Using the Assist Maneuver?

By Sanguinous Rex, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game

I'm not totally sure I understand the Assist Maneuver. As a Maneuver as opposed to an Action it seems ready to abuse. I hope I am wrong but It sounds like all the players can assist 1 player to shoot an NPC? Like PC's 1-3 say "I am assisting player 4" and when it's player 4's turn he gets to fire with an extra 3 boost dice?

Seems overpowered to me, I dunno.

Well, it has its advanatges and its downsides.

By using the assist maneuver on an ally, they don't use it to aim themselves. Besides, characters assisiting another character need to be engaged together, i.e., a nice grouping for a blast weapon.

Hrm. Just seems to me an easy way of taking down an NPC a turn without breaking a sweat. Especially since its a Maneuver, all the PC's can fire AND say they are assisting.

Sanguinous Rex said:

Hrm. Just seems to me an easy way of taking down an NPC a turn without breaking a sweat. Especially since its a Maneuver, all the PC's can fire AND say they are assisting.

Well, it's totally within GM purview to limit how many PCs can affect another player's action this way.

I'd certainly allow one player to, say, fire off a stray shot to throw a foe off balance so that the next PC to attack gets a Boost Die, but no more than that. Plus, now the first PC to use that maneuver needs to suffer strain to do anything of his own, so I don't find it's unbalanced.

I believe that the Beta rules even state that the GM may use his discretion in granting the assist or not - so a Player does need to justify the assist.

If my players came up with something that sounds reasonable, I'd allow it.