I haven't found anything that states if reduced rounds (surprise round or the staggered condition) are a subtraction of action (that you could then add more actions to) or a hard cap (if you're staggered, you can't take more than a standard action no matter what).
Surprise rounds allow a standard action or move action and a swift action. Any full attack or full round actions wouldn't be permitted.
I don't have the answer for all scenarios, but for instance Haste only has an effect if you take the full attack action. So, it does nothing for you in a surprise round.
Other abilities would depend on how they're worded.
Master Control is an interesting question though, because it says you're only allowed a move or standard + swift. So a mechanic could donate their action, but the drone is theoretically limited to only a standard or move, so I think it would effectively be a wasted action.
Master Control is an interesting question though, because it says you're only allowed a move or standard + swift. So a mechanic could donate their action, but the drone is theoretically limited to only a standard or move, so I think it would effectively be a wasted action.
Master Control is the situation that spawned this question - I had a mechanic in my game who used his action to grant his drone the ability to move and then fire. I allowed it on the fly, but there's nothing under Master Control that defines behavior in a surprise round and there's nothing under surprise round that speaks to drones.
I probably would rule that the drone has the same restrictions on actions as other characters (because it shouldn't be allowed to gain a full attack action during a surprise round) and I would rule that using Master's Control would be a waste and advise the player not to do it.
Master's Control isn't /technically/ a complete waste, because you could still use a move action to grant it a standard action to attack. Sure, it couldn't move, but assuming it has a ranged weapon - and since it's your major class feature it probably has a better weapon than you - that might be better than taking an action yourself.
Limited AI allows the drone to take either a move or standard action on it's own. There is no need for the Mechanic to use Master's Control to give it a standard action, as it will already have one available to it.