Howdy y'all,

So I played 41-VEX yesterday in our first session with the Beginner's Game. His skills were very useful during non-combat encounters, but the moment we went into combat he seemed like a joke of a character.

The heal was inconsistent and could only be used once, and at that only healed a few hit points. His attacks rolled prohibitively few dice and almost always missed. Everybody else had fantastic attacks and their out-of-combat skills were generally a match for my own.

So my question is… what am I supposed to be doing in combat? Is there some sort of skill that I should be using to help the team out? Or is he relegated to pea shooter and mediocre heals in combat?

I'd appreciate any tips and ideas. It's entirely possible that there was just something that I was not thinking of, like a skill to help or some other utility.

Hide, and hope they don't have blasters.

HooblaDGN said:

I know it's not exactly the most exciting response, but don't forget about aiding an ally ("Don't shoot them there, aim for the <insert obscure medical term here>!"). You'll be granting a boost die to their attack, which is fairly significant.

And although you are limited to healing each character once per combat, you can attempt to heal them each once. Between aiding and healing (agin, I know not he most exciting of options), there should be something to do each round.

x13phantom said:

lol that's mean. Great reference, but mean.

To the OP:

1. Flank

2. Sabotage enemy weapons

3. Use Medacine check to inflict harm (inject poisons) instead of heal

4. Use gaseous poisons around enemies

5. Install a Shard http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Shard ,take talents in the Force-Sensative Exile, and start Force Pushing everyone

6. Pilot a land-speeder or speeder bike and run into enemies, causing collision damage

7. Upgrade Droid with stun weapons and stun/knock out enemies

8. Pilot a jet-pack, grab enemies, drop them from great heights

9. Grenades

10. Flame-thrower, area attacks

Would aiding an ally be a coordination check and how would you measure the difficulty?

HooblaDGN said:

Ha ha, sorry mate - just realised that assisting (aiding) might not be in the beginner game - it's a rule from the full Edge of the Empire game.

It's very simple though. A character can use his action to assist another character with their skill check. When they do so, compare the characteristic and skill rating used for the check of both characters. If the assisting character has a higher characteristic or skill rating, you can use one characteristic or skill rating from the assisting character and one from the acting character.

If the assisting character doesn't have a higher characteristic or skill rating (which sounds likely in this case), the assisting character simply adds a boost (blue) die to the dice pool for the check.

I.e.: the assisting character doesn't roll at all, he simply makes it easier for the acting character. Hence why I said it might be a bit boring…

Other things that can be done… in theory, at least…

• Distract the opponents by "stupid PC actions"
  "Hey! Over here!"
• jam the bad guys comm gear
• move cover around for your friends.
• fake chatter between two or more squads to intimidate the opponents
• fake recall orders for your opponents.
• pick up a blaster and imitate IG-88

If 41-Vex is a droid, a medical droid on top of that, isn't his programming anyway against harming/killing sentient species, except in utter most desperate self defense, and even so? (I don't have the Beginner Box yet, so I don't know whether this is mentionned).

A medical droid (or any droid not programmed for combat), in a combat situation should be support only. As other said, open the doors, slice the systems, aid by healing, aid by running around screaming "Oh Dear, Oh Dear"… 41-Vex is the comic relief of the group (with the Wookie). It's C-3PO basically, but Medical instead of Protocal.

Your game partner will love you because in the middle of the intense fight, you will be the one shiny (literraly) beacon of comic relief.

Cheers

Ceodryn

Just a few things I'd like to add:

1. Aiding (as well as Aiming) are in the Beginner game.

2. Droids cannot be Force-Sensitive, so far as I would imagine.

3. According to the Beta, playable Droids are Class Four Droids (security, battle, what-have-you), and thus not Medical Droids specifically, even if they have taken the Colonist Career and use Talents associated with medicine.

Also, don't be shy about using lightside destiny points. Those points are meant to be spent, and the upgrade can help.

Can you give me a page reference for aid in beginner's game?

HooblaDGN said:

page 13

Thanks! We haven't finished the initial adventure yet so haven't touched the rulebook (kinda fun to learn a new system at the same pace as our newer roleplayers).

Assist will be quite useful in the sequel campaign!

Yeah droids are suppose to be a master of one at start but they get their day in the sun when their specific skill is needed. Just patience will rule the day.

DylanRPG said:

They aren't, the crystalline beings that use droids like mech suites are-- Shards and Tsil .

Hopefully FFG puts the Iron Knights in their upcoming Force and Destiny book.

Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm not near the Begginer's Box at the moment), but isn't 41-VEX a 4th-Degree droid which would make him a Battle Droid?

I imagined him as a combat medic, not nessesarily meant for fighting but meant to tag along during military skirmishes. During a fray you could just think like a droid, see if your Mechanics checks could help by sealing off bulkheads or otherwise hindering the bad guys, or as others have suggested using Medicine to point out weak points.

I think one of the ideas of this game is to think outside the box and combat doesn't always have to be damaging a guy.

WittyDroog said:

Correct on all counts.

Like all things you gotta spend xp to become a good battle droid.