Hello,

I was searching the game rule for deflecting blaster shots with a lightsaber, and it seemed to me that the "Reflect" and "Improved Reflect" talents were the trick.

But after all, it is not said we can't use this talent without lightsaber, so I assume this talent is more the way Dark Vador deflect the blaster shots from Solo when they met on Bespin.

It make sense because this talent just reduce the damage, as a real deflect with a lightsaber would be black or white, hit or miss.

So my question is, there is no mechanical rule to simulate the way Jedi deflect blaster shots with their lightsaber??

The F&D core book specifies that you can only use the Reflect line of talents when wielding a lightsaber (page 150).

The thing you're looking for is indeed the Improved version of the Reflect talent. If you reduce the damage to less than your soak and the attacker rolls 3 Threat or a Despair, that blaster bolt gets returned to sender without damaging you.

I've always figured that what Vader does in ESB, blocking blaster bolts with his hand, was him using the Protect power, not Reflect.

Yes, reflect can only be used with weapons that use the Lightsaber skill, so it doesn't work with anything different (while the parry talent can be used both with melee and lightsaber skill). So no deflecting with a solid blade.

As for Darth Vader and Solo scene, Vader is using the Protect power to absorb the blaster bolts.

Yes, reflect can only be used with weapons that use the Lightsaber skill, so it doesn't work with anything different (while the parry talent can be used both with melee and lightsaber skill). So no deflecting with a solid blade.

As for Darth Vader and Solo scene, Vader is using the Protect power to absorb the blaster bolts.

Generally speaking, you do need to be using a weapon from the Lightsaber portion of the weapons section in order to use the Reflect (and by extension Improved Reflect and Supreme Reflect) talent. The Ancient Sword doesn't count as it's in the Melee portion of the gear chapter, although Keeping the Peace does introduce the shield gauntlet which specifically cites it can be used with the Reflect talent as an exception to the usual rules.

As for Vader... that is probably one of two likely scenarios. First would be him using the Protect power to completely stone-wall Han's attack, likely having prepped it ahead of time in anticipation of Han's most likely response and then used Move to easily disarm Han. The other is that Vader simply had so many ranks of Adversary that Han's attack failed, and was narrated as Vader stopping the blaster bolts with his gloved hands in order to further play up just how out their league Han and Leia are against the Emperor's top hatchet man.

The F&D core book specifies that you can only use the Reflect line of talents when wielding a lightsaber (page 150).

The thing you're looking for is indeed the Improved version of the Reflect talent. If you reduce the damage to less than your soak and the attacker rolls 3 Threat or a Despair, that blaster bolt gets returned to sender without damaging you.

As for Vader... that is probably one of two likely scenarios. First would be him using the Protect power to completely stone-wall Han's attack, likely having prepped it ahead of time in anticipation of Han's most likely response and then used Move to easily disarm Han. The other is that Vader simply had so many ranks of Adversary that Han's attack failed, and was narrated as Vader stopping the blaster bolts with his gloved hands in order to further play up just how out their league Han and Leia are against the Emperor's top hatchet man.

Or Vader just has a really high Soak and was showing off.

Thanks ! I missed the page 150 saying you must use a lightsaber for all the reflect talents ! This is a little thing that change everything actually lol...

Really helpfull guyz

It is easy to miss a talents effects if you read the shortened version of them from the talent trees , there are some where you can miss somr major effects from it. Example , Precision Strike from Keeping the Peace has a whole new effect missed from the short description. Ive found a few. So it pays to read the full descriptions and not just the talent tree short description.

The DV reflect of the Solo shot is a use of the Protect power.

Actually Vader was using the force Power Absorb/Dissipate that was in the old WEG star wars and I even think the D20 had it, but for some reason has not made an appearance in FFGs star wars universe.

And the power straight up let you absorb or dissipate any energy the Jedi encountered. In the WEG game the difficulty of the dissipate for a blaster bolt was based on how much damage the shot was doing, in FFG terms it would be something like make a force check and reduce the damage of an energy attack by 1 for each force pip spent. with magnitude upgrades increasing the reduction value so you started reducing damage by 2 per force pip etc.

Actually Vader was using the force Power Absorb/Dissipate that was in the old WEG star wars and I even think the D20 had it, but for some reason has not made an appearance in FFGs star wars universe.

And the power straight up let you absorb or dissipate any energy the Jedi encountered. In the WEG game the difficulty of the dissipate for a blaster bolt was based on how much damage the shot was doing, in FFG terms it would be something like make a force check and reduce the damage of an energy attack by 1 for each force pip spent. with magnitude upgrades increasing the reduction value so you started reducing damage by 2 per force pip etc.

Very true for those games. However, Absorb/Dissipate Energy is now known as Protect.

Actually Vader was using the force Power Absorb/Dissipate that was in the old WEG star wars and I even think the D20 had it, but for some reason has not made an appearance in FFGs star wars universe.

And the power straight up let you absorb or dissipate any energy the Jedi encountered. In the WEG game the difficulty of the dissipate for a blaster bolt was based on how much damage the shot was doing, in FFG terms it would be something like make a force check and reduce the damage of an energy attack by 1 for each force pip spent. with magnitude upgrades increasing the reduction value so you started reducing damage by 2 per force pip etc.

Protect Basic Power, Average Discipline check with your Force Dice. Succeed and spend 2 Force Pips to reduce "Energy based damage" by Willpower plus 1 per success. Light side can use it on targets engaged with them, Dark side can only protect themselves. Strength Upgrades can increase the damage reduction.

(Edit: Protect/Unleash can be found on p300 of the Force and Destiny core rule book.)