Fighting Styles

You believe that anything can be solved by shooting your way out. Somehow, your bravado and over-the-top actions have a way of working out for you, despite logic often suggesting otherwise. To you, there's no problem that a barrage of bullets or laser blasts can't fix. You've become a specialist at dealing out devastation with automatic weapons, whether you're fighting on the front line, operating a turret in a speeding vehicle, or blasting through a crowd of enemies.

When you successfully make a ranged Strike with an automatic weapon, you suppress the target until the start of your next turn. In addition, when you Auto-Fire, the size of the cone is equal to the weapon's full range increment, rather than half. When using the Auto-Fire action, you can designate a target anywhere in the cone to be your primary target, rather than the creature closest to you.

Your armor feels like a part of you and stands up to heavy fire in the thick of battle. Your armor absorbs greater damage from attacks made by enemies you've suppressed. In a fight, you likely body block or stand in front and try to keep the enemy's ire, trusting your armor to keep you alive.

You never count as being in the area of a ranged weapon you've made an attack with. You gain resistance equal to half your level (minimum 1) to all damage against attacks made by suppressed targets.

You don't need a free hand to Disarm, Grapple, Reposition, Shove, or Trip. You gain a +1 status bonus on Athletics checks to Disarm, Grapple, Reposition, Shove, and Trip suppressed foes. When you successfully Disarm, Grapple, Reposition, Shove, or Trip a creature, it becomes suppressed until the start of your next turn.

There’s nothing like a big gun (or maybe several) to get you through tough times. You’ve come to terms with the fact that a stray bullet from one of your barrages might sometimes hit an ally, but you try to minimize such instances of “friendly fire.” You’ve trained to avoid harming allies with your barrages and learned to expertly position your attacks around them.

When you attack with an area weapon, you can select a number of allies within the area equal to half your Constitution modifier. The selected allies are unaffected by the attack. In addition, enemies who succeed (but not critically succeed) on their save against an area attack you make are still suppressed until the start of your next turn.

While you have the necessary training to employ heavy weapons, you believe it's important to keep a backup for when foes get too close. You might be a veteran Veskarium trooper who knows their way around a doshko or a devotee of Zon-Shelyn dealing holy wrath with a painglaive. Blows with heavy close combat weapons hinder your foes just as effectively as when you fire a rotolaser or a missile launcher.

As long as you're wielding a two-handed melee weapon, you meet the requirements for soldier feats that require an area weapon. When you're using a soldier feat, any two-handed melee weapon you're wielding gains area (burst 5 feet), and you're unaffected by your attacks with that weapon. You can make a melee Strike with a two-handed melee weapon instead of a ranged Strike with primary target or any soldier feat. In addition, you gain the Whirling Swipe feat.

You realize that not every situation should be solved with a gun. You're an intellectual as well as a warrior, solving problems logically and learning about the galaxy. You keep your mind sharp with formal education or self-guided study. When logic breaks down, you're always ready to fall back on your combat training.

Choose either Diplomacy or Society. You become trained in the chosen skill and one Lore skill of your choice. When you gain armor expertise, you gain expert proficiency in Diplomacy or Society (whichever you selected) and the Lore skill you selected. This increases to master proficiency when you gain armor mastery, and to legendary proficiency when you gain legendary armor. You also gain the Oppressive Presence action.

Your endurance training empowers you to carry a load of heavy equipment. When determining your Strength for using armor, you can instead choose to use your Constitution modifier. If you already meet the Strength requirement for the armor you’re wearing, reduce that armor’s Bulk by 1 (to a minimum of 1).

In addition, increase the amount of Bulk you can carry before becoming encumbered by half your Constitution modifier rounded up. Increase your maximum carried Bulk by your Constitution modifier.