"May perform a maneuver to cause all ranged attacks targeting [SELF] to instead hit one ally or helpless enemy he is engaged with until the beginning of his next turn." ( E-CRB:403, IMPERIAL MOFF)
Explain to me like a DM would explain to a Player, that even his amazing precision shooting will get the hostage shot at.
Two words: meat shield.
4 hours ago, RusakRakesh said:"May perform a maneuver to cause all ranged attacks targeting [SELF] to instead hit one ally or helpless enemy he is engaged with until the beginning of his next turn." ( E-CRB:403, IMPERIAL MOFF)
Explain to me like a DM would explain to a Player, that even his amazing precision shooting will get the hostage shot at.
"It's a narrative thing." My simulationist leanings despise that explanation, but it's the only one that works here. Either accept that it works despite not making sense or just don't use it if it's going to cause brain glitches in you or your players. In the latter case, there are many equally annoying abilities that you might want to examine too.
4 hours ago, RusakRakesh said:"May perform a maneuver to cause all ranged attacks targeting [SELF] to instead hit one ally or helpless enemy he is engaged with until the beginning of his next turn." ( E-CRB:403, IMPERIAL MOFF)
Explain to me like a DM would explain to a Player, that even his amazing precision shooting will get the hostage shot at.
The battle seems to be won, the last remnants of the stormtrooper resistance fall before your parties might, yet a loud, stern voice tainted with an element of desperate panic cuts above the crowd.
"Drop your gun now, or I will crater this hostage's face like the surface of Alderaan. NOW! I mean, you are New Republican militant's aren't you? It's against your laws of diplomacy to endanger this prisoner, YOU MUST LET ME GO!"
It doesn't matter how good a shot you are or even how fast your reactions are, your trained gunslinger eye can see that the imperial officer has a gun to the hostages head, his eyes wide with barely restrained panic, his fingers trembling on the trigger just a scarce fraction away from blowing his face clean off, you get the feeling that even making the attempt to aim at him right now would cause that last line of restraint to slip. He edges toward the door inch by inch, the base might have fallen but even so this broken man clings to the savage hope that if he can just cross the threshold he might be able to get away, to live. What do you all want to do?"
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There's a reason a lot of super capable heroes suddenly lose a lot of bluster the moment a hostage becomes involved, the threat posed to the party at this point is no longer simply a narrative. The hero might have been able to make that shot most days, but the danger is just too great and while he's certain he might be able to wound the imperial as he is covering his vitals; that might make the situation worse. I don't GM, but if I am pulling something like this, I might be expecting to either give the opportunity for the big bad to get away or I might be looking to challenge the players in another way, for the party to convince everyone to de-escalate the situation and negotiate, the unseen assassin to sneak behind to deliver a fatal blow or at the very least provide a good enough narrative distraction to enable the Imperial Officer to leave a oppertunity in his armour.
Plus you are assuming as the player you have absolute control of the narrative at all points. That's simply incorrect, a character is never perfect no matter how high their attributes are, they are always subjects to the odds and can encounter situations where their skills just aren't good enough, or that the nemesis has a watertight strategy that would be able to foil just that particular skillset and that is compelling story. High's and lows, sometimes a hero must fail and have the inadequacies exposed so that they can correct it and improve. That is the fundamental core of the heroes journey, to encounter difficult situations that have to be resolved creatively and for the character to emerge stronger from that experience.
Of course, the narrative should trump talents. Just as the talent suggests, if he is in the position to hold a helpless character captive, that is a gold mine for roleplaying opportunity for the combat encounter to stop and a new type of encounter to arise.
It doesn't seem too hard to imagine, he steps behind the line of Stormtroopers, or grabbing a hostage and you don't have clean shot of him.
A decent example in the movies is in Empire Strikes Back. On Bespin, when Leia, Chewie and 3PO are being escorted by the Imperials and they come across Luke, the officer immediately falls back and hides behind Leia. If Luke were to shoot, the officer would undoubtedly try to block the shot with Leia.
22 hours ago, RusakRakesh said:Explain to me like a DM would explain to a Player, that even his amazing precision shooting will get the hostage shot at.
-He's holding the hostage in from of him and doing a really good job of keeping the hostage in your line of fire.
-The Stormtroopers are moving about, as you peer through the scope you only get glimpses of the Moff between Troopers.
-Ok, try it, it'll be an "Impossible" check, so you'll need to spend a D-point to even make an attempt at all, and the difficulty will be whatever I say it will be.... now where's that dice bag? I need like, 10 more reds and 20 more blacks...