Dear Edge Forum,

I'm playing a long running Star Wars game in which my ~400XP force sensitive is likely about to die in a heroic battle against Darth Vader (well, he's going to try to bargain with Vader to convince him to team up to fight a mutual enemy but realistically it'll be me trying to keep Vader occupied whilst the party escapes).

So I'm drafting a replacement character at "Knight" level and settled on an Operator with a fun background (the party needs someone to fly the ship). But Operators only get Ranged Heavy and Gunnery as their combat options, and whilst I can rattle off every Ranged Light or Lightsaber option across all three FF Star Wars games... I have no idea "what's good" in Ranged Heavy. I'm going to have distinctly less xp that most of the rest of the party, so I need a solid weapon in order to be useful when fights break out and I could really use some advice.

So, learned forumites: what's a good Ranged Heavy weapon for a Knight-level Bounty Hunter?

I had some thoughts:

The Air Rifle from EtU would let me take people alive. It seems like it's basically legal everywhere. Relatively cheap, decent range, hard points and encumbrance. Pierce 4 makes up for the mediocre damage. My main concern is no Crits.

Complete opposite direction is just going whole hog with the Disrupter Rifle. Pick up Jury Rigged out of Gadgeteer, throw on a Laser Sight. Absolutely anything that gets in my way gets disintergrated. We spend most of our time on the outer rim on the wrong side of the law, invovled in pretty desperate fights to the death against spectacularly deadly foes more often than not (we recently fought a Rancor).

I feel like I should at least have the option to take people alive though (and I kinda don't want the rest of the party saying "no disintegrations" every session). The Precision X (from ND) looks like a kind of a half-way option: lethal blaster with a stun setting. But it's worse at stunning than the Air Rifle and MUCH worse at killing than the Disrupter. (This feels like the gun I should take, but I guess I'm worried that it looks like a trap option.)

The Flame Projector looks like a brilliant weapon. I guess my main question is "shouldn't this be Restricted?" Every other flame weapon I've looked at seems to be Restricted, but the one in the Corebook is cheap, not that rare and unrestricted. It looks like I might get less hassle carrying it around than I would with the Disrupter. And compared to the Disrupter I could probably throw Superior and Jury Rigged onto it and be able to burn away minion groups with equal ease. But again, no non-lethal option.

And speaking of lethal crowd control, the DLS-12 from KtP has Autofire. As do, well, quite a few weapons actually. I've seen lots of threads complaining about how powerful Autofire is, and as I'll be rolling with characters twice as experienced as mine Autofire might be just what I need to close the gap a little.

And finally, whilst I've got EtU open in front of me, the Model 38 really speaks to me. Huge range. Pierce. Accurate. Loads of Hard Points (I'm thinking a Custom Grip and a Forearm Grip in order to add a couple more blue dice, maybe even a Laser Sight). With all the Advantage I'd be rolling, it'll shoot the fleas off a dog's back at 500 yards. And okay, there's no stun setting as such, but if I can shoot someone and get enough Advantage to disarm them whilst also handing out some black dice, then they're going to have to come along sweet-like... right? But it's also nearly as expensive as the Disrupter.

So, what are your opinions? Is there an awesome Ranged Heavy weapon I've overlooked? Should I be trying to cheese my way around with Gunnery weapons? In your games, just how restrictive do you play walking around with rifles and is carrying a Disrupter asking for instant jail time or do you mostly overlook it?

Eagerly awaiting your replies,

-- JD#244

The dc15a in collapse of the republic pg 51 i s probably the best carbine in the game

9 damage, crit 3, medium range, 3 enc, 4 hp, 1400 credits, rarity 5, autofire, piece 1, stun setting

or maybe you want to try the galaar-15, 9 damage, crit 2, long range, 4 enc, 4 hp, 1100 credits, rarity 7, accurate 1, stun setting.

Ranged (Heavy) has the Heavy Blaster Rifle in core, still one of the most powerful weapons in the entire game, unrestricted- 1.5k/rarity 6 for 10 base damage, long range, 4 HP, and autofire. If you're happy to splash Gadgeteer for Jury-Rigged, Jury-Rig autofire to 1A. Take an Augmented Spin Barrel, Laser Sight, and Superior Modification for 14 damage/pierce 1, accurate 1, 2 free Advantage on all attacks, and +1 hit per Advantage. Even on an attack roll with a single success and nothing else, you're dealing 3 ≈ 16 damage hits.

Bear in mind your GM will almost certainly have to talk to you about this after a few sessions as an even halfway competent character using autofire can reliably delete 2 rivals or a Nemesis in a single action from long range, and combat descends into rocket tag. There is a reason none of the splat Ranged (Heavy) weapons are stand-outs; because FFG still live in fear of the monster they created in the CRB.

(Okay, Bantha's Eye Sight isn't from the CRB, it's from the Hired Gun splat, the very first one they put out...)

21 hours ago, JohnDoe244 said:

In your games, just how restrictive do you play walking around with rifles and is carrying a Disrupter asking for instant jail time or do you mostly overlook it?

Depends on the setting. I've always treated it where carrying a something a bit heavier, even some Restricted weapons, is more reasonable in the more lawless, rural parts of the Galaxy, but frowned upon on the more civilized worlds. I treat it where any rifle, even if not technically restricted, will earn certain looks and a different degree of treatment most of the time, and won't be allowed in civilized areas without justifiable reason.

Disruptors, however, are a different matter. According to Wookieepedia, mere possession of a disruptor carried a death sentence on many worlds. Disruptors are notorious, and carrying one says a lot about the nature of the character - that they're either an assassin, bounty hunter, or criminal, whose first and only option is killing. I treat them like carrying a sign that says "I am an evil person, and care not for life or law." If carried on a world with any degree of law enforcement, it will provoke a well-armed response.

On 7/27/2019 at 3:18 AM, EliasWindrider said:

The dc15a in collapse of the republic pg 51 i s probably the best carbine in the game

Both sound great but we don't have Collapse (yet).

On 7/27/2019 at 7:19 PM, Talkie Toaster said:

Ranged (Heavy) has the Heavy Blaster Rifle in core, still one of the most powerful weapons in the entire game, [...] There is a reason none of the splat Ranged (Heavy) weapons are stand-outs; because FFG still live in fear of the monster they created in the CRB.

Boy did I overlook that. (Ranged Heavy is basically the opposite of Ranged Light in terms of where the best weapons are then.)

So 4HP. Superior is 5k out of a Knight's starting 9500. I figure a Forearm Grip is the poor man's option (Accurate and Point Blank) Custom Grip is the poor man's option (can't put a Forearm Grip on a Heavy Blaster), which leaves me with enough credits to buy Laminate.

The MRK II Paladin (from EV), I note, has Autofire and built in Superior. And that Stun setting I wanted. Not nearly as much damage, but it's a lot cheaper for Autofire spam.

Thank you all for your input.

On 7/27/2019 at 1:19 PM, Talkie Toaster said:

Ranged (Heavy) has the Heavy Blaster Rifle in core, still one of the most powerful weapons in the entire game, unrestricted- 1.5k/rarity 6 for 10 base damage, long range, 4 HP, and autofire. If you're happy to splash Gadgeteer for Jury-Rigged, Jury-Rig autofire to 1A. Take an Augmented Spin Barrel, Laser Sight, and Superior Modification for 14 damage/pierce 1, accurate 1, 2 free Advantage on all attacks, and +1 hit per Advantage. Even on an attack roll with a single success and nothing else, you're dealing 3 ≈ 16 damage hits.

Bear in mind your GM will almost certainly have to talk to you about this after a few sessions as an even halfway competent character using autofire can reliably delete 2 rivals or a Nemesis in a single action from long range, and combat descends into rocket tag. There is a reason none of the splat Ranged (Heavy) weapons are stand-outs; because FFG still live in fear of the monster they created in the CRB.

(Okay, Bantha's Eye Sight isn't from the CRB, it's from the Hired Gun splat, the very first one they put out...)

This is the king. The heavy blaster rifle when modded out right is a terror. Get a character to a high agility score (5 or 6) and give them several ranks of ranged heavy, and you will lay waste to enemies like crazy. Seriously, groups of stormtroopers become wet paper bags. Large crazy strong creatures with huge soaks and lots of wounds that could wipe out entire parties are suddenly full of holes in 1 round. The party will always default to you going first to just clear out as much debris in the enemy ranks as possible.

I have a player that is like this. True Aim, modded weapon, regularly throws down 14+ damage with enough advantage to trigger auto-fire 3 or 4 times (sometimes more).

Makes crafting combat encounters a pain in the butt as the rest of the party can't hit the broad side of a barn, nor do they have the soak/wounds to take much fire. Then there is robo-cop in battle armor and a mini-gatling gun.

Rise of the Separatists has the Z-6 Rotary Blaster Cannon...more or less a Star Wars minigun. It can throw down some impressive damage by itself (12 damage to Long Range), but can only use Autofire and has a nasty tendency to overheat when you're trying to 'ride the lightning'. That, and the weapon is very hard to come by.
Dawn of the Rebellion has the MWC-35c Repeating Cannon. If you saw "Rogue One", its the weapon that Baze was using with the weapon-and-backpack set up. Dual fire modes (Full auto and Semi), respectable damage (Full does 9 damage to Long range, while Semi does 13 damage to Medium range), but if the backpack part of the weapon gets hit, it tends to...how shall we say...'violently overreact'.
Both weapons have their pros and cons, but when your character reaches the point of 'I am OUT of ****s to give', they could do worse than to haul out one of these.

6 hours ago, LugWrench said:

Rise of the Separatists has the Z-6 Rotary Blaster Cannon...more or less a Star Wars minigun. It can throw down some impressive damage by itself (12 damage to Long Range), but can only use Autofire and has a nasty tendency to overheat when you're trying to 'ride the lightning'. That, and the weapon is very hard to come by.
Dawn of the Rebellion has the MWC-35c Repeating Cannon. If you saw "Rogue One", its the weapon that Baze was using with the weapon-and-backpack set up. Dual fire modes (Full auto and Semi), respectable damage (Full does 9 damage to Long range, while Semi does 13 damage to Medium range), but if the backpack part of the weapon gets hit, it tends to...how shall we say...'violently overreact'.
Both weapons have their pros and cons, but when your character reaches the point of 'I am OUT of ****s to give', they could do worse than to haul out one of these.

Dangerous covenants has a better minigun. Not sure on the damage but it's not as likely to overheat if I recall correctly

3 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

Dangerous covenants has a better minigun. Not sure on the damage but it's not as likely to overheat if I recall correctly

The one from DC is a Gunnery weapon, though, where the Z-6 is still Ranged (Heavy).

3 hours ago, Subhntr said:

The one from DC is a Gunnery weapon, though, where the Z-6 is still Ranged (Heavy).

Well... from my perspective it's an interesting choice to make.

Obviously you can't be carrying around a Gunnery Minigun on a Coreworld, but it's not like they're going to let you carry around a Ranged Heavy Minigun instead.

My character will need Gunnery for spaceship combat. Should I bother with Ranged Heavy at all? Am I better off just having Gunnery and using personal scale Gunnery weapons?

I thought Gunnery was probably a little "too much" but if the best Ranged Heavy options are miniguns, it's probably going to be worth it to get a Gunnery minigun... or isn't it?

20 minutes ago, JohnDoe244 said:

Well... from my perspective it's an interesting choice to make.

Obviously you can't be carrying around a Gunnery Minigun on a Coreworld, but it's not like they're going to let you carry around a Ranged Heavy Minigun instead.

My character will need Gunnery for spaceship combat. Should I bother with Ranged Heavy at all? Am I better off just having Gunnery and using personal scale Gunnery weapons?

I thought Gunnery was probably a little "too much" but if the best Ranged Heavy options are miniguns, it's probably going to be worth it to get a Gunnery minigun... or isn't it?

I would get a carbine because you're going to be allowed to take it more places an use the gunnery minigun anywhere you can.

10 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

I would get a carbine because you're going to be allowed to take it more places an use the gunnery minigun anywhere you can.

The Carbines you mentioned look amazing -- and it's great advice for anyone else reading the thread. But we don't have Collapse and the GM isn't going to let me use weapons from a book we don't have (and my FLGS has no idea when they'll get it in).

Any other carbines you think are worth a look?

If you have access to weapons from Lords of Nal Hutta, take a look at the SakTek D-29 Repulsor Rifle. It's a Gunnery weapon that's unrestricted and does stun damage, so you probably have decent odds of being able to carry it around civilized locations, and it opens up the possibility of going all-in on Gunnery and still being able to easily take marks alive. It doesn't have the damage or the range of the stun rifle from EtU, but being able to invest in Gunnery means building vehicle weapon proficiency and switching to miniguns as necessary all with the same skill.

1 hour ago, Kaigen said:

If you have access to weapons from Lords of Nal Hutta, take a look at the SakTek D-29 Repulsor Rifle. It's a Gunnery weapon that's unrestricted and does stun damage, so you probably have decent odds of being able to carry it around civilized locations, and it opens up the possibility of going all-in on Gunnery and still being able to easily take marks alive. It doesn't have the damage or the range of the stun rifle from EtU, but being able to invest in Gunnery means building vehicle weapon proficiency and switching to miniguns as necessary all with the same skill.

(Between the 8 of us in group we have everything except Rise and Collapse.)

I really want to like the Repulsor Rifle. It's a great spot and really fits with my concept of Operator. It's lightweight. Relatively cheap. But you need to hit with at least two successes to KO a single Stormtrooper. Hit with the tricked out Heavy Blaster Rifle posted above with only a single success, and you're deleting two Storm Troopers (plus another two for every Advantage in the roll, and starting with two Advantage before you roll). Plus it's only Medium ranged and you can't fire it when Engaged, so you have one turn of shooting in which to drop your target before they run up and thump you.

Still... it is a pretty decent back-up weapon...

12 hours ago, JohnDoe244 said:

The Carbines you mentioned look amazing -- and it's great advice for anyone else reading the thread. But we don't have Collapse and the GM isn't going to let me use weapons from a book we don't have (and my FLGS has no idea when they'll get it in).

Any other carbines you think are worth a look?

http://swrpg.viluppo.net/equipment/weapons/2760/ it does have cumbersome 2 as a drawback, the other option I'd consider is the dragoon from stay on target... the damage is only 8 but it has accurate 1 and if there is ever anywhere that won't let you bring a carbine but will let you bring a pistol or a ranged light focused ally needs to borrow a gun it's got you covered.