Yeah perhaps I was too locked on the concept of building NPCs the same way PCs are built, thanks for pointing that out! On the other hand there is playing according to the rules

But, It has happened before (in Dark Heresy) when a supposedly epic end battle with a corrupted priest ended after 2 rounds with him being splattered, soo there went my epic campaign ending.

Also, one NPC vs. an entire party of PCs is usually a bad idea (that is, too easy an encounter) unless you give the NPC more than one action per round. But that's a separate issue.

As a player with a Wookiee Maurauder that has Brawn 5 and Willpower 1, and a WT of 27 and an ST of 10, I feel for the person who used to play this character. But I have a plan for what I'm going to do to raise the ST of my Wookiee, and that basically amounts to getting lots of Grit, Resolve, Second Wind, and whatever. Oh, and I'll raise his Willpower every time I get Dedication

Note that increasing your Willpower and Brawn via the Dedication talent does NOT increase your strain or wound threshold. Page 31 CRB.

Yeah, I thought I had remembered something about that.

Anyway, I want to boost his Willpower regardless, not just because I had thought it might also increase his ST. ;-)

But thanks for the reminder/clarification!

A single adversary, no matter how beefy, is going to be dispatched fairly easily by a group of PCs.

They'll be getting way more activations and the ability to focus fire on him.

Even if he had thresholds of 28 and 20 and soak of 7 there is a good chance they'd be able to drop him in a couple of rounds between a couple stun grenades and judicious use of the stun quality on blasters.

But an enemy with thresholds of 22 and 16 with soak 7 is much more scary if he's backed up by 6-8 goons.

Sure, the goons are easier to dispatch, but any activation spent killing them is one in which the main adversary doesn't get hurt. And ignoring a minion group can be just as dangerous as ignoring the main enemy.

So, to play Devil's Advocate, I looked into Marauders again (not exactly my favorite specialization) and noticed that their description includes:

"Marauders are tough -- probably the toughest combatants in any conflict. They tend to take a great deal of punishment while dealing out far more to any who dare go against them."

So I can understand why it seems incongruous to players that they can take huge amounts of lethal damage... but drop after a few good stun hits. A trade-off is fine for balance purposes, but it certainly isn't an advertised trade-off.

As for filling that hole, the best path for a Marauder to resist Strain damage would not be Willpower (costly to buy up at creation, and only adds a few points), but to instead invest in the Doctor specialization! 3 x Grit, 2 x Resolve, all in the first three rows.

Is it a little strange that Doc Scalpel (Marauder/Doctor) is better able to resist Stun than Korriwyrr (Marauder/Mechanic)?

Marauders don't drop easier to stun. Wookiees drop easier to stun. A Human Marauder could choose to have a 4 Brawn and 3 Willpower. When they start out they will have nearly the exact same amount of Wounds as they do Strain. They have the ability to raise their Soak and it will reduce damage suffered to Wounds and Strain equally. They don't have the access to Grit. A person chooses to be a Marauder they do it knowing they are going to be light on Strain. If they are silly and spend 125 xp to just get 2 ranks of Enduring, or go further than rank 2 talents without addressing that Strain weakness, they are choosing to ignore the weakness. All specs have weaknesses, otherwise why have specs at all.

In addition Marauder isn't the only spec that has Brawl/Melee Skills and Talents. There is nothing that says a Wookiee player has to be a Marauder or they aren't an effective hand to hand combatant. If a Wookie invests in Brawn and maxes out their Brawl skill it isn't like they will be a slouch in hand to hand even if they choose to be something else. Their racial talents give them a leg up on Brawl and essentially two ranks of a kind of Feral Strength.

People judge this issue by Wookiees because everyone wants to be able to max their damage so they take Wookie as a Marauder. At some point all the races have to balance, so what do you do to Wookiees to impose balance if they don't suck at Strain? Ditch the Wookiee rage? Flatten the Wounds/Strain spread? Seems like at some point you just end up with a tall human in a hairy suit for a race.

People judge this issue by Wookiees because everyone wants to be able to max their damage so they take Wookie as a Marauder. At some point all the races have to balance, so what do you do to Wookiees to impose balance if they don't suck at Strain? Ditch the Wookiee rage? Flatten the Wounds/Strain spread? Seems like at some point you just end up with a tall human in a hairy suit for a race.

+1

My last character was a brawl-focused Wookiee, and I did it by using modded shock gloves as an Outlaw Tech. We used the Weighted Head attachment as inspiration for a High Voltage Power Supply, and after a +1 Stun Damage mod combined with Jury Rigged I'd get 5 stun damage (that ignores soak) for the low cost of 1 advantage. That leaves more advantage for healing Strain, and said Wookiee also started out with 3 Willpower and had a couple ranks of Grit.

My GM played the NPCs realistically, and sometimes that meant we'd be facing stun weapons. Especially considering that my Wookiee almost always opted to deal non-lethal damage (honor and all that good stuff). Sure, his WT was still higher than his ST, but he was no slouch in the strain department either.

In my experience, min-maxing in this system is not as effective as making a well-rounded character. YMMV. But for my part, when I make a Wookiee I'm not looking to boost his WT even further than it already is, because he's already formidable. I'm going to patch the ST weakness as much as is feasible, and if needed I'll plan on spending a lot of my advantage for healing strain and/or resisting the urge to take that second maneuver quite as often.

I feel the rules as is makes combat seem dangerous and so it should be. That being the case, it might just make the players be a little more clever about their situations as opposed to just being murders to get out of every tight spot.

In EotE The players are 'regular joes' not 'superheros'...well..not until Force and Destiny anyway..

In EotE The players are 'regular joes' not 'superheros'...well..not until Force and Destiny anyway..

Nah...regular joes are minions and rivals. The PCs are heroes...they're a cut above the rabble. They might be ragtag, but they are far from common. They are movers and shakers in their own right. They should matter to the story of Star Wars.

Nah...regular joes are minions and rivals. The PCs are heroes...they're a cut above the rabble. They might be ragtag, but they are far from common. They are movers and shakers in their own right. They should matter to the story of Star Wars.

Agreed. There's a reason why Rivals are about the same "strength" (or slightly less) than fresh-out PCs. The PCs are the ones who were Rivals the day before, and they have turned over a new leaf.

I feel the rules as is makes combat seem dangerous and so it should be. That being the case, it might just make the players be a little more clever about their situations as opposed to just being murders to get out of every tight spot.

In EotE The players are 'regular joes' not 'superheros'...well..not until Force and Destiny anyway..

My character's a Big **** Hero, thank you very much. No force sensitivity required.

But the definition of a hero is someone who gets other people killed..

I think just about every PC in existence qualifies for that then.

Not if you're playing "Call (or Trail) of Cthulhu"