Parry & Reflect vs Lightsaber Throw

By Sincereagape, in Star Wars: Force and Destiny RPG

6 hours ago, emsquared said:

Yeah, I get it. There's an exception for everything, except the one thing that makes you wrong. I know how minds like yours operate.

It's okay, I'll run my games how I want (RAW and RAI), and you'll run yours with made up head canon.

You're getting weirdly personal here, and you still haven't even tried to answer how a lightsaber stops sound waves larger than a person. Please explain that.

14 minutes ago, Stan Fresh said:

You're getting weirdly personal here, and you still haven't even tried to answer how a lightsaber stops sound waves larger than a person. Please explain that.

There is this thing called the Force it has a light side and a dark side that binds the universe together. Its like Duct Tape only Magic.

It lets you do anything if you are one with it even stop sound waves with a glowy stick that cuts people like butter (which are not larger then a person or actually have any mass at all)

4 minutes ago, Decorus said:

There is this thing called the Force it has a light side and a dark side that binds the universe together. Its like Duct Tape only Magic.

It lets you do anything if you are one with it even stop sound waves with a glowy stick that cuts people like butter (which are not larger then a person or actually have any mass at all)

Thank you, but I asked emsquared.

Also, the specific attack under discussion is able to affect a volume that can encompass several people who are wrestling or swordfighting at once. "Sound waves larger than a person" is an entirely appropriate way to describe it colloquially.

And your point is?

I'm not seeing the issue.

Its almost like you don't get how the Force works...

If it lets you shoot lightning out of your fingers or track people across the galaxy stopping sound with a bare hand is nothing...

Using a glow stick would be even easier.

4 minutes ago, Decorus said:

And your point is?

I'm not seeing the issue.

Its almost like you don't get how the Force works...

If it lets you shoot lightning out of your fingers or track people across the galaxy stopping sound with a bare hand is nothing...

Using a glow stick would be even easier.

My point is answering the question asked here earlier whether you can reflect sonic attacks. I don't understand why you're trying to make me justify something as obvious as that, and I'm not going to respond further to you here.

The question, to remind you, isn't whether you can stop sound waves with your bare hand. It's whether you can Reflect them, which means using a lightsaber or similar weapon to do it.

You obviously under estimate the power of the force....

Reflecting Force Lightning is canon in star wars revenge of the sith. Mace Windu does it to melt Palpatine's face with his light saber.

Sound waves are nothing compared to force lightning.

Stop with the attack of logic and embrace the power of the force.

16 hours ago, Varlie said:

I forget, is the Ithorian Bellow an area effect attack? Just as I would not allow Reflect to counter a grenade blast that went off near the Jedi, if the Bellow has a blast effect, then no it could not be reflected.

Per the AoR core rulebook, page 58, it's Damage 6, Range [Short] attack with Blast 3, Concussive 1, Slow Firing, and Stun Damage. So it has the option for an area effect via Blast 3, but it's not considered an area attack by default in much the same way a grenade isn't an area attack if you fail to trigger the Blast quality.

Saga Edition had the bellow as a 6 square cone area attack, and the Deflect talent for the Jedi class spells out that said talent doesn't work against area attacks.

Of course, since FFG Ithorians use Resilience to make the ranged attack with their bellow, using Reflect by RAW is a moot point.

Edited by Donovan Morningfire
1 hour ago, Stan Fresh said:

Thank you, but I asked emsquared.

Also, the specific attack under discussion is able to affect a volume that can encompass several people who are wrestling or swordfighting at once. "Sound waves larger than a person" is an entirely appropriate way to describe it colloquially.

Reflect doesn't stop area effect damage as far as I know.

2 minutes ago, Darzil said:

Reflect doesn't stop area effect damage as far as I know.

The full description of the talent (F&D CRB pg150) doesn't say either way. Just that it can be activated when the character is targeted by a Gunnery, Ranged (Heavy), or Ranged (Light) attack.

Then again, the only "area effect" in this game is the Blast quality, which as written doesn't involve a combat check in and of itself to deal damage, so it's nebulous as to whether or not you could use Reflect against the Blast damage from a grenade (which requires a Ranged [Light] attack). I'm inclined to say that Reflect wouldn't be allowed to protect against Blast, since the PC wasn't the target of a successful combat check.

Bear in mind though that if you're the primary target of an attack with the Blast quality and the attack hits, you don't suffer the Blast damage. It's only if the attack misses that you could suffer Blast damage if the attacker has enough advantage to activate the quality.

Probably one of those things that if you want a "definitive" answer on whether Reflect can be used against Blast damage or not, you'd need to ask the devs and see what they say.

A focused sound beam can be reflected. Because sound is being used as a pulse or beam like a blaster bolt which can be dissipated or batted away. But a lightsaber can't stop a very loud hollar. Or crazy loud alarms. Its not possible.

Edited by TheShard

Cause if you can block that, can i reflect scaithing tirade?

8 minutes ago, TheShard said:

Cause if you can block that, can i reflect scaithing tirade?

What about a tornado?

What about a fart?

Like can i use reflect to get a boost on my stealth checks for reflecting the sound of my footsteps away from my position?

Edited by TheShard

Dude why can we hear the inquisitor when he uses that stupid spinning saber... He should be reflecting his words away...

Ooo is that way aggressive negotiations works? Ooo can i reflect aggressive negotiations?

I would think that the Ithorian Bellow projects directed sound much as a flame projector directs a spray of fire. Didn't Jango use a flame weapon against Windu on Geonosis? I don't think Windu used Reflect then.

Seems to me that weapons with a Blast rating, such as the pellets from a shotgun blast or the spread of blaster bolts from that attachment that makes it into a shotgun-like weapon, might also be tough to Reflect.

9 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

I would think that the Ithorian Bellow projects directed sound much as a flame projector directs a spray of fire. Didn't Jango use a flame weapon against Windu on Geonosis? I don't think Windu used Reflect then.

In terms of game mechanics, it can be considered one of two ways:

First option is, that Jango missed the ranged combat attack, but had enough advantage to trigger the Blast quality that the weapon had. As I noted in an earlier post, since there's no successful attack roll directly involved with Blast, it can be said that Reflect doesn't work against Blast.

The other option is that Jango simply got a lot of successes, enough to overcome Windu's Reflect value and soak value, and that Windu's burning cloak were a narrative effect of Mace taking a point or two of damage from the fire.

There's a song on the radio I don't like. Better whip out my lightsaber and hold it between me and the radio, that way I won't hear the song.

I don't think if I was gm'ing that I'd let a player reflect a sound based attack (I'd let them try, but don't think I'd see them succeed :p). I think in the KOTOR games sonic attacks were listed as a good way to kill jedi because they couldn't reflect that kind of stuff with a lightsaber. I think similar has been said about grenades and shotguns due to the spread of damage, but I'm less certain on the specifics.

Parrying a lightsaber I'd be cool with because you're basically trying to bat away a solid object (I like to think of it being like Aragorn in the Fellowship of the Ring, wrong genre but still a cool moment).

If someone wanted to block a sonic type attack, maybe using the force power protect using one of the controls would be best?

38 minutes ago, Rabobankrider said:

I think in the KOTOR games sonic attacks were listed as a good way to kill jedi because they couldn't reflect that kind of stuff with a lightsaber.

In the KOTOR games you CAN reflect sonic attacks, but they're barely bigger than a blaster bolt and they don't spread out.

Ah, I must have forgotten that. I do think that HK-47 did still list it as a good attack against jedi though.

That i get. Its a sonic bolt. A below that projects roughly in a direction isn't reflectable.

Edited by TheShard
On 8/17/2018 at 11:50 AM, Donovan Morningfire said:

Given that in none my games has a single player chosen to play an Ithorian and that I've house-ruled out the bellow as a species ability (especially as the only individual that's done so was in a Legends cartoon that was known for overpowered characters), it's a moot point at my table.

Purely out of curiosity, since you've removed a key trait of the Ithorian race, how have you off-set the loss? Extra starting XP?

2 hours ago, Underachiever599 said:

Purely out of curiosity, since you've removed a key trait of the Ithorian race, how have you off-set the loss? Extra starting XP?

+10XP, +1 to Wound Threshold, and a free rank in Knowledge (Xenology)