I am running a campaign and I am seriously considering adding some house rules to it. I would love some feedback on them.

If I add any others I will update this thread.

If anyone else wants feedback on house rules, feel free to make this a communal thread.

1. A PC may spend a Destiny Point after a roll to convert 5 advantage into a single success.

2. An adversary may take one full turn (resetting activities) per rank of the Adversary talent in any given round. He rolls a separate initiative check for each turn, adding initiative slots as if he was controlling multiple NPCs.

I have some players who defy the laws of statistics and rolls a ton of advantage but fails basic rolls. The first one is there to give them a second chance. We have used it in several sessions and it doesn't seem to be too strong. The players like it and it is only really used when you need 1 more success. Too many failures and this does nothing.

The second one is something I am considering because my group of 6 experienced PCs just decimates big nasties. The pattern is usually the big nasty going once, then the other 6 hosing him down. I have a few guys who have insane ranged attacks and another with very nasty melee weapons critting on single advantage. I realize that I could add more mooks to give them other stuff to attack, but sometimes the big nasty is just alone. This would only apply to adversary 2+ giving 2+ total slots per round.

Thoughts?

What exactly happened to bring this about?

For the first rule, I would say that can be dangerous to turn advantages to success. I personally fully understand the reasoning you are implementing it, though.

With the RAW it is designed to add all sorts of fun if you use the advantages and triumphs and threat and despair with narrative flair. It sounds like from the second point your characters focused a ton of combat and forgot about the rest so a difficult mission that tests them like well rounded folks guts them when it isn't ending in a fight.

Consider trying to get them to use the Advantages towards stuff that will fit them in the non combat situation. Take 2 advantages and give a boost die to the next PC, I think that is even a recommended spending idea in the CRB. So with the 5 advantages they can turn that into 2 boost dice, eh? If that doesn't generate the same kind of success they seem to have in combat, maybe they need more rounded character and not to all be Rambo?

To the second point. Even the published adventures recommend if the players are powerful to give the nemesis two initiative slots, with the second being the last in order. As to needing/wanting to give more than 2 slots, that seems like it is a strange idea to me. At that point you should more clearly up the design of the nemesis rather than breaking the RAW. Design the nemesis to more closely match the players. In the EotE Game Master's Kit it goes over nemesis creation and suggests multiple ways to bring in more challenge that still fit within the RAW.

TL:DR First point, recommend against that as it can break the game. Second point, don't break the system, redesign the baddie.

5 Advantages still passes on a lot of help to other players. It can boost other rolls. It can add upgrades to enemy checks. It can do quite a bit that's helpful.

I don't have a Nemesis fight alone for a couple reasons. Players do advance and become quite lethal. It feels too much like a raid boss in an mmo. It's not realistic. If the story calls for it as a an absolute necessity that Nemesis will definitely bend the rules and not be a pushover.

Are you throwing just a single nemesis against your players? I would expect that NPC to get hosed if he/she/it did not bring a bunch of goons for extra help. The new Squad/Squadron rules in the AoR GM kit essentially allows adversaries to use minions as meat shields, which in turn allows the BBEG to survive a bit longer. Beyond that, I suggest taking a second look at your encounter design. See if there are places to add fun environmental effects that can slow the PCs down or otherwise give your BBEG the advantage.

Other than that, your house rules seem quite fair with what you want to accomplish.

A group of PCs will almost always handily defeat a single Nemesis if the math is anything close to fair. Unless the Nemesis is one-hit-killing PCs or something similarly absurd, you're Big Bad is going down.

The question is this: why is the Nemesis alone?

When was a Nemesis in Star Wars ever alone? Vader had TIE Fighter escorts over the Death Star, Boba Fett had Stormtroopers in Cloud City, Jabba had a whole gang of thugs on his barge, and, of course, the Emperor and Darth Vader faced Luke Skywalker. In the entire original trilogy, the only time a Nemesis is alone with a PC is when he's alone with one PC (i.e. - Darth Vader dueling Luke on Bespin).

Your Nemesis should only face the PCs alone if the PCs have overcome a great deal of challenges to isolate the Nemesis. Otherwise there should be a Rival (or two) and a whole lot of Minions.

1. A PC may spend a Destiny Point after a roll to convert 5 advantage into a single success.

2. An adversary may take one full turn (resetting activities) per rank of the Adversary talent in any given round. He rolls a separate initiative check for each turn, adding initiative slots as if he was controlling multiple NPCs.

1. Agree with fatedtodie. This kind of thing returns to the binary pass/fail of other, less interesting, games. It takes away from the primary purpose of the dice. And there is plenty to do with 5 advantages, even (if the GM wants) to let them trade 5+ for a Triumph. How can anyone *not* spend them, I'd love to see an example.

2. Not sure that is necessary or advisable in most cases. If you do this with Nemeses, the players are going to wonder when *their* characters will get the power to act multiple times per round. Basically it puts NPCs beyond PCs permanently. It's better to have the PCs deal with multiple threats, of which the Nemesis is only the most dangerous one.

That said, if you want the equivalent of "going after the red dragon", then the Nemesis should have some kind of area attack, or a way to hit more than once in an attack (equivalent to Autofire or Linked). Dual wielding works great. The Arboreal Octopus in BtR is also a good example. The Rancor has something like that, and I'd also give it a "Barge" power, that bowls people over if it moves through them. And if you want to send the PCs after Palpatine, I'm sure he has the equivalent of Autofire with his Force Lightning.

2. Not sure that is necessary or advisable in most cases. If you do this with Nemeses, the players are going to wonder when *their* characters will get the power to act multiple times per round. Basically it puts NPCs beyond PCs permanently. It's better to have the PCs deal with multiple threats, of which the Nemesis is only the most dangerous one.

The precedent for certain adversaries to act multiple times in initiative has already been set.

In Under a Black Sun...

Adversaries already get access to the Adversary talent which is not available to PCs and otherwise ignore character creation rules, so it's not a huge stretch for them to have other special rules. Ultimately it largely depends on how comfortable your players are with NPCs having an unfair advantage for the sake of a dramatic combat encounter.

If one wanted to give a Nemesis multiple actions, I don't think it would break the game in terms of PC-NPC balance. That being said, I don't think it will do what the OP desires which is make the Nemesis more survivable - it probably won't. The only certain way to increase Nemesis lifespan is to give the PCs more things to shoot/do during the encounter.

Yes, you could give a Nemesis some absurd Wound Threshold. This will increase the length of the encounter, but is unlikely to make it more interesting. Instead, it will probably just become an episode of grinding away at the Nemesis until we reach his inevitable demise.

In this instance, quantity over quality.

Appreciate the correction, haven't looked at Under a Black Sun. I'm not sure though how well that would go down in my group...

Appreciate the correction, haven't looked at Under a Black Sun. I'm not sure though how well that would go down in my group...

He was an awesome challenge for us when we took him on, both times....

The EOTE GM Kit also explicitly recommends giving Nemesis NPCs an extra initiative slot at the end of the initiative order. (I wouldn't go to the trouble of rolling for it, I'd just put it at the end).

It describes how this is intended to help the Nemesis avoid being overwhelmed by 5 or 6 PCs acting for every one time it gets to act.

The Angry DM has a life-changing 4-part series on boss monsters , which is entirely applicable to SW and other, especially cinematic, games. Briefly:

The Boss Fight: Basic Framework

The basic framework for a boss fight is a fight in three acts. Each boss monster consists of three stat blocks. When the party has “killed” one stat block, something happens and the monster is replaced by the next stat block. This isn’t necessarily a transformation of one monster into another (but it can be), simply a change in stance, tactics, and powers .

A boss fight in 3 acts:

The Angry DM has a life-changing 4-part series on boss monsters , which is entirely applicable to SW and other, especially cinematic, games.

This is brilliant, thanks for the link. Given the lower number of Wounds vs "Hit Points" it might be harder to stage based on that alone, but the concept is great.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

I have been using the big baddies solo and I think I will try to add some reinforcements/henchmen with them to give the group more things to target. I also forgot about the DM screen guide on the Nemesis going again at the end of the round. I think that will help as well.

Also, I loved the multi-stage boss fights and am converting my big baddies to use that right now!

Be careful not to over do it with the multi-stage boss fight. Not every Nemesis encounter should be worthy of such. Save it for the truly difficult opponents.

I love the idea of the multi-stage boss, and I'm definitely considering it for the end-of-storyline big bad the PCs will be facing soon!

Multi-stage bosses can be fun. Another thing to consider here, because this is Star Wars, is that the climatic end battles are almost never a 6 on 1 situation, or even a 6 PCs on 6 NPCs situation. The party is almost always split at the end, each trying to overcome two or three difficult obstacles.

TPM: Only Obi-wan and Qui-Gon face Darth Maul. The Queen and her handmaiden and security chief are assaulting the castle with a ton of minions to defeat Nute Gunray's destroyer droids and capture the viceroy. Meanwhile, Anakin and Artoo are in a space battle.

ESB: Luke and for a bit, Artoo, are facing Vader, while Leia, Lando, and Chewie chase after Han with Boba Fett.

ROTJ: Lando is in the space battle, Han, Leia, and the droids are in the ground battle, and Luke is in the Emperor's throne room.

In other films, the PCs are fighting each other, or PCs are noticeably absent. Your BBEG final scene in a larger scale adventure or campaign should, whenever possible, tie to a few individual obligations or backgrounds, to create character arcs in your story telling. Your players shouldn't just feel like they accomplished something, although they should feel that too, they should feel like their character has grown (not just in XP). The way their character is played socially should change a bit after a big moment like that in a campaign.

Thinking back to SAGA days, an easy two-stage climactic battle is to have the party encounter BBEG with henchmen. Stage 1 is the Battle Royale (with cheese). Stage 2 is BBEG separating one of the PCs from the rest to fight man-to-man as reinforcements arrive to deal with the rest of the party. This is my go-to scenario for when there's a saber-wielding Jedi in the party and BBEG is a darksider. Note that stage 2 for the balance of the party could be anything -- for them it's just the next encounter, which could mean chasing after the macguffin, but it should be frantic, of course, because this is the climax of the story and you don't want the party regrouping until the denouement.