This is a collection of variant crystals and attachments that I put together for my local group. Also included are a number of Expanded Universe items that made sense for the game we were running. I tried to balance the rules to keep the crystals and hilts from being overpowered. From our experience, they seem to fall within the general range of power, but I'll take any critiques offered.

http://www.filedropper.com/forceanddestinylightsaberhandbook

I like what I've read so far, but I have yet to test them, most likely because my group hasn't had a chance to make lightsabers yet. It could be fun.

It looks very useful. I will take a deeper look into it later and give you my comments. For now I could recommend you to use the F&D appearance for the inner sheets and maybe introduce a few pictures. That would make it look more professional.

Thanks for the time you have put into it.

Some thoughts:

1. The guard shoto should have damage 4, shouldn't it?
   1. I think defensive 2 is a bit high, and I'm uncertain about the Unwieldy 3. I'd just go for defensive 1 and drop the unwieldy 3.
   2. Arguably if you want to make it more powerful, as you've done, you could consider the idea that these are used in pairs - and add the paired quality, but then you should of course keep the Unwieldy 3 - but I'd still drop the defensive to 1. Of course, this may be too powerful to someone's liking.
2. I really like the Shivaju lightsaber. I may use that, thank you
3. The switches:
   1. Are these intended to be added during construction, adding their cost to the total credits worth of parts you need?
   2. I think the Cypher Switch should cost a HP due to the benefits it provide, it should be listed as an attachment in my opinion. And about the base modifier: what does "next attack that turn" mean? Do you allow two attacks per round? Also, does this switch make you ignore melee defence across the board or one per encounter... or how often?
4. The Hilt detailings are very powerful, I believe they should all have a HP cost or have their modification options reduced/changed/removed. This is sort of covered by the excessive advantage result in the GM's kit, while these provide some benefits not covered there, I think these could be reduced in power and effect to fit into that part of it. Or you keep them as is, but add HP cost.
   1. Electrum: the base modifier is good enough, in some cases this could award you a boost die, in some a setback die - and arguably in some instances an auto-advantage. I see no need for the 2 Skill (Leadership) mod - at least not without paying HP.
   2. Exonium should cost HP and have it's mod option be base modifier, if the damage boost is necessary.
   3. Mythra: like Electrum the base is good enough adding circumstantial boost or setback dice. Again the skill mod is way too generous for not HP.
   4. Pyronium: This should cost at least 1 HP.
   5. Sarassian: again this fits into the Electrum and Mythra category. (an adaptation of Right tools for the job basically ...)
   6. Sedrellium: save as Sarassian and the others.
5. Chu-Gon Dar Cube: you mean downgrade, not decrease? So it's only useful for when you're rolling Challenge dice?
6. Crystals:
   1. Corusca diamond: I find this to be a tad too powerful, but not silly powerful. Still a potential dmg 10, crit 1, breach 1, vicious 3, Sunder and defensive 3 is pretty **** powerful.
   2. Damind should perhaps have 2 Deflection mods?
   3. Hariken: this is perhaps a tad much? I get the disorient (perhaps limit it to a max of 2?), and even the concussive mod, but knockdown? I'd leave that out - or make it a mod option and perhaps remove the concussive. Otherwise it's just an improved version of the Dragite gem, making the Dragite pointless.
   4. Jenruax: dmg 10, crit 1, breach 1, defensive 3, deflection 3 and sunder ... Seriously? If you need to have both defensive and deflection I'd cap it at 2 for both, or let one be high (like 2, maybe 3) and the other low (capped at 1). I'd perhaps removed the crit mod to leave the crit at 2.
   5. Lignan: is this strain damage subject to soak? Can it be done multiple times if you roll multiple force pips? Burn 3 means at least 6 (potentially 8) damage each round for 3 rounds... This seems like a combination of an inverted Dantari crystal and Barab ingot
   6. Nextor: I'm not sure what the point with Unwieldy 5 is. I'm not sure what the point of this crystal is, except to serve as a dmg 11 saber.
   7. Opila is basically Ilum, right?
   8. Phond crystal: Like with Hariken I think a choice between knockdown or concussive should be made - or perhaps in this case ensnare/immobilise to keep some variation?
   9. Pontite: Vicious 3 is pretty beardy.
   10. Rubat: I'd cap Accurate at 1, remove the innate talent mod, and perhaps 1 of the vicious mods, but not certain about that.
   11. Shikari: why the limitation of the skill bonuses? Considering it's an incidental to turn on and off a lightsaber it seems pointless.
   12. Stygium: having worked on different version of this myself I like your version, however I'd remove the Accurate mod, at the very least decreased it to 1 if you insist. I'd add Sleight of Mind 1 rank, and perhaps reduced the skill (stealth) mod to 1. I like your addition of Master of Shadows, I'm uncertain if it's a balanced addition though - I may be wrong, but it seems to me that it's mostly ranked talents on attachments... I'd not use it, as this is, if I'm not mistaken, a quite expensive talent in most specs it appear.
   13. Ultima pearl: basically one up on the Ilum crystal by having another vicious rank?
   14. Upari: Accurate 2, damage 10, crit 1, vicious 3 ... why wouldn't I want this? I think this needs to be toned down.
   15. Velmorite: this has the same cost as Upari, but is a lot less dangerous - granted accurate 3 is way too much in my opinion, but at least it's crit 2, dmg 9 and no vicious... I'd reduce it to accurate 2 max.
   16. Vexxtal refers to Lignan. Still, 2 advantages to inflict 2 strain is different enough, I guess. Again, does this ignore soak? and can it be done multiple times? Like causing 4 strain if I produce 4 advantages?
   17. Ysidran Topax: Needs some toning down I think. I'm uncertain about the Soft Spot talent being innate here, but then the damage is relatively low, but crit is 1 again - and including the 2 ranks in perception, the cost is odd again... 12,000?

I'll stop here. For now.

Thanks for the detailed feedback! I do appreciate it.

Some thoughts:

1. The guard shoto should have damage 4, shouldn't it?
   1. I think defensive 2 is a bit high, and I'm uncertain about the Unwieldy 3. I'd just go for defensive 1 and drop the unwieldy 3.
   2. Arguably if you want to make it more powerful, as you've done, you could consider the idea that these are used in pairs - and add the paired quality, but then you should of course keep the Unwieldy 3 - but I'd still drop the defensive to 1. Of course, this may be too powerful to someone's liking.

Whoops. Yeah, the Damage should be higher. I was working from the Beta rulebook that had the regular Shoto at Damage 4.

I like the idea of giving the guard shoto the Paired quality (which didn't exist when I initially built these), so that's Given the bizarre hilt design (compared to normal lightsabers and shoto) and method of use, pegging these with Unwieldy made sense to me. Besides which, requiring an Agility of 3 doesn't seem like a huge obstacle to overcome.

Why do you feel that the Defensive is too high? These hilts are made specifically for defensive purposes (which is reflected in the lowered Damage value), and Defensive 2 puts them at one point higher than Lightsaber Pikes, whose Wookieepedia entry mentions no defensive capabilities at all?

1. I really like the Shivaju lightsaber. I may use that, thank you
2. The switches:
   1. Are these intended to be added during construction, adding their cost to the total credits worth of parts you need?
   2. I think the Cypher Switch should cost a HP due to the benefits it provide, it should be listed as an attachment in my opinion. And about the base modifier: what does "next attack that turn" mean? Do you allow two attacks per round? Also, does this switch make you ignore melee defence across the board or one per encounter... or how often?
3. The Hilt detailings are very powerful, I believe they should all have a HP cost or have their modification options reduced/changed/removed. This is sort of covered by the excessive advantage result in the GM's kit, while these provide some benefits not covered there, I think these could be reduced in power and effect to fit into that part of it. Or you keep them as is, but add HP cost.
   1. Electrum: the base modifier is good enough, in some cases this could award you a boost die, in some a setback die - and arguably in some instances an auto-advantage. I see no need for the 2 Skill (Leadership) mod - at least not without paying HP.
   2. Exonium should cost HP and have it's mod option be base modifier, if the damage boost is necessary.
   3. Mythra: like Electrum the base is good enough adding circumstantial boost or setback dice. Again the skill mod is way too generous for not HP.
   4. Pyronium: This should cost at least 1 HP.
   5. Sarassian: again this fits into the Electrum and Mythra category. (an adaptation of Right tools for the job basically ...)
   6. Sedrellium: save as Sarassian and the others.

I'm glad you like the Shivaji. I had that style lightsaber for my Jedi, back in the WEG D6 era. I felt it needed an update.

Switches are indeed supposed to be part of the initial construction. In theory, some of them could be added as an "aftermarket" modification, but that seems like a lot of work. And I tried to err on the side of less bookkeeping, much like FFG seems to want to do. This is something I would let the GM arbitrate, honestly.

The HP cost on the Cypher Switch makes sense. Since it does add a lot more functionality and would theoretically take up more space with the complex electronics, I can change that.

As to the "next attack" wording, that was my error due to thinking in terms of Magic: The Gathering keywording. It doesn't add any extra attacks.

The mechanism of the Cypher Switch is supposed to activate with each swing, meaning the blade is not lit until the Guard Shoto reaches a certain point of its attack arc. This would allow it ignore Melee Defense across the board. And in most cases, this would result in subtracting one or two Setback DIce, which I didn't think was egregious.

I could see going either way with the Hilt Detailing. I'm more inclined to put an HP cost on them, keeping the high credit price as an added threshold to entry.

1. Chu-Gon Dar Cube: you mean downgrade, not decrease? So it's only useful for when you're rolling Challenge dice?

This item requires a little bit of explanation on my thinking, I guess. Modification is one of the only areas where the base Difficulty is "increased" rather than "upgraded," and given that it starts at Hard Difficulty, it takes very little to bring this up to Formidable, at which point (according to my understanding of normal Rules As Written) it stops getting any harder to do work on the crystal. Given that the Ilum Crystal itself has 7(!) modifications that can be done to it, this is a little silly if the Difficulty peaks at Formidable.

With this in mind, I've taken to assuming that any Difficulty increase beyond Formidable then Upgrades the Difficulty with each step. (And keep in mind, there were no allowances for using Force Dice or whether or not it was a character's personal lightsaber in the Beta Rules that originally generated this text.) This would set the final Difficulty for modifying an Ilum Crystal to have all seven modifications at a solid five Challenge Dice.

Mind you, I have no confirmation in the rules text that continuing Increases to Difficulty become Upgrades, but I had been operating under that understanding regardless. This is why the Chu-Gon Dar Cube actually has some use.

I'll check back later to go through the individual crystals, when I have a little more time.

I've only had a chance to give these a brief over-view.

I agree with JegerGryte on a number of points. Defensive 2 is too good for the guard shoto, especially at only 300 credits for the hilt. The Lightsaber pike gets Defensive 1 because it's a freaking polearm and thus good at keeping people at a distance from you; in this case, the pike's Defensive is less about making it harder for you to be hit and more that it's harder for your opponent to get in close to make their own attack. Mechanically, it all boils down to Defensive. I'd say drop the Defensive down to 1 and lose the Unwieldy and it should be fine. Also, Encumbrance should probably be a 1 as well since they're not difficult to carry, and the difficulty in wielding is covered by it needing the Lightsaber skill to use properly.

The various switches apart from the deadman switch should each cost a hard point, as they have some very real benefits to them, namely making it difficult if not impossible for others to use that weapon against you. Same with the hilt detailing, since they can be modified to provide very real benefits.

The crystals are frankly a mess. I don't have the time to go into any detail, but there's a whole slew of problems with just how much better the majority of these are in comparison to officially published crystals.

I've only had a chance to give these a brief over-view.

Defensive 2 is too good for the guard shoto, especially at only 300 credits for the hilt.

Alright, I can see the argument for increasing the price, on a cost/benefit sort of basis. Doesn't make any sense on a practical basis, since it's the amount of Cortosis or Phrik involved would be notably different, but still a valid thought.

The Lightsaber pike gets Defensive 1 because it's a freaking polearm and thus good at keeping people at a distance from you; in this case, the pike's Defensive is less about making it harder for you to be hit and more that it's harder for your opponent to get in close to make their own attack. Mechanically, it all boils down to Defensive. I'd say drop the Defensive down to 1 and lose the Unwieldy and it should be fine.

Yeah, sorry. I'm really not seeing the equivalence of a ligthsaber that is specifically noted as being useful for "wide variety of blocking, trapping" techniques being equivalent to a weapon that has no such notations. By your logic, a Cortosis Staff should also be running Defensive 1, which it isn't.

And the Unwieldy comes directly off the description for Guard Shoto as well, noting "Conversely, it could be very hazardous to one unskilled in its use."

The various switches apart from the deadman switch should each cost a hard point, as they have some very real benefits to them, namely making it difficult if not impossible for others to use that weapon against you. Same with the hilt detailing, since they can be modified to provide very real benefits.

I can see your point on the switches, but I'm not entirely certain I agree with them. For me, the benefits of not allowing an opponent to use your lightsaber are pretty minor, so if it came down to a choice between a Superior Hilt and a Puzzle Switch, there would be no question. Having an opponent heist your blade might happen once or twice in the course of a campaign. An automatic Advantage and added Damage is going to used every single combat.

The crystals are frankly a mess. I don't have the time to go into any detail, but there's a whole slew of problems with just how much better the majority of these are in comparison to officially published crystals.

Yeah, you're not going to get a lot of traction on that with me, I'm afraid. These crystals are converted directly from source, and to be honest, a good portion of them have been toned down from how they were used in Knights of the Old Republic. The few that I built specifically for this guide were ones that filled weird holes or gaps in the spreadsheet.

But as it stands, the published crystals in Force and Destiny are on the low end of the scale, compared to what KotOR offered up, and they tend to be the more commonly available crystals. My conversions are based on that as a source, and my own past conversions. If there's an issue, consider that this isn't meant to be a shopping list for bored players, but rather the object of long campaigns and dire encounters.

If you'd like to address specifics, I'd be interested, but a blanket dismissal offers me nothing.

The problem with the crystals is that you've "translated" them from the source, which was a video game that was built on D&D mechanics and a typical video game mindset of "phat lewt." WotC did a much better version of translating many of those same crystals to Saga Edition, giving them a decent perk but not making them overpowering, something you've failed miserably at doing.

But based upon your comments, I'm not really seeing a point in any further discussion, given your tone in the words "won't hold any traction with me" very strongly suggests that you're not looking for feedback, but rather just blanket approval for an overpowered load of munchkin-flavored tripe.

1. Crystals:
   1. Corusca diamond: I find this to be a tad too powerful, but not silly powerful. Still a potential dmg 10, crit 1, breach 1, vicious 3, Sunder and defensive 3 is pretty **** powerful.
   2. Damind should perhaps have 2 Deflection mods?
   3. Hariken: this is perhaps a tad much? I get the disorient (perhaps limit it to a max of 2?), and even the concussive mod, but knockdown? I'd leave that out - or make it a mod option and perhaps remove the concussive. Otherwise it's just an improved version of the Dragite gem, making the Dragite pointless.
   4. Jenruax: dmg 10, crit 1, breach 1, defensive 3, deflection 3 and sunder ... Seriously? If you need to have both defensive and deflection I'd cap it at 2 for both, or let one be high (like 2, maybe 3) and the other low (capped at 1). I'd perhaps removed the crit mod to leave the crit at 2.
   5. Lignan: is this strain damage subject to soak? Can it be done multiple times if you roll multiple force pips? Burn 3 means at least 6 (potentially 8) damage each round for 3 rounds... This seems like a combination of an inverted Dantari crystal and Barab ingot
   6. Nextor: I'm not sure what the point with Unwieldy 5 is. I'm not sure what the point of this crystal is, except to serve as a dmg 11 saber.
   7. Opila is basically Ilum, right?
   8. Phond crystal: Like with Hariken I think a choice between knockdown or concussive should be made - or perhaps in this case ensnare/immobilise to keep some variation?
   9. Pontite: Vicious 3 is pretty beardy.
   10. Rubat: I'd cap Accurate at 1, remove the innate talent mod, and perhaps 1 of the vicious mods, but not certain about that.
   11. Shikari: why the limitation of the skill bonuses? Considering it's an incidental to turn on and off a lightsaber it seems pointless.
   12. Stygium: having worked on different version of this myself I like your version, however I'd remove the Accurate mod, at the very least decreased it to 1 if you insist. I'd add Sleight of Mind 1 rank, and perhaps reduced the skill (stealth) mod to 1. I like your addition of Master of Shadows, I'm uncertain if it's a balanced addition though - I may be wrong, but it seems to me that it's mostly ranked talents on attachments... I'd not use it, as this is, if I'm not mistaken, a quite expensive talent in most specs it appear.
   13. Ultima pearl: basically one up on the Ilum crystal by having another vicious rank?
   14. Upari: Accurate 2, damage 10, crit 1, vicious 3 ... why wouldn't I want this? I think this needs to be toned down.
   15. Velmorite: this has the same cost as Upari, but is a lot less dangerous - granted accurate 3 is way too much in my opinion, but at least it's crit 2, dmg 9 and no vicious... I'd reduce it to accurate 2 max.
   16. Vexxtal refers to Lignan. Still, 2 advantages to inflict 2 strain is different enough, I guess. Again, does this ignore soak? and can it be done multiple times? Like causing 4 strain if I produce 4 advantages?
   17. Ysidran Topax: Needs some toning down I think. I'm uncertain about the Soft Spot talent being innate here, but then the damage is relatively low, but crit is 1 again - and including the 2 ranks in perception, the cost is odd again... 12,000?

Rather than try to play with formatting, I'll just respond to your numbered list with an equivalent numbered list.

1. Corusca Diamond - Yeah, this is a powerful one. Then again, a Corusca Diamond is the maguffin of the Jewel of Yavin module, so I'm not figuring that it could be in the hands of too many Jedi in the first place. If I were to edge it down slightly, what would you suggest?

2. Damind - Are you suggesting bumping the final total of Deflection up to 3? Not a big deal to me, but I'd been getting the impression that I was ending up being too powerful with some of these gems.

3. Hariken - The power level on this crystal has to do with the attached lore (it's what Mace Windu has in his saber) and the original keyword of "Unstoppable" in KotOR 2. According to what I've been able to dig up, Unstoppable meant that it couldn't be affected by shielding of any sort. Since personal shields aren't really a factor in FFG Star Wars, I looked for something that didn't show up otherwise. Hence, Knockdown.

4. Jenraux - That seems fair, overall. I had increased the Difficulty of modifying this crystal because of its lore, and even with this, it's as hard to upgrade fully as an Ilum crystal (both have seven mods).

5. Lignan - This one is from New Jedi Order, and it's lore has it burning hotter and cutting through more. My intention was to inflict the Strain as a Once per Round activation, ignoring Soak. And yeah, I modeled it from a Barab Ingot and the Dantari as source. I was already looking at added Breach with the Sigil, so I wanted some other effect in play for this.

6. Nextor - Um, I guess the point of this crystal would be ... completionist sake? They were sort of awful in KotOR, and their description has them as being "volatile" yet powerful. I had given them a high drawback to go along with the Athiss crystals from the Beta module, as a sort of starter crystal for low-end characters.

7. Opila - No, it's not wildly dissimilar to an Ilum crystal. Opila are some of the more vanilla crystals around, sadly.

8. Phond - The Ensanre idea is intriguing, but I'd be more likely to want to put in new keyword, which would replace the Athletics check with a Resilience check of similar difficulty. I'll give this crystal some further consideration alongside the Hariken crystal, see what makes the most sense to me.

9. Pontite - There are a couple of other crystals with that level of Vicious, so I'm not particularly worried about dropping that down a little.

10. Rubat - This is one that FFG has since nullified to a certain extent (by declaring it as identical to an Ilum crystal), so it can be played with accordingly. Since the lore has it "allowing its wielder to easily track the blade and strike opponents properly," Accurate was the logical choice. And the note of how it "would also help its wielder attack faster" seemed like a Quick Strike sort of thing. Being as Jedi only have access to that through Ataru Striker (EotE characters have three separate trees that have it), I didn't see this as being terribly overpowered.

11. Shikari - Limiting the Vigilance was a flavor consideration, much like the Quick Draw, to reflect on the idea that a character would be ready for sudden, unforeseen attacks, allowing the bonus to come in for the first round's Initiative. That said, I'm not seeing it as being a huge deal to have the Vigilance persist with a lit saber.

12. Stygium - I like the idea of Sleight of Mind as a feature of this one. The justification I was using for Master of Shadows (and the Stealth skill mods) is simply that this crystal is effectively the lightsaber version of the Armor Attachment, Optical Camouflage System. Yeah, as a Talent it's at the bottom of all the skill trees, but if you install it on Armor, it's 100 Credits.

13. Ultima Pearl - Essentially, there isn't much to this one either. It's another very vanilla crystal, with a little bit of interesting lore.

14. Upari - These were stupid powerful in the video games, being one of the best crystals overall since they didn't rely on elemental effects. Looking over my notes, they ended up being something like 9 mods in the original build, and I had decided to keep everything at 7 mods or less. I can't really justify their power level, but I mainly just tried to convert from the original source.

15. Velmorite - Dropping this to Accurate 2 is fine by me. Another extremely vanilla crystal.

16. Vexxtal - Whoops. Didn't catch the Lignan error, and neither did my players. Awesome. Looking at this now, I'd offer up a 2 Strain for 2 Advantage, subject to Soak, no limit to the number of times per round.

17. Ysidran Topaz - What would be your suggestions on this one? I like the idea of having a lightsaber that caters to a hunting / survivalist character (namely a character who relies on Cunning), and the Seeker Career (the only place to find Soft Spot in F&D) is tied to the Ataru Striker (based on Agility). This seems like it falls on the divide of how you view Innate Talents in Attachments versus how I do. From where I'm standing, it seems like FFG is pretty willing to hand out Talents on Attachments without problem (Quick Draw and Brace show up multiple times).

    Sorry that it took me a couple of days to respond fully.

The problem with the crystals is that you've "translated" them from the source, which was a video game that was built on D&D mechanics and a typical video game mindset of "phat lewt." WotC did a much better version of translating many of those same crystals to Saga Edition, giving them a decent perk but not making them overpowering, something you've failed miserably at doing.

Well, this was the basis of why I offered it up in the first place. I spent a couple of weeks putting the crystals to spreadsheets and monkeying with them from there. Yes, they were scaled according to a D&D mindset, and that's something of a danger when that sort of system is involved, but that was known going into it. My interest was not in trying to make it so that everything FFG put forth was inherently better (I honestly don't understand your implication in this), but in simply working up a conversion and trying to make the crystals make sense. My players wanted options, and this was where it took us.

At no point did I assume that a GM would hand these out with the same sort of ease of access as a blaster pack. Jewel of Yavin spent nigh on 100 pages of module setting up a heist for a Corusca Diamond (granted, it was far larger than what was required for a lightsaber, but that was the whole reason for one of the NPC's to show up in the adventure), and I would expect that seeking new lightsaber crystals would generally be the focus of a number of sessions in and of themselves.

But based upon your comments, I'm not really seeing a point in any further discussion, given your tone in the words "won't hold any traction with me" very strongly suggests that you're not looking for feedback, but rather just blanket approval for an overpowered load of munchkin-flavored tripe.

No offense, friend, but you started this train rolling by terming my efforts a mess. And honestly, a blanket approval is every bit as unhelpful as a blanket dismissal.

It looks very useful. I will take a deeper look into it later and give you my comments. For now I could recommend you to use the F&D appearance for the inner sheets and maybe introduce a few pictures. That would make it look more professional.

Thanks for the time you have put into it.

As yet, my PhotoShop skills are pretty rusty, so I was more or less hoping someone could point me in the direction of professional looking backgrounds. I had tried to put in some illustrations culled from the internet, but I had never been able to get them to look right. At best, they seemed tacked on (the lack of real background was a factor in this), and I ended up nixing them instead of trying to make them work.

I was going to go into a more detailed breakdown of the problems with the lightsaber crystals, but again given your very dismissive attitude towards potential feedback, I really don't see the point in wasting my time.

I was going to go into a more detailed breakdown of the problems with the lightsaber crystals, but again given your very dismissive attitude towards JegerGryte's feedback, I really don't see the point in wasting my time.

I'm guessing there isn't much I can offer you in the way of reconciling or moving forward. You seem to be reading something different than I posted, else your inherent bias is tweaking your perception. One of the two.

I'm honestly not certain where replies like "If I were to edge it down slightly, what would you suggest?", "That seems fair, overall.", and "What would be your suggestions on this one?" come across as being dismissive. Especially compared to someone offering this particular bit of critique and feedback:

The crystals are frankly a mess. I don't have the time to go into any detail, but there's a whole slew of problems with just how much better the majority of these are in comparison to officially published crystals.

If indeed you were intending to revisit the topic of the individual crystals later, that was not readily apparent in your language. We can dissect all manner of semantics, implication versus inference, but I didn't really see that last paragraph as anything other than utterly dismissive and hostile, which I found a bit weird, in all truth.

Let me step back and try this again:

This is a text of lightsaber crystals and modifications that I based off existing canon. How do these fit with the established lore that I based them on, and what suggestions do you have in properly portraying them within the context of FFG's Star Wars line, using the established crystals as a baseline?

I'm fully aware that there is a pretty high end to this power scale. As a point of note, I even included the original Kaiburr Crystal itself, from Splinter of the Mind's Eye, which had the ability to bring people back from the dead and empower Force users through contact with the stone. My intention wasn't to suggest that GM's provide players with these crystals just as a part of a shopping trip at the local shadowport. Using the example of the Kaiburr, Luke crashed on a planet, sought out an ancient alien temple, and fought Darth Vader. And even then, it's implied that he didn't keep the crystal anyway.

Similarly, the Solari Crystal was implied to be one of a kind.

But at the end of it all, I'm probably not going to smooth things over with you; you'll go your way, and I'll go mine. I would still appreciate any relevant feedback that you would have to offer, but if you are unwilling to offer them to me, I won't be upset. Similarly, if you intended something other than a blanket dismissal with the way that you ended your original post, I'll also accept that.

Diagnosis: Getting Off On the Wrong Foot. Symptoms include hurt feelings, anger, arguing, and generational grudges, among others.

Cause: words spoken or wrote without consideration for their consequences, miscommunication, misconceptions, and misunderstandings, among others.

Treatment: apologies from both parties, setting aside differences and trying again. Forgiving and forgetting.

Procedures for the prevention of contracting the illness a second time: self-control, not jumping to conclusions, not imputing bad motives, not holding a grudge.

Well, this is going too far. Please remember that we are in here for fun and we love getting new homemade material. Let´s forget what has been said and try to start anew with suggestions and not getting offended.

To be honest Donovan is a very respected player and contributor in these forums and his input is normally balanced and very useful. Having him commenting your work is far better than not and we ALL could learn something out of this situation regarding the creation of fan-made material.

Lastly, regarding the formatting I also lack the photoshop skills to do it but I remember someone posted some time ago a style guide including backrounds for EOTE. If that is not an option maybe the creator could consider requesting the help of Rancor Publishing Group, a group of players that havw published some great materials. Other players like GMHooly, just to name the first to come to my head, have the skills to also help you.

Well, having said that I just wish for everybody to calm down and consider contributing in a constructive way as we all would gain from that.

First: these crystals are not canon, never were. They were EU, now Legends. Basing it off computer games and wookiepedia is fair enough, but there needs to be adaptation. Regardless of KOTOR and the lore and wook'pedia, there is something to fitting the crystals to the game, without adding unnecessary power creep. There's no way of directly translating them from Saga or KOTOR into this system, the systems, or languages if you will, are so different that a purely numerical conversion becomes nonsensical. There's a bad need for adaptation.

A)

1) I like the idea of giving the guard shoto the Paired quality (which didn't exist when I initially built these), so that's Given the bizarre hilt design (compared to normal lightsabers and shoto) and method of use, pegging these with Unwieldy made sense to me. Besides which, requiring an Agility of 3 doesn't seem like a huge obstacle to overcome.

2) Why do you feel that the Defensive is too high? These hilts are made specifically for defensive purposes (which is reflected in the lowered Damage value), and Defensive 2 puts them at one point higher than Lightsaber Pikes, whose Wookieepedia entry mentions no defensive capabilities at all?

3) The mechanism of the Cypher Switch is supposed to activate with each swing, meaning the blade is not lit until the Guard Shoto reaches a certain point of its attack arc. This would allow it ignore Melee Defense across the board. And in most cases, this would result in subtracting one or two Setback DIce, which I didn't think was egregious.

4) I could see going either way with the Hilt Detailing. I'm more inclined to put an HP cost on them, keeping the high credit price as an added threshold to entry.

1. Chu-Gon Dar Cube: you mean downgrade, not decrease? So it's only useful for when you're rolling Challenge dice?

5) This item requires a little bit of explanation on my thinking, I guess. Modification is one of the only areas where the base Difficulty is "increased" rather than "upgraded," and given that it starts at Hard Difficulty, it takes very little to bring this up to Formidable, at which point (according to my understanding of normal Rules As Written) it stops getting any harder to do work on the crystal. Given that the Ilum Crystal itself has 7(!) modifications that can be done to it, this is a little silly if the Difficulty peaks at Formidable.

With this in mind, I've taken to assuming that any Difficulty increase beyond Formidable then Upgrades the Difficulty with each step. (And keep in mind, there were no allowances for using Force Dice or whether or not it was a character's personal lightsaber in the Beta Rules that originally generated this text.) This would set the final Difficulty for modifying an Ilum Crystal to have all seven modifications at a solid five Challenge Dice.

Mind you, I have no confirmation in the rules text that continuing Increases to Difficulty become Upgrades, but I had been operating under that understanding regardless. This is why the Chu-Gon Dar Cube actually has some use.

A)

1. If you add the Paired attachments as innate, remember to reduce HP by 1, and keep Unwieldy. Also, some comment about making them in pairs would be good.
2. Defence 2 is high, to put it very simply. Add in armour, advantages, upgrades from talents and other setback dice, you're talking way bloated dice pool and there are no other weapons - as far as I can remember - that offer such a high defensive value, granted it's potential, but still it's excessive. The comparison with the Pike isn't a good one, for the reasons Dono mentioned, you have to think outside the wook'pedia box and consider the game, its premisses and internal power structure. There's nothing that dictates that FFG made stuff should be best, but on the other hand there's something to variation and keeping within the spirit of the design. If you look at the normal shoto it has Accurate 1, which in itself is very powerful. Remember: this is the most powerful weapon in the game, it doesn't need more power. It needs variations, schticks, coolness factor, not necessarily more power. Making these defensive guard shotos, I'd cap it as defensive 1 personally, but I could see a special rule to allow Defensive 2, if two paired were used in conjunction by someone skilled (i.e. at least 1 rank) and who was not adversely affected by the Unwieldy 3 quality - that is however a bit fiddly.
3. Wow. Ignoring melee defence every round? That is quite powerful. At least add some drawbacks, like Unwieldy 3 or 4 ... Or let it become a variation of the dual-phase attachment, and be a once per encounter thing.
4. Adding HP is a good idea.
5. Yeah, this discussion has been taken a few times. With that underlying assumption, then this is a nice addition. Although the wording is a bit odd, saying it'll downgrade to a minimum of Simple - downgrading only changes red to purple, it doesn't remove purple dice. That would be decrease.

1. Crystals:
   1. Corusca diamond: I find this to be a tad too powerful, but not silly powerful. Still a potential dmg 10, crit 1, breach 1, vicious 3, Sunder and defensive 3 is pretty **** powerful.
   2. Damind should perhaps have 2 Deflection mods?
   3. Hariken: this is perhaps a tad much? I get the disorient (perhaps limit it to a max of 2?), and even the concussive mod, but knockdown? I'd leave that out - or make it a mod option and perhaps remove the concussive. Otherwise it's just an improved version of the Dragite gem, making the Dragite pointless.
   4. Jenruax: dmg 10, crit 1, breach 1, defensive 3, deflection 3 and sunder ... Seriously? If you need to have both defensive and deflection I'd cap it at 2 for both, or let one be high (like 2, maybe 3) and the other low (capped at 1). I'd perhaps removed the crit mod to leave the crit at 2.
   5. Lignan: is this strain damage subject to soak? Can it be done multiple times if you roll multiple force pips? Burn 3 means at least 6 (potentially 8) damage each round for 3 rounds... This seems like a combination of an inverted Dantari crystal and Barab ingot
   6. Nextor: I'm not sure what the point with Unwieldy 5 is. I'm not sure what the point of this crystal is, except to serve as a dmg 11 saber.
   7. Opila is basically Ilum, right?
   8. Phond crystal: Like with Hariken I think a choice between knockdown or concussive should be made - or perhaps in this case ensnare/immobilise to keep some variation?
   9. Pontite: Vicious 3 is pretty beardy.
   10. Rubat: I'd cap Accurate at 1, remove the innate talent mod, and perhaps 1 of the vicious mods, but not certain about that.
   11. Shikari: why the limitation of the skill bonuses? Considering it's an incidental to turn on and off a lightsaber it seems pointless.
   12. Stygium: having worked on different version of this myself I like your version, however I'd remove the Accurate mod, at the very least decreased it to 1 if you insist. I'd add Sleight of Mind 1 rank, and perhaps reduced the skill (stealth) mod to 1. I like your addition of Master of Shadows, I'm uncertain if it's a balanced addition though - I may be wrong, but it seems to me that it's mostly ranked talents on attachments... I'd not use it, as this is, if I'm not mistaken, a quite expensive talent in most specs it appear.
   13. Ultima pearl: basically one up on the Ilum crystal by having another vicious rank?
   14. Upari: Accurate 2, damage 10, crit 1, vicious 3 ... why wouldn't I want this? I think this needs to be toned down.
   15. Velmorite: this has the same cost as Upari, but is a lot less dangerous - granted accurate 3 is way too much in my opinion, but at least it's crit 2, dmg 9 and no vicious... I'd reduce it to accurate 2 max.
   16. Vexxtal refers to Lignan. Still, 2 advantages to inflict 2 strain is different enough, I guess. Again, does this ignore soak? and can it be done multiple times? Like causing 4 strain if I produce 4 advantages?
   17. Ysidran Topax: Needs some toning down I think. I'm uncertain about the Soft Spot talent being innate here, but then the damage is relatively low, but crit is 1 again - and including the 2 ranks in perception, the cost is odd again... 12,000?

Rather than try to play with formatting, I'll just respond to your numbered list with an equivalent numbered list.
B)

1. Corusca Diamond - Yeah, this is a powerful one. Then again, a Corusca Diamond is the maguffin of the Jewel of Yavin module, so I'm not figuring that it could be in the hands of too many Jedi in the first place. If I were to edge it down slightly, what would you suggest?
   
2. Damind - Are you suggesting bumping the final total of Deflection up to 3? Not a big deal to me, but I'd been getting the impression that I was ending up being too powerful with some of these gems.
   
3. Hariken - The power level on this crystal has to do with the attached lore (it's what Mace Windu has in his saber) and the original keyword of "Unstoppable" in KotOR 2. According to what I've been able to dig up, Unstoppable meant that it couldn't be affected by shielding of any sort. Since personal shields aren't really a factor in FFG Star Wars, I looked for something that didn't show up otherwise. Hence, Knockdown.
   
4. Jenraux - That seems fair, overall. I had increased the Difficulty of modifying this crystal because of its lore, and even with this, it's as hard to upgrade fully as an Ilum crystal (both have seven mods).
   
5. Lignan - This one is from New Jedi Order, and it's lore has it burning hotter and cutting through more. My intention was to inflict the Strain as a Once per Round activation, ignoring Soak. And yeah, I modeled it from a Barab Ingot and the Dantari as source. I was already looking at added Breach with the Sigil, so I wanted some other effect in play for this.
   
6. Nextor - Um, I guess the point of this crystal would be ... completionist sake? They were sort of awful in KotOR, and their description has them as being "volatile" yet powerful. I had given them a high drawback to go along with the Athiss crystals from the Beta module, as a sort of starter crystal for low-end characters.
   
7. Opila - No, it's not wildly dissimilar to an Ilum crystal. Opila are some of the more vanilla crystals around, sadly.
   
8. Phond - The Ensanre idea is intriguing, but I'd be more likely to want to put in new keyword, which would replace the Athletics check with a Resilience check of similar difficulty. I'll give this crystal some further consideration alongside the Hariken crystal, see what makes the most sense to me.
   
9. Pontite - There are a couple of other crystals with that level of Vicious, so I'm not particularly worried about dropping that down a little.
   
10. Rubat - This is one that FFG has since nullified to a certain extent (by declaring it as identical to an Ilum crystal), so it can be played with accordingly. Since the lore has it "allowing its wielder to easily track the blade and strike opponents properly," Accurate was the logical choice. And the note of how it "would also help its wielder attack faster" seemed like a Quick Strike sort of thing. Being as Jedi only have access to that through Ataru Striker (EotE characters have three separate trees that have it), I didn't see this as being terribly overpowered.
    
11. Shikari - Limiting the Vigilance was a flavor consideration, much like the Quick Draw, to reflect on the idea that a character would be ready for sudden, unforeseen attacks, allowing the bonus to come in for the first round's Initiative. That said, I'm not seeing it as being a huge deal to have the Vigilance persist with a lit saber.
    
12. Stygium - I like the idea of Sleight of Mind as a feature of this one. The justification I was using for Master of Shadows (and the Stealth skill mods) is simply that this crystal is effectively the lightsaber version of the Armor Attachment, Optical Camouflage System. Yeah, as a Talent it's at the bottom of all the skill trees, but if you install it on Armor, it's 100 Credits.
    
13. Ultima Pearl - Essentially, there isn't much to this one either. It's another very vanilla crystal, with a little bit of interesting lore.
    
14. Upari - These were stupid powerful in the video games, being one of the best crystals overall since they didn't rely on elemental effects. Looking over my notes, they ended up being something like 9 mods in the original build, and I had decided to keep everything at 7 mods or less. I can't really justify their power level, but I mainly just tried to convert from the original source.
    
15. Velmorite - Dropping this to Accurate 2 is fine by me. Another extremely vanilla crystal.
    
16. Vexxtal - Whoops. Didn't catch the Lignan error, and neither did my players. Awesome. Looking at this now, I'd offer up a 2 Strain for 2 Advantage, subject to Soak, no limit to the number of times per round.
    
17. Ysidran Topaz - What would be your suggestions on this one? I like the idea of having a lightsaber that caters to a hunting / survivalist character (namely a character who relies on Cunning), and the Seeker Career (the only place to find Soft Spot in F&D) is tied to the Ataru Striker (based on Agility). This seems like it falls on the divide of how you view Innate Talents in Attachments versus how I do. From where I'm standing, it seems like FFG is pretty willing to hand out Talents on Attachments without problem (Quick Draw and Brace show up multiple times).
    
    Sorry that it took me a couple of days to respond fully.

B)

1. I'd consider reducing either Vicious, Defensive or Damage by 1.
2. Either I didn't see the innate deflection 1 or I'm not sure today what I meant. Deflection 2 is good.
3. It's connection to Windu isn't an argument for making it more powerful - it's not what made him powerful. Unstoppable in this case would be Breach though wouldn't it? I mean, sure it doesn't ignore armour (i.e. defence), but still. If you're set on keeping Knockdown, I'd remove Concussive, and reduce the crit rating to 2.
4. With the reduction, def 2 and def 1 I'd deem it: Ok.
5. Ok, not sure it needs Burn 3 though.
6. Ok. Even at dmg 11, I think the Unwieldy 5 is an odd drawback, what about Inaccurate instead?
7. It's identical to Ilum in stats, isn't it? That's what I meant.
8. Fair enough.
9. Ok.
10. I'm not sure the Quick Strike being rare for F&D characters is sufficient as an argument for me, but fair enough. Accurate makes sense, but Accurate 2 is very good. I'd still cap it at 1 - and perhaps make it a mod option only.
11. Ok.
12. The optical camo attachments needs something that makes it unique, right? I'd let the crystal have Sleight of Mind, and perhaps a skill rank or a free upgrade on stealth - perhaps even Stalker (if that's what it's called ...)
13. Kk.
14. The video game argument is fallacious, as this isn't a video game and rpgs are usually played differently from a computer game. The interaction between Vicious, Accurate and a crit rating of 1 is crazy powerful. I'd either up the crit to 2 and drop the accurate to 1, or perhaps reduced the Vicious to 1 and reduced the accurate to 1.
15. Still a very powerful crystal.
16. Powerful.
17. I'd perhaps let the crit stop at 2, but perhaps keeping the rest is ok. Also, the 2 ranks in Perception seems to be a way to avoid spending XP on a skill. I get the design idea, but I'm not sure I agree with the rationale, but perhaps it isn't as powerful as I fear it is.

Generally, looking at the crystals they are very powerful, and I do wonder how much consideration went into potential synergies and how these would interact with abilities of a group of characters that have acquired a decent amount of XP. While attachments are gateways to cool stuff, that's kind of their thing, but at the same time there is something to keep in mind when it comes to balance, power creep and synergy with the rest of the game, and arguably the other game lines too if you allow players to pick and choose from all lines.

Others have slapped you around enough about the Munchkin-ness of your crystals so I'm not going to pile on, but I will say that despite their overpowered nature I do appreciate that you took the time to do it. Tone them down a bit (a lot) and you'll be golden.

My beef is with the Orbalisk armor and that you gave it Hard Points. Except for a way to keep his face clear Bane was not able to modify the creature at all only feed it enough Force Power to keep it from completely hardening and immobilising him, and to keep it from killing him. So I'd suggest just adding in the "mods" rather than choosing them and require a constant application of Force Dice: one for the first stage, two for the second, and three for the third.

I'm not familiar with the root of the gauntlets so I wont comment on them.

Others have slapped you around enough about the Munchkin-ness of your crystals so I'm not going to pile on, but I will say that despite their overpowered nature I do appreciate that you took the time to do it. Tone them down a bit (a lot) and you'll be golden.

Thanks for that, but I'm almost to the point of crawling back into my hole and abandoning this forum entirely. Clearly, I chose the wrong things to convert and presented them to the wrong audience.

My beef is with the Orbalisk armor and that you gave it Hard Points. Except for a way to keep his face clear Bane was not able to modify the creature at all only feed it enough Force Power to keep it from completely hardening and immobilising him, and to keep it from killing him. So I'd suggest just adding in the "mods" rather than choosing them and require a constant application of Force Dice: one for the first stage, two for the second, and three for the third.

The Orbalisk Armor was a conversion that a friend of mine worked up that I subsequently tweaked. His contention was that they were nearly identical (in function and general ability) to Vonduun Crab Armor, so this was his bridge between the two. I mentally reconciled the mods as being consistent with the Lightsaber Crystals themselves. They're added powers for someone with enough time and effort to attune the armor to themselves properly. (I mean, it's not like someone's taking a ratchet to an Ilum Crystal to get another +1 Damage mod, ne?)

I'm not familiar with the root of the gauntlets so I wont comment on them.

They were a weird corner of the EU that started from the YA books, where Darth Vader was first said to have special and dandy gauntlets and then grew out to a larger Mandalorian centered origin.

First: these crystals are not canon, never were.

Ugh. And you and I were doing so well.

You're right, in that these were never G-Canon. Rather, LucasFilm defined these as being C-Canon, which encompassed all of the non-film or animated (with a spare couple of exceptions). These crystals are on the same level as Gank Killers or Chiss, and until later, Coruscant itself.

Granted, none of this matters now that Ep. 7 is coming out and all of the previous stuff has been deleted (unless, like holocrons, they appear in the new stuff), but saying that the crystals were never canon implies a lack of understanding about how canon was handled at the time Knights of the Old Republic was published.

Others have slapped you around enough about the Munchkin-ness of your crystals so I'm not going to pile on, but I will say that despite their overpowered nature I do appreciate that you took the time to do it. Tone them down a bit (a lot) and you'll be golden.

Thanks for that, but I'm almost to the point of crawling back into my hole and abandoning this forum entirely. Clearly, I chose the wrong things to convert and presented them to the wrong audience.

Don't let it get to you, Forums are always a potential source of ummm... pointed communication. FFG's SW RAW is already pretty PC friendly as far as combat goes and most of us don't see a need to make it more so so anything posted that pumps up PC powers tends to trigger a visceral reaction to perceived Munchikism, and it can get a bit brutal.

My advice is to copy the current crystals in power level and just tinker with effects keeping a lot of it narrative. Maybe it gives a Talent or something that resembles the EU effect. Also I'd expect that the upcoming splatbooks will have new crystals in them so be prepared to junk what you create.

Most of all have fun, it's Star Wars after all

First: these crystals are not canon, never were.

Ugh. And you and I were doing so well.

You're right, in that these were never G-Canon. Rather, LucasFilm defined these as being C-Canon, which encompassed all of the non-film or animated (with a spare couple of exceptions). These crystals are on the same level as Gank Killers or Chiss, and until later, Coruscant itself.

Granted, none of this matters now that Ep. 7 is coming out and all of the previous stuff has been deleted (unless, like holocrons, they appear in the new stuff), but saying that the crystals were never canon implies a lack of understanding about how canon was handled at the time Knights of the Old Republic was published.

Either a lack of understanding, or you put way too much into it. Sure it was "C-level" and not "G-level, " a very important distinction (it was EU and not film - so with some abstraction and use of brain powers: it wasn't canon it was extra, good extra, fun extra, extra cheese and honey stuff, but not from the Creator), also: it's the past, it doesn't matter whether or not it was C or G, it is no longer canon, it is Legends and may become Canon in the future, that is all that matter, don't get hung up in the past... and also that was clearly the most important comment in my post and this discussion... the fact that you are implying that me saying so is reasons for not going on well anymore ...? What? Huh? Why? What's up with that?

Adjusting and adapting new stuff to the game isn't (necessarily) easy, I'm in no way an expert (this is only a hobby of mine), but you asked for feedback. I gave you some and stayed focused on a portion of your document, as I found that part to be in need of adjustment as it seemed unpolished and with too much power creep. Crystals, and other attachments, are not intended as shortcuts to higher level play, some of the stuff you presented seemed a bit like that. A bit too much crammed into one thing. There's nothing mean about saying that or pointing that out, there's no "slapping around" in it. You made something and wanted feedback by posting it on a forum. I was dying for good feedback for years (or criticism as some like so say with a sneer as if it's a bad thing), very few people give critical, considered and good feedback - I'm not saying I am, but I'm trying - most people will give you false/exaggerated positives or blanked dismissal. Neither are constructive or good - although the latter is as detrimental to the ego as the former, the former just feels better.

You've made an extensive handbook with lots of content, and I know how big a task that is, but it is in need of polishing, balancing and adjusting to fit into the game's design and spirit - at least that's my opinion. Producing it is in itself impressive, but the most impressive part is making it useful for the community, requiring as little as possible work on the "other end," that is were the hard work is, but arguably the most rewarding. One part is writing it up, thinking about it, re-writing it and then rinse and repeat, another part is testing it either in direct play or by building dice pools just to see the effects on the various variables that the game is made up of, talent combinations, equipment combinations, skills and so on... another part again is "peer review" (if you could call it that...) which would be what you've now done, posting it here. It is presented quite well, but do you present it as a finished product only wanting feedback as in "reviews" or do you want feedback as in "you could make this part better, and that part looks good, and that one is ok" ...?

I assume, for better or worse, that most people want to improve their work when they present it here.

So, onwards:

• Non-lethal crystals:

1. Bondar: this is basically just a training emitter with improvement potential?
2. Katracite: I assume it should be Stun Damage weapon quality - as Stun itself is usually with a rating.
3. Relacite: again with the defensive 3. I generally think it's a bit too high, 1 should suffice in most cases, and 2 for those powerful cases...
4. Danite: Again defensive 3 and also Force Rating +1? Really? Sure it's only stun damage, but it's 8-10 stun damage... Even if it's only a temporary and conditional FR boost, it's still quite powerful. The hard knowledge check is perhaps a good limitation, but I can easily see a force user that focuses on powers pick this up for just the FR boost. Not too keen on that idea.

• Ionizing crystal: while I don't necessarily see a need for special ionizing crystal - stun damage also applies to droids, whereas ion damage only applies to droids, vehicles and meatbags with cybernetics... perhaps not in line with lore and all, but that's the game and it's a simplification of things that at least I like.

1. Firkrann: I like this one, it's on a level with what saber crystals should be. It has a schtick and isn't under powered (although if it'd been a normal crystal I'd slap on Sunder... but that's neither here nor there)
2. Luxum: I thinks a 4 round, in effect about 4 minute, Disorient effect is a bit heavy. Not sure it needs the crit mod nor the Breach mod. In fact I'm pretty sure those can be scrapped.

• Focus Crystals: generally I didn't like the attunement thing for these, but I get that these rules were made during the beta? I'd remove those, as similar and more sober effects are now covered by the lightsaber construction rules in the GM's Kit. Also, when you write "combat check" in the descriptions of these crystals, do you mean any check involving the force die during combat, or attacks?
  • Also, the fact that all of these crystals can increase your Force Rating is, simply put: ridiculously powerful. I'd throw that away straight away.
  • These crystals seems again very much like shortcuts so that XP isn't needed.
  • I like the idea, of force boost stuff, but adding a die is a bit much - although the idea I've been toying with isn't necessarily better; producing an extra force point, or interacting with a force power more directly.
• Resonance crystals: while I like the idea, this adds yet more power creep that I find unnecessary. Particularly how potent they are in further modifying the main crystal, and again with the increase force rating crystal. Looking at the synergies here it becomes way too powerful.
• Aspected crystals: admittedly they are described as powerful, I still think they are a bit over the top. At the very least cap the crit at 3, or at best 2, and cap the damage to 6-7.
  • The light side/dark side affinity is a pretty cool idea though - I'd let force points count as advantages until your morality was in the upper/lower tier, so >91 for light side and <9 for dark side would let you add successes.
• Orbalisk armour: FuriousGreg has it covered.

Lastly, regarding the formatting I also lack the photoshop skills to do it but I remember someone posted some time ago a style guide including backrounds for EOTE. If that is not an option maybe the creator could consider requesting the help of Rancor Publishing Group, a group of players that havw published some great materials. Other players like GMHooly, just to name the first to come to my head, have the skills to also help you.

https://fanggrip.wordpress.com/2015/04/17/edge-of-the-empire-style-guide/

I will gladly offer help in producing a doc in proper formatting Sadly the file is no longer available.

Maybe someone has a copy?