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Player > Starships > Role > Magic Officer
Even starships that are not explicitly powered by magic or hybrid technology
have enough mystical components and are exposed to enough ambient magic that
they can be influenced by those rare few who command a deep understanding of
the intersections between magic and the vastness of space. If nothing else,
simply accessing the Drift requires both technology and magic, and the underlying
magic of the universe is prevalent even in the void, so the usefulness of arcane
expertise cannot be overemphasized, especially in a starship combat environment
in which even the smallest advantage can mean the different between life and
death. The magic officer deeply understands this truth and provides both mystical
knowledge and resources that can push the starship’s interaction with the inherent
magic around it to new heights.
While not every ship has a magic officer,
it’s often useful to have someone who understands digital portents, the flows
and eddies of raw magic through the void of space, and how the inherently eldritch
forces unleashed by powerful engines can impact starship operations. A magic
officer acts during the engineering phase during starship combat. A ship can
have any number of magic officers.
As a magic officer, you can take any of the following actions, depending on your ranks in the Mysticism skill. (Note that the Mystic Haze and Psychic Currents actions both require a minimum number of ranks in Mysticism to perform.) These actions can be taken only during the engineering phase. If your starship has an arcane laboratory, you gain a +2 bonus to Mysticism checks to perform any of these actions. Unless otherwise noted, each action can be performed only once per round, no matter how many magic officers are on a starship.
You augment a starship weapon with a burst of your personal magic in much
the same way that weapon fusions augment personal-scale weapons. Such an effort
is considerable, and the magic lasts for only a single attack before it fizzles
and the starship weapon returns to its normal functionality. Choose one weapon
on your starship to augment and attempt a Mysticism check (DC = 10 + 1-1/2 ×
your starship’s tier). If you succeed, the gunner treats the range of that weapon
as 5 hexes longer than normal. This does not work for weapons with the point
special property.
Critical: Your magical energy also augments
the damage of your selected weapon’s next attack. On that attack roll, the gunner
can treat each damage die roll that results in a 1 this round as having rolled
a 2 instead.
You use your supernatural senses and a spark of divination magic to see opponents’
motion before it happens, giving you just a split second to shout a warning
to your ship’s pilot. Attempt a Mysticism check (DC = 10 + 1-1/2 × your starship’s
tier). On a success, you grant the pilot a +2 circumstance bonus to their Piloting
check at the beginning of the helm phase to determine piloting order.
Critical: Your precise senses give you detailed information
about your opponents’ next move. Increase the circumstance bonus to the Piloting
check to +4.
You employ a substantial form of divination, such as dealing from a digital
harrow deck, reading the future by interpreting the splatter of leaking coolant
on your ship, or visually scanning the readouts of your starship’s myriad screens
to pull deeper and predictive meaning from the lights and sounds around you.
This functions as the scan science officer action, but you attempt a Mysticism
check instead of a Computers check. For information about the effects of a successful
scan action, see page 325 of the Core Rulebook.
Critical:
Your divination reveals a weakness in a random quadrant of the targeted starship.
The next time one of your starship’s weapons deals damage to the targeted starship’s
Hull Points, it has a 25% chance to also deal critical damage to a random system.
If you have at least 6 ranks in Mysticism, you can spend 1 Resolve Point
and attempt a Mysticism check (DC = 20 + 1-1/2 × your starship’s tier); if you
succeed, you call forth a magical burst of static to block your enemy’s view.
This obscuring field garbles your opponent’s sensors and hinders their ability
to gain information about your ship’s defenses and positioning, providing your
starship a +1 enhancement bonus to AC until the end of the next round. In addition,
the increased interference means all science officers on the opposing starship
taking the scan or lock on actions before the end of the next round must roll
twice for their checks and use the worse result.
Critical:
Your conjured haze is especially powerful. The granted enhancement bonus to
AC increases to +2 and also affects your starship’s TL.
If you have at least 12 ranks in Mysticism, you can spend 1 Resolve Point
and attempt a Mysticism check (DC = 20 + 1-1/2 × your starship’s tier) to manipulate
mysterious, invisible forces in the void of space, expanding and contracting
the basic physics around your own vessel and altering how your starship can
negotiate the confines of physical space-time. On a successful check, reduce
your starship’s minimum distance between turns by 1 (to a minimum of 0) for
that round.
Critical: You manipulate the currents to push
your starship along, increasing its speed by 2 until the start of the next turn.
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