When making a Droid, it feels like I'm missing out on so much by NOT rolling something like a Human slicer instead. Their only strength seems to be some versatility and customization (I get to pick extra class skills instead of getting specific ones depending on race) I also get that Droids also get the advantage of being robotic, and therefore do not require sleep, oxygen, ect. But unless our DM starts throwing people out of airlocks on a consistent basis, it feels kind of unneeded.

So here's my question: Am I missing something glaringly obvious about Droids that make them better than I think they are?

It may depend on your skills/techniques as a role-player, on your GM's play style, and also on the composition of the play group. Unless you feel like telling us what kind of character you want to make, or what kind of game your GM is running, we can't really comment on that side of things.

That said, here are some examples of Droid PCs from my games:

My first group has a Droid Marauder as our tank/heavy hitter for combat, and he also serves as our "mean face" for playing Bad Cop (incidentally a Talent he wants, along with "Loom" from the Enforcer tree) with stubborn NPCs. He is undoubtedly our combat monster, but more interesting are the situations when he intimidates potential foes, challenges authority in a way most NPCs don't expect from a Droid, or uses his ridiculously sturdy construction to solve non-combat problems, like "hailing a cab" by walking out in front of a groundcar and letting it hit him (he insisted the Mechanic fix him during the ensuing car chase).

In another group, we have a Droid Slicer who also acts as a mechanic; between those two skill sets, the character can almost always find a way to participate in a scene, and often make a big impact. Personality-wise, the little fellow doesn't say much, but cheerfully hunts down any machinery that can be repurposed to the party's ends, and seems to take special pleasure in stopping fights without any harm coming to organics.

Another thing to consider is that this being a narrative system, Droids' mechanical nature is a _massive_ boon when it comes to problem-solving. Droids can, without minimal preparation or concern:

• Go out an airlock, and sneak around to the far side of the ship/station. Alternatively, jump from one ship to another, or hide on the exterior hull with weapons or contraband while the organics are captured or inspected.
• Keep watch through the night, unhindered by fatigue, and possibly aided by your sensors. Since Droids can mount sensor units and other equipment as part of themselves, they have a real edge here.
• Perform extended tasks tirelessly and ceaselessly while the organics have to sleep. It will take X hours of steady work to produce one computer spike? How many do you need, Meatbag? I'll have them ready by the time you wake up.
• Take actions that would kill an organic character. A Droid can take a lethal hit for a team-mate or jump from a crashing speeder, and even ignoring their improved Soak, it is easier for a GM to say "you can fix him" for a Droid than if an organic was critically injured. Heck, we've even seen droids do head transplants!

For comparison, and building from 0 stats...

Humans: 6×30+2×10+110=310

Droids: 6×10+2×5+175=245 plus inorganic

A droid can be a poor generalist - buy attributes of 3 2 2 2 2 2 with 25 points left.

They aren't badly hurt by the lower points, because inorganic has a bunch of bonuses...

• Droid Repair Patches do flat 3's rather than the 5-4-3-2-1-0- of Stimpacks.
• Droids get to build in more gear than do humans, and it doesn't cost extra
• Droids don't need space suits.
• Droids can "turn off" when power runs low
• Even a dead droid can be resurrected. (But not one that's taken a peak level crit, because then there's not enough left to rebuild the personality)

Those are worth that 45 point difference.

Oh, and given that it costs 20+30+40+50=140 to hit 5 in an attribute in Char Gen, if you're using the extra XP starting option, you still can't get to a 6... because 45 points just won't do it, but you can start with 5/2/2/1/1/1 without extra points, and 5/2/2/2/1/1 or 5/3/2/1/1/1 with. Most others can only hit 5 with nought but twos elsewhere. And with extra XP, droids can hit a pair of 4's.

Using repair patches is inferior to stimpacks, and a good doctor or medic can work miracles on organics that a Mechanics-based repairs can't currently match.

As for not needing a spacesuit, some GMs will require your Droid to have one purchased and built-in if the Droid is built for exo-atmospheric operations. This goes with the idea that droids only get what they pay for.

Using repair patches is inferior to stimpacks, and a good doctor or medic can work miracles on organics that a Mechanics-based repairs can't currently match.

As for not needing a spacesuit, some GMs will require your Droid to have one purchased and built-in if the Droid is built for exo-atmospheric operations. This goes with the idea that droids only get what they pay for.

Droids don't need to breathe or have a contained atmosphere, so why need an exosuit or a breath mask... That's just silly.

A spacesuit is about more than just breathing. It's about temperature and pressure regulation as well as radiation shielding. There is nothing to suggest that droids don't need such protection. If you want it, buy a spacesuit as built-in equipment.

A spacesuit is about more than just breathing. It's about temperature and pressure regulation as well as radiation shielding. There is nothing to suggest that droids don't need such protection. If you want it, buy a spacesuit as built-in equipment.

Except the stock Astromech in the book doesn't list a spacesuit and they are able to go EVA as a stock unit.

The NPC droids specify that they can operate in vacuum and underwater, but the write-up for PC droids does not. NPCs and PCs don't necessarily follow the same rules.

That said, I personally don't require Droids to purchase a spacesuit, but I can follow the argument as to why they might need to.

I think droid immunities were left vague to a point so that each group how much and how little applies.

One of my knight-level droid characters is a Brawn 5, Int 2 Mechanic/Gageteer, with a single cross class rank in Medicine. "Please be advised, I have downloaded schematics for your species. Please hold still."

One of my knight-level droid characters is a Brawn 5, Int 2 Mechanic/Gageteer, with a single cross class rank in Medicine. "Please be advised, I have downloaded schematics for your species. Please hold still."

Hilarious

One of my knight-level droid characters is a Brawn 5, Int 2 Mechanic/Gageteer, with a single cross class rank in Medicine. "Please be advised, I have downloaded schematics for your species. Please hold still."

My daughter's PC R2 unit likewise...

It kind of depends how much Enduring is worth to you. I've seen threads on these forums concerning soak that give me the impression a 25xp price tag for Inorganic+Enduring is fair. Add 15xp for the three bonus skill ranks, and we're 40 over.

I'll invest 20 in every characteristic except one (every race has a dumpstat), leaving me with 75. 75+40=115.

Droids are basically lacking their 3 in a characteristic. In the long run, they'll compensate with the extra "cyberware", but yeah, as beginner characters, they are a bit worse.

However, they can do something no fleshling can do. Save up those XP and invest heavily into skills. The dice pools will look the same, but if you only want one skill per characteristic, you end up saving XP.

I think another unmentioned advantage is droids are essentially immortal with proper maintenance. The character could be killed and rebuilt by someone else with mechanics like C3PO in Empire right? Short of being melted down or disassembled completely a droid character can be "brought back to life".

When making droids there are a lot of assumptions and the player and game master really have to work together. I made a droid based on GO-TO from the KOTOR games. He's assumed to be able to fly/hover at normal character walking running speeds(he can buy a jetpack later for true flight) he has no arms or legs but various retractable appendages with his various tools, weapons and simple arms for fine manipulation. So he can never pick a blaster rifle someone drops and use with any skill and would receive a whopping disadvantage if he tried. Same thing would be true for an astromech droid.

One of my knight-level droid characters is a Brawn 5, Int 2 Mechanic/Gageteer, with a single cross class rank in Medicine. "Please be advised, I have downloaded schematics for your species. Please hold still."

My daughter's PC R2 unit likewise...

Played in a d20 Star Wars game a while back, and we had a PC droid. It kept wanting to "fix" injured living creatures with it's blow torch, soldering gun, and welding kit.

We have a droid in our crew. He does well at his job, and is an decent back-up for another two characters, but nothing to be excited about. He plays up having to deal with the "meat bags". The droid has also been made aware we can legally trade it it for beer money almost anywhere.

Despite the attribute/skill differences, I don't feel that the droid is more or less powerful than us. In fact, it took slightly more tinkering to insure he was useful to the rest of the crew.

I think another unmentioned advantage is droids are essentially immortal with proper maintenance. The character could be killed and rebuilt by someone else with mechanics like C3PO in Empire right? Short of being melted down or disassembled completely a droid character can be "brought back to life".

Under the official rules this isn't possible. By the rules-as-written, a droid character that rolls a fatal result on the Critical Injury table is assumed to have been irreparably damaged (e.g. his central memory banks destroyed or whatever).

So officially, droids in this system are as vulnerable to violent death as organic beings.

There's a way to bring organics back to life in the FaD beta, so I'm absolutely okay with droid memory backups.

There's a way to bring organics back to life in the FaD beta, so I'm absolutely okay with droid memory backups.

That comes at great cost, though, and not just for the parts necessary to rebuild a droid. The only way I'd allow that is if the party actually goes through the process of rebuilding the droid, and then the character would come back with a loss of XP and only as much equipment as the group built into it.

There's a way to bring organics back to life in the FaD beta, so I'm absolutely okay with droid memory backups.

That comes at great cost, though, and not just for the parts necessary to rebuild a droid. The only way I'd allow that is if the party actually goes through the process of rebuilding the droid, and then the character would come back with a loss of XP and only as much equipment as the group built into it.

On the other hand, it's a good way to handle "Hi, I'm bob's cousin, Bob 2. Sorry about your loss, lets go adventuring" type character replacement.

There's also this helmet-like device in one of the non-core books that allows you to keep the brain working until the body is fixed.

I'd reskin that equipment as a "memory backup unit".

Since the books mainly focus on organic medicine, I think it's okay to assume that droids have equivalent gear and/or achieve the same end result with built-in functionality.

Since the books mainly focus on organic medicine, I think it's okay to assume that droids have equivalent gear and/or achieve the same end result with built-in functionality.

True that. I don't remember seeing the helmet you're talking about, but since the golden rule is droids can have all the same equipment the meatbags have, I'd allow it.

There's also this helmet-like device in one of the non-core books that allows you to keep the brain working until the body is fixed.

I'd reskin that equipment as a "memory backup unit".

Since the books mainly focus on organic medicine, I think it's okay to assume that droids have equivalent gear and/or achieve the same end result with built-in functionality.

I don't believe that item says it only works for organics, so I'd allow it to be used on organics or droids without reskinning it.

I don't believe that item says it only works for organics, so I'd allow it to be used on organics or droids without reskinning it.

My book's away from me right now,* but I think the item in question is about keeping the squishy, prone-to-rotting organic brain alive for a short time. Theoretically it would have to be re-skinned to some degree, since droid brains are mechanical. Then again, you'd also think that droids wouldn't have to keep their brains in their head-shaped thing, but you'd be surprised how many droids go down from headshots anyway.

I'd probably go the Gran's way and call it a "backup drive" or something along those lines.

* You might be wondering, "If he's away from his book, why is he bothering to comment?" There are two possible explanations: 1.) I'm a nerd and feel compelled to voice my opinion on nerdy things, regardless of my qualifications; or 2.) shut up, you're not the boss of me.

I don't believe that item says it only works for organics, so I'd allow it to be used on organics or droids without reskinning it.

My book's away from me right now,* but I think the item in question is about keeping the squishy, prone-to-rotting organic brain alive for a short time. Theoretically it would have to be re-skinned to some degree, since droid brains are mechanical. Then again, you'd also think that droids wouldn't have to keep their brains in their head-shaped thing, but you'd be surprised how many droids go down from headshots anyway.

I'd probably go the Gran's way and call it a "backup drive" or something along those lines.

* You might be wondering, "If he's away from his book, why is he bothering to comment?" There are two possible explanations: 1.) I'm a nerd and feel compelled to voice my opinion on nerdy things, regardless of my qualifications; or 2.) shut up, you're not the boss of me.

In theory, I'll agree that it should be reskinned. Because, logic dictates that things that keep organics alive can't work on droids. However, I feel that droids are at a disadvantage (because there is no droid support for droid specific gear or talents beyond the CRB) and that for game balance droids should be able to be affected by things that affect organics, unless specifically called out it doesn't work on droids. If a re-skin was needed, then I'd recommend doing it in such a way where a droid player isn't further limited by needing a special set of duplicate equipment or talents. Perhaps the Cerebral Stabilizer has a droid setting, perhaps the Doctor's Stim Application stims can be mixed in a way to also give droids increased stats, so on and so forth.

IIRC, Medicine checks to heal, Bacta tanks to heal, and stim packs to heal are the only things that don't work on droids and there are specific rules for how droids can receive additional benifits. Mechanics for repair, oil baths, and repair patches respectively. IMHO everything else, ranging from the Cerebral Stabilizer to the Doctor's Stim Application talents, should work on droids as written without needing to purchase a second set of gear or talents.

Of course, I could be wrong about the Cerebral Stabilizer and there might be mention that it doesn't work on droids, as I'm away from the book as well. We all seem to make off the cuff comments without having rules nearby. Often we go on what we remember or what feels right for our comments. There are also individuals who disreguard the written rules because it doesn't make sense to them. So feel free to comment without being near a book. All the cool kids are doing it.

Example of discussing rules AFB:

"As the good book says, when a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick."

"Where does the book say that?"

"Well, it doesn't say that exactly, but somewhere there is something about a chicken!"