| 2 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
I have a number of questions I would like to submit for possible future FAQ responses. These are questions that my play group have run into while trying to get our campaign started.
Needlers: There's a bunch of threads on these.
INJECTION
This weapon or its ammunition can be filled with a drug, an injury poison, or a medicinal compound. On a successful attack with the weapon (either the first attack if it’s a melee weapon or an attack with the relevant piece of ammunition if it’s a ranged weapon), the weapon automatically injects the target with the substance. Refilling the weapon with a new substance acts as reloading it and is a move action. Each different injectable material must be bought separately and can be used in any weapon with the injection special property. See rules and prices for drugs, medicinals, and poisons.
1.) Does this rule mean "On a successful attack with the weapon... the weapon automatically injects the target with the substance instead of dealing normal damage" or "On a successful attack with the weapon... the weapon automatically injects the target with the substance in addition to dealing normal damage"?
2.) Should Serums be added to the Injection rule in addition to drugs, medicinals and poisons as per the description of Darts:
DARTS
These light metal shafts each have a pointed tip and a reservoir to hold toxins or other appropriate substances that are typically liquid or viscous. While most combatants rely on darts to deliver toxins to enemies, particularly desperate or overworked field medics sometimes employ darts to conveniently deliver antitoxins, healing serums, and other beneficial drugs across a crowded battlefield. In these cases, medics often practice to improve their aim to ensure that this strategy is effective when employed.
Mechanic Class
Skill Synergy as a Drone Feat:
SKILL SYNERGY
You understand how two skills work well together.
Benefit: Choose two skills. These skills become class skills for you. If one or both were already class skills, you gain a +2 insight bonus to those skill checks instead.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Its effects don’t stack. Each time you take it, it applies to two different skills.
1.) If I choose Skill Synergy as a feat for my drone, the drone may gain two class skills, but RAW it does not appear that the drone gains any ranks in those skills when I do so. Is the drone supposed to gain ranks equal to its level when you select this option (as it does for mods and class features that grant class skills), or does it simply gain class skills with no ranks?
Skill Unit (Ex) 1st Level
Choose one of the following skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Computers, Engineering, Perception, or Stealth. This is a class skill for your drone, and it gains a number of ranks in the chosen skill equal to your class level. Your drone can use this skill when not under your direct control. You can change your drone’s skill unit whenever you rebuild your drone from scratch. Additionally, whenever you are directly controlling your drone, it can use any of your skill ranks if you wish, assuming it has the appropriate tools to do so (a drone without manipulator arms cannot use Engineering to disable a device, for example).
1.)It is clear that the drone's class skills are tracked separately from the Mechanic's class skills. When I control my drone directly as described under the Skill Unit ability, does it use the Mechanic's list of class skills to determine which skills receive a +3 bonus, its own list or both?
Mechanic's Control Net Class Feature:
CONTROL NET (EX) 17TH LEVEL
You are capable of operating multiple AIs, one in a drone and one in an exocortex. You must divide up your mechanic level between these different AIs, and each gains abilities based on the number of levels you assign to it. Every time you gain a level in mechanic, you can change the distribution of levels between these AIs using your custom rig after 24 hours of uninterrupted work. While each AI can act independently to the limits of its ability, you can control them as normal (although you can directly control only one AI at a time). If the number of levels assigned to your exocortex is less than your mechanic level, your exocortex grants a smaller increase to your base attack bonus when using combat tracking, as noted in the table below. You gain additional exocortex abilities, such as wireless hack and multitasking, based upon the level you assign to it as normal.
1.) No details are given for what happens if you choose to invest 0 levels in one of the AIs. Can you drop one of the AI's level to zero or is there a minimum level of 1 for each AI? If there IS a minimum level of 1 for each AI, how can either ever reach level 20?
2.)If you drop the level of one of your AIs to zero, would it even exist?
3.)If you drop your exocortex's level to zero, you would presumably lose proficiency with heavy armor and longarms. What if you were using those proficiencies as prerequisites for feats, such as Heavy Weapons or Powered Armor? Would you lose access to those advanced proficiencies?
I have a number of questions I would like to submit for possible future FAQ responses.
Opinions:
Needler: I don't think that the needler was meant to deal damage in addition to delivering its payload. If I were running a game I'd let the players do a medicine check to negate the damage at the very least.
Serums: I am pretty sure these were always supposed to be on the list. It's just awkwardly split between the description for Darts and the Needler special rule.
Drones w/Skill Synergy: I want someone to rule that you get skill ranks equal to the drone's level, but I'm not optimistic. A feat worth two mods? Unlikely.
Direct Drone Control: Probably uses the drone's class skill list, but there's compelling arguments for using the mechanic's or both. If you're using the pilot's skill ranks, then why not their class skills? Who is really performing the action? What is best for game balance?
Control Net: The only good ruling I see here is that you count your level as being one higher for purposes of splitting up levels, and the minimum level either device can have is 1. There are a couple of other possible rulings that are more likely, but I find them completely undesirable.
1.) You can set one of the AIs to level zero and gain no mechanical benefit from this class feature. This one is probably going to be the ruling. Huge sadface.
2.) You have to assign at least one level to the new AI. Neither AI can reach level 20, ever. Doesn't make much sense so it probably isn't the ruling.
Needler: I don't think that the needler was meant to deal damage in addition to delivering its payload. If I were running a game I'd let the players do a medicine check to negate the damage at the very least.
The needler was definitely meant to deal damage. Its intended use is delivering poisons and drugs, not healing potions. It does certainly seem that you CAN deliver healing serums or other beneficial effects, but you have to take the drawback of dealing damage on top of that, because it really was meant to be used against enemies.
I disagree 100% with the idea that the needler was absolutely meant to deal damage in this scenario as well as that it was intended to be used vs. enemies. I noted the spot I think is ambiguous above. I think that there's so much ambiguity and contradiction between the needler, injection and dart rules that it looks like healing serums are an edge case that the designers intended to include but did not thoroughly explore and document in the rulebook. I don't feel like it's possible to make a really good call in this situation because of how much weirdness and ambiguity exists in the definition of these rules. Which is why I think this needs an FAQ.
In terms of whether it's intended to target enemies, even the description of the weapon indicates it's used by healers on their allies.
I now have one more thing I'd also like FAQ'd, and that is whether drones count as a "character" that can take on a role in starship combat or not. There's a separate thread on that, but I thought I'd add it to my list here. Basic arguments are:
1.) Drone is not a PC or an NPC, it's a class feature and class features can't be used unless explicitly stated.
Vs.
2.) If it has a creature type and takes actions independently of the character and has the right skills and the proper arms or tools to do the job then it is a character and can have a role on the ship just as an NPC would.
There's a lot of posts about all of these different subjects, I'm less trying to debate the ruling, because I don't think it's particularly useful to debate in any of these cases. The information simply isn't covered. And that's why I think it all needs to be FAQ'd. The only way you can make a ruling in any of these cases is to cherry pick rules to prove a point, and you can do that in either direction in most cases.