Engineer

The aetherian pulls a thread and the wall of stone is gone by nightfall. The engineer builds a wall that is still there in a hundred years, and a gun to defend it, and a mechanoid to sweep up afterward. Engineers bind the aether into brass, glass and fibrolite, and what they make keeps working long after they've put down their tools.

Adventures. Engineers adventure for parts, patrons and problems. A lost runekar workshop, a souldriven that needs taking apart, a guild commission that pays in fibrolite: any of these will get an engineer on the road. Many travel with mercenary companies or airship crews who pay well for someone who can keep the guns firing.

Characteristics. An engineer's power comes from preparation. Each morning the engineer readies a handful of devices: flash charges, grapple launchers, smoke canisters, thruster packs and incendiary bombs, each holding one aetheric effect. Anyone can use a device, so an engineer arms the whole party. Engineers also craft magic items, build firearms and artillery, and keep a mechanoid assistant. They can't heal the living. An engineer's power is aether stored in fibrolite, never flux, and the aether doesn't touch living tissue, so engineers repair machines, not people. Every device burns a shard of fibrolite, and engineers are always looking for more.

Outlook. Guild engineers serve the guild and whoever funds it. Freelancers build guns for privateers and the Veil, and care more about the work than the buyer.

Religion. The Covenant discourages aetheric manipulation but grudgingly accepts engineered equipment, so engineers are among the few aether users it tolerates, and its Wardens are some of their best customers. Engineers trust what they can measure. Few are devout, though human engineers often keep a quiet prayer to Khareus for luck with a difficult shot.

Background. Most engineers learned in the Tinkerer Guild's workshops or Adryae's universities. Others apprenticed in a foundry, served as a war mechanic in the War of Souls, or taught themselves by taking apart whatever they could steal.

Races. Runekar make natural engineers, and the guild's masters are mostly runekar. Humans are the next most common. Malumtene engineers are rare: they prefer taking things apart. Ashen engineers are rarer still, since the exspiratis find the work maddeningly slow. Souldriven can never be engineers: their own core resonates with any fibrolite they try to work.

Other Classes. Engineers get along with anyone who appreciates a working tool. Fighters and runners love them for the gear. Aetherians respect their discipline while privately thinking it unimaginative. Fleshgrafters are their uneasy cousins. Engineers build machines that stay outside the body, and most consider putting them inside a step too far.

Role. The engineer is a support character who also hits hard at range. Devices handle utility, battlefield control and blasting. Firearms and artillery give steady damage. In downtime, the engineer outfits the party with items.

Abilities. Intelligence determines how many devices an engineer can ready each day, how hard they are to resist, and powers the engineer's many skills. Dexterity helps with firearms. Constitution keeps an engineer alive near their own explosives.

Hit Die: d6.

Starting Wealth: 5d4 × 10 gl (125 gl).

Class Skills

The engineer's class skills (and the key ability for each) are Appraise (Int), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Disable Device (Int), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (architecture and engineering) (Int), Open Lock (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Spellcraft (Int) and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.

All of the following are class features of the engineer.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Engineers are proficient with all simple weapons and with firearms (see Firearms and Artillery). They are proficient with light and medium armor and with shields (except tower shields).

Devices: An engineer's main power is the device: a small, single-use contraption of brass, glass and fibrolite that holds one aetheric effect. Devices are drawn from the engineer device list below. Each day, an engineer spends 1 hour at a workbench (or with a tool kit) readying devices. The number readied of each level is given on Table: The Engineer, plus bonus devices for a high Intelligence score, using the bonus spells table in the Player's Handbook. Devices of 0 per day on the table can be readied only through bonus devices. Every device by level, with a link to each effect's description, is in Spells by Class.

To ready a device of a given level, an engineer must have an Intelligence score of at least 10 + the device's level. A readied device lasts 24 hours, after which its charge fades.

Using a device is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity, and anyone can use one. The user doesn't need to be an engineer or make a Use Magic Device check, but must hold the device. The device produces its effect as a spell of the same name, with a caster level equal to the engineer's class level. The save DC, if any, is 10 + the device's level + the engineer's Intelligence modifier. A device that affects a single creature by touch affects its user, or someone the user touches. Device effects are aetheric: they are subject to dispel magic and spell resistance like spells, and they count as spell-like abilities for any effect that cares.

An engineer may hand out any number of readied devices. An engineer's devices stop working if the engineer dies.

Fibrolite (Ex): An engineer can't work the aether directly as an aetherian does, and never draws on flux. Every device needs a fibrolite shard sized to its level, set into it when it is readied (see Fibrolite Shards): 2 gl for a 1st-level device, rising to 72 gl for a 6th-level device. The shard is used up when the device is triggered. A device that goes unused gives its shard back to be set again the next day. Without the right shard, an engineer can't ready the device.

Salvage (Ex): An engineer recovers fibrolite from a destroyed construct or aetheric device in 1 minute instead of 10, and gains their Artisan's Insight bonus on the check. On a failed check, they still recover half the value instead of shattering it.

Efficient Patterns (Ex): At 5th level, an engineer has refined their 1st-level designs so far that they need no fibrolite. At 10th level, 2nd-level devices need none either, and at 15th level, 3rd-level devices need none. Higher-level devices always need their shards.

Artisan's Insight (Ex): An engineer adds half their class level (minimum 1) as a bonus on Craft (engineering) checks, and on Use Magic Device checks made to use items they crafted.

Trapfinding (Ex): An engineer can use the Search skill to locate traps with a DC higher than 20, and can use Disable Device to disarm magic traps, as a rogue can.

Pattern Reserve (Su): An engineer keeps a store of finished aetheric patterns, worked out in advance, instead of spending their own life force on crafting. When crafting a magic item, firearm or construct, the engineer can pay the XP cost from this reserve instead of their own experience points. The reserve refills to the amount on the table each time the engineer gains a level. Points left over when they level up are lost.

Gunsmith (Ex): At 2nd level, an engineer can build firearms and aetheric ammunition using Craft (engineering), without needing an item creation feat. Special rounds are crafted as magic ammunition. See Firearms and Artillery. An engineer can also reload a firearm as if they had the Rapid Reload feat.

Jury-Rig (Ex): At 2nd level, an engineer can make a quick repair as a full-round action, restoring 1d8 + their class level hit points to an object or construct they touch. They can do this a number of times per day equal to their Intelligence modifier (minimum 1). An engineer can also make a broken item work for 1 round without repairing it, by making a DC 20 Craft (engineering) check.

Bonus Feats: An engineer gains item creation feats at set levels: Craft Wondrous Item at 3rd, Craft Magic Arms and Armor at 5th, and Craft Construct at 9th. They needn't meet the prerequisites. At 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th and 19th level, an engineer gains a bonus feat chosen from this list: any item creation feat, any metamagic feat (applied when readying a device, which then counts as a device of the higher level), Exotic Weapon Proficiency, Far Shot, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Skill Focus (Craft or Disable Device), Weapon Focus (any firearm).

Mechanoid Assistant (Ex): At 4th level, an engineer builds a mechanoid assistant: a Tiny construct that helps at the workbench, carries tools and can be sent on simple errands. Use the statistics of a homunculus without its poisonous bite, flight or telepathic link. Instead, it follows spoken commands of up to ten words and uses its master's ranks in Craft, Disable Device and Search. The assistant can use devices its master hands it. If it is destroyed, the engineer can build a new one in a week for 500 gl.

Artillerist (Ex): At 6th level, an engineer is proficient with all artillery. They can operate a piece of artillery that normally needs a crew of two or more with one less crew member, to a minimum of one. When aiming artillery, they add their Intelligence modifier as well as their base attack bonus.

Rapid Rig (Ex): At 8th level, an engineer can ready all their devices in 15 minutes instead of an hour. They can also leave up to half their device slots empty when readying, and fill them later with 1 minute of work each.

Overdrive (Su): Starting at 11th level, once per day, when anyone uses a device the engineer made within 30 feet of the engineer, the engineer can push it past its limits as an immediate action. Its caster level increases by 2 and its save DC by 1. They can do this one additional time per day at 14th, 17th and 20th level.

Master Gunsmith (Ex): At 12th level, firearms an engineer builds have their critical threat range doubled (as Improved Critical, which doesn't stack), and the engineer can craft special rounds at half the normal cost.

Grand Design (Ex): At 20th level, an engineer completes a masterwork of their own design. Once per week, they can create any wondrous item, firearm, piece of artillery or construct worth up to 25,000 gl in a single day, without paying its XP cost.

Hand Them Out. Devices are strongest in other people's hands. A thruster pack on the fighter, a lockbreaker on the runner and a bomb on the archer turn three turns into three effects. Decide each morning who gets what, and keep one for yourself.

Ready for the Day You Expect. Devices are prepared, not spontaneous. A day spent crossing the Fiend's Chasm calls for a different bench than a day spent in Caerdydd's under-market. Rapid Rig at 8th level makes it easier to keep options open.

Downtime Matters. Between adventures, an engineer is the party's armorer, gunsmith and quartermaster. Ask your Game Master how much downtime the campaign allows before you plan around crafting.