Hello everyone,

I'm getting into a Star Wars campaign with a few friends and I had a few questions about signature abilities.

You can only get one if it is a part of your career, correct?

What are some of your favorite signature abilities?

Looking through them, I am interested in Prophecy and Peerless Interception.

How do you handle Prophecy?

If the signature ability mentions a base ability, does it apply only when you are using that signature ability or whenever you use that ability (reduce strain under Peerless Interception, is this for any time you reflect/parry, or just during Peerless Interception)?

It's quite possible to have all signature abilities for your career, but you will need multiple in-career specialization trees to "attach" the sig-abil to. (1 per SA).

As for your other questions, I will set aside and let someone more familiar with those abilities to answer.

On 11/29/2019 at 7:54 AM, SinDreamer said:

How do you handle Prophecy?

If the signature ability mentions a base ability, does it apply only when you are using that signature ability or whenever you use that ability (reduce strain under Peerless Interception, is this for any time you reflect/parry, or just during Peerless Interception)?

Prophecy is meant to be a vague prediction of what is to come. Definitely would have to be GM approved as it has the potential to easily be abused.

In terms of the example given, those perks only apply when the signature ability is active, otherwise those perks would become blatantly overpowered just because of how strong some SAs are.

Thanks for the clarification everyone!!

What are some of your favorite SA's?

As a story teller the one I hate the most is unmatched fortune. It is for the smuggler and you get to change dice face to and adjacent face. So you can simply turn your yellow dice to get triumphs. Or after you upgrade get rid of despair. It is the most powerful one to me.

The hired gun - Last One Standing - is good to kill all the minions it will greatly sway combat.

One that would be fun but I would want to do it to the GM is the prophecy for the mystic. You get prophecies like Harry potter you randomly throw out prophecies. Some GMs may love it unless you use it too often.

My favorite so far is Fated Duel . It's for the Guardian career. It's perfect for a character who has a personal nemesis.

On 12/5/2019 at 11:52 AM, Tramp Graphics said:

My favorite so far is Fated Duel . It's for the Guardian career. It's perfect for a character who has a personal nemesis.

To go on top of that, Ace with This One is Mine is a great one for the pilot focused players

The one for Hired Gun career That kill everything is very fun.

I like unmatched ferocity. With a saber with high Breach and enough strain threshold, I believe you could disable a small transport, then proceed to wipe out everyone IN the transport.

I like Peerless interception.

For jedi, Peerless interception is my favorite followed by unmatched ferocity. Starting steel hand adept, and cross specing into niman disciple, thanks to unmatched ferocity you can one encounter per session match the damage output of an aturu striker, while having 3 force dice and 2 dedications. The ultimate j2 spec edi duelist starts in jedi knight thanks to the quick path to power, and cross specs into ataru striker, ending up with 3 force dice, 2 dedication improved parry/reflect. Thanks to peerless interception they can thwart another ataru striker unleashing saber swarm against them while being able to shred anyone without peerless interception. However, a jedi:knight/niman-disciple might beat a jedi:knight/ataru-striker by using move which can't be blocked by peerless interception and triggering more improved parry thanks to having 2 ranks of defensive training while having 4 force dice and 2 dedication. Peerless interception completely nullifies the ataru strikers saber swarm.

Peerless Interception is crazy good.

Unmatched Ferocity and Fated Duel are solid.

I like Fearsome Reputation for some characters.

Unexpected Demise and the Seek mastery ability is a scary combo... especially with a Varpeline Crystal.

The strongest defensive ability in the game is either peerless interception or coordination dodge

A jedi:knight/niman-disciple (full peerless interception, 5 ranks of parr fr4) is stopping 11 points of damage (unless they committed 1 force dice for the sense defense double upgrade, in which case it's stopping 10 points of damage) give them a dragite crystal with concussive 2, and the first time another duelist attacks them they activate effortless parry and activate quality to activate concussive 2 and that's game set match... just drop a speeder on them for the next 3 of your turns before they are able to attack.

Here are 3 questions for other GMs, if a jedi stops ALL of an attack's damage with parry/reflect can the attacker still trigger a crit 1) by RAW? 2) by RAI? 3) at your table? Because the answer to that combined with the previous paragraph could determine.the ultimate lightsaber duelist

Coordination dodge lets you add 5 failures, (assuming 5 ranks in coordination) which has a strong chance of turning any successful attack (EVEN A VEHICLE WEAPONS ATTACK) into a failed one but it costs a destiny point.

Improved dodge and force leap is cool, although it's unclear whether RAI is for them to work together or not, I'm leaning toward yes, same for time to go and force leap.

unmatched fortune and crafting is insane... scoundrel:gambler/shipwright/droid-tech is a crazy good crafter. But seriously with 3 yellow and a willingness to make 20 attempts you can get an insanely good "standard" lightsaber.

12 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

if a jedi stops ALL of an attack's damage with parry/reflect can the attacker still trigger a crit 1) by RAW? 2) by RAI? 3) at your table? Because the answer to that combined with the previous paragraph could determine.the ultimate lightsaber duelist

You do Reflect/Parry before Soak, so no. If you block 5 of an incoming 8 damage with Reflect, and then your 5 Soak absorbs the rest of the damage, they can't trigger a crit because they didn't get through your Soak.

27 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

You do Reflect/Parry before Soak, so no. If you block 5 of an incoming 8 damage with Reflect, and then your 5 Soak absorbs the rest of the damage, they can't trigger a crit because they didn't get through your Soak.

1) I'm not sure dealing damage is necessary to inflict a crit, I'm pretty sure it's not in vehicle combat, but if soak comes into play it means you got tagged.

2) I'm asking what happens when you parry 11+ damage when the attack deals 11- so soak never comes into play, so you never got tagged.

2 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

1) I'm not sure dealing damage is necessary to inflict a crit, I'm pretty sure it's not in vehicle combat, but if soak comes into play it means you got tagged.

2) I'm asking what happens when you parry 11+ damage when the attack deals 11- so soak never comes into play, so you never got tagged.

Most of the special weapon abilities only require a successful hit, however it has been stated a long while back (Dev questions I believe) that you do need to actually cause at least 1 would to activate a Critical Injury.

As for Critical Hits (vehicles) you only have to exceed their Armor by 1 wound (1 armor needs 11 damage) to be able to activate a crit.

At our table, if you Parry/Reflect the entire amount before soak, you never got hit, so no activated abilities and definitely no crit.

12 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

Here are 3 questions for other GMs, if a jedi stops ALL of an attack's damage with parry/reflect can the attacker still trigger a crit 1) by RAW? 2) by RAI? 3) at your table? Because the answer to that combined with the previous paragraph could determine.the ultimate lightsaber duelist

A narrow statutory reading of RAW would lead me to conclude that a critical result is dependent on a successful hit rather than damage. However, I don't think that is very satisfying or the intended spirit of the rules and therefore prefer interpret them to imply you need to do at least 1 wound.

11 hours ago, Vondy said:

A narrow statutory reading of RAW would lead me to conclude that a critical result is dependent on a successful hit rather than damage. However, I don't think that is very satisfying or the intended spirit of the rules and therefore prefer interpret them to imply you need to do at least 1 wound.

This is kind of related to darts that deliver poisons, the dart deals 1 pt of damage which can't get through brawn 1 soak without successes, and for them it's really just intended to be a successful hit regardless of damage.

6 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

This is kind of related to darts that deliver poisons, the dart deals 1 pt of damage which can't get through brawn 1 soak without successes, and for them it's really just intended to be a successful hit regardless of damage.

I agree, in that circumstance, the RAW is commonsensical. The operative word, however, is circumstance. The best interpretation of the rules is dependent on circumstances.

Weapon Qualities (i.e. Burn, Knockdown, Ensnare) can only be activated on successful hits. Critical Injuries can only be activated on attacks that deal damage that exceeds the target's soak.

Chapter V: Gear and Equipment, any CRB.

22 hours ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Weapon Qualities (i.e. Burn, Knockdown, Ensnare) can only be activated on successful hits. Critical Injuries can only be activated on attacks that deal damage that exceeds the target's soak.

Chapter V: Gear and Equipment, any CRB.

Thanks!

That seems to make jedi:knight/niman-disciple with a peerless interception and dragite gem modded for concussive 2 (plus appropriate force powers like move and sense) the ultimate 2 spec build for 1 on 1 jedi combat.

Thanks everyone!

It seems like Peerless Interception is a lot better than I thought.

For the moment, I'm building Padawan -> Ataru Striker, as I won't be getting a lightsaber for a while, and I wanted to keep a high agility, so that I can shoot a blaster and pilot a bit.

This would also let me pick up Peerless Interception later, and the support skills from Padawan are really nice.

On 12/17/2019 at 7:30 PM, EliasWindrider said:For jedi, Peerless interception is my favorite followed by unmatched ferocity. Starting steel hand adept, and cross specing into niman disciple, thanks to unmatched ferocity you can one encounter per session match the damage output of an aturu striker, while having 3 force dice and 2 dedications. The ultimate j2 spec edi duelist starts in jedi knight thanks to the quick path to power, and cross specs into ataru striker, ending up with 3 force dice, 2 dedication improved parry/reflect. Thanks to peerless interception they can thwart another ataru striker unleashing saber swarm against them while being able to shred anyone without peerless interception. However, a jedi:knight/niman-disciple might beat a jedi:knight/ataru-striker by using move which can't be blocked by peerless interception and triggering more improved parry thanks to having 2 ranks of defensive training while having 4 force dice and 2 dedication. Peerless interception completely nullifies the ataru strikers saber swarm.

Are you getting Steel Hand Adept just for the signature ability or does it have good synergy I’m missing with Niman?

21 minutes ago, OtterJethro said:

Are you getting Steel Hand Adept just for the signature ability or does it have good synergy I’m missing with Niman?

The character was a martial artist, unarmed parry is useful for almost any jedi that uses a 1 handed saber (uses off hand unarmed parry for 2 strain instead of 3 strain), it provides a force rating dedication and access to unmatched ferocity.

But knight + niman disciple +peerless interception is a more synergistic combo... peerless interception is the only actual counter to saber swarm (so it isn't a game of rocket tag saber swarm vs unmatched ferocity)

On 12/17/2019 at 9:19 PM, EliasWindrider said:

The strongest defensive ability in the game is either peerless interception or coordination dodge

A jedi:knight/niman-disciple (full peerless interception, 5 ranks of parr fr4) is stopping 11 points of damage (unless they committed 1 force dice for the sense defense double upgrade, in which case it's stopping 10 points of damage) give them a dragite crystal with concussive 2, and the first time another duelist attacks them they activate effortless parry and activate quality to activate concussive 2 and that's game set match... just drop a speeder on them for the next 3 of your turns before they are able to attack.

Here are 3 questions for other GMs, if a jedi stops ALL of an attack's damage with parry/reflect can the attacker still trigger a crit 1) by RAW? 2) by RAI? 3) at your table? Because the answer to that combined with the previous paragraph could determine.the ultimate lightsaber duelist

Coordination dodge lets you add 5 failures, (assuming 5 ranks in coordination) which has a strong chance of turning any successful attack (EVEN A VEHICLE WEAPONS ATTACK) into a failed one but it costs a destiny point.

Improved dodge and force leap is cool, although it's unclear whether RAI is for them to work together or not, I'm leaning toward yes, same for time to go and force leap.

unmatched fortune and crafting is insane... scoundrel:gambler/shipwright/droid-tech is a crazy good crafter. But seriously with 3 yellow and a willingness to make 20 attempts you can get an insanely good "standard" lightsaber.

What if you just leveled the Manipulate force power until you had the advanced version letting you add triumph per force pips...?