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Advice on melee and ranged drone mechanic build

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I experimented with various combinations as i wanted to make a few build paths, and would like to hear from people who might have experience using either their drone or mechanic (or both) for melee combat.

I know that the drone is gonna be really squishy, and that although i can rebuild it after 24 hours of work, i cannot change its chassis or any of its component without gaining a level (or the trick later on). So i am trying to find a balance between my rp experience and efficiency.

In all cases the race is Shirren and theme scholar for pure rp reasons which i understand is not optimal.

Idea 1: Reach Tactics
The idea is to equip both characters with reach weapons, and surround single targets who, if decide to move to melee range of one will get hit by an AoO from the other. Obviously this is not a guaranteed stratagem, there are many things the enemy might do, including surround and isolate one of them, but i wonder how i could play around it, especially if i cooperate and protect the party.

For stats i would go for Str 14 Dex 13 Con 12 Int 14 Wis 12 Cha 8 .I am trying to keep a balance between dex, str and int. I feel int is not doing too many things for me and want to focus on the combat potential.

I would eventually get both adv melee and longarms, as well as heavy armor, but maybe not power, and focus on defensive feats. There will not be many slots for feats anyway due to not picking exocortex for the free proficiencies.

Idea 2: Thrown weapons
Instead of pikes and the like, play the mechanic with called or returning fusion thrown weapons and have the drone accompany my party's main melee character.

The prob here is if i am to fight mainly from a distance, why not just equip a regular ranged weapon and keep my distance.?

Idea 3: Classic range
Of all the weapons i liked the Arc rifles from longarms. They have good damage, target EaC, can make full attack and can easily be set to non lethal. Also can be overcharged. In this game the drone would sport a heavy weapon with aoe capabilities, as well as a more single target concentrated armament to suit the circumstances. Suppressive fire looked like a very strong feat to have.

Idea 4: Mounted mayhem
I originally wanted to do reach mounted shenanigans, but i was told that while mounted the drone's movement as my movement, and only i can make an attack so it feels like i am halving my strength for nothing worthwhile, unless i get jetpacks on the drone or something.

Mechanic tricks: Overcharge III looks really good, but mostly for ranged/ranged mech/drone scenario where i am less movement intensive. Shield with upgrades and damage resistant seem to be very strong to keeping me alive, repair drone is necessary, and then it gets a bit difficult to decide. Distracting hack with greater feint, overload, saboteur, mod tinkerer overclocking all look good.

So i keep feeling i should just go for longarm/heavy weapon to play it smart, especially since mount feels so weak and uninspiring. Ideas?

Why would you and your drone not both be able to attack if you are mounted? You use the mechanics control to tell the drone to move, then the ready an action to attack after the drone attacks. The drone moves, using the move action you gave it with the mechanics control feature (sorry I can't remember what it's called right now), then uses it's standard action to attack. Now your readied action goes off because your drone has attacked.
baggageboy wrote:
Why would you and your drone not both be able to attack if you are mounted? You use the mechanics control to tell the drone to move, then the ready an action to attack after the drone attacks. The drone moves, using the move action you gave it with the mechanics control feature (sorry I can't remember what it's called right now), then uses it's standard action to attack. Now your readied action goes off because your drone has attacked.

I was told we are considered one creature with multiple weapons and thus can only attack with one weapon.

I believe you were misinformed.

Has anyone developed a mounted stratagem? Basically we convert pathfinder rules yes?

The mounted rules currently are very sparse. They really need to spend some time fleshing them out a bit as there are lots of ambiguities currently.

I saw a drone mechanic with the stealth drone and mounting it be very very effective. free wall climbing and 40 base speed, plus effectively move and full attack. It was pretty ridiculous. That said you are more of a target for things like AoE attacks as you are two creatures.

From what i found on Pathfinder:

Fast Mount or Dismount: You can mount or dismount as a free action with a DC 20 Ride check. If you fail the check, mounting or dismounting is a move action instead. You can't attempt a fast mount or fast dismount unless you can perform the mount or dismount as a move action in the current round.

If your mount charges, you also take the AC penalty associated with a charge. If you make an attack at the end of the charge, you receive the bonus gained from the charge.

You can use ranged weapons while your mount is taking a double move, but at a -4 penalty on the attack roll. You can use ranged weapons while your mount is running (quadruple speed), at a -8 penalty. In either case, you make the attack roll when your mount has completed half its movement. You can make a full attack with a ranged weapon while your mount is moving. Likewise, you can take move actions normally

If Your Mount Falls in Battle
If your mount falls, you have to succeed on a DC 15 Ride check to make a soft fall and take no damage. If the check fails, you take 1d6 points of damage.

If You Are Dropped
If you are knocked unconscious, you have a 50% chance to stay in the saddle (or 75% if you’re in a military saddle). Otherwise you fall and take 1d6 points of damage.

Your mount acts on your initiative count as you direct it. You move at its speed, but the mount uses its action to move.

Fight with Warhorse
If you direct your war-trained mount to attack in battle, you can still make your own attack or attacks normally. This usage is a free action.

By the way, wouldn't mounted combat be a bad idea? I mean with as fragile as the drone and all my experimentation i reach the conclusion that i should just roll overcharge tier 3 and get heavy exploding weapons on both of us

Exploding weapons can be really bad against the right opponents. If they have evasion you do 0 damage if they save, and the drone's DC isn't very high because of a low dex, same for many mechanics. And half damage isn't very good either for opponents with a good reflex save but no evasion. Just something to keep in mind.

I guess flexibility and different weapons is the right stratagem, but still.

I want to have fun as a drone knight, but its gonna be so problematic due to it being feat intensive, drone being fragile, no real advantages from what i see.

In SF rulebook survival skill has all the actions you can do with the mount as i just discovered, but i dont see anything really worth it, apart from maybe mobility - which is a lot less of an issue for a ranged character anyway.

It can work great, often, because you are on your mount you will be the target instead of your drone, effectively protecting it. Plus it's not as squishy as you might think if you are ranged. Melee is pretty dicey though.

The main advantage is you can move and still both get an attack.

Cant the enemy target the drone directly?

They can, but then you are not being targeted, an usually you are doing more damage than your drone. It does mean that the drone repair trick is pretty much mandatory, and having a technomancer with mend and eventually make whole is also helpful. you can do it, just know that you need to get out if your drone is getting targeted too much.

So you get some mobility, maybe jetpack/climbing value, the ability to drop into cover (which is questionable since the drone AC just scales so poorly with our own speeds up, and bonus points for style. Plus for a melee build you need to spend more points on strength, but dex ac is too useful.

Damn it i want my drone knight to be thicc not weak.

I am also reading the other threads on it, and i was under the impression that "You can direct your drone mount in battle without attempting Survival checks." included all actions in the survival-ride subsection:

Control mount in battle
Cover
Fight with a combat-trained mount
Leap
Spur mount
Fast mount or dismount
Guide with knees
Soft fall
Stay mounted
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