Am I blind?

My friend wants to make a sniper and we were debating what trees suit what he's trying to achieve and what not... Anyway we decided to actually look for the weapon and figure out what kind of tool it was to make sure he got skills to match when we realised that we couldn't find a sniper.

Have I scrolled past it or is it in source books?

Essentially, you'd be using a blaster rifle since they can fire into long range. I've played a sniper type character myself and found the Telescopic Optical Sight and Marksman Barrel weapon attachments really helpful to actually feel like a sniper. The former is in the F&D core book, the latter is in the Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion corebooks so depending on what books you have available, you may only be able to have the scope. As an alternative, the Seeker sourcebook has a similar barrel attachment but it's a restricted item, but the actual rarity is pretty low so it just depends on how generous the GM is feeling (again, that depends on the books available)

Edit: I think the Seeker and/or Explorer sourcebooks have a couple of weapons that are specifically intended to be sniper rifles, but at least one of them is essentially the blaster rifle + attachment combo I listed, just already factored together and without the potential barrel mods.

I seem to recall there was a....Bounty Hunter spec I think? That gave you boosts to the range bands that you can attack from before any penalties or anything kick in? I could've sworn there was a talent tree highly suited to long range sniping.

I know you're talking about the weapon, but you can easily homebrew one to fit the need if you don't find attachments that feel appropriate.

I had a player do essentially this and he chose Explorer: Big Game Hunter. From range, he was an absolute beast. The Explorer book also had some nice options for sniper blasters. Using only the F&D book, you might want to look at the modifications. An augmented spin barrel on a stock blaster rifle along with a scope should do just about all one would need.

Can anyone with access to the books confirm for me if there was a Bounty Hunter spec that helped with long range shooting? Perhaps Assassin? I could've sworn there was one that gave bonuses to shooting from long range increments. I think it allowed you to increase the range of a weapon by 1 band per rank in the skill or something? Thus allowing you to use a Medium range weapon at Long, and potentially Extreme without penalties, or reduced penalties?

Does that sound at all familiar to anyone else?

For specs, the best options are: Soldier Sharpshooter (Age Core), Bounty Hunter Assassin (Edge Core), Seeker Executioner (Savage Spirits), and to a lesser extent, Seeker Hunter (F&D Core) and Explorer Big-Game Hunter (Enter the Unknown). If your player wants Force powers, I would suggest Seeker Executioner/Hunter combo. If he doesn't care about Force powers, I would suggest Soldier Sharpshooter/Trailblazer. The second spec gives some awesome defensive talents as well as the unique talent Ambush in case your character finds himself trapped in cover closer to his target than he would like.

For weapons, I highly suggest a standard blaster rifle with augmented spin barrel with the Pierce and Accurate mods, and telescopic sight, minimum. The last hard point will depend on his tree. A weapon sling with Quick Draw is great if the chosen spec doesn't have the talent already. Otherwise a Forearm Grip is my preferred option to add another boost die with Accurate and even out the difficulty dice over all ranges with the rifle.

I am currently playing a character like this in an accelerated campaign who is a Seeker Executioner/Pathfinder and a rifle built as described above. With the Foresee power, he basically always goes first, and with Agility 4, Ranged (Heavy) 2, 1 rank of Quick Strike, and an Accurate 2 gun, I roll 2 yellows, 2 greens, and 3 boost dice before aiming in the first round of combat, usually letting me nearly one-shot rivals or drop 2-3 minions in the first round. I can't attack at extreme range, but I can always give better than I take at long range, and any enemies with weapons less than long range can't attack me for the first round while I pummel them. It is a really fun combat-centric character to play, but I highly suggest buying a weapon maintenance kit and extra reloads for when the GM breaks your beautiful rifle or makes you run out of ammo :-p

Yeah, Bounty Hunter has Assassin and Soldier has Sharpshooter. A friend combined the two in a high XP game to quite devastating effect.

28 minutes ago, KungFuFerret said:

Can anyone with access to the books confirm for me if there was a Bounty Hunter spec that helped with long range shooting? Perhaps Assassin? I could've sworn there was one that gave bonuses to shooting from long range increments. I think it allowed you to increase the range of a weapon by 1 band per rank in the skill or something? Thus allowing you to use a Medium range weapon at Long, and potentially Extreme without penalties, or reduced penalties?

Does that sound at all familiar to anyone else?

Yes, that's the Sniper Shot talent. It is in Bounty Hunter Assassin and Soldier Sharpshooter.

Thanks guys. I bought savage spirits the other day and intend to try and use executioner but for a force power person.

I can attest to the true aim talent (sharpshooter, gunner and I think assassin) as being devastating... And add in deadly accracy...dont recall all that have it... to add damage = ranks in your chosen skill and you can be a true powerhouse in ranged shooting. + sniper shot if you choose though I personally don' like it much...

I think in Savage Spirits there is a weapon called the M-300 Hunting rifle and that decreases difficulty of a check when shooting at long or extreme range and there's also an attachment that does something similar. I'm using on a character currently.

Sniper rifles in this system are rifles that can shoot at extreme range and have a fairly good accuracy; the model 38 (Explorer book) has two ranks of accurate and with a telegraphic sight (core) and sonic scope (Special modfications) to use at closer ranges, it can be an incredible consistent weapon, though it's damage is not modifiable being ballistic weapon without some GM discussion.

There's also a Weequey Blaster Lance in Lords of Nal Hutta that has a base range of extreme. And i believe 1 or 2 ranks of accurate.

On 2.11.2017 at 0:34 PM, Luahk said:

Am I blind?

My friend wants to make a sniper and we were debating what trees suit what he's trying to achieve and what not... Anyway we decided to actually look for the weapon and figure out what kind of tool it was to make sure he got skills to match when we realised that we couldn't find a sniper.

Have I scrolled past it or is it in source books?

My favorite Sniper Rifles are Verpine Shatter Rifles. Nearly silent, the super-sonic bang is not very loud, because the projectiles are not very big. Extreme range, a lot of pierce, add the right attachments and you are ready to go.

http://swrpg.viluppo.net/equipment/weapons/2243/
http://swrpg.viluppo.net/equipment/weapons/2244/

This is my rifle, there are many rifles like this, but this one is mine. (Actually it's not, my verpine ace is using a heavy one )

Now there are long-range sniper rifle-blasters as well, but imho they just don't come even close to Verpine technology.

The BlastTech E-11 is the standard imperial sniper rifle and it sucks.
http://swrpg.viluppo.net/equipment/weapons/229/

The Czerka Arms Model 38 Sharpshooter's Rifle is another slugthrower and is okish
http://swrpg.viluppo.net/equipment/weapons/233/

Corellian Arms CR-8 Takedown Rifle might be useful of assassins who really can kill their targets in one shot, but outside of that it is really terrible and verpine shatter rifles would be still superior for that task.
http://swrpg.viluppo.net/equipment/weapons/3572/

And the LD-1 Target Rifle is not as bad as the CR-8, but still bad.
http://swrpg.viluppo.net/equipment/weapons/3506/

One of the big issues about autofire heavy blaster rifles is that they are basically the better sniper rifles as well, because they have long-range, don't lose range on autofire (which would be actually a cool mechanic to lose range on autofire) and the biggest reason: Outside of the verpine rifles, all the sniper rifles don't shine. They often lack hardpoints, have a low damage output which can't increase properly and don't have amazing pierce values either. Luckily all this is dealt with the verpine guns, which come with a crit rating of 2 or 3, tons of damage, tons of pierce, no slow firing and the ability to pin down targets via knockdown.

The biggest insult to the E-11 is btw that the M-300 hunting blaster is still better than the E-11, 2 damage less, but no slow firing, same accuracy, same pierce, not restricted, but on top even stun settings and comes with an scope and sling included in the price tag. Meaning that the extra hardpoints on the E-11 mean very little, especially the optical scope you want anyway and the sling is quite useful for quickdraw as well.
http://swrpg.viluppo.net/equipment/weapons/3571/

I think the E11* sniper is silly, so I don't mind that it sucks. It's the equivalency of basing a modern sniper rifle upon an Uzi SMG or possibly an M4 carbine. Sure you can lengthen the barrel and add a scope, but there are much better options out there.

For added realism and fun, try adding an "Observer" to tag along with your sniper. Someone with good Perception and macrobinoculars could be used to spot targets and/or give Bonus dice to the sniper's shot.

*That photo of the E11 Sniper in SEA's post also upsets me every time I see it. If you look closely you can see the folded stock of the E11 stretched out along the side of the barrel......with the E11 Sniper adding a permanent butt stock. So, the artist thought it needed two stocks? This plus the E11 being more of a submachinegun then a true rifle means the E11 Sniper doesn't exist at my gaming table.

The DLT is a much better weapon to convert into a sniper for Imperials in my opinion. We even see two versions in the movies so you could easily speculate one of them is intended to be the sniper version (akin to the M21 vs M14)? The DLT-19 has no scope and a bipod. So, it's the squad support weapon "machinegun" version with autofire. The DLT-20A doesn't have a bipod and adds a scope making it the sniper version? In game terms, each could easily be made with the Heavy Blaster Rifle plus varying attachments.

You could even go so far as making a Light Repeating Blaster into a sniper weapon with attachments (not using autofire of course). This may sound silly at first, but one of the most famous sniper's in US military history used a .50 cal M2 heavy machinegun upon a tripod, added a scope, and modified (?) to take single shots.

On 11/14/2017 at 1:11 AM, Sturn said:

*That photo of the E11 Sniper in SEA's post also upsets me every time I see it. If you look closely you can see the folded stock of the E11 stretched out along the side of the barrel......with the E11 Sniper adding a permanent butt stock. So, the artist thought it needed two stocks?

Oh good, it not just me...

Though if you want to get all Otaku, they do the same dang thing in TFA with the F-11 with an AR stock and folding stock...

It's easy! Kill a scout trooper. They have sniper rifles.

On 2017-11-18 at 6:44 AM, Ghostofman said:

Oh good, it not just me...

Though if you want to get all Otaku, they do the same dang thing in TFA with the F-11 with an AR stock and folding stock...

The Death trooper variants in R1 have the same thing. It has lead me to conclude that the thing that is folded stock of the sterling smg and identified as a folding stock in old technical manuals... is in fact something else entirely, especially since we never see them unfolded in canon sources. What would seem to be the buttplate on the F-11 is specifically called out as folding front grip in one of the TFA visual guides.

So it seems that E-11s in fact do not have stocks as standard.

On 18.11.2017 at 6:44 AM, Ghostofman said:

Oh good, it not just me...

Though if you want to get all Otaku, they do the same dang thing in TFA with the F-11 with an AR stock and folding stock...

Hmmm. I don't really get it. Hmm. Google-Fu.
Here the standard imperial non-sniper E-11

ARRGGGGGGGGGGGGG NOW I get it. That is so dumb. Why FFG, please WHY?!
E-11 Sniper Version with double stocks, now in comparison to the standard E-11 fully visible at the barrel.


And the biggest irony? Add on extended barrel attachment, and the standard E-11 (EotE, p160, the plain Blaster Rifle is an E-11 or A280) is already the better sniper than FFGs supposed sniper version E-11S.

BlasTech E-11s Sniper Rifle

This is actually bad enough that it would deserve and errata imho.

On 2017-11-20 at 2:21 AM, SEApocalypse said:

Hmmm. I don't really get it. Hmm. Google-Fu.
Here the standard imperial non-sniper E-11
ARRGGGGGGGGGGGGG NOW I get it. That is so dumb. Why FFG, please WHY?!
E-11 Sniper Version with double stocks, now in comparison to the standard E-11 fully visible at the barrel.

(...)

This is actually bad enough that it would deserve and errata imho.

Has anyone ever seen the stock unfolded in any official media except the technical guides (I think that pic is from Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology, which included a lot of EU stuff, and should thus be firmly legends)? In my mind, the E-11d's from Rogue One should definitely override an old technical guide and on them, it's seems to serve the function of a hand grip, maybe to keep your hand of a potentially hot barrel? Maybe with a fold out vertical grip?

The TFA visual dictionary identifies it as such on the E-11 successor, the F-11.

Also, without a stock, it's even more evident that your average Imperial Blastech E-11 Blaster Rifle should be a carbine as far as the rules are concerned. But that's been a pet peeve of mine for years. Kinda like the quite humongous DH-17 pistol always seems to be used as the average sized blaster pistol while Han Solo's much smaller DL-44 is considered the big and heavy one...

I might have put way to much thought and effort into this. The curse of geekdoom I suppose.

1 hour ago, penpenpen said:

Also, without a stock, it's even more evident that your average Imperial Blastech E-11 Blaster Rifle should be a carbine as far as the rules are concerned.

Actually the rules themselves has the E-11 in the " BLASTER RIFLE / CARBINE" category, so if you want to take the E-11 as carbine you are free to do so. The rules are with you on this.

18 minutes ago, SEApocalypse said:

Actually the rules themselves has the E-11 in the " BLASTER RIFLE / CARBINE" category, so if you want to take the E-11 as carbine you are free to do so. The rules are with you on this.

It varies a little between the three core rules. EotE combines the weapons under the single entry Blaster Rifle/Carbine, but specifically calls the E-11 out as a rifle with a folding stock that, with the stock folded, can be fired one-handed at short range. AoR splits the entry and mentions the E-11 specifically as rifle, and does not mention anything one handed shooting or folding stocks for either rifles or carbines. FaD also has separate entries for carbines and blasters, and mentions that carbines can be fired one-handed at short range but does not mention stocks (maybe because the Blastech EE-3 is listed as a carbine and depicted with a fixed stock). Again the Blastech E-11 is mentioned as a rifle, but there is also mention of a Sorosuub E-11 Carbine which has been mentioned in Legends material as basically a standard E-11 with the stock removed (and judging from the Wookieepedia picture, grossly enlarged or only issued to the Mini-me Stormtrooper legion).

Also, when listed as NPCs, stormtroopers have blaster rifles for the most part.

So the rules are somewhat all over the place.

But, since we in all the media never see anyone with an unfolded stock on an E-11, but plenty of examples of people shooting like pistols, I'm going to infer that they have no stock and are Medium-ranged carbines, using the FaD rules (carbines can be fired one handed, regardless of stock).

Hmm. A rifle stock attachment would be kind of neat. Applicable to pistols and carbines. Base mod changes the skill to ranged (heavy) and increases Enc by 1. Further mods could increase range and/or add Accurate.

14 hours ago, SEApocalypse said:

snip

Perhaps that's supposed to be a tripod and not a stock that unfolds? I know it looks the same, but it could easily just fold down a bit so you can prop the sniper rifle up for long distance firing.

Also, every time a Star Wars or Trek fan loses their cool over a bit of minutia, a Lulz Fairy gets it's wings. Space wizards with laser swords, tossing lightning and throwing objects measured in multiple hundreds of tons is fine, but not accurately designing a weapon to realistic standards? THAT'S A BRIDGE TOO FAR!!! *torches and pitchforks*

On ‎11‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 6:38 PM, penpenpen said:

... is in fact something else entirely, especially since we never see them unfolded in canon sources. What would seem to be the buttplate on the F-11 is specifically called out as folding front grip in one of the TFA visual guides.

So it seems that E-11s in fact do not have stocks as standard.

I could swear I've seen it unfolded on screen, but my Google-fu (or memory) fails me.

Hasbro released a new E11 toy in 2014 that has a folding stock. The Star Wars visual dictionary identifies it as a stock.

On ‎11‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 11:44 PM, Ghostofman said:

Oh good, it not just me...

Though if you want to get all Otaku, they do the same dang thing in TFA with the F-11 with an AR stock and folding stock...

The F11 has a collapsible stock (not folding) AND a folding foregrip. Not two stocks. I have the exact same set up on my work rifle.

On 2017-11-20 at 4:36 PM, KungFuFerret said:

Perhaps that's supposed to be a tripod and not a stock that unfolds? I know it looks the same, but it could easily just fold down a bit so you can prop the sniper rifle up for long distance firing.

It looks too awkward for a tripod (not that awkwardness has ever stopped Star Wars weapon designers ) but it could possibly be a bipod. Or maybe it's supposed to be some kind of catch for a bayonet or something? Makes more sense as shared feature with the E-11.

On 2017-11-20 at 4:36 PM, KungFuFerret said:

Also, every time a Star Wars or Trek fan loses their cool over a bit of minutia, a Lulz Fairy gets it's wings. Space wizards with laser swords, tossing lightning and throwing objects measured in multiple hundreds of tons is fine, but not accurately designing a weapon to realistic standards? THAT'S A BRIDGE TOO FAR!!! *torches and pitchforks*

I suspect that the Lulz fairy wing harvesting business has made several fortunes off me over the years. I did spend a decade or so charging blindly at anyone who was wrong on the internet . Nowadays, it's all in good fun. A challenge to figure a plausible explanation for the inconsistencies.