost by 1 additional step.
Brutal Collision
Prerequisite: head-on collision, 11 ranks in an associated skill
When you use head-on collision, the damage is tripled rather than doubled.
Gattai Sequence
Prerequisite: 11 ranks in an associated skill
By expending martial focus as a full-round action, you gain the ability to call together willing constructs or piloted vessels (referred to as components) within close range to combine into a single massive war machine.
The fused construct has the combined hit points of all components used to create it. For each of its ability scores, the fused construct’s score is the highest among the components, and the fused construct also has the highest Hit Dice among the components for the purpose of base attack bonus, saving throws, and other effects. The fused being has all mech enhancements of its components. The fused construct gains an additional +2 to one of its ability scores for each component beyond the second that makes up its form (the bonus to any one ability score cannot exceed half your ranks in an associated skill), and is one size larger than the largest component (this increases to two sizes larger if at least three components compose the fused construct, or three sizes larger if more). If any of the components are piloted, the pilots all share a cockpit, working together to command the creature as a whole rather than any specific weapons it may wield from component parts.
After a number of rounds equal to your ranks in an associated skill, the fused construct separates. The other components appear in an area adjacent to each other that you determine. Damage taken by the fused construct is split evenly between all components and their pilots at the end of the effect, while any ongoing effects are applied to a single randomly determined component construct. You cannnot leave the fusion with more hit points than you entered it with, unless you were damaged prior to the fusion and were subsequently healed. If a fused construct is destroyed, it separates into its constituent constructs, all of which are also destroyed.
Hyperwave Signal
Prerequisite: Remote piloting
There is no limit to the range with which you can use remote piloting.
Personal Starship
Prerequisites: Stellar Package, 10 ranks in an associated skill
You gain your own personal starship of tier 1/4. For every rank beyond 10 you have in an associated skill, this tier increases by 1 step, going to tier ⅓ at 11 ranks, ½ at 12 ranks, 1 at 13 ranks, and increasing by an additional 1 every rank thereafter (to a maximum of tier 8 at 20th level).
Personal Starship Scale
The personal starship is not intended to replace the starship that the party might collectively possess and utilize. Rather, it is a personal craft for a single character to utilize both in starship combat and in character-to-character combat (see Star Battles for rules on using starships in normal combat).
If a character doesn’t plan to use their personal starship in typical character-scale combat, then it may be acceptable to remove the skill rank requirements for this talent and making the tier or the personal starship equal to the character’s ranks in the associated skill -2 (minimum rank ¼, going up to ½ at 2 ranks and 1 at 3 ranks).
Conscript Specialization: Pilot
Companion Vessel (Ex): At 3rd level, the conscript gains a mech or companion vehicle using his conscript level as his pilot level
Enhanced Piloting (Ex): At 8th level, the conscript gains a +1 bonus which he can apply to any mech, starship, or vehicle he is piloting. This bonus can be allocated in any of the following features and can be reallocated as a standard action (or as a swift action by expending martial focus). At 10th level and every 2 levels thereafter, the conscript gains an additional +1 bonus which he can apply to either the same feature or another feature.
- Insight bonus to the mech, starship, or vehicle’s AC (and TL in the case of a starship)
- Insight bonus to attack and damage rolls with the mech, starship, or vehicle’s weapons
- Insight bonus on saving throws made by the conscript while in the mech, starship, or vehicle
- Insight bonus to all Athletics, Acrobatics, Climb, Fly, Piloting, and Ride checks made by the conscript while in the mech, starship, or vehicle
- A 5-foot increase in all of the vessel’s movement speeds for every +1 allocated in this feature. In the case of a starship, it’s speed increases by 1 for every 2 points allocated in this feature
- A increase in the vessel’s hardness equal to the number of bonuses allocated in this feature. In the case of a starship, Any damage to the starship’s hull is reduced by 1 for every point allocated in this feature
- The mech, starship, or vehicle gains fast healing equal to the number of bonuses allocated in this feature
Master Pilot: At 20th level, a conscript is always treated as though they rolled a natural 20 when making a Fly, Piloting, Profession (sailor), or Ride check. In addition, they treat all features as having 4 additional points of bonus allocated in them at all times.
Prodigy Integrated Techniques: Pilot
Daring Maneuver (link): The prodigy succeeds at a skill check using their associated skill from the Pilot sphere
Into the Fray (opener): The prodigy mounts or dismounts a vessel.
Sphere-Specific Drawbacks
Cyborg Pilot
Your piloting ability is restricted to form-fitting vessels. You gain the integrated mech talent when you select this drawback. However, your pilot sphere abilities do not function with normal vehicles, instead only operating on cybernetically integrated mechs. You can never gain a companion vessel which does not or cannot utilize the integrated mech talent.
Sealed in the Machine
Your vessel is a part of you that you can never fully leave behind. You gain the Companion Vessel talent as a bonus talent. However, you treat your companion vessel as part of your body, being unable to willingly leave it. If you possess multiple companion vessels, you may transfer yourself between them in a process that takes 1 round. If your companion vessel is destroyed while you are inside it, you may attempt to repair it as normal.
Untrained Pilot
You do not gain a package. You gain the Companion Vessel talent from this drawback. You may have your companion vessel scale off of your base attack bonus rather than your ranks in an associated skill.
New Feats
Supernatural Pilot Bond
Your magic power flows through your vessel
Benefit: Any mech or vehicle your are piloting gains the share spells ability of a familiar as well as the share powers ability of a psicrystalUP.