Descripton: The Spelljamming Engineer, or Engineer for short, is the a Mage who specializes in the science of spelljamming craft, their operation, and design. As a member of a crew, a Spelljamming Engineer is invaluable as his familiarity with spelljammers allows them to improve their ship, repair it in an emergency, and spot the weaknesses of enemy ships and make devastating attacks. Spelljamming Engineers are usually bookish and eccentric, preferring to work with steel, wood, and dweomer than people. Engineers are commonly found in sci-fi fiction: Scotty and Geordi from Star Trek are typical Engineers. Although an Engineer would love to sit in the helm himself, most rarely get the chance, as their services are required elsewhere.
Requierments: To be an Engineer, one must have a dexterity of fourteen to work effectively under adverse conditions. An Engineer must also have at least a nine in intelligence to be a Mage.
Weapons and Armor: In addition to the normal weapons allowed a Mage, Engineers can become proficient in any one weapon traditional to sailors like belaying pin, cutlass, or crossbow at first level. Of course, Engineers cannot wear armor if they expect to cast spells.
Non-weapon Proficiencies: Bonus: Shipwright, Spacemanship, Spelljammer Design. Required: Reading/Writing, Spellcraft. Recommended: Cooking (the Engineer often doubles as cook),Engineering, Metalworking, Navigation (phlogiston or wildspace), Zero-G Ops.
Special Benefits: Note: Many of the Spelljamming Engineer's special abilities refer to Spelljamming Design. This is a proficiency that all Spelljamming Engineers get for free. The starting rating is (INT/-2), and may be increased by spending additional slots as the Engineer raises in level. Other classes may buy the proficiency, it costs three slots, but it only grants knowledge about various craft designs.
Upgrades: If an Engineer oversees an upgrade performed on a ship he is familiar with it can be done in one third the time and half the cost. Once per ships attribute per ship an Engineer can perform an ingenious upgrade on any ship he is familiar with. This upgrade can effect even attributes of a ship not normally upgradable, and normal upgrades can be performed without altering any other attributes (an Engineer can, for example, manage to strip a ship down for speed without damaging its armor class, or beef up its armor without slowing it down). This comes from the Engineer's intensive study of the ship's structure and of the flow of magic from the helm through its materials. This upgrade costs two thousand gold for attributes not normally upgradable, or three times the price of a normal upgrade on that attribute, and requires a Spelljammer Design check. If the check fails the Engineer cannot attempt to upgrade that attribute of that ship until he rises in level.
Pinpoint Weakness: By observing an enemy ship maneuver for 1d4 combat rounds an Engineer can pinpoint where on the ship to cause the most structural or functional damage. The exact effect depends on the degree of success but can include increased damage or decrease some of the enemy ship's attributes for a short time. The Engineer rolls Spelljammer Design, and if successful the DM decides what the weakness is and tells the Engineer. If the Engineer fails a check he does not spot a weakness and much observe the enemy for 1d4 more rounds before trying again, on a critical failure the Engineer spots a weakness that does not exist. At the players option, the Engineer can look for weaknesses in a specific part of the ship.
Example: Damainus Gul, an Engineer aboard the phlogiston trader Phoenix Fire, is observing the enemy, a Neogi Mindspider that wants to take his beloved ship apart. The DM secretly rolls 1d4 and a skill check for Damainus. She gets a 3 and a failure. Three rounds later she tells Damainus that he can't spot any obvious weaknesses in the Mindspider's metal hull. He isn't needed below or in the riggings yet, so Damainus's player, Andrew, informs the DM that he'll sit around and try again. The DM checks again and rolls a 1 and a good, but not critical, success. The next round she informs Andrew that he has spotted a spot on the hull where a shoddy job has been done on some metal plating. Damainus runs over to a ballista crew to tell them where to shoot.
More than one weakness exists on a given ship, but as the Engineer already has spotted the most obvious weakness, further attempts are at a cumulative -2 penalty, and require a cumulative two extra rounds.
Example: On the Phoenix Fire things are going badly. The Mindspider was hurt by the blow, but not crippled, and Damainus's ship nearly is! Andrew informs the DM that Damainus is going to try again, this time concentrating on the ships rigging to slow it down. The DM rolls a 2 (modified by +2 because this is Damainus's second attempt, thus a four) and a success, despite the -2 penalty. She tells Andrew four rounds later that he spots a place in the riggings of the Mindspider where a hit could slow the ship down.
Inspired Repair: Also called the "She canna take much more o' this, cap'n" effect, this is an Engineer's ability to rise to the occasion when things are really bad and save the ship. This ability comes from the Engineers familiarity with his ship and his intense knowledge of the science of spelljamming. The Engineer rolls Spelljammer Design, the effect depends on the Engineers imagination and the succes of the roll. Suitable effects include repairing damage instantaneously, moving values on the ship's attributes around, and weapons cobbled together from scratch. If the DM wants to make things a bit tougher he can rule that the Engineer must take further action like crawling around on the outside of the craft or climbing the riggings to effect repairs.
Spelljammer Design: At some point in their career, Engineers are going to want to design their own ships. Whatever method of ship design is used in your game, you should probably make it easier and more productive for an Engineer to design a ship. It is, after all, their profession. Engineers should get XP for successful ships.
Hindrances:
Social Ineptitude: Engineers are most at home in their ships or at their workshops. Away from their natural habitats Engineers become edgy and irritable, translating to a -5 to all reaction rolls.
Proffesional Pride: The best way to get an Engineer really angry in a hurry is to insult their ship. Engineers are devoted to their ships. On the up side, an Engineer is immune to most other kinds of provocation, but when their ship is insulted they must roll a wisdom check at a variable penalty depending on the severity of the insult or attack the offender (this does not mean murder).
Engineers are barred from the school of Necromancy as it has no bearing on the care and operation of their ship.
