Friend wants to use brawl and complains that in the core rules they are way too weak and there are only 2 options, PLUS brawl weapons have at max 1 hard point.

He asked if we could homebrew it and use these:

Brawl weapons kinda suck in the EotE core book. There are only two, even though it mentions two more in the text for the skill: Vibrofists and Weighted Gloves . I'm fine with brass knucks for now, but I would really like to know what stats for these other items. If we are homebrewing it, here are my suggestions:

For Vibrofist we can just take Vibroknife stats and make it crit 3 rather than crit 2, and only 1 hardpoint, like Shock Gloves. 300 credits for a two hand set, again like Shock Gloves.

For Weighted Gloves, how about we just take Brass Knucks and add two hardpoints (So that you can purchase Weighed Head attachment for them. Read it, it fits.). As a downside, make them an option only as part of an armor with 3 or more encumbrance rating (Armored Clothing, Laminate, and Heavy Battle Armor).

Continuing he says:

Brawl weapons are the weakest weapons in the game. My homebrew stats would effectively give you a base attack that will deal less damage than the weakest melee weapon (Vibroknife), or adding hardpoint upgrade-ability to the least damaging weapon in the game (Brass Knuckles).

The main advantage that they have is that any Brawl weapon adds stats on top of the base unarmed attack that anyone can do (Brawn damage, Disorient 1, Knockdown), rather than replacing them. This differs from melee damage weapons which still use Brawn as base damage, but don't have any inherent qualities.

Brawl's secondary advantage is that you will always have the base attack, even if completely disarmed, which will be the same as any other characters but with upgraded dice.

Everyone's base Brawl attack: Br+0 damage, Crit 5, Disorient 1, Knockdown.

My current attack with Brass Knuckles: 3 Damage, Engaged range, Crit 4, Disorient 3, Knockdown.

Purposed Vibrofist: 4 damage, Engaged range, Crit 3, Disorient 1, Knockdown, Pierce 1, Vicious 1, 1 Hardpoint (Only upgrade available is Superior which would add 1 inherent advantage to the attack and +1 damage for 5k credits).

Purposed Weighted Gloves: 3 Damage, Engaged range, Crit 4, Disorient 3, Knockdown, 2 Hardpoints (Superior or Weighted Head options. Weighted Head attachment could facilitate Mod for Concussive 1 which could Stagger)

And the description of weighted head: "Weighted Head: Weapons designed to bludgeon foes to unconsciousness or death often benefit from extra weight added to the striking surface. This can be accomplished by using heavier materials in the construction or adding metal bands or studs to the business end. Reinforced "knuckles" can be added to some Brawling weapons for similar effect. This attachment can only be added to Melee and Brawl weapons. Modification options: Weapon quality (Concussive +1). Hardpoints 2."

***

Does this seem fair? It seems it turns brawl weapons into "lockdown" weapons but I dunno. Opinions for experienced players?

I was hoping to see heavy boots as a Brawl weapon. Nothing shows contempt for your opponent like stomping on his shin or foot with a metal-shod boot!

Sho' nuff, heavy boots would be cool.

Are there any other GM's who can read over the "homebrew" idea my friend has? He wants to use them, no one else has objected and I just don't know - we're all fairly new to the game. My friend who wants these changes IS a powergamer, but he claims he wants to do this because brawl weapons currently suck in game, and this would make them more comparable to the melee weapons.

What do you guys think?

Brawl weapons SHOULD suck, they're primitive and lack any range. The first caveman smart enough to pick up a pointy stick would have likely ruled the clan.

Agree with Diggles. As the saying goes, don't bring a vibroknife to a blaster fight...and don't bring a fist to a knife fight.

Besides, it's an opportunity to shift things up RPG-wise. Consider Brawling a social skill Most games focus on killing the opponent, whether they're just starting a bar brawl or trying to hijack the PC's ship. Brawling allows the chance for physical conflict to not have to escalate into the life-altering stage, after which you can still deal:

"Don't you ever (oof!) dis my Twi-lek girlfriend (crunch!) again! (POW)"

"...(groan)...okay, okay!"

"Okay? Good. Here, let me help you up. Next round's on me! Say...you wouldn't know a good mechanic, would you?"

Vibrofist looks good, so no issues there that I can see.

As far as weighted gloves (or heavy boots), quite frankly I'd just stick to the brass knuckle stats, with the bonus to those weapons being the fact you don't have to spend a Maneuver to draw them, as they're always "readied" and available, much like a character's bare fists. The trade-off is that they aren't as easy to conceal as a set of brass knuckles would have. Trying to justify the new weapon as having two extra Hard Points just so the player can add a specific weapon attachment reeks of munchkinism.

As Diggles noted, in general Brawl-based weapons aren't supposed to be all that great, as they're a means of last resort in a galaxy where the blaster is king.

Just to add a contrasting view, the glowbat is actually king in this universe. Lightsabers are on top, and even if they're only useful to space monks, Star Wars is also heavily based off of Kung Fu movies.

Yeah, it doesn't make sense, but logic is tenuous in a lot of places in Star Wars. Depending on the group, I'd say it's perfectly acceptable to give brawl weapons a boost. You might lose some of that space cowboy feel, but that really depends on the theme you're going for.

Besides, by the blaster logic, all other melee weapons should be useless as primary weapons when not in the hands of space monks, but they're not.

I'll 3rd this one... Brawl weapons should suck. It sounds like your player wants to role play a badarse brawler but is failing to forget the realities to unarmed vs armed combat. Zero hard points should stand. Vibrogloves don't make any sense considering what vibro technology is written as.

no. Not good.

I understand the player wanting to be a bruiser. But unless you have your laser sword and monk super powers it is not going to work... I can see some rare instances where the players have all their weapons taken a way, and the bruiser picks up a metal rod and busts some heads, it might work

In all the movies, you only saw hired muscle ever holding melee weapons. Besides the Jedi, and Ewoks the only other melee attackers were Beasts (Rancor, Wampa, etc)

Imma gonna take this a different direction...

Sanguinious: I'm seeing a lot of special effects attached to those weapons. Does your player want fancy hand weapons, or does he want brawling to have the kind of options for special effects that weapons have?

Imma gonna take this a different direction...

Sanguinious: I'm seeing a lot of special effects attached to those weapons. Does your player want fancy hand weapons, or does he want brawling to have the kind of options for special effects that weapons have?

The vibrofist only has two special functions and the weighted gloves only have one. Sanquinious left in the special features that are inherent in brawling, so half of what you're seeing isn't specific to the weapons.

Imma gonna take this a different direction...

Sanguinious: I'm seeing a lot of special effects attached to those weapons. Does your player want fancy hand weapons, or does he want brawling to have the kind of options for special effects that weapons have?

Most of those special qualities (Knockdown and Disorient 1) are standard for all Brawl attacks, since they're part of an unarmed attack and Brawl weapons get those added automatically.

The Disorient 3 from the weighted gloves is just a copy/paste from Brass Knuckles, and the Pierce & Vicious on the vibro-fist/knucklers are copied over from the base vibro-knife.

As for the concept of vibroknucklers, they actually do exist in the EU, and are pretty much a set of brass knuckles with a vibrating blade on top, not too unlike a punch-dagger (though the blade is made more for slicing in this case than thrusting/piercing):

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Vibroknuckler

Thanks for the clarification guys (I'm just gonna use the excuse that it was a little late) but I looked back over what I thinking about, and I don't think it'll work anyway...

Says something about the system when every time you think of a fancy new option you look a little closer and see its already there, hiding in plain sight... Fast becoming my favorite system.