| Home |
|
|||
 | ||||
| ||||
Jedi Counseling 103Defense, Offense, and Rules on Mini Names | ||||
 Welcome to the 103rd installment of "Jedi Counseling," our regular column in which we answer your rules questions about the Star Wars Miniatures Game and the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. If you have a question, send it in through the link at the end of this column, and check back here for the official answer. Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition
One of our design philosophies in Saga Edition was to keep different character classes competitive with one another even as they increased in level. To that end, we revamped the way that a character's defensive and offensive abilities work. The Best Defense . . . As first described in the fourth preview of Saga Edition, three Defense scores -- Reflex, Fortitude, and Will -- replace the old Defense score and saving throws. Here's our thinking: What's the difference between making a saving throw (+5 bonus) against DC 15, and making an attack (+5 bonus) against DC 16? Mathematically, the odds of the attack succeeding are the same in each case (50%), so why do we need separate mechanics to handle these closely related concepts? Ultimately, we decided that it was unnecessary, and in some cases it led to a lot of extra die rolls. For example, if you throw a frag grenade at a group of six stormtroopers, first you make an attack roll, then you determine any scattering if you miss (rolling for distance and direction), and finally each of the stormtroopers in the burst radius makes a Reflex save for half damage. That's up to nine rolls to resolve a single attack, and it could be worse if you threw a stun grenade instead. In Saga Edition, attacks are always performed by the acting character; the defender rolls only in the case of an opposed skill check. Under these rules, if you throw a frag grenade at six stormtroopers, you make one attack roll, compare it to the Reflex Defense of each target in the burst radius, and roll for damage. All targets hit take full damage, and the rest take half damage. There is no scattering for area attacks; a roll that doesn't beat a target's Reflex Defense is considered to have been poorly placed and its detonation is suboptimal. The result: Attacks can be resolved much more quickly even when attacking multiple targets. Similarly, many skill checks are made against a target's Defense scores instead of a static DC. For example, a Jedi attempting to use the Force slam power must make a Use the Force check against the target's Fortitude Defense, and a noble trying to use the Weaken Resolve talent would make a Persuasion check against the target's Will Defense. A target's Will Defense is also important when using the Deception skill to bluff, when using the Persuasion skill to intimidate or improve the attitude of a target, or when making a Use Computer check to slice into a computer system. (You read that right: Computers have a Will Defense that represents their sophistication and programming, and it's a slicer's biggest obstacle.) As mentioned in Saga Edition preview 4, a character's Defense scores are equal to: 10 + heroic level (or armor bonus) + class bonus + relevant ability modifier + miscellaneous bonus It's important to note that class bonuses don't stack -- you always take the best bonus to a given Defense score from all of your classes. However, multiclass characters will tend to have slightly better Defense scores than single class characters. For example:
While Reflex Defense will almost always come into play the most often, Fortitude Defense is particularly important because it's the starting point for calculating damage threshold. For most characters, their damage threshold will be equal to their Fortitude Defense. However, some characters may take the Improved Damage Threshold feat to improve their damage threshold by 5 points. In addition, targets larger than Medium-size have a built-in size bonus to their damage threshold -- obviously, it's tough to hurt a Krayt dragon. Armor can play a role, too. Particularly resilient armor will give you a bonus to your Fortitude Defense, and this bonus carries over to your damage threshold as well because it's based on your Fortitude Defense. . . . Is A Good Offense Two key design principles guided our revision of offensive abilities. First, we wanted all heroic characters to feel heroic compared to nonheroic cannon fodder. Second, we wanted to speed up the action to provide a more cinematic feel to the game. On the first point, we found a solution while considering how to balance Jedi against non-Jedi. We asked ourselves: Are Jedi that much better than everyone else, or are heroes (including Jedi) that much better than everyone else? We decided to go with the latter, trying to bring all heroic classes up to the level of Jedi rather than attempting to find a way to balance Jedi heroes against non-Jedi heroes. To that end, we put a new spin on the concept of increased lightsaber damage: All heroes get a bonus on damage rolls equal to one-half their heroic level. (This isn't quite as dominant as increased lightsaber damage in previous editions, but now it's universal and we've found that it works out nicely.)
As for speeding up gameplay, we made iterative attacks much less common. Multiple attacks still exist, but they require a greater investment. For example, a character can gain an extra attack by wielding two weapons or by taking the Double Attack or Triple Attack feats. We've found that the level-based damage bonus nicely offsets the loss of multiple attacks, and it leaves the average amount of damage dealt per round fairly similar to that of previous editions. Another important balancing factor is that the extra level-based damage helps to keep up with the increased damage threshold of higher-level targets. Still, it drops slightly behind as levels increase, and that's intentional. It allows higher-level characters to have longer, more epic battles that can last more than a few rounds. We obviously wouldn't want a high-level Sith Lord to get pushed all the way down the condition track before losing even half his hit points! In the next installment of Jedi Counseling, we'll wrap up a few final points (and hopefully put to rest a few fears) about Saga Edition. The column after that will focus on how to convert characters, vehicles, and so forth to the new rules. Star Wars Miniatures QuestionsIn this installment, we'll address a bit of confusion about the names of miniatures.
A: Many players just use their common sense based on what they know about the characters in question. However, some players don't know all the different characters in the Star Wars saga, particularly those from the Expanded Universe. So I'll answer this question in a way that doesn't rely on common sense. If there is no "Counts as [name]" entry, use three simple rules of thumb.
Yes, there are times that a character could potentially violate these rules of thumb, but we'll always include a "Counts as [name]" entry in such cases. For example, if we ever made a character named Senator Organa, we would say either "Counts as Bail Organa" or "Counts as Princess Leia" to prevent any possible confusion. Similarly, if we made a character named "Commander Skywalker," we would point out that it "Counts as Luke Skywalker" to prevent any possible confusion with Anakin Skywalker. Let's consider a few examples to see how these rules of thumb work in practice. Lord Vader and Darth Vader General Kenobi and Obi-Wan Kenobi
Jaina Solo and Jacen Solo Grand Moff Tarkin and Imperial Governor Tarkin Again, in cases where this logic wouldn't work, we'll include a "Counts as [name]" entry to prevent confusion. Q: Does Nym's commander effect apply to any character with "Mercenary" in its name, or only to characters with the Mercenary ability? A: It applies only to characters with the Mercenary ability. Note how the commander effect is phrased: "Non-Unique followers with Mercenary within 6 squares gain Double Attack." If the commander effect were meant to apply to characters with "Mercenary" in some part of their names, it would use the "named/name contains" language first introduced in the Champions of the Force set. For example, it might say, "Non-Unique followers whose name contains mercenary within 6 squares gain Double Attack." Besides the lack of the "named/name contains" language, the commander effect says "followers with Mercenary." This phrasing is used to refer to a particular ability, not a name. About the AuthorGary M. Sarli is a freelance designer, developer, and editor whose credits include the Saga Edition rulebook and Ultimate Adversaries (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) and Power of Faerūn and Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells (Dungeons & Dragons). He also moderates on the Wizards.COMmunity message boards as WizO the Hutt, cheerfully feeding Code of Conduct violators to the Sarlacc. Gary recently opened GMSarli Games, an online retailer specializing in non-random miniatures packs designed for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game.
| ||||
Continuing our coverage of the Star Wars Roleplaying GameSaga Edition that hits shelves in May, this installment of Jedi Counseling looks at the offensive and defensive statistics of the heroic classes.
Q: I've noticed that Lord Vader doesn't have any explanatory note under his Unique entry -- that is, the card doesn't say, "Counts as Darth Vader." The most recent FAQ points out that Lord Vader and Darth Vader can't be in the same squad, but I have to wonder: How will we know for certain when two minis are meant to be the same character and thus subject to the Unique restriction? In the absence of a "Counts as [name]" entry under Unique, how can we tell?
Darth Tyranus and Darth Sidious
