Minion Crits

By PartTimeGamer93, in Star Wars: Age of Rebellion RPG

So, against all odds, one of my players succeeded in upgrading his vibroknife with the mono-molecular edge, all its mods, and the Superior Weapon Customization. Having done this, he made use of it in the next adventure...and immediately started throwing down crits like nobody's business. Now, we all know minions just die when they suffer a crit. The question is, can one attack that generate multiple crits kill more than one minion? Against other opponents, multiple crits would just add +10 to D100, but minions don't have to deal with that.

I allowed it during this session, but warned that depending on feedback, my ruling on the subject might overturn.

I allow it. Since damage can bleed over onto multiple minions in a group and it maximizes player damage output on them, by design they are intended to be mowed down like wheat imo. So if your Riddick-esque guy is slicing throats I don't see why not myself.

Edited by 2P51

Thanks, 2P51. As always, your opinion as a probable secret undercover dev is appreciated.

Service is my life.........

RAW: No, your multiple crits add 10 to the roll. You'd just end up mega-critting one dude.

Realistically: They are ******* minions, it doesn't matter too much.

Definitely a secret dev.

I allow it, too. I do the crits THEN the regular damage. Allows clearing out the minions faster.

I'm on the side of not allowing it. The crit will make easy work of rivals and nemesis. Also, last man standing is designed to take out all the minions. If there is an easier and cheaper way than using that ability, it loses some usefulness. I'd rather players have the decision of whether they need to use it.

I agree with Dbuntu & TBS. The RAW state one hit, one crit. Regardless of how big the crit is, it's still a single crit which means a single minion killed.

It is technically RAW, however RAW state additional activations add +10 to the crit roll, which in the case of minions and rivals are irrelevant. Therefore the RAW are incomplete and insufficient, so what's required imo is a GM providing a gaming environment supportive of cinematic play and an RPG experience encouraging the PC's to feel themselves exceptional. So I allow it.

As for the OP's question, since the PC has put that much work into tracking out their vibroknife (which is pretty sub-par as far as melee weapons go) as well as the credits (Superior alone is 5000 credits....), I'd be done with allowing the PC to rip through an additional minion on each activation of a critical injury. Yeah, it's against the RAW, and does step a bit onto the Hired Gun's "Last One Standing" signature ability (which is to wipe out all minions over the course of two rounds), but it's cool and it makes the player feel like a badass, which I'd say are more important, again in light of the resources that have been devoted to tricking out this particular weapon.

About the only caveat I'd include is that he can't take out more minions than are in the group, no matter how many times he can trigger a critical injury. So if the minion group has four minions and he has enough advantage to trigger 5 critical injuries, he still only gets to take out that one minion group, with any excess damage simply being lost.

It is technically RAW, however RAW state additional activations add +10 to the crit roll, which in the case of minions and rivals are irrelevant. Therefore the RAW are incomplete and insufficient, so what's required imo is a GM providing a gaming environment supportive of cinematic play and an RPG experience encouraging the PC's to feel themselves exceptional. So I allow it.

Actually with Rivals, it is relevant.

AoR core rulebook, page 410, first bullet point under Rival Rules:

- Rivals suffer Critical Injuries normally (book actually has this in bold print before going on to explain that it's when the Rival's Wound Threshold is exceeded that things work a bit differently than it does for PCs).

So while we both agree on allowing it, doing so pretty explicitly isn't the rules as they are written.

Yah I transposed the Strain rules, regardless though since it is about crits and minions, the RAW are insufficient.

Keep in mind: if one wants to be thoroughly pedantic, 1 <Tr> can be spent for critting one minion, a second <Tr> on a "Turn the Tide of Battle" result to simply take him out, too...

Keep in mind: if one wants to be thoroughly pedantic, 1 <Tr> can be spent for critting one minion, a second <Tr> on a "Turn the Tide of Battle" result to simply take him out, too...

Truth be told, if one of my players wanted to interpret "do something awesome to turn the tide of battle" as "kill one additional minion" I'd be profoundly disappointed in him.

Keep in mind: if one wants to be thoroughly pedantic, 1 <Tr> can be spent for critting one minion, a second <Tr> on a "Turn the Tide of Battle" result to simply take him out, too...

Truth be told, if one of my players wanted to interpret "do something awesome to turn the tide of battle" as "kill one additional minion" I'd be profoundly disappointed in him.

Still, it's the same level of <tr> expenditure...

I got to demo Force and Destiny with Andy Fischer last weekend at GenCon and had this exact thing happen.

I was playing the Jedi Warrior Sho-Chii Knight. The Jedi Artisan at the table Imbued my weapon to reduce the crit cost of my saber to 1, then I charged and attacked a squad of 5 stormtroopers. I rolled a Triumph, 2 Successes, and 3 Advantage. I looked at Andy, and he said, "Do it." So I narrated taking out 4 stormtroopers with a few quick flicks of the blade.

Now, this could have been because it was a lightsaber or because it was a demo and he knew we were experienced with the system, but I got the impression that if it's awesome and doesn't break the game it should totally be allowed.

I would say yes, more crits mean more death. However, I also say that combat should be quick and fun, meaning that a large combat scene meant to take up a whole session (the end of Operation: Shadowpoint) lasted for 1/4 of our normal session length. So my say is somewhat biased.

I still say yes, particularly when a character gets advanced because they're just wasting all those crits otherwise. They're just minions and by the time groups get really good you should probably be throwing multiple Rivals and a Nemesis or two at once at them anyway.

Edited by 2P51

I'd also be on board with allowing it - as the 'round' is more than just a moment's attack or dash. Narratively it's supposed to be a short, but manageable chunk of time - and someone churning through a half-dozen minions in under 30 seconds is pretty much fodder for every action movie.

I also agree about limiting it to the one minion group. So far my PCs are still fairly low level and I'm only throwing one at a time at them - but by the time they'll have the spare credits each to dump into such a weapon, there will probably be 3 or 4 groups coming at them.

My 2 credits worth. My group used to allow it, but for us it wasn't fun. Once you have a weapon that crits on one advantage it's too easy to pick up an entire minion squad with just one go. The GM had to start sending rediculous amounts of enemies at us to provide a speedbump. So we switch back from each crit is a minion kill to the RAW of one crit per attack.

Although, I would be tempted to go with the rule that you can only buy one crit with advantages but you can buy extra with Triumphs against minions. Would make rolling Triumphs meaningful to a character who can crit so easily with advantages.

If it's a minion group, I allow the crit to one-shot kill one of them and then the bleed damage and critical roll hits the other part of the group. So if the player rolled a "they are dazed for one round" or whatever, the minion group suffers that along with the critical wound.

I too see minions as stuff that's meant to be mowed down, but still pose a serious threat en masse or as support to the bigger enemies.