Am I the only one who thinks Ranged (Light) is an odd skill to pair with the Ithorian Bellow ability?

Resilience would make a lot more sense. I can imagine a brawny and stout character being able to damage people with sound more than an agile marksman.

Does anyone else think this is odd, or have alternate ideas to what skill it should run off of?

Is that what it goes off of? That's kinda... strange. I'd say Resilience or something, with perhaps either Brawn or Presence as the linked stat. I'm not sure which. But I don't really think Agility OR Ranged (Light) should affect that at all. I would suggest they change that because it doesn't really make sense. Fus Roh Dah is not really similar to shooting pistol or throwing a rock or grenade.

Agreed. Either Resilience or maybe Athletics (which I'm blanking on wether or not that's a skill) since you would presumably have to be in decent shape for an Ithorian to do it. Lung control and what not.

Ranged should be for aiming or targeting with to some degree of dexterity or another. Bellowing does not fit that at all, whereas Resilience could.

Yeah, I would prefer another skill - possibly even a custom skill tied to Brawn - for the bellow. I suggest going with the custom skill since so few Ithorians are actually proficient in the bellow.

I don't think Resilience should be used as the actual combat skill. Yes, it takes some body control to be able to pull off, but that's already reflected in the 3 Strain the user suffers. Being better at soaking up that strain doesn't necessarily mean you're better at directing the attack itself.

Personally, I think Ranged (Light) is fine. Realistically, given the strain cost, the player isn't going to be able to use it THAT often, and requiring them to dump extra XP into an "only-sometimes" attack option isn't very fun, in my mind.

Of the official options for skills, I think Ranged (Light) is the best choice.

Admittedly, I would have preferred the Ithorians to not have the bellow attack in the first place, but that's not relevant.

Alternatively, you could just make it a straight Agility check with no skill involved, but then you run into cases where you've got Agility 1 Ithorians that can't aim their bellow for crap, making a species ability border on being useless.

Or, add a custom Agility-based skill that's always considered a career skill for Ithorians, which offsets the perceived oddness, but has the drawback of requiring the Ithorian PC to spend XP to be able to use a single weapon (which is neat but far from being awesome) with any amount of accuracy. You could of course then allow the Ithorian to swap career/spec bonus ranks in Ranged (Light) for the "Bellow" skill, but then you're right back at "why not just use Ranged (Light) in the first place?"

I don't have the book but just from a game design standpoint I can see why they did this:

• Using a Ranged (Light) skill means that the attack is made with a combat skill and falls under the rules governing combat skills (e.g. it is impacted by adversary)
• Also using a agility based combat skill means that the player does not need to make his racial ability a dump stat. All classes in some form utilize a ranged light weapon and its very rarely a skill that is never leveled. I'd also guess that the Ithorian racials lend themselves to some of the less combat focused careers which backs up the use of Ranged (Light) even more.
• Custom racial skills add complexity to the system which when you take one race is not really a problem but fast forward several years and now you have a ton of different custom racial skills everywhere.

I do see the complaint about them having 1 Agility but to balance that it's a weapon that cannot be removed or disabled using a despair. In theory you could create some nice role play opportunities of a character that never wields a weapon and aids his allies on the battlefield in other ways.

If every species having a custom skill is a problem, then simply having so many species would be a problem. A given species' skill only comes up if using that species.

I don't have the book but just from a game design standpoint I can see why they did this:

• Using a Ranged (Light) skill means that the attack is made with a combat skill and falls under the rules governing combat skills (e.g. it is impacted by adversary)
• Also using a agility based combat skill means that the player does not need to make his racial ability a dump stat. All classes in some form utilize a ranged light weapon and its very rarely a skill that is never leveled. I'd also guess that the Ithorian racials lend themselves to some of the less combat focused careers which backs up the use of Ranged (Light) even more.
• Custom racial skills add complexity to the system which when you take one race is not really a problem but fast forward several years and now you have a ton of different custom racial skills everywhere.

I do see the complaint about them having 1 Agility but to balance that it's a weapon that cannot be removed or disabled using a despair. In theory you could create some nice role play opportunities of a character that never wields a weapon and aids his allies on the battlefield in other ways.

I get the game design reasons. This is one of those cases where system and narrative don't really work well together.

I don't have the book but just from a game design standpoint I can see why they did this:

• Using a Ranged (Light) skill means that the attack is made with a combat skill and falls under the rules governing combat skills (e.g. it is impacted by adversary)
• Also using a agility based combat skill means that the player does not need to make his racial ability a dump stat. All classes in some form utilize a ranged light weapon and its very rarely a skill that is never leveled. I'd also guess that the Ithorian racials lend themselves to some of the less combat focused careers which backs up the use of Ranged (Light) even more.
• Custom racial skills add complexity to the system which when you take one race is not really a problem but fast forward several years and now you have a ton of different custom racial skills everywhere.

I do see the complaint about them having 1 Agility but to balance that it's a weapon that cannot be removed or disabled using a despair. In theory you could create some nice role play opportunities of a character that never wields a weapon and aids his allies on the battlefield in other ways.

Of course it can be disabled with despair. Any weapon can be disabled with Despair.

Hands can be sprained or broken.

Throats can be parched, sore, gagged, or otherwise inarticulate.

A creative GM can work wonders.

One other thing to consider about the Ithorian Bellow using Ranged (Light)...

Age of Rebellion has the PCs be far more combat-orientated than EotE does, the point that 4 of the 6 careers have it as a career skill.

The Bellow itself isn't that powerful an attack (damage on par with a Blaster Pistol, but worse crit rating and shorter range, plus can only be used once every 3 rounds due to Slow-Firing 2, though it does have some nifty active weapon qualities provided you roll enough Advantage). So unlike Saga Edition where an Ithorian PC could very easily spam their Bellow without minimal penalty, in this system an Ithorian PC is going to need some other means of attacking each round if they so choose (again, noting the inherent combat focus of most careers, it's something the designers figure is going to happen). By only having one skill that the Ithorian PC has to worry about when it comes to choosing whether to use their Bellow or a simple blaster pistol, it cuts down on the XP costs for that character as they don't have to worry about raising two skills (one for Bellow, one for pistols) if they still want to be a viable combatant.

Plus, by having it be Ranged (Light), that's one less new skill that needs to be added to the skill chapter.

That and I agree with FangGrip that a Despair can easily cause an Ithorian's Bellow to be "damaged" or "disabled" for the encounter. Perhaps treat the result as you would for a melee weapon, with each degree of 'damage' done making the Bellow less accurate; setback die to upgraded difficulty to can't use until 'fixed' (though I wouldn't go as far as 'destroyed' in this case) with it being a Medicine check rather than a Mechanics check.

If every species having a custom skill is a problem, then simply having so many species would be a problem. A given species' skill only comes up if using that species.

Well it creates issues with future expansion. Lets say they add a new piece of equipment that adds a boost die to all ranged light and ranged heavy attacks. If there were a dozen racial abilities like the ithorian now they'll also have to add entries for each racial skill and also any future printed race will also not benefit from this equipment as per RAW.

The ranged light skill while not being intuitive does make a lot of sense and narrative can always work/be changed

I don't have the book but just from a game design standpoint I can see why they did this:

• Using a Ranged (Light) skill means that the attack is made with a combat skill and falls under the rules governing combat skills (e.g. it is impacted by adversary)
• Also using a agility based combat skill means that the player does not need to make his racial ability a dump stat. All classes in some form utilize a ranged light weapon and its very rarely a skill that is never leveled. I'd also guess that the Ithorian racials lend themselves to some of the less combat focused careers which backs up the use of Ranged (Light) even more.
• Custom racial skills add complexity to the system which when you take one race is not really a problem but fast forward several years and now you have a ton of different custom racial skills everywhere.

I do see the complaint about them having 1 Agility but to balance that it's a weapon that cannot be removed or disabled using a despair. In theory you could create some nice role play opportunities of a character that never wields a weapon and aids his allies on the battlefield in other ways.

Of course it can be disabled with despair. Any weapon can be disabled with Despair.

Hands can be sprained or broken.

Throats can be parched, sore, gagged, or otherwise inarticulate.

A creative GM can work wonders.

Sure you're right about the despair if you want to be *that* guy

Although other skills might seem appropriate in some ways you still have to direct and aim the ability. Remember this ability is not a cone (afaik), so being slightly off with the aim might mean that its ineffective , easi e r to dodge out of the way etc, which when you think about it is pretty much going to involve the same skills as firing a gun (anticipating where your opponent will be when the shot is fired etc). So it makes perfect sense to use ranged_light.

I don't have the book but just from a game design standpoint I can see why they did this:

• Using a Ranged (Light) skill means that the attack is made with a combat skill and falls under the rules governing combat skills (e.g. it is impacted by adversary)
• Also using a agility based combat skill means that the player does not need to make his racial ability a dump stat. All classes in some form utilize a ranged light weapon and its very rarely a skill that is never leveled. I'd also guess that the Ithorian racials lend themselves to some of the less combat focused careers which backs up the use of Ranged (Light) even more.
• Custom racial skills add complexity to the system which when you take one race is not really a problem but fast forward several years and now you have a ton of different custom racial skills everywhere.

I do see the complaint about them having 1 Agility but to balance that it's a weapon that cannot be removed or disabled using a despair. In theory you could create some nice role play opportunities of a character that never wields a weapon and aids his allies on the battlefield in other ways.

Of course it can be disabled with despair. Any weapon can be disabled with Despair.

Hands can be sprained or broken.

Throats can be parched, sore, gagged, or otherwise inarticulate.

A creative GM can work wonders.

Sure you're right about the despair if you want to be *that* guy

Yeah, I kinda have to be after one of my players decided to attack a kraken in a fantasy game with a bare hand attack. He critically fumbled the roll of course.

Anytime I hear about fumbles (Despair) with unarmed combat I always think back to that encounter. This Ithorian bellow thing so sounds odd though. Since most ranged weapons fall under Ranged (Light) I guess it makes sense from a targeting standpoint. Does it cost them a good bit of XP though?

My skill as a sniper (I have two ranks in Sniper Shot) has given me the uncanny ability to yell at you from 25 meters away. Sorry, I can't really explain why. I guess it is a good thing that I am quick and lithe for an Ithorian, though, because if I was burly and had a high constitution, or if I was really good at talking to people, I wouldn't be able to yell nearly as effectively.

Given that grenades are excluded from sniper shot , I think common sense would rule it does not apply to bellow, although they would need to specify this somewhere, its not exactly a sniper shot is it.

Of the official options for skills, I think Ranged (Light) is the best choice.

Admittedly, I would have preferred the Ithorians to not have the bellow attack in the first place, but that's not relevant.

Alternatively, you could just make it a straight Agility check with no skill involved, but then you run into cases where you've got Agility 1 Ithorians that can't aim their bellow for crap, making a species ability border on being useless.

Or, add a custom Agility-based skill that's always considered a career skill for Ithorians, which offsets the perceived oddness, but has the drawback of requiring the Ithorian PC to spend XP to be able to use a single weapon (which is neat but far from being awesome) with any amount of accuracy. You could of course then allow the Ithorian to swap career/spec bonus ranks in Ranged (Light) for the "Bellow" skill, but then you're right back at "why not just use Ranged (Light) in the first place?"

You mean, like a lightsaber?

Sniper Shot should have the requirement that it can only be used with blaster weapons or projectile weapons, so not every little thing that falls under the ranged combat skills need to be excluded...It would be easier to put the restriction on Sniper Shot itself instead of adjusting everything to work with or not with it.

You mean, like a lightsaber?

A lightsaber is a freaking kick-ass weapon right out the gate with no alterations, able to hew through Soak Value like it's tissue paper and deal a lot of damage on a hit. The Ithorian's bellow quite frankly isn't in the same league. Heck, it's not even in the same sport.

As for Sniper Shot, since this is a narrative based game, I could see that talent applying. The Ithorian has practiced with their bellow enough to make a more concentrated burst of sound that travels further, though the amount of concentration required (the maneuver to activate) to get that extra distance still winds up diffusing it slightly (reflected by the increased difficulty from going beyond the attack's default range). Same too with Point Blank, with the Ithorian having learned to better concentrate the sound waves of their bellow for greater damage.

You mean, like a lightsaber?

A lightsaber is a freaking kick-ass weapon right out the gate with no alterations, able to hew through Soak Value like it's tissue paper and deal a lot of damage on a hit. The Ithorian's bellow quite frankly isn't in the same league. Heck, it's not even in the same sport.

As for Sniper Shot, since this is a narrative based game, I could see that talent applying. The Ithorian has practiced with their bellow enough to make a more concentrated burst of sound that travels further, though the amount of concentration required (the maneuver to activate) to get that extra distance still winds up diffusing it slightly (reflected by the increased difficulty from going beyond the attack's default range). Same too with Point Blank, with the Ithorian having learned to better concentrate the sound waves of their bellow for greater damage.

If you go RAW this is as good an explaination as any, if you ask me.

You mean, like a lightsaber?

A lightsaber is a freaking kick-ass weapon right out the gate with no alterations, able to hew through Soak Value like it's tissue paper and deal a lot of damage on a hit. The Ithorian's bellow quite frankly isn't in the same league. Heck, it's not even in the same sport.

As for Sniper Shot, since this is a narrative based game, I could see that talent applying. The Ithorian has practiced with their bellow enough to make a more concentrated burst of sound that travels further, though the amount of concentration required (the maneuver to activate) to get that extra distance still winds up diffusing it slightly (reflected by the increased difficulty from going beyond the attack's default range). Same too with Point Blank, with the Ithorian having learned to better concentrate the sound waves of their bellow for greater damage.

You mean, like a lightsaber?

A lightsaber is a freaking kick-ass weapon right out the gate with no alterations, able to hew through Soak Value like it's tissue paper and deal a lot of damage on a hit. The Ithorian's bellow quite frankly isn't in the same league. Heck, it's not even in the same sport.

As for Sniper Shot, since this is a narrative based game, I could see that talent applying. The Ithorian has practiced with their bellow enough to make a more concentrated burst of sound that travels further, though the amount of concentration required (the maneuver to activate) to get that extra distance still winds up diffusing it slightly (reflected by the increased difficulty from going beyond the attack's default range). Same too with Point Blank, with the Ithorian having learned to better concentrate the sound waves of their bellow for greater damage.

You just hurt the feelings of every Ithorian that may read this...

Ithorians. Four throats. Quite powerful.

Ah, Ithorians... I find it interesting that a pacifist race has such a deadly natural weapon.

Anywho, I do agree that something like bellow would definitely be under resilience, and really enhances the need for the skill. We need to tell FFG before it gets put into the final issue of the game! I won't have a book that has proposterous information on one of the most respectable races in the galaxy, I just won't!

I don't know why Ranged (Light) would even relate to something that is entirely physical. Not to mention that it kind of just spews all over the place (or if you focus enough goes in one general direction). Ranged skills are kind of based off of your accuracy with the weapon. Heck, god forbid, you could even put it under Brawl (forbidden due to peaceful nature, and causing great conflict in the species).

But still, Resilience is better than Ranged (Light). And like I said, we should post this up.

Ah, Ithorians... I find it interesting that a pacifist race has such a deadly natural weapon.

Anywho, I do agree that something like bellow would definitely be under resilience, and really enhances the need for the skill. We need to tell FFG before it gets put into the final issue of the game! I won't have a book that has proposterous information on one of the most respectable races in the galaxy, I just won't!

I don't know why Ranged (Light) would even relate to something that is entirely physical. Not to mention that it kind of just spews all over the place (or if you focus enough goes in one general direction). Ranged skills are kind of based off of your accuracy with the weapon. Heck, god forbid, you could even put it under Brawl (forbidden due to peaceful nature, and causing great conflict in the species).

But still, Resilience is better than Ranged (Light). And like I said, we should post this up.

You are assuming that ranged light skill is about using a weapon instead of the ability to aim and anticipate the location of the target, if you assume ranged (light) is the latter then it makes perfect sense to use.

If you look at the other examples in the game then it makes sense that the latter explaination is more likely as thrown weapons like grenades bolas etc come under the same skill.

Resillience does makes sense only for the power of the ability not your ability to aim and anticipate the location of an opponent when the attack lands.