Best way to get grenade prof on a Biohacker / Mechanic?

[Zwordsman]

Howdy

What do you think is the best way for a class like Biohacker or Mechanic to get proficiency for it?

Tech revolution has the new Experimental Explosives mechanic alternate class feature! This lets you make free grenades every day. Its quite neat. However, I'd love to get a grenade launcher under the weapon. I love the under the barrel grenade launcher. Plus it means less issues with range and annoyance with drawing and throwing a grenade with a long arm.

I'm thinking about mixing mechanic into my biohacker now; since biohacker has so many dead levels. Adding in grenades also fixes the issue with injection weapons and hacker's lack of ability to deal with certain situations. But no profiency means -4. Which doesn't hurt hitting intersections. But it does decrease the DC due to it.

So, since neither class starts with Long Arms, it would require quite a few proficiency feats to get long arm and then heavy weapons to avoid that..

[Wesrolter]

Mechanics are already proficient with grenades

Edit. So are Biohackers from my PDF...

Edit 2. If your talking about the Grenade launcher, I would say look at races, I have seen a couple with some weapon proficiencies as a bonus or a dip into Soldier. Bombard would give you a bonus grenade while something like the Blitz would be a nice Initiative boost and extra movement

[BigNorseWolf]

Dipping away from the grenade mechanic would lower the level of the grenades you can make, so dipping is a rough proposition, i level on a grenade is everything.

Since you don't need weapon focus to hit the ac 5 square, and specilization won't help you, proficiency in the grenade launcher is a mere 1 feat for heavy weapon proficiency. That makes it a much better investment than normal where people using off class weapons need weapon prof. weapon focus and weapon spec.

[Garretmander]

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Dipping away from the grenade mechanic would lower the level of the grenades you can make, so dipping is a rough proposition, i level on a grenade is everything.

Since you don't need weapon focus to hit the ac 5 square, and specilization won't help you, proficiency in the grenade launcher is a mere 1 feat for heavy weapon proficiency. That makes it a much better investment than normal where people using off class weapons need weapon prof. weapon focus and weapon spec.

Two feats for an experimental explosives mechanic. Longarm then heavy prof.

I'd still consider two feats to be the preferable cost over a level outside of mechanic though. Getting max level grenades is very important to the character.

[Zwordsman]

Whups yep grenade launcher.

I'm still toying with the idea. but biohacker's got a long sludge of time between where very ltitle in the class alters and they have a lot of situations they can't interact with. so I'm ponderin taking in some weird directions. Paritcularly as they have the alternate class feature for auto biohacks which kind of removes a lot of use of injection-excluding getting the to hit boost.
So wouldn't be the main focus but would be a nice option.

Better to enjoy what you're playing now than plan for something that might not come for a very long time~

as for profiency, Reddit's suggestion of the Ioun STone for profieincy is pretty good. Credit cost.

[Garretmander]

I didn't even think about the aeon stone. That probably is the best bet, even if you lose the item you can still throw the grenades normally. How many levels into biohacker are you?

[BigNorseWolf]

Biohacker is a heck of a 1 level dip for any int based class (hello perception and sense motive and the ability to apply a unique -2 to your opponents AC)

But biohacker doesn't seem to get anything really good till level 5. I have an int based mystic with a dip in biohacker and people don't realize he's NOT a full biohacker until the party gets in trouble and he starts tossing AOE heals.

[Zwordsman]

Pretty decently in the levels there. But its also a slow progression game. So its making the slow/hollow points of Biohacker feel a lot more empty .

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small tangent on Biohackers. My fav but also such a slog for a lot of levels:

Yeah the breakthrough is nice. but since you never get More Shots, nor do those shot debuffs get stronger. So I never get to the point where I can fire a ton; nor do they get to the point where they cause large scale buff/debuff that truly shakes things up. (the +1AC for instance is great at lower; but later on that +1 isn't worth the action compared to an attack or cover/harrying) It always feels too static. Never gain much more options.
Plus so many things conflict with each other. Field Dressings doesn't work with ranged but a lot of the chasis wants ranged. I still wish you could fire those like Hacks or Medicines. It doesn't heal more than any other ranged healing hp or stamina. Plus you risk losing it if you don't use the Auto-hit class feature.
You get more fields of study; but they compete with current fields and the limited biohack. 10min restore is pretty easy; more so when you don't have much use with RP. But I still feel like I wish it was 1/2+int amount. They're not spells, they don't have as much world changing.

Plus so many things are 1/day in the class.

The new injection weapons does help that dead feeling 'cause they can take up some more unique rolls. The damaging sniper for instance I'm finding highly appealing because it chan switch around abit. Reload will be a bit annoying. making things shine is neat.

currently almost all I do as a biohacker could be done with that level 1 dip. Particularly if paired with a mechanic (like the explosive) I'd get a ton of extra options without much penalty. Except for my siceking shot. Which I do really enjoy. Though I want to switch that to Anesthegiologist. Fatigued is fairly comparable, non lethal damage boost is nice. Has an effect even if they make the save. and if they fail multiple biohacks in a row they can become exhausted I think. Just that combo alone makes it feel useful.

I wish a lot more of the unique biohackers weren't lv 12+ The bleeding one is new and I adore it; but I dn't think tis terribly useful at the level it unlocks. Wish it was lower and scaled up.

Its still my favorite class. but it really feels too static stuck between Biohack's scaling, the single target only nature, and being locked into the weapons if one wants to use the hacks/bonus to hit. Thre isn't a lot of other options. Granted I love hitting -1penalty and 50% speed debuff.
I still wish the thought from playtest came in. Spending Resolve Points to quick refill biohacks, or using them to re-use 1/day things. Like Spark of Genius or the Tranq Dart. I don't know the last time I used RP other than stamina restoration specifically for biohacks when the timing works.

(Witchwarper is also a fav. but I hate playing charisma based. Am looking forward to sometime taking it out for a spin with Int or Cha replaced!)
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If anyone was wanting to 1 dip into biohacker. They should absolutely take the Alternate Class that came out in Tech Rev. The ability to set and automatically apply biohacks removes the biggest issue with the buffing. The action economy. It becomes an on tap thing if the triggers are set up approriately (Depends on GM; but I imagine most would allow alot). you lose the minor biohacks but you're probably not going to use injection weapons. So you get all these skills and benefits, and you can preapply the biohacks.
If I was making this character from scratch I'd probably end up doing that.