Hi all!

I have runned my group through the beginner adv. and the extension Long Arm of the Hutt, then some sessions where the players wanted to clear out a few of their obligations tied to Teemo and their own past. I have usually given them 10 xp per session with a 5 or 10 xp bonus when they completed something major, like a storyline. Now it is time for them to step out into the real open galaxy and claim their rightful place...... But!

Some of the characters have gotten pretty high Soak values due to a combination of stats, armor and, foremost, talents. One player with only heavy clothing for armor, have gotten to 8+ Soak, while another is on the more moderate 3 points. One player alerted me about him being able to actually reach 10 Soak pretty easily, and that is without using any advanced armor (he elected not to do this since he found it completely ridiculous).

This has created a severe imbalance. While one player caught in a blaster crossfire can stand there all day, just occasionally poke himself with a stim if needed, the other player is affected normally.

I could use heavier weapons to make it challenging for those characters who have high soak, but this results in insta-death for the weaker ones.

Is there a serious issue with the balance in the system or do I miss something vital?

Thanks!

There are 4 things that I would consider:

1) Encourage the high-soak player to pick up the Bodyguard specialisation (if he doesn't have it already) and get the "Body Guard"-talent. That way this certain part of his PC becomes less of a ludicrousness and more of an actual roleplay-element: Maybe his character realizes that there's something especially sturdy and endouring about him that he wants to utilize to protect his friends?

2) The "Pierce" weapon quality comes to mind. This mechanic of the game is especially there to make soak less viable without influencing Wound.
Let's say your players have to fight meele fighters with upgraded Vibroswords or -knifes (with crazy Pierce 5 or sth like that). While it would affect your high-soak player normally and probably be rather painful for him, your players with "normal" soak values would not be affected as much.
Later on you could go for the "Breach" quality (though it's much more deadly).

3) Strain-DMG has a similar effect. Stun grenades can be very hard on PCs with low Willpower, while being less dangerous for characters that typically don't exceed in combat and damage-tanking.

4) Put that particular PC in situations that demand his amazing defensive abilities. It's not only a great story-element but also makes the player very happy about his particular attributes.

Finally the Adversaries-chapter in the core rulebook gives the stats for a Rancor - 12 Soak / 40 Wound. So let's say that eventually he gets up to 10 Soak with heavy cloathing and then gets some modified armor that finally gets him to 13 or so soak. He could never reach 40 Wound. Ofc he's not a rancor either, but I would say that eventually, after many hours of gaming, your PCs SHOULD become incredibly powerful. After all that's when you can start running those ridiculously fun lore-altering campaigns

Hope this helps =)

You could also try using more unconventional weapons on the group as a whole to even out the disparity between soak values. Poisons and toxins that are deployed via aerosol come to mind, since it makes sense for them to bypass soak all together. Enemies that are well trained with bolas could work too, may not damage the guy but a good roll will ensare him for awhile. Recurring enemies especially I would think, are going to realize this guy is a walking tank and are going to adapt to his high defense. This is assuming of course you don't mind ignoring a stat that this player has obviously focused on to improve.

Use weapons with the Stun (Active) quality... I mean, sure, they need to overcome the soak, but then two advantages is all that's needed to cause strain damage that ignores soak... unless they also have 1 rank in Resolve (I think).

There aren't many weapons with this quality, but you could certainly add it to NPC weaponry... Arguably, a clever stealth/deception/skulduggery check would allow someone to hide the fact that they are using shock gloves, and that way cause strain damage without having to "attack", which is neat.

Great answers. Thanks all!

Not I have some hope at least. I got this knee-jerk reaction due to me having been GM for D&D 4E for a few years... and in that game all characters are almost identical when it comes to AC and damage reduction.

Now it feels much better.

Use situations that don't implicate soak. Instead of shooting at the high-soak dude, have enemies notice that he's basically immune to direct attack and try to go another route. Attacking the area around them to prompt Coordination issues, for example. Seek to inflict Setbacks to prevent them from acting effectively, rather than doing direct damage. Destroy their weapons. Etc.

May I suggest suffocation rules? They work great.

Especially when combined with environmental attacks.

Let the gentleman with 8 soak shine as it stands. He has spent significant character resources in becoming indestructible, and as such should be allowed to have that be their forte. Let them tank small arms fire with impunity as they have not spent those same resources on being able to Charm or Coerce themselves out of difficult situations. Continue to use reasonable threats, eg threats that do not present a significant danger to Mr Soakity Soak, but are reasonable threats to the members with 3 soak, blaster pistols and/or rifles as the case may arise. Sure he'll be the last man standing, but usually that is a sign to quit stabbing things and surrender so the other characters can rejoin in the next scene/encounter, either that or the tank has to deal with hefting everyone to safety all by his lonesome - hilarity ensues.

TLDR: You wouldn't panic if the Face was able to Charm/Negotiate out of the most ridiculous situation, why are you panicking about the tank tanking ridiculous damage.

I gave a high soak character a taste of vulnerability during an encounter with a planetary size creature (about the size of a 5 story building). Luckily the party got the hint and ran before it rolled a critical attack and swallowed someone...

Its good to let them shine but players need to understand that in EotE you can't wade through 1000 goblins and never get hit.

Of course you can't wade through them and never get hit. Hitting in this game is very easy. You can build towards not getting hurt alot easier.

Continue to use reasonable threats, eg threats that do not present a significant danger to Mr Soakity Soak, but are reasonable threats to the members with 3 soak, blaster pistols and/or rifles as the case may arise. Sure he'll be the last man standing, but usually that is a sign to quit stabbing things and surrender so the other characters can rejoin in the next scene/encounter, either that or the tank has to deal with hefting everyone to safety all by his lonesome - hilarity ensues.

Mind you I think this is the exact same reply I would have come up with. A 10 soak can only be achieved by a Marauder as a single specialisation. And then only if he makes a bee-line to the talents. That said there are still some points worth further discussion:

Would this create a problem in that the team is 1 person short? If the GM targets Han, Leia, C3-PO and Lando in preference of Chewbacca doesn't it then become a party of 4+1 rather than 5? Which in turn creates a higher degree of risk for the other characters? Probably more so as the character with the high soak hasn't yet expended XP to get talents that allow him to intercept attacks or prevent his friends from being damaged.

There is also a risk of the GM metagaming as he knows he can't hurt that character, where the NPC's may or maynot know.

My 2c follows:

I also think if you are hoping to have the PC's run away from danger sometimes the GM has to set the tone using his NPC's and have them run from danger. If the marauder can't get into engaged range to use his vibro-axe then you an nickle and dime him down. It could get worse if the NPC's have the home field advatage and know the layout of their base, ship, station or building and he doesn't.

Or make some sort of environmental hazards part of the combat so he isn't just making attack rolls, but has to avoid the droid factory machines from injuring him or making him droid parts.

Perhaps you try and figure out a way to make him hold his ground while the rest of the party runs away. A count down for them to complete something, comes to mind, or bad things happen. In this way Mr Soakity Soak gets a blast out of doing what he loves and enjoys while the others get a go at something they enjoy.

If you have space combat and vehicluar combats too, then Mr Soakity will not be overbearning and will fair as well as anyone.

And recall that 10 soak is not going to save you, on its own, if you're fighting a combat-oriented Nemesis with any kind of blaster rifle, let alone a disruptor.

I think the question that should be asked is "Is everyone having fun?" If all of the players don't mind that members of the group are hard to hurt then I would just play and have fun and not worry about it. If the players who have the hard to hurt characters aren't acting arrogant about it then there shouldn't be a problem.

The only time I would worry about it is if the players are becoming arrogant about it and its causing people from not having fun.

If I were wanting to take them down a notch with what I would refer to a snot knocker moment I would put them up against an organization/enemy group that can afford to use missile tubes and thermal detonators.

Now if I wanted the tough ones to fear fights and not overpower the people who are more squishy I would focus on causing critical hits to the tough ones. As said above, someone with 8 to 10 soak will still easily be hurt by a blaster rifle. You probably won't be dropping them in a fight but if you score a wound or two plus a crit they will probably think twice about their tactics.

Those crits will add up and they will start to have a tough time to get rid of them.

It sounds like the GM is not having fun dealing with High Soak Guy, and that is its own problem. If the GM isn't having fun, the game is in some trouble.

Just found this thread - and read through the responses. I agree and disagree with points, but here's my 2 credits worth...

Fun. First and foremost. Is it causing a problem with the players? yes - then address it; no - then let it go.

Next, in the movies, are the heroes NEVER hit? (other than Leia being stunned and then being hit on Endor) Or do they have a big "soak" so it comes off as a miss? I've had people say, "no, a hit is a hit, you just ignore the soak," but since this is a narrative game you could narrate it as "a glancing shot."

Lastly, I agree with the post about the GM metagaming... Don't do it. It's not "fun" to metagame in any shape or form.

And lastly lastly - does it affect the storyline? Can you make it part of the storyline? My mind turns to "Heavy" from Clone Wars. He would walk out and stand there with that gatling looking blaster and never be hit as blaster bolts are all around. Did they "miss?" Or did they "soak?"

My two credits, is the soak disparity causing the game to be less fun to play? If not, no problem. If so do something to fix it. Maybe the low soak characters can be given some item of equipment that raises their soak, maybe the enemies use more weapons with pierce.

One easy solution is to have less combat. Then soak is not an issue. Of course combat can be a lot of the fun in RPGs and the player of a high soak character probably like combat.

A second solution is to fight smarter instead of fighting harder. Stun, pierce, attacking the environment around the characters instead of the characters directly, airborne toxins or gasses, etc.

A third possibility is to let the high soak character take the hits from the heavy weapons. He can soak them while his less tough comrades take hits from lighter weapons. Also as mentioned above note that in the films our heroes spend most of their time without armour and survive while the armoured Stormtroopers drop like flies. Is it a clean miss or is it soak?

Everybody has some great responses. As long as the party remembers it's a team I don't think there's a huge problem. Mister High Soak is all well and good, but if I've got two people shooting at me. One of whom is heavily armored, and super tough looking, and the other is less so, but both are attacking me, I'd take out the squishy one first. Once The Soakster is all alone, it doesn't matter how tough he is, a good group with the high ground will eventually nickle and dime him down. Even if he does take out the entire badguy team, then he's got an entire party of unconscious and/or dead companions. I hope he's got some good medicine skills, or they'll be paying a lot in hospital bills.

Make the combat about something other than doing damage until the opposition is dead. Have special goals during combat, use special tricks, entangle people, have them fight on difficult ground, have the tank hold off the opposition while the others accomplish the real goal for which they're there.

Of course also do damage. The tanks should get the enjoy his invulnerability. Just also show him situations where that invulnerability won't help him. If you fall in a pit wearing heavy armor, you're still in a pit.