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Soul Ship Special Ops. Street Punk Gun Bunny

SOUL SHIP PRESTIGE CLASS: v1.02

by Mark "Neo" Howe

Soul-Ship’s are specially modified Explorer vessels, that include the specially designed Infinity Matrix Columns, these are a form of Neural net that can hold the soul of a normal Soul mech, but whose influence spreads throughout the entire vessel, which effectively becomes the Soul Mechs new body.

Soul-Ship’s are exceptionally rare, and only ever found in the employ of some government, powerful corporation or power body, the Recipient who becomes the soul-ship, is always given rigorous testing and training and only exceptional candidates are accepted, mostly because the transition from an androgynous humanoid form to a non humanoid form, requires the ability to adapt and think in new ways. As such Soul-Ship’s are almost always paired with a living companion, as this is proven to keep them grounded and their “Humanity” intact, it also requires the ability to take the mass inflow of information without causing mental overload, this is something few have the natural ability to do.

The Soul-Ship are then effectively indentured servants of the group or power body that gave them the opportunity, many are given the opportunity after long terms of service to buy their freedom, but this is not required of the patron.

Soul Ships are not commercially available, the technology to make them exists only through powerful governments, or super rich mega corporations and the like as mentioned above. The Technology necessary to make the Infinity Matrix columns that are fitted into the Soul-Ships vesself form and the extensive conversions internally that are made to the vessels to allow the Soul-Ship to have total control and awareness of the form are a closely guarded secret of the Church of the Smith, and have never yet managed to be successfully replicated, and are only sold to governments and the like in very limited numbers for extortionate prices far out of the realms of even the richest players character.

A Soul-Ship has total control over it’s own form, from environmental controls, doors, engines, weapons, lifts, lights everything, all things are tied into the Soul-Ships control through the Infinity matrix column. It can as a result see inside itself at any point where there exists a camera (which is every compartment and all major corridors & lifts), other than these areas the Soul-Ship must investigate through it’s hands. But thanks to these internal sensors it can see and hear almost all activity aboard itself, providing a +5 bonus to Spot, Listen, Search and Read lips to determine anything appropriately tied to these skills which occurs in these places. It is considered polite for a Soul-Ship not to spy on it’s companion, and only look or listen in on its passengers if it has cause for concern, as such typical their viewers and sensors in these areas are kept switched off while occupied.

Base Form (Explorer)
The base form of a new Soul-Ship is the Explorer (Starfarer’s Handbook page 169), vessels later have the option to upgrade in lieu of other choices (see customisation below).

Gargantuan Vehicle; hp 180; Top Spd 30; Acc 4; Dec 4; Hand +2; Sensor +5; Stealth 10; AC 9 (-4 size, -5 Dex, +5 natural, +3 armor); SQ vehicle, hardness 20; Fuel 500,000/1. Station: Soul-Ship 1, Companion 1. Cargo: 25 tons. Weapons: Two Laser Cannons (battery); Fire arc: front; Attack bonus: Soul-ship’s +5 (targeting computer) Damage 6d10x2; Range: 5. Hit Die: d6 (all Hit Points of a Soulmech and this Prestige class stack with the vessels Hit Points, this reflects its ability to mentally soak the damage more than an actual improvement in the toughness of it’s frame)

Requirements
To qualify to become a Soul-Ship, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria:
Feats: Technical Proficiency, Starship Piloting, Space Jockey,
Skills: Pilot 8 ranks, Navigate 8 ranks, Repair 4 ranks, Research 4 ranks, Use Device 4 ranks and any one Knowledge skill 2 ranks.
Special: Sponsorship by a Group/Faction/Religion/Business or Individual with the necessary resources, a Soul mech must also have a 16+ Intelligence, and a 12+ Wisdom & Charisma

Alignment: Any

Class Skills
The Soul-Ship's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Intuit Direction (Wis), Knowledge All skills (Int), Listen (Wis), Navigate (Int), Pilot (Dex), Profession (Int), Repair (Int), Research (Wis), Spot (Wis), Use Device (Int).
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features
All the following are class features of the Soul-Ship prestige class:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Soul-Ship is proficient with all high tech Simple and Martial weapons, including Starship weapons.

Remote Operation: The Soul-Ship gains the Remote operations FEAT free

Remotes: A Soul-Ship has only limited ability to function outside of space, as such to give the Soul-Ship the ability to interact with it’s companion and others, they are given one small robot (although more may be purchased later), which they can directly control, as miniature extension of themselves called “ Hands”, these are very durable high tech small hovering disc shaped robots, with many features, and designed to allow them to be easily customised even further.

Small Construct; HD 1d10; hp 5; Init +0 (Dex); Spd 40 ft, fly 40 ft (good); AC 17 (+1 Size, +2 Dex, +4 Natural); Atk (as soulship for attack score, +1 from integral laser sight) ; SQ Construct, low light vision, ambidexterity, Darkvision 60 ft; AL (as Soul-Ship); Fort +0, Ref +2, Will (as Soul-ship), Str 8, Dex 14, Con –, Int (as soul ship), Wis (as soul ship), Cha (as soul ship). Class Skills: (as Soul-ship), Feats: (as Soul-ship), Upgrades: Darkvision, +4 Enhanced Dexterity, Improved visual sensors, Improved audio sensors, Integral Specialised masterwork toolkit (type varies), Integral laser sight, Integral dual Holdout Laser (1d10x2 damage, x2 crit, 75 ft rng), Laser Torch, Retractible manipulators, Multiscanner, +4 Natural Armor, Personal Communicator, Reinforced Construction DR 5/-, Remote Operation unit, Security Scanner, Hoverlift; Cost: 27,360 cr each

Note: “Hands” cannot hold any programming due to the memory requirements, and space required for the direct link remote operation components that allow the soul-ship to control them as parts of itself, as such if the soul-ship is incapacitated as are the “Hands”. Also if a “Hand” is destroyed the Soul-ship must make a Will save (DC15) or be rendered unconscious because of the neural backlash for 2d10 rounds, during this time both it and it’s remaining hands are vulnerable and unable to do anything. A Soul-Ship is able to control a maximum of 1 “Hand” for every 3 levels (total character levels, not class levels). Also for every hand controlled at any one time there is a cumulative –1 penalty to all Skill checks and Attack rolls, this reflects the Soul-Ships mental awareness being divided to operate the “ Hands” so only part of it’s total awareness is ever in effect through each hand.

Total Recall: The Soul-Ship gains the Total Recall FEAT free, this is a new feat (See below)

Self Diagnostics: The Soul-Ship is able to Determine problems to itself, by running a number of internal checks as well as using it’s own sensations to narrow down where and what the problems may be, as such he gains a +4 bonus to Repair checks upon itself.

Form Familiarity 1,2 and 3: Form Familiarity comes from the Soul mech finally becoming so familiar and used to the form that it’s is very agile, and gains some familiarity bonuses with the form; namely +5 speed, +1 acc, +1 dec, Hand +1, +1 AC Dex bonus for each level of Form Familiarity, bonuses are Cumulative.

Customisation: The Soul-Ship is occasionally awarded for loyal service with the option to customise their form in some unique fashion, or even take a new form. Whenever Customisation is given as an option the Soul-Ship may choose one benefit from the following list. Note: None of these customisations are available for sale normally, available only through the patrons who first provided the Soul-Ship conversion.

· Upgraded Form: (the Soul-Ships Infinity Matrix Column and hence the Soul-Ship are transferred to a new larger form, first time to a Corvette, second time to a Destroyer).

· Regenerative Hull: (the ships hull is replaced with a special living metal replacement, that has the ability to regenerate itself, growing back to seal breaches and repair damage, effectively providing the vessel Fast Healing 5. Note: This does not allow the vessel to repair system damage, nor propulsion, weapon or sensors which may get damaged or destroyed, these must still be replaced).

· Energy Shielding: (the ship has the ability to erect an energy field around it to protect it, which effectively provides 100 Phantom hit points for the vessel all damage done to the vessel comes off the shield first. Once a shield is destroyed it cannot be erected for 24 hours as it requires time to recharge).

· Cloaking Device: (the vessel is fixed with a cloaking device, these use an immense amount of power which is drawn from the vessels Farcaster, each use drains 1 charge from it. But while active the ship is effectively Invisible as per the spell, but lasts for upto 1 hour/level (as opposed to the usual 10 mins/level), note a cloaked vessel becomes visible the instant it fires).

· Fortified Hull: (the vessel is given a special reinforced hull and it’s infrastructure is given extra armouring and support, as such the vessel tends to be able to shrug off a lot more damage, this gives the vessel +20 hit points, and a 25% chance to ignore any critical inflicted against it. Note: The fortified hull makes the vessel less maneuverable –2 penalty to Handling, and –1 acc & dec).

· Additional Weaponry: (the vessel is granted 50,000 credits worth of additional weaponry Note: Additional weapons slow the vessel somewhat due to their power drain and bulk reducing a vessels move by 10).

· Improved Farcaster: (the vessel is installed with an improved Farcaster, these are specially designed and charged and provide 100 charges as opposed to the usual 50, they are also far more accurate providing a +5 bonus to the navigation roll).

The Soul Ship
Level Attack Fort Ref Will Special
1st +0 +0 +1 +1 Remote Operation
Remotes
2nd +1 +1 +1 +2 Total Recall
Self Diagnosis
3rd +1 +1 +2 +3 Form Familiarity 1
4th +2 +1 +2 +4 --
5th +2 +2 +3 +5 Customisation
6th +3 +2 +3 +6 Form Familiarity 2
7th +3 +2 +4 +7 --
8th +4 +3 +4 +8 --
9th +5 +3 +5 +9 Form Familiarity 3
10th +6 +3 +5 +10 Customisation


NEW FEAT

TOTAL RECALL (General)
You have a highly trained mneumonic capacity, providing an almost perfect ability to recall almost anything you have ever seen, read or done.
Prerequisites: Int 16+, Information Junkie
Benefit: The individual can attempt recall anything they have ever seen, heard or done with almost total accuracy. To do this the character can make a Gather Information roll against a Difficulty number which varies on the level of info the character seeks to recall. Simple info (name of a person met multiple times, name of a planet that is well known, name of your planets governor) DC10, Uncommon info (name of a person met once, the name of an Alien species once shown on a holo vid, the code to the security door you saw entered once or twice) DC 20, Obscure info (The name of a person you have only seen once at a distance, that book you read when you were 7, the account number you saw in the three seconds before you had to switch the computer off, the address of anyone whose address you have ever seen) DC 30+
Special: Obviously a character cannot use this feat to gain access to information they have never seen, done or heard, but if there is chance that the PC may have once seen, done or heard something about the subject apply a Dc to the chance of them recalling it and let them roll. This is a great way for PC’s to see if they can recall a pertinent adventure fact they may have forgotten.


THE SPECIAL OPS. PRESTIGE CLASS

By Peter van Hamme

The Special Op is a soulmech who´s taken to - or was built for a life as a warrior. Maybe some military organisation deliberatley created him this way to use him for their own ends. (In this case, the character would not have been a soulmech before, but becomes one upon taking this prestige class). Or maybe he´s been a soulmech for some time and decided it was time to use that new body´s possibillities to a real advantage. Whatever the case, he gradually builds himself into a deadly but elegant tool of destuction.
While simply putting the soul into a massive war machine would be to much of a mental strain, this gradual transformation can be handeld quite well. Especially since the changes to the body usually don´t show on the outside.
Though he´s a very able fighter, a Special Op´s speciality are covert and infiltration missions, that rely on stealth and cunning rather than brute force.

Hit Die: d8

Requirements
To qualify to become a Operative, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria:
Race: Soulmech
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Skills: Repair 8 ranks, Craft robotics 8 ranks, any other craft skill 4 ranks, Move Silently 4 ranks, Hide 4 ranks
Feats: Technical proficiency, Gearhead
Special: Must have favored tech: robotics

Alignment: Any non-chaotic

Class skills
Balance (Dex), Craft (Int), Climb (Str), Cryptography (Int), Demolitions (Int), Disable Device (Int), Freefall (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Move silently (Dex), Open lock (Dex), Pilot (Dex), Profession (Int), Repair (Int), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), Tumble (Dex), Use Device (Int),

Skill points at Each Level: 8 + Int modifier

Class features All the following are class features of the Soul-Ship prestige class:

Weapon and armor proficiency: you get no new weapon or armor proficiencies.

Neural Net protection (Ex): Whenever your hit points drop below 0 you may make a repair check at DC 20 to see if you manage to stabilize yourself. If you roll a 1 on your check, you loose an additional hit point.

Robotic upgrades: Whenever you get a robotic upgrade you may choose one from the appropriate list or any two from the lower lists. You may choose each upgrade only once. Higher upgrades stack with lower ones. All robotic upgrades are extraordinary abilities.

Minor robotic upgrade:
Informatics upgrade: you gain a +2 bonus on cryptography and use device checks.
Stealth upgrade: you gain a +2 bonus on hide and move silently checks.
Acrobatics upgrade: you gain a +2 bonus on tumble and balance checks.
Targetting sensors: you gain a +1 bonus on ranged attack rolls (this stacks with a laser sight).
Blindsight: 10 ft.
Enhanced speed: Your speed increases by 10 ft.
Evasion: you gain the evasion ability

Moderate robotic upgrade:
Unbounded leap: The soulmech jumping distance is no longer limited by his height.
Fast balance: a succesful balance check allows you to move at your full speed rather than half your speed under such conditions.
Fast sneak: You can move your full speed without penalties to your hide and move silently checks.
Fast climb: with a succesful climb check you can move half your speed as move-equivalent action or your full speed as a full-round action. You do not loose your dex-bonus to AC while climbing.
Improved enhanced speed: your speed increases by 15 ft.
Blindsight: 20 ft.
Heat vision: this allows you to see the heat signatures of living creatures up to range of 60 ft. You can see through any max. 3ft thick barrier except lead, but it does not allow you to identify what your seeing only it's rough shape and aproximate height and width.

Major robotics upgrade:
Therm-optic camouflage: you can become invisible (as the spell cast by a 7th level sorcerer) a number of times per day equal to you operative level/2.
Enhanced natural armor: you gain a +2 (+1?) bonus to any natural armor you might have.
Burst of speed: you can run at 10 times your speed for a number of times per day as your operative level/2.
Enhanced reflexes: you gain a +2 bonus to initiative and reflex saves.
Enhanced targetting sensors: you gain a +2 to ranged attack rolls.

The Operative
Level Attack Fort Ref Will Special
1st +0 +0 +2 +0 Neural Net protection
minor robotic upgrade
2nd +1 +0 +3 +0 minor robotic upgrade
3rd +2 +1 +3 +1 minor robotic upgrade
4th +3 +1 +4 +1 --
5th +3 +1 +4 +1 moderate robotic upgrade
6th +4 +2 +5 +2 moderate robotic upgrade
7th +5 +2 +5 +2 moderate robotic upgrade
8th +6 +2 +6 +2 --
9th +6 +3 +6 +3 major robotic upgrade
10th +7 +3 +7 +3 major robotic upgrade


BARBARIAN CLASS VARIANT: THE STREET PUNK

by James A. Beggs of Firestorm Entertainment

Many would call the Street Punk barbaric; while he isnt from some primitive or backwater peoples, this is an individual who could use some serious benefit from anger management classes.

The Street Punk is identical to the Barbarian, excepting as follows:

Class Skills:
Climb, Intimidate, Jump, Gather Info, Bluff, Heal (to patch up after a rumble), Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Search, Sense Motive, Spot, Urban Lore

The Street Punk gains a limited version of Technical Proficiency. He can use technical items with obvious use that doesnt require a lot of education. A member of a street gang can´t hack a computer, but he can pick up and fire a gun.

By the same token, he is marginally literate. He can order a McBurger, but reading a schematic is also way out.

He therefore gains the technical armor and weapon proficiencies he would as if a barbarian had taken Technical Proficiency. He may also use feats that work specifically and only with these combat proficiencies. He cannot, however, use any skills that require technical proficiency, such as Use Device. Taking Literacy AND Technical Proficiency will correct this problem.

The Street Punk is still heavy into melee; baseball bats with a titanium core, steel chains with taser charges built in, and a rumble up and down the streets, gives them a grin on their face.


BARBARIAN CLASS VARIANT: THE GUN BUNNY

by James A. Beggs of Firestorm Entertainment

Unlike the street punk, the Gun Bunny is a flat out warrior with a real fury in his heart, and guns blazing in his soul. Where the fighter uses sound tactics and strategy to bring down his foes, the Gun Bunny believes in "Peace, through superior firepower." He goes into a rage which is relieved by a hail of gunfire.

The Gun Bunny is identical to the Barbarian, excepting as follows:

Class Skills:
Climb, Intimidate, Jump, Demolitions, Freefall, Listen, Spot, Heal

Gunrage:
This ability replaces the barbarian´s Rage ability.
Gunrage effects and is used by the Gun Bunny in every way except as follows - no strength modification (retains AC and Con mod); when firing a gun, if the gun WOULD have hit IF it had been a ranged touch attack, then roll damage. One point of the damage actually effects the character, plus an additional one point for each 5 points the attack would have succeeded in striking the target. This stacks with Autofire (example: if you needed a 10 to hit with a ranged touch attack, but a 25 otherwise, and rolled a 20 with a burst, you hit with three rounds, each which can do up to 3 points of damage to the target).

Greater Gunrage:
Replaces Greater Rage.
It changes the formual for Gunrage by using 3 pts above, rather than 5 above.

Furious Fire:
Replaces the barbarian´s Uncanny Dodge vs. Traps
Every time your "barbarian" would receive a +1 against traps, instead you get a single -1 morale penalty on attacks they make against you, which you may assign between targets whom you fire at during your round. For instance, if you have the entire +4, and fire at two characters during your attack, you may give each of them -2 to any attacks they make against you until your next action. Or a -4/-0, -1/-3, etc.