Droid question

By Venters, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

So I have a droid and I made him a mechanic so i left his brawn and agi at 1 with 4 in intellect and 4 cunning. With the way that the point buy system works you can have one really good stat and then everything else is pretty bad.

I was wondering if there were any rules to buy multiple upgrades for my droid, like a bigger body or something. I pretty much I'm asking is the cybernetic arm and leg upgrades the only way and would they be only purchasable one time only or as a droid could i get multiple "arm" upgrades?

You could do whatever your GM lets you do, but by the RAW you could get +1 to Br and +1 to Ag via cybernetics, then you have to wait on the Dedication bonuses. Multiple arms might be a route, your GM and you would have to agree on what that represents.

It's pretty much just the Dedication talent in each specialization and the currently available cybernetic upgrades - so yes, in a way, the cybernetic upgrades for agility/brawn are one purchase only. If you wanted to talk to your GM, I'm sure he could help come up with cybernetic upgrades with you (such as only one arm/leg needed to upgrade a characteristic - but it costs a fair bit more than normal). Or if you happened to be one of the droids that has multiple arms/legs, then see if they'll let you just use the normal upgrades multiple times.

That's the drawback to playing a droid, unfortunately. You're built very well for the field that you're designed for, but branching out of it is difficult. They're meant to be hyper-specialists, not jacks-of-all-trades.

Talking to your GM about potentially shilling out more for more upgrades does sound like a wise decision. Hell, he could even offer it as an Obligation; a shady junk-monger out in the rim could offer you an entire frame upgrade that gives multiple stat bonuses, but as it turns out, it's taken from Imperial military-grade war droids. Now you're running around with stolen machinery integrated into you; the Imps are not going to take well to that.

The issue with taking multiple arms and legs is it would open you up to some awkward other questions like... "If I have 4 Arms, then shouldn't I be able to dual-wield 2-handed weapons, and ranged:heavy weapons?"

The issue with taking multiple arms and legs is it would open you up to some awkward other questions like... "If I have 4 Arms, then shouldn't I be able to dual-wield 2-handed weapons, and ranged:heavy weapons?"

I say; yes, absolutely. Fighting with four arms is rather common in Star Wars. Personally I allow three and four armed combat for a Setback die per additional arm. I've run tons of battles like this, and so far only once has the player in question scored more than two hits with Ranged (Light) weapons. In other words, it's working out for me better than Auto-fire.

But perhaps all that is best left for another discussion. The point is, playing a droid takes a lot of creativity and flexibility on the part of the player and GM. Creating new cybernetic upgrades should absolutely be a part of the process, especially since droids get 6 "free" upgrade slots. I say if it feels Star Wars, go for it! This game already has a built-in cure for munchkins, you see; they're called thermal detonators.

If things get out of hand, have the bad guys toss a couple of these at the players and watch the humility begin. :)

With the way that the point buy system works you can have one really good stat and then everything else is pretty bad.

This is not strictly true. You can also make an "average" stat block. I'm not very sympathetic to you if you set 2 stats at 4 and have 1-2 in the rest and are complaining about it. That was a valid build choice for your concept and probably worked out pretty well for the concept. Go buy some Dedication like everyone else.

Oh ****, can you not upgrade characteristics with earned experience? Because my players totally upgrade their Brawn/Agility/Cunning on a regular basis.

Oh ****, can you not upgrade characteristics with earned experience? Because my players totally upgrade their Brawn/Agility/Cunning on a regular basis.

Per RAW, no. I've seen some homebrew suggestions around on these forums of how people allow it, but I can't remember specifics - but there's typically some sort of extra XP cost added onto it so it's not as easy to do.

Oh ****, can you not upgrade characteristics with earned experience? Because my players totally upgrade their Brawn/Agility/Cunning on a regular basis.

Nope, that's why the book encourages you to bump up Abilities on character creation, because except for cybernetics and Dedication talents, you're never touching them again...

With the way that the point buy system works you can have one really good stat and then everything else is pretty bad.

This is not strictly true. You can also make an "average" stat block. I'm not very sympathetic to you if you set 2 stats at 4 and have 1-2 in the rest and are complaining about it. That was a valid build choice for your concept and probably worked out pretty well for the concept. Go buy some Dedication like everyone else.

I'm not asking for any sympathy I'm just asking if there's a way to overcome my handicap, when my play group started it was a fairly even balance of fighting types and talking types, I made my droid to be a liar and a thief. It's just the party is now more fighter type and being the "Negotiator" when talks break down I tend to get shot at first and then spend the rest of the encounter hiding behind a table. So'm trying to get a little more brawn or agility so that I can at least take part in the action when it happens.

Well, you could always go to the GM and say "Hey, my character isn't working out quite as I intended. Can I re-build him from the ground up now that I know the system a little bit better?" - and don't bother with a headlong race to the Dedication talent.

Edited by Desslok

Well you can get Ag 2 with the cybernetics. Then you could spend points into Range skill(s), and could trick out a blaster rifle with some Accuracy upgrades via a barrel and foregrip attachments. You'd be good with all that.

Oh ****, can you not upgrade characteristics with earned experience? Because my players totally upgrade their Brawn/Agility/Cunning on a regular basis.

You can only increase Characteristics after chargen by buying a Dedication Talent or installing cybernetics.

Well, you could always go to the GM and say "Hey, my character isn't working out quite as I intended. Can I re-build him from the ground up now that I know the system a little bit better?" - and don't bother with a headlong race to the Dedication talent.

This happened just a few days ago. Didn't break a thing. The character concept changed very little, and my player is much happier now.