Skills

Since adding new skills specific to Mecha would force players to spread limited skill points around further, this system instead adds new uses to existing skills. See also Mecha Crafting rules for new uses of Craft skills.

## Knowledge Skills

* Arcana (ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, cryptic phrases, constructs, dragons, magical beasts): Applies to Arcane Robots.
* Architecture and engineering (buildings, aqueducts, bridges, fortifications): Applies to Support Staff material and Armored Modules.
* Geography: Applies to Super Robots.
* History (royalty, wars, colonies, migrations, founding of cities): Applies to Real Robots.
* Local (legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, humanoids): Applies to Battleships and Stage Ships.
* Nature (animals, fey, giants, monstrous humanoids, plants, seasons and cycles, weather, vermin): Applies to Einst and Mecha Mortes.
* Nobility and royalty (lineages, heraldry, family trees, mottoes, personalities): Applies to Royal Robots
* Religion (gods and goddesses, mythic history, ecclesiastic tradition, holy symbols, undead): Applies to Divine Robots and Magitech Mecha.
* The planes (the Inner Planes, the Outer Planes, the Astral Plane, the Ethereal Plane, outsiders, elementals, magic related to the planes): Applies to Moon Vanguards and Recon Robots.

## Open Lock

You can use Open Lock to enter a mecha that doesn't belong to you. The DC is 20+PL+highest stat mod of their current owner. By increasing the DC by 10 you can do this as a standard action. By increasing the DC by 20 instead you can do this as a move action.

SRW d20 buildings such as a support staff's bunker can also be opened with Open Lock.

## Ride and Balance

### Ride Options

The following options can be used with either your Balance or Ride skill, whichever’s better. (In Pathfinder, use Acrobatics instead of Balance). DCs are in parentheses, and they change depending on what you’re trying to ride as detailed below.

#### Guide with Legs (DC 5)

You can react instantly to guide your ride with your knees so that you can use all weapons in combat. Make your Ride check at the start of your turn. If you fail, you can use only one weapon this round because you need to use the other systems to control your ride.

#### Stay on Top (DC 5)

You can react instantly to try to avoid falling when your ride rears or bolts unexpectedly or when you take damage. This usage does not take an action.

#### Cover (DC 15)

You can react instantly to drop down and hang alongside your ride, using it as cover. You can’t attack or cast spells while using your ride as cover. If you fail your Balance/Ride check, you don’t get the cover benefit but still have your actiosn limited until the start of your next turn. This usage does not take an action.

#### Dynamic Fall (DC 15)

You can react instantly to try to take no damage when you fall off a mount—when it is destroyed or when it falls, for example. This negates any extra falling damage from extreme heights too. If you fail your Ride/Balance check, you take 1d6 points of falling damage besides any other falling damage. This usage does not take an action.

#### Dynamic Leap (DC 15)

You can get your mount to leap obstacles as part of its movement. Use your Ride/Balance modifier or the mount’s Jump modifier, whichever is lower, to see how far the creature can jump. If you fail your Ride/Balance check, you fall off the mount when it leaps and take the appropriate falling damage (at least 1d6 points). This usage does not take an action, but is part of the ride’s movement.

#### Spur Ride (DC 15)

You can spur your ride to greater speed with a move action. A successful Ride/Balance check increases the mount’s speed by 10 feet for 1 round but makes them lose 1d6 HP. You can use this ability every round, but each consecutive round of additional speed deals twice as much HP loss to the ride as the previous round (2d6 points, 4d6 points, 8d6 points, and so on).

#### Control Ride in Battle (DC 20)

As a move action, you can attempt to control an unwilling ride while in battle. In the case of an enemy missile you can change their target to another valid whitin range (make a new attack roll with your stats). In the case of an enemy mecha you can force them to spend their next move action performing basic movement in a straight line of your choice. If you fail the Ride check, you can do nothing else in that round.

#### Fast Mount or Dismount (DC 20)

You can attempt to mount or dismount from a valid ride as a free action, provided that you still have a move action available that round. If you fail the Ride check, mounting or dismounting is a move action. You may use this outside your turn, but if you fail then you fall prone and lose your next standard action.

### Ridable Objects

These are the things a mecha can ride. Each one modifies DC of the actions you can attempt and has different capabilities.

#### Sled

-5 DC.

Sleds are mobile platforms specifically designed to carry mecha while being a lot more expendable. They are of the same size category as the mecha they’re meant to carry, have carrying capacity as if they had 18 Str for their size beyond the mecha+pilot’s base weight, count as objects, save as the mecha on top of them, and lack weapons but make up for it with efficient engines that do not need to worry about running out of energy. Having 3+ ranks in Balance/Ride means you have the resources to acquire one depending on your ranks. The basic sled has 5 HP, 5 hardness, 15 AC, break DC 15, movement speed 80 feet(land), 40 feet fly (clumsy), 60 feet (water surface), or 20 feet (underwater). For each extra rank beyond 3 you can get one of the following upgrade options (all doublings are true, so x2, x4, x8, etc):

* Double HP for +1 rank.
* Double hardness for +1 rank.
* Double movement speed for +1 rank.
* Increase maneuverability by 1 step for +1 rank.
* Increase AC by 2 for +1 rank.
* Increase break DC by 2 for +1 rank.

Sleds can be used by others as long as they have enough ranks that they could’ve acquired one and are the correct size category, but they cannot be repaired/healed/animated/magic enhanced by any means due to their disposable construction. Replacing a lost sled takes 8 hours and a new configuration may be used. Each pilot may only maintain one sled at a time.

#### Shield

No DC modifier.

Any equipped Arsenal shield may be used as an improvised ride by their owner assuming they have 4+ ranks in Balance/Ride, their protective fields adapted to flow with magnetic and solar currents. You no longer gain the shield’s benefits while doing so, but you still suffer the penalties.

The lowest AC shield may be used to fly with perfect maneuverability at a speed of 10 mu x Tier.

The mid-AC shield may be used to fly with good maneuverability at a speed of 15 mu x Tier.

The high-AC shield may be used to fly with average maneuverability at a speed of 20 mu x Tier.

#### Asteroid/Debris

+5 DC for light encumbrance, +10 DC for medium encumbrance .+15 DC for heavy encumbrance

Only useable in space, they do not count for your carrying capacity besides increasing the Balance/Ride DCs, but you cannot attempt it if is above your max Heavy encumbrance. The object moves at your flying speed with clumsy maneuverability and you must spend energy to move as normal. You can use the object’s size as your own when using Mecha Trample. If it is bigger than you, any AoOs from movement you would provoke can only be directed as the object. When using the Cover option, you also gain a bonus to AC and Reflex saves equal to the object’s Hardness against ranged attacks as long as it is bigger than yourself.

#### Allied Missile

+10 DC.

The missile must be fired from a mecha of your own size or bigger and you must use the Fast Mount/Dismount. If you don’t get off before it explodes, you suffer damage as if hit from it.

#### Enemy Missile

+(10 + Enemy Attack Roll) DC.

The missile must be fired from a mecha of your own size or bigger and you must use the Fast Mount/Dismount. If you don’t get off before it explodes, you suffer damage as if hit from it. If you succeed on the check by 10 or more, you can choose to use the missile’s explosion to instantly move adjacent to the enemy that fired the missile without provoking attacks of opportunity.

#### Allied Mecha

+5 DC.

The allied mecha must be your own size or bigger.

#### Enemy Mecha

+(20 + Enemy Balance/Ride Bonus) DC.

The enemy mecha must be your own size or bigger.