Starfinder Class Preview – The Mechanic
Check out Starfinder’s Mechanic–all the tech, all the talent.
Gen Con (and the release of Starfinder) creeps ever closer, and with it comes another class preview. This time it’s the Mechanic, joining the ranks of the Soldier, Operative, Envoy, and Mystic.
Where the Soldier is focused on Combat, the Operative on Stealth and Finesse, the Envoy on interpersonal interactions, and the Mystic on the forces that bind all living things together, the Mechanic is, as the name suggests, all about technology. No fuss, no muss, definitely no magic–but only insofar as most of their magic is sufficiently explained. They can coax machines to new heights–they understand them on a level that no other class is capable of.
Mechanics are the builders of the game. With 8 class skills and 4 skill points per level (and Intelligence as their key ability), mechanics are capable of answering any problem the world throws at them:
You are a master of machines, from advanced supercomputers to simple magnetic engines. Understanding how these devices work gives you insight into the world around you, allowing you to make the most of your gear, circumvent hardened defenses, and even take over remote systems. Your programming skill also gives you the ability to create a powerful ally, in the form of either an implanted artificial intelligence or a robotic drone, which can assist you with a variety of tasks. If there’s a computer or machine that needs to be fixed, bypassed, or destroyed, you’re the first on the scene. Whether you’re a skilled scientist, a starship engineer, or a battlefield technician, you’re no stranger to combat—but you find it much more reasonable to have your AI or drone do the fighting for you.
There are two basic types of mechanics–the ones who control drones, and ones with a neural interface that lets them directly interface with machines and master heavy armor and weaponry.
The exocortex is an implanted artificial processor that interacts with and augments your brain’s cognitive functions, assisting in everything from combat to manipulating digital information and even controlling additional cybernetic enhancements, and selecting it also grants proficiency in heavy armor and proficiency (and eventually specialization) with longarms. As the mechanic gains levels, additional modifications and upgrades become available for either of these options. At much higher levels, a mechanic can even divide his attention between these two options.
The Drone seems like it’ll be a classic “animal companion” type of creature, adjusted for the sci-fantasy world of Starfinder. But beyond their choice of ‘drone or exocortex’ Mechanics have all the usual bells and whistles you’d expect from a tech-focused class. They get abilities that can help them hack into and/or repair machines, to enhance equipment (and we’ve talked about how important your personal panoply will be), or otherwise coax just that much more out of the various pieces of advanced technology you’ll come across in Starfinder.
In addition to their artificial intelligence and customer rigs, mechanics gain broader technology-based class features. They can temporarily overload nearly any technologic device, temporarily boost the function of armor and weapons, make snap repairs to starships, and select from a wide range of mechanic tricks. A mechanic gains his first trick at 2nd level, and gains an additional trick (some of which have minimum level requirements) every other level after that. Mechanic tricks range from using technology to create sudden distractions to special cybernetic implants to additional options for the mechanic’s artificial intelligence, exocortex, or dealing with technology in general. The range of mechanic tricks is wide enough to ensure even if you mechanics make the same choice for their artificial intelligence class feature, they can operate in very different ways by taking different tricks.
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Mechanics will have a literal bag of tricks. Here’s a sample one:
Drone Meld (Ex) (8th Level): As a full action while in contact with your drone, you can reconfigure it into a mechanical drone suit (or a backpack-like apparatus, for the Tiny hover drone) that you can wear. While in this form, the drone can’t take any actions or use any of its abilities, but you gain either the drone’s flight system mods if you have a hover drone, reactive camouflage (and an invisibility field if your drone has it) if you have a stealth drone, or reductive plating if you have a combat drone. You can end the meld and return the drone to its normal form as a full action. Though it normally acts on your turn just after you, the drone can take no actions on that turn other than transforming back.
So you and your drone can Voltron it up to defend the universe from attackers from the Nega-realms. Which seems really cool. Well there you have it, a tech-focused class that has a few tricks up its sleeve. While we don’t get a look at the specializations they can pick, that Drone vs. Exocortex choice seems pretty clutch.
As always, stay tuned for more class previews as they develop. What will you play when the game releases?
