Long story short, we have a player that's about obtain the capacity to get about 8 proficiency dice when they aim a blaster rifle. And with their weapon + talents, they basically get enough crit and/or damage to decimate opponents on turn 1. And, they can reliably repeat this on each turn. The main trouble is this is character is so lethal that NPCs who can challenge them are basically going to murder the other characters that are nowhere near that kind of offensive output.

So, what ideas do you have to challenge this kind of offensive nuke?

Just have a talk with the player about the concept of game balance, nad ask if he could please redistribute his XP so other players can have fun too.

Alternatively, lots of anatagonists who can use the Diplimatic Solution signature ability. Or Star Destroyer. Lots of Star Destroyers.

How do you get 8 proficiency dice anyway?

17 minutes ago, micheldebruyn said:

How do you get 8 proficiency dice anyway?

7 in a Characteristic (6 through Dedication+1 from Cybernetic) and 6 in a Skill (5 through training+1 from something else) with 3 True Aim. Or 4 True Aim and drop the extra point in a skill. I listed the skill because it maxes out at 6.

In my opinion, with the exception of Mechanics for crafting, a character's reliable skill (base dice pool before talents and gear) should top out at YYYG or, with Brawn based skills, YYYYG (I feel that Brawn is more plausible to increase dramatically than the other Characteristics). Combat skills are another matter, I'd push it up to 4 Agility or 5 Brawn max, and max 5 in the skill. Note that I play in/GM combat-focused campaigns, where pretty much all of the characters can both take it and dish it out, so one PC being way better than the others at combat doesn't really come up.

Note that "should top out" is no sort of limitation, just a matter of "do you reeallly need more than that?" I like having the potential to fail.

Hostage situation vs an adversary with Imperial Valor.

20 minutes ago, kaosoe said:

Hostage situation vs an adversary with Imperial Valor.

I autofire, targeting the hostage first.

Has happened to me before. XD

Include things beyond combat. Have encounters that require stealth. Do more RP encounters using social skills.

Force users that can deflect shots, or use their abilities in other ways to mess with that character.

Lots of enemies.

Combat encounters that take place in areas where weapons are restricted. "Sorry sir, anything bigger than a sidearm is not allowed in here."

Vehicles. Starship combat, ground vehicle combat.

Mass combat encounters.

I tend to find that I get munchkin players when I failed as a GM. If combat becomes the focus of the adventure, players will build towards that end. If I spread out the sorts of things that are useful, no one focuses so intently on combat.

The other side of the coin though is that it's ok for a character to have a niche. This characters niche is combat. He's great at that. If all you do is have combat encounters, then the game is oddly balanced and he prospers. If however there are things for the other players to participate in, then it doesn't matter. If someone becomes amazing at being a 'face' character, and is the center of every diplomatic encounter, we don't worry about the combat character's feelings. Just balance the encounters so that every player has a chance to shine in every adventure.

38 minutes ago, kmanweiss said:

Include things beyond combat. Have encounters that require stealth. Do more RP encounters using social skills.

Force users that can deflect shots, or use their abilities in other ways to mess with that character.

Lots of enemies.

Combat encounters that take place in areas where weapons are restricted. "Sorry sir, anything bigger than a sidearm is not allowed in here."

Vehicles. Starship combat, ground vehicle combat.

Mass combat encounters.

I tend to find that I get munchkin players when I failed as a GM. If combat becomes the focus of the adventure, players will build towards that end. If I spread out the sorts of things that are useful, no one focuses so intently on combat.

The other side of the coin though is that it's ok for a character to have a niche. This characters niche is combat. He's great at that. If all you do is have combat encounters, then the game is oddly balanced and he prospers. If however there are things for the other players to participate in, then it doesn't matter. If someone becomes amazing at being a 'face' character, and is the center of every diplomatic encounter, we don't worry about the combat character's feelings. Just balance the encounters so that every player has a chance to shine in every adventure.

Hit the in the dumpstat

2 hours ago, LordBritish said:

I autofire, targeting the hostage first.

Has happened to me before. XD

As long as everyone at the table agrees that that is the tone of the game they want to play, that is fair. But dear gods, that is far from the tone of the games I wish to run.

The answer to this depends on the rest of your gaming group make-up. The reality is that combat can be totally dominated by ranged "blaster rifle" based characters so if you have other combat focused characters in the group you'll need to have combats that play to their strengths and these will probably be more narrative things like melee based characters being challenged to a duel or specifically called out and challenged (e.g., make it personal to the characters). kmanweiss' advice above is great. Make the encounters about something else - ultimately - even the combat encounters. Make stealth or skullduggery or technical ability or social capability essential to accomplishing the point of the encounter.

If the 8 Proficiency Dice characters is the only combat focused character then just accept in your planning that combats aren't meant to be a group challenge bug a challenge for that character and that once that's done the game can move on to the next thing (combat plays quickly so it shouldn't suck up most of the play time).

If you want to challenge that one character then bring out the big guns yourself. Look at Master Bounty Hunter and Assassin Droid in the Edge core book for a good place to start for Characteristics/Skills and weapons. Pull out thermal detonators. Use Concussion weapons (see Dangerous Covenants pg 46 for Concussion Grenades, Concussion Missile), see IG-88 from Adversary and Allies.

Use big minion groups and lots of minion groups - 6 squads of 6 Stormtroopers is a threat. Have them use the Light Repeating Blaster options. Give them an E-Web. Throw in a hidden sniper into an encounter. Who has this character crossed? Hutts can send waves of bounty hunters and thugs and assassins. Surprise attacks with the tactical and initiative advantage to the enemy.

The down-side to these amped up combat encounters is that combat focused characters who don't have 8 Proficiency Dice and have chosen the most powerful/broken option in the game will feel overwhelmed and totally outshone. So, if you've got another combat focused character then I'd go the route of discussing the balance at the table with the 8PD player and ramping the character down to allow other concepts to have breathing room (they'll still get to be awesome).

I know the GM in the game I play in has a house rule that no skill can be more than 5 no idea is that may help

Put them up against an opponent of similar ability.

5 hours ago, Oldmike1 said:

I know the GM in the game I play in has a house rule that no skill can be more than 5 no idea is that may help

I had always assumed this WAS the limit, no house rule needed. In the skill descriptions, there is an explanation of each skill level. It stops at 5. I doesn't say "5 or higher". The description of 5 speaks of few obtaining this mastery level.

41 minutes ago, Sturn said:

I had always assumed this WAS the limit, no house rule needed. In the skill descriptions, there is an explanation of each skill level. It stops at 5. I doesn't say "5 or higher". The description of 5 speaks of few obtaining this mastery level.

it only came up as there is a tree that lets you use force rateing as you skill level (I have a 6 now)

On 2/11/2020 at 4:53 PM, kaosoe said:

As long as everyone at the table agrees that that is the tone of the game they want to play, that is fair. But dear gods, that is far from the tone of the games I wish to run.

In all fairness, there were a few contributing factors to that, there had been an OOC deadlock lasting half a hour, half of us were fine with letting him leave, half not. The guy who ultimately took the shot was a human replica droid, whom had been struggling with identity since discovering he wasn’t human in a deliberate decision to lean into what he really was. A killing machine that would accomplish his mission at any cost, no matter who he crossed. It was a one two punch that proved revealing.

that being said, the fact that it was so tragic really made that particular session memorable and did several things for my character including a presistant loathing for all droids, especially combat models. Only a soulless husk like them could prioritise killing a target over saving a life, and is frequently advesial over others trust in droids. Really, it’s just a painful regret that he wasn’t able to save his best friends sweetheart at the final hurdle.

Restrict weapons that are allowed in locations. The Empire is fearful of a rebellion here, no weapons are allowed. So they have to brawl or talk their way out of things. If there weapon is giving the ridiculous bonuses then destroy their weapon.

Depending on your game use force powers against them like bind or influence( you don't want to shoot anyone).

One other thing I did was to use captives to control them. Another player or NPC is held and will be killed if they don't lay down their weapons.

In my games I will limit max stats based on the players earned exp. Stats are capped at 4 for all players. When the pass 400 earned exp they can raise a stat to 5. Then at 1000 earned exp they can go to 6. .

I watched a podcast where a player had really high stats and it wasn't fun for the others, they would step back in those scenarios since the other person had such high stats it killed Role playing. In combat it is less damaging, but then to deal with combat monsters other get wrecked by what you have to throw at them.

On 2/11/2020 at 10:53 AM, kaosoe said:

As long as everyone at the table agrees that that is the tone of the game they want to play, that is fair. But dear gods, that is far from the tone of the games I wish to run.

This is why I love my group. We have an instinctual rule. Often times we notice that we have an instinctual reaction to a situation "My character does this." and then everyone gasps, then the player rethinks it and realizes that it's a brash reaction and the walks the action back. The GM gets to enforce the instinct if its appropriate for the character. Over time we've come to embrace those instincts.

Having some nutball just throw caution to the wind and do that stupid impulsive thing leads to really, really interesting scenarios that are fun to play out.

20 hours ago, Sturn said:

I had always assumed this WAS the limit, no house rule needed. In the skill descriptions, there is an explanation of each skill level. It stops at 5. I doesn't say "5 or higher". The description of 5 speaks of few obtaining this mastery level.

It is the limit, at least in regards to actual ranks that you can buy through XP. What these people are talking about are enhancements which can potentially boost the total number of dice rolled, not the actual ranks the character has in the skill.

4 hours ago, kmanweiss said:

This is why I love my group. We have an instinctual rule. Often times we notice that we have an instinctual reaction to a situation "My character does this." and then everyone gasps, then the player rethinks it and realizes that it's a brash reaction and the walks the action back. The GM gets to enforce the instinct if its appropriate for the character. Over time we've come to embrace those instincts.

Having some nutball just throw caution to the wind and do that stupid impulsive thing leads to really, really interesting scenarios that are fun to play out.

we have one player who is very short sighted with her character. IE I don't need a stun weapon I will hit them with the butt of my gun.. oh that did not work well ok I kill everyone in the room. It was funny the 1st time but now I wonder if its to be who the character is not just something that happens

On 2/12/2020 at 4:09 PM, Tramp Graphics said:

It is the limit, at least in regards to actual ranks that you can buy through XP. What these people are talking about are enhancements which can potentially boost the total number of dice rolled, not the actual ranks the character has in the skill.

The cybernetic enhancements let you get an attribute 1 higher, and I think you can craft a cybernetic to let you get a general (not knowledge or combat) one higher too. There's an avionics cybernetic that can get piloting to 6 if it was 5 without the cybernetic.

Earlier it was mentioned? Who has this PC crossed. Here is the thing and I've spoken of it on a few places on this forum. REPUTATION <- This right here, the PC and the group has to have this high level recognition; Bounty Hunters, Crime Bosses, the Empire as a whole, a large number of systems they've operated out of, etc.

Well with that in mind the PC and the group probably have a lot of blood on their hands, legally and of course illegally. They may arrive on a civilized world where the PC is wanted for murder, owes money because they wrongfully killed someone, etc.

Folks who closely know how they operate may sell this information to any number of interested parties...

And if said PC has wrongfully killed someone, and they consistently avoid arrest or shoot their way out, someone(s) are bound to pull a bait and switch trap to capture or just kill them.

PC barricaded behind a sturdy wall, a breach weapon will blast through that. They stopped in a shadow port for resupply and fuel, shame something was added to the fuel that goes big boom upon jumping to light speed. Or they somehow had their navi-computer sliced and they end up in a sun. Players play dirty, as a GM you're a player also, just on the other side of the table. Role-playing, where one player takes other role of a GM.

Explosives delivered via a power droid. Nobody suspects them, just sitting there next to the ship or acting as a power droid. How do they deal with half a dozen droidekas? With upgraded force fields.

Has the PC ever been invited to a shooting match, hunt or a fan of theirs to honor them?

20 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

The cybernetic enhancements let you get an attribute 1 higher, and I think you can craft a cybernetic to let you get a general (not knowledge or combat) one higher too. There's an avionics cybernetic that can get piloting to 6 if it was 5 without the cybernetic.

Yes. But that's why I specifically clarified ranks you can buy with XP. I know there are enhancements that can boost that, but you cannot actually spend XP to raise a skill rank above 5.

2 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

Yes. But that's why I specifically clarified ranks you can buy with XP. I know there are enhancements that can boost that, but you cannot actually spend XP to raise a skill rank above 5.

Despite which, a cybernetic granted rank is still an actual rank not simply a means of upgrading a dice pool.

1 minute ago, EliasWindrider said:

Despite which, a cybernetic granted rank is still an actual rank not simply a means of upgrading a dice pool.

I understand that. And I don't deny that. It doesn't contradict my point though. I was talking exclusively about ranks you can buy with Experience Points . I specified that explicitly. You cannot buy more than 5 Ranks total using Experience Points . That is the limit you can raise your ranks in any skill using XP . What Cybernetics can do does not change that rule.

8 minutes ago, Tramp Graphics said:

I understand that. And I don't deny that. It doesn't contradict my point though. I was talking exclusively about ranks you can buy with Experience Points . I specified that explicitly. You cannot buy more than 5 Ranks total using Experience Points . That is the limit you can raise your ranks in any skill using XP . What Cybernetics can do does not change that rule.

That may be what you meant, but you referred to them as "actual ranks" later on in your comment. (underlined for emphasis)

On 2/12/2020 at 6:09 PM, Tramp Graphics said:

What these people are talking about are enhancements which can potentially boost the total number of dice rolled, not the actual ranks the character has in the skill.