Just curious if there are any talents out there that allow non force characters to Parry a lightsaber with a cortosis weapon?

OR be able to Parry in general using a melee weapon but not a specialization from F&D?

Not as yet.

Not as yet.

So if I understand the Developers' thinking melee defense represents the ability for a non force charcater to defend with a melee weapon.

Parry talents represent the kick butt ability of force users to use a lightsaber for defending themselves.

You can use Parry as a non-FS. The devs confirmed that you can purchase F&D specializations, even if you're not FS. However, you don't gain any Force Rating and you can only use talents that aren't specifically Force-based. Parry is not Force-based, but Reflect is. Also, the long text for Parry mentions that Melee weapons, in addition to Lightsabers, can be used.

It's important to remember that buying a F&D career starts you at FR1, but buying an out of career spec does not. So if you want to be a duelist, grap a spec or two with Parry talents and rock out.

Edit: also what verdantsf said.

Excellent clarification guys, I appreciate it very much!

Makashi Duelist is an excellent specialization dip for a non-FS with 5 ranks of Parry.

On a sidenote, even though the long text for Parry only mentions Lightsabers and Melee Weapons, the text for Refined Cortosis Gauntlets is enough for me as a GM to include them, despite being Brawl weapons.

Cortosis gauntlets are simply metal or composite gloves with thick forearm plates laced with cortosis ore. The cortosis in their construction allows them to block or even disrupt lightsaber blades.

Grievous is an example of a non force user with parry.

RAW you can use parry against a lightsaber when wielding a lightsaber or melee weapon . The weapon does not have to have the cortosis quality. It's important not to take the talent name too literally. You can describe how the damage is mitigated in any narrative way you want.

Grievous is an example of a non force user with parry.

Love the example, thanks!

RAW you can use parry against a lightsaber when wielding a lightsaber or melee weapon . The weapon does not have to have the cortosis quality. It's important not to take the talent name too literally. You can describe how the damage is mitigated in any narrative way you want.

Good point, thanks for the suggestion!

On 8/3/2015 at 5:23 PM, kaosoe said:

RAW you can use parry against a lightsaber when wielding a lightsaber or melee weapon . The weapon does not have to have the cortosis quality. It's important not to take the talent name too literally. You can describe how the damage is mitigated in any narrative way you want.

Only thing to note in this case is that since a non-cortosis melee weapon does not cancel the 'sunder' ability on a lightsaber, advantages on the parried attack can be used to damage it, making it really only effective for 1-2 parries... Lightsabers avoid this due to being immune to sunder.

5 minutes ago, Silidus said:

Only thing to note in this case is that since a non-cortosis melee weapon does not cancel the 'sunder' ability on a lightsaber, advantages on the parried attack can be used to damage it, making it really only effective for 1-2 parries... Lightsabers avoid this due to being immune to sunder.

I'm confused by your reasoning. Parry has no active dice roll and thus has no way to generate advantages. Unless you are referring to Improved Parry, which only triggers off of despairs and threats on the attackers roll, so again is not affected by advantages or triumphs.

So I can only assume you mean the attacker gets a despair (triggering an improved parry by the defender) but still generates advantages to sunder (or 3 threat and 1 or more triumph). In that case it still has nothing to do with the parry causing the sunder. So the argument really is moot. In all cases, this thread is over 2 years old, so it was an odd necro.

9 minutes ago, kaosoe said:

I'm confused by your reasoning. Parry has no active dice roll and thus has no way to generate advantages. Unless you are referring to Improved Parry, which only triggers off of despairs and threats on the attackers roll, so again is not affected by advantages or triumphs.

So I can only assume you mean the attacker gets a despair (triggering an improved parry by the defender) but still generates advantages to sunder (or 3 threat and 1 or more triumph). In that case it still has nothing to do with the parry causing the sunder. So the argument really is moot. In all cases, this thread is over 2 years old, so it was an odd necro.

I was referring to the attack that is BEING parried having advantages. IE, if a player with rank 5 in parry decides to parry a lightsaber with a metal rod, is there any mechanical reason why this can not be done? The answer is that the metal rod, can be sundered using any advantage the attacker generates.

Cortosis weapons negate the breach and sunder qualities of lightsabers, and Lightsabers themselves are immune to sunder.

Yeah it was an odd necro, just happened to be reading the thread with regard to some random searches. I didn't pay close attention to the date.

Since this thread is active again, it's worth noting that the Martial Artist specialization for Bounty Hunters includes two (easily accessible) shots of Parry. I don't think any other non-F&D specialization do, and with only the Spy and Engineer books left for the non-F&D lines, that's unlikely to change.

2 hours ago, Silidus said:

I was referring to the attack that is BEING parried having advantages. IE, if a player with rank 5 in parry decides to parry a lightsaber with a metal rod, is there any mechanical reason why this can not be done? The answer is that the metal rod, can be sundered using any advantage the attacker generates.

Cortosis weapons negate the breach and sunder qualities of lightsabers, and Lightsabers themselves are immune to sunder.

However, in your example, it is not the act of parrying that allows for the attacker to sunder the defender's equipment. If the defender chose not to parry at all, the attacker could still spend advantage or triumph to activate sunder.