Mercenary

The mercenary actions (gifts) are abilities that only a mercenary persona has. New actions are added when the persona gains a certain level of experience. The player cannot choose her personas actions.

These are broad areas of interest that the mercenary has. Combat interests will assist the persona in any combat related tasks she is undertaking. For example, shooting a lazer gun or throwing a grenade would benefit from combat interests. Tactical interests are the officer side of executing tasks related to the bigger picture of a battle. If the mercenary wanted to avoid an ambush, or organize a room entry she calls on her tactical interests.

At startup the player gets one roll per 3 points of INT. Each interest includes a skill roll as well. After startup the player can roll or choose one additional interest per new EXPS level.

Skills are much more specific than interests and can refer to a specific weapon type or a specific task. The skills will assist the persona in completing task rolls related to the skill. A mercenary gets one skill per corresponding interest. So combat interest will earn the persona a combat skill as well.

The mercenary can increase her armour rating, making her more difficult to damage in combat. The mercenary increases her defence by decreasing her attack. The player can transfer points from her bonus proficient to her armour rating. So her chance to hit decreases but her chance to be hit decreases as well. This trade-off can change every unit, and the player doe not need to win a task roll. Bolster AR is an automatic combat ability for mercenaries.

Let’s consider a 3rd level merc with a BP of 158 and an AR of 620. She could drop her BP to 98 and increase her AR to 680.

The bonus proficient use must match the attack type. The player can use her persona’s Type A BP against type A attack. A mercenary can transfer 20 BP points to AR per EXPS level. The amount transferred cannot exceed the mercenary’s Bonus Proficient. The player can use only the pure combat table Bonus Proficient. Other bonuses, like scope bonuses, do not apply. The mercenary can use her bolstered AR against one attack per EXPS level.

Mercenaries can make extra attack rolls with non-powered weapons. Non-powered weapons are thrusting and striking (type A) and non-powered missiles (type B). Powered weapons (Type C) have a mechanical rate of fire limitation, and the divided attack ability does not apply. Divided attacks are automatic, and the player does not make a task roll.

The player divides her bonus proficient between the attack rolls. Hence the name divided attacks. The persona gets one additional attack every two levels of experience to a maximum of 4 divided attacks per unit. A 4th level mercenary is attacking with an axe and has a BP of 210. She could chop once with a BP of 210 or 3 times with a BP of +70;

To maintain game efficiency, players should make their calculations in advance.

Mercenaries can use weapons with both hands without penalty. The player must win a task roll or usual penalties for ambidextrous combat. Ambidextrous combat allows the mercenary to combine any weapon types they can carry.

Under normal circumstances, a persona suffers a severe penalty for ambidextrous combat. The typical penalty is -200 for the dominant hand and -300 for the non-dominant hand. If the player wins a task roll, the mercenary does not suffer these penalties. If they miss their task roll, the merc will suffer -200 and -300 on the two attacks.

The DD of the task roll is 12. If the player wants to combine ambidextrous combat and divided attacks, DD is 24.

Mercenaries are proficient in any weapon that they use. So a mercenary using a lazer pistol she just purchased up would use her Bonus Proficient. Absolute proficiency only works with fully identified personal weapons. This ability does not work on unidentified artifact weapons, but the mercenary is most likely to identify a gun. This ability does not work on weapon systems of mass destruction.

The mercenary can reload her weapon and attack in the same unit. Most personas would have to miss at least a combat unit to reload a weapon. The snap reload can also be used as a snap weapon exchange. The player must win a 6 DD task roll to snap reload or snap change weapons. If the mercenary is trying to snap reload during ambidextrous combat, the DD increases to 12. A mercenary cannot combine snap reload, ambidextrous combat and divided attacks. If the player loses the task roll, the mercenary reloads like all other personas.