I'm wondering if I've missed anything already in the rules, but I've been looking at some kind of mechanical method of reflecting the "schtick" of the various Sith Lords; the way the operate and the effect they have, from where they draw their strength, etc. For example:

Darth Sidious - all about deceit, deception, clouding the minds of people around him (reflected in his name: inSIDIOUS), manipulation, etc.

Darth Maul - all about unbridled rage and destruction; not even hugely strong in the "wizard-y" aspects of the Force, but a nightmare in battle.

Darth Vader - all about fear; terrifies those around him, breaks them down with intimidation and terror. The novelisation of "A New Hope" describes his first appearance in similar terms to what we see in "Rogue One" (sans the actual awesome carving up of the Rebel troops), where hardened Rebel troops break and run in horror at the sight of him.

I'm trying to think of a way to "personalise" different Sith in such a way. Any ideas would be welcome.

The optional second initiative slot talent for nemeses is great for achieving this kind of signature enemy style.

Take Suppress for example. Highly impractical Force Power for a lone NPC force user to use, as there's probably better uses of their actions, as you're not guaranteed the PCs are even gonna use the Force. But if you have a 2nd initiative slot for that same NPC, especially early on in combat, you can do some fun things with it. Like Suppress, once it's started, you can do it every round and have a persistent anti-Force field, and with little effort pretty much nullify any incoming Force use. An NPC who's "thing" was Suppressing the Force could be pretty cool, IMO.

A darksider focusing on mobility with related Talents and the Enhance Power w/ all the leap upgrades could be highly frustrating for melee/Lightsaber-heavy groups, and with proper environmental/situational set-ups, even to Ranged users- as the nemesis leaps from cover to cover, or even - if they have 2 slots - into Short (combine w/ Hawkbat Swoop) from Long as a Maneuver on one slot, attacking, attacking again and leaping out on a Maneuver at the end of the 2nd... String them along into traps, and things...

A heavily upgraded Misdirect on a 2 initiative slot Nemesis could do some real cool and nasty things.

An Influece and Battle Meditation focused evil darksider in a city (or other heavily populated environment) could send wave after wave of innocents (Minion Groups = 1 target) at the PCs. Again, if they have 2 slots. Are the PCs just gonna mow these people down to get to the darksider? They have to deal with them somehow or be overwhelmed.

Those are my big ideas.

Some pretty fun things that can be achieved with that second slot...

What sort of effect were you going for? Sith are uncommon enough that each one could have their own unique Talents or Abilities that really set them apart.

I start with the signature abilities for each career, and put a dark side spin on them. Take "Unmatched Heroism" from Keeping the Peace . Heroism isn't really a Sith's thing, so rather than allowing the NPC to move to protect an ally from danger, I would instead allow the Sith to redirect an attack at a nearby ally - or roll a Deception check to redirect the attack at a PC's friend (or with a Destiny point, another PC).

Starting with that, I would build a rather shadowy, elusive Sith. Lots of Misdirect, Sense, and Foresee. I would build a manipulator, someone likely to use Shien technique with a lightsaber. Structuring encounters with this NPC would involve traps, double blinds, and building a sense of paranoia wherein the PCs do not trust what they see. I would take my inspiration from The Usual Suspects , building a reputation for a nasty Sith they always feel but never see directly...probably.

With that in mind, I would also give them Adversary (number of PCs), Indistinguishable (numerous), Now You See Me, Parry (highest PC Value), Preemptive Avoidance, Reflect (Highest PC value +1) - Supreme, Sixth Sense (two or three), and Slippery Minded.

Depending on the power level of the game and group, this can be adjusted, but that's my thought process: find some inspiration in unrelated abilities, build the NPC from that core idea, build the story of the NPC to maximize the effect I'm going for.

One thing I do to achieve this is I make "Out-of-Combat" Force events caused by my Sith to be far more powerful than the game mechanics allow. What I mean by this is that I have my big bad Sith Lord (Named Darth Volcanus) capable of unleashing his anger through the force to create apocalyptic levels of seismic and volcanic activity on planets he's orbiting over. As devastatingly powerful as this is, when confronted in combat by my players he will have the same stats as the Inquisitor build.

Vergence-like environmental effects within the Sith's lair could also set the atmosphere. Like in my case Volcanus' lair will have a palpable weight of rage to it and my players will occasionally take discipline checks or else suffer strain and even potential conflict. In the case of the shadowy elusive sith described by JRRP you could fill his lair with mirages (like moving shadows out of the corner of player's eyes) that don't even need to be caused directly by the sith but rather by the effect that he has on the force around him.

The game is meant to be cinematic, so have fun giving the sith personality and then turn up the volume on it!

On 2/12/2018 at 2:49 PM, Daronil said:

I'm wondering if I've missed anything already in the rules, but I've been looking at some kind of mechanical method of reflecting the "schtick" of the various Sith Lords; the way the operate and the effect they have, from where they draw their strength, etc. For example:

Darth Sidious - all about deceit, deception, clouding the minds of people around him (reflected in his name: inSIDIOUS), manipulation, etc.

Darth Maul - all about unbridled rage and destruction; not even hugely strong in the "wizard-y" aspects of the Force, but a nightmare in battle.

Darth Vader - all about fear; terrifies those around him, breaks them down with intimidation and terror. The novelisation of "A New Hope" describes his first appearance in similar terms to what we see in "Rogue One" (sans the actual awesome carving up of the Rebel troops), where hardened Rebel troops break and run in horror at the sight of him.

I'm trying to think of a way to "personalise" different Sith in such a way. Any ideas would be welcome.

You basically just need to give them talents from the various spec trees that reflect that kind of behavior. For Darth Maul, giving him stuff from trees like the Maurader, and other melee heavy, combat heavy, brutal focused specs, is all you need to do.

For Darth Sidious, anything socially manipulative would work just fine. Stuff from the Agitator would be perfect, given his ability to stir up the Senate to his way of thinking. Sprinkle in some talents that help him remain unnoticed, or provide him with boosts to being able to lie effectively, and you're done.

Vader would be similar to Maul, perhaps more of the fear based talents, there are a few introduced in the F&D book.

That's just the talents though, the other thing is just give them appropriate Force powers that have Dark Side unique uses, like Protect/Unleash, and Bind, and Influence, and just have them always use the Dark Side version of the ability.