COMBAT STATISTICS

Several fundamental statistics determine how well a starship performs in combat. This section summarizes these vital statistics, and the following sections detail how to use them.

ATTACK ROLL

An attack roll represents one starship's attempt to strike another on its turn in a round. Most starships are armed with ranged weapons aimed by gunners.

When a starship makes an attack roll, roll 1d20 and add the appropriate modifiers (described below). If the result equals or beats the target's Defense, the attack hits and deals damage. A starship's attack roll is:

1d20 + gunner's ranged attack bonus + range penalty + starship's size modifier + targeting system's equipment bonus

Gunner's Ranged Attack Bonus: Unless noted otherwise, all starship gunners are assumed to have the Starship Gunnery feat. Without this feat, a starship gunner takes a -4 nonproficient penalty on attack rolls with starship weapons.

For simplicity, all gunners aboard a starship have identical ranged attack bonuses.

Range Penalty: The range penalty for a ranged weapon depends on what weapon the starship is using and the distance to the target. All ranged weapons have a range increment, as noted in Table: Starship Weapons.

As with character weapons, any attack from a distance of less than one range increment is not penalized for range. However, each full range increment causes a cumulative -2 penalty on the attack roll.

A beam weapon has a maximum range of 10 increments. A projectile weapon has an unlimited range, since projectiles don't lose inertia in space.

Starship's Size Modifier: Starships are Huge, Gargantuan, or Colossal in size. Table: Starship Sizes notes the size modifiers for ships of different sizes.

Targeting System's Equipment Bonus: Most starships have computerized targeting systems to help gunners train weapons on targets. A standard targeting system provides an equipment bonus on the gunner's attack roll depending on the ship's size: Huge +1, Gargantuan +2, Colossal +3. Improved targeting systems (see Starship Sensors) grant higher bonuses. Table: Starship Sizes summarizes the targeting system equipment bonuses for ships of different sizes.

Automatic Misses and Hits: As in character combat, a natural 1 on the attack roll is always a miss. A natural 20 is always a hit. A natural 20 also always threatens a critical hit (see Critical Hits, below).

DEFENSE

A starship's Defense represents how difficult it is to hit in combat. It's the attack roll result that an enemy ship needs to achieve a hit. In general, starships are easy to hit, which is why they rely on armor to absorb damage (see Starship Armor, below).

A starship's Defense is partly determined by the skill of the pilot or the quality of its automatic pilot system.

PILOTED SHIPS

A starship with a living pilot has a Defense equal to:

10 + starship's size modifier + pilot's class bonus to Defense + pilot's Dexterity modifier

Starship's Size Modifier: The bigger a starship is, the easier it is to hit in combat. The smaller it is, the harder it is to hit. Size modifiers are shown on Table: Starship Sizes.

Pilot's Class Bonus to Defense: The pilot imparts her class bonus to Defense to the ship's Defense. This bonus applies even if the starship is flat-footed or otherwise denied the pilot's Dexterity bonus to its Defense.

All starship pilots are assumed to have the appropriate Starship Operation feat. Consequently, they apply their full class bonus to Defense (instead of one-half the modifier) to a starship's Defense.

Pilot's Dexterity Modifier: In any given round, a pilot may choose to transfer her full Dexterity bonus to the starship's Defense. However, doing so forces the pilot to focus entirely on flying the ship, and consequently the pilot loses the Dexterity bonus to her own Defense for the round.

A pilot cannot apply her Dexterity bonus to a starship's Defense if she or the starship is flat-footed.

AUTOPILOTED SHIPS

Every starship comes equipped with a basic autopilot system that enables it to dodge enemy fire without need for a pilot. A starship on autopilot has a Defense equal to:

10 + starship's size modifier + autopilot system's equipment bonus

Starship's Size Modifier: Size modifiers are shown on Table: Starship Sizes.

Autopilot System's Equipment Bonus: An autopilot system provides an equipment bonus to Defense depending on the ship's size: Huge +1, Gargantuan +2, Colossal +3. A ship equipped with an improved autopilot system (see Starship Defense Systems) gains a higher bonus.

CREW

The quality of the crew determines how well a starship performs in and out of combat. Unless otherwise noted, every starship has a trained crew of nonheroic characters. However, situations could arise where a starship must rely on an untrained crew. Conversely, expert crews and ace crews are also available-for the right price. Table: Crew Quality compares four different qualities of crew: untrained, trained, expert, and ace.

Skill Check Modifier: Apply this modifier to all skill checks made by crew.

Pilot's Dexterity Modifier: A pilot's Dexterity modifier applies to the starship's initiative rolls and the starship's Defense.

Pilot's Class Bonus to Defense: A pilot's class bonus to Defense applies to the starship's Defense and to opposed grapple checks.

Gunner's Attack Bonus: A gunner's attack bonus applies to all ranged attacks made by the ship.

Modifier to Starship's Base Purchase DC: The amount by which the crew increases the base purchase DC of the ship. (This modifier is already factored in to the base purchase DCs of the ships presented below.)

CREW IMPROVEMENT

To improve in quality, a starship's crew of nonheroic characters must "put in the hours" and gain combat experience. Table: Crew Improvement shows the length of the crew's tour of duty and the number of ship-to-ship battles the crew must survive to be considered of a particular quality. A crew cannot be elevated to a higher quality until it meets the minimum required time spent serving aboard the ship and the minimum amount of ship-to-ship combat experience.

DAMAGE

When a starship hits with a weapon, it deals damage according to the type of weapon (see Table: Starship Weapons). Damage is deducted from the target's current hit points. If a starship's hit points are reduced to 0 or fewer, the ship is in bad shape (see Hit Points, below).

MULTIPLYING DAMAGE

Sometimes a starship weapon multiplies damage by some factor, such as when it scores a critical hit. Just as in character combat, you can either roll the damage (with all modifiers) multiple times and total the results, or roll the damage once and multiply the result by the given multiplier.

Bonus damage represented as extra dice, such as from the Engineer's weapon upgrade class ability, is an exception. Do not multiply bonus damage dice when a starship scores a critical hit.

CRITICAL HITS

Critical hits by starships work just like critical hits by characters. When a starship makes an attack roll and gets a natural 20, the starship hits regardless of the target's Defense, and it has scored a threat of a critical hit. To find out whether it is actually a critical hit, the starship immediately makes another attack roll with all the same modifiers as the attack roll that scored the threat. If the second roll also results in a hit against the target's Defense, the starship's attack is a critical hit.

For a more colorful application of the critical hit system, see Optional Critical Hit Results, below.

OPTIONAL CRITICAL HIT RESULTS

A critical hit with a starship weapon normally multiplies the weapon's damage. The GM may opt to use a randomized critical hit resolution system instead: Whenever a critical hit is scored, the attacker rolls percentile dice and consults Table: Optional Critical Hit Results to determine the effects of the critical hit on the target.

Normal Critical Hit: Roll critical hit damage normally.

Crew Casualties: A number of crewmembers and passengers are killed (this effect applies only if the ship isn't destroyed). Roll 1d10 to determine the number of crew fatalities and, if the ship carries passengers, 1d10 to determine the number of passenger casualties. Only supporting GM characters are affected.

A starship with less than one-half of its normal crew complement takes a -2 penalty on all attack rolls and checks.

A starship with less than one-quarter of its normal crew complement takes a -4 penalty on all attack rolls and checks.

A starship with no crew flies on autopilot and cannot attack. If a crewless ship doesn't have a functional autopilot system, it is immobile. If this result is rolled again and the ship has no living crew or passengers, ignore this result and reroll.

Severe Critical Hit: Roll critical hit damage using a x10 multiplier instead of the weapon's normal multiplier. In addition, the ship and its crew are shaken for 1 round.

Artificial Gravity Disabled: The starship's artificial gravity is disabled for 1d10 rounds. During this time, an untrained crew takes a -4 penalty on all attack rolls and skill checks while coping with the zero-gravity conditions. Trained, expert, or ace crews take no penalties, as they are assumed to have the Zero-G Training feat. Ignore this result if it comes up again while the artificial gravity system is disabled.

Damaged System: A damaged system remains inoperable until it is repaired, which requires 10 hours of work and a successful Repair check (DC 30). A starship's engineer (or engineering team) can perform jury-rig repairs on the system as a full-round action with a successful Repair check (DC 25), but the repairs last only until the end of the battle (or until the system is disabled again). During that round of jury-rigged repairs, the starship can continue to take actions.

Comm System: One communications system of the attacker's choice is disabled. If this result is rolled again and the ship has no undamaged comm systems, ignore this result and reroll.

Defense System: One defense system of the attacker's choice is disabled. If this result is rolled again and the ship has no undamaged defense systems, ignore this result and reroll.

Engines: The starship's tactical speed decreases by 1,000 feet until the engines are repaired. If this result is rolled again, the effect is cumulative. If the ship's tactical speed has already been reduced to 0 feet due to engine damage, ignore this result and reroll.

Sensors: The starship is blinded until repaired. All the ship's targets gain the equivalent of total concealment (50% miss chance). If this result is rolled again, ignore the result and reroll.

Targeting System: The starship's targeting system ceases to function. The starship loses the targeting system's equipment bonus on attack rolls until the system is repaired. Reroll if this result comes up again.

Weapon: One of the starship's beam weapons, projectile weapons, or missile launchers (attacker's choice) ceases to function. The weapon remains inoperable until it is repaired. If this result is rolled again and the ship has no functional weapons, ignore this result and reroll.

Destroyed Defensive System: One of the starship's defensive systems (determined by the attacker) is destroyed. It cannot be repaired and must be replaced. If this result is rolled again and the ship has no defensive systems, ignore this result and reroll.

Destroyed Weapon: One of the starship's weapons (determined by the attacker) is destroyed. It cannot be repaired and must be replaced. If this result is rolled again and the ship has no weapons, ignore this result and reroll.

If the destroyed weapon was fire-linked, the other weapons to which it was linked continue to function normally. If the destroyed weapon was part of a weapon battery, the remaining weapons in the battery continue to function normally.

STARSHIP ARMOR

Starship armor is designed to absorb damage rather than make a starship harder to hit. Consequently, a starship's armor plating provides hardness instead of an equipment bonus to Defense.

Subtract a starship's hardness from the damage each time it takes a hit. If a ship's hardness is greater than the amount of damage dealt by the attack, the starship takes no damage.

See Starship Armor for the various types of armor available at different Progress Levels, as well as the hardness of each type.

DAMAGE CONTROL

A starship equipped with a damage control system can perform damage control as a move action. With a successful Repair check (DC 15), the ship regains a number of hit points depending on its type, as shown on Table: Damage Control Systems. A ship with an improved or advanced damage control system regains even more hit points (see Starship Defense Systems).

Damage control cannot be performed if the ship has been reduced to negative hit points.

HIT POINTS

A starship's hit points represent how much punishment it can take before being disabled or destroyed. A starship's hit points are based on its type and subtype.

A ship's hit points decrease when it takes damage. Damage doesn't have any impact on a ship's combat ability until its current hit points reach 0 or lower.

At 0 hit points, a ship is disabled.

At negative hit points, a ship begins breaking apart.

When its hit points drop to a certain negative hit point total, the ship is destroyed. The point at which a ship is destroyed varies depending on its type, as shown in Table: Destruction Threshold.

DISABLED (0 HIT POINTS)

When a starship's current hit points drop to exactly 0, it's disabled. The ship can only take a single move or attack action each turn (not both); it cannot jump to cruising speed or take any other full-round actions. If it attacks, attempts to escape at cruising speed, or performs any other action that would strain its systems, it takes 1 point of damage after the completing the act. Unless the activity increases the starship's current hit points, it drops to -1 hit point and begins breaking apart (see Breaking Apart, below).

A disabled starship is considered helpless. It has a Defense of 5 + its size modifier.

Repairs that raise a starship above 0 hit points make it fully functional again, just as if it had never been reduced to 0 or lower.

BREAKING APART (NEGATIVE HIT POINTS)

When a starship's current hit points drop below 0, the starship begins to break apart. At this point, the ship is immobile, helpless, and beyond repair. Any attempt to repair it automatically fails. As a ship breaks apart, its crew can evacuate (see Starship Evacuation, below).

A ship that is breaking apart can take no actions and loses 1 hit point every round. This continues until the ship is destroyed.

DESTROYED

When a starship's current hit points reaches its destruction threshold (as shown above), it explodes. Any crewmembers still aboard the ship at this time take 20d6 points of damage (no save) and are jettisoned into the void of space.

STARSHIP EVACUATION

Most ultralight starships are equipped with evacuation pods or fully enclosed, detachable cockpits that jettison the crew to safety in the event of a shipwide catastrophe. In fact, unless noted otherwise, every starship has sufficient evacuation pods or launches to accommodate its normal crew complement and passenger manifest.

A ship's crew and passengers can evacuate any time before the ship is destroyed (see above). Table: Evacuation Times shows the time required for crews to evacuate, based on the ship's type. While the crew is evacuating, the starship either flies on autopilot (if it has 1 hp or more remaining) or is stopped dead in space (if it has been disabled or is breaking apart).

Use the statistics for a launch (see below) to represent a typical evacuation pod.