The vibro axe has a pierce of 2 so it reduces the target's soak by 2. Last night we were having trouble remembering to reduce soak by 2 when the adversary was hit with a vibro axe. Going forward I was thinking about just increasing the base damage by 2 and dropping the pierce.

The only issue I can see with this is that it will cause more damage to adversaries with a soak of less than 2, but I don't recall seeing any adversary with a soak of less than that so that is more of a theoretical issue that may or may not come up during play. I could always reduce the damage accordingly if it does come up but it i miss it then it probably won't be a big deal.

Am I missing anything by making this change?

It's your game, you can certainly do whatever you want. If that makes it easier for you, then go ahead.

That being said...

I find that my group is forgetting some basic stuff in this game too. New system, new rules, it takes some time getting used to it. I wouldn't change the rules up, but just do your best to remember what was forgotten. Chances are you consult the character sheet for damage and such, put a (+2 pierce) note next to the damage. Hopefully this will fix the issue.

While almost any enemy has soak of at least 2, if not higher, you don't want to get into that trap of making those adjustments. What if you upgrade the pierce? What if you come across something with lower soak. Now things get mismatched.

There are 2 ways to view soak also. Increasing damage against characters with soak. Ignoring X points of soak. And this does matter.

Increasing damage against a low soak target just increases the damage. 7 damage + 2 pierce vs 4 soak is 5 dmg.

Ignoring has the same effect.

High soak is where it matters...

7 damage + 2 pierce vs 15 soak = 0 damage

7 damage vs 15 soak would be 0 damage, but 2 points of damage ignore the soak, so you sneak 2 damage by despite the high soak value of the target.

But 10 soak never happens....actually it does. Large enemies such as Rancors, and even hutts can have 10 soak or more, and then they also have a ton of HP. Pierce suddenly becomes essential to the ability to even do damage.

The raging debate over pierce is here:

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/89632-piercebreach-and-the-application-of-damage/

My question assumes agreement with the majority opinion that pierce reduces soak and is not a minimum damage.

My question assumes agreement with the majority opinion that pierce reduces soak and is not a minimum damage.

In light of that, like the second poster mentioned, while it may be academic now, if someone starts making modifications to that vibro-ax, it could easily move up to 3 or 4 pierce. That would sort've work counter to the design of pierce, which is to specifically affect a target for no more than their soak value.

My advice is to simply try to remember the weapon has peirce. I don't mean that to be snarky or condensending. What I mean is, as players make more and more modifications to their weapons, there are going to be more and more qualities to keep track of that can't simply be translated to "more damage" or whatever. There are qualities which reduce crit rating, or give auto 1 advantage, or +10 to crit rolls...bunch of stuff.

My honest, no snarky, feedback is to "try to remember"...because you're going to be doing more and more of it anyway.