Mech Pilot
A Pilot Specialty whose Bonded Vessel is a mech or powered-armor chassis, with a stomp attack, stability against being moved, a powerplant overcharge and autonomous operation.
Identity
The Mech Pilot is the Pilot Specialty that wears its vessel. Frame-knights walk articulated three-ton chassis, ceremonial sentinels walk ornate ones built to be looked at, and frontier salvagers walk patched mining mechs retrofitted with arc-welders and small-arms mounts. A pilot who has spent long enough in the same chassis stops thinking about which limb fires the cannon. For the Specialty's features, the chassis counts as the Pilot's body.
Features
- L3 Mech-Bond
Your Bonded Vessel is a piloted mech or powered-armor chassis (Tier III at character creation, scaling with downtime upgrades). While piloting your Mech-Bond, you treat the mech's Strength score as your own for carrying capacity, breaking objects, and Athletics checks made by the mech. You use the mech's chassis for AC and hit points, and your own reflexes for attack rolls and Piloting checks. Embarking and disembarking take 1 minute outside combat or 1 action in combat. While you are inside your Mech-Bond, you cannot be targeted by attacks that bypass the mech's hull, because the chassis hit point pool absorbs them first. Area effects that engulf the mech still affect you.
- L7 Stomp
As an action while piloting your Mech-Bond, you can stomp a Large or smaller creature within reach. The target must make a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier, whichever is higher). On a failure, it takes bludgeoning damage equal to 2d8 + your chassis's Strength modifier and is knocked Prone. On a success, it takes half that damage and is not knocked Prone. The stomp counts as a melee attack for the purpose of triggering other features that need a melee attack.
- L11 Gyro-Stabilization
Your Mech-Bond ignores difficult terrain caused by rubble, debris, mud, low-gravity surfaces, or unstable footing. You have advantage on saving throws to avoid being knocked Prone, shoved, Grappled, or moved against your will while piloting your Mech-Bond. In zero-gravity environments, your Mech-Bond's thruster pack lets it treat null-G as standard movement, and routine maneuvering requires no Piloting checks.
- L15 Overcharge
Once per short rest, you can use a bonus action to overcharge your Mech-Bond's powerplant for 1 round. Until the start of your next turn, all weapon attacks made by the Mech-Bond deal an extra 2d6 damage of the weapon's type, the mech's movement speed is doubled, and you have advantage on all melee attacks made through the chassis. At the end of the round, your Mech-Bond takes 4d6 strain damage to its chassis hit points, which cannot be reduced, and one randomly determined nonvital subsystem goes offline until repaired during downtime (the GM rolls or chooses).
- L18 Autonomous Mode Capstone
Your Mech-Bond can operate without your direct input for short periods. Once per long rest, you can use a bonus action to set up to 1 minute of autonomous operation. During that time, your Mech-Bond keeps functioning under preset instructions even while you are disembarked, Unconscious, or otherwise unable to pilot. It takes one action per round at your direction, or per the standing order you set if you cannot communicate, and uses your statistics for its attacks. It defends itself if threatened and obeys its last clearly understood command.
