Hey Oslecamo,
Looking at the new Android ACF for Battleship Captain, I find it pretty underpowered. They essentially lose an entire class feature (Officers) with no replacement. I have a number of suggestions as to what could replace that feature.
My main suggestion is: “Instead of experienced Officers, the Android gains advanced cyberwarfare capabilities. Each time the Android would gain an Officer, they instead gain any three Internet Explorer maneuvers which they would otherwise be qualified for based on their level. (So 3 total at level 6, 6 total at level 12). They may trade in all the maneuvers gained from this feature at levels 8, 12, 16, and 20.
Once per round they may use one of the maneuvers they gained from this feature while paying 50% of the energy cost. They may only use a maneuver when they would otherwise have been able to use it, but doing so counts as a free action.”
These parts are optional/alternative if you think more or different parts are necessary:
- Just replace the whole feature above with “Without a crew, the Android’s battleship has more space for batteries and capacitors. At levels 6 and 12 they gain 40 extra base energy, for a total of 80. They may use energy to pay for spirits.”
- Change the sentence about “Each time the Android would gain an Officer...” to “Each time the Android would gain an Officer, they instead gain any three Internet Explorer maneuvers. For the first three maneuvers, they qualify based on their level -4. For the second three maneuvers, they qualify at their level -8.” This would also apply when trading in maneuvers.
- “Additionally, at level 6 they gain 20 base energy and at level 12 they gain 40 base energy, for a total of 60.“
- “They may also use INT instead of CHA where relevant in the Terror Tactics school, but no other maneuver rules are modified with regard to that school.”
- Make the entire feature about Terror Tactics instead of Internet Explorer. It makes a good amount of sense as a debuff/mezz school. In that case, they should also lose normal access to that school, essentially trading in fewer maneuvers available from TT for the ability to use them more often.
- “Once per turn on their turn only the Android may invert their leadership aura. Instead of buffing allies in range, it debuffs enemies in range for the same stats an ally would be buffed in. However, this only debuffs 50% of how much an ally would have been buffed. All other Leadership-related feats and features apply as normal. Leadership-related calculations use INT instead of CHA.”
The reasons for each change are as follows:
- Officers for Maneuvers: The benefit of an officer is essentially an extra spirit pool for the BB. Instead of keeping that feature by some other means, I suggest turning the BB from a buff focus to a debuff focus. Rather than create a whole parallel Spirit system for this ACF, I suggest using the pre-existing IE school. Internet Explorer is already INT-based, so it has nice synergy with the CHA for INT swap on Ships Full Of Hope.
- 50% Cost: This is so they can use the feature without entirely trading in other capabilities (just like a normal captain doesn’t lose any other normal features for the extra spirit). This also means the extra energy from the feature doesn’t have to be a huge amount, which would potentially unbalance other parts of the class. It could also be that the extra energy may only be used for the IE maneuvers, not other things.
- Switch to energy for spirit: If you do want to keep the normal use of a battleship, this is a way to do it with different balance. This is a lot simpler and replaces the key issue with the ACF as it is, which is the loss of a significant resource pool. It gives them flexibility to use the energy for other things, but doesn’t add a ton of new capabilities.
- Level limit on maneuvers: Maneuvers can be very powerful, so this is a parallel to the leveled down officers from the original feature.
- Extra Energy: This is to parallel the extra spirit for the Captain. Instead of losing a resource pool they trade it in.
- Terror Tactics: This helps make another school useful with the INT swap and fits thematically, but otherwise doesn’t provide a buff. Changing the whole original idea to TT avoids giving the Captain a whole new class of abilities, but I personally like the idea of a whole new take on the class.
- Leadership inversion: This is a thematic thing. It could also be just always negative, I don’t feel strongly about the swapping back and forth thing either. The switch to INT here also increases synergy with the original idea.
