NAVIGATOR

Navigator is a new class written specifically for the Warhammer 40k setting. The fastest way to this class is through the Dedicated hero basic class though other paths are possible. Because the Navigator is so canon to 40k, a lot of background information has been provided here. Note there is no ‘Sample Navigators’ section. This is because all Navigators are human and all fulfill the same basic function, guiding a starship from one point in space to another safely.

 

The Navigator Houses are a subsect of the Navis Nobile an institution which predates the Imperium by many thousands of years. It is the most ancient of all human organisations. It was founded sometime in the Dark Age of Technology and survived through the Age of Strife to the present day. Over this period of approximately 30,000 years, the fortunes of the Navis Nobile have constantly waxed and waned, but their power have never been broken. Today they thrive as a vital part of the Imperium.

 

Each Navigator House is a large related family, but it is also a literal house, a fortified mansion where the House leader - or Novator - lives together with his immediate kin and retainers. This mansion is regarded as the seat of the entire Great Family, even though it is only the hereditary ruling family that lives there.

 

The Great Families of the Navigator Houses are uniquely composed of a particular form of human mutant called a Navigator. The mutation is not a spontaneous or natural one, but rather the result of genetic engineering conducted in the distant past during the earliest history of the Navis Nobile. This engineering created the Navigator Gene that distinguishes Navigators from the other members of the Nobile – ordinary humans. The gene itself can only be preserved by intermarriage, as it is lost when a Navigator breeds with an ordinary human. This factor has led to the development of the closely-related Navigator families.

 

The genetic creation of Navigators has a single purpose: to endow a human with the ability to steer a spacecraft through warpspace. Only Navigators can do this - no other human or machine has the ability to navigate warpspace in this way. It is this ability that allows human spacecrafts to travel so quickly compared to alien craft. Without Navigators to steer its ships, the Imperium would quickly fragment into thousands of separate stellar empires, each only a few dozen light years across, whose spacecraft would be obliged to use tiny and dangerous blind jumps to cover interstellar space. It is this limitation that has ket the Tau to such a small area of the space.

 

The physique of Navigators is unusual. The feature which distinguishes all Navigators is the Third or Warp Eye situated in the centre of their forehead. Nearly all young Navigators traditionally work in space as pilots. Over the years they gradually increase their familiarity with the warp and their powers become stronger. This mental maturation may take as many as fifty or a hundred years of space flight, but as Navigators can live for three or four hundred years this is not a great proportion of their lives. As they grow more experienced they also change physically. The white and iris of the Third Eye gradually vanished leaving a single black pupil. The eye itself hardens, and the eyelids shrink leaving a single staring orb.

 

The most powerful Navigators in each of the Great Families are called Heirs Apparent. This signifies that they may one day contend for the position of Paternova, the ruler of all the Navis Nobilite. The Paternova may come from any of the Great Families and from any social level within them. The Heirs Apparent are usually the oldest Navigators who have developed a bulging chest due to internal gills in their chest cavity – although not all develop in this way and some Navigators live out their entire lives without ever undergoing the chest-cavity change.

 

The Heirs Apparent are often bitter rivals who will even go as far as to try and eliminate each other if they get the chance. This sometimes leads to protracted personal vendettas or even family feuds between two Navigator Houses. The Adeptus Terra is fairly tolerant of minor skirmishing of this kind, although open hostilities between Houses are discouraged as much as possible. Unfortunately, this keen rivalry sometimes draws Heirs Apparent into marginally unlawful or even outright illegal practices. Their personal ambition makes them vulnerable to all sorts of dangerous influence, from collaboration with aliens to dealings with the daemonic. These deviants are a minority - most Heirs Apparent conduct their rivalries without courting such dangers.

 

The Paternova is the leader of all Navigators and the most powerful of all his kind. The Paternova may live for up to a thousand years. When he dies all the existing Heirs Apparent begin to change - they begin to grow even larger and stronger. Their gill structure becomes fully functional allowing them to survive in hard vacuum as well us underwater or in normally poisonous environments. Most important, they start to fight. They are drawn to combat with each other, building up a pitch of aggression that eventually overrides all other considerations. As Heirs Apparent are killed those who survive change even more until finally only one remains alive. It is this vastly changed and extremely powerful individual who becomes the new Paternova.

 

The Paternova lives in the Palace of the Navigators which lies on Earth in the centre of the zone held by the Navis Nobilite. Following his accession, the Paternova never leaves the palace. The existing staff, soldiery and other retainers of the palace are replaced by those drawn from the Paternova’s own House. The chief amongst his servants is the Paternoval Envoy who becomes a High Lord of Terra and sits on the Senatorum Imperialis.

 

The role of the Paternova is an obscure part of Navigator biology although no-one doubts its importance. The Paternova is described as the guiding father whose powers transcend the warp itself. During the interlude between the reign of one Paternova and another, all Navigators other than Heirs Apparent suffer a considerable reduction in their powers. Their ability to navigate the warp is impaired, warp journeys become longer, ships are unexpectedly lost, and younger Navigators may lose their abilities completely.

 

As soon as the new Paternova is installed the powers of Navigators are restored. However, not all are restored to the same degree. Navigators belonging to the same House as the Paternova find their abilities enhanced, as if their blood relationship were enabling the Paternova to transmit his powers more effectively. Navigators belonging to the House of the old Paternova lose this benefit, and so individuals may find their powers impaired.

 

The Warp Eye

The unusual feature shared by all Navigators is the Third Eye or Warp Eye. Navigators normally keep this eye covered with a bandanna or covering which is itself often decorated with an eye. This has led many humans to doubt the existence of this Third Eye. In fact the Third Eye is the focus of the Navigator’s power. The eye enables the Navigator to see the shifting currents of warpspace and so to guide his spacecraft within the warp. It is said that a Navigator can always see the warp even when he is in the material universe, and that it is this constant exposure to the unnamed horrors of Chaos that lends to their strange physical changes. It has been known for Navigators to react suddenly and violently to invisible things in the warp, and to collapse, lose their sanity or even die as a result.

 

The eye has other powers too, although these are employed far more rarely and are the subject of some mystique. These powers develop with the Navigator’s experience of the warp, so that they are most developed of all in the Heirs Apparent. The uncovered stare of a Navigator can kill a man, and that of an Heir Apparent is said to ward off even the daemonic creatures of the warp. Rival Navigators sometimes fight using the power of their eyes to blast each other - such open conflicts are rare but spectacular. It is also said that the eye of a Navigator has prophetic powers and that it can literally see into the future. Navigators are very reluctant to talk about their powers and it may well be that only the Paternova understands the full potential of a Navigator’s abilities.

 

The fastest way to become a Navigator is through the Dedicated Hero class. You must take the Warp Eye feat at first level if you choose to go this route.

 

Requirements

To qualify to become a Navigator, a character must fulfill the following criteria.

Base Attack: +2

Skills: Knowledge (the warp) 6 ranks, Navigate 6 ranks, Sense Motive 6 ranks.

Feat: Warp Eye

Talent: Mystic Power

 

CLASS INFORMATION

The following information pertains to the Navigator advanced class.

 

Hit Die

The navigator gains 1d8 hit points per level. The character’s Constitution modifier applies.

 

Skills

Concentration (Con), Craft (structural, visual arts, writing) (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Knowledge (any) (Int), Listen (Wis), Navigate (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak or Read/Write Language (none), Pilot (Dex), Psychic Sense (Wis), Treat Injury (Wis).

 

Skill Points for each Level: 3 + Int modifier

 

Table: The Navigator
Class Level	Base Attack	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Defense	Leadership
1	+0	+2	+0	+2	Navigate, Mystic Powers	+1	+1
2	+1	+3	+0	+3	Gazing Eye	+1	+1
3	+2	+3	+1	+3	Bonus Feat, Mystic Powers	+2	+1
4	+3	+4	+1	+4	Stun Stare	+2	+2
5	+3	+4	+1	+4	Mystic Powers	+3	+2
6	+4	+5	+2	+5	Bonus Feat	+3	+2
7	+5	+5	+2	+5	Mystic Powers	+4	+3
8	+6	+6	+2	+6	Navigate x 10	+4	+3
9	+6	+6	+3	+6	Bonus Feat, Mystic Powers	+5	+3
10	+7	+7	+3	+7	Death Stare	+5	+4

 

CLASS FEATURES

The following class features pertain to the Navigator advanced class.

 

Navigate

A Navigator can guide ships through the warp. For every light year of distance that he guides the ship through the warp the difficulty increases by 1 (rounding down extra decimals). The difficulty for any jump is DC 10. To give you some idea of interspacial distances, the distance between Mars and Terra is around 48 million miles considerably less than one light year (5,878,500 million miles) so such a Warp Jump is DC 10. The distance between Terra and the Alpha Centauri system is 4.35 light years. A jump to the nearest star system is therefore a DC 14 check from Terra (but maybe more for other systems). Travelling from Earth to Mars without a Navigator would require at least a month of travel time, for even the fastest Imperial vessels. All Warp Jumps last less than a few minutes so obviously this saves considerable time. Time of jump does not increase with distance, only difficulty. Another thing to note that the galaxy is around 100,000 light years side-to-side and that it bulges in the middle 60,000 light years wide, Imperial space covers roughly half of this area.

 

The Navigators are guided by a holy beacon of light emitted from the Emperor’s Throne on Terra. The psychic emanation is called the Astronomican. Navigating outside the range of this is extremely difficult. Anyone attempting to do so suffers a -10 penalty on Navigation checks.

 

Though Jumps take only a few minutes, the preparations before a jump (ritual annointations by servitors and so on) can take up to a week. For this reasons big jumps are preferred to many little jumps. A well maintained ship will include a set of Gothic Gargoyles to ward off daemons when travelling the warp. A good set of Gothic Gargoyles and a strict adherence to the annointment rituals will improve your chances for a good warp-jump. Ship maintenance can be any of the following:

 

Maintenance	Effect on Navigate Check Bonus
None, unexpected need to warp jump	-5
Hasty, one day of preparation	-2
Typical, one week preparation	0
Careful, one month preparation	+2
Cautious, half-a-year preparation	+5

 

The cautious maintenance standard is usually only reserved for battlestations where thousands of humans consider their homes. Ecclesiarch monastaries might spend such a time preparing as well, particularly if they are making a significant Warp Jump.

 

Mystic Powers

The Navigator gains a Mystic Psychic Level everytime this class feature appears in the Special section of the Navigator table. A level 1 Navigator will have a minimum Mystic Psychic Level of 1. Over the course of the 10 Navigator class levels this increases by 5 to a total of 7 or more depending on the psychic level before the class was taken. To see the effects of having a Mystic Psychic Level see the Psychic Section of the d20-40k manual.

 

Gazing Eye

Starting at second level the Navigator gets a passive gaze attack with his warp eye. As a free action, he can use the extra eye to make a special gaze attack against all creatures within 20 feet. The creatures must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + one-half your level + your Charisma modifier) or be shaken for 2d6 rounds. This gaze attack is a mind-affecting compulsion, and any creature that successfully saves against your gaze attack cannot be affected again for 24 hours. The gazing eye has no effect on other creatures with gazing eyes.

 

Stun Stare

Starting at fourth level the Navigator gets an active stun attack with his warp eye. As a free action, he can use the extra eye to make a special stun attack against all creatures within 20 feet. The creatures must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + one-half your level + your Charisma modifier) or be stunned for 1 round. This gaze attack is a mind-affecting compulsion. Unlike the gazing eye any creature that successfully saves against your gaze attack can still be affected on the following turn. The stun stare affects all targets.

 

Navigate x10

Starting at eighth level the Navigator improves his Navigation range. He accumulates a +1 DC for every 10 light years he wishes to travel rather than every 1. This allows him to jump considerably further distances. Also any distance less than a single light year (like Terra to Mars) is considered DC 5.

 

Death Stare

At tenth level the Navigator gets an additional gaze attack with his warp eye. In place of stunning or shaking a Navigator can succesfully kill. Anyone who fails the Will save against a Death Stare must a pass a Massive Damage fortitude check or be killed outright. This gaze attack is a mind-affecting compulsion, and any creature that successfully saves against your gaze attack cannot be affected again for 24 hours. The gazing eye has no effect on other creatures with gazing eyes.