Class Feature Friday: Momentum Aspect (Vanguard Aspect)
A wise man once said that “Sir Isaac Newton is the Deadliest Son of a Bitch in Space”. That man was absolutely correct.
The fun thing about force is that, devoid of things like friction and air resistance, objects in motion find very little to bleed off the energy of that motion. That’s why the worries of space junk from our many satellites and other space missions are well-founded. Nothing would be worse than a dropped wrench from a decade ago punching through the ship, your heart, and out the other side.
All of that to say that for vanguards, since momentum is an expression of force, it therefore interacts with entropy. Those that focus momentum as an aspect seek to carefully minimize the effects of entropy on themselves and weapons they use to bolster their impact, and once they get going, there is little that can stop them.
So let’s have a look, shall we?
Appropriately, these warriors have a knack for pushing foes back with their movement, their force translating easily to their foes a la Newton’s Second and Third Laws. What is even more interesting is they also have a gift for understanding cultures and societies, perhaps seeing the parallel between objects in motion and the constant evolution of society.
With their focus on momentum, vanguards with this aspect can draw entropic power from their high-speed motion, letting them gain energy each combat form moving faster than normal.
With an expenditure of entropy to unleash their catalyst, they can push nearby foes away from them. However, in the improved version unleashed by injury, they can not only knock back foes, but bowl them over and actually harm them with the pulse.
Those that focus the aspect learn how to launch small projectiles at high speed, dealing considerably more damage than what a mere cantrip could do. Alternatively, they can use entropic energy to release a pulse of force to trip, disarm, or otherwise hinder their enemies.
This aspect doesn’t have a super defined strategy behind it, but it does pack some useful tools for a mobile vanguard build, rewarding charging into battle, pushing foes back, and even giving them a free ranged attack at higher levels if it is their primary. Being able to drive back foes that are crowding you might seem counter-productive for a tanky class, but you also need to avoid getting overwhelmed. Unleashing the improved catalyst can be useful for knocking back and dripping flankers, giving you the opportunity to reposition. That can make it very useful as your primary aspect for that reason alone, if you get high enough level to use it.
If a vanguard’s personality is reflected in their aspects, I can imagine that these individuals view themselves as rolling stones, ever eager to move forward to the next place, which of course suits the adventuring lifestyle quite well. Then again, maybe they are an exception, viewing their power as a way to drive off the forces that would disrupt the life they have going for themselves.
Answering The Call, the urge to explore and venture away from the hive that overtakes some formians, Nibb’k 1087 has embraced their new life as an explorer, and developed the gifts of a vanguard alongside it. Years later, and they still wander, idly wondering if there is something specific they are searching for, and if so, if they will know it when they find it.
While stopping at a space station to refuel and get some R&R, the party is attacked by a mercenary company of tromlin bloodseekers eager to collect a bounty placed on their heads by one of their old enemies. They are aided, however, by the station manager themselves, however, who clearly boasts some potent vanguard abilities of their own.
The military of the Belgadan Empire believes in cultivating every advantage they can find, and so many vanguards that join their ranks are trained as breachers, meant to break open secure structures and charge head-first into the defenders, disrupting them for their support to fire upon and take advantage of the disarray.
