I do not condone meta gaming, however I was thinking of an absurd lightsaber build being,

basic lightsaber.

curved hilt(adds 1 advantage when versing single opponent)

extended hilt( dmg +1, viscous +1)

krayt ragon pearl ( set damage to 9, crit rating to 1, breach 1, Sunder, viscous +1, viscous +3, dmg +1)

11 dmg, breach 1, sunder, viscous 5, defence 1, advantage 1, crit rating 1. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

I know an extended and curved hilt does not make much sense, but disregarding this, how does a Gm handle this besides saying no to the listed upgrades or putting the character in a social setting?

thanks:)

In my opinion, the curved hilt and the extended hilt use different styles of fighting. Examples are Count Dooku (curved hilt) and Luke Skywalker (extended in Return of the Jedi). Essentially, you are trying to put on the hilt of a duelist and the hilt of a power hitter. Common sense would say they are not compatible, and I would have to say no from a GM's point of view. I only say yes when a player can give me good cause to allow such controversial choices.

1 hour ago, Siuolis said:

I do not condone meta gaming, however I was thinking of an absurd lightsaber build being,

basic lightsaber.

curved hilt(adds 1 advantage when versing single opponent)

extended hilt( dmg +1, viscous +1)

krayt ragon pearl ( set damage to 9, crit rating to 1, breach 1, Sunder, viscous +1, viscous +3, dmg +1)

11 dmg, breach 1, sunder, viscous 5, defence 1, advantage 1, crit rating 1. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

I know an extended and curved hilt does not make much sense, but disregarding this, how does a Gm handle this besides saying no to the listed upgrades or putting the character in a social setting?

thanks:)

Krayt dragon pearl is one of the rarest and most expensive krystals that exist. You have to kill a Krayt dragon to get it, those things exist only on Tatooine and are vicious enough that stats for them aren't in the game. It's an absurdly hard thing to get your hands on.

But if they do get their hands on it, hit them with two Morgukai jedi hunters. It's a Nikto cult that specifically hunted Jedi, if anyone is likely to be a soak 12 nemesis with cortosis it would be one of those. Give them some ranks in parry as well and any Jedi who feel invulnerable is likely to reevaluate their opinion in a hurry. Why two? So they don't get the bonus from the curved hilt. But really, just one would be enough against pretty much any Jedi character.

Nemesis-tier Bounty Hunter NPC with 5 ranks in Ranged (Heavy), using a Disruptor Rifle with superior weapon customization, a few ranks of Lethal Blows, Deadly Accuracy, and a talent that lets them add Agility or Cunning to the damage of an attack by spending a Destiny Point. Enough damage to seriously wreck anyone's day in a single shot (if not defeat them outright), high odds of a critical injury, and the surety of that critical injury being really nasty due to the effects of disruptor weapons.

Just saying that if you're worried about players trying to cheese the system with "ultimate weapon builds," the GM can get just as nasty with crafting their NPCs' gear. At least for the majority of the games I've played in, it's been a tacitly implied understanding that so long as the players don't go hog-wild with trying to cheese the system (be it with weapons or character builds), then the GM will show the same consideration and not create NPCs that will mop the floor with the party at the drop of a hat.

That, and as Darth Rev said, a Krayt Dragon Pearl is probably one of the rarest lightsaber crystals out there, and should be a monumental quest for the group to obtain even one of them.

Also, while there's nothing in RAW about it, as a personal guideline I wouldn't allow the various hilt attachments to be stacked with one another (sole exception being superior hilt customization and custom grip from an EotE sourcebook), so doing things like stacking a curved hilt with a reflex hilt (from Endless Vigil) or extended hilt would be veto'd in games I run. Part of that may be lingering disgust with some of the really off-the-wall suggested "special snowflake" lightsaber types that cropped up during my years playing WEG's D6 system.

8 hours ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

... the GM can get just as nasty with crafting their NPCs' gear. ..

I make this point during the first session of all my games, and before character creation. While player progression and them getting more and more interesting toys to play with is a part of any RPG, someone who is gunning for min/max abilities or items need to understand that anything they can do, I as the GM can do, and worse.

Personally, I try to avoid min maxing, at least without talking to the GM first and talking with them about how whatever I'm doing might affect their game. The biggest thing I try to avoid is making the GM feel like they have to scale encounters to my "level" and potentially minimize other PC's importance.

11 hours ago, Siuolis said:

I know an extended and curved hilt does not make much sense, but disregarding this, how does a Gm handle this besides saying no to the listed upgrades or putting the character in a social setting?

thanks:)

As to the OP, a couple of ideas. Instead of out right saying no to having two hilts on the same weapon, just say no to having the benefits active at the same time, then make them make a mechanics check (maybe a hard check?) to make the lightsaber have a "quick swap grip" that they have to spend a maneuver to switch between hilt modes. If they are crafting, put it at a 1 triumph modification for it to have this feature. I think this strikes a fair balance between letting them have versatility, without just saying "no," turning it into a "yes, but...". You could also then justify that in order to have any other "hilt"-based attachments, such as superior hilt & custom grip, the player would also have to pay a surcharge on each hilt style in this "array" to not lose those benefits as well with a new hilt style. Also, be prepared to have this level of flexibility with other shenanigans for other players.

If you want to just be mean to the PC, just have the thing destroyed at first opportunity, and/or double the cost of maintaining/modding/repairing the item because of its unique build. Of course this is suboptimal, as it's just a band-aid on letting such an item exist in your game to begin with, and if you do this too often, you'll definitely have some table drama on your hands.

The only problem with introducing Difficult NPCs is the other party members will not be able to handle this power and then the PC with the saber might feel targeted. Is there any way to avoid this?

15 minutes ago, Siuolis said:

The only problem with introducing Difficult NPCs is the other party members will not be able to handle this power and then the PC with the saber might feel targeted. Is there any way to avoid this?

Just send in 4 full groups of stormtroopers firing stun. Or make it 5, once they're knocked it then steal their stuff and make it a thing to get the pearl back from whatever black market place it was sold to because holy podoo is one of those things valuable.

Also I should probably start a new thread, but there seems to be many knowledgable people on this thread, how would you handle someone using move to lift a NPC in the air(high) and just dropping them to their demise?

thanks:)

1 minute ago, Siuolis said:

The only problem with introducing Difficult NPCs is the other party members will not be able to handle this power and then the PC with the saber might feel targeted. Is there any way to avoid this?

Well, depends on how you play it, also if this is early in the campaign verses a more mature campaign. If this is a young campaign, then they have no real room to complain that their low XP characters can't beat everything they come across, no matter how min maxed they are. Also, and this is why it is super important to explain to your players what min/maxing really does to campaigns, you must provide challenges for that character to overcome, and among these will be NPCs that are more powerful than the challenges the other PCs may face who are not min/maxed. So yes, they will be targeted with challenges appropriate to the scene and power level of their character, and they bring that upon themselves ultimately. Also, there is no reason why there should be any expectation that all encounters are surmountable with a lightsaber :).

If this is a more advanced campaign, then it becomes a matter of providing challenges that are appropriate and using the min/max PC's own tactics against them. Anything the players have done is 100% fair game to do to them. For example, if they've sundered an enemy's lightsaber into dirt, you are free to do the same.

Lastly, if you find a player is consistently acting or designing themselves to "steal the show" so to speak, you are well within your rights to ask them to dial back their character, or even (especially if they are doing this to be obnoxious) invite them to leave your game. Chances are, such a person are annoying the crap out of the other players.

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Also, for difficult NPCs, you can do the other PCs a solid and simply tell them, after seeing their "friend" get wrecked, that it occurs to them that maybe combat is not the way to go with this encounter. Then maybe you can spin off a new adventure of them breaking out of an imperial jail, or whatever.

If you want to design the encounter with multiple power levels, have the Big Bad kidnap the min/max PC after laying them out, then have their minions fight the remaining party members. You can also do what Rev said for the rest of the party.

You can also just suddenly make cortosis more of a thing in the universe, and suddenly every lightsaber is about as effective as a blaster rifle.

Also, every organic that they kill with the lightsaber they start taking bonus conflict for inflicting pain needlessly with a weapon that is almost guaranteed to sever limbs.

And that is not all, there are many many things you can do as the GM to minimize the impact.1

1 minute ago, Siuolis said:

Also I should probably start a new thread, but there seems to be many knowledgable people on this thread, how would you handle someone using move to lift a NPC in the air(high) and just dropping them to their demise?

thanks:)

Use the opposed force power check for all rival/nemesis level NPCs and start giving out discipline /willpower like candy.

minons are made for players to do theses things to.

Thanks for all your replies.

13 hours ago, Siuolis said:

Also I should probably start a new thread, but there seems to be many knowledgable people on this thread, how would you handle someone using move to lift a NPC in the air(high) and just dropping them to their demise?

thanks:)

And of course give them conflict.

It doesn’t have to be complicated:

Option A: day that the offending mod is a different mod than what it is called. It’s all abstraction. Maybe it’s something that makes the energy from the blade more damaging.

Option B: Give your NPCs one rank of durable (Reduce crit by 10) and/or 5 extra Wounds.

I say, if that is what a character wants to build, then let them. Its their HPs, let them fill them as they wish. Nothing RaW prevents it. It would be like building a blaster with both marksman barrel and spread barrel. If that is what they want, make it part of the adventure to get it. Past that, scale the encounter to fit.

Only 11 damage? Swap out that Krayt Dragon Pearl for a maxed out Mephite crystal to get 13 damage. ??

5 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Only 11 damage? Swap out that Krayt Dragon Pearl for a maxed out Mephite crystal to get 13 damage. ??

Sorry it's not min maxed enough, though after some reading, you can get my standard blade to about 12 damage. Yes the Mephite crystal gets 1-2 dmg higher but the krayt dragon pearl gets 4 ranks of viscous, then plus 1 from the hilt and that's 5.

If you want to min max more, pick artisan as your spec and get good a crafting. Then using all crafting rules from fad and etoe make a lightsaber and spend a triumph on schematics and advantage on boost die. If someone in your group has the talent 'valuable facts' (gives you a triumph), get them to use it on you. Then with various talents and triumphs you can get the saber up to 9 hard points. From there install over clocking( viscous 3, 1 advantage) and some other hilts if you want to..

so on your krayt dragon pearl saber you have Viscious 8!

If you want to min max more..

Get another saber but use the kimber stone( turns all dmg into stun , crit rating zero), and then yatta yatta ya with the crafting and you have a saber that can probably wear down most of a nemesis's strain. But the more important thing is you attack with this first, get one strain dmg in, crit for free, attack with other saber which will now add 90 to crit rolls.

Even if your opponent survives the first round, they are pretty much dead on the second.

On 4.1.2018 at 0:25 AM, Siuolis said:

The only problem with introducing Difficult NPCs is the other party members will not be able to handle this power and then the PC with the saber might feel targeted. Is there any way to avoid this?

Is the Jedi the only Fighter in the party? As the others have pointed out, it will take quite some time for a Jedi to get a pearl and the skill to craft and modify a lightsaber like that. By this time, the other characters probably have all their custom autofire blasters of minion-slaying.

How do you handle this lightsaber?

I guess the main problem is then, to design an encounter where the Jedi is able to get at least one swing against his opponent, before his buddies have shot every enemy in town ;-)

On 5.1.2018 at 10:54 PM, Tramp Graphics said:

Only 11 damage? Swap out that Krayt Dragon Pearl for a maxed out Mephite crystal to get 13 damage. ??

The Mephite crystal can be sensed by any force user. Which GM would not use this hook and make it a big disadvantage? (Are you your own GM?)

The Jedi will lose a lot of friends, if he is visited by inquisitors on a monthly basis, if he does not lose his life first...

And all this extra risks for just +1 dmg? (and -3 Vicious as Siuolis pointed out)

I'd go with the pearl everday of the week.

10 hours ago, Rogues Rule said:

The Mephite crystal can be sensed by any force user. Which GM would not use this hook and make it a big disadvantage? (Are you your own GM?)

The Jedi will lose a lot of friends, if he is visited by inquisitors on a monthly basis, if he does not lose his life first...

And all this extra risks for just +1 dmg? (and -3 Vicious as Siuolis pointed out)

I'd go with the pearl everday of the week.

Personally, I don't see that characteristic as a disadvantage. since, basically, what it entails is a strong Force connection between the character and the crystal. That being said. The crystal can only be sensed by another Force user only if said Force user is actively using the Sense power at the time, and is within range to do so.

Easy ways to deal with characters who carry OP weapons.

Force Move: use the Control upgrade to pull the item from their grasp.

Force Bind: Use the basic power to stop them from moving and then shoot them to death.

Force Influence: mind trick him into dropping it.

Force Misdirect: use the Duration upgrade that makes the NPC invisible to the target.

Sum Djem: use this talent to "disarm" them.

Theft: players should sleep, eventually. Things can go missing when you're unconscious, especially rare, shiny things that are worth in excess of 20,000 credits.

Aimed Shot: under Maneuvers: choose the option to arm at a target's body part or a weapon. Shoot the lightsaber out of their hand.

Magnets: yeah, that simple. What is a lightsaber made from? They usually have a metal casing.

Gas: You can't deflect gas.

Jetpacks: give the enemy a disrupter weapon and a jetpack. It's very hard to hit things that fly with a melee weapon.

Cortosis armour/shields: denies the weapon's Breach special rule.

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And the easiest way of all: don't give your players super-broken OP items!

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Given a long enough time scale, if a character is using a super heated blade to destroy people, word is going to get around. As they win battles with their new toy, start by making them feel good about their heroism. Make them famous. Give them medals. Praise them for using the weapon. Then remind them that their enemies have been waiting and watching. And that they won't be coming to play in a fair fight. They have heard about the character's shiny glow toy, and they've come prepared with countermeasures.