Imagine an EPT or pilot ability that said "Once per turn, if an enemy ship takes an action within Range X, pay cost Y to cancel that action." Basically, it's an X-wing counterspell.

This seems situationally very strong. Crummy against swarms, but brutal against a ship reliant on boost or barrel roll to get put of the way. What is the right cost of this ability? Self damage? Stress or Ion tokens? Because of the power of the EPT, it probably is better as a Pilot Ability than an EPT. For example, a named TIE Fighter could have it and the cost could be one damage, so you're not shutting down a ship all game long. As an EPT, you could make it discardable, so it's a one-time knife in the gut, but not a total NPE.

range 1, in arc, once per round

possible drawbacks with varying levels of severity (the less severe, the shittier the ship you put the ability on if it's a pilot ability or the more expensive the ept)

self-stress (sorta equivalent exchange but many ways to work around, especially if you're at a lower ps)

spend a token (a more impactful version of self-stress that makes you essentially give up an action, though there are some work around)

self-damage

cannot attack this round

cannot attack this round

I was going to say this.

It puts the ability in a support role and requires skill to fully capitalize.

Find a need, fill a need. Also "don't fix what isn't broken" comes to mind.

I see no need for this yet, but if I did I would first take into account the type of upgrade it was as it would affect every ship with the ability to take it. Perhaps better to make it a limited-change sensor upgrade rather than another pilot ability.

Then I would playtest by myself. And make changes.

And playtest by myself. And make changes.

And playtest by myself. And make changes.

And playtest with a group of friends. And make changes.

And playtest with a group of co-workers. And make changes.

And playtest with complete strangers. And make changes.

And then, I would ask people on the forum to playtest with my updated rules for the card.

Starting on the forum, wouldn't be my first choice. Too many opinions, too many preferences to please, too many conflicting ideas, and too easy to lose sight of the original problem I'd be trying to fix.

cannot attack this round

I was going to say this.

It puts the ability in a support role and requires skill to fully capitalize.

prototype pilots dream of growing up into this hypothetical pilot

An interesting pilot ability I think but hard to template since it's so open ended. It would without question have to be limited to range 1.

I think a somewhat interesting variant on the idea would be just Carnor Jax but for boost and barrel roll.

I think it's almost too strong no matter what, if it negates something after seeing it being attempted. I also think it's too strong if it deals stress, so let's toss that out (even though that's a common tactic for denying actions).

Maybe like this:

Suppressing Fire

EPT / 1pts

"Action: Choose an enemy ship inside your arc at Range 1-2, assign yourself a weapons disabled token, and discard this card. The first time the enemy ship performs an action this round, cancel the effect of that action."

Note that we cancelled the effect of the action, not the action itself (so if they have PtL, they can not attempt the same action again). I think that anything better and this potentially becomes too strong on a swarm.

Also, if we're calling it "Suppressing Fire", I want a picture of Cyril Figgis on it.

I can think of appropriate costs, but they don't make sense.

Makes more sense as a mod or system slot. Maybe you could just make it a single-use card. Then the cost could be very low.

Ship in arc, gain a weapons disabled token, Attack 3 ship (so it matters that you're not shooting). Put it on a mid-PS ship, and you've got a pilot that throws away their attack to shut down aces.

I think it's almost too strong no matter what, if it negates something after seeing it being attempted. I also think it's too strong if it deals stress, so let's toss that out (even though that's a common tactic for denying actions).

Maybe like this:

Suppressing Fire

EPT / 1pts

"Action: Choose an enemy ship inside your arc at Range 1-2, assign yourself a weapons disabled token, and discard this card. The first time the enemy ship performs an action this round, cancel the effect of that action."

Note that we cancelled the effect of the action, not the action itself (so if they have PtL, they can not attempt the same action again). I think that anything better and this potentially becomes too strong on a swarm.

Also, if we're calling it "Suppressing Fire", I want a picture of Cyril Figgis on it.

Support tomax here i come!

I find abilities that undo anything your opponent just did (like Magic's Counterspell) to be frustrating to play against. Instead, I would recommend a different approach... instead of paying a price to cancel any action, instead take a page out of Carnor's playbook and forbid a specific action (or actions) if you meet certain requirements. You will still prevent actions, but your opponent has opportunities for counterplay. Or, if you insist on making an ability that you use to cancel an action, make it very specific.

Example 1: "Enemy ships in your primary firing arc that you have Target Locked may not perform boost or barrel roll actions."

Example 2: "When an enemy ship declares that it is performing a boost or barrel roll action, you may spend a Target Lock to force that ship to skip that action instead."

The first example allows your target to take other actions, just not necessarily the ones they'd like, just as with Carnor Jax. The second example allows your target to TRY and take the action, knowing that you will have to pay a price to stop them.

I realize that both of my suggestions may not be satisfying if you have your heart set on that ability... just don't say I didn't warn ya!

Just to clarify, I'm not making any home brew card or anything. I'm just tumbling the idea in my head. What is a fair price for targeted action denial?

Thanks for all the responses so far. They are all very interesting.

I'd go for the cost being "...if you do, you must skip the next time you would perform an action."

For restrictions, largely because there are no abilities like this in the game, I'd like to see it be Range 1-2, outside your firing arc. This gives the opponent some chance to negate the ability by risking shots, or, on the other hand, you are sometimes forced to make the choice of deny actions at the cost of an extra shot.

Just to clarify, I'm not making any home brew card or anything. I'm just tumbling the idea in my head. What is a fair price for targeted action denial?

Thanks for all the responses so far. They are all very interesting.

If you squint, 4lom crew is very specific retroactive action mitigation/denial that costs an ion token and only benefits one attack.

We also see the oldster, who is more general retroactive action denial. He has very significant restrictions and has to make sacrifices if he wants to better enable his delivery; if ptl all the popular non-defender token monsters can reposition after you, if vi only one action.

Basically, it needs a drawback that is more significant than an ion token and/or requires significantly compromising the ship's ideal build.

Weapons disabled on a reasonably pricey chassis might be enough. Or something mutually terrible; if you block it from focusing no ship attacking or defending against it may spend a focus.

As noted, there are plenty of ways - stresshog variants, 4-LOM, Old Teroch, Carnor Jax, Moff Tarkin, Dark Curse, Omega Leader, Suppressor, Palob Godahli, Wes Janson to name a few - to shut down focus tokens.

Shutting down Boost/Barrel Roll is a more interesting one which can currently only be really done with stress (and in some, generally Rebel, cases - Chopper, Tycho, Primed Thrusters - not even then). An ability to prevent a target from boosting, barrel rolling (or SLAMing, I guess) does not currently exist. The closest thing to a "you cannot barrel roll out of my arc" is an R3-A2/Snap Shot combination.

It would be a serious, serious blow to 'arc dodger' lists, though, so the costs and implications need to be thought through carefully as a result.

Range 1-2, in arc

You must be un-stressed

Take 2 stress to cancel the effect of the action

(needs to be more than one stress so you can't do it every turn without a build-around approach, which also necessitates the requirement of not already being stressed.)

That would be a fair enough drawback I think.

Imagine an EPT or pilot ability that said "Once per turn, if an enemy ship takes an action within Range X, pay cost Y to cancel that action." Basically, it's an X-wing counterspell.

My first thought on this idea is it needs to fit this game and not be some kind of other-game tag along that has nothing to do with ships fighting each other in space; let's keep some realism in the game. With this, it would have to be a force generated action (as you term as a "counterspell") and be relegated to Jedi or Sith pilots. I cannot see logic allowing a standard (force-less) pilot alter the mental/physical actions of another pilot in another ship separated by distance and a vacuum. Plus, it's very powerful and would be something that would need to have a high cost. I fear to many new modification cards are trying to level the field and cancel all ship uniqueness to the point that there will be no real difference between ships if FFG keeps tracking this direction....in gaming and fantasy, vanilla is BAD!!

The thematic component would be simple enough, call it a "multi-spectral flare" for missiles or torpedoes, an "electronic countermeasures suite" for tech or systems, or "suppressing fire" for EPT as CBMarkham suggested. The idea overall is that you're overwhelming the target's ability to observe their surroundings and respond accordingly.

As a minimum, it should be range/arc dependant - and with an ability as strong as this, it should have a similar drawback.

X-Wing is all about the manoeuvres, that is, until the designers slightly forgot that with PWTs, TLTs, JumpMasters, etc.

Making it unique might not be a bad idea. One in a squad makes it so you can catch aces and punish them. Two or three would completely neuter arc-dodgers. Slap 'em on a few TIE fighters and then roll up with your heavy hitters . . . it would be brutal.

I think no attack is the best idea. Stress is getting less impactful all the time, and ionization is something you can control pretty easily, either by self-bumping or just jousting.

- Within the primary firing arc within range 1-2 seems like a good start.

- Make it unique afterwards (either through unique pilot ability or unique EPT)

- In order to not be a total crash against pilots like Soontir, you may instead replace it with: "When an opponent performs an action, you may gain a stress and discard a focus token to force it to take a "fumble" action." (with a fumble being "nothing")

- You may not perform this ability while stressed.

So this way, you can cancel one of Soontir's action, but if he has push the limit, he can still use his second action.

I'd give it some requirements - like range 1 restriction, (Once per round, when an enemy ship within range 1 performs an action, you may cancel that action if you could perform that action) - probably cost it 3 or 4 points. Maybe make it unique

Consider Palob's ability - steal a focus, that's a bigger swing - basically a cancelled action and a free action - as a pilot ability within range. its strong - but he can't steal everything. This way, you'd need a boosting ship to cancel a boost. it has weird interactions with pilot skill.

rather than being an EPT, maybe this idea could be a "condition" doled out by Kylo Ren? That way it would be unique and faction specific.

It would also be thematic, because Kylo used the Force to stop people from doing things in TFA.

As a minimum, it should be range/arc dependant - and with an ability as strong as this, it should have a similar drawback.

X-Wing is all about the manoeuvres, that is, until the designers slightly forgot that with PWTs, TLTs, JumpMasters, etc.

I'm in on these thoughts. FFG need to be careful not to kill the goose with surgically implanting bad eggs. It seems some players on this forum seem to be against ship/faction uniqueness and want all ships to maneuver similarly and/or do the same/similar actions. If this bad hope isn't met, then they seem to want modifications that trump or stop amazing abilities in other ships. I understand stress (certainly when it is internally caused by actions or externally caused by weapons) but I fear these creeping modifications are becoming poisonous to our lovely game.....it's not only anti-cannon to push vanilla ships and play, but it's not logical nor a good business plan.

To put it plainly: This endgame of mod-ing out ship's amazing uniqueness -if allowed to continue- will suck the life out of our beautiful game.

How about: 'Overloaded tracking shot" : 'if your opponent is in your arc, in range 2 or less, once per round, if that opponent uses an action that is not focus, he takes damage equal to your attack score if your weapons are not disabled. If he takes damage, assign a stress token and a weapons disabled token to your ship.' That way it's not a direct 'counterspell' as the enemy may choose to do trade the action for damage, and you are penalised for using it so you can't spam it.