Class: Techie

Machines are your servants, and the local electronics dealer is your church. You believe in the progress of civilization through the perfection of technology. You are not one to live off the land, acquiring skills necessary for an unlikely apocalypse. You’ve had your head in machines since the moment you constructed your first radio-controlled vehicle. Since then, it has been about making things go faster, fly higher, be tougher, or act smarter. People and other biological bags of water and carbon are unreliable instruments at best. They never speak the truth and are prone to failure even with regular maintenance. Machines never lie, they never cheat, and if properly cared for, will never betray you or die unexpectedly.

With only a few basic modifications or tweaks, you can even push a machine to be better than what it was designed for, whether it be a robot, a car, or even a gun.

Playing a Techie

You can think of yourself as a field engineer, fixing and destroying technology you come across. Because you never leave anything alone, you’re continually looking for new ways to improve every device you can get a hold of. Given enough time, you can make any machine work better. This is reflected in your abilities, allowing you to improve the capacity of your weapons. You can temporarily improve other machines, making cars faster or armor tougher. The group can consider you a medic for machines, as you keep any technology from breaking down when reliability equates survivability.

Damage Bonus Scaling. The techie features several abilities that add a bonus to damage. This bonus begins at +2 but can increase in intervals of +2 each time one of these features is applied. Increased Calibre, Increased Rate of Fire, and Midas Touch all add to this bonus.

Class Features

Proficiencies

• Armor. Light and medium armor Weapons.
• Simple weapons, one-handed small arms
• Tools. Tinker’s tools, All ground vehicles and aircraft
• Saving Throws. Intelligence, Wisdom
• Skills. Engineering, Computer Use, Demolitions, History, Insight, Investigation, Sciences

Tech Points

At 1st level, you get tech points (TP) that can be used to boost abilities and perform exploits representative of your training. At 1st level, you start with points equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier, which increases by 1 every additional level. Any spent tech points are recovered after you finish a long rest.

Shiny Red Button

At 1st level, you can put a button on your firearm. You only need eight hours of work to put the button on a new firearm but only you can press it without breaking the weapon. The button’s function is determined by your choices from the options that follow. You can add as many functions into your button as you have available tech points, but each modification can only be added once per configuration unless stated otherwise. If you don’t alter the function outside of a battle, your last configuration is used (if you have the available points).

Pressing the button takes no action. When you press the button, you spend the tech points corresponding with each of the functions added. If you don’t have enough tech points when you press the button, the entire configuration does not function. Once pressed, its effects last five minutes.

You can own multiple weapons with different configurations, as the points are not spent unless the button is pushed, though pushing multiple buttons during a single battle would be rather wasteful. Changing a configuration takes five minutes, though you can attempt to change a configuration as an action with a DC 15 Intelligence (Engineering) check (you cannot change a configuration while one is in effect without voiding the invested tech points of the previous configuration).

Additionally, you can attempt to regain a lost tech point with a DC5 Intelligence (Engineering) check. Each check takes 1 minute, and successive checks increase the DC by 5 (DC 10, DC 15, etc.). The DC increases regardless if you succeed in recovering the point or not, and the check reverts back to DC5 when you take a long rest.

• Tech Points 30

Floating Reticle

Cost. 2 points

You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls.

Hydroshock

Applied twice

Cost. 4 points

You deal additional damage with a hit equal to the difference between your attack roll and the target’s AC to a maximum of 8.

Increased Caliber

Applied three times

Cost. 6 points

Your weapon’s damage gains a +2 bonus. This stacks with any other effects that increases damage. You can add this modification up to three times.

Increased Round Velocity

Cost. 1 point

When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die, you can reroll. You must accept the new roll, even if it is a 1 or a 2.

Muzzle Flash / Bang

Cost. 2 points

Any creature you hit within 20 feet of you has disadvantage on attack rolls against you until the beginning of your next turn.

Pop-Up Eyepiece

Cost. 1 point

If you roll a 2 or 3 on your attack roll, you can re-roll. You must accept the second result.

Rapid Loader

Applied twice

Cost. 8 points

You gain one additional attack whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. You can add this modification up to two times. This stacks with Pioneer.

Smart Tracking

Cost. 6 points

You have advantage on attack rolls.

Tech Savant

Starting at 1st level, you gain one of the following traits that reflect the uniqueness of your talents. Some require the spending of tech points. You gain additional tech savant traits at 2nd level, 5th level, 10th level, 13th level, 17th level, and 20th level

Tech Savant Traits

Level 1

Economical Plating.

You gain a +1 bonus to AC. Additionally, you can temporarily increase your armor’s potential, spending one tech point as an action to increase your AC an additional +1 for five minutes.

Level 2

Failsafe.

If someone other than you attempts to use your weapon with a shiny red button on it (regardless if they press it), the weapon explodes, inflicting a critical hit of weapon damage on the unlucky handler and stunning them until the beginning of your next turn. The weapon is now broken (it can be fixed normally).

5th level

Friggin’ Love Science.

Spend a tech point, and you have advantage on Intelligence (Science) or Intelligence (Engineer) checks until the end of your next turn. If you select this trait a second time, you can spend one tech point to set your next d20 roll Intelligence (Science) or Intelligence (Engineer) check to a natural 20.

10th level

Friggin’ Love Science.

Spend a tech point, and you have advantage on Intelligence (Science) or Intelligence (Engineer) checks until the end of your next turn. If you select this trait a second time, you can spend one tech point to set your next d20 roll Intelligence (Science) or Intelligence (Engineer) check to a natural 20.

13th level

Midas Touch.

While you are wielding a firearm, your damage bonus increases by +2. You can select this trait twice, and its effects stack with others that increase this damage bonus.

17th level

Midas Touch.

While you are wielding a firearm, your damage bonus increases by +2. You can select this trait twice, and its effects stack with others that increase this damage bonus.

20th level

Priorities.

Instead of using your Hit Dice to recover hit points during a short rest, you can expend them to regain tech points. For each Hit Die spent, you recover 2 tech points rather than recover hit points. You cannot have more tech points than your maximum.

Widget Bag

Starting at 1st level, you gain a widget bag. It contains random spare parts, useful materials, and salvage worth $200. During a short or long rest, you can scavenge for components. In most areas, you will be able to recover $10 worth during a short rest and $20 worth during a long rest, but the GM may award more or less (or none at all) at her discretion.

Pioneer

Starting at 6th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. This increases to three attacks at 14th level in this class.

McGuy Something

Starting at 12th level, you can construct useful items or tools to accomplish something generally not allowed given the available resources available. Either the GM can supply a random assortment of items you can use to create a tool, or you can make a case for everyday items one is likely to find to solve an immediate crisis.

This may involve searching an area or assuming certain items are available; if your widget bag currently contains at least $20 worth of parts, you can always be assumed to have a variety of small useful items such as screws, nails, paper clips, duct tape, and chewing gum.

If the GM is convinced by your argument, make an Intelligence (Engineering) check to see if the improvised gadget or solution works (Set the GM). When you use this trait, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.