Vehicle Combat

The types of actions you can take during a single turn don't change when you're aboard a vehicle.

Some of the actions described below can only be performed by particular crew members. In this case, the eligible crewmembers are listed in parentheses following the action's name.

Actions in Combat

Standard Action

Standard Actions	Position Required	Brief	Source
Aid Another	-	You can aid an ally's next skill check, ability check, or attack roll.	Core
Attack with Melee Weapon	-	With a melee weapon, you can strike any enemy in a square you can threaten.	Core
Attack with Ranged Weapon	-	With a ranged weapon, you can throw or shoot at any target within your line of sight, as long as your vehicle does not grant you total cover.	Core
Attack with Vehicle Weapon	Gunner	With a ranged vehicle weapon, you can throw or shoot at any target within your line of sight	Core
Attack Run	Pilot	You can move your vehicle's speed in a straight line and attack.	Core
Dogfight	Pilot	You can initiate a dogfight.	Core
Fight Defensively	Pilot	You can fly protectively.	Core

Move Actions

Move Actions	Position Required	Brief	Source
Move	Pilot	You can move your vehicle's speed.	Core

Swift Actions

Swift Actions	Position Required	Brief	Source
Aim	Gunner	You can aim before making an attack.	Core
Full Stop	Pilot	You can bring your vehicle to a sharp stop.	Core
Increase Vehicle Speed	Pilot	You can push your vehicle beyond normal maximums.	Core
Raise or Lower Shields	System Operator	You can activate or deactivate shields.	Core
Recharge Shields	System Operator	You can attempt to recharge your vehicle's shields.	Core
Reroute Power	Engineer	You can attempt to repair your vehicle.	Core

Full-Round Actions

Full-Round Actions	Position Required	Brief	Source
All-Out Movement	Pilot	You can redline your vehicle's speed.	Core
Full Attack	Gunner	You can intensify your fire.	Core
Ram	Pilot	You can attempt to ram your enemy.	Core

Reaction Actions

Reaction Actions	Position Required	Brief	Source
Avoid Collision	Pilot	You can attempt to avoid a collision.	Core

All vehicle statistics that are relevant to combat are described below.

Vehicle Size

Vehicles use similar size categories as creatures, (see Vehicle Scale). The Colossal size category is further subdivided to differentiate particularly massive starships and space stations.

A vehicle's size modifier applies to the vehicle's Reflex Defense, as well as to Initiative and Pilot checks made by the vehicle's occupants.

Attacks

Any vehicle equipped with weapons can make attacks against enemies within range. An attack roll with a vehicle weapon is calculated as follows:

ld20 + base attack bonus + vehicle's Intelligence modifier + range modifier

Base Attack Bonus: Use the base attack bonus of the gunner (which, in some cases, may be the pilot).

Intelligence Modifier: A vehicle's computer improves the accuracy of the vehicle's weapon systems, and the vehicle's Intelligence score measures the quality of the computer.

Range Modifier: A vehicle weapon can attack a target at point blank, short, medium, or long range. If you make a ranged attack against a target within the weapon's point blank range, you take no penalty on the attack roll. Your penalty on attack rolls increases to -2 at short range, -5 at medium range, and -10 at long range (see Weapon Ranges).

Critical Hits

As in character combat, when you roll a natural 20 on your attack, you automatically hit and deal double damage.

When using a vehicle weapon, you cannot apply any effect that causes an automatic natural 20 or automatic critical hit (such as spending a Destiny Point or using the Jedi Master’s serenity class feature), unless a rule specifies that it can be used with vehicle weapons.

Automatic Misses

If you roll a natural 1 on your attack, you automatically miss.

Damage

When you hit with a vehicle weapon, you deal damage according to the type of weapon (listed in each vehicle's statistics). Damage dealt by a vehicle weapon is calculated as follows:

(Weapon Damage + ½ heroic level + miscellaneous modifiers) x multiplier

Damage Multiplier: After rolling the weapon damage dice, multiply the result by the listed damage multiplier. For example, when you fire a vehicle weapon that deals 6dl0x2 damage, roll 6d10 and multiply the result by 2.

Defenses

A vehicle's defenses represent how difficult it is to hit or overload its systems. Unlike characters, vehicles do not have a Will Defense. However, vehicles have a Reflex Defense and a Fortitude Defense which are calculated as follows:

Reflex Defense = 10 + vehicle's Dexterity modifier + size modifier + armor bonus or pilot's heroic level

Fortitude Defense = 10 + vehicle's Strength modifier

Hit Points

Vehicles have hit points, just like characters. Hit points are abstract, meant to represent not only the vehicle's physical mass but also the robustness or fragility of its systems.

Damage Threshold

Crew Cover

Most vehicles provide at least some cover to their passengers. Passengers gain a cover bonus to their Reflex Defense against any attacks that target them instead of the vehicle. A vehicle can provide no cover, normal cover (+5 cover bonus), improved cover (+ 10 cover bonus), or full cover. You cannot attack a target that has full cover.

The cover a vehicle provides to its passengers is included in its statistics.

Speed

Every vehicle has a speed, given in squares. The pilot may move a vehicle up to its listed speed as a move action, and up to four times its speed with the all-out movement action.

Starships and airspeeders have a separate listing for their speed in starship scale.

Maximum Velocity: This is the maximum speed a vehicle may move in character scale. It is seldom relevant in combat because such speeds quickly move the vehicle off the battle map and out of range.