Am I the only one sad that the only weapon attachment for melee weapons is Superior Weapon Customation? Bowcasters get two mods unique to them, yet melee weapons have an entire specialization dedicated to their use.

Some thoughts for melee weapon mods:

Colapasable: with a flick of the wrist the small metal box unfolds into a full sized vibro sword. Let's any melee weapon be concealed like a holdout blaster.

Counterweight: a counterweight attached below the grip makes the weapon easier to swing. Reduces the cumbersome rating by 1.

Magnetic pomel: combined with metal strips on gloves or built into armor this upgrade increases the cost to disarm the weapon to

Mono-edge: the edge of the weapon has been sharpened to a single molecule. Increase the damage rating by 1.

I would think that more melee attention would be shown in the soldier's book. It is kinda more there stick, BHs don't tend to be too melee heavy.

Don't know though, maybe a planned source book.

Leave it to a Wookiee to bring a knife to a gun fight.

Actually, the book doesn't even have melee weapon rules. The entirety of the rules referencing Melee under Performing a Combat Check (p. 132) is "Melee attack difficulties are always "Average". As has been pointed out, this directly contradicts the Melee Weapon skill description (p.84) where Melee is an opposed check. Then, there are no rules for damage. Obviously the intent was Brawn plus the damage bonus of the weapon, plus successes, but nowhere is this spelled out (merely extrapolated from Brawl).

I thought this was weird, too. (That all melee rolls are against an Average difficulty.)

I mean… at that point, it's easier to hit someone in close range with a pistol (only 1 purple die). But unlike melee, you're not adding cover bonuses or shooting into engagement, like you would with a pistol.

I suppose there's a reason most sentients use blasters.

GM Chris said:

Note that its one difficulty die for ranged combat at the Engaged distance, and +1 difficulty die for using a Ranged(Light) weapon while engaged. +2 for Heavy.

So using a melee weapon vs. a target with a rifle is an alright idea. Against a pistol, not so much. The special qualities and crit rating of a melee weapon does make it a fairly good choice, and with a Brawn score above 2 (and assuming Brawn adds in on melee damage as that is oddly missing from what I've read), a Vibrosword is still quite a scary weapon, much more than a blaster pistol.

Also, yes, history has reliably proven that ranged > melee. There is no need for a balance between the two. Just that there is a time and place for melee.

I agree with cetiken , it would certainly be nice to see more customization options for melee weapons. And yeah, I'm okay with blasters being better/more versatile over all, but this is Star Wars! Brawling and Melee certainly have their place, and should be something a PC needs to be wary of, in the right circumstances.

Agreed 100% with the original poster. Would really like to see some more options for melee weapon attachments and/or mods.

Just another post in agreement. Melee weapons need more attachment/mod options.

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to reassure you all that there will be additional melee weapon attachments in the final book, whether or not we have the opportunity to put them in the beta updates.

Excellent news, Sam. TYVM for the update!

FFG_Sam Stewart said:

Cool, thanks Sam. Even if we don't see them for the Beta, good to know they will be in the final book.

In order to buff melee weapons a bit / both for offence and defence … I would love to see the difficulty reduced to 1d if attacking an opponent not armed with a melee weapon - this would even though combat knife isnt the most amazing weapon, atleast give a reason to carry one to be able to defend youself when you get cornered by that sword wielding maniac …rather than just taking your 3d shot using your riffle.

3WhiteFox3 said:

Okay… now I'm just intrigued. What would you envision for a Bola attachment?

GM Chris said:

Grenades instead of the usual bolas. It wraps around you then explodes.

GM Chris said:

Couldn't you electrify them? Or perhaps give them more weights or increase the weight? (Note: Adding weights has historical support) Maybe even give them razor cord instead of normal cord? I'm sure there are interesting things you could do to them, I just came up with this on the fly.

Also, bolas and nets share the same mechanical stats, so some net attachments could be used as well.

My main issue is that there shouldn't be any weapons that don't have enough attachments to use up their hard points. If we have hard points let's use them for something.

Sturn said:

Ninja bolas with smoke grenades! Not only are you down for the count, but you create a visual obstruction for your allies to help your enemies! Bwahahahaha!

-EF

While researching, I came across some interesting bolas that can be found in the Star Wars universe.

Energy Bolas
- An example of energized wires used to incapacitate opponents.

Magna bolas
- Bolas which use magnetism in addition to the mechanics of a Bola to ensnare an opponent.

3WhiteFox3 said:

Nice!!