Future Skills

The following skills are expanded to include rules specific to future campaigns.

[h=5]Bluff (CHA)[/h] You can use the Bluff skill to feint in starship combat.

Check: With a successful Bluff check, you mislead another starship so that it can’t dodge your attack effectively. This check is opposed by the target pilot’s Sense Motive check. If you succeed, the next attack your starship makes against the target ignores its pilot’s Dexterity bonus to Defense (if it has one), thus lowering the target’s Defense score.

You cannot use this tactic against a starship that’s flying on autopilot.

Using Bluff as a feint in starship combat is an attack action.

Special: If you have the Starship Feint feat, you gain a +2 bonus on Bluff checks when using the skill to feint in starship combat.
[h=5]Computer Use (INT)[/h] In addition to all the standard uses, this skill can be used to operate shipboard sensors as well as send, jam, scramble, and unscramble transmissions sent through space or across dimensions.

Check: The following applications of the Computer Use skill can be used untrained:

The following applications of the Computer Use skill can’t be used untrained:
Time: Scrambling or unscrambling a transmission are all full-round actions. Conducting an active sensor scan or sending/ jamming a transmission is a move action.
[h=5]Disable Device (INT)[/h] You can use this skill to disable a robot or external cybernetic attachment.

Check: Disabling a robot is a full-round action and requires a successful Disable Device check (DC 30). The robot must be pinned before the check can be made.

Disabling an external cybernetic attachment is a full-round action and requires a successful Disable Device check (DC 30). The creature to which the cybernetic unit is attached must be pinned before the check can be made. You cannot disable internal cybernetic attachments.

Special: A disabled robot or disabled external cybernetic attachment can be re-enabled with a successful Repair check (see Repair).
[h=5]Knowledge (Technology) (INT)[/h] You can make a Knowledge (technology) check to correctly identify starships, mecha, robots, and cybernetic attachments, as well as identify unfamiliar technological devices.

Check: The DCs for identifying technological items vary depending on the type of information required:

Identifying a starship by its type and subtype, identifying a mecha by its superstructure, or identifying a robot by its frame: DC 10.

Determining the function or purpose of a particular mechanical system or cybernetic attachment: DC 15.

Recalling the standard, factory-model design specs of a particular type or class of starship, mecha, or robot: DC 20.

When confronted with an unfamiliar piece of technology or alien artifact, you can make a Knowledge (technology) check to correctly surmise the primary (if not singular) purpose of the device. A successful check result does not enable you to activate the item, nor does it make you proficient with the item. The DC of the Knowledge (technology) check depends on the item being identified and the difference in Progress Level, as shown below:

[h=5]Navigate (INT)[/h] In a campaign that features space travel or dimensional travel, you can use the Navigate skill to plot a course between planets, star systems, or dimensions.

Check: The rules for plotting a course over a great distance work as described in the Navigate skill description. Aboard a starship, you need a functional Class II sensor array (or better) to plot a course through space. You don’t need to make a Navigate check when traveling along a pre-established space route or passing through a dimension gate with a pre-calibrated destination.

Time: Plotting a course is a full-round action.

[h=5]Pilot (DEX)[/h]
You can use the Pilot skill to fly any kind of spacecraft.

Check: Unless you have the Starship Operation feat (page 14), you take a –4 penalty on Pilot checks made to pilot a starship. The pilot of a starship can make a Pilot check to escape after being held or immobilized by another starship’s grapplers or tractor beam; see Grappling Systems for more information on grapplers and tractor beams.

Special: For modern-day (PL 5) spacecraft such as the space shuttle, the Aircraft Operation (spacecraft) is sufficient to negate the –4 penalty on Pilot checks; however, this feat cannot negate the penalty as it applies to PL 6 or higher spacecraft.
[h=5]Repair (INT)[/h] You can use this skill to repair vehicles, starships, mecha, cybernetic attachments, and constructs (including robots). You can also use the Repair skill to safely remove the “brain” of a destroyed robot.

Check: Repairing damage to a vehicle, starship, or mecha takes 1 hour of work, a mechanical tool kit, and a proper facility such as a workshop or hangar bay. (Without a tool kit, you take a –4 penalty on your Repair check.) At the end of the hour, make a Repair check (DC 20). Success repairs 2d6 points of damage. If damage remains, you may continue to make repairs for as many hours as it takes to restore the vehicle or starship to full hit points.

The same rules apply to robots, other constructs, and cybernetic attachments, except that each successful application of the Repair skill restores 1d10 points of damage (instead of 2d6), and the Repair check is more difficult to achieve (DC 30).

This skill may also be used to transplant the “brain” of a destroyed robot into a similar but intact robot frame. See the Robot Resurrection for more information on robotic brain transplants.

Special: A vehicle, starship, cybernetic attachment, mecha, robot, or other construct that is reduced to 0 hp cannot be repaired. It can be salvaged for parts, however (see the Salvage feat description).
[h=5]Treat Injury (WIS)[/h] This skill can be used to treat members of other species, provided they are neither constructs nor undead.

Check: For all uses of this skill except surgery, the skill check’s DCs are unchanged.

Performing surgery on creatures of a type different from your own carries a –8 penalty. The Surgery feat reduces the penalty to –4, while the Xenomedic feat negates the penalty entirely.

Special: The Treat Injury skill cannot be used on nonliving or inorganic creatures, such as constructs or undead.