With Poe it's the stress of using his ability that really ways him down. It limits his mobility to much over the game.

It's a shame the concept of strain came out after the resistance pack, Poe could of been a choice between strain or stress to use his ability, I think that would've helped.

Another possible fix would be a Resitance Astromech that allowed you spend stress for a reroll on offence or defence. Similar to a Ten Numb or Braylen abilty? Maybe this being Resistance R2-D2.

Allowing Poe to weaponise his own ability and thematically thrive on the stress, you could then double position and have a passive mod.

Edit..

Poe could turn into a good counter Sloane....

Would also be a good astromech on one of the other other Transports or a new option for Cova...

While I am in the 'Astros should be good and underpriced to help give X-wings a unique identity other than raw stats' camp, astros that turn a mechanic intended to be as universal a limiter from a negative into a positive would be way too much, as that doesn't just affect Poe's ability, but also essentially means at least one resistance ship in every game will... just not have red on their dial.

Part of why this works for B-wings is that only one of the stressing duo can actually get rid of the stress, and its only 2 pilots in the faction on a very specific type of ship that isn't very maneuverable even with the ability to treat stress as a positive.

This mechanic, if 'pushed' by a good price, would just make Poe another gnarly super ace with way too much passive modding and reposition, because he would be just yet another dude able to do crazy maneuvers plus double-mod. I get that would make him 'competitive' with Boba, but Boba is garbage for the game on so many levels that he should not be the bar a pilot has to meet to be viable. Part of why Poe is interesting is that he can 'frontload' a turn action economy wise and pay for it later either in his next dial or next turn's actions. While it stinks an Ace with such a cool identity conceptually doesn't work in the game now, I don't think it is Poe's 'fault' as much as the other aces getting way out of hand.

1 hour ago, dezzmont said:

While I am in the 'Astros should be good and underpriced to help give X-wings a unique identity other than raw stats' camp, astros that turn a mechanic intended to be as universal a limiter from a negative into a positive would be way too much, as that doesn't just affect Poe's ability, but also essentially means at least one resistance ship in every game will... just not have red on their dial.

Part of why this works for B-wings is that only one of the stressing duo can actually get rid of the stress, and its only 2 pilots in the faction on a very specific type of ship that isn't very maneuverable even with the ability to treat stress as a positive.

This mechanic, if 'pushed' by a good price, would just make Poe another gnarly super ace with way too much passive modding and reposition, because he would be just yet another dude able to do crazy maneuvers plus double-mod. I get that would make him 'competitive' with Boba, but Boba is garbage for the game on so many levels that he should not be the bar a pilot has to meet to be viable. Part of why Poe is interesting is that he can 'frontload' a turn action economy wise and pay for it later either in his next dial or next turn's actions. While it stinks an Ace with such a cool identity conceptually doesn't work in the game now, I don't think it is Poe's 'fault' as much as the other aces getting way out of hand.

The bar should not be Boba I agree, but it could be to meet what a force using Ace carries continually on them. Poe is supposed to be the best combat pilot in the galaxy at time. However in game he falls very short, he gets hampered by his own ability, and becomes very predictable. Some where a little closer to gnarly ace isn't an unreasonable place for him.

The issue is some factions just aren't going to have an abundance of force users and it seems like the lack of those passive mods are effecting those factions without.

I'm throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. Using a universal limiter in such a way where it has no meaning is probably to far. Having turn after turn action economy or rerolls isn't where we want to be, thats the issue with Boba. Vader has action econamy on a limited resource which is the ball park I thin we should be playing in.

So it could be more like Braylens ability, if you are defending or making a primary attack, while you are stressed you can reroll one blank result. You could limit that further with a re-occuring charge or two.

Alternatively - while defending or attacking you may spend a stress token to re-roll x dice. If you do after the attack has finished gain one strain token. (So trade the stress for strain.)

Additionally you could just make any of the ideas purely defensive. Giving the opponent the agency of allow him an opertunity to un-stress.

Poe's also notable for being way too cocky and that causing problems for him - IMO his ability perfectly fits with this by being very, very powerful but with a potent downside that if ignored will cause problems. He doesn't really need a way to ignore that downside, and I think it'd make him worse (read: less interesting) for it. His balance problem is purely one of points, not a critical flaw with the ability or the chassis, both of which are very good. He even has some great upgrade options to aid in maneuverability.

Ultimately, if force mods are an issue (they are) then those pilots should cost more than they do now especially in relation to someone like Poe.

However, I want to again note that if Poe comes down BB-8 and Overdrive thrusters almost certainly need to go up.