Beta Update 5

By FFG_Sam Stewart, in General Discussion

Hi everyone,

We're pleased to bring you the latest week of beta updates! Have a look .

You can start as a Dark Side user or Light Side paragon ... interesting!

I like the changes on modifying lightsabers, particularly the line about discouraging the "loaning" of a lightsaber to a PC that's better skilled at Mechanics.

I think between the Simple difficulty and adding Force dice to a "personal" lightsaber, that should alleviate a lot of the concerns where modifying the 'saber crystal is concerned, and still make the Artisan be top-notch at 'saber modification. It also makes it so that getting a fully modified Ilum Crystal isn't quite the epic achievement it had been prior to the update, which is nice.

Fixing the way you mod a lightsaber, good!!

I don't think we will see any change in the parry reflect talents, a pity.

Edited by Yepesnopes

Just terrible. As though the special snowflake Jedi needed more coddling.

Also if Shoto are now meant to only reduce base damage by 1, this needs to be in the Shoto paragraph on pg 124.

Fixing the way you mod a lightsaber, good!!

I don't think we will see any change in the parry reflect talents, a pity.

Yeah, at this point I'd say Parry and Reflect are largely "locked in" in how they work. Personally, I'm more hopeful of Shii-Cho Knight trading out a couple ranks of Parry to gain a couple ranks of Reflect, particularly since Shii-Cho has been noted for including blast-deflection training. I do have a slight re-shuffling of the Shii-Cho Knight spec that I've been toying with that I'll probably post on these forums later in the week.

Edited by Donovan Morningfire

Fixing the way you mod a lightsaber, good!!

I don't think we will see any change in the parry reflect talents, a pity.

Yeah, at this point I'd say Parry and Reflect are largely "locked in" in how they work. Personally, I'm more hopeful of Shii-Cho Knight trading out a couple ranks of Parry to gain a couple ranks of Reflect, particularly since Shii-Cho has been noted for including blast-deflection training. I do have a slight re-shuffling of the Shii-Cho Knight spec that I've been toying with that I'll probably post on these forums later in the week.

This is very much agreed.

Additionally, the only crystal related change I would like to see is addressing Ilum's large number of Mods. At present I think 7 mods is to much for any piece, and while they have gone round about a touch by reducing the difficulty, I still feel that maybe that is to much to place on a single attachment.

But even as written, these changes address 99 % of my concerns about how crystals interact with the normal modification rules.

Edited by Thebearisdriving

Great work there.

With the Illum crystal taking 2 HP, shouldn't all crystals just take up 0 HP then and remove two HP from lightsabers? It's confusing whether the 5 includes the built in crystal or not.

Thebearisdriving,

Actually, with the Ilum Crystal, it's very much possible to get a basic lightsaber up to EotE/AoR stats with only five modifications, leaving off a damage and vicious mod and instead taking the extended hilt (+1 damage, modify for +1 Vicious). Or dropping yet another damage mod and taking the superior hilt (+1 damage).

Though I do agree that the Ilum Crystal remains the odd duck having quite so many modification options. I'd made a suggestion in my feedback report to boost up the Ilum Crystal a bit and add in a synthetic kyber crystal that has the Damage 6/Crit 2/Breach 1 & Sunder traits with only a few modification options, but I guess it didn't pass muster, which happens and I'm fine with.

Edited by Donovan Morningfire

Great work there.

With the Illum crystal taking 2 HP, shouldn't all crystals just take up 0 HP then and remove two HP from lightsabers? It's confusing whether the 5 includes the built in crystal or not..

Each of the hilts mentions in their description that they include an Ilum Crystal and that it takes up 2 of the lightsaber's listed hard points. So the basic lightsaber effectively has 3 Hard Points with which to spend on attachments, as 2 are taken up by the Ilum Crystal.

I'd suggested revising the table to drop all the Hard Point values in the table by 2 to account for this, but it may have deemed to be too confusing a change to be worth implementing.

Great work there.

With the Illum crystal taking 2 HP, shouldn't all crystals just take up 0 HP then and remove two HP from lightsabers? It's confusing whether the 5 includes the built in crystal or not..

Each of the hilts mentions in their description that they include an Ilum Crystal and that it takes up 2 of the lightsaber's listed hard points. So the basic lightsaber effectively has 3 Hard Points with which to spend on attachments, as 2 are taken up by the Ilum Crystal.

I'd suggested revising the table to drop all the Hard Point values in the table by 2 to account for this, but it may have deemed to be too confusing a change to be worth implementing.

It made some sense when there were differing HP requirements for crystals, but with them all at 2, why not just zero that out?

@ Dono

Yeah, I wasn't actually thinking in terms of replicating Edge or rebellion sabers. I actually found those quite disruptive to game play and, well, appalling. Not that I blame the designers for that, but damage 10 crit 1, breach 1 is just sheer power gaming and propels the characters into a league that often they are not prepared for.

It's really more of a philosphical disagreement that any one item should be that versatile, that exceptional, rules wise.

The actual effects of the mods I'm not as concerned about. If the vicious mods were added in as not mods but just normal parts of the crystal stats, I think I would be more happy, since 5 mods would be an artisan's triumph (technically a daunting task with master artisan) and 5 mods are in line with the most significant attachments of the other books (such as the mounted grenade launcher).

Call me crazy, but I like it when rules apply evenly to all things, and one special snow flake crystal isn't the special case that needs questions, and GM rulings, and a game designer to make a special "for instance" and etc. and etc.

Edited by Thebearisdriving

Great update :)
Can't wait for next week ...

So Illum Crystals end up 3 purple 2 red versus your mechanics+force rating. which could easily be a 3 or 4. so 3 or 8 successes, depending on the die roll and force rating. Doesn't sound terribly hard.

I see double bladed lightsaber got Unwieldy 3...good change.

Great updates all around.

Just terrible. As though the special snowflake Jedi needed more coddling.

idea anyway

Fixing the way you mod a lightsaber, good!!

I don't think we will see any change in the parry reflect talents, a pity.

Yeah, at this point I'd say Parry and Reflect are largely "locked in" in how they work. Personally, I'm more hopeful of Shii-Cho Knight trading out a couple ranks of Parry to gain a couple ranks of Reflect, particularly since Shii-Cho has been noted for including blast-deflection training. I do have a slight re-shuffling of the Shii-Cho Knight spec that I've been toying with that I'll probably post on these forums later in the week.

Actually my concern about the Parry and Reflect talents comes due to the fact (in my opinion) that Jedi talent trees are filled in with a big amount of those two talents. I would prefer to see less of them in favour of other more varied talents, but of course this will rise the need to improve the damage soaked by the Parry / Reflect talent.

Just terrible. As though the special snowflake Jedi needed more coddling.

... Why are you on a forum about a game where you play as Jedi?

Fixing the way you mod a lightsaber, good!!

I don't think we will see any change in the parry reflect talents, a pity.

Yeah, at this point I'd say Parry and Reflect are largely "locked in" in how they work. Personally, I'm more hopeful of Shii-Cho Knight trading out a couple ranks of Parry to gain a couple ranks of Reflect, particularly since Shii-Cho has been noted for including blast-deflection training. I do have a slight re-shuffling of the Shii-Cho Knight spec that I've been toying with that I'll probably post on these forums later in the week.

Actually my concern about the Parry and Reflect talents comes due to the fact (in my opinion) that Jedi talent trees are filled in with a big amount of those two talents. I would prefer to see less of them in favour of other more varied talents, but of course this will rise the need to improve the damage soaked by the Parry / Reflect talent.

I posted an idea in the Beta Update 4 thread about a rework to the Soresu tree that splits it into ranged and melee defensiveness, and includes a couple ranks of Side Step, but ended up with only two ranks each of Parry and Reflect, which looked a bit light to me, but would be perfect if those talents were changed to the format Donovan had proposed of 1+2/rank.

Just terrible. As though the special snowflake Jedi needed more coddling.

... Why are you on a forum about a game where you play as Jedi?

Doesn't his name kind of give away that answer?

Ancient sword no longer counts as a lightsaber rules-wise. Not sure if I like that change or not.

I think it was a bit much that it was regarded as a lightsaber. It was clearly just meant to be there so that a starting lightsaber wielder could have a weapon they could choose before they get a sabre without having to invest in another skill.

I think it was a bit much that it was regarded as a lightsaber. It was clearly just meant to be there so that a starting lightsaber wielder could have a weapon they could choose before they get a sabre without having to invest in another skill.

Hi:

So, would it still count [mechanically] as a "forged weapon" or not?

Thanks!

L

MTFBWY

A

Edited by LETE