All Rules | Downtime Rules

Narrative Starship Combat / PC Starships

Starship Upgrades

Source Starfinder Enhanced pg. 183
Some of the upgrades presented here have tier requirements, but they are otherwise available to all crews. GMs are encouraged to add their own, perhaps taking inspiration from NPC starship special abilities.

ABLATIVE PLATING

Ablative plating allows a crew to ignore the first hit the ship takes in a narrative starship combat.

DISPLACEMENT MANTLE

Once per narrative starship combat, any crew member can activate this hybrid device when an enemy starship targets their ship with any tactic (this takes no action). For the remainder of the round, there is a 20% chance that any tactic targeting the ship fails, regardless of the skill check result.

DRIFT ENGINE UPGRADE

The ship’s Drift engine rating improves by 1. This upgrade can be installed up to four times; it can also be used to get an alternate interstellar drive (Starship Operations Manual 8) at the GM’s discretion.

EXPANSION BAY

The crew can install a standard expansion bay option. This upgrade can be installed multiple times.

MINE LAYER

Once per narrative starship combat, any crew member can lay down mines as part of an action that targets an enemy starship. The next round before it chooses a tactic, that ship must succeed at a skill check against your ship’s Average DC or take 1 hit.

NAV-SCRAM MODULE

Once per narrative starship combat, any crew member can activate this module as part of an action that targets an enemy starship. The enemy starship takes a –2 penalty to its skill checks for 1d4 rounds.

QUANTUM DEFENDER

Once per narrative starship combat, any crew member can activate the quantum defender when an enemy starship succeeds at a check that would cause a hit (this takes no action). The enemy vessel must reroll the skill check and take the new result.

TRACKING WEAPONS

Once per narrative starship combat, a gunner can reroll a failed skill check that targets an enemy vessel.

TRACTOR BEAM

Any enemy ship attempting the Flee tactic must first succeed at a skill check against your ship’s Hard DC or it fails to escape at the end of the round.

VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE

This supercomputer attempts the Provide Aid crew action for a PC of the crew’s choosing each round, using a bonus equal to your ship’s tier + 3 for the check.

Archives of Nethys