Sharp Shooter
| Intelligence Requirement: | Simple (1) | ||||||
| Stage Stamina: | 3D (3-18) | ||||||
| Bonuses: |
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A sharp shooter specialises in accurate weapons. To be a sharp shooter requires steady nerves and the ability to stay calm, because their skills are of little use when in frenzied, high-pitch combat.
The prowess of a sharp shooter shows itself when they make an aimed attack. An aimed attack is one that follows one or more turns of "taking aim", or aimed rounds. An aimed round will have one of two possible benefits. First, it can be used as a bonus to hit. The dice rolled are not used to attack, but the total is saved until the following round. The total is cumulative, so the character can accumulate as many rounds as he is stage of sharp shooter. When he finally attacks, he will have the dice he uses for the attack, plus the total he accumulated during any aimed rounds. As with a standard attack, the number of dice used can be altered as described in the dice pooling rules. If you are not aiming, but want to keep aim already acquired, you still must use one die to maintain the aim.
There comes a point when additional bonus to hit becomes redundant and pointless. Therefore, there is a second thing that can be done with an aimed round. The sharp shooter can set up his attack so that he can squeeze off multiple shots (weapon permitting). Each aimed round devoted to this will give one extra shot with the weapon. The multiple shots will hit the target in the same place so there is only one placement roll.
If you can have multiple aimed rounds devoted to a bonus to hit, you should keep track of the individual aims, as you can choose to keep aiming and replace previous totals. For example, if you are a second stage sharp shooter and have spent two aimed rounds, with rolls of 5 and 9, you can choose to aim a third time and replace first aim. Be careful, however, because you might roll lower than your original aim and have to keep the new total.
A sharp shooter can only have as many aimed rounds as he is stage of sharp shooter. The +1 to hit bonus with accurate weapons applies to all attacks, aimed or otherwise. A Sharp Shooter's abilities work with rifles, accurate ship weapons, and some assault weapons or pistols that can be used as a rifle.
If there is a situation where the target doesn't need to be, or can't be, shot at, causing the sharp shooter to switch targets, the sharp shooter will lose any aim that he was previously acquiring. Additionally, if a sharp shooter is hit in the arm (or weapon) with a force greater than 10% of the force the sharp shooter can exert, the aim is ruined and they will have to start over.
Note for snipers:
If the sharp shooter is a sniper, is making an assassination attempt, and has devoted one or more of their aimed rounds to fire extra shots, then there are two options for the extra shots. The damage from all of the shots could be used to make the assassination attempt. This is useful when the sniper needs a lot of damage to get past armour or shields. Second, the sniper could make the assassination with the first shot, and then use the remaining shots to add damage afterwards. This can make an assassination even more lethal, as it could drive the target deep into the negative numbers.
Also, it is possible (and highly recommended) to take aim (using the sharp shooter ability) and acquire (using the assassination ability) at the same time, using the same number of dice.
