RiverOtter87's page

Hello! I tried to look for an answer for a bit but I couldn't find one.

I love the Drow in the Alien Archive but I'm wondering if any eye augmentations get rid of their "Light Blindness" trait. No rule in the Augmentations section specifically says this, but common sense would suggest that replacing your eyes completely (say with Darkvision Capacitors) would get rid of the trait.

Is there a place that goes over what traits are replaced by augmentations like this? Even traits like "Keen Senses" or similar seem like they'd be removed by certain augmentations.

Looks pretty good on the first glance
I am homebrewing some weapons myself and are planning on sharing them here too - mind if I put your bows in?

Sure!

The two handed nature of them would have made me put them more on par with longarms than small arms.

That's a fair point. I chose small-arms because the bow in the book was most similar to a projectile small arm in terms of damage and range (just range x2).

Also, if you make it count as a small-arm, the operative becomes pretty good at the bow if they select it. I think the bow fits nicely with the operative class: stealthy, skilled, etc. Making it a longarm conflicts with many of the operative class features.

You could make an argument its could count as a sniper weapon too (requires more careful aim, capable of greater distance). That'd be good for operatives as well. A sniper weapon with quick reload instead of unwieldy would be pretty scary.

You could also just have two tracks for bows: Shortbows track small arms and Longbows track sniper weapons. Or three: hand-crossbows that track small arms, shortbows/crossbows that track longarms, and longbows/heavy crossbows that track sniper weapons.

I think my homebrew accomplishes one thing: making Special Weapon Proficiency (Bows) about as powerful a feat as Far Shot.

Far Shot's advantage is that it applies to all weapons. You can pick up any weapon and make use of it. Special Weapon Proficiency (Bows) advantage is the grenade payload, and slightly better accuracy at range than small arms, but you need to be using a bow.

My homebrew is that bows will count as small arms for the purposes of operative attacks and Weapon Specialization.

Why? Since the level 1 bow has twice the range of the level 1 pistol, it makes Special Weapon Proficiency (Bows) roughly on par with the Far Shot feat. The Far Shot feat applies to all weapons, true, but the Bow can load load grenades so I think they're roughly on the same page. If you required a separate Weapon Specialization, then someone who wants to use a bow is at a significant feat sink for very little payoff.

As for higher-level bows, you can follow the "Projectile Small Arms Track" and double the range. I would also give bows the Analog special trait.

The level 1 Bow the same damage as the tactical semi-auto pistol, twice the range, quick reload, costs almost the same (5 credits less), and requires a special feat to use.

Here would be the progression:

Tactical Bow: Level 1, 260 credits, 1d6 P, 60 ft, 1 Capacity, Usage 1, Bulk L, Quick reload

Advanced Bow: Level 7, 5500 credits, 2d6 P, 120 ft, 1 Capacity, Usage 1, Bulk L, Quick reload

Elite Bow: Level 10, 18200 credits, 3d6 P, 120 ft, 1 Capacity, Usage 1, Bulk L, Quick reload

Paragon Bow: Level 13, 45200 credits, 4d6 P, 120 ft, 1 Capacity, USage 1, Bulk L, Quick reload

Tactical Gybrobow: Level 15, 91500 credits, 3d12 P, 160 ft, Knockdown Critical, 1 Capacity, Usage 1, Bulk L, Quick reload

Advanced Gybrobow: Level 17, 212700 credits, 4d12 P, 160 ft, Knockdown Critical, 1 Capacity, Usage 1, Bulk L, Quick reload

Tactical Gybrobow: Level 20, 715800 credits, 5d12 P, 160 ft, Knockdown Critical, 1 Capacity, Usage 1, Bulk L, Quick reload

I think Hanzo from Overwatch and Hawkeye from the Avengers have proven bows are popular for sci-fi settings. A bow's advantages should be its silence and choice of payload, but it should require special training.

I think these homebrew rules follow that pretty closely.