Ace Aviator
Grants AC and weapon-range bonuses in three-dimensional movement, a once-per-round reversal with a bonus-action attack, missile evasion, a controlled-airspace zone and a three-round Legendary Pass.
Identity
The Ace Aviator is the Pilot Specialty of small-craft dogfighting, where a tight turn buys the two seconds of firing solution the rest of the flight missed. Aces have flown solar-skiffs through coronal flares, run interceptors through atmospheric reentry, or grown up barnstorming frontier airfields in patched-together hoppers. They prefer single-seat craft to crew-served ones and the merge to any layered defense.
Features
- L3 Aerial Superiority
While you are piloting your Bonded Vessel in three-dimensional movement (flight, low gravity, or void), you gain a +2 bonus to AC against attacks from creatures or craft that cannot match your altitude, vector, or attitude. Vehicle-mounted weapons you fire in atmospheric or void combat can attack targets one range band beyond their listed range without disadvantage. You also ignore disadvantage on Piloting checks caused by adverse weather, turbulence, or non-standard atmospheric conditions.
- L7 Flip-and-Fire
Once per round, while piloting your Bonded Vessel, you can execute an inverted reversal as part of your movement. Your craft pivots end-for-end without spending movement, presenting its weapons to a target you were fleeing from or that was pursuing you. You can immediately take the Attack action with a vehicle-mounted weapon as a bonus action, and the target has disadvantage on its next attack roll against you until the start of your next turn.
- L11 Missile Break
When you or your Bonded Vessel is targeted by a guided projectile, area-effect ordnance, or any attack with a tracking or lock-on mechanism, you can use your reaction to make a DC 14 Piloting check. On a success, the attack misses you entirely. If the attack would have hit another target in its path, the GM rolls against that secondary target as if it were the original. You can use this feature a number of times per long rest equal to your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier (whichever is higher, minimum 1).
- L15 Sky-Marshal
While piloting your Bonded Vessel, you can designate a cylindrical zone with a 1,000-foot radius and unlimited height, centered on your vessel, as your controlled airspace. Allied craft within the zone gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls and Piloting checks, and hostile craft within the zone have disadvantage on Piloting checks made to break a target lock you have established. The zone moves with you and lasts as long as you remain at the controls.
- L18 Legendary Ace Capstone
Once per long rest, you can declare a Legendary Pass, a sequence of three consecutive maneuvers. For the next three rounds, you can take a bonus action each turn to make a vehicle-mounted weapon attack, you automatically succeed on any Piloting check you make to evade incoming fire, and your Bonded Vessel's movement speed is doubled. At the end of the Legendary Pass, your Bonded Vessel takes 1 level of vehicle strain (the GM determines the exact effect, such as reduced top speed or a damaged subsystem until repaired).
