I'm a little confused by the modification options presented on lightsaber crystals. The most hardpoints available to a hilt in the CRB is 5. Two of those are immediately unavailable if the lightsaber is to work, using a base Ilum crystal. Why, then, can the Ilum crystal take "Damage +1" four times? Is there a 6HP+ hilt I haven't seen?

Most other crystals have options totaling more than 3HP, but that doesn't explicitly implicate an error. The krayt dragon pearl and mephite crystal both have options at 3x, but that's still feasible. However, with only 3HP to work with (more or less), there doesn't seem to be a lot of room (difficulty aside) to customize crystals, especially in a modified hilt. This seems like a part of the ruleset ready for a FAQ/Errata.

only attachments takeup hard points. mods are done to an attachment and do not take up hard points. so you could put a crayt pearl in a hilt and still have room for a superior attachment, a bent hilt, etc. and still be able to mod the hell out of the crystal itself. hope this helps. ...refer to page 187 in EotE cr.

Or page 191 in FaD cr.

2 minutes ago, Aftermath13 said:

Or page 191 in FaD cr.

I must've read that three or four times already, but now I see the distinction. Thanks!

Before this, lightsabers were uniform, and uniformly heinous (the good kind), with high damage, built in Breach, and Vicious, and even a bit of Defense, in the EotE beta, but this balanced out, I suppose, with two game lines not having much, in the way of talents, to improve them, or even their own skill, meaning you were never likely to be as good with it, possibly even needing to use the Force, and commit both of your dice, through Sense, to make up for the lack. F&D came along, and they became a much more likely weapon, with the skill, five, or so, trees devoted to the many ways lightsabers can be used , in combat, and on. So, they turned the weapons down to average damage, and fewer bonuses (breach, vicious, and the like). They still needed to be that badass, though, because they are LIGHTSABERS, and so the crystals, now many kinds, like EU threw in, years before, are probably the most customizable upgrade/component. And, you can get a lot out of one, for a 2 HP component, but there's a trade-off, for this; if you botch it up, the upgrade fails, never to be tried again, and, if you ROYALLY whoops it, the crystal goes crack, and you don't even have a working lightsaber. Add to that the sheer number of upgrades some have, which is all the more opportunities to fail, and the fact that, unlike a pistol mod, you bought in a store/out of the trunk of a black market seller, you might never find another crystal, certainly not another of the same type, depending on what you procured. If you actually want your Ilum crystal saber to reach the level of an EotE/AoR lightsaber, you'll need some serious luck. Well, nothing new to anyone, I suppose, but a good excuse for this one, small component to have more options than some character builds.

OK, FnD core page 196 ... top left hand corner , in bold print .

Makes moding a crystal much easier.

Add to that the text in the box at the bottom left and making a custom Saber is quite doable. Especially if you use the optional Saber construction rules from the Gms kit.

I wasn't trying to say it's impossible, or anything, just that, with that many more options to try, you are opening yourself up to many more chances to fail, with that much harder to come by component. All the bonuses in the world don't always outdo one particularly bad roll. Don't have that GM's kit, so I'll admit I missed that. Rolling two Force dice, maybe even three, doesn't always get you any light pips, and you CAN roll plenty of fails on the overall roll, especially as the Difficulty goes up for each upgrade you try. As for your statement, with that many upgrades, you will have a pretty high Diff, eventually, and no way to prevent the permanent loss of that upgrade, if you fail. I don't believe you can spend a Destiny to prevent it; again, I'm not sure. Other systems might've had you get one player to be the party "lightsaber grease monkey", who can pimp all their gear, but this decrease to Difficulty only works if you work on your own lightsaber. If you find a Krayt Dragon Pearl, with 4 upgrades, you may, very well, get it all done, with the two notes on 196, but an Ilum Crystal, with 7, isn't nearly as likely.

Sorry this turned into an argument. I actually like how they handled this aspect of crystals. I'm just saying, no, it won't necessarily be easy. If you aren't smart, mechanically-inclined, and maybe an Artisan, lightsaber-modding CAN be as risky as any other tinkering, except you might never find another one.

No argument ... I like the debate. You have a very valid point about difficulty and eventual failure. Especially with seven mods for an illum crystal. I don't think failure should destroy a crystal unless you roll a despair, I don't know how that's happening unless the GM flips a destiny point. At which you gotta call BS. I can see setback die for not having the right tools, but not an upgrade.

I've actually altered the rules for this for exactly this reason.

I keep the base difficulty the same, but each installed mod upgrades the Difficulty instead of increasing it. Then, it takes a Despair or 3 Threat to remove a mod, and the full attachment is only destroyed on a [DD].

Helps make those checks actually possible, but keeps the threat of losing a mod (or even the crystal). It also makes spending a Destiny Point on those checks have an increasingly high chance of getting a Despair result, so characters still have to consider when attempting to install a mod.