What are you favorite Kyber Crystals and why?

I'm generally partial to the Mephite and Dantari crystals from the core book, as well as the Etaan crystal from Endless Vigil and the Solari crystal from Disciples of Harmony.

Mephite starts out as generally better than an Ilum crystal, so not being able to get all the mods installed isn't as much of a concern. Downside is that it sticks out like a sore thumb to anyone using Sense that's within short range.

On the Dantari crystal, what's nice is that by only having three mod options, it's not very difficult for a PC that hasn't invested in Intellect, Mechanics or has a high Force Rating to be able to mod it into a potent weapon. Plus, combo that crystal with Ebb/Flow from Disciples of Harmony, and you've got a means to recover strain very quickly, something that is very handy for the Lightsaber Form specs and their dependency on spending strain for their defensive abilities, this being especially true for an Ataru Striker who really suffers from lack of viable strain recovery methods.

The Etaan crystal is pretty sweet, not only reducing the cost of using Improved Reflect, but also adding an extra rank of Parry and Reflect. Damage isn't as awesome as some other crystals, but it's a great option to bolster one's defenses. It also only requires a single hard point, making it a good option for shotos and double-bladed lightsabers as it effectively frees up a hard point that most other crystals require.

Solari crystal is awesome for a Soresu Defender, a Shien Expert, and a Sentry, since it not only provides a rank of Defensive and Deflection, it also reduces the strain cost of Reflect and has a mod to make Improved Reflect even easier to trigger. It also has a neat bit about becoming useless if the character drops below 50 morality, since it's very much a light side leaning crystal.

The Athiss Cave crystal (from the F&D Beta adventure) is a nice option for a starter crystal. It's not as potent as even an unmodded Ilum crystal, but does still have some mod options to make it an effective weapon. It's a good option for GMs that want to provide their PCs with proper lightsabers in the early stages of a campaign, but are concerned about handing out some of the more potent crystals.

Honestly, my favorite is probably the Nightsister one from Unlimited Powah! just because I like the mental image of a lightsaber blade that has a green fire trail like a sword from a fantasy game.

My faves are Mephite, the Kimber Stone, and Solari crystal; mainly for the same reasons @Donovan Morningfire mentioned. The Kimber Stone is on my list because it is a great non-lethal option that’s still super badass. It has the same damage potential as a Mephite crystal (though non-lethal) and has Concussive as an item quality to knock opponents on their collective tails.

For darksiders I love the corrupted crystal. Compared to an ilum crystal, it gives up damage for lethality and that sweet, sweet extra pip.

On 12/23/2019 at 7:35 AM, Vader is Love said:

For darksiders I love the corrupted crystal. Compared to an ilum crystal, it gives up damage for lethality and that sweet, sweet extra pip.

And it comes in so many lovely shades of red.

My two favorite are the christophsis crystal and the dragite gem

I really like the Sapith Gem, for its description of being 'multihued' and its Breach 2 after modding. Nothing better than chucking your 'saber at passing TIEs.

On 12/25/2019 at 11:08 PM, EliasWindrider said:

My two favorite are the christophsis crystal and the dragite gem

May I ask what you specifically like about them?

On 12/31/2019 at 4:16 PM, StriderZessei said:

May I ask what you specifically like about them?

Concussive 2 for dragite gem lets you stun lock 2 opponents, combine it with a damping emitter for a better than kimber stone, stun saber, of course it's damage 8 instead of 10 but niman disciple draw closer compensates for that. Actually having int 3 and 3 ranks of mechanics makes it not too hard to get 2 triumphs for the personalized design and I forget the other one (basically +1 damage and advantage that can be combined with superior, so there's the +2 damage back with 2 advantage to activate concussive 2). christophsis is a lot like ilum but slightly fidgeted with to provide breach 2 in a pretty good mix of abilities and damage. Breach 2 is good for property/vehicle damage (makes it a much better blast door opener, more effective against speeders) also padawan survivor-> secrets of the jedi and improved secrets of the jedi makes crafting sabers easy and let's you get all the mods on on a crystal (basically the only raw way to get all of them)

On 12/21/2019 at 6:49 PM, Donovan Morningfire said:

I'm generally partial to the Mephite and Dantari crystals from the core book, as well as the Etaan crystal from Endless Vigil and the Solari crystal from Disciples of Harmony.

Mephite starts out as generally better than an Ilum crystal, so not being able to get all the mods installed isn't as much of a concern. Downside is that it sticks out like a sore thumb to anyone using Sense that's within short range.

On the Dantari crystal, what's nice is that by only having three mod options, it's not very difficult for a PC that hasn't invested in Intellect, Mechanics or has a high Force Rating to be able to mod it into a potent weapon. Plus, combo that crystal with Ebb/Flow from Disciples of Harmony, and you've got a means to recover strain very quickly, something that is very handy for the Lightsaber Form specs and their dependency on spending strain for their defensive abilities, this being especially true for an Ataru Striker who really suffers from lack of viable strain recovery methods.

The Etaan crystal is pretty sweet, not only reducing the cost of using Improved Reflect, but also adding an extra rank of Parry and Reflect. Damage isn't as awesome as some other crystals, but it's a great option to bolster one's defenses. It also only requires a single hard point, making it a good option for shotos and double-bladed lightsabers as it effectively frees up a hard point that most other crystals require.

Solari crystal is awesome for a Soresu Defender, a Shien Expert, and a Sentry, since it not only provides a rank of Defensive and Deflection, it also reduces the strain cost of Reflect and has a mod to make Improved Reflect even easier to trigger. It also has a neat bit about becoming useless if the character drops below 50 morality, since it's very much a light side leaning crystal.

The Athiss Cave crystal (from the F&D Beta adventure) is a nice option for a starter crystal. It's not as potent as even an unmodded Ilum crystal, but does still have some mod options to make it an effective weapon. It's a good option for GMs that want to provide their PCs with proper lightsabers in the early stages of a campaign, but are concerned about handing out some of the more potent crystals.

A very solid post concerning crystals, however Hawkbat swoop provides ataru striker the opportunity to get extra advantages that can convert to strain recovery, so with the assumption of a single force die I'd agree, but if for example you combo with sage to get 2 extra force dice (3 total), ataru striker has very good strain recovery.

Personally I am realy partial to the Kryat Dragon Pearl as a lightsaber crystal. Of course my Jedi turned StarshipYard owner hunts KDs constantly on Tatooine as a hobby so she collects the Pearls from her kills, getting as many as a few dozen a KD if shes lucky {Twiuce however she has actually come up nil on the hunts}

There's just something wonderful about a beautiful pink lightsaber blade that can be so savage and incredibly nerve breaking in sheer blade energy wash and sounds. a savage blade that sounds like a Kryat Dragon roar ? Yes please! A lightsaber blade able to not just cut, but dset on fire with chance of splash damage too ? Yes please!!

Now just take one of them KDPs and pop it into a staff saber hilt or six dozen {She goes through them like Obi-wan goes through Jedi Cloaks! mostly due to damage or complete loss of the weapon in terms of self destruction}

I'm a fan of one-size fits all EOTE lightsabers. As such, I usually just want a fully upgraded Ilum Crystal. The million-and-one exotic crystals in the books vibes (to me) as being a sort of fiddly gamer chic that worked its way into legends and beyond over the decades. Gamers love upgrades and attachments and modding gear to distinguish their characters as unique. There's nothing wrong with that for those who find pleasure in it. For me, however, what's cool about my Jedi's lightsaber is that its a freaking lightsaber !

I have always felt that using Krayt Dragon pearls wholesale will end up threatening the entire species. As an extremely large apex predator even just one Krayt needs a very large range. There can't be that many Krayts even on Tatooine, so killing off 50+ Krayts is likely to force the entire species to the verge of extinction. That's an act that's definitely not (Living) Force-friendly. At least not the Light Side.

I dont think the KDs are limited to strictly Tatooine in terms of where they reside, its possible there are other planets with KDs residing in the wilds

6 hours ago, Ni Fang said:

I dont think the KDs are limited to strictly Tatooine in terms of where they reside, its possible there are other planets with KDs residing in the wilds

Possible but not probable. The Krayt Dragon pearl entry in FaD only mentions Tatooine.

12 hours ago, Vondy said:

I'm a fan of one-size fits all EOTE lightsabers. As such, I usually just want a fully upgraded Ilum Crystal. The million-and-one exotic crystals in the books vibes (to me) as being a sort of fiddly gamer chic that worked its way into legends and beyond over the decades.

You're not wrong.

The vast majority of those crystals and them having different mechanical effects has its origins in the KOTOR games, which being built around the 3.X version of the d20 system also incorporated 3.X's reliance upon magic items that gave scaling bonuses as the characters in D&D increased in level in order to stay competitive. And since BioWare and Obsidian couldn't due things like D&D's various magic items for lightsabers, they did the next best thing they could, and introduced various crystals that gave various numerical boosts to the wielder's combat numbers.

Prior to that, a lightsaber focusing crystal was just any sort of crystal that was of sufficient purity, whether it be naturally occurring or synthetically developed, and with the exception of WotC's KOTOR and later Jedi Academy Training Manual sourcebooks for Saga Edition, a self-constructed lightsaber just provided a +1 bonus to hit in OCR/RCR/Saga Edition, and that bonus was due to weapon being specifically built for that person.

Given that during the F&D Beta there were folks asking/pleading/begging for FFG to go whole hog and have not only crystals as moddable attachments, but focusing lens, energy cells, etc., it could have been a lot worse than what the system currently offers.

I know there's at least a few GMs that just use the "basic" unmodded Ilum crystal stats for lightsabers, with no mod options on the crystal available and that no matter the point of origin a kyber crystal provides the same flat values. Which is in line with the bulk of the media, as nowhere in the films or books is a big deal made of what benefits a focusing/kyber crystal has. The Jedi Order most likely used Ilum crystals more out of cultural/religious significance in addition to the crystals being fairly plentiful, but apart from that they're not inherently any different than kyber crystals found on Jedha or any other location.

50 minutes ago, Bellona said:

Possible but not probable. But the Krayt Dragon pearl entry in FaD only mentions Tatooine.

They also seem to be only found on Tatooine, which would make the KDPs quite rare given there's only a single planet where the creatures can be reliably found, and even then the assurance of getting pearls of sufficient quality to be used in a lightsaber is probably low.

As a GM, if I had a PC that wanted to farm KDPs by using starship weapons to blow Krayt dragons as a means of manipulating the system, I'd just rule that any pearls salvaged from the carcass were damaged in the process and thus are either unsuitable for use in a lightsaber, or they now have the stats of the cracked crystal from Disciples of Harmony.

Unpopular opinion: KDP is boring.

2 hours ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

They also seem to be only found on Tatooine, which would make the KDPs quite rare given there's only a single planet where the creatures can be reliably found, and even then the assurance of getting pearls of sufficient quality to be used in a lightsaber is probably low.

As a GM, if I had a PC that wanted to farm KDPs by using starship weapons to blow Krayt dragons as a means of manipulating the system, I'd just rule that any pearls salvaged from the carcass were damaged in the process and thus are either unsuitable for use in a lightsaber, or they now have the stats of the cracked crystal from Disciples of Harmony.

To proper hunt a KD, its gotta be with a blade, guns would indeed damage the crystal. also, the FaD entry does not list more than one KDP per KD, for all any of us know, there's possibly a few KDPs in a single KD. my GM's universe had KDs living on any desert focused planet like Tatooine, Jakku, etc

2 hours ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

They also seem to be only found on Tatooine, which would make the KDPs quite rare given there's only a single planet where the creatures can be reliably found, and even then the assurance of getting pearls of sufficient quality to be used in a lightsaber is probably low.

As a GM, if I had a PC that wanted to farm KDPs by using starship weapons to blow Krayt dragons as a means of manipulating the system, I'd just rule that any pearls salvaged from the carcass were damaged in the process and thus are either unsuitable for use in a lightsaber, or they now have the stats of the cracked crystal from Disciples of Harmony.

Farming Krayte Pearls seems conflict worthy. If a pllayer wants a Krayt pearl for their Saber I think a GM should set up an oportunity to get one as a part of some other task.

9 minutes ago, Daeglan said:

Farming Krayte Pearls seems conflict worthy. If a pllayer wants a Krayt pearl for their Saber I think a GM should set up an oportunity to get one as a part of some other task.

For example the krayt dragon corners/attacks them and they have to kill it to survive, and they "happen to get" a krayt dragon pearl out of it.

26 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

For example the krayt dragon corners/attacks them and they have to kill it to survive, and they "happen to get" a krayt dragon pearl out of it.

exactly. and that is the kind of stuff a gm should set up.

53 minutes ago, Ni Fang said:

To proper hunt a KD, its gotta be with a blade, guns would indeed damage the crystal. also, the FaD entry does not list more than one KDP per KD, for all any of us know, there's possibly a few KDPs in a single KD. my GM's universe had KDs living on any desert focused planet like Tatooine, Jakku, etc

In AaA, it says that Krayt Dragons drop 1d5-2 Krayt Dragon Pearls.

Just now, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

In AaA, it says that Krayt Dragons drop 1d5-2 Krayt Dragon Pearls.

Which has the potential to make a pearl or 2 disappear out of your aber 😜