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Vanguard Disciplines

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 55
You learn your first vanguard discipline at 2nd level, and you gain an additional discipline every 2 levels thereafter. Some require you to meet additional prerequisites, and some interact with shields, a new type of equipment.

2nd Level

You must be 2nd level or higher to choose these vanguard disciplines.

Antagonize (Ex)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 55
You have learned how to gain your opponents’ attention, drawing fire away from your allies and toward yourself. You gain Antagonize as a bonus feat. You do not need to meet its prerequisites. This is not a language-dependent ability for you, but it does not work on mindless targets. If you are at least 6th level, when you successfully use Antagonize on a foe, the duration of the penalty the foe takes is 3 rounds longer than usual (though it still ends after the foe attacks you, forces you to attempt a saving throw, or damages you), and the target takes a –2 penalty to attack rolls (in addition to the normal –2 for being off-target).

Applied Entropy (Sp)

Source Galactic Magic pg. 37
You can repurpose your entropic abilities to cast several minor spell-like abilities, each of which you can cast 3 times per day: detect magic, energy ray (acid only), and token spell. You can’t use your token spell spell-like ability to create objects.

Attracting Shield (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 55
You can direct energy from attacks near you into your shield. If you take a move action to align a shield against a specific attacker, you can also grant an adjacent willing or unconscious ally a +1 shield bonus to AC until the beginning of your next turn. This bonus ends if the ally ceases to be adjacent to you.

Charged Shot (Su)

Source Tech Revolution pg. 37
When making a ranged attack with a weapon that uses charges for ammunition, you can spend Entropy Points in place or battery charges at a rate of 1 Entropy Point per 2 charges the attack would normally consume (minimum 1 EP). When you use this revelation, all damage dealt by the attack becomes acid damage, though this ability never causes a weapon that normally targets KAC to target EAC.

Curative Deconstruction (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 55
You manipulate the entropy of microorganisms and toxins within your body, causing them to break down quickly. When you succeed at a saving throw against a disease or poison, you treat it as two consecutive successes for the purposes of curing that disease or poison.

Dampen (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 55
You can dampen the entropic release of energy in violent effects. As a reaction when you are in the area of a damaging effect, you can spend 1 Entropy Point to cause it to deal only half damage to all creatures in the area.

At 6th level, if the effect allows a save and you succeed, you can spend 1 additional Entropy Point to allow creatures that successfully save against the effect to take no damage.

Deflective Deterioration (Su)

Source Galaxy Exploration Manual pg. 30
You gain a +1 bonus to AC and saving throws against traps and hazards. Once per hour when you take damage from or fail a saving throw against a trap or hazard, you gain 1 Entropy Point. If you are not in combat, you retain this Entropy Point for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution bonus (minimum 1) or until you spend it, whichever comes first.

Entropy at the Wheel (Su)

Source Tech Revolution pg. 37
You drive with the reckless knowledge that even the toughest vehicle must eventually crumble. You gain Piloting as a class skill. Whenever a mech or vehicle you are piloting takes damage equal to or greater than twice your character level from a single attack or effect (after applying any reductions to that damage, such as from damage reduction, energy resistance, or hardness), you gain 1 EP. You cannot gain this EP as a result of any damaging effect that would cause you to gain EP from your entropic pool class feature (such as if an effect damages both you and your vehicle).

Entropy Shield (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 55
As part of any move action or full action you take, you can create a field of condensed, compressed entropy that forms in place on one of your limbs to protect you as a basic riot shield or basic tactical shield (you choose which each time you create the shield). The shield has no bulk, but it otherwise functions in all regards as a physical shield of the selected type. You can dismiss the shield as part of any move or full action you take, and it disappears at the end of your turn if you are not holding it.

At 5th level, your compressed entropy functions as a field riot or tactical shield. At 10th level, it functions as an advanced riot or tactical shield. At 15th level, it functions as an elite riot or tactical shield, and at 20th level, it functions as a paragon riot or tactical shield.

Evasion (Ex)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 56
If you succeed at a Reflex save against an effect that normally has a partial effect on a successful save, you instead take no effect. You gain this benefit only when unencumbered and wearing light armor or no armor, and you lose the benefit when you are helpless or otherwise unable to move.

Flatten Bullets (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 56
When you would be hit by a ranged attack with a weapon that deals kinetic damage, you can spend 1 Entropy Point as a reaction to attempt a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + 1-1/2 the CR or level of the attacker) to take half damage. You can use this ability only when wearing heavy armor or powered armor, or carrying a shield, and you can’t use it if you are helpless or otherwise unable to move.

Friendly Fire (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 56
You have learned to bleed energy from the attacks of your allies when they affect you. You can reduce the damage you take from your allies’ attacks and effects by an amount equal to twice your vanguard level, to a minimum of 0.

Interfere (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 56
You can cause waves of unstable reactions that make it difficult for a specific foe to land a blow on a nearby ally. As a move action, you can select one foe you are observing and one ally that is adjacent to you. As long as the ally remains adjacent to you, they gain a +2 shield bonus to their AC against attacks from that foe until the end of your next turn.

Intervene (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 56
As a reaction when an adjacent ally would be damaged by an attack, you can take half the attack’s damage, with your ally taking the remaining damage. This doesn’t prevent your ally from suffering related effects, nor does it cause such effects to apply to you. If you have the Bodyguard feat and you take a reaction to apply that feat’s benefit to an adjacent ally who is then hit by the attack, you can activate intervene for that attack without taking an additional action.

Metabolic Stability (Ex)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 56
Your control of the chemical processes in your own body gives you significant vigor. You gain Diehard as a bonus feat.

Remote Defense (Su)

Source Drift Crisis pg. 47
As a move action, you toss your shield at an ally within 30 feet, telekinetically directing the shield’s movement. Your ally gains the shield’s bonus to AC as if they were wielding it. If you instead activate this discipline as a standard action, you also align the shield against a specific enemy, granting the ally the aligned shield bonus against that creature. The ally doesn’t need a hand free to gain these benefits, and they take no proficiency-based penalties from the shield. While this discipline is active, you don’t gain benefits from wielding the shield, and you must keep one hand free to direct and control the shield. At the beginning of your next turn, the shield flies back to your hand as long as it’s not restrained or in another creature’s possession.

Ruinous Rush (Su)

Source Galaxy Exploration Manual pg. 30
You can break down your body to reap critical energy, boosting your speed. When you take a move action to move your speed, you can take damage equal to your vanguard level to gain a +20 enhancement bonus to your movement speeds (maximum twice that movement’s speed) until the end of your next turn. This damage bypasses any Stamina Points you have and is applied directly to your Hit Points.

Shield Snap (Ex)

Source Drift Crisis pg. 48
You react instinctively to danger, shifting your focus in a flash. As a reaction when you’re the target of an attack, you can align your shield against your attacker. After you use this discipline, you can’t do so again until you rest for 10 minutes to recover Stamina Points.

Transmute Wound (Su)

Source Drift Crisis pg. 48
As a reaction when you take damage, you can spend 1 Entropy Point to convert part of one damage type you take into another damage type. You can transform kinetic damage dealt to you only into another type of kinetic damage, and you can transform energy damage dealt to you only into another type of energy damage. The amount of damage you convert in this way can’t exceed your vanguard level plus your Constitution modifier.

Wasting Resilience (Su)

Source Galaxy Exploration Manual pg. 30
Your body is inured to other effects that would cause decay. You gain a +2 bonus to saving throws against necromancy spells and effects, as well as against effects that would cause ability damage, ability drain, or energy drain.

Zero-Gravity Scuffler (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 56
You can control how small amounts of momentum are added or removed from you. As a swift action, you can spend 1 Entropy Point to negate the off-kilter or off-target conditions. Additionally, when your movement causes you to run into an enemy in zero gravity, you can forgo your Acrobatics or Athletics check to avoid gaining the off-kilter condition. If you do, that enemy automatically fails its check to avoid becoming off-kilter and gains that condition. In addition, while in zero gravity, you can steady yourself if you are adjacent to any creature.

6th Level

You must be 6th level or higher to choose these vanguard disciplines.

Blast Through (Ex)

Source Galaxy Exploration Manual pg. 30
When you take a full action to line up a shot to smash an object, your weapon gains the penetrating weapon special property. If your weapon already has that weapon special property, using this discipline instead adds half your vanguard level to your weapon’s item level for the purpose of calculating the amount of hardness that the penetrating special weapon property bypasses. When destroying an object with sudden force (Core Rulebook 409), you gain a bonus to the Strength check equal to your Constitution bonus. You must have Improved Combat Maneuver (sunder) to select this vanguard discipline.

Blaze a Trail (Su)

Source Galaxy Exploration Manual pg. 30
Your entropic aura disintegrates obstacles on contact. When you forgo gaining an Entropy Point for charging when activating the entropic charge discipline, you can spend 1 or 2 additional Entropy Points. If you spend 1 Entropy Point, you dissolve any plant growth, rubble, or other nonmagical obstructions in your path that create difficult terrain, turning any such squares you move through during your charge into normal terrain. If you spend 2 Entropy Points, you also dissolve such obstructions in any squares adjacent to those squares you move through while charging. So long as you spend at least 1 Entropy Point in this way, any creatures that hit you with an attack of opportunity as you charge take 1d6 acid damage for every 2 vanguard levels you have (Reflex negates). You must have the entropic charge discipline to select this discipline.

Blindsense (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 56
You can detect even subtle abnormalities in the natural exchange of heat around you. You gain blindsense (heat) with a range of 30 feet.

Curve Shot (Su)

Source Tech Revolution pg. 37
When you deliver your entropic strike through a small arm weapon, you can spend one or more Entropy Points and choose a space that is within a number of feet equal to 5 × the number of Entropy Points expended. Treat that square as the point of origin for your attack, determining cover and other modifiers as though you were attacking from that space.

Draw Fire (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 56
As a reaction when you are in the area of an attack or effect that requires an attack roll, you can spend 1 Entropy Point to grant allies in the area cover against the attack or effect.

Energize (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 56
You can absorb harmful energies, converting them to potential energy for use in entropic manipulation. As a reaction when you’re hit by an attack or effect that deals energy damage, you can gain 1 Entropy Point and attempt a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + 1-1/2 the CR or level of the attacker) to take half damage. Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you regain Stamina Points during a 10-minute rest.

Entropic Charge (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 56
When you charge, you can attempt any combat maneuver for which you have the Improved Combat Maneuver feat in place of the normal melee attack. In addition, you can forgo gaining an Entropy Point for charging to ignore the normal charge penalties to your attack and AC, and to gain the ability to charge through difficult terrain.

Entropic Veil (Su)

Source Galactic Magic pg. 37
Like a fever burning away an infection, your inner entropic forces can overwhelm harmful magic. As a reaction when you fail a saving throw against a spell or spell-like ability with a duration of at least 1 round, you can spend 1 Entropy Point to attempt the save again. If you succeed, you suppress the spell’s ongoing effects for 1 round. At the beginning of each turn, you can spend 1 EP and attempt another save as a reaction to keep the spell suppressed for another round. If you fail the save, you can’t use entropic veil to suppress the spell further. Each round a spell is suppressed in this way counts as two rounds for the purpose of calculating the spell’s duration.

Guarded Combatant (Ex)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 56
When using the fighting defensively standard or full action, you take a –3 penalty to your attacks instead of a –4 penalty.

Hold on Tight (Ex)

Source Galaxy Exploration Manual pg. 30
You gain Climbing Master as a bonus feat. You gain a bonus to Athletics checks to climb equal to any attack roll bonuses you have that apply specifically to resolving grapple combat maneuvers. You must have Improved Combat Maneuver (grapple) to select this vanguard discipline.

Infuse Grenade (Su)

Source Tech Revolution pg. 37
You gain proficiency in grenades. As a swift action, you can spend any number of Entropy Points to energize a grenade you’re holding. For each EP you spend in this way, you increase the grenade’s range increment by 5 feet and increase its saving throw DC by 1, though the modified save DC can’t exceed 10 + 1/2 your vanguard level + your Constitution modifier. An energized grenade is unstable, and if not used before the end of your next turn, the grenade is destroyed or explodes (50% chance of either result).

Navigational Drift (Ex)

Source Drift Crisis pg. 48
As a reaction when a creature within 15 feet of you moves, you can disrupt that creature’s momentum and trajectory. After they complete their movement, select a space adjacent to their new position. The creature must attempt a Will saving throw, doing so with a +4 bonus if the chosen space is dangerous (such as moving a creature off a cliff or into a fire). On a success, the creature is unaffected. On a failure, they end their move in the space you selected rather than the one they selected. While moving to this space, the creature’s movement doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. Once you have targeted a creature with this discipline, it becomes immune to further uses for 24 hours.
At 10th level, you can select a space up to 10 feet away from the creature’s intended position. At 15th level, you can select a space up to 15 feet away from the creature’s intended position.

Push Off (Ex)

Source Galaxy Exploration Manual pg. 30
When you use Athletics to jump, you are always treated as having a 10-foot running start. You gain a bonus to Athletics checks to jump equal to any attack roll bonuses you have that specifically apply to resolving bull rush combat maneuvers. You must have Improved Combat Maneuver (bull rush) to select this vanguard discipline.

Shimmer Guard (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 56
As part of any move action, you can cause the air around you to shimmer with heat. Squares adjacent to your space provide soft cover to allies for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution modifier. This ability ends if an opponent damages you or forces you to make a saving throw.

Swift Antagonize (Ex)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 56
You have mastered the art of quickly gaining the attention of opponents. You can use Antagonize once as a move action—you can do this even if you have already used Antagonize on the same foe in the past 24 hours, and using it as a move action does not prevent you from using Antagonize on the same foe as a standard action. This is not a language-dependent ability for you, but it does not work on mindless targets.

Once you have used Antagonize as a move action, you cannot do so again until you spend 1 Resolve Point to regain Stamina Points after a 10-minute rest.

You must have the Antagonize feat to select this discipline.

10th Level

You must be 10th level or higher to choose these vanguard disciplines.

Accelerate (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 57
You can boost the entropic release of energy in violent effects. As a reaction when you are in the area of a damaging effect, you can spend 1 Entropy Point to add a +1 bonus per die to the damage dealt to every other creature in the area, or you can spend 2 Entropy Points to add +2 bonus per die.

Blindsight (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 57
Your ability to detect anomalous atomic vibration improves. You gain blindsight (heat) with a range of 20 feet. You must have selected the blindsense discipline or have blindsense (heat) from another source before you select this discipline.

Break Fall (Ex)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 57
As a reaction when you fall onto a solid surface while conscious, you can reduce the damage taken from the fall by 50% and avoid landing prone.

Clothesline (Ex)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 57
When a foe provokes an attack of opportunity from you, rather than make a normal melee attack, you can attempt a trip combat maneuver. If you succeed, the enemy ends all its movement for the round and is knocked prone.

Dastard’s Distraction (Ex)

Source Galaxy Exploration Manual pg. 30
You gain Diversion as a bonus feat. If you already have this feat, you gain a different feat that lacks prerequisites. When you use the Diversion feat to allow multiple allies to hide, you take a –3 penalty to your Bluff check for every ally after the first, and on a failed check. You gain a bonus to Bluff checks to create a distraction equal to any attack roll bonuses you have that specifically apply to resolving dirty trick combat maneuvers. You must have Improved Combat Maneuver (dirty trick) to select this vanguard discipline.

Exclusion Zone (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 57
As a reaction, you can spend 1 Entropy Point to exclude one or two allies from an area of effect you create with a weapon, spell, feat, or class feature. At 15th level, you can exclude up to three allies. At 20th level, you can exclude up to four allies.

Improved Evasion (Ex)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 57
When you fail a Reflex save against an effect that has a partial effect on a successful save, you take the partial effect instead of the full effect. You must have evasion to select this discipline.

Intuitive Deconstruction (Ex)

Source Galaxy Exploration Manual pg. 31
When you use Engineering or Mysticism to disable a device, you can do so in half the normal amount of time (with 1 round becoming 1 standard action). You gain a bonus to Engineering and Mysticism checks to disable a device equal to any attack roll bonuses you have that specifically apply to resolving disarm combat maneuvers. You must have Improved Combat Maneuver (disarm) to select this vanguard discipline.

Reactor’s Recollection (Ex)

Source Galaxy Exploration Manual pg. 31
Your mind is quick to respond to flaws in a system. As a reaction when you fail a skill check to recall knowledge or to identify a creature, you can expend one use of your reactive class feature to reroll that skill check. You must have the reactive class feature to select this vanguard discipline.

Road Hazard (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 57
If a vehicle uses the ram action against you, you can forgo your Reflex save as a reaction to take half the vehicle’s collision damage. If you do so, the vehicle takes double its collision damage. Additionally, if a foe charges you, you can spend 1 Entropy Point as a reaction to take half damage from the attack and cause the attacker to take the remaining damage.

Spatial Destruction (Su)

Source Galactic Magic pg. 37
You can briefly destroy space, causing reality to implode and carry you toward your enemy before the universe repairs the damage. When you make an attack with your entropic strike against a creature more than 5 feet away from you, you can move directly toward your target until you’re adjacent to them. You must spend 1 Entropy Point for every 5 feet you move in this way; otherwise, you don’t move. This movement doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. If there is an obstacle that prevents you from moving through it, such as an enemy creature or grate, you can attempt a melee attack roll to perform a special combat maneuver against that creature’s KAC + 8 or attempt a Strength check against that obstacle’s Strength DC to break. You can spend 1 EP before attempting either check to add your Constitution bonus to your attack or check. If you succeed, you move through the obstacle as though it weren’t there. If you fail, your movement stops adjacent to the obstacle.

Technological Degradation (Su)

Source Drift Crisis pg. 48
You can funnel entropic forces into a technological creature to hinder their effectiveness. This ability works against constructs. When you deal damage to a technological construct with your entropic strike, you can spend 1 Entropy Point to overload the construct’s machinery, giving them the off-target condition for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution modifier. If the construct succeeds at a Fortitude save, they reduce the duration to 1 round.

Unknown Knowns (Ex)

Source Galaxy Exploration Manual pg. 31
Anything is possible when broken into its simplest components, even complex actions. You can attempt any skill check untrained, and you can always take 10 to recall knowledge or identify a creature. When attempting a skill check untrained, you gain an insight bonus to that check equal to your Constitution bonus plus the number of Entropy Points in your entropic pool.

14th Level

You must be 14th level or higher to choose these vanguard disciplines.

Arrest (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 57
As a full action, you can spend Entropy Points to force each enemy within 20 feet to succeed at a Fortitude saving throw or gain the entangled condition. This condition lasts for a number of rounds equal to the number of Entropy Points spent.

At 18th level, creatures that fail their saving throws are entangled as though tethered by an opposing force (and are therefore unable to move).

Distortion Dreamer (Su)

SFS Note: A vanguard that uses the Distortion Dreamer ability is off-target, not off-target and flat-footed
Source Galaxy Exploration Manual pg. 31
You exude entropy even as you dream. At the beginning of your turn, you can enter a dreamlike state until the beginning of your next turn. While in this state, you have the flat-footed and off-target conditions, and you gain Entropy Points from your entropic pool class feature at an accelerated rate in the following ways. First, each time you take damage equal to or greater than three times your character level from a single attack or effect (after applying any abilities that reduce that damage), you gain 2 Entropy Points from your entropic pool class feature instead of 1. Second, if you take damage from a critical hit, you gain 2 Entropy Points instead of 1, in addition to any you gain from the attack’s normal damage. Finally, if you have no Entropy Points when the dreamlike state ends, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to gain 3 Entropy Points.

Infectious Entropy (Su)

Source Galactic Magic pg. 37
Your entropic strike can be virulent to your foes. When you successfully hit a creature with your entropic strike, you can spend 1 Entropy Point to infect it with a mote of entropic virulence until the end of your next turn (Fortitude negates). While the creature is infected and within your entropic strike’s melee reach, you can make entropic strike attacks that originate from the infected creature’s space on your turn. You can’t make attacks of opportunity from the infected creature’s space.

Poison-Inured (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 57
You are immune to poison and low-level radiation. Additionally, you treat each other category of radiation as one step lower (for example, you treat high radiation as medium radiation).

Quick Boost (Ex)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 57
You’ve scraped by through enough close calls that you’ve learned to use serums and injectable items quickly. You can retrieve and drink a serum, or retrieve and inject yourself with a medicinal or other item in an injection weapon, as a single standard action. If you already have a serum or injection weapon in hand, you can use it on yourself as a move action.

Weather-Inured (Ex)

Source Galaxy Exploration Manual pg. 31
You endure cataclysms yet only emerge stronger. You gain Environmental Adaptation as a bonus feat, but you automatically gain all environmental and weather categories listed in that feat. In addition, when you attempt a saving throw against environmental conditions and weather conditions not listed in that feat (including magically altered conditions), and the result of your saving throw would cause you to suffer a partial effect, you instead suffer no effect.

18th Level

You must be 18th level or higher to choose these vanguard disciplines.

Absolute Zero (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 57
One per day as a standard action, you can spend Entropy Points to become immobile for a number of rounds up to the number of Entropy Points spent. For the duration, you can’t be moved by any nonmagical effect and are immune to cold damage. In addition, during this time, any creature that touches you, hits you with a melee attack with a natural weapon, or starts their turn within 20 feet of you takes 3d6 cold damage per Entropy Point spent. Any creature that takes this damage is affected as though by slow (no save) until the damage is healed. You can dismiss this effect at the end of your turn without taking an action.

Activating absolute zero automatically ends any living effigy discipline you have active.

Chronal Pause (Su)

Source Galaxy Exploration Manual pg. 31
Once per day you can spend 2 Entropy Points as a full action to take a 10-minute rest to recover Stamina Points, gaining all the normal benefits and following the normal restrictions for such a rest (including the ability to spend 1 Resolve Point to recover Stamina Points) except for the time expended. This rest does not decrease the duration of ongoing effects. For each additional 2 Entropy Points you spend when activating this ability, you can grant its effects to one additional willing creature within 15 feet of you.

Internal Reservoir (Ex)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 57
When you take a 10-minute rest, even if you do not recover Stamina Points, you gain 1 Entropy Point which lasts until it is spent or you take another 10-minute rest. Additionally, your maximum number of Entropy Points increases by 2.

Living Effigy (Su)

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 57
Once per day as a standard action, you can spend Entropy Points to be affected as though by haste for a number of rounds up to the number of Entropy Points spent. For the duration, you can’t be slowed or have your movement reduced by any nonmagical effect, and you are immune to fire damage. In addition, during this time, any creature that touches you, hits you with a melee attack with a natural weapon, or starts their turn within 20 feet of you takes 2d6 fire damage per Entropy Point spent. You can dismiss this effect as a reaction.

Activating living effigy automatically ends any absolute zero discipline you have active.

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