In our current campaign, our Jedi character wanted to build his own lightsaber, a dual-bladed lightsaber. Since he was Squad Leader turned FSEx, he didn't have a Lightsaber form yet and probably never will if he wants to have more then 2 Force Rating. So I acknowledged that having a dual-bladed LS would be a nice compromise from a LS form spec.I gave him 2 custom crystals which would give him, once fully modded, those stats :

Dual-bladed Lightsaber : Dam 7, Crit 2, Breach 1, Linked 1, Sunder

Recently, another player from this same group went into weapons dealer shop and bough for 4 times the base cost the "Nova Viper" blaster pistol, the best blaster pistol in the books published so far. The character is a Scientist turned Sniper, so the pistol is more for those rare close encounter where he can't get range to use his sniper rifle. But he still bought the best blaster pistol there is.

I know that players usually want something for their character, they have a vision of that character, of what he can do and how he would do it. Those visions usually come with some gear with it like an armor, a gun or a jet pack. Having chosen the Crystal for my jedi player, I kinda have the feeling I have cheated him on his vision for his character. That I decided myself what would be the high end of his lighstaber strength. I know that not every character can walk into a store and buy a blaster pistol for 20.000 credits, but I feel that other pieces of gear are more "available" then a LS crystal. I feel that the jedi character should have the right to choose his LS crystal.

But on the other end.... getting those 20.000 credits could take some time.... time I would probably not have my jedi player spend on waiting to get his LS crystal. I would have my jedi player find a LS crystal in the 3rd or 4th game, once he reaches around 120xp. By that time, the other players would not have each and all 20.000 credits to spend on gear. So I kinda feel it could be too powerful to give my jedi player the right to choose his LS crystal.

You can probably see that I don't know which side to choose, to give him the choice or not.

What do you guys think ?

Without knowing the characters vision it's kinda hard to say that you cheated him.

As for whether or not he should be allowed to choose, sure why not? Granted nothing says you have to give the player everything he wants upfront. It's fine to give him one kind of crystal as he quest for the dream crystal. He can swap them out at a later date and time.

I've always viewed lightsaber crystals as an adventure of their own. There's a reason all known crystal sites are blockaded by the Empire. So if you're just giving him one, it's fine to give him the one you're okay with. It leaves the adventure for the one he really wants, for a later date!

By the way, why did you give him 2 custom crystals? Double-bladed lightsabers only use 1 crystal, so I'm a bit confused on that part.

Agreed that finding a lightsaber crystal is worthy of a separate adventure on its own merits.

As for the "fully modded" stats given, I'd say the player got cheated, given that the few lightsaber crystals that have such a paltry damage value are literally starter items (training emitter) or offer a bevy of defensive bonuses (Lorrdian). What's listed is hardly better than a standard double-bladed lightsaber using the default Ilum crystal.

Actually the reason why all known crystal sites are guarded has less to do with killing Jedi or stopping Jedi from making light sabers and has more to do with mining the crystals for military applications like the Death Star which uses a massive Ilum crystal as its focusing crystal.

for my campaign (mostly FaD characters) I plan on them doing a mission to get their own Illum Crystals for their starting sabers, and then having missions (once they know what form of special gear they want for their sabers) to get the special gear. That being said, I have one character who is a bodyguard/sniper that wants a very specific sniper rifle, with very specific mods, so I am going to have the group do a 'mission impossible' style heist mission to get his prototype rifle too. I wanted it to be part of the story as to why one person chose a certain crystal, maybe it called out to him, or he didn't feel 'finished' until the lightsaber was complete.

I also don't want to leave anyone out. one guy is perfectly happy with illum crystals, so we will be doing a special mission to get him an ancient set of Jedi combat armor (something he wanted for his character).

As to the final price, or worth of the items. I am more worried about the balance of the power than the actual price. Credits are few and far between for many of the modules, so I have been attempting to hand out other rewards instead of a stack of credits.

I'm curently running a game set in the Old Republic era and was going to have the group do their crystal hunt/jedi trials on Dantooine. Now i'm aware that Dantooine's crystal caves have the ability to have some rare crytals that were thought to be unique to other worlds but I don't know which crystals to make optins for my group as not so great on the Math/lore

I'm curently running a game set in the Old Republic era and was going to have the group do their crystal hunt/jedi trials on Dantooine. Now i'm aware that Dantooine's crystal caves have the ability to have some rare crytals that were thought to be unique to other worlds but I don't know which crystals to make optins for my group as not so great on the Math/lore

For the more "common" crystals (at least going by the KOTOR games), you could just use the standard Ilum crystals, maybe taking away one of the damage mods to account for how the Dantooine crystals aren't as potent as the Ilum variety.

I've always viewed lightsaber crystals as an adventure of their own. There's a reason all known crystal sites are blockaded by the Empire. So if you're just giving him one, it's fine to give him the one you're okay with. It leaves the adventure for the one he really wants, for a later date!

By the way, why did you give him 2 custom crystals? Double-bladed lightsabers only use 1 crystal, so I'm a bit confused on that part.

Agree 100% about Gems as quest rewards. It never enter my group's minds that we could just buy something as illegal and precious as a Lightsaber crystal, if anything we thought we acquired and built our first lightsabers too easily . I'd go so far to say that all but the most basic crystals only have a price listed for the sake of completeness.

If you want an awesome Lightsaber Crystal, you gotta go get one, son . And honestly, what could be cooler than stalking a Krayt Dragon through the murderous heat of Tatooine, subduing it in an epic battle, then performing keyhole surgery on its stomach for the precious pearls?

(Also, dual Bladed Lightsabers use components that cost twice as much, representing the fact that twice as many crystals/parts/etc are needed. Darth Maul's saber still worked after being cut in half, so presumably it really is as simple as two lightsabers in one specially made housing.)

In my game I'm going to require double bladed lightsabers to have 2 crystals, rather than just double priced mods.

I'll let the ungrateful buggers find the two they need at the same time though.

Our game focuses on a Jedi Knight and a rescued youngling-***-padawan eight years after Order 66. The Jedi already had a lightsaber with a Kyber Crystal. The Padawan just built their saber with a Krayt Dragon Pearl. Obtaining that was an adventure in of itself! And, yes, Krayt Dragon Pearls make for terrifying lightsabers.

I've always viewed lightsaber crystals as an adventure of their own. There's a reason all known crystal sites are blockaded by the Empire. So if you're just giving him one, it's fine to give him the one you're okay with. It leaves the adventure for the one he really wants, for a later date!

By the way, why did you give him 2 custom crystals? Double-bladed lightsabers only use 1 crystal, so I'm a bit confused on that part.

they actually use a two different ones. the hilt is similar, to that of a normal saber and a shot melded together, also the rules state that they use two crystals one per each blade.

I've always viewed lightsaber crystals as an adventure of their own. There's a reason all known crystal sites are blockaded by the Empire. So if you're just giving him one, it's fine to give him the one you're okay with. It leaves the adventure for the one he really wants, for a later date!

By the way, why did you give him 2 custom crystals? Double-bladed lightsabers only use 1 crystal, so I'm a bit confused on that part.

they actually use a two different ones. the hilt is similar, to that of a normal saber and a shot melded together, also the rules state that they use two crystals one per each blade.

Can you give a page cite for that? I'm pretty sure TalosX is right, but if we're mistaken I'd like to know for sure.

I was pretty sure it only required one crystal, but twice the materials to construct and modify. Though that alone could be taken to mean they require two crystals. There are advantages to two crystals though, you can make it so that each side is a separate hilt, thus you can either detach it like Ventress does or if it's split in two like Mauls you still have a functional single saber.

I was pretty sure it only required one crystal, but twice the materials to construct and modify. Though that alone could be taken to mean they require two crystals. There are advantages to two crystals though, you can make it so that each side is a separate hilt, thus you can either detach it like Ventress does or if it's split in two like Mauls you still have a functional single saber.

Double lightsabers "use" one crystal for simplicity sake per the entry for their hilts. though technically they use 2.

I've always viewed lightsaber crystals as an adventure of their own. There's a reason all known crystal sites are blockaded by the Empire. So if you're just giving him one, it's fine to give him the one you're okay with. It leaves the adventure for the one he really wants, for a later date!

By the way, why did you give him 2 custom crystals? Double-bladed lightsabers only use 1 crystal, so I'm a bit confused on that part.

they actually use a two different ones. the hilt is similar, to that of a normal saber and a shot melded together, also the rules state that they use two crystals one per each blade.

On page 176, the rule expressly states "for the purposes of gameplay it is treated as having a single crystal."

I've always viewed lightsaber crystals as an adventure of their own. There's a reason all known crystal sites are blockaded by the Empire. So if you're just giving him one, it's fine to give him the one you're okay with. It leaves the adventure for the one he really wants, for a later date!

By the way, why did you give him 2 custom crystals? Double-bladed lightsabers only use 1 crystal, so I'm a bit confused on that part.

they actually use a two different ones. the hilt is similar, to that of a normal saber and a shot melded together, also the rules state that they use two crystals one per each blade.

On page 176, the rule expressly states "for the purposes of gameplay it is treated as having a single crystal."

Rule is silly, and I think I'll change it up in my campaign. The folks dual wielding lightsabers can't use a single crystal for both blades. Seems a bit unfair.

I'm going to go with requiring two crystals and each one can be modded separately. But I am going to be pretty strict with the crystals the group can find. The group has one Athis crystal, but soon they'll do the gm kit quest.

I've always viewed lightsaber crystals as an adventure of their own. There's a reason all known crystal sites are blockaded by the Empire. So if you're just giving him one, it's fine to give him the one you're okay with. It leaves the adventure for the one he really wants, for a later date!

By the way, why did you give him 2 custom crystals? Double-bladed lightsabers only use 1 crystal, so I'm a bit confused on that part.

they actually use a two different ones. the hilt is similar, to that of a normal saber and a shot melded together, also the rules state that they use two crystals one per each blade.

On page 176, the rule expressly states "for the purposes of gameplay it is treated as having a single crystal."

Rule is silly, and I think I'll change it up in my campaign. The folks dual wielding lightsabers can't use a single crystal for both blades. Seems a bit unfair.

I'm going to go with requiring two crystals and each one can be modded separately. But I am going to be pretty strict with the crystals the group can find. The group has one Athis crystal, but soon they'll do the gm kit quest.

That is fine. The reason I posted it was because someone is trying to say the rules tell you to use two which is entirely inaccurate.

On 12/23/2015 at 6:02 PM, Vulf said:

In my game I'm going to require double bladed lightsabers to have 2 crystals, rather than just double priced mods.

I'll let the ungrateful buggers find the two they need at the same time though.

You can do that since you are the GM, but if you read towards the bottom of double-bladed lightsabers it says that they only use one crystal from a mechanics perspective but the crystal still cost double what it normally would. If you force them to have two crystals for it, hopefully you will have them be able to find 2 of the same crystal, also remember the double-bladed lightsaber already starts with 2 less hardpoints because they said it only needs one crystal instead of 2. So going by the book you will not be able to fit 2 crystals in it so just make sure you change the hard points in the lightsaber to reflect it having 2 crystals instead of one.

On 12/16/2015 at 9:12 PM, JP_JP said:

In our current campaign, our Jedi character wanted to build his own lightsaber, a dual-bladed lightsaber. Since he was Squad Leader turned FSEx, he didn't have a Lightsaber form yet and probably never will if he wants to have more then 2 Force Rating. So I acknowledged that having a dual-bladed LS would be a nice compromise from a LS form spec.I gave him 2 custom crystals which would give him, once fully modded, those stats :

Dual-bladed Lightsaber : Dam 7, Crit 2, Breach 1, Linked 1, Sunder

Recently, another player from this same group went into weapons dealer shop and bough for 4 times the base cost the "Nova Viper" blaster pistol, the best blaster pistol in the books published so far. The character is a Scientist turned Sniper, so the pistol is more for those rare close encounter where he can't get range to use his sniper rifle. But he still bought the best blaster pistol there is.

I know that players usually want something for their character, they have a vision of that character, of what he can do and how he would do it. Those visions usually come with some gear with it like an armor, a gun or a jet pack. Having chosen the Crystal for my jedi player, I kinda have the feeling I have cheated him on his vision for his character. That I decided myself what would be the high end of his lighstaber strength. I know that not every character can walk into a store and buy a blaster pistol for 20.000 credits, but I feel that other pieces of gear are more "available" then a LS crystal. I feel that the jedi character should have the right to choose his LS crystal.

But on the other end.... getting those 20.000 credits could take some time.... time I would probably not have my jedi player spend on waiting to get his LS crystal. I would have my jedi player find a LS crystal in the 3rd or 4th game, once he reaches around 120xp. By that time, the other players would not have each and all 20.000 credits to spend on gear. So I kinda feel it could be too powerful to give my jedi player the right to choose his LS crystal.

You can probably see that I don't know which side to choose, to give him the choice or not.

What do you guys think ?

After almost 2 years of playing my group has finally been able to find real lightsaber crystals. Most of this whole year we had to use cracked crystals in lightfoils. We discovered them in an old republic training ship that crashed landed 250 years prior to the current setting we are in (between A New Hope, and Empire strikes back). We had to roll our force die and get at least 4 white pips or spend a destiny point to turn black pips to white pips to get that number. Only then did a crystal call out to us.

My unlucky self rolled a mephite crystal (we had to roll a die to see what crystal it was), so I have to be careful with it if I dont want to be detected. Requires me to remove the crystal from the lightsaber according to the crystal so It can't be sensed by a force sense roll. My character is a tank though and I'm a very direct character so most of the time I wont care unless if its the empire hunting us which can become a big problem real quick. Trying to figure other ways around it without removing the crystal from the lightsaber. Maybe using a Cyclic Crystal array where I can switch the crystals in the saber, but that will be up to the GM if that would work.

10 hours ago, Metalghost said:

After almost 2 years of playing my group has finally been able to find real lightsaber crystals. Most of this whole year we had to use cracked crystals in lightfoils. We discovered them in an old republic training ship that crashed landed 250 years prior to the current setting we are in (between A New Hope, and Empire strikes back). We had to roll our force die and get at least 4 white pips or spend a destiny point to turn black pips to white pips to get that number. Only then did a crystal call out to us.

My unlucky self rolled a mephite crystal (we had to roll a die to see what crystal it was), so I have to be careful with it if I dont want to be detected. Requires me to remove the crystal from the lightsaber according to the crystal so It can't be sensed by a force sense roll. My character is a tank though and I'm a very direct character so most of the time I wont care unless if its the empire hunting us which can become a big problem real quick. Trying to figure other ways around it without removing the crystal from the lightsaber. Maybe using a Cyclic Crystal array where I can switch the crystals in the saber, but that will be up to the GM if that would work.

Unlucky? Mephite is my favorite type of lightsaber crystals currently available. The only ones I would consider more desirable would be Pontite (currently only found as part of the Greek wood lightsaber in NoP) or Solari (DoH).

On 11/12/2018 at 9:58 AM, Tramp Graphics said:

Unlucky? Mephite is my favorite type of lightsaber crystals currently available. The only ones I would consider more desirable would be Pontite (currently only found as part of the Greek wood lightsaber in NoP) or Solari (DoH).

Ya but we are between a new hope and empire strikes back and the last thing you want is a inquisitor, darth vader or the emperor noticing you. In our campain I have been in medium range of all three so far. Ya Mephite is probably one of the strongest crystals just based on damage so I can see it being a favorite of allot of people.

2 minutes ago, Metalghost said:

Ya but we are between a new hope and empire strikes back and the last thing you want is a inquisitor, darth vader or the emperor noticing you. In our campain I have been in medium range of all three so far. Ya Mephite is probably one of the strongest crystals just based on damage so I can see it being a favorite of allot of people.

Yes, but they have to be actively using Sense in order to sense the Light Side aura from you and your crystal. Here's the thing about Mephite. It's not simply the damage that I love. I actually like the "Force signature" feature of the crystal. This is because of what it actually represents. The reason why the Mephite crystal resonates a Force signature that can be sensed by others is because Adegan crystals (of which the Mephite crystal is part of) are highly Force reactive and attune very easily with a Force user, much moreso than even Ilum Crystals. This is what made them so highly prized during the days of the ancient Old Republic (circa Tales of the Jedi ). In fact, it was stated to Nomi Sunrider by her husband, Andur, that "Adegan Crystals make the best lightsabers" for this very reason.

Just now, Tramp Graphics said:

Yes, but they have to be actively using Sense in order to sense the Light Side aura from you and your crystal. Here's the thing about Mephite. It's not simply the damage that I love. I actually like the "Force signature" feature of the crystal. This is because of what it actually represents. The reason why the Mephite crystal resonates a Force signature that can be sensed by others is because Adegan crystals (of which the Mephite crystal is part of) are highly Force reactive and attune very easily with a Force user, much moreso than even Ilum Crystals. This is what made them so highly prized during the days of the ancient Old Republic (circa Tales of the Jedi ). In fact, it was stated to Nomi Sunrider by her husband, Andur, that "Adegan Crystals make the best lightsabers" for this very reason.

Yep I know someone has to actively use sense as in sense their surroundings to notice. But all that other information is interesting I didnt know that about the mephite crystals.

1 minute ago, Metalghost said:

Yep I know someone has to actively use sense as in sense their surroundings to notice. But all that other information is interesting I didnt know that about the mephite crystals.

Adegan Crystals

Quote

" They're Adegan crystals—precious and hard to find. Jedi use them to make the best lightsabers. "

― Andur Sunrider — Listen ( file info ) ^[src]

Adegan crystals were commonly used by Jedi as a main component of a lightsaber . These rare Force -reactive stones were primarily found in the Adega system , though a fair amount of these crystals could also be found on the planet Halm . Other known locations where Adegan crystals could be found included Mygeeto ^[1] and in parts of the Cularin system asteroid belt .

The Force shared a special connection with Adegan crystals and it was through their use that Jedi created a bond amongst themselves, the Force, and their weapon. This trait caused the Adegan crystals in a lightsaber to give off a weak Force signature that could be sensed by any Jedi.