Howdy everyone! During our monthly gaming session I looked at a book, then failed a willpower check and got overcome by rage and almost wiped my whole party. Turns out it was an ancient Sith tome and I thought everyone was trying to steal the book from me. Fortunately I still don't have a light saber, so I only managed to take out two of my people. Now I really want to read the book, but I'm worried about failing the Willpower check again. Truth be told, I had failed 2 earlier willpower checks during the session, and I was hearing voices which gave me 2 setback dice on all willpower rolls, so those didn't help. So here's my question, with a Willpower of only 2, has anyone found a way/technique/item to temporarily boost willpower so I have a fighting chance to read this book?

Also, opinion poll. I purchased two shield guantlets which give +2 each to ranged defense. This combined with my armor gave me a +5 to my ranged defense, which is why I was about to destroy my party. The ranged people were practically useless against me, and I was able to activate improved reflect which knocked out another PC. At this point I was feeling pretty OP. Anyone have any suggestions on how they feel about the shield gauntlets?

Your shield gauntlets don't stack. It's rare to get more than a couple defense dice, maybe 3 if you have cover, so your GM needs to fix that.

The other thing (just MHO) that your GM needs to fix is taking over your character and making you try to kill your party. The Fear rules are a good start (in the GM section of the core book), even people "paralyzed" by fear can still choose how they act.

As for Willpower, Discipline is the skill you should be rolling against, not just raw Willpower. Boost your Discipline skill as needed.

^ Yeah, what he said. =)

If the GM has you rolling *just* Willpower, they want you to fail. Although saying that you permanently lost Willpower is also very harsh, considering how difficult it is to raise Attributes.

As far as the Shield Gauntlets go, those do not stack. Unless you stopped attacking completely and posed like Wonder Woman, there's no way to get them both between you and the oncoming attack, and still be able to do other actions yourself.

Clarification:

The two setback die for willpower rolls are gone. I failed two previous checks and each applied a setback die. At one point I had 3 setbacks vs a 2 willpower, plus the base difficulty of 3 for reading the book, so let's just say when I looked at it and it assaulted my mind, I failed miserably (so much disadvantage!). And he didn't actually say I was trying to kill my party. He said I looked up from the book at my party, and I knew they wanted to take the book from me, and I got enraged and felt the desire to ignite the lightsaber in my hand. Keep in mind, I had no lightsaber, this was all in my head from the Sith tome. That's all he said. I took it upon myself (as my character) to scream, "It's mine! You can't have it!" and crit skewer the PC right next to me with my vibro rapier (vicious quality). But, we defeated the darkness in the temple we were in, so I'm not hearing voices anymore. Also, I have no points in anything that uses Willpower for checks, so I had use my raw willpower. He wasn't trying to be a ****** or anything.

The shield gauntlets, that's kinda what we were thinking. I felt OP. The party felt like I was OP. The rulebook says 5 difficulty dice is an "impossible shot", and I was sitting there thinking (I just broke the game!). Also, the rarity of shield gauntlets is pretty high, so I think we will retconn my character to say I only was able to find one.

You could wear both at once, but only one will apply at a time. Which would mean if you were dual wielding a vibrosword and blaster, you could still apply the shield bonus either way. Otherwise I'd argue that you can't block with the same arm you're attacking with.

Perhaps you should hold off reading the book, due to your concern of becoming a threat to your allies, until you've had time to meditate, and learn more, and become a stronger individual (ie: Pump xp into your Discipline skill to give you a better chance on the roll).

Mechanically: Invest in Discipline, and your GM should be letting you use that skill in a roll such as this, this is exactly the kind of thing that Discipline is for after all.

Thematically: Learn more young Padawan, before tempting the dark knowledge you have obtained. If you truly fear for the safety of your friends, you would be wise to hold off for now, and learn more of the Force and how it works, before tackling such dangerous knowledge.

I feel like you need Brendon Fraser to come into your campaign and make sarcastic comments at you.

"I was able to activate improved reflect which knocked out another PC."

"with my vibro rapier"

You and your GM should go over how reflect works. It requires you to have a lightsaber equipped.

"I was able to activate improved reflect which knocked out another PC."

"with my vibro rapier"

You and your GM should go over how reflect works. It requires you to have a lightsaber equipped.

Did you miss the part right before that, where they said they had a pair of Shield Gauntlets? Those allow you to use Reflect, since they're wrist mounted energy shields.

Well I dumped a bunch of XP into discipline, and ditched a shield gauntlet, so everyone is happy now, and I think I stand a good chance at reading the book. Thanks for all the replies! Also, if you know Brendan Fraser and can get him to my game, I'd be extremely grateful.

Read the book handcuffed? Let the droid scan the pages for you?