Expanded SkillsThe following skills are expanded to include rules specific to cybernetic campaigns.
Craft (Int)Power of Cybernetics introduces several new items that can be created with the Craft skill.
Alchemy: Activators can craft alchemical items just like spellcasters can. The use of a chemical lab also allows non-spellcasters to craft alchemical items.
Creating Items With Gadgets: You can build a variety of non-magical tools and devices into other devices, which grant various abilities through their exceptional technological components, not through being magical. Gadgets must normally be added to an item at the time of creation, just like making a masterwork item. There is no limit to the number of gadgets any given item can have, although each gadget is crafted separately. Both standard and masterwork items can have gadgets.
To create an item with a gadget, you create the gadget component as if it were a separate item in addition to the standard item, just like making a masterwork item. The gadget component has its own price and Craft DC, as indicated by the gadget's description. The item is not finished until all components are completed (that is, the standard component, each gadget component, and the masterwork component, if applicable). Note: The cost you pay for the gadget component is one-third of the given amount, just as it is for the cost in raw materials.
Disguise (Cha)Conceal Armor: Just like making a disguise, you can make armor seem like normal clothing upon simple inspection. Viewers must succeed on a Spot check to notice it and recognize it as armor, just like seeing through any other disguise.
Table: Conceal ArmorArmor | Disguise Check Modifier |
Concealable | +101 |
Unrestrictive2 | +0 |
Light | -10 |
Medium | -20 |
Heavy | -40 |
1. The modifier for concealable armor replaces the normal penalties for disguising armor of its weight. Some types of concealable armor may still impose lesser penalties on the Disguise check. |
2. Light armor with no armor check penalty imposes no penalty on the Disguise check. |
Concealable armor is less obtrusive, and is itself designed to look like normal clothing. A viewer's Spot check must be sufficient to beat your Disguise check and to match the concealable armor's Spot DC (usually DC 30) to recognize it as armor.
Light armor with no armor check penalty (that is, a penalty of -0), such as padded and leather armor, imposes no penalty on the Disguise check. Light armor made to have no armor check penalty as a result of its make, materials, or enhancements, such as masterwork studded leather armor or a mithral chain shirt, also gains this benefit. Medium and heavier armor is too large and bulky to easily conceal, no matter how well made it is.
Gather Information (Cha)Check: Using a computer with internet access, you can find common information relatively quickly. For basic, freely available information (DC 10 or less), you can find the relevant information in only 1d4+1 minutes. Less common or more specific information (DC 11-20) takes 1d4+1x10 minutes to find. Obscure or hyper-specific information (DC 21 or higher) can take just as long or longer as culling rumors or finding people in the know (1d4+1 hours). This otherwise functions as a normal Gather Information check.
Try Again: Yes, but it takes time for each check. Furthermore, you may draw attention to yourself if you repeatedly pursue a certain type of information.
Synergy: If you have 5 or more ranks in Computer Use, you get a +2 bonus on computer-assisted Gather Information checks.
Heal (Wis)Table: HealTask | Heal DC |
Cryogenic preparation | 15 + 1 per round |
Cryorevival1 | 25 + 1 per round |
Long-Term Care (irradiation) | 15 |
Treat Disease (radiation sickness) | Disease's save DC |
1. Trained only |
Cryogenic Preparation: You can prepare a recently slain creature for cryogenic preservation and later cryorevival. Advances in cryogenics for military use have sped the process up rapidly, to the point where it only requires 2 uninterrupted rounds of work. Rapid preservation is key, as the DC of this check is equal to 15 + 1 per round that the creature has been dead when the cryoprep process begins. Failure by 5 or more permanently damages the body to the point where cryorevival is impossible. Failure by 4 or less means that the body is not significantly damaged, and thus you can try again. Cryogenic preparation is impossible without the appropriate tools and materials.
Cryorevival: The other side of cryogenic preservation is cryorevival. A skilled and trained doctor can revive a cryogenically preserved corpse and bring it back to life. This process takes 8 hours of work. The DC of this check is equal to 25 + 1 per round that the creature has been dead when the cryorevival process begins, excluding time spent cryogenically preserved. On a success, the creature is returned to life. Except for being nonmagical and having no limit on the time the creature may have been dead (aside from the skill check DC), this functions identically to the
raise dead spell. Cryorevival requires a fully stocked cryorevival lab and consumes materials worth 5000 gp in the process. This use of the Heal skill cannot be used untrained.
The same principles of cryorevival can also be used to revive dead creatures that were not cryogenically preserved first, but this is usually impractical unless they die within the cryorevival lab itself, with all of the medical personnel ready and waiting; the cryopreservation process allows time for the body to be moved and the personnel to be gathered and prepared.
Long-term Care: You can use the long-term care function of the Heal skill to improve the rate at which a creature loses radiation. If your Heal check is successful, the patient loses radiation at twice the normal rate (1/5th the patient's radiation score, minimum 2).
Treat Disease: As it functions as a disease, you can use the treat disease function of the Heal skill to aid a patient suffering from radiation sickness.
Knowledge (Arcana) (Int; Trained Only)In some ways, sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. While it primarily falls into the realm of engineering, there is a degree of cross-pollination of ideas and knowledge.
Check: You can use the Knowledge (arcana) skill to answer basic questions about various activators and cybernetic technologies, as with the Knowledge (architecture and engineering) skill. However, you do so with a -5 penalty on your check (it is not your primary field of study, even if it does frequently interact with it), and cannot answer any such questions with DCs greater than 20.
Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering) (Int; Trained Only)Cybernetic technologies fall into the realm of engineering.
Check: You can use the Knowledge (architecture and engineering) skill to answer questions about various activators and cybernetic technologies. For example, you can attempt a Knowledge (architecture and engineering) check to identify a particular developer known to construct or research a particular type of technology, to recall basic facts about the philosophy or practices of a cybernetic organization, or to recall the adventures or exploits of famous activators.
Synergy: If you have 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (architecture and engineering), you get a +2 bonus on technical knowledge checks.
Listen (Wis)Table: ListenListen DC | Sound |
-20 | Firearm firing or grenade exploding |
-10 | Firearm firing with a sound suppressor |
Pinpoint Sound: If you succeed on a Listen check by 20 or more, you can pinpoint the source of the sound. You can tell the exact 5-foot square in which the sound originated. If you cannot see the sound's source, it still has total concealment, however.
Search (Int)Frisk: You can use the Search skill to look and feel for objects hidden on a person's body or clothing. This check is opposed by the Sleight of Hand check used to hide the object (or the Disguise check, in the case of concealed armor). You gain a +4 bonus on your Search check, since it’s generally easier to find such an object than to hide it. Frisking a willing character of your size or smaller is a full-round action, although frisking a character of one size category larger than you takes 2 rounds, and this doubles for each category larger than that (4 rounds for 2 size categories larger than you, 8 rounds for 3 larger, 16 rounds for 4 larger, etc.).
Spellcraft (Int; Trained Only)Check: In some ways, sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. You can use Spellcraft to identify modules much like you would with spells. The options to identify modules with Spellcraft are the same as the ones with Computer Use, but at a higher DC. Not all options from Computer Use are available with Spellcraft, however.
Table: SpellcraftSpellcraft DC | Task |
25 | Identify a module being used. (You must see or hear some obvious sign of the module's effect.) No action required. No retry. |
20 | When casting detect magic, identify a module detected. No action required. |
Action: Varies, as noted above.
Try Again: See above.
Synergy: If you have 5 or more ranks in Computer Use, you get a +2 bonus on Spellcraft checks made to identify modules.
Spot (Wis)Notice Concealed Armor: While most types of armor are big, bulky, and obvious, some types are designed to appear as normal, everyday clothing. Noticing concealable armor and recognizing it as actual armor usually has a DC of 30, when not built into a more significant disguise. You only make a single check each time to notice disguised concealable armor, which you compare against both the Spot DC of the concealable armor and against the wearer's Disguise check.
Use Magic Device (Cha; Trained Only)Decode Device: This usage works just like decoding a device with the Computer Use skill, except that the DC is 5 points higher. Decoding a device requires 1 minute of concentration.
Use a Device: If you are activating module from a device, you have to decode it first. Normally, to activate a module from a device, you must have the device's module on your class module list and have access to the socket to which the device is keyed. Use Magic Device allows you to activate a device despite that. The DC is equal to 20 + the activator level of the module you are trying to activate from the device.
Use Cybernetic Item: You can use the Use Magic Device skill to blindly activate or to emulate the requirements of a cybernetic item just like with magic items. If an item has both cybernetic and magical properties, use the higher of its activator level and its caster level in place of either of them, where relevant.
Synergy: If you have 5 or more ranks in Computer Use, you get a +2 bonus on Use Magic Device checks related to cybernetic devices.