Identity
Drone Operators are the Pilots who decided that being inside the vehicle was the limiting factor. Halcyion drone-clerics who treat their swarm as a congregation; Echelon corporate operatives whose surveillance flights triangulate a target across an entire arcology; frontier prospectors whose mining drones do the dangerous work while they sit at a folding table with a kettle on. The iconic Drone Operator's hands are still while their attention is everywhere. They do not pilot a single vessel; they pilot a chorus.
Features
- L3 Drone Swarm
You begin to operate a small drone swarm — three Tiny remote-controlled drones tethered to your Bonded Vessel (which serves as their carrier and recharging cradle). Each drone has 5 HP, AC 14, a flight speed of 40 ft, and operates within 500 ft of you. As a bonus action on your turn, you can issue commands to your drones; each drone can take one action per round (Attack with an integrated light-weapon for 1d6 damage of a chosen type, Scout for surveillance, Help an ally, Dash, or Disengage). If a drone is destroyed, you can rebuild it during downtime for a nominal cost; lost drones do not disable the feature. You can add additional drones beyond the starting three through downtime fabrication, up to a maximum equal to your INT or DEX modifier + 2.
- L7 Drone-Jack
Once per short rest, you can attempt to hijack a hostile drone, automated turret, or other small autonomous machine within 500 ft of you. The target must make an INT save (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your INT modifier) or fall under your control for 1 minute. The hijacked unit acts on your initiative count and obeys your commands. Constructs, awakened or Riftbound machines, and Tier V autonomous units have advantage on this save and cannot be hijacked for longer than 1 round. You can have only one hijacked unit at a time; attempting to hijack a second releases the first.
- L11 Swarm Tactics
Your drones grant their teamwork to your party. When a drone of yours is within 5 ft of a target, allies attacking that target gain the equivalent of the Help action automatically (no drone action required). Additionally, you and your drones share a unified initiative count; on your turn, you can take your action, your bonus action, and one action per drone, in any order. This allows complex coordinated maneuvers (drones illuminate, ally attacks with advantage, drones reposition for the next round) without exceeding a single round of game time.
- L15 Remote Seizure
Once per long rest, you can attempt a remote takeover of a vehicle, mech, or non-sentient craft within 1 mile of you. The target's pilot (if any) makes a contested INT check against your INT + proficiency bonus. On a success against an empty or autonomous vehicle (no pilot), you assume the controls for up to 10 minutes; on a success against a piloted vehicle, you can override its controls for 1 round (the original pilot may attempt to retake control as their action on subsequent rounds, opposed INT). The takeover does not work against Riftbound, sentient, or sacrosanct vessels (e.g., Aurelion ceremonial craft warded by the High Magisterium).
- L18 The Chorus
Your perception extends through your swarm. You can perceive — sight, sound, and other sensory inputs — through any of your drones as if you were physically present at the drone's location, and you can shift your active perception between drones as a free action on your turn. While your swarm is deployed, you are functionally present anywhere your drones are: you can speak through them (the drones have small speaker units), cast non-Touch-range channels through them as the point of origin (subject to your normal range and line-of-sight rules from the drone's position), and use class features that target enemies you can see, using the drone's perception. Your own body remains where it is, and remains vulnerable; many Drone Operators learn to leave themselves somewhere very safe before opening the chorus.