Weapons Specialist
A Gunslinger Specialty of armorers who tune energy weapons daily, overcharge them for critical hits, ignore armor bonuses and vent a full capacitor at 18th level.
Identity
The Weapons Specialist is the Gunslinger Specialty of the armory: military armorers, corporate weapons-research staff, and pirate refitters salvaging solar-rifle prototypes. Specialists speak heat dissipation, magnetic confinement and dwell-time the way a Frontier Marksman speaks caliber and grain, and they can strip and reassemble anything issued in the last four tech tiers in the dark. The tuning is the Specialist's own and lapses in anyone else's hands.
Features
- L3 Energy Tuning
You gain proficiency in the Technology skill if you do not already have it. You spend an hour each day tuning the magnetic coils and heat sinks of any Tier III or higher energy or plasma firearm you wield. While tuned, the weapon deals an extra 1d6 damage once per turn when you hit with it, in your hands only. The bonus is yours and lapses for any other wielder. You also have advantage on Technology checks to identify, repair or modify energy-class firearms, and you can scavenge usable parts from a damaged energy weapon in half the normal time.
- L7 Overcharge Shot
As a bonus action, you overcharge an energy or plasma weapon you are holding. You gain the Overcharged condition, and the weapon counts as a Rift-augmented weapon for that condition. Your next attack with that weapon before the start of your next turn has advantage, and on a hit it is a critical hit and deals an extra 2d8 damage of the weapon's energy type. You have disadvantage on saving throws until the end of your next turn. After the shot the weapon is Overheated and cannot be fired until you spend an action venting it or finish a short rest. You can use Overcharge Shot a number of times equal to your Dexterity modifier, and you regain all uses when you finish a long rest.
- L11 Heat Sink Mastery
Your energy weapons do not become Overheated from your own normal fire. They still overheat from Overcharge Shot or external sabotage. When Overcharge Shot overheats a weapon, the cooldown is halved: venting takes a bonus action instead of an action, or the weapon finishes venting after one round in which you do not fire it. You also have resistance to fire damage and plasma damage.
- L15 Phase Shot
Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an energy or plasma firearm attack, you can declare the shot a Phase Shot. The attack ignores all AC bonuses from physical armor, including Tier IV powered armor, and ignores all cover that is not at least three feet of magnetically shielded plating. The target's base AC, Dexterity bonus and shields from spell effects still apply. You can use Phase Shot a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.
- L18 Stellar Discharge Capstone
Once per long rest, as an action, you can vent your weapon's entire capacitor in a single shaped discharge. Choose a line 5 feet wide and up to Long range, starting at your weapon. Each creature in the line must make a Dexterity saving throw against your Trick Shot DC, taking 12d8 plasma damage on a failure or half as much on a success. Solid cover in the line is reduced by one step: total cover becomes three-quarters cover, three-quarters cover becomes half cover, and half cover is destroyed. The discharge destroys your weapon unless it is a Tier V firearm or is otherwise rated for stellar venting, as the GM decides. Even a rated weapon is Overheated for the remainder of the encounter and needs a long rest to be fully restored.
