Is it correct that It is not stated in the rules or FAQ that we always get to modify attack or defence dice when they are rolled?

Just, something niggling at the back of my mind.

Ravncat said:

You don't always get to modify them… you only get to modify attack or defense dice when you have an effect that would let you. Such effects include, but are not limited to: focus tokens, target locks, Han's ability, etc.

It sounds like you think there's some way you might be forced to skip a modify results setp?

Could you maybe clarify a bit? While dbmeboy is obviously right that you only get to modify them if you have an ability (or token) that lets you, as far as I know you should always have the opportunity to do so.

Yeah, what I was trying to get at was that you could modify dice whenever you had some effect that would let you and there wasn't any effect that was preventing you.

Buhallin said:

Not really, more the idea that there are places where the step does not exist - you've both just somehow jumped to the idea of combat.

I'm just thinking about effects that ask us to roll a defense die, such as r5-k6. I assume it's 'obvious' that there's no longer a modify step to these dice, but maybe so much so that it's taken for granted. Usually the rules or FAQ would spell it out that it's allowed, and since it's not written, there's no reason for us to do so. It just seems interesting to me that marksmanship and Han solo spell out "when attacking". It generally doesn't seem unbalanced at all to spend a focus token (if you have one) to increase the odds by just a little bit. Target lock would never make sense in any of these situations, because none of these effects involve you attacking a target (See any critical hit effect involving an attack die). Focus tokens would increase the odds of several critical hit action effects to 5/8. It could at the very least make for an interesting pilot ability in the future - something along the lines of 'you may use focus tokens when rolling for droids.

I had a closer look at the focus token entry in the manual, it says they're for use during the combat phase to modify the chances of being hit - which further supports that this is a non-issue, it was just something that seemed interesting. I'll send the question in anyway - just on the unlikely chance that the modify step is somehow attatched to any die roll, provided you had some means of modification.

I don't think my answer was really restricted to combat. :-)

Again, dice can only be modified when some effect lets you modify them and no rule or other effect prevents them from being modified. It just so happens that focus tokens specifically are an effect limited to combat.

Also, the "Modify Dice" step specifically happens in the Combat Phase, directly in response to attacking or defending from an attack. I see no reason to believe it would apply outside of the strict parameters defined in the rulebook, though I could be wrong. When you're asked to roll an attack or defense die, I think it's just used to refer to the type of die; they could just as easily have said red or green. Just my opinion though!

Eyefink said:

This is true. However, nothing in the rules would prevent an ability from modifying dice rolled at other times if the ability specifically did that. It's just that no such options currently exist.

Yeah, that can certainly crop up. I don't know why it would, but the possibility is there. It would probably call for you to "change" your dice rather than "modify" though, to prevent confusion (like some cards do now).