I'm seeking direction and guidance about building a "blastomech" droid inspired by BT-1 (LINK: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/BT-1).
I have very little idea where to start. Help appreciated.
Edited by JavaJawaWowBuilding a "Blastomech"
Well, this system plays fast-and-loose with droid construction, compared to some other game systems. There's no chassis, propulsion system, sensor, processor, or any of that. The character is built following normal CHARGEN rules and purchases equipment as normal. Droids have the added benefit of being able to declare certain items of equipment as intrinsic to their construction; that's something you'll need to work out with your GM.
Without any specificity I'm not sure what other questions I might be able to answer.
Droid Ace (some combination of Driver, Gunner, and Rigger) in an AT-PT. Replace the crappy grenade launcher with a heavy repeating blaster (personal scale so you can use Gunner's Jury Rig on it). Now you're a Silhouette 2 murder-mech!
Do you want to build one as a Player Character
Or have yourplayer character build one in game using the crafting rules
or assemble an NPC?
Thanks for guidance. I'll be the 5th player in a party of Force-users. We're to maintain an "A-Team" vibe of fugitives who might also pass as a team of bounty hunters or similar fetches. When discussing players needed, the group agreed we needed a droid. I passed my opportunity, so will be the droid by default (which is fine). I just want something on par with some conflict-generating heroes while being...well, more than "just" a droid. The comic book inspiration was a nudge in that direction.
We'll have Knight Level XP, so +150 and 9k credits.
I've immediate access to the Edge CRB and Special Modifications. Other suggestions would do well to name the source book (I should be able to find it from what I have or others in the group, or with experienced google-fu).
Edited by JavaJawaWowAh ok!
So, there's a few ways to do this, but I'm going to use the one that isn't excessively cheezy (though I'll mention the cheese for completion)
So Droid Species (obviously).
As an assassin droid, you'll probably want to maintain a cover identity, which will not only allow your character to slip through security pretending to be just another walking appliance, but also give you some flex so you're useful being something other than a walking machinegun nest. So you'll probably want to pair a main Combat Career/Spec with a utility secondary Spec as your cover.
Good Mains include:
Hired Gun:Merc Soldier and Heavy
and
Bounty Hunter: Assassin and Gadgeteer
For Secondary
Technician: Mechanic, Outlaw Tech, and Slicer are all good options though I'd look at how these synergize with your main spec and what weapons and techniques you want to use.
Personally, unless your heart is set on lugging around a machine gun and grenade launcher, I'd scale things back a tad, and consider pairing Assassin and Outlaw Tech. This pairing keep some of the cheeseball options in play (like pairing an auto-fire weapon weapon with jury-rigged) while maintaining utility cover as an astromech, and still making great use of the combat and stealth talents (and eventually a nasty Sig ability no doubt) of the Assassin. Additionally as an astro-mech player myself I know from experience you'll find encumbrance to be your worst enemy, so being able to focus on carrying a couple good, tricked out weapons at a time might be more valuable than trying to lug around a giant cannon.
Ability Focus should be on Agility, Int. and Cunning, since you'll need to be good at shooting, repairing, and being sneaky and deceitful. Add a little Brawn if you've got the XP.
Gear-wise it's going to be tough. I suggest the Tech's outfit from Special Mods since it's got soak 2 and an integrated tool kit, so it saves on Enc (tools are heavy). Reskin a backpack and other load bearing gear as "droid internal tool harnesses" to help you carry everything. Carry a Fusion cutter and a shock-prod or stun baton for your melee weapons. For ranged, look for something small up front, like a repeating blaster pistol (or one you can mount the auto-fire mod to). A boonta-blaster also might not be a bad idea for getting into really tightly secured areas. Resist the urge to get the really heavy weapons since they don't conceal very well. If you've got the Enc, carry a few grenades of different types (or better yet, build you own using the crafting rules, as these will only get better with time), you can still throw grenades like anyone else so you might as well. If you want to be a real jerk-face use the various gas and poison grenade options since.. ya know.. droid. Finally for those long-range jobs, get the the takedown rifle from the Seeker book since it's a powerful long range rifle that can still break down and be hidden. Don't go nuts, load up on what you can, but only carry on your person the weapons you need for the job at hand. Again, your biggest enemy is going to be Enc.
With whatever you got left (both credits and Enc), buy gear and attachments. Glow-rod, datapad, holomessenger, mount a long range comlink on your armor, ascension gun, jetpack, tech manuals, anything that makes sense for an astromech or that can make you a better assassin. And don't forget those repair patches. You will get shot up and that extra droid soak only goes so far.
Now all that said, if you want to be a total cheese jerk that is asking for your GM to kill you, take Heavy+anything with Jury-rigged and dump everything into Brawn and Agility, then get a heavy weapon with auto-fire. You will essentially just make a walking gun platform, and you'll be great at shooting but pretty much worthless at everything else.
So yeah, don't do that, but that does exist.....
Edited by Ghostofman
Totally do it, it is hilarious and while completely useless outside of your duties as gun platform, you can play a talking gun platform, including all the hilarity of the dialog that arises from that.
And the best part: Gadgeteer comes with the Intimidation Talent. Pump at later stages of the game 75 xp into coercion to compensate for your willpower 1 rating and be the orbital defense battle blattform which you always wanted to be, feared and notorious. Ruining the reputation of all the Paragons of Good in your group. The RP and dialog potential is just great … until they send to for re-programming. °_^
Besides, Gadgeteer comes with Crippling blow, your lightsaber wielding paragons of good lunatics will be very thankful when you cripple their enemies to prevent them from running away from those lightsabers.
On a little more serious note:
It really depends what your group consist of: Having an R2-D2 like little angel who kicks out other droids and saves the day with anything ship related is great too, so ace: gunner, ace: rigger and ace:pilot and technician:modder or even commander: squadron leader or a little droid with some temper (ace: hotshot) could all workout rather well too.
Astromechs in general are in this system fantastic characters, but profit greatly from having very high mechanics, computer and gunnery skills and from having a profession to support these skills, because of the special astromech action and maneuvers from Stay on Target. Once you are in the socket of your fighter you can do amazing things for the pilot, double and triple so if you are a rigger or modder. As modder you would be more tech for the whole group with a special pet project which is your ship, while as rigger you are a full fledged ace with skills centered around your personal ship. In general are ace astromechs perfect addition if your group as a force wielder of the starfighter ace speciation and/or is interested in the fighter combat of the system. So if you are the only guy who can fly ships, combat or tech related specs are a better pick.
Ace astromechs focus best on agility and int, 4 4, which allows you to be rather good with range weapons as well, even without having special talents for them and keeps the option to be a weapon platform when needed.
So what I am basically saying, the options are endless, build what you like to play and what synergies well with your group.
THANKS for so many great suggestions!
I think I'll need to be more inconspicuous more often than not, though- walking around wielding blasters without a pressing need kind of blows the intentional cover of playing a droid. This is why I thought a "blastomech" may work, since it appears unassuming.
Our Executioner will dip into Navigator and their Corellean Human advantage to offset immediate piloting needs.
I wondered if having talents in Indistinguishable, Hidden Storage, etc. may best suit this concept, but from where to collect them (and other similarly sneaky skills and talents) intelligently? How do I combine a hidden weapons cashe, too?
Is it too much to be sneaky AND explosive, as a droid? Do I fit well as a droid, or should I just aim for a Clawdite (TBD)? Ugh- pulling out my hair with options!!
Is it too much to be sneaky AND explosive, as a droid?
Hired Gun: Demolitionist + Smuggler: Thief
Actually still works with the astromech concept as you get both computers and mechanics as career skills with Demolitionist. And as I mentioned before, crafting your own bombs and grenades will give you good returns in the long game.
Also check Forged in Battle. There's a nice light grenade pistol that might come in handy.
The thing about droids to remember is they are specialists. So they can really max out an ability or two, but they won't get the spread on abilities an organic gets. Additionally they are considered property and not people. Bad because you're essentially a kind of slave in the eyes of the galactic law. God because no one ever suspects the Roomba to be up to no good....
nah... go for Heavy and Gadgeteer. The possibilities are just too much fun to pass up on. Who cares what's 'optimal'?
nah... go for Heavy and Gadgeteer. The possibilities are just too much fun to pass up on. Who cares what's 'optimal'?
Agreed- I don't need this droid to be a munchkin damage machine as much as being able to be memorable, when everyone else taps Force-powers. We've got ranged attacks in hand with the Executioner, brawl/melee with the Aggressor, and saber throwing antics by the Sentry. Social situations cower to the Zabrak, so my role should be something complimentary.
This is why I thought something literally explosive, like demonlitionist. It grants me access to mechanics, so I can use tools as weapons without raising too many alarms.
As far as party contributions, I really fear being left behind, since I'm "just a droid." What value can I add that makes me worth keeping, saving, or at least not thrown as a weapon by "move?"
So go Demo/Heavy... you'll quickly outpace the Executioner as soon as you're able to bring anything with reliable autofire capability... which, when added to your investment in mechanics and computers, means that your party contributions will be just fine... You don't even need to invest that much in Brawn - I'd go heavy on Agility and Cunning, moderate on Int and Brawn, dump everything else - take a good look at the Heavy talent tree. Demo is just icing on that cake. Just look at the Career skills for the two specializations to determine which to start with.
nah... go for Heavy and Gadgeteer. The possibilities are just too much fun to pass up on. Who cares what's 'optimal'?
Agreed- I don't need this droid to be a munchkin damage machine as much as being able to be memorable, when everyone else taps Force-powers. We've got ranged attacks in hand with the Executioner, brawl/melee with the Aggressor, and saber throwing antics by the Sentry. Social situations cower to the Zabrak, so my role should be something complimentary.
This is why I thought something literally explosive, like demonlitionist. It grants me access to mechanics, so I can use tools as weapons without raising too many alarms.
As far as party contributions, I really fear being left behind, since I'm "just a droid." What value can I add that makes me worth keeping, saving, or at least not thrown as a weapon by "move?"
Your group as no tech at all, no pilot either, which means the focus of the group is clearly not on surviving vehicle combat, but running away from the heavy guns and being absolutely dependent on you for computers and mechanics checks. While I totally like the heavy arms astromech idea, your group is rather unbalanced without a tech and and at least somewhat decent pilot. No need for pilot talents as the group focus will never be vehicle combat in that arrangement, but at least piloting as carreer skill to win a chase would be advisable. And tech skills, they are really needed in that configuration. Your group basically has no BA nor Murdock. I am not sure if an astromech chasis would be best or if not a K2 security droid would fit better.
Technician: Modder + Heavy sounds like an interesting combination in that chassis and should make sure that your group as a pimped up ride and a stream of tools to use for their missions. Take a look at the technicians signature abilities while playing this:
Droids work essentially like every other character at the end of the day, so you won't get left behind.
The thing about droid is, unlike organics, their species template is virtually a blank slate. So where an organic will have mostly 2's in every ability and maybe around 100XP to build a character with, a Droid species template is all 1s, BUT you get 175XP (+ more with Obligation/Duty). This means that you can really focus on boosting the abilities that relate to your Role and Function, and completely ignore the Abilities that don't, saving you XP and making you better in your area of expertise, though this will mean you're probably something of a specialist.
For Skills, Organics can only take a free rank at creation in two specialization Skills. Driods get a third. Free skill points are nice.
Droids also have an Implant cap that's Maxed out by default, where organics have it tied to thier Brawn rating. This means that as you advance, you can get upgrades using the rules for cybernetic implants and really get crazy. Most players go right for the big stuff, namely things that boost an ability beyond what is natural. As a droid you'll be able to do that AND have room to take the fun stuff like cybernetic hidden compartments, weapons, restraining bolt overrides... whatever.
There's also the up and down's of not being organic. On the up, you're metal so you get a free Rank in Enduring, giving you a +1 Soak from day one. Also you're immune to pretty much everything. Poisons, Vacuum, no problem. You don't even need to sleep or eat. It's nice when the GM tries to be all sneaky an slap a homing beacon outside the ship and you just take a walk and remove it like a cheap refrigerator magnet.
The downside is you also need to be repaired instead of healed. So you'll be using repair patches instead of stimpacks, need Mechanics checks instead of Medicine, Oil Baths instead of Bacta. So on.
And an upside, and downside, is the Force is almost nothing to you. Mind tricks won't work, which is really good. However other things will, like Move still can. Fortunately, as a player character you can resist force powers just like everyone else... so yeah you can be moved, but they still gotta make you just as they would everyone else.
There's also this thread -
Which is all the reason you really need.
UPDATE:
Wanted to say thanks to a very helpful community. Although we were to start play this weekend, other players opted to have deeper relationships when I presented my non-Force user quandary. Now, I'm a droid modder with tools-as-weapons, with a Navigator and Racer and Healer (who also took machine healing?) and oddly- Entrepreneur/Emergent with Force powers affecting minds. We're like a race car team, actually, with a Mad Max on Tatooine vibe. As the racing events escalate, so will our opportunity for bigger and badder swoops and pod racers. I feel like a part of the team, and was happy to have sunk more skill ranks and Fancy Paintjob to bypass two Gamorrean security thugs. I'll still get my massive weapons fix by treating our vehicles like a bigger, badder weapons.
I was just really happy with the spirit of other players, who quickly and eagerly created new characters in an afternoon, so we'd be more cohesive as a party.
Again, thanks, everyone. You helped me have a great time playing this rpg!