Ace Pilot

Ace Pilot
Prerequisites:	Trained Skills: Pilot Feats: Vehicular Combat
Universal Talent Trees:	Spacer
Unique Talent Trees:	Blockade Running Expert Pilot Gunner Squadron Leader Starship Defender Wingman
Defense Boosts:	+4 Reflex +2 Will
Ability Score Boosts	{{{statBoosts}}}

The ace pilot is to vehicle combat what the elite trooper is to personal weapons combat. Her arms and armor are the weapons and shields of a sleek starship soaring through space or an aircraft shrieking through the atmosphere. A veteran of countless engagements, the ace pilot has proven her skill again and again by virtue of facing the enemy and surviving—and making sure the enemy did not. She has several kills to her credit, and her combat maneuvers are occasionally studied and discussed in training academies for their ingenuity and effectiveness.

For her part, the ace pilot only feels truly alive in the cockpit, where she can pit herself against her peers in a life-and-death contest to see who is the better pilot. For some ace pilots, the contest is enough, and they don’t care whether they win or simply get away with their lives. For others, the important thing is the kill. The adrenaline surge they feel when finishing off an enemy brings them back again and again. The best ace pilots learn to stop enemies without destroying them, but those aces are rare, and their exploits are legendary.

Ace pilots define themselves by the vehicles they fly. Some are starfighter aces, while others fly space transports. Ace pilots can also be found at the controls of an aircraft, courier ship, or even a large assault vehicle such as an ATVU.

Specialization Abilities

VEHICLE DODGE - You apply a dodge bonus to the Reflex Defense of any vehicle you pilot. The dodge bonus is equal to one-half your specialization level, rounded down. Any condition that makes you lose Dexterity bonus to Reflex Defense also makes you lose dodge bonuses. Also, dodge bonuses stack with each other, unlike most other types of bonuses.

Expert Pilot talent tree

The ace pilot relies on finely honed instincts and years pilot training to outmaneuver and destroy enemy starships.

Blind Spot: You can fly a vehicle you pilot so close to a target at least two sizes larger than your vehicle that it is difficult for the target to avoid or attack you. You must be adjacent to the target (at starship scale) to use this talent. As a swift action, make an opposed Pilot check against the target. If you succeed, you move into the same space as your target. You move with your target if it moves (assuming your vehicle has sufficient speed to keep up), and you must make another opposed Pilot check each round as a swift action to stay in its blind spot. As long as you stay in the target’s blind spot, any attack you make against the target gains a +2 bonus, and the target takes a -2 penalty on attacks made against you.

Clip: When you use the ram action, you reduce the size of your ship by two categories for the purposes of taking collision damage. The rammed ship takes damage appropriate to the actual size of your ship.

Close Scrape: Whenever you are piloting a vehicle of Colossal size or smaller, you may make a Pilot check as a reaction to turn a critical hit into a normal hit. The DC for the Pilot check is equal to the attack roll total of the critical hit. If you are successful, the damage from the attack is not doubled (though it is still considered an automatic hit).

Dogfighter: When engaged a dogfight, any enemy pilot engaged in the same dogfight takes a -10 penalty on attack rolls when you succeed on the opposed Pilot check.

Full Throttle: You can take 10 on Pilot checks made to increase your vehicle’s speed. In addition, when you use the all-out movement action while piloting a vehicle, your vehicle moves up to five times its normal speed (instead of the normal x4).

Improved Attack Run: You do not have to move in a straight line when using the attack run action.

Juke: When you fight defensively as the pilot of a vehicle, you may negate a weapon hit on your vehicle using the Vehicular Combat feat one additional time per round.
Prerequisite: Vehicular Evasion.

Keep It Together: Once per encounter, when a vehicle you’re piloting takes damage that equals or exceeds its, damage threshold, your vehicle avoids moving down the condition track.

Master Defender: When you fight defensively, either your vehicle gains a +5 dodge bonus to Reflex Defense if you and your gunners take a -2 penalty to attack rolls, or it gains a +10 dodge bonus if you and your gunners take a -5 penalty to attack rolls.

Relentless Pursuit: You may roll twice for any opposed Pilot check made to initiate a dogfight, keeping the better result.

Renowned Pilot: Your reputation as a skilled pilot precedes you and bolsters the resolve of your allies. All allies within 6 squares of a vehicle you pilot can reroll one Pilot check, keeping the better result. Once an ally has used this ability, that same ally cannot gain this talent’s benefit during the same encounter.

Roll Out: You are an expert at escaping from dogfights. When making an opposed check to disengage from a dogfight, you can reroll your Pilot check, taking the better result. If you fail, you remain in the dogfight, but the gunners on your vehicle do not take penalties on their attack rolls.
Prerequisite: Elusive Dogfighter.

Shunt Damage: Once per encounter, if your ship takes damage, make a Pilot check and compare the result to the Reflex Defense of one adjacent allied ship. If your check result is higher, the allied ship takes the damage instead.

Vehicle Focus: Choose a single type of vehicle from the following list: airspeeder, capital ship, space transport, speeder, starfighter, walker, or wheeled vehicle. When you are the pilot or gunner of that type of vehicle, you gain a +2 to all attack rolls with a vehicle weapon, and may take 10 on any Pilot checks made while piloting that type of vehicle, even when you are otherwise unable to.
Prerequisite: WIS 13+.

Vehicular Evasion: If the vehicle you are piloting is hit by an area attack, it takes half damage if the attack hits. If the area attack misses your vehicle, it takes no damage. You cannot use this talent when your vehicle is stationary or disabled.

Wingman: As a swift action, you can make a DC 15 Pilot check to assist any allied starfighter or airspeeder within 2 squares at starship scale. If you succeed, the pilot of that vehicle gains a +5 bonus on all opposed Pilot checks relating to the dogfighting action until the start of your next turn.
Prerequisite: WIS 13+.