So, considering another conversation about Conflict and Force powers, this actually made me think about something.

What do you all think about allowing a player to choose the damage type for things like a Move attack? Now, this is just my opinion, given how the images are portrayed in the movies, but when people would use Move, it usually seemed fairly non-lethal in nature. They get tossed, hit the ground and slide for a bit, and are momentarily stunned/dazed. It's always seemed, like a relatively "light side" method to fight someone, as it doesn't cause a lot of direct damage (like hacking someone to bits with a lightsaber), but it does allow for some level of control over the fight. Hit them with a Move toss enough, and they pass out from the smacks.

So what about an optional rule to choose the damage when you attack someone? Now, this would only work in the "I use Move on the person directly, and make them smack the wall, or floor after I toss them back" kind of attack. Smacking them with a TIE Fighter would be wound of course, but simply giving them an invisible tackle would make sense as Strain.

How does that sound? Perhaps make it be half damage as Strain damage, given people usually having a lower Strain threshold than Wound?

I ask because it just dawned on me that, mechanically, the damage inflicted is the same as if you shot someone with a blaster, which, as it's presented, doesn't seem to actually be the case. They are stunned, dazed, maybe a bit bruised, but otherwise, they are far less injured than if you shot them....or hacked at them with a lightsaber. I mean, if I can do Strain by punching someone in the face, why not with what is basically an invisible, magical tackle?

Thoughts?

Going to disagree.

The effect you're describing fits the Bind power almost to a T, so allowing a move attack to apply strain damage essentially removes the need for bind.

This is one of those things where the two powers are related, but the technique and resultant effect are different enough that FFG decided they needed a separate tree and XP cost.

Ghostofman is correct here. What you're describing is already covered by Bind and its various upgrades, including its movement upgrade and Mastery upgrade. Youre better off using that if you don't want to inflict wound damage.

If the player is using Move on minions and rivals (who don't have a strain threshold), it's an easy matter for the player to simply narrate it as the targets being knocked unconscious from the force of the impact if the damage exceeds the targets' wound threshold, so long as the GM agrees and the damage dealt was too excessive. For instance, if my PC were to use Move to clonk a couple of stormtroopers together, dealing 12 damage (base 10 for Sil1, +2 for uncancelled successes), I'd suggest that rather than killing the two hapless troopers, I'd instead clonked their helmets together hard enough to knock them out for several minutes, which would generally be long enough for my character to leave the immediate area.

As others have noted several times on the forums, dealing wounds to a target isn't necessarily an actual long-term injury, as it could just be a collection of bumps, bruises, and minor abrasions the target collects, with the actual injuries happening when you inflict a critical injury on the target.

1 hour ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

If the player is using Move on minions and rivals (who don't have a strain threshold), it's an easy matter for the player to simply narrate it as the targets being knocked unconscious from the force of the impact if the damage exceeds the targets' wound threshold, so long as the GM agrees and the damage dealt was too excessive. For instance, if my PC were to use Move to clonk a couple of stormtroopers together, dealing 12 damage (base 10 for Sil1, +2 for uncancelled successes), I'd suggest that rather than killing the two hapless troopers, I'd instead clonked their helmets together hard enough to knock them out for several minutes, which would generally be long enough for my character to leave the immediate area.

As others have noted several times on the forums, dealing wounds to a target isn't necessarily an actual long-term injury, as it could just be a collection of bumps, bruises, and minor abrasions the target collects, with the actual injuries happening when you inflict a critical injury on the target.

Of course, that also depends upon what you consider "long term". Wounds typically take several days to heal without medical attention, and even in a bacta tank, it takes several hours.

Exceeding ones wound threshold on its own isn't lethal, and yeah, some heavy bumps and scrapes would certainly take more than a few days to heal.

To deal truly lethal damage, the character would need to have 4 or 5 (or more) Criticals stacked up and roll very high on the d100. But if they have no existing Critical Injuries and get konked out by Move, it's just unconsciousness and one Crit roll.

13 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Of course, that also depends upon what you consider "long term". Wounds typically take several days to heal without medical attention, and even in a bacta tank, it takes several hours.

1 day per wound for natural recovery, and medical science in Star Wars can make the process go even faster. Jabbing a stimpack into your typical minion brings them right back to consciousness and possibly close to zero wounds, and a Medicine check by a skilled doctor can recover 2 to 4 wounds no problem, which together makes recovery time far speedier than just reading the rules without actually playing them would suggest.