Making Darth Vader´s Lightsaber

By Narr666, in Star Wars: Force and Destiny RPG

Hi Folks,

so, we come far in our campaign. It´s an alternative Universe where Luke was frozen in Karbonite on Bespin and brought to the Empire.

So, Luke and Vader killed Palpatine, and many years later Luke kills Vader.

Now, a group of Underdogs defend the daughter of Han and Leia, which is chased by Emperor Skywalker.

We played 3 Episodes so far, every one of them contained 3-4 sessions. Han´s daughter is a diplomat and wasn´t trained in the force, but is naturally Force sensitive.

After this long time, I thought it will be the right time, to let her at least get her the possibility to gain a lightsaber. So in my new adventure they will be breaking into the tomb of Darth Vader. There, a shade of Palpatine will open his coffin to present her Darth Vaders Lightsaber (the red one). As this is a deeply symbolic action, she would get conflict for taking it. So, she has got the choice, and that means, this lightsaber should be better than a regular one.

What do you think would be it´s stats? As far as I know, Vader´s saber has an Adegan crystal and Diatium power cell, both are not covered in F&D Beta. The Dual Phase Mod is covered, and as far as I know Vaders saber had one.

Thanks for your help, happy new year and keep on gaming.

Dennis

Edited by Narr666

Vader's lightsaber would at it's core be a basic lightsaber with fully modified Ilum crystal, along with the dual phase and superior hilt customizations. His Sith lightsaber actually used a synthetic crystal, which for all intents in purposes under the current RAW I'd treat as an Ilum crystal. His Jedi lightsaber does use an Ilum crystal, which in the Legends at one point was considered to be pretty much in the same general family as Adegan crystals.

Over on my blog (link in the signature), I did a write-up of a synthetic lightsaber crystal, which is pretty similar to the Ilum one save that it has one less damage mod and offers more ranks of Vicious.

I think it should be what ever you want it to be.

I mean it's not like your following any canon in the historical sense, so it doesn't need to match anything he might have had before... and as far as anyone can tell from the movies, other than color, all the sabers sem to do exactly the same thing... so What ever ya like.

Its just a regular lightsaber, but red. You might give it the dual phase modification, but overall, we never see him do anything an ordinary lightsaber couldn't do with it. And, prior to Rebels and The Clone Wars cartoons, we never heard anything about lightsaber crystals in canon. There is a reference to a purely decorative crystal in the ANH novelization, but in terms of affecting function, that's all EU and RPG insertions. Even in Rebels and TCW we learn nothing beyond the fact that lightsaber crystals exist, that the Jedi usually gathered them during an early padawan-stage trial at Ilum, and occur on many worlds, including Lothal. There is almost nothing in canon about crystals. Do what you want with it.

I would suggest that as Vader was a Sith Lord, he had probably completely mastered Lightsaber construction. So I agree with Donovan's suggestion of a fully modified Illum crystal with superior hilt customisation. He also used it two handed in the films so I'd throw in Extended Hilt as well for max brutality. I didn't know about him having a dual phase but if so bung that in as well. This gives someone a seriously good lightsaber (off the top of my head that's damage 12, crit 1 with automatic 1 advantage meaning insta-crit?), possibly the most powerful you can get? You might want to tone it down a bit actually as that leaves nowhere left to go with it. Maybe drop a couple of the damage mods which would make it a more reasonable 10 and leave room for a very very skilled craftsman to improve it.

I would suggest that as Vader was a Sith Lord, he had probably completely mastered Lightsaber construction. So I agree with Donovan's suggestion of a fully modified Illum crystal with superior hilt customisation. He also used it two handed in the films so I'd throw in Extended Hilt as well for max brutality. I didn't know about him having a dual phase but if so bung that in as well. This gives someone a seriously good lightsaber (off the top of my head that's damage 12, crit 1 with automatic 1 advantage meaning insta-crit?), possibly the most powerful you can get? You might want to tone it down a bit actually as that leaves nowhere left to go with it. Maybe drop a couple of the damage mods which would make it a more reasonable 10 and leave room for a very very skilled craftsman to improve it.

I wouldn't improve it. It's a legendary artifact, and that should be a big deal in itself. You'd be surprised how many players will take average weapons because of some 'cool' thing related to them. Vader IMO should have a pretty impressive blade, although that might be a problem if they can win fights too easily. Maybe have to make checks not to be seduced by the strength of the dark side that hovers about the blade?

Also, if she's going to be carrying Vader's lightsaber around then it should probably have some thing about it that can't be immediately discovered. And it could be a problem if anyone she meets recognizes the lightsaber or can sense Vader on it.

"No, I swear, I'm here to help!"