Sooooooooooooooo, I was reading the FAQ and immediately started to question my interpretation of what I was reading. (I don't GM Star Wars - just a lowly player.)

• Stuff that gives you a Defence rating does not stack with other stuff that gives you a Defence rating.
• Stuff that increases Defence - even if it increases it from zero Defence - does stack.

Both Armour and Cover count as stuff that give you a Defence rating, right?

Everything else counts as stuff that increases it then?

Including:

Vibrosword's Defensive property (does this stack if wielding two?)

Personal Deflector's Deflection property

FS Exile's Sixth Sense / Superior Reflexes

Gadgeteer's Improved Armour Master

What about lying in the mud? Does the Setback vs. Ranged attacks from doing that count as a Defence rating or is it separate?

Have I missed anything?

I'd say Personal Deflector counts as armour, although I cannot give you a good reason for it, it just feel right, and Qui-Gon told me to trust my feelings.

Lying in the mud is not defence in my opinion, I mean melee and brawl attacks get a boost die attacking anyone prone... so there's that difference

I've always though the cover+armor thing was weird. So here I am, behind 6 feet of concrete, and yet my awesome bounty hunter armor doesn't work now when you shoot me?

I've always though the cover+armor thing was weird. So here I am, behind 6 feet of concrete, and yet my awesome bounty hunter armor doesn't work now when you shoot me?

Not trying to give you hell and it's likely not your intention but this cover+armor thing has been discussed to death in other threads and it would be a shame to hijack this one when the OP just wants to know the RAW.

The defense quality says it increases by 1, and realistically having a 2nd weapon does make it easier to defend yourself. What do you other guys think? I have a duel wielding swordsman in my group and I hadnt made a ruling on it yet, was only granting him +1 so far.

The defense quality says it increases by 1, and realistically having a 2nd weapon does make it easier to defend yourself. What do you other guys think? I have a duel wielding swordsman in my group and I hadnt made a ruling on it yet, was only granting him +1 so far.

Sure, go for it. He's giving up the power of using a vibro-ax for the defense of paired vibroswords.

The defense quality says it increases by 1, and realistically having a 2nd weapon does make it easier to defend yourself. What do you other guys think? I have a duel wielding swordsman in my group and I hadnt made a ruling on it yet, was only granting him +1 so far.

I'd say it's a case of a defense bonus being from the same source (both weapons having the weapon quality Defensive 1), and as such wouldn't stack. The game is built around smaller dice pools, so allowing your dual-wielding PC to add more setback dice is going to buck that.

And while he won't have the same raw damage output of the guy using a vibro-ax, the fact that he can double his damage output on an attack for the cost of 2 Advantage more than makes up for that fact. Yes, there is the factor of an extra difficulty die, but that's a minor hurdle, particularly once the PC is rolling at least 3 Proficiency dice, plus any Ability dice or Boost dice they might have.

this cover+armor thing has been discussed to death in other threads and it would be a shame to hijack this one when the OP just wants to know the RAW.

Ta. Can you point me at that?

Thanks all.

We could, but there's a lot of yelling and hurt feelings in those threads.

Basically, the TL;DR version is:

1. cover doesn't stack with armor

2. This is how it was intended by the designers.

3. the end.

There is some explanations and some bad half-baked examples on both sides of this argument, but really it just boils down to those three. I'm not saying I agree (for the record, I don't) but it is what it is.

Thanks, Shadai. I think I'll avoid further investigation then.

Though I think logically cover should stack with armored defense, my understanding is it doesn't for two reasons:

1) to keep dice pools smaller

2) for balance reasons

I'm not sure I understand the latter, but I'm willing to trust the designers understand the system better than I do.

Practical result is characters on both sides getting hit more if it doesn't stack. I might skew towards letting it stack but having cover degrade as it's used to soak up hits.

And there is a practical difference between hiding behind a box and having insulated armor plates.

My suspicion is that it's more a matter of PCs getting hit more often, as PCs are the ones more likely to have a source of defense apart from cover. NPCs are also more likely to have worse ranged (light/heavy) checks.

I think only Mooks are unlikely to have Defense (unless they're stormtroopers). Lots of Rival/Nemesis archetypes have in-setting reasons for at least armored clothes or Defense-grating gear/talents.

As far as I'm aware, while they don't stack, you should get the better of the two. So, if you're wearing nice laminate plate and standing behind wet cardboard, you get the laminate plate. If standing behind a blast door, you get the blast door instead.

As far as I'm aware, while they don't stack, you should get the better of the two. So, if you're wearing nice laminate plate and standing behind wet cardboard, you get the laminate plate. If standing behind a blast door, you get the blast door instead.

You'd be 100% correct.

Now if you had something that added to your ranged defense (such as the Deflection weapon quality or the Sixth Sense talent), then you'd add that to the bonus from either your cover or your armor. So for the example you gave, if using laminate plate with Sixth Sense while standing behind a flimsy wall (i.e. basic cover), you'd have a Ranged Defense of 2 (base 1 from the armor or the wall, +1 from Sixth Sense), but if ducking behind a blast door (base RDef for being really good cover), then you'd have a Ranged Defense of 4 (base 3 from the blast door, nothing from the armor since the bonus from cover is better, +1 from Sixth Sense).

I imagine this topic be one of those that keeps popping up during the lifetime of the game.

RAW aside, what do people considered broken about allowing them to stack? The one thing I see is combat possibly slowing down some with more Setback dice flying around.

RAW aside, what do people considered broken about allowing them to stack? The one thing I see is combat possibly slowing down some with more Setback dice flying around.

That's the main thing right there, is the potential for several setback dice being added to attack rolls, thus prolonging combat as those setback dice make it less likely for the attacker to hit or trigger any special effects via Advantage. Even more so once Challenge dice start coming into play.

Combat in this game is designed to be quick and dangerous. Being able to stack setback dice to Ranged Defense begins to negate both of those. One of the complaints about the d20 Star Wars games (particularly Saga Edition) was that combat encounters tended to drag past 10th level as the hit point totals of PCs and NPCs alike had started reaching absurd levels, particularly for those characters with most of their levels in combat-heavy classes like Soldier or Jedi; it got to the point that you had PCs looking for the fastest way to push a foe down the Condition Track rather than whittle away at their dozens of hit points.

Hi everyone!

For the "Mandalorian Armor Behind the Mandalorian Wall" I have a suggestion that can slow a bit the game (not so much) but it may like you.

Lets say that someone shoots you with a 13 Damage gun through (I hate that word, never know how many g and h I have to put there XD) a heavy wall with Soak 5. Then consider that (if the blaster hits you) it will do only 8 Damage to you (13-5).

This way you only get the Defense bonus from the higher one but, hide behind that wall with your Mandalorian Armor will be more useful to you.

Hope you liked this small patch