Well I'm not going to go into the swamp that non-force users should or shouldn't be able to use lightsabers efficiently or not.

But, it seems a bit strange to me that the Electrostaff has Unwieldy 3, whereas the double-bladed lightsaber has Unwieldy 2. Basically it's the same weapon, a form of staff, though the later is more unforgiving if you hold it wrong.

Shouldn't at least the 2Xblade lightsaber have the same Unwieldy as the Electrostaff?

Depends on your logic. The electrostaff is probably heavier and in that way more unwieldy, it's more difficult to twirl around and fight with, whereas the double lightsaber is probably lighter - but sure, it's a lot more dangerous, but I'd assume that the unwieldy quality doesn't actually damage you or increase risk of damage, just difficulty of effective use if too low Agility? Which sort of makes sense I think, but I do understand your position.

Well the Electrostaff also has Cumbersome 3 to reflect its weight to use correctly. No not really, i thought it said upgrade not increase difficulty with the Unwieldy.

Oh, it might say that. I don't know. So, increased chance for despair, nice...

Edit: which could make more sense as how would you treat the interaction between cumbersome and unwieldy? if I have 2 in both brawn and agility using an electrostaff, would I increase the difficulty twice? or if unwieldy provides upgrades, you just add a challenge die

Hush Poseur. My Niman Disciple will have none of your crazy talk about making it unwieldy 3. That's just silly

I'm inclined to agree with you. Wielding the staff wrong would be far more forgiving than the Double-Bladed lightsaber. Unwieldy 2 is a small price to pay for Linked 1, but make it Unwieldy 3, then you have a decision on your hands.

You have given me food for thought.

A double-bladed Lightsaber has a small centre of gravity in the middle, and two blades that likely are much lighter than, weighted out evenly to each side of the centre of gravity.

A electrostaff has a more even distribution of weight, with a greater weight towards the edges.

The fact of the matter is that it's odd that a double-bladed Lightsaber would have Unwieldy at all. I'd expect the difference in this case to be far greater than the difference between Unwieldy 2 and 3.

Well the Electrostaff also has Cumbersome 3 to reflect its weight to use correctly. No not really, i thought it said upgrade not increase difficulty with the Unwieldy.

Both cumbersome and unwieldy increase the difficulty, not upgrade it. It's just harder to use properly without the prerequisite characteristics. So you may be more likely to miss or generate threat, but not despair.

-EF

Unwieldy is to Agility what Cumbersome is to Brawn. The rules seem to imply that staff wielders should generally be more agile than double-bladed lightsabre wielders. If your character plans on using a staff of some sort, I suspect you will build them with Agility 3 anyway... *smirk* and the unwieldy will just go away.

Kevynn

I find it very odd that if a character has Agility 2, which is baseline for the vast majority of species, there is no drawback to wielding a double-bladed lightsaber. In fact, even if you have Agility 1, it can be used as a single saber, or used with exactly the same penalty and benefit as dual-wielding sabers. I'm pretty confident there are a number of Jedi with Agility 2 who choose to wield two sabers over a double-bladed one, which is mechanically just incorrect.

I'm already house-ruling it in the game I'm running to Unwieldy 3.

I would like to the Double Bladed Lightsaber with Unwieldy 3, but it wouldn't upset me if they left it at 2. Mechanically, it is the superior choice until one tries to upgrade it and has to pour twice as many credits into it than they would with a normal lightsaber.

I find it very odd that if a character has Agility 2, which is baseline for the vast majority of species, there is no drawback to wielding a double-bladed lightsaber. In fact, even if you have Agility 1, it can be used as a single saber, or used with exactly the same penalty and benefit as dual-wielding sabers. I'm pretty confident there are a number of Jedi with Agility 2 who choose to wield two sabers over a double-bladed one, which is mechanically just incorrect.

I'm already house-ruling it in the game I'm running to Unwieldy 3.

Not every character choice has to be about optimizing the mechanics or squeezing the system for every last drop of benefit.

There such a thing as playing to a theme, and for most Jedi, it's more thematically appropriate to wield a single-bladed lightsaber. After all, the double-bladed lightsaber was originally a Sith weapon, devised by Exar Kun. For the Jedi Order, who put a fairly heavy emphasis on tradition, a double-bladed lightsaber is going to carry a stigma to it as it's a weapon devised to more effectively kill someone, and for many Jedi, if they had to draw their lightsaber to resolve a situation, then somewhere along the line they failed as the goal is to resolve situations without resorting to violence at all.

Not every character choice has to be about optimizing the mechanics or squeezing the system for every last drop of benefit.

It's basically for this reason that it bothers me when mechanics are unbalanced, because as a player I want to be free to make the character choices I want, and it hardly seems fair when I am forced to struggle between optimization and characterization.

If I want to wield a single-bladed lightsaber, I should feel good about the choice, not conflicted because a double-bladed would be almost strictly better.

My second point was aimed specifically at the Jedi who choose to dual wield, thereby increasing their offensive potential. Not many Jedi do, but many who do go for two sabers over one double-bladed. Restricting the discussion solely to Jedi who have made that choice, there should be some reason to choose to dual-wield. RAW, there isn't if you have an Agility of 2, which is highly likely.

Double-bladed sabers were originally a Sith weapon, and Jedi do not usually feel an increase in offensive power is needed over a regular saber, but the other reason they aren't taught more frequently is because they're incredibly dangerous weapons that are much more likely to bisect you than normal sabers, as you would expect from a weapon of Sith design. A Jedi needs to be highly competent just to train with one.

Unwieldy 3 would appropriately represent this practical drawback to a dangerous weapon, and offer an adequate explaination for why not all Jedi who choose a more offensive path would choose the best weapon to do so, because it wouldn't always be the best weapon. In my opinion, Unwieldy 2 does not do so.