Plane, F-19 Shrike (3.5e Monster)

'' *Take vehicle's base saves, or pilot's, whichever is better.   **Only when active. When unpiloted it's Strength and Dexterity are 0. It's Dexterity is as listed, or as the pilot's, whichever is better. ''



''With a loud sonic boom, a shape zooms overhead. The enemy squadron is blown out of the sky within seconds!''

F-19 Shrikes are high quality dogfighting aircraft designed to take out other aircraft with superior speed, agility, and weaponry. They are about 45 feet long, 16 feet high, with a 32 foot wingspan slightly tilted forward, made out of lightweight steel alloys and composite materials. A large bubble cockpit stands in front, with two powerful turbojets and twin tails. There are no back fins on this craft.

Combat
F-19 Shrikes rush into combat with enemy aircraft, launching missiles from afar and then moving in close to finish off wounded targets with their guns. Their superior speed and maneuverability means they can often match speeds with target aircraft and negate their advantage for moving rapidly.

Combat Vehicle Traits: The Shrike is a vehicle, and as such has no motive force of its own and is technically an object, not a creature. However when manned by a pilot, it gains the mental ability scores, initiative, skills, and base saving throws (if better) of its pilot, while using its own strength and dexterity scores (unless the pilot's dexterity is higher, then use that). Use the pilot's feats plus any bonus feats the vehicle has.

As long as the pilot is within the vehicle, he has total cover and concealment and cannot be targeted. If the vehicle is destroyed while the pilot is still inside, they take the full damage of the killing blow and are exposed (and probably falling to their death). You can use Profession (Pilot) checks to perform certain stunts and abilities with this vehicle.

As a combat vehicle, it is treated as a fortified object. It takes half damage from most ranged attacks, half damage from fire, force, and electric attacks, a quarter damage from cold, and normal damage from acid and sonic damage, and from siege weapon attacks (hardness applies in all cases). A Shrike's own weaponry is considered to be siege weapons.

The Shrike's body may be enhanced as if it were a suit of light armor.

The Shrike counts as a huge quadruped for the purpose of carrying capacity. It's light load is 8304 lbs, its medium load 8305 lbs-16,632 lbs, and it's heavy load 16,633 lbs-24,960 lbs. If it exceeds its light load its speed drops to 2/3rd normal. If it exceeds its heavy load, it cannot fly. It's maximum dexterity is not restricted by medium or heavy loads, but instead its dexterity reduced by 2 (for medium) or 6 (for heavy).

Ejection Seat : As an immediate action, the pilot can activate the ejection seat in an attempt to escape. The cockpit shoots out of the vehicle and launches them 120 feet into the air. They proceed to deploy a parachute, which duplicates the effect of feather fall for the entire way downward. If the ejection seat is used at the moment the vehicle is destroyed, the pilot must make a Reflex save with a DC equal to the excess damage over that which is required to destroy the vehicle. If the save succeeds, the ejection seat functions and the pilot escapes the blast. If they fail, the vehicle and ejection seat are destroyed. If the pilot is not dead from the destruction, he may perish from the resulting fall.

Inertial Motion : The Shrike has a movement speed of 230 ft. (average) and a minimum forward speed of 115 ft., but it is capable of speeds much faster than that. If moving in a straight line, it adds its speed to its previous movement made in the round, up to its maximum fly speed of 10,560 ft (1200 mph). You can move at your previous speed without speeding up or slowing down without spending a move action. If slowing down it can cut its speed in half each round with a move action, until it reaches the desired speed.

Going faster than normal adjusts the amount of space needed to turn. Multiply the number of times faster than your movement speed you're traveling by the twice the cost of turning (10 feet for average). For example, at maximum speed you are traveling 45 times your normal speed, so you need 455 ft to make a 45 degree turn (round down to nearest 5 foot increment). This usually isn't important, as this is certainly overland movement at those speeds and not something employed in tactical combat. Tactical combat rarely exceeds twice your movement speed, or 5000 ft. if its doing strafing runs.

Attempting to strike targets at high speed becomes increasingly more difficult the faster you go. For every 1000 ft. you are traveling faster compared to your target, you take a -1 penalty to attack rolls, and a +1 dodge bonus to AC. At your maximum speed, you are taking a -10 penalty to attack and +10 to AC compared to stationary targets.

Payload : The Shrike has 11 hardpoints on which to add various weapons suitable for an aircraft. The typical Shrike is equipped with 6 Air-to-Air Sidewinder missiles, 4 Anti-Ship Penguin missiles, and 1 Chaff Pod. It can fire a missile as a standard action.


 * Air-to-Air Sidewinder Missile: Ranged touch attack out to 5000 ft. It bursts into a 20 ft. radius burst, dealing 15d6 fire and sonic damage (resistance and immunity to one does not prevent damage unless you have resistance or immunity to both) with a Reflex save for half DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Dex.  If you hit with the touch attack, the target gets no saving throw.  For the Shrike this is DC 26.  If used against ground targets, the DC drops by 5.  A sidewinder missile weights 200 lbs.


 * Anti-Ship Penguin Missile: Ranged touch attack out to 5000 ft, but only against aquatic targets. It ignores the hardness of boats and other aquatic craft, dealing 15d6 sonic damage.  A penguin missile weights 850 lbs.


 * Chaff Pod: As an immediate action, you can increase your touch AC against missiles by +10 for 1 round. If the missile misses the touch attack, you also avoid the subsequent blast radius.  The chaff pod is good for 3 uses.  A chaff pod weights 550 lbs.

Radar : The Shrike has a radar which allows it to see Large and larger creatures and objects in a 5000 ft. radius, as if using blindsense. Certain materials do not reflect the radar and are invisible to detection by radar.

Reinforced Plating : Reinforced plating is a special quality that can be added to a creature of the Construct type. The bonus value from the reinforced plating quality acts as a substitute Constitution modifier with respect to the construct's hit points per HD and its Fortitude saves. This bonus does not apply to such things as Constitution-based special attack save DCs or Constitution based checks.

Vulcan Cannon : The vulcan cannon is the Shrike's main attack, dealing 6d6 points of damage +Dex modifier in damage with a 20/x2 critical. The Vulcan cannon has a range increment of 500 ft. and counts as a seige weapon. The vulcan cannon can be enhanced as any masterwork weapon.