So I have run into a bit of a conundrum concerning droid PC's and stun. I like this option as it offers a less lethal yet still serious threat to the party. If I run an encounter where the NPC's wish to capture or incapacitate group, i can simply have them switch to the stun setting. The problem lies in droids as they are not organics.

While most skilled bounty hunters would probably have an ionization weapon, it can get pretty gimmicky if there always just happens to be a ion weapon on hand when they run into adversaries trying to take them alive. It also takes away from the fun of playing a non-organic, and I am sure my droid pc will begrudge me for not allowing him that advantage.

On the other hand, if they can't stun the droid their options are to either ignore him, which does not make any sense if he is shooting back, or have them switch their setting to lethal and risk potentially killing or crippling him.

So I am curious as to how other GM's handle this? Do you just always pack a backup ion weapon for those encounters? Or just rule that the stun damage effects droids as well?

I wasn't aware that droids were immue to the stun setting. though if you want an in-universe way of dealing with it, there are restraining bolts, droids are considered to be a sub-class therefore antagonists would have no qualms either just destroying the droid or telling its master to call it off (like a dog)

if the PCs were known and considered dangerous (e.g. being chased by a bounty hunter) then play it smart, he'd hire backup and he'd bring tools (like an ion weapon) to deal with all the threats to the group.

I just assumed droids were immune to stun, otherwise there would be no need to include ion weapons. I don't have the rule book in front of me, but if I remember correctly they stun setting is wording as attacking the central nervous system.

Anyways I may just rule that they can be affected by stun weapons just like organics, as it is just easier to manage, but I am sure to be griped at by my droid player

Depends on the droid player. If it was a combat droid I could easily see a group being used against them, knowing their enemy, and have an Ion gun. Otherwise some coercing of "Either shut down, take this restraining bolt, or we disassmble you and sell you for scrap"

"shutting down sir"

Appeal to the droid's loyality subroutines. Once the other PC's are down, have them tell the droid to stand down, or they'll kill the unconscious PCs.

I just assumed droids were immune to stun, otherwise there would be no need to include ion weapons. I don't have the rule book in front of me, but if I remember correctly they stun setting is wording as attacking the central nervous system.

Anyways I may just rule that they can be affected by stun weapons just like organics, as it is just easier to manage, but I am sure to be griped at by my droid player

Page 47. Droid entry doesn't say anything about them being immune to stuns. Immune to toxins and poisons, yes. Stuns, no.

I think of it in real world concepts. The central nervous system works by use of electricity. I think of stun setting as an electrical pulse that disrupts the nervous system, much like a taser does. If you tase an electrical device I would imagine that it would be disrupted as well. It may shut the device down and only need a reboot, or it could fry a board, or something. So I see no reason why a Droid would be immune to stun settings. I imagine the ion projecting devices are more for PC benefit against multiple droid enemies.

I would have droids vulnerable to blasters set for stun. The reason for ion weapons is they are selective against droids. Maybe. Or maybe it is just one of those things we aren't supposed to think about too much.

Ah ok guys, I actually read up on Ironization blaster, as per page 162;

Somewhat contrary to it's name, the bolt doesn't disable the droid mechanically, but instead attaches to it's housing and issues a broadcast command to halt that cannot be refused. The ionization blaster amplifies the command via the blaster's power pack to a range of about 12 meters in a wide, unfocused arc.

It does 10 strain damage(droid only) and has Disorient 5(one setback to all checks for five rounds once triggered)

So it is only slightly more effective then just shooting a droid with a Blaster Rifle(dam 9) or Heavy Blaster Rifle(dam 10)on stun setting... Seems rather redundant to me. I guess it is more effective than a pistol on stun, but that can hit both humans & droids.

Another odd thing, while looking up the stun setting, I was surprised to read,

When weapons with a stun setting are used to deal stun damage, their range changes to short and can not be increased.

So why include stun setting on blaster rifles with a range of long? Anyone using a rifle is going to be doing so for the range, otherwise you'd use a carbine.

What do you guys think of this? Were you unaware of this like I was? I am not sure if I will use this as RAW. Once example I can think of is Long Arm of the Hutt, Ambush at the Lylek Den, it says that the bh's start at medium range, but try to take the PC's alive, using stun setting until one or more of their party is taken out. The Gand bh has a Blaster Rifle, but it seems silly to make him have to leave cover and run up to the PC's just to get a short range stun shot off.

So why include stun setting on blaster rifles with a range of long? Anyone using a rifle is going to be doing so for the range, otherwise you'd use a carbine.

What do you guys think of this? Were you unaware of this like I was? I am not sure if I will use this as RAW. Once example I can think of is Long Arm of the Hutt, Ambush at the Lylek Den, it says that the bh's start at medium range, but try to take the PC's alive, using stun setting until one or more of their party is taken out. The Gand bh has a Blaster Rifle, but it seems silly to make him have to leave cover and run up to the PC's just to get a short range stun shot off.

It's for consistency, really. The stun setting is something that all blaster weapons can be used for, but it is limited to short range. In the case of the rifle vs. carbine, the user is still more likely to take advantage of the range capabilities. However, stun settings still require the user to be in close to further subdue, bind their target after they've been stunned. A long range shot with stunning means they have a turn or two to potentially shake it off. As for the Gand in Long Arm, it does make sense for them to either close, or to wait until the players close and they quickly switch off to stun. The blaster rifle happens to be what they're holding... and their task is to take down the PCs. It makes the encounter more interesting that the Gand has to maneuver closer to start pelting them with stun shots.

Going back to the Ionization Blaster, it's more akin to a super-stunner for a Droid... especially since it also has the Disorient 5 special rule. Sure, stun settings on blasters work in a pinch, but the Ionization Blaster is exceptionally effective against Droids.

Ion Blasters are also nearly 4 times cheaper than blaster rifles, they weigh less, and they are easier to find. It also uses Ranged (Light) and 10 base damage for a Ranged (Light) weapon is bonkers, even if it is stun and droid only. You could Dual Wield those bad boys if you wanted to!

What do you guys think of this? Were you unaware of this like I was? I am not sure if I will use this as RAW. Once example I can think of is Long Arm of the Hutt, Ambush at the Lylek Den, it says that the bh's start at medium range, but try to take the PC's alive, using stun setting until one or more of their party is taken out. The Gand bh has a Blaster Rifle, but it seems silly to make him have to leave cover and run up to the PC's just to get a short range stun shot off.

I ran into this conundrum just this week. I knew that stun setting decreases the range by one (or is it always short?), so for sake of brevity, I just ignored the range limitation and let the BHs use their stuns at medium range.

Switching on the stun setting reduces the range to close, and it can not be increased.

Switching on the stun setting reduces the range to close, and it can not be increased.

The rule on Range seems a little less clear on weapons that only fire on Stun.

As per RAW, yes they do HappyDaze, that is why I was curious what some other GM's think on this, and if they just house rule stun to work like a normal shot would.

Switching on the stun setting reduces the range to close, and it can not be increased.

Exactly.

"Long Arm of the Hutt" was written for the beginner game. In that version of the game there is no note that Stun setting decreases the range to Shoft/Close.

Thus if using the beginner rules the Gand can shoot stun blasts at long range, but if using the full rules he can't. Not game breaking, but a bit odd.

"Long Arm of the Hutt" was written for the beginner game. In that version of the game there is no note that Stun setting decreases the range to Shoft/Close.

Thus if using the beginner rules the Gand can shoot stun blasts at long range, but if using the full rules he can't. Not game breaking, but a bit odd.

ah, i forgot about that. There are a few other rule inconsistencies like "make a knowledge check" and a couple things like that in the LAotH text.

We have a droid in our group, and when they discovered the transmitter on the outside of the ship, he said, "can't I just climb out on the ship and try to remove it? I don't have to breath and I don't need a suit".

I totally wasn't expecting that, so...I let him lol.

"Long Arm of the Hutt" was written for the beginner game. In that version of the game there is no note that Stun setting decreases the range to Shoft/Close.

Thus if using the beginner rules the Gand can shoot stun blasts at long range, but if using the full rules he can't. Not game breaking, but a bit odd.

ah, i forgot about that. There are a few other rule inconsistencies like "make a knowledge check" and a couple things like that in the LAotH text.

We have a droid in our group, and when they discovered the transmitter on the outside of the ship, he said, "can't I just climb out on the ship and try to remove it? I don't have to breath and I don't need a suit".

I totally wasn't expecting that, so...I let him lol.

My droid wanted to do the same thing lol, but as he wasn't an astromech droid, I said sure you can exist in a vacuum no problem, but how are you going to stay attached to the ship while it is flying through space. He argued that he would naturally have magnetic clamps, which was a bit much, considering none of the other party have that gear, nor did he state that we would have that ability in character creation.

"Long Arm of the Hutt" was written for the beginner game. In that version of the game there is no note that Stun setting decreases the range to Shoft/Close.

Thus if using the beginner rules the Gand can shoot stun blasts at long range, but if using the full rules he can't. Not game breaking, but a bit odd.

ah, i forgot about that. There are a few other rule inconsistencies like "make a knowledge check" and a couple things like that in the LAotH text.

We have a droid in our group, and when they discovered the transmitter on the outside of the ship, he said, "can't I just climb out on the ship and try to remove it? I don't have to breath and I don't need a suit".

I totally wasn't expecting that, so...I let him lol.

My droid wanted to do the same thing lol, but as he wasn't an astromech droid, I said sure you can exist in a vacuum no problem, but how are you going to stay attached to the ship while it is flying through space. He argued that he would naturally have magnetic clamps, which was a bit much, considering none of the other party have that gear, nor did he state that we would have that ability in character creation.

He could have spent Destiny to edit the scene and make it so.

"Long Arm of the Hutt" was written for the beginner game. In that version of the game there is no note that Stun setting decreases the range to Shoft/Close.

Thus if using the beginner rules the Gand can shoot stun blasts at long range, but if using the full rules he can't. Not game breaking, but a bit odd.

ah, i forgot about that. There are a few other rule inconsistencies like "make a knowledge check" and a couple things like that in the LAotH text.

We have a droid in our group, and when they discovered the transmitter on the outside of the ship, he said, "can't I just climb out on the ship and try to remove it? I don't have to breath and I don't need a suit".

I totally wasn't expecting that, so...I let him lol.

My droid wanted to do the same thing lol, but as he wasn't an astromech droid, I said sure you can exist in a vacuum no problem, but how are you going to stay attached to the ship while it is flying through space. He argued that he would naturally have magnetic clamps, which was a bit much, considering none of the other party have that gear, nor did he state that we would have that ability in character creation.

He could have spent Destiny to edit the scene and make it so.

If nothing else, he could use a safety tether. So long as the ship's pilot doesn't *try* to shake him, 'falling off' should only be an issue if there's a Despair on a roll. And if he's got a built in com-link, they could just swing back around to pick him up.

He could have spent Destiny to edit the scene and make it so.

GM's may use Destiny points to edit a scene, players are more restricted in their use. Dumb Luck, Reasonable Extrapolation or Common Sense are the three categories that govern player use. None of which seemed to apply for this scene. It just didn't seem plausible to me to have a droid walking along the hull of a spaceship while it is in flight, nor could they really stop as more TIE's would of showed up. It was just a simpler to have them remove the device once they landed in Ryloth.

Well, the players thought they HAD to take care of the transmitter once they discovered it. They didn't want to go anywhere until they had found a way to turn it off (the adventure just states that if they slow it down, they simply avoid a space battle...but they didn't know that).

Since I wasn't prepared for the spacewalk, I didn't think about tethering to the ship, or rolling for Coordination to see if he could climb out. I just pictured it like he was climbing a ladder...grabbing from pipe to pipe, or grabbing the various doo-hickeys attached to the ship.

The only check I had him make was a mechanics check to remove it, which the adventure says you can do (but the assumption was they'd do it on Ryloth). Now, if none of them had been droids, I would have said there are no space suits, so eventually they'd have no choice but to go to Ryloth.

Also, we established at the beginning they were simply sitting still after coming out of hyperspace, so the ship wasn't "in flight" or anything like that.

Apologies for the necro-bump, but I've just seen this topic.

In my game stun settings on weapons and ion weapons affect droids, stun grenades don't.

My reasoning is that stun settings are like tasers (electrical), stun grenades are like flash bangs (sound, light, concussive) and have more effect on organics.

Part of my rationale for this comes from the Clone Wars, where there is regular specific use of droid-stopping grenades with an ion-like visual effect.

This gives droids a useful ability whilst still keeping their vulnerability to stun weapons and specific droid-stopping hardware.

Why not just have the enemies shoot the droid (regular blaster fire) til he goes down? Just because you exceed wound threshold (and take a critical hit) doesnt mean you are dead. Just ask C-3PO

I just assumed droids were immune to stun, otherwise there would be no need to include ion weapons. I don't have the rule book in front of me, but if I remember correctly they stun setting is wording as attacking the central nervous system.

Anyways I may just rule that they can be affected by stun weapons just like organics, as it is just easier to manage, but I am sure to be griped at by my droid player

There is nothing that suggests droids are immune to stun damage. All electronic and take shock (stun) damage.