I can't recall when I've seen this. Maybe SW Galaxies, or EU books, or another RPG.. but I'm sure I've seen someone channel the force through a weapon so that it can be wielded against lightsabers. I know there's ancient swords and the like that have similar abilities. But I was wondering if it would be a mis-application of the Imbue Item talent for that purpose. Allowing someone to use their ranks of parry and whatnot with a regular weapon.

If so, would your other lightsaber talents apply? If someone wanted to use a Vibroknife as their main weapon would this be a way to do it? I know the Cortosis quality would be simpler, but I'm just theorycrafting at the moment. My main concept would be a mechanic turned force user and would be seeking to augment regular tech and weapons with the force.

Thanks for ideas and feedback!

Edit: Didn't have the book at the time of writing.

Pg 59: Imbue Item: Take the Imbue Item manuever; commit force die, then grant 1 weapon, piece of armor, or item an improvement while force die remains committed. Suffer 1 strain each turn force die is committed

I remember this being a thing in the original D20 Star Wars from WotC. It was an ability that came with one of the Force-using prestige classes, I think.

While the long-from description of Imbue does not specify anything like what you are describing, I would definitely allow imbue to work in this case. That sounds like a fun idea and will make that character special.

Per RAW, the talent doesn't make the imbued item any more resistant to being sundered by a lightsaber.

The Saga Edition talents that Krieger22 was referring to was part of the Force Adept prestige class, and were Attune Item (+1 bonus to hit) and Empower Weapon (+1 die of damage), neither of which made the item any more resistant to being destroyed. There was Primitive Block, which allowed the Force Adept to use the Block talent from the Jedi heroic class with a primitive weapon, but again said weapon wasn't deemed any more resistant to being destroyed, be it by lightsaber or vibro-ax.

I would allow it!

I wouldn't allow it, as that committed Force die can very easily be assigned to another weapon, and it already provides a pretty handy benefit, at heart being the Jury-Rigged talent that can be used on the fly rather than assigned ahead of time.

Technically, under the rules any weapon can be wielded against a lightsaber and not be instantly destroyed. In fact, the Parry talent states you need be using a Lightsaber or Melee weapon. Meaning that your ascetic hermit with a wooden staff can just as easily use Parry to mitigate the damage of a lightsaber strike as a Jedi-in-training could with their own lightsaber, or that a MagnaGuard can with their electro-staff. The only thing with the wooden staff is that it doesn't have any protection against the Sunder quality, but currently neither do the Force and Destiny lightsabers.

Donovan, you make an excellent point. I hadn't even considered that lightsabers have no inherent defense to sunder.... Doesn't seem quite right. Not a lot of room for epic saber duels if the first person to get 2 advantage (or whatever the value is, at work, no book) chops the others lightsaber in half.

... it doesn't have any protection against the Sunder quality, but currently neither do the Force and Destiny lightsabers.

I'm a gonna have to take a quick look at what weapons get Sunder...

Lightsabers get sundered all the time. Sure, the blade is immune, but the hilt is definitely not immune to sundering. However, with most weapons that have sunder, the wielder is more likely to use their advantage to recover strain or cause a crit then sunder a weapon.

Remember that you need to sunder a weapon 4 times to destroy it, 3 times to only make it inoperable. 3-4 advantages spent to destroy a weapon…or activate a crit, potentially killing the wielder of the weapon.

-EF

And with Parry and Reflect each costing 3 Strain per use, odds are the 'saber-monkey is going to want to either go for the crit and recover a bit of strain in the process. That doesn't mean that Sunder's off the table, just that it's not quite the go-to option that a lot of folks think it'd be.

And again, it's a GM's choice if they wants to activate it against their players. If they constantly use Sunder to cripple or destroy the PCs' gear, then they've critically failed the Don't Be A D*** rule of GM'ing.