So, I've gotten to the point here where I am comfortably willing to ask some dumb things, and here goes this one: is Unleash Force Lightning?

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I am what one might think of as an old-time Star Wars fan. I'm not as old as some, but was watching the three movies in the 80's a lot of times, enjoyed much of the Expanded Universe that i still reference and use, and have played many of the various SW games that have come out for RP, video games, and what have you. One of the early things about Force Lightning was that the Emperor could do it. Yep, he could and most no one else. The Rule of Two wasn't a thing, yet, so there could've been more Dark Jedi (he wasn't Sith then, either), and we just didn't see them on screen, but his was a power and knowledge of skill beneath none. The Emperor was so powerful that he needed no weapon; the Force WAS his weapon, and he could make it manifest in a visible way, to obliterate his opponent. For him, it was conveneint that the Force is an energy field created by all living things, and binds us all together Role-playing books came along, and at least several of the older ones made a strong case for Force Lightning to be special; a rare power requiring a near-mythical amount of control over the Force, and a depth of the Dark Side few could plumb. Then, video games came along, and developers wanted their players to get to enjoy themselves, so Force Lightning became something lots of people could do, in order to "feel" Dark Side, or just have fun with it. Later RPG materials seemed to more reflect those, making Force Lighting just another power with the Dark Side descriptor. They also made it "electricity", rather than "energy of the Force that LOOKS like lightning", but that's less here than there.

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So, I can sort of get why the book might not have a Force Lightning power, as you CAN'T have it without intending to be evil (unless you are EU, and like Emerald Judgment, but that's different), but is Unleash this? It requires an impressive power to be obtained, and prior to the updates, it sounded rather cheesy, maybe it still is. Are we thinking that this will be Lightning, or will it be another power published elsewhere? If it isn't, how might Unleash compare visually, if it has any such trait at all? As much as I want something like Lightning to remain the purview of upper echelon Dark-siders, and Unleash does seem to try, at least, I also do like to find the iconics, and Lightning has become one such thing in Star Wars, even if watching shrubs use it in Saga, or KOTOR, felt like Avatar Korra having all the special bending arts being commonplace, with any old Fire Bender pitching lightning, except Korra, of course).

Yes. Unleash is force lightning. Even says so in the intro blurb.

"Dark siders can shoot lightning from their fingertips..."

From the Beta Beta Updates pdf, Unleash Mastery Updgrade (similar text is also in the Beta Book: "For Unleash this upgrade represents mastering the ultimate dark side technique, the dreaded Force lightning. If the user is a dark side Force user, he may spend [Force Point] to change the attack’s critical rating to 1."

Yeah, it's lightening. Though it's not blatantly named "force lightening" to allow for other narrative options for how it actually manifests. A different user might manifest a choking cloud of glowing green mist, or as a giant spectral dragon, or as a large and moving Torb, or a thousand ghostly spirits that cause your Warrior to need food badly ....

Mechanical effect is essentially identical across the board, but not locking it into "lightening" allows them to not have to rewrite the same power every time some kind of similar but visually different power is shown on the cartoons.

Well, it is blatantly named "force lightning" once you take the mastery talent for it.

A line in the text isn't the same as naming the whole thing force lightening.

I agree with his question though; Unleash even if it is Lightning, is it really the lightning seen by a master such as the Emperor? I would have to say no.
I would prefer that they eventually came out with basically a signature ability for powers that morphed them into something a little different such as Sith Lightning or Emerald Lightning.

I would also like to argue that Lightning in and of itself doesn't need to be Darkside it's just very tempting. It unlike other force powers also specifically requires emotion, but not necessarily dark emotions.

I agree with his question though; Unleash even if it is Lightning, is it really the lightning seen by a master such as the Emperor? I would have to say no.

...

I would also like to argue that Lightning in and of itself doesn't need to be Darkside it's just very tempting. It unlike other force powers also specifically requires emotion, but not necessarily dark emotions.

What about Unleash doesn't seem like something Palpatine or Dooku has used? Pretty much everything is there; you've got Ensnare which is shooting so much lightning into some they can't move (Luke in RotJ, possibly Anakin in AotC - but that might be from the Force Move), it's got the potential for high damage/criticals but isn't necessarily too fatal in its base form (seen in how Luke was being shot at with it constantly, again in RotJ, for the purpose of being tortured), and there's the nice bonus of burning.

Lightning is darkside for a couple reasons, one being that it's sort of a perversion of the force (similar, to a much much smaller extent as bringing people back to life), and the other being because it's using it to hurt somebody, even in self defense, is pretty much akin to a form of torture.

Lightning is also darskide because it is passion that has been manifested. It's the emperor channeling his hate and elation into energy and unleashing it upon his foes.

It doesn't have to be lightning (indeed in the OT it just looks like energy, not exactly lightning).

Lightning is also darskide because is passion that has been manifested. It's the emperor channeling his hate and elation into energy and unleashing it upon his foes.

My hatred is measurable -- in coulombs , b*tch.

My hatred is measurable in newtons, you know, because it's the F...oh forget it.

I look at Unleash as any use of the Force to directly damage a target as opposed to using the Force to affect an object that you then use to cause damage (Move). Basically if you want to damage someone using a direct application of the Force this is the power to use, how you describe it should follow the genre but it can be anything. I prefer this approach to the D20 everything is a specific spell kind of thing.

I read it's only lightning at the mastery level. It mentions it can be cold in the generic description.

Anyway, an important question is what skill do you all use to resist Unleash?

Resilience is a pretty overlooked skill. That would be the obvious one to me.

Resilience is a pretty overlooked skill. That would be the obvious one to me.

Agreed, just brute-force your way through it.

Thanks.

I'd say Resilience is right assuming the user can't possibly miss with a successful activation of the power in the setting.

But if it's targeted (meaning you could activate it in the setting but still miss) then I'd say Coordination could resist too.

And of course Discipline for a Force Sensitive target.

Do you all allow Reflect, Side Step, cover, ranged defense, etc. to go against the resistance roll for Unleash?

I would say that you can use reflect and a lightsaber to resist it, as seen in the movies, and cover might work too,but I don't think it can be sidestepped or dodged.

Yoda was able to absorb dooku's unleash attack and return it so it's not exactly a light side fs using force lightning but it opens the possibility that force lighting isn't just a dark side ability. Now unleash can be a force missile of energy if you ever played a consular on swotor then you get what I mean.

Yoda was able to absorb dooku's unleash attack and return it so it's not exactly a light side fs using force lightning but it opens the possibility that force lighting isn't just a dark side ability. Now unleash can be a force missile of energy if you ever played a consular on swotor then you get what I mean.

Yoda reflected Dooku's lighting; he didn't create it himself. He used Dooku's own power against him. In game terms, he used the Mastery upgrade of the Protect power, not the Unleash power.

Please review my post I address that entire statement you just made. He didn't reflect or deflect he absorbed and returned to sender rewatch episode 2 if you really need to.

Please review my post I address that entire statement you just made. He didn't reflect or deflect he absorbed and returned to sender rewatch episode 2 if you really need to.

Nopers . First shot is Yoda keeping it there in his little Protect-guarded hand and pushing it back (reflecting it), second is him just simply negating it with Protect.

In the movies there's no use of light side Lightning.

Please look up the word reflect and I beginning to believe you are arguing for the sake of arguing. Either way he put it in his little glowy ball and sent force lightning back.

Please look up the word reflect and I beginning to believe you are arguing for the sake of arguing. Either way he put it in his little glowy ball and sent force lightning back.

He used mastery level protect. Reflected the attack back at the attacker.

Yoda's reflection of Dooku's lightning in AotC has been pretty specifically described as just that: reflecting .

In terms of FFG's system, he took Dooku's Unleash attack and stopped it from hurting him via Protect, triggering enough Strength Upgrades to reduce the damage to zero, and then spent two Force Points to launch it back. Dooku did something similar to deflect it aside (technically the Mastery Upgrade only allows the reflection for Light Side users), and thus why Yoda just stopped the second burst of lightning cold rather than bounce it back again, since he'd seen that it wouldn't do him any good.

Please review my post I address that entire statement you just made. He didn't reflect or deflect he absorbed and returned to sender rewatch episode 2 if you really need to.

No...my post was in response to that post you made. I am making the point that the Mastery upgrade of the Protect power exactly models what Yoda did against Count Dooku, absorbing (as you say) the power and sending it back at Dooku.

"Reflect," "deflect/redirect," "rebound," "absorb/return;" these can all just different narrative descriptors of the same mechanical effect. This system really doesn't play very well with narrow terminology.

This is from the text for the power: "this upgrade represents gaining the clarity of mind and soul required to let energy and aggression flow harmlessly through the Force user and recoil back upon those who seek to harm him."

How is this not what Yoda did?