More than any other techwizard, nexus modders aren't as interested in the technology itself as they are in the raw theory underlying that technology. By understanding the machine code that makes modern technology function, they can alter their formulae "on the fly," changing the manifestation of their techs in ways that would seem impossible to geeks of a lower caliber. Perhaps the most stunning display of their dedication to pure code is their ability to instantiate a true (if minor) artificial intelligence on their own cyberdecks.
Hardlight Stylus
At 2nd level, as a bonus action, you can create a stylus made of hardlight in your free hand. The hardlight stylus has the following properties:
- The stylus doesn't require ink or power. When you write with it, it produces text in a color of your choice on any surface you write on.
- The time you must spend to copy a tech into your cyberdeck equals 2 minutes per tech level if you use the stylus for the transcription.
- You can erase anything you write with the stylus if you wave it over the text as a bonus action, provided the text is within 5 feet of you.
This stylus disappears if you create another one or if you die.
Awakened Cyberdeck
Using fragments of code and your own mad hacking, you have awakened a synthetic intelligence within your cyberdeck.
At 2nd level, while you are holding the deck, it grants you the following benefits:
- You can use the cyberdeck as a techcasting focus for your techwizard techs.
- When you cast a techwizard tech with a tech slot, you can temporarily replace its damage type with a type that appears in another tech in your cyberdeck, which alters the tech's formula for this casting only. The latter tech must be of the same level as the tech slot you expend.
- When you cast a techwizard tech as a script, you can use the tech's normal casting time, rather than adding 10 minutes to it. Once you use this benefit, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest.
If necessary, you can replace the cyberdeck over the course of a short rest by using your Hardlight Stylus to write the sapience-granting formulae in a cyberdeck to which you're attuned. At the end of the rest, your cyberdeck's consciousness is generated in the new cyberdeck, which transforms into your cyberdeck, along with all its techs. If the previous cyberdeck still existed somewhere, all the techs vanish from its memory.
Manifest Mind
At 6th level, you can conjure forth the mind of your Awakened Cyberdeck. As a bonus action while the deck is on your person, you can cause the mind to manifest as a Tiny hardlight hologram, hovering in an unoccupied space of your choice within 60 feet of you. The mind is intangible and doesn't occupy its space, and it sheds dim light in a 10-foot radius. It has an appearance of your choice, chosen the first time you use this ability.
While manifested, the cyberdeck's mind can hear and see, and it has darkvision with a range of 60 feet. The mind can mentally share with you what it sees and hears (no action required).
Whenever you cast a techwizard tech on your turn, you can cast it as if you were in the mind's space, instead of your own, using its senses. You can do so a number of times per day equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
As a bonus action, you can cause the mind to hover up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space that you or it can see. It can pass through creatures but not objects.
The mind stops manifesting if it is ever more than 300 feet away from you, if someone casts localized EMP on it, if the Awakened Cyberdeck is destroyed, if you die, or if you dismiss the mind as a bonus action.
Once you conjure the mind, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend a tech slot of any level to conjure it again.
Master Coder
At 10th level, whenever you finish a long rest, you can create one burner by touching your Hardlight Stylus to a blank burner and causing one tech from your Awakened Cyberdeck to be copied onto the tablet. The cyberdeck must be within 5 feet of you when you make the burner.
The chosen tech must be of 1st or 2nd level and must have a casting time of 1 action. Once in the burner, the tech's power is enhanced, counting as one level higher than normal. You can cast the tech from the burner by activating the burner. The burner is unintelligible to anyone else, and the tech vanishes from the burner when you cast it or when you finish your next long rest.
You are also adept at crafting burners. The cash and time you must spend to make a burner are halved if you use your Hardlight Stylus.
One with the Code
At 14th level, your connection to your Awakened Cyberdeck has become so profound that your mind has become entwined with it. While the deck is on your person, you have advantage on all Intelligence (Technology) checks, as the cyberdeck helps you remember important technical data.
Moreover, if you take damage while your cyberdeck's mind is manifested, you can prevent all of that damage to you by using your reaction to dismiss the mind, using its energy to save yourself. When you do so, roll 3d6. The cyberdeck temporarily loses techs of your choice that have a combined tech level equal to that roll or higher. For example, if the roll's total is 9, techs vanish from the cyberdeck that have a combined level of at least 9, which could mean one 9th-level tech, three 3rd-level techs, or some other combination. If there aren't enough techs in the cyberdeck to cover this cost, you drop to 0 hit points.
Until you finish 1d6 long rests, you are incapable of casting the lost techs, even if you find them on a scroll or in another cyberdeck. After you finish the required number of rests, the techs reappear in the tech book.
Once you use this reaction, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest.