Identity
Ace Flyers are the pilots who treat gravity as suggestion. They flew Aurelion solar-skiffs through coronal flares, ran Halcyion interceptors through atmospheric reentry, or grew up barnstorming frontier airfields in patched-together hoppers. To an Ace, an enemy fighter is a problem with a closed-form solution; the only question is whether the solution costs you altitude or fuel. They favor small craft over capital ships, single-seat over crew-served, and the sharp end of the merge over any number of layered defenses.
Features
- L3 Aerial Superiority
While piloting your Bonded Vessel in three-dimensional movement (flight, low-gravity, or void), you gain a +2 bonus to AC against attacks originating from creatures or craft that cannot match your altitude, vector, or attitude. Additionally, you treat any vehicle-mounted weapon you fire while in atmospheric or void combat as having its short-range increment increased by 50%, and you ignore disadvantage on Piloting checks caused by adverse weather, turbulence, or non-standard atmospheric conditions.
- L7 Flip-and-Fire
Once per round, while piloting your Bonded Vessel, you can execute an inverted reversal as part of your movement: your craft pivots end-for-end without spending its movement allowance, presenting its weapons to a target you were previously fleeing from or that was in pursuit. You can immediately take the Attack action with a vehicle-mounted weapon as a bonus action, and the target has disadvantage on its next attack roll against you until the start of your next turn (the maneuver is faster than most gunsights can track).
- L11 Missile Break
When you or your Bonded Vessel are targeted by a guided projectile, area-effect ordnance, or any attack with a tracking or lock-on mechanism, you can use your reaction to attempt a DC 14 Piloting check. On a success, the attack misses you entirely and, if the attack would have hit another target in its path, the GM rolls against that secondary target as if it were the original. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your DEX or INT modifier (whichever is higher) per long rest.
- L15 Sky-Marshal
You command the airspace around you. While piloting your Bonded Vessel, you can designate a cylindrical zone with a 1,000 ft radius and unlimited vertical extent centered on your vessel as your controlled airspace. Allied craft within the zone gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls and Piloting checks, and hostile craft within the zone have disadvantage on Piloting checks made to break a target lock you have established. The zone moves with you and persists for as long as you remain at the controls.
- L18 Legendary Ace
Once per long rest, you can declare a Legendary Pass — a sequence of three consecutive maneuvers performed at the limit of physics. For the next three rounds, you can take a bonus action each turn to make a vehicle-mounted weapon attack, you automatically succeed on any Piloting check you make to evade incoming fire, and your Bonded Vessel's movement speed is doubled. At the end of the Legendary Pass, your Bonded Vessel takes 1 level of vehicle strain (GM determines exact effect; typically reduced top speed or a damaged subsystem until repaired).