Genius

The Genius is the thinker of the group. Whether extremely well-educated or simply insightfully brilliant, you are a master of systems and intricacy. Yet despite however great you may be at out-thinking your foes, you’re just not that tough or capable with traditional weaponry. That’s what friends are for. Geniuses rely heavily on their allies for protection and support while they come up with a way to outsmart whatever danger threatens the mission.

A Genius has a broad range of knowledge, but eventually finds a specialty useful in adventuring. Some engineer and jury-rig machinery. Others wield a scalpel with the precision needed to save, or take, lives. Still others are talented at breaking into computer and security systems, and a select few hone their intellect to become master tacticians.

The Genius is modeled after the wizard class.

Class Features

As a Genius, you have the following class features. But you already knew that.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d6 per Genius level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 6 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at higher Levels: 1d6 (or 4) + your Constitution modifier per Genius level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: None
Weapons: Knives, pistols, and either noble swords or vehicle weapons (your choice)
Tools: One set of your choice
Saving Throws: Intelligence, Wisdom
Skills: Choose two from History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Religion, and Science

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a knife or (b) a pistol
• a tool set
• (a) a scholar’s pack or (b) a spacer’s pack
• a Procedures book

Table: The Genius

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Features	Tricks Known	Gambits Known	Gambit Slots per Gambit Level
					1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	+2	Procedures, Brilliant Recovery	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+2	Specialty	3	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	+2	—	3	4	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4th	+2	Ability Score Improvement	4	4	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5th	+3	—	4	4	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—
6th	+3	Specialty feature	4	4	3	3	—	—	—	—	—	—
7th	+3	—	4	4	3	3	1	—	—	—	—	—
8th	+3	Ability Score Improvement	4	4	3	3	2	—	—	—	—	—
9th	+4	—	4	4	3	3	3	1	—	—	—	—
10th	+4	Specialty feature	5	4	3	3	3	2	—	—	—	—
11th	+4	—	5	4	3	3	3	2	1	—	—	—
12th	+4	Ability Score Improvement	5	4	3	3	3	2	1	—	—	—
13th	+5	—	5	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	—	—
14th	+5	Specialty feature	5	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	—	—
15th	+5	—	5	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	1	—
16th	+5	Ability Score Improvement	5	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	1	—
17th	+6	—	5	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	1	1
18th	+6	Procedure Mastery	5	4	3	3	3	3	1	1	1	1
19th	+6	Ability Score Improvement	5	4	3	3	3	3	2	1	1	1
20th	+6	Signature Procedures	5	4	3	3	3	3	2	2	1	1

Procedures

As a student of one or more areas of academic or scientific knowledge, you are versed in a number of gambits codified into reproducible Procedures. Unlike most other classes with access to gambits, yours require careful study and precise conditions. You document the Procedures you know in your Procedures book.

To be clear, Procedures are gambits, but not all gambits are Procedures.

Should you find a gambit documented out in the galaxy, it is most likely a Procedure and can be treated as such for the purposes of copying it into your Procedure book. Other classes simply do not record their processes at the same level of detail as Geniuses.

Also unique to the Genius, you potentially have access to all of the gambits in Hypertech. The gambit list for this class is: all of them.

Tricks. At 1st level, you know three Tricks of your choice. You learn additional Genius tricks of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Tricks Known column of the Genius table.

Procedures Book

At 1st level, you have a Procedures book containing six 1st-level Genius Procedures of your choice.

Preparing Procedures

The Genius table shows how many Procedure slots you have to conduct your Procedures of 1st level and higher.

You prepare the list of Genius gambits that are available for you to pull. To do so, choose a number of Genius procedures from your procedures book equal to your Intelligence modifier + your Genius level (minimum of one gambit). The procedures must be of a level for which you have gambit slots.

Intelligence is your gambit pulling ability.

Gambit save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier

Gambit attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier

At each Genius level beyond 1st, you learn two new Procedures to add to your Procedures book. This works just as it does for wizards learning spells.

Conducting Experiments

You can cast Genius Procedures as an Experiment if that gambit has the Experiment tag and you have the Procedure in your Procedures book. You don’t need to have the Procedure prepared.

This works just as Ritual Casting for a wizard, which means it takes 10 minutes longer to cast than normal and doesn’t cost a gambit slot.

Brilliant Recovery

With a bit of rest and study you are capable of renewing your capacity for brilliance. After finishing a short rest, you can choose a number of expended gambit slots to recover. The slots can have a combined level that is less than or equal to half your Genius level rounded up. None of the slots can be 6th level or higher.

Specialty

When you reach 2nd level, you choose a specialty from among the following areas: Engineer, Doctor, Investigator, Navigator, Splicer, and Tactician.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Procedure Mastery

At 18th level, you have achieved such mastery over certain Procedures that you can conduct them at will. Choose a 1st-level Genius Procedure and a 2nd-level Genius Procedure that are in your Procedures book. You can cast those Procedures at their lowest level without expending a gambit slot when you have them prepared.

If you want to conduct either Procedure at a higher level, you must expend a gambit slot as normal.

By spending 8 hours in study, you can exchange one or both of the Procedures you chose for different Procedures of the same levels.

Signature Procedures

When you reach 20th level, you gain mastery over two powerful Procedures and can conduct them with little effort. Choose two 3rd-level Genius Procedures in your Procedures book as your Signature Procedures. You always have these Procedures prepared, they don’t count against the number of Procedures you have prepared, and you can conduct each of them once at 3rd level without expending a gambit slot.

When you conduct a Signature Procedure, you can’t do so again until you finish a short or long rest. If you want to pull either Procedure at a higher level, you must spend a gambit slot as normal.

Your Procedures Book

The Procedures you gain as you level reflect the scientific research you conduct, as well as the insights you glean as you probe the nature of the universe through the lens of your Specialty. You might stumble upon additional Procedures as you adventure, such as experiment notes scrawled in the journal of a mad scientist.

When you find a Procedure of 1st level of higher, you can add it to your Procedures book just as a wizard would copy a spell into their Spellbook. Each level of the Procedure takes 2 hours and costs 50 credits in materials you use up.

Replacing a Procedures book is just like replacing or copying a Spellbook, costing 1 hour and 10 credits for each level of Procedure copied.

Genius Specialties

Each of the following Specialties represents an area of study for the Genius to delve into. Though the Genius might be generally beholden to logic and science at heart, their Specialty represents an area in which their passionate understanding truly shines.

Engineer

The Engineer is the premier technologist among the Geniuses, capable of repairing, modifying, and tricking out nearly any device or vehicle. Engineers specialize in keeping important systems running no matter what. The ship or weapon may not look pretty, it may even be made of cannibalized parts, but the Engineer has boosted and overhauled it into something wonderfully surprising.

To utilize any of the following Specialty features, the Engineer must be touching the machine in question and have ready access to a set of tools appropriate to the device.

Engineering Savant

Beginning when you select this Specialty at 2nd level, the credits and time you must spend to copy an Engineering Procedure into your Procedures book is halved.

Jury-Rig

Starting at 2nd level, you can coerce technology to function for just a little bit longer. As an action, you may spend one gambit slot of any level to force a destroyed, disabled, or scrambled machine to begin working again for another 1d6 rounds.

This feature may be used without tools, but the even more haphazard repairs only keep the machine functioning for 1d4 rounds.

If used on a vehicle, you must select which one of its systems you are jury-rigging with each use.

Improve

At 6th level you gain the ability to improve weapons and sets of armor permanently. This process takes 8 hours of work and 500 credits in parts. An item may only have one such Improvement.

Only ordinary personal weapons and armor may be modified in this way. Superscience items are just too unstable. Vehicles and their battle stations are a bit too complex.

You may conduct the following Improvements:

• Ammo Extension (ranged weapon). The weapon holds 3 ammo packs at once.
• Baffled (armor). The armor does not cause disadvantage on Stealth skill checks.
• Balanced (ranged weapon). Each of the weapon’s ranges increase by 50%.
• Hidden Weapon (armor). The armor can hide one personal weapon without the two-handed property. The DC of locating the item with Investigation is equal to your gambit save difficulty. It takes an action to equip this item out of hiding.
• Overpowered (weapon). The weapon deals 1d4 additional points of damage on attacks. However, if an attack roll results in a rolled ‘1’, the weapon is destroyed.
• Sealed (armor). The armor doubles as a space suit, providing up to 4 hours of atmosphere to the wearer.
• Shielded (armor or weapon) This item only takes damage in combat during extraordinary circumstances, such as when an enemy pulls a gambit or uses a Superscience weapon to specifically harm it.
• Treated (armor). The armor absorbs one point of acid, lightning, and fire damage on every attack that hits.

Boost

Beginning at 10th level your natural aptitude with machines allows you to refine vehicles as complex as starships. You may install an Improvement in any vehicle by spending 16 hours and 2,000 credits in parts. A vehicle may only have one of these.

You may conduct the following Improvements on vehicles:

• Major Overhaul. The vehicle gains up to 1 CR worth of creature/ vehicle templates.
• Subdued Quirk. One of the vehicle’s Quirks has been suppressed and no longer causes problems.
• Shielded Interior. Attempts to use sensors to read the interior of this vehicle are made at disadvantage.

Masterpiece

At 14th level you may select one particular vehicle, weapon, or piece of armor. It only takes you one hour to install or swap out an Improvement on this object, and it may hold one additional Improvement than normal. If the chosen machine is destroyed or lost you may choose another for this feature.

Doctor

Doctors are Geniuses with an advanced knowledge of medicine, biology, and cybernetics granting them specialization with Medicine gambits. They might be literally doctors of medicine, but they can also be planetologists or life science specialists who know how to apply their theory to critical situations. Life and death are in the hands of the Doctor.

In order to utilize any of the following Specialty features, the Doctor must have ready access to a set of medical tools.

Medical Savant

Beginning when you select this Specialty at 2nd level, the credits and time you must spend to copy a Medicine Procedure into your Procedures book is halved.

Stabilize

Starting at 2nd level you are able to spend your action to cause a dying creature you touch to regain 1d6 Hit Points. This feature may be used without medical tools, but if so only 1d4 Hit Points are recovered.

Healer

At 6th level, whenever you perform a Medicine Procedure that heals a living creature, you may add your Intelligence modifier to the amount healed. If the Procedure is conducted as an Experiment this bonus is doubled.

Bedside Manner

At 10th level your presence has become a balm to those who need your help. Any living creature within 5 feet who can hear you and is at half their maximum hit points or less is soothed by your presence. If such a creature would roll with disadvantage on a skill or attack roll, they may roll normally.

Play God At 14th level you derive such satisfaction from helping others that you regain 1d6 Hit Points whenever you conduct a medicine Procedure of 3rd level or higher.

Investigator

The galaxy is filled with dangerous criminals, mysterious aliens, and baffling scientific wonders. You seek to follow the clues, coming to know and understand the truth. The investigator is the collector of trivial information which snowballs into powerful truths. They are observant, knowledgeable, and unusual in their thinking.

The investigator is the brilliant detective, the solver of scientific mysteries, or the master tracker.

Observer

At 2nd level, upon selecting this archetype, you become proficient in two of the following skills: Insight, Investigation, and Perception. You may use your Intelligence in place of any other ability score when making a roll with those three skills.

Obvious Clue

Also at 2nd level, you always spot the most obvious clues in any situation. As a bonus action you may automatically spot the biggest clue to any mystery in a pertinent location. The clue may not go anywhere, but it’s the one that just about anyone would notice, given a bit of time.

Stumble Upon

At 6th level, whenever you roll a natural ‘1’ on a skill or attack roll, you discover a clue to a mystery you are attempting to solve or person you are trying to find.

Draw Conclusion

By 10th level you’re able to draw powerful conclusions from the clues you possess. Whenever you find a clue (either through features of this focus, or through normal skill use) you may roll on the following table for additional information you are able to conclude:

d10	Information Learned
1	Where is the clue from originally / where was the item made
2	Who put the clue there/who left the item / who were the people in the room at the time
3	When was the clue put here
4	How does the clue relate to the mystery or person tracked
5	Why is the clue here
6	Choose 1 piece of information from this table

Master Stroke

At level 14 you are able to put your information about a target to use in the heat of combat. If you have 3 or more clues pertaining to a target, you have advantage on your next attack roll against them. Once you’ve benefited from this bonus against a particular target, you may not benefit again until you learn another major clue about them.

Navigator

Some are born to finding their way, with an unerring sense of direction and a curiosity to explore. Some have an intuitive sense of where they’ve been and how to get back. They might be childishly inquisitive, bred to sense the axes of the universe, or highly trained. They might even breath special drugs and spices, opening their inner eyes to the pathways between space.

The navigator has a mind for space and pathways, charting and trailblazing new and interesting star systems. You are the visionary, the native guide, or the diligent scientist. You live to explore.

Find A Way

At 2nd level, upon selecting this archetype, you are proficient in the Survival skill, which you use to navigate, astrogate, or otherwise plot paths across space, land, and sea. The DC of any roll for you to navigate your way through an area is never higher than 15, so long as you’re not trying to find an “optimal” path (a fast route, safe trail, etc.).

Thoughtful Travel

Also at 2nd level, you no longer suffer speed penalties for moving through difficult terrain. This applies in personal combat, as well as in vehicles combat when you’re the pilot and when calculating your overland or space travel speeds when you are consulted on the route.

Cut Time

At 6th level you’ve learned to enhance movement better than even most geniuses. When you pull a procedure that doubles a creature or vehicle’s speed, it triples it instead. When you pull a procedure that adds a number of squares to a creature or vehicle’s speed, double the number provided.

Instant Navigation By 10th level, you feel the right direction in your bones. You may navigate as a bonus action on your turn, no matter how complex the route. You may also pull Survival procedures with a casting time of 1 action as a bonus action.

Cut Corners

At 14th level you’ve learned to shave off time whenever you move. Your speed is increased by 5 ft. (1 square). While you pilot a vehicle its speed is increased by 1 square.

Splicer

The Splicer is the iconic computer hacker. Even in those sci-fi settings with few computers, the Splicer comes in handy bypassing security systems and enhancing targeting systems. Their affinity for Splicing gambits makes them useful when a crew needs to get in and out of a situation without getting held up at every security door and hangar bay.

In order to utilize any of the following Specialty features, the Splicer must have ready access to a set of security tools.

Splicing Savant

Beginning when you select this Specialty at 2nd level, the credits and time you must spend to copy a Splicing Procedure into your Procedures book is halved.

Patch In

Beginning at 2nd level you may spend an action to gain access to the basic functions of a computer system to which you have a connection via a physical terminal or a data network. This may not give complete control, but you will likely be provided a menu of basic options, subject to the GM’s discretion.

This feature may be used without security tools, but it takes 1d6 rounds for access to be granted.

Diversions and Trapdoors

Starting at 6th level, whenever you conduct a Splicing Procedure, any countermeasures or other computer operators attempting to detect you or your connection suffer disadvantage on related rolls.

Dangerous Code

At 10th level, whenever a target you can see touches a terminal or interface of a machine affected by your splicing procedures, you may make a gambit attack against them as a reaction, dealing 2d10 + Intelligence modifier lightning damage.

Old Backdoors

At 14th level you have advantage when making security tools skill checks or conducting Splicing Procedures against any system you’ve spliced into in the past (24 hours ago or more). Your Procedures against those systems last double their usual duration.

Tactician

More military-minded than most Geniuses, the Tactician is a master of thinking their way out of a bad situation. By leading their crewmembers in a time of crisis, the Tactician shows the might of intellect in the face of overwhelming odds. When all is chaos, the Tactician is calm, clever, and resourceful.

Unlike other Specialties, the Tactician requires no special tools to do their job beyond a group of allies willing to follow their commands.

Tactical Savant

Beginning when you select this Specialty at 2nd level, the credits and time you must spend to copy a Tactics Procedure into your Procedures book is halved.

Leadership

Starting at 2nd level, whenever you take the Help action to assist a friendly character on an ability check or attack, you may help one additional friendly character attempting that same ability check or attacking that same target.

Vital Intel

Intel is vital to tactical planning. Beginning at 6th level, as an action you may designate one player character you are in communication with to be your scout for the next 3 hours. You and your squad members ignore cover bonuses to AC when making attacks against any target the scout can see. Only one character may be your scout at any given time.

Reversal

At 10th level you’ve learned to turn your allies’ weaknesses into strengths. As a reaction you may spend a gambit slot of any level to allow a friendly creature you can see to roll with advantage on a roll for which they have disadvantage. The reaction is taken at the moment the ally would make the roll.

Charismatic Leadership

At 14th level, you may perform the Help action as a bonus action once per round.