Using Ability Scores

Six abilities provide a quick description of every ship's, physical and electronic characteristics:

• Strength, measuring reactor output
• Dexterity, measuring maneuverability
• Constitution, measuring durability
• Intelligence, measuring processing and data storage
• Wisdom, measuring targeting, sensors, and awareness
• Charisma, measuring presence and electronic communications power and ability

Is a ship tough, and her crew well-trained? Fast and frightening? Nimble and notorious? Ability scores de-fine these traits—a ship's strengths and weaknesses.

The three main rolls of the game-the ability check, the saving throw, and the attack roll-rely on the six ability scores. The book's introduction describes the basic rule behind these rolls: roll a d20, add an ability modifier derived from one of the six ability scores, and compare the total to a target number.

This chapter focuses on how to use ability checks and saving throws, covering the fundamental activities that creatures attempt in the game. Rules for attack rolls appear in chapter 9.

Ability Scores and Modifiers#

Each of a ship's abilities has a score, a number that defines the magnitude of that ability. An ability score is not just a measure of innate capabilities, but also encompasses a ship's modification, in activities related to that ability.

A score of 10 or 11 is the normal average, but many ships are a cut above average in most abilities. A score of 18 is the highest that a ship usually reaches. Some can have scores as high as 20, and monsters and capital ships can have scores as high as 30.

Each ability also has a modifier, derived from the score and ranging from -5 (for an ability score of 1) to +10 (for a score of 30). The Ability Scores and Modifiers table notes the ability modifiers for the range of possible ability scores, from 1 to 30.

To determine an ability modifier without consulting the table, subtract 10 from the ability score and then divide the total by 2 (round down).

Because ability modifiers affect almost every attack roll, ability check, and saving throw, ability modifiers come up in play more often than their associated scores.

Ability Scores and Modifiers#

Advantage and Disadvantage#

Sometimes a special ability or power tells you that you have advantage or disadvantage on an ability check, a saving throw, or an attack roll. When that happens, you roll a second d20 when you make the roll. Use the higher of the two rolls if you have advantage, and use the lower roll if you have disadvantage. For example, if you have disadvantage and roll a 17 and a 5, you use the 5. If you instead have advantage and roll those numbers, you use the 17.

If multiple situations affect a roll and each one grants advantage or imposes disadvantage on it, you don't roll more than one additional d20. If two favorable situations grant advantage, for example, you still roll only one additional d20.

If circumstances cause a roll to have both advantage and disadvantage, you are considered to have neither of them, and you roll one d20. This is true even if multiple circumstances impose disadvantage and only one grants advantage or vice versa. In such a situation, you have neither advantage nor disadvantage.

When you make a roll with advantage or disadvantage, only the d20 is rolled twice. Any additional dice, such as the d4 granted by the guidance force power, are only rolled once.

When you have advantage or disadvantage and something in the game, such as the iktotchi's Precognition trait, lets you reroll the d20, you can reroll only one of the dice. You choose which one. For example, if an iktotchi has advantage on an ability check and rolls a 1 and a 13, the iktotchi could use the Precognition trait to reroll the 1.

You usually gain advantage or disadvantage through the use of special abilities, actions, or powers. Inspiration (see chapter 4) can also give a character advantage on checks related to the character's personality, ideals, or bonds. The GM can also decide that circumstances influence a roll in one direction or the other and grant advantage or impose disadvantage as a result.

Advantage on Other Rolls#

Though less common, advantage and disadvantage can occur on other types of rolls as well. When you have advantage or disadvantage on a roll, as with a d20, you roll the dice twice, using the higher of the two results with advantage, and using the lower of the two results if you have disadvantage. If a roll has multiple dice, you roll the dice together and treat the results separately.

For instance, the Boost Weapons action potentially grants advantage on a ship damage roll once per turn. If any additional dice would be added to the damage roll, those additional dice are only rolled once.

Proficiently Equipped#

Ships can be proficiently equipped for particular tasks, allowing her crew to add their proficiency bonus to the roll or save, as long as the crewmember has at least one deployment rank. Enemy ships also have this bonus, which is incorporated in their stat blocks. The bonus is used in the rules on ability checks, saving throws, and attack rolls.

Your proficiency equipped bonus can't be added to a single die roll or other number more than once. For example, if two different rules say you can add your proficiency bonus to a Wisdom saving throw, you nevertheless add the bonus only once when you make the save.

Occasionally, your proficiency bonus might be multiplied or divided (doubled or halved, for example) before you apply it. If a circumstance suggests that your proficiency bonus applies more than once to the same roll, you still add it only once and multiply or divide it only once.

By the same token, if a feature or effect allows you to multiply your proficiency bonus when making an ability check that wouldn't normally benefit from your proficiency bonus, you still don't add the bonus to the check. For that check your proficiency bonus is 0, given the fact that multiplying 0 by any number is still 0. For instance, if you are not proficiently equipped in the Data skill, you gain no benefit from a feature that lets you double your proficiency bonus when you make Intelligence (Data) checks.

In general, you don't multiply your proficiency bonus for attack rolls or saving throws. If a feature or effect allows you to do so, these same rules apply.

Expertly Equipped#

Certain features, such as Active Camouflage or a Boarding Harpoon, let your ship double its proficiency bonus with a given skill or modification, granting your ship the status of expertly equipped in that skill or modification. As usual, you can only gain expertly equipped status in a skill or modification once.

Proficiently Equipping a Ship#

| Regulation| Power Converter, Mk I| Power Converter, Mk II| pushed a ship beyond its natural limits

| Int ||||

| Astrogation| Navcomputer| Navcomputer, Mark II| calculate hyperspace jumps|

| Data| Comms Package, Mk I| Comms Package, Mk II|access data banks or process data|

| Probe| Scanner, Premium| Scanner, Prototype|focused sensing and probing|

| Wis ||||

| Scan| Scanner, Mk I| Scanner, Mk II|notice and locate the presence of objects|

| Cha ||||

| Impress| Impressive Interior; Impressive Exterior| Impressive Interior; Impressive Exterior|a general measurement of your ship's beauty and soundness|

| Interfere| Comms Suppressor, Mk I| Comms Suppressor, Mk II|interfere with another ship's systems|

| Menace| Threatening Design| Threatening Hardware| threaten via ship's appearance or abilities|

| Swindle| Disguised Features; Secondary Transponder Code| Disguised Features; Secondary Transponder Code|pass your ship off as something it's not|

Ability Checks#

An ability check represents a ship's ability to overcome a challenge. The GM calls for an ability check when a ship, or a crewmember, attempts an action (other than an attack) that has a chance of failure. When the outcome is uncertain, the dice determine the results.

For every ability check, the GM decides which of the 6 abilities is relevant to the task at hand and the difficulty of the task, represented by Difficulty Class. The more difficult a task, the higher its DC. The Typical Difficulty Classes table shows the most common DCs.

To make an ability check, roll a d20 and add the relevant ability modifier. As with other d20 rolls, apply bonuses and penalties, and compare the total to the DC. If the total equals or exceeds the DC, the ability check is a success-the ship, or crewmember, overcomes the challenge at hand. Otherwise, it's a failure, which means the ship or crewmember makes no progress toward the objective or makes progress combined with a setback determined by the GM.

When making an ability check that involves your ship's abilities, you use the ship's score instead of your own, as dictated by logic.

Contests#

Sometimes one ship's or crewmember's efforts are directly opposed to another's. This can occur when both of them are trying to do the same thing and only one can succeed, such as attempting to pass through a narrow gap simultaneously. This situation also applies when one of them is trying to prevent the other one from accomplishing a goal—for example, when a ship's gravity projector tries to prevent another ship from jumping to hyperspace. In situations like these, the outcome is determined by a special form of ability check, called a contest.

Both participants in a contest make ability checks appropriate to their efforts. They apply all appropriate bonuses and penalties, but instead of comparing the total to a DC, they compare the totals of their two checks. The participant with the higher check total wins the contest. That ship or crewmember either succeeds at the action or prevents the other one from succeeding.

If the contest results in a tie, the situation remains the same as it was before the contest. Thus, one contestant might win the contest by default. If two ships tie in a contest to pass through a narrow gap, neither ship makes it. In a contest between a ship's gravity generator trying to prevent another ship from jumping to hyperspace, a tie means that the second ship fails to jump.

Passive Checks#

A passive check is a special kind of ability check that doesn't involve any die rolls. Such a check can represent the average result for a task done repeatedly, such as probing meteors over and over, or can be used when the GM wants to secretly determine whether the characters succeed at something without rolling dice, such as noticing a hidden ship.

Here's how to determine a ship's total for a passive check:

10 + all modifiers that normally apply to the check. If the ship has advantage on the check, add 5. For disadvantage, subtract 5. The game refers to a passive check total as a score.

For example. if a 1st-tier ship has a Wisdom of 15 and is proficiently equipped in Scan, it has a passive Wisdom (Scan) score of 13.

Using Each Ability#

Every task that a ship or character might attempt in the game is covered by one of the six abilities. This section explains in more detail what those abilities mean and the ways they are used in the game.

Strength#

Strength measures the power of a ship's reactor.

Strength Checks#

Your GM may call for Strength checks when you undergo interactions not covered by skills, such as trying to push through a malleable obstruction like a Conner net.

Ram. Use the Ram skill when you want to slam into another object to deal damage.

Boost. Use the Boost skill when you attempt to push your ship to or beyond its limits. A successful Boost check can break ties in straight-line speed contests or to determine how fast your ship can accelerate to top speed. You also make boost checks in response to taking the boost engines, boost shields, and boost weapons actions.

Strength Saving Throws#

Certain features, such as a Tractor Beam, call for a Strength saving throw. When you make a Strength saving throw, you roll a d20 and add your ship's Strength modifier to the roll. If your ship is proficiently equipped for the saving throw, you also add the proficiency bonus of the crewmember at the helm to the result of the roll.

Damage Rolls#

You add your ship's Strength modifier to ship weapon damage rolls.

Weapon Hardpoints#

While a ship can have any number of hardpoints, it can only Fire a number of times each round equal to the ship's Strength modifier (minimum of +1) times its ship hardpoint size modifier (round up), as shown in the Ship Hardpoint Size modifier table below. Normally each weapon can only be Fired once per round.

Ship Hardpoint Size Modifier#

Dexterity#

Dexterity measures the nimbleness of a ship, as determined by its thrusters and pilot.

Dexterity Checks#

Your GM may call for Dexterity checks when you undertake actions not covered by skills.

Hide. The Hide skill allows the ship to remain undetected by sensors from other ships and stations. Use the Hide skill when you want to approach a ship or station along a known blind spot, or slink through a debris field, or hide amongst asteroids.

The Hide skill is generally contested by a passive Wisdom (Scan) score if the ship's presence is unknown, a Wisdom (Scan) check if the presence is suspected or known but the general location is unknown, and an Intelligence (Probe) check if the approximate location of a ship is known or suspected.

Maneuvering. Use the Maneuvering skill to perform tricky maneuvers in combat, to deftly fly through an asteroid field, and to impress others with flying skills.

When you would make a Dexterity (Maneuvering) check, you may instead make an Intelligence (Piloting) check at disadvantage.

Your ship is considered proficiently equipped in this skill if the crewmember at the helm is proficient in Piloting.

Your ship is considered expertly equipped in this skill if the crewmember at the helm has expertise in Piloting.

Hiding

When you try to hide your ship, make a Dexterity (Hide) check. Until you are discovered or stop hiding, that check is contested by the Wisdom (Scan) check of any ship or station that actively searches for signs of your presence. You can't hide from a ship that can perceive you, and if your ship does something to make your ship noticed, you give away your position. In combat, most ships stay alert for danger, so if you come out of hiding and approach a ship, it usually per-ceives you. However, under certain circumstances, the GM might allow you to stay hidden as you approach a ship that is distracted or has some blind spot or de-fect, allowing you to gain advantage on an attack before you are perceived. Passive Scan. When you hide, there's a chance some-one will notice you even if they aren't searching. To determine whether such a ship notices you, the GM compares your Dexterity (Hide) check with that ship's passive Wisdom (Scan) score, which equals 10 + the ship's Wisdom (Scan) modifier. If the ship has advantage, add 5. For disadvantage, subtract 5. For example, if a 1st-tier ship has a Wisdom of 15 and is proficiently equipped for Scan, it has a passive Wisdom (Scan) of 14.

Dexterity Saving Throws#

Certain features, such as burst weapons, call for a Dexterity saving throw. When you make a Dexterity saving throw, you roll a d20 and add your ship's Dexterity modifier to the roll. If your ship is proficiently equipped for the saving throw, you also add the proficiency bonus of the crewmember at the helm to the result of the roll.

Alternative INITIATIVE

At the beginning of every combat, instead of rolling initiative, GMs can quickly use passive initiatives to determine order based on a ship's Dexterity and it's ship size base initiative as shown below in the Starship Size Base Initiative table below.

Starship Size Base Initiative

Ship Size	Ship Size Base Initiative
Tiny	10
Small	9
Medium	8
Ship Size	Ship Size Base Initiative
:--:	:--:
Large	7
Huge	6
Gargantuan	5

To calculate a ship's passive initiative, use the following formula:

---

initiative = "ship size base initiative" + "Dexterity modifier"

---

Constitution#

Constitution represents the durability of a ship's hull.

Constitution Checks#

Your GM may call for a Constitution check when you undergo interactions not covered by skills, such as overcoming the debilitating nature of an ion storm.

Patch. You can attempt to have the ship patch up damage it has taken, using one of its Hull Dice. When you take the Patch action, you make a Constitution (Patch) check (DC = 10 or half the ship's missing hull points, whichever number is higher). On a failure, you have disadvantage on the Hull Dice roll. On a success you roll the Hull Die normally.

When you would make a Constitution (Patch) check, you may instead make an Intelligence (Mechanic's Kit) check at disadvantage using your own Intelligence modifier.

Regulation. Your GM may require a Regulation check when your ship is pushed beyond its natural limits. Situations which might call for a Regulation check include:

• Trying to reach safety on low fuel
• In response to a mechanic straining the reactor
• Attempting to run at top speed for long periods of time
• Keeping life support running when out of fuel.

When you would make a Constitution (Regulation) check, you may instead make an Intelligence (Mechanic's Kit) check at disadvantage using your own Intelligence modifier.

Constitution Saving Throws#

Certain features, such as a Heavy Ion Cannon, call for a Constitution saving throw. When you make a Constitution saving throw, you roll a d20 and add your ship's Constitution modifier to the roll. If your ship is proficiently equipped in the saving throw, you also add the proficiency bonus of the crewmember at the helm to the result of the roll.

Hull Points#

Your ship's Constitution modifier contributes to its hull points. Typically, your ship adds its Constitution modifier to each Hull Die it rolls for its hull points.

If your ship's Constitution modifier changes, its hull point maximum changes as well, as though it had the new modifier from tier 0. For instance, if your Small ship's Constitution modifier increases from +1 to +2 when it reaches 1st tier, you adjust its hull point maximum as though the modifier had always been +2. So you add 3 hull points for tier 0, and then roll your hull points for tier 1 using your new modifier. Additionally, if some effect lowers your ship's Constitution score so as to reduce its Constitution modifier by 1, its hull point maximum is reduced as well.

Suites#

A ship's maximum number of suites is based on its size and Constitution modifier.

Intelligence#

Intelligence represents the capability of the ship's computers, determines its minimum crew size, and affects its discrimination, calculation, and memory functions.

Intelligence Checks#

An Intelligence check comes into play when you need to draw on the ship's ability to process large amounts of data and sensory input, to access esoteric data, calculate complex mathematical problems or to deal with computer slicing. The Astrogation, Data, and Probe skills reflect aptitude in certain kinds of Intelligence checks.

Astrogation. Make an Astrogation check to calculate hyperspace jumps. For more details on making Astrogation checks, see the "Travel in Hyperspace" section of Chapter 8.

When you would make an Intelligence (Astrogation) check, you may instead make an Intelligence (Technology) check at disadvantage using your own Intelligence modifier.

Data. Use the Data skill when you want to access your ship's data banks to learn information about appropriate information. Ships often have standard information about hyperlanes, systems, planets, and other astronomical information. Ships can also be upgraded to include more detailed information or information on other subjects. The more obscure the information or the more off-topic, the higher the DC should be.

Probe. When you focus your ship's sensor suite on an area or ship and investigate in detail, you make an Intelligence (Probe) check. A successful check may reveal the location of a hidden ship, may indicate the presence of physical damage in a construct or of minerals in an asteroid, or may provide technical details about a ship you have probed or the presence of lifeforms on board.

When you would make an Intelligence (Probe) check, you may instead make an Intelligence (Investigation) check at disadvantage using your own Intelligence modifier.

Intelligence Saving Throws#

Certain features call for an Intelligence saving throw. When you make an Intelligence saving throw, you roll a d20 and add your ship's Intelligence modifier to the roll. If your ship is proficiently equipped in the saving throw, you also add the proficiency bonus of the crewmember at the helm to the result of the roll.

Wisdom#

Wisdom represents the capability of the ship's targeting, sensors, and awareness of its surroundings.

Wisdom Checks#

A Wisdom check comes into play when you need to draw on the ship's ability to sense its surroundings, perceive threats, and filter electromagnetic fields. The Scan skill reflects aptitude in certain kinds of Wisdom checks.

Scan. Your Wisdom (Scan) check lets you notice and locate the presence of something near your ship. It measures your general awareness of the ship's surroundings and the keenness of your ship's detection algorithms.

When you would make a Wisdom (Scan) check, you may instead make a Wisdom (Perception) check at disadvantage using your own Wisdom modifier.

Wisdom Saving Throws#

Certain features call for a Wisdom saving throw. When you make a Wisdom saving throw, you roll a d20 and add your ship's Wisdom modifier to the roll. If your ship is proficiently equipped in the saving throw, you also add the proficiency bonus of the crewmember at the helm to the result of the roll.

Attack Rolls and Weapon Saves#

You add your ship's Wisdom modifier to ship weapon attack rolls and to the DC of saves called for by ship weapons.

Charisma#

Charisma represents the presence of the ship, including its prestige and the clarity, sophistication, and power of the ship's communications and interference equipment.

Charisma Checks#

A Charisma check comes into play when you need to command and influence others characters and ships with your own ship. The Impress, Interfere, Menace, and Swindle skills reflect aptitude in certain kinds of Charisma checks.

Impress. The Impress skill is a general measurement of your ship's beauty and soundness. Whether or not your ship is impressively outfitted and well maintained, does it look impressively outfitted and well maintained? Does your on-board cantina look opulent?

When you would make a Charisma (Impress) check, you may instead choose to make a Charisma (Persuasion) check at disadvantage using your own Charisma modifier.

Interfere. When you attempt to interfere with another ship or creature you use the Interfere skill. When you would make a Charisma (Interfere) check, you may instead choose to make an Intelligence (Slicer's Kit) check at disadvantage using your own Intelligence modifier.

Menace. When you attempt to influence someone through the threat of your ship's abilities, whether speed, firepower, or toughness, the GM might ask you to make a Charisma (Menace) check. Alternatively, you may make a Charisma (Intimidate) check at disadvantage using your own Charisma modifier.

Swindle. Use the Swindle skill when you want to pass your ship off as something it's not. Examples of using the Swindle skill include:

• passing off a heavily armed ship as a simple freighter
• concealing the presence of lifeforms on your ship
• concealing the presence of hidden cargo.

When you would make a Charisma (Swindle) check, you may instead choose to make a Charisma (Deception) check at disadvantage using your own Charisma modifier.

Charisma Saving Throws#

Certain features call for a Charisma saving throw. When you make a Charisma saving throw, you roll a d20 and add your ship's Charisma modifier to the roll. If your ship is proficiently equipped in the saving throw, you also add the proficiency bonus of the crewmember at the helm to the result of the roll.