Way back in the dark days of 2007, after playing many hours of MechCommander and D&D, I came up with a series of "mechwarrior traits" for use in a battletech campaign I was trying to put together. Unfortunately, the campaign never got off the ground and these traits got filed away in some obscure folder on an external HD. I stumbled across these abilities earlier today while backing some stuff up and realized they were at least similar in concept to the Special Pilot Abilities now featured in AToW. I decided it might be fun to add these SPAs into the campaign I'm currently running and wanted to know what you guys thought about them before I screw up game balance too much in my campaign. More specifically, I would like to know what XP costs you think would be appropriate for these abilities. So, without further ado, here's what 18 year old me thought were cool and balanced abilities:
Weapon Specialist (Lasers, ER Lasers, Pulse Lasers, PPCs, Gauss Rifles, LRMs, MRMs, SRMs, ACs, LB-X ACs, UACs, RACs)
Prerequisites: Gunnery of 4 or lower.
Effect: You have a -1 to hit modifier when firing a weapon of this type.
Mech Specialist (Light, Medium, Heavy, Assault) I:
Prerequisites: Piloting of 5 or lower.
Effect: You have a -1 modifier on piloting skill rolls when piloting a battlemech of this type.
Mech Specialist (Light, Medium, Heavy, Assault) II:
Prerequisites: Mech Specialist (same type) I and piloting of 4 or lower.
Effect: You gain 1 MP when running in a battlemech of this type.
Mech Specialist (Light, Medium, Heavy, Assault) III:
Prerequisites: Mech Specialist (same type) II and piloting of 3 or lower.
Effect: Enemies suffer a +1 to hit modifier when shooting at you when you are piloting a battlemech of this type.
Headhunter I:
Prerequisites: Gunnery of 3 or lower.
Effect: On a determining hit location role of 2 you may choose to hit the head instead.
Headhunter II:
Prerequisites: Headhunter I and gunnery of 2 or lower.
Effect: On a determining hit location role of 11 you may role a d6. On a role of 4+, the shot hits the head, otherwise it hits the normal location.
Headhunter III:
Prerequisites: Headhunter II and a gunnery of 1 or lower.
Effect: On a determining hit location role of 3 you may role a d6. On a role of 4+, the shot hits the head, otherwise it hits the normal location.
Physical Attack Specialist:
Prerequisites: Piloting of 5 or lower.
You gain a -1 modifier on all to hit roles for physical attacks.
Concentrate Fire (LRMs, MRMs, SRMs, LB-X ACs, and RACs):
Prerequisites: Gunnery of 3 or lower and weapon specialization with appropriate weapon type.
Effect: For clustered damage with the appropriate type of weapon, double the size of the cluster.
Maximize Fire (LRMs, MRMs, SRMs, LB-X ACs, UACS, and RACs):
Prerequisites: Gunnery of 3 or lower and weapon specialization with appropriate weapon type.
Effect: Add a +2 bonus to determine number of hit rolls with the appropriate type of weapon.
Knockdown (PPCs (not Light PPCs), Gauss Rifles, ACs (10 or 20), LB-X ACs (10 or 20), UACs (10 or 20)):
Prerequisites: Gunnery of 3 or lower and weapon specialization with appropriate weapon type.
Effect: The target must make a piloting skill roll whenever you hit it with a weapon of the appropriate type. Each additional hit from a knockdown weapon adds 1 to the difficulty of the piloting skill role.
Strider (Rough, Water, Elevation, Woods)
Prerequisites: Piloting of 4 or lower.
Effect: Reduce mp cost of moving through appropriate terrain type by 1.
Jump Jet Specialist I
Prerequisites: Piloting of 5 or lower.
Effect: Reduce the heat generated by jumping by 2, in addition, your new minimum amount of heat generated by jumping is now 2.
Jump Jet Specialist II
Prerequisites: Jump Jet specialist I and piloting of 4 or lower.
Effect: Increase your maximum jump mp by 1.
Jump Jet Specialist III
Prerequisites: Jump Jet specialist II and piloting of 3 or lower.
Effect: Reduce to hit penalty for jumping by 1.
Jump Jet Specialist IV
Prerequisites: Jump Jet specialist III and piloting of 2 or lower.
Effect: Increase movement modifier when jumping by an additional +1.
Die Hard:
Prerequisites: None
Effect: Re-roll all failed consciousness roles. In addition, if you would take a sixth pilot hit roll a d6, on a result of 4+ the hit is disregarded.
Heat Management Specialist I:
Prerequisites: None
Effect: You may cool 2 additional heat points each turn.
Heat Management Specialist II:
Prerequisites: Heat Management Specialist I.
Effect: Reduce the target number for all avoiding shutdown rolls by 1.
Heat Management Specialist III:
Prerequisites: Heat Management Specialist II.
Effect: Reduce the target number for all avoiding ammunition explosion rolls by 1.
Ace Pilot I:
Prerequisites: Piloting of 3 or lower.
Effect: Re-roll all failed piloting rolls.
Ace Pilot II:
Prerequisites: Ace Pilot I and piloting of 2 or lower.
Effect: Reduce the to hit penalty for walking and running by 1.
Ace Pilot III:
Prerequisites: Ace Pilot II and piloting of 1 or lower.
Effect: If you have any mp remaining at the end of the movement phase, you may spend up to 4 of the remaining mp in order to increase the hexes moved for calculating your movement modifier by 1 for each mp spent.
Critical Hit Specialist:
Prerequisites: Gunnery of 2 or lower.
Effect: Add a +1 bonus to the result of any determining critical hits role resulting from damage done directly by you.
(Short, Medium, Long) Range Specialist:
Prerequisites: Gunnery of 4 or lower.
Effect: Reduce the penalty for firing at the specified range by 1.
Deadeye I:
Prerequisites: Gunnery of 2 or lower.
Effect: Reduce the movement modifier of the target by 1.
Deadeye II:
Prerequisites: Deadeye I and gunnery of 1 or lower.
Effect: You may reroll all determining hit location rolls.
Deadeye III:
Prerequisites: Deadeye II and gunnery of 0 or lower.
Effect: You can always make aimed shots.
Shootist:
Prerequisites: Gunnery of 3 or lower.
Effect: Reduce the penalty for firing at a secondary target by 1.
Bombardier:
Prerequisites: Gunnery of 3 or lower.
Effect: Disregard penalties for the spotter’s movement when using indirect fire.
Lightning Reflexes:
Prerequisites: None.
Effect: Add a +1 bonus to all initiative rolls.
Electronic Warfare Specialist:
Prerequisites: None
Effect: Increase the range of any ECM equipped on your mech by two hexes.
Cover Specialist:
Prerequisites: Piloting of 4 or lower.
Effect: Increase the modifier for being hit while being in light woods, heavy woods, or having partial cover by 1.
Bushwacker:
Prerequisites: None.
Effect: You may always deploy using the hidden units rule.
Flanker:
Prerequisites: None.
Effect: At the beginning of the game role a d6. The result is the turn number that you arrive on board. When you arrive on the battlefield, you may arrive on any board edge that was not included in your opponent’s deployment zone.
Berserker:
Prerequisites: None.
Effect: Improve your piloting skill, gunnery skill, and initiative role by 1 for each mech that you destroyed in the previous turn. This effect goes away at the end of the turn.
