Chapter 6: Equipment

Carrying especially heavy or unwieldy items can make it more difficult for you to move, as can overloading yourself with too much gear. The Bulk value of an item reflects how difficult the item is to handle, representing its size, weight, and general awkwardness. If you have a high Strength modifier, you usually don’t need to worry about Bulk unless you’re carrying numerous substantial items.

As shown in the Bulk Conversions table, Large or larger creatures are less encumbered by bulky items than Small or Medium creatures, while Tiny creatures become overburdened more quickly. A Large creature treats 10 items of 1 Bulk as 1 Bulk, a Huge creature treats 10 items of 2 Bulk as 1 Bulk, and so on. A Tiny creature treats 10 items of negligible Bulk as 1 Bulk. Negligible items work in a similar way—a Huge creature treats items of 1 Bulk as negligible, so it can carry any number of items of 1 Bulk. A Tiny creature doesn’t treat any items as having negligible Bulk.

Creatures of sizes other than Small, Medium, or Large need items appropriate to their size. These items have different Bulk and possibly a different Price. The Differently Sized Items table provides the Price and Bulk conversion for such items. For example, a doshko sized for a Medium creature has a Price of 20 credits and 1 Bulk, so one made for a Huge creature is 80 credits and 4 Bulk. One made for a Tiny creature still costs 20 credits (due to its intricacy) and has 1/2 Bulk (rounding down to light Bulk). Because the way that a creature treats Bulk and the Bulk of gear sized for it scale the same way, Tiny or Large (or larger) creatures can usually wear and carry about the same amount of gear as a Medium creature.

Higher-level magic and tech items that cost significantly more than 8 times the cost of a mundane item use their listed Price regardless of size. Precious materials, however, have a Price based on the Bulk of the item, so multiply the Bulk value as described on the Differently Sized Items table, then use the formula in the material's entry to determine the item's Price.

Some abilities require you to wield an item, typically a weapon. You’re wielding an item any time you’re holding it in the number of hands needed to use it effectively. When wielding an item, you’re not just carrying it around—you’re ready to use it. Other abilities might require you to be wearing the item, holding it, or simply to have it.

Equipment typically comes in seven grades: commercial, tactical, advanced, superior, elite, ultimate, and paragon. While most armor, shields, and weapons can exist in any grade from commercial to paragon, some equipment doesn't exist at certain grades and must be initially purchased or crafted at a higher grade. Equipment other than armor, weapons, and shields only exist at grades specifically listed in the item and cannot be improved to a higher grade if it's not listed.

Armor, shields, and weapons (pages 244, 250, and 253 respectively) are typically listed using their lowest available grade, usually commercial. Each grade beyond the first provides the equipment with additional statistics as given in the tables listed for the appropriate item. Equipment listed with multiple grades in their entry do not use these charts and instead use the statistics listed for each grade in their description.

Armor, shields and weapons gain more upgrade slots as they improve. Higher grades of armor add more AC and gains the resilient trait, improving the saving throws of their wielder by the listed value. Higher grades of weapons have improved damage dice and gain the tracking trait, improving their attack rolls by the listed value. Higher grades of shields have increased Hardness, Hit Points, and BT.

A character who is trained or better in Crafting can improve an item using the original item and UPBs as raw materials using the same process as the Craft activity, except as noted here. The original item provides raw materials equal to its price. The DC of the Crafting check to improve an item is determined by the item level of the finished product. You do not need the formula to improve an item, as the instructions can be found readily available on any infosphere and are usually provided as a complimentary file when you purchase the equipment, but Crafting without a formula means you will have to provide raw materials equal to the item's price. It only takes 1 day to improve an item by spending the remaining portion of its Price in materials.

If you have the formula for the item you can improve an item by supplying UPB equal to half the difference between the two items, but you must work multiple days to reduce the materials needed to complete the item as usual with the Craft activity. You cannot improve an item to a higher-grade version if you're not capable of Crafting items of that level.

Inanimate objects and hazards are immune to bleed, death effects, disease, healing, mental effects, nonlethal attacks, poison, spirit, vitality, void, as well as the doomed, drained, fatigued, paralyzed, sickened, and unconscious conditions. Conscious, thinking items are not immune to mental effects. Many objects are immune to other conditions, at the GM's discretion. For instance, a sword can't move, so it can't take a penalty to its Speed, but a spinning blade trap might be affected.

This lists how many hands it takes to use the item effectively. Most items that require two hands can be carried in only one hand, but you must spend an Interact action to change your grip in order to use the item. The GM might determine that an item is too big to carry in one hand (or even two hands, for particularly large items)

You can make a set of tools (such as a maker’s toolkit or medkit) easier to use by wearing it. This allows you to draw and replace the tools as part of the action that uses them. You can wear up to 2 Bulk of tools in this manner; tools beyond this limit must be stowed or drawn with an Interact action to use.

These items follow special rules or require more detail.

The items listed on the following table are the most widely available medical items in the Pact Worlds. Medical items aren't magical. They instead use the properties of chemicals and the latest advances in biotech. As such, medical items don't radiate magical auras, and they can't be dismissed or affected by dispel magic. Their effects last for a set amount of time or until they're countered in some way, typically physically.
Some medical items have the tech trait. Some also have the consumable trait, which means that the item is used up once activated. Rules for creating medical items are found in the Craft activity, and you must have the Serum Crafting skill feat to Craft medical items.

Having a spell cast for you requires finding a spellcaster who knows and is willing to cast it. It's harder to find someone who can cast higher-rank spells, and uncommon spells typically cost at least 100% more, if you can find someone who knows them at all. Spells that take a long time to cast (over 1 minute) usually cost 25% more. You must pay any cost listed in the spell in addition to the Price on the table.

Your Armor Class (AC) measures how well you can defend against attacks. When a creature attacks you, your Armor Class is the DC for that attack roll.
Use your proficiency bonus for the category (light, medium, or heavy) or the specific type of armor you're wearing. If you're not wearing armor, use your proficiency in unarmored defense.

Getting in and out of armor is time consuming—so make sure you're wearing it when you need it! Donning and removing armor are both activities involving many Interact actions. It takes 1 minute to don light armor, 5 minutes to don medium or heavy armor, and 1 minute to remove any armor.

The galaxy is a vast and wondrous place, with countless dangers and worlds within it, but space is inhospitable and incredibly deadly. Every type of modern armor has built-in environmental protections which, when activated, protect you from the vacuum of space. These protections allow you to survive for a few days if you must make repairs to the hull of a starship, explore an airless alien world, or endure exposure to an environmental breach while trapped inside a space station. Some armors do this through an environmental field (a minor force field specially tuned to protect from a vacuum that doesn't reduce damage from attacks), while others can be closed with helmets and airtight seals. While using your armor's environmental protections, your armor can protect you from the dangerous environmental effects of a vacuum and can facilitate self-contained breathing. This allows you to survive and breathe while within a thick or thin atmosphere, in a vacuum, or while submerged in liquid (the safety seals and rebreather offer no protection from the effects of damaging liquids, such as acid or lava). Armor protection doesn't protect you from smoke inhalation, inhaled poisons, toxic atmospheres, or corrosive atmospheres.
Armor environmental protections work only while within a thick or thin atmosphere, a vacuum, or non-hazardous liquid. In all other environments, armor is designed to cycle down, refill its air supply, and filter in the surrounding environment by entering low-power mode. This enables the armor to conserve power and air for unexpected emergencies, and to ensure its delicate systems are constantly operating at peak efficiency. To protect yourself from other environmental dangers, such as radiation, you can install armor upgrades into your armor's upgrade slots.
Armor Protections: All armors, except those with the exposed trait, allow you to breathe and survive in a thick or thin atmosphere, a vacuum, or in non-hazardous underwater environments. This does not prevent inhaled toxins or similar effects from entering your armor's systems. Ancestries like kalo that require specific environmental conditions to survive can easily obtain or modify armor to suit these needs. The wearer can activate or deactivate an armor's protections with an Interact action. A suit of armor's environmental protections last for a number of days equal to its item level (minimum 1 day).

The Armor table provides the statistics for the various forms of protection without wearing armor and for suits of armor that can be purchased and worn, organized by category. The columns in the table provide the following statistics.

Certain class features can grant you additional benefits with certain armors. This is called an armor specialization effect. The exact effect depends on which armor group your armor belongs to, as listed below. Only medium and heavy armors have armor specialization effects.

Shields have statistics that follow the same rules as armor: Price, Speed Penalty, and Bulk. Their other statistics are described here.

A shield can be used as a martial weapon for attacks, using the statistics listed for a shield bash. The shield bash is an option only for shields that weren't designed to be used as weapons. A shield can't have armor or weapon upgrades added to it.

When making an attack roll, determine the result by rolling 1d20 and adding your attack modifier for the weapon or unarmed attack you're using. Modifiers for melee and ranged attacks are calculated differently.
Bonuses and penalties apply to these rolls, just like with other types of checks. Weapons with the tracking trait add an item bonus to your attack rolls, improving your ability to hit targets.
Melee attack roll result = d20 roll + Strength modifier (or optionally Dexterity modifier for a finesse weapon) + proficiency bonus + other bonuses + penalties
Ranged attack roll result = d20 roll + Dexterity modifier + proficiency bonus + other bonuses + penalties

When the result of your attack roll with a weapon or unarmed attack equals or exceeds your target's AC, you hit your target! Roll the weapon or unarmed attack's damage die and add the relevant modifiers, bonuses, and penalties to determine the amount of damage you deal. Calculate a damage roll as follows (full details are in Damage Rolls).
Melee damage roll = damage die of weapon or unarmed attack + Strength modifier + bonuses + penalties
Ranged damage roll = damage die of weapon (+ Strength modifier for a thrown weapon or half Strength modifier for a propulsive weapon) + other bonuses + penalties
Ranged weapons don't normally add an attribute modifier to the damage roll, though thrown weapons add your full Strength modifier. At higher levels, most characters also gain extra damage from weapon specialization. Improved versions of weapons also deal more damage.

When you make an attack and succeed with a natural 20 (the number on the die is 20), or if the result of your attack exceeds the target's AC by 10, you achieve a critical success (also known as a critical hit).
If you critically succeed at a Strike, your attack deals double damage. Other attacks, such as spell attack rolls and some uses of the Athletics skill, describe the specific effects that occur when their outcomes are critical successes.

Almost all characters start out trained in unarmed attacks. You can Strike with your fist or another body part, calculating your attack and damage rolls in the same way you would with a weapon. Unarmed attacks can belong to a weapon group, and they might have weapon traits. However, unarmed attacks aren't weapons, and effects and abilities that work with weapons never work with unarmed attacks unless they specifically say so.
The unarmed attacks table lists the statistics for an unarmed attack with a fist, though you'll usually use the same statistics for attacks made with any other parts of your body. Certain ancestry feats, class features, and spells give access to special, more powerful unarmed attacks such as tails or claws. Details for those unarmed attacks are provided in the abilities that grant them.

If you attack with something that wasn't built to be a weapon, such as a chair or a vase, you're making an attack with an improvised weapon. Improvised weapons are simple weapons. You take a –2 item penalty to attack rolls with an improvised weapon. The GM determines the amount and type of damage the attack deals, if any, as well as any weapon traits the improvised weapon should have.

Each of the weapons in the weapon tables lists the statistics for various melee and ranged weapons that you can purchase. The tables present the following statistics.

Certain feats, class features, weapon fusions, and other effects can grant you additional benefits when you make a Strike with certain weapons and get a critical success. This is called a critical specialization effect. The exact effect depends on which weapon group your weapon belongs to, as listed below. You can always decide not to add the critical specialization effect of your weapon.

Most upgrades grant their benefits continually so long as you're properly wearing the armor they're installed in. Others produce their effects only when used properly in the moment by spending actions. An activation lists the number of actions it takes and any traits for the activation and its effects. This information appears in the item's Activate entry.

Some armor upgrades that have special activations and benefits can be activated only a limited number of times per day, as described in the armor upgrade. This limit is independent of any costs for activating the upgrade. This limit resets during your daily preparations. The limit is inherent to the armor upgrade, so if an ability that can be used only once per day is used, it doesn't refresh if the armor upgrade is uninstalled and reinstalled or is installed in another suit of armor, or if another creature tries to activate the upgrade. Similarly, armor has innate safety overrides that prevent you from installing a duplicate of an armor upgrade you've already used the limited action of and from trying to use that action again.

Environmental protections are crucial tools for explorers and combatants alike, allowing any species to operate in hostile conditions ill-suited for its survival. These items function as long as the armor's environmental protections are active and can quickly recharge while a character is resting as other functions in an armor enter sleep mode.

Most upgrades grant their benefits continually so long as you're wielding the weapon they're installed in. Others produce their effects only when used properly in the moment by spending actions. An activation lists the number of actions it takes and any traits for the activation and its effects. This information appears in the item's Activate entry.

Some weapon upgrades that have special activations and abilities can be activated only a limited number of times per day, as described in the weapon upgrade. This limit is independent of any costs for activating the upgrade. This limit resets during your daily preparations. The limit is inherent to the weapon upgrade, so if an ability that can be used only once per day is used, it doesn't refresh if the weapon upgrade is uninstalled and reinstalled or is installed in another weapon, or if another creature tries to activate the upgrade.

Some upgrades attach to or upgrade a specific part of a weapon. A weapon can only have one such upgrade at a time. These will always be designated in the upgrade's usage entry, such as “installed in a weapon (sight).”

A solarian crystal is a special gemstone grown from the coronal ejections of stars and used to enhance the power of a solarian's attacks. There are two forms of solarian crystals: core crystals and orbital crystals. Core crystals offer the most basic and essential benefits: a weapon potency crystal adds a bonus to the solar weapon's attack rolls, and the striking crystal adds extra weapon damage dice. Orbital crystals grant more varied effects—typically powers that take effect each time the weapon is used.
A solarian can add a solarian crystal to their solar weapon or solar flare by spending an Interact action, and it remains until they remove it with another Interact action. A solarian's solar weapon and solar flare can have one weapon potency and one striking crystal each, plus a number of orbital crystals equal to the value of the weapon potency crystal they're using with their weapon or flare.
Solarian crystal abilities must be activated following the rules for activating items.

Grenades can be launched from grenade launchers, instead of thrown, using the grenade launcher's range instead of the usual range of 70 feet.

Certain magic and hybrid items convey their benefits only when worn and invested using the Invest an Item activity, connecting them to a specific PC. A PC can benefit from no more than 10 invested magic items each day. A PC can still gain the mundane benefits of a magic item without investiture.

Invest an Item

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You invest your energy in an item with the invested trait as you don it. This process requires 1 or more Interact actions, usually taking the same amount of time it takes to don the item. Once you've Invested the Item, you benefit from its constant magical abilities as long as you meet its other requirements (for most invested items, the only other requirement is that you must be wearing the item). This investiture lasts until you remove the item.
You can invest no more than 10 items per day. If you remove an invested item, it loses its investiture. The item still counts against your daily limit after it loses its investiture. You reset the limit during your daily preparations, at which point you Invest your Items anew. If you're still wearing items you had invested the previous day, you can typically keep them invested on the new day, but they still count against your limit.

While some items function automatically and grant constant benefits, others produce effects only when properly used. An activation lists the number of actions it takes and any traits of the activation and its effect. This information appears in the item's Activate entry.

Getting an augmentation implanted requires the services of a professional augmentation surgeon or someone with master proficiency in Medicine. A session with a surgeon usually takes 1 hour per 2 item levels of the augmentation (minimum 1 hour). The price of such implantations typically includes the procedure. Most major settlements are home to reputable augmentation clinics. Verces is an especially popular destination for cybernetics, while Bretheda is a beacon for biotech advancements.
As augmentations can apply to any of the numerous ancestries across the universe, there's no set usage for them. While an augmentation's entry suggests body parts, the GM can allow other applications.

Removing an augmentation usually occurs during surgery. Because augmentations are coded to your body, it's not possible to resell an old augmentation, nor can you re-implant one into a different person. Most reputable service providers offer to uninstall any unwanted existing augmentations as part of installing a new one.

Many augmentations work continuously. Augmentations with an Activate entry usually require you to concentrate or Interact to gain an additional boost or ability. Once activated, an augmentation often can't be used again for a set amount of time as it recharges from its use. Each augmentation indicates how it can be activated and how frequently it can be used.

Biotech augmentations include modifications to your DNA combined with implants of biological origin that integrate into your physiology. Biotech augmentations aren't magical, though many originate from (or imitate) creatures that are magical in nature.

Cybernetic augmentations are machines and circuitry integrated into your flesh and bone. Cybernetics are more than just machine implants; they're a complex melding of technology and the living host's own organs. Cybernetic augmentations are technological, not magical, though they aren't subject to any effect or attack that targets technology unless it specifies that it affects cybernetics.

Magitech augmentations are a combination of cybernetic and magical components, created with special-made elements like mystically charged crystals, starmetal alloys, and runeengraved microchips. Magitech augmentations are magical, but they can't be dispelled unless the effect or attack specifies that it affects augmentations.

When you get an augmentation with the apex trait, it improves one of your attributes, either increasing the attribute's modifier by 1 or to a total of +4, whichever would give you a higher score. This gives you all the benefits of the new attribute modifier: increasing Intelligence lets you become trained in an additional skill and learn a new language, increasing Constitution gives you more Hit Points, and so on.
You can only gain an attribute increase from one apex augmentation, though you do gain any other effects or abilities of other installed apex augmentations If you have multiple apex augmentations, decide during your daily preparations which one provides an attribute increase that day, if any.
Apex augmentations can be biotech, cybernetics, or magitech. Add the appropriate trait to the item upon crafting or purchasing.