Winning combat without firing a shot!

I am not talking complete pacifist, but a way of either stopping combat entirely or at least running the bad guys into an ambush. I will be a Bothan thief but play him like a spy. I am thinking stealth, skullduggery, deception, and disguise talents (Indistinguishable) and explosives (grenades with a timer)

There are a few opportunities to stealth over to where the bag guys here and talk them into running into an ambush or a grenade on a timer. I can disrupt communications with a scrambler. Or even sneak close and throw a clob grenade and ensnare them.

I sort of ran out of ideas after that, does anyone have any experience on running a stealth character using deception a more of a weapon then actual weapons?

Ran a couple games where one of the characters was a Droid Politico, and not once did he draw his holdout pistol.

Essentially, he used Deception and Coercion to confuse the stormtroopers after the party. He had one group convinced that he wasn't an ally of the party, and that one of the "miscreants" was on the other end of town with a thermal detonator, leading that squad away. Other than that, he was annoying and distracting enough to continually put setback dice on the stormtroopers' actions.

The main thing is that you just have to think more creatively than a typical combat character. Use mechanics or skulduggery to rig up traps or false alarms, or use deception to fake enemies out into thinking you're going to go one way, then lose them and run off another way. Playing a character like this requires a lot of planning and creativity, but it really pays off in some memorable moments

"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." -> Han Whatisface

If you take a look... stealth character = weak offense. Its not like the thief in D&D. You're gonna get pasted as soon as you fail.

Our Thief is a Pit Droid painted in Imperial Grey, Cunning, Agility, Intelligence... he blends in.. he can't negotiate, and Combat skills are expensive. But he's a kick *ss slicer, Perceptive and sneaky. He has performed as the group skill monkey so far. He's tinkered a blaster pistol into his body, and its got a fully loaded BAM. He's more like a pocket battleship, a lot of punch but not a lot of staying power in a fight. Its best if he goes for a surprise shot. (In reality the 'surprise' is actually called 'lethal friendly fire'.)

Recommendations... cross specialize with a combat character if you want to fight (Gadgeteer?). At all.

DrBrainInAJar has a great suggestion there. Maybe major in social skills and minor in the other skills.

OH! Force Sensitive, stealthy socialite! Repeat after me... *waving hand* "These aren't the criminals you're looking for."

Make sure you have a clear idea about what you want the final character to be like. Sometimes when I'm envisioning that I fire up a character generator and see what it might be like. Its not always obvious what might work, and what might not. But it helps to have a plan.

Thank you all,

This character will be a thief with 4 agi/cunning so has the ability to use weapons he just will do so asa last resort. Thank you for the advice on using social skills to distract and disorient the enemy.

UHF I so need a picture of the Imperial grey pit droid!! Too awesome.

I have a history of coming up with convoluted plans of attack involving lots of deception and misdirection. Usually don`t have the rolls to support it though. I`ve always wondered how scathing tirade would work in this case, could I be a politico bomb, walk my way into a stormtrooper patrol and do some serious strain to each of them by yelling at them. Now since minions count strains as wounds would I literally talk them to death?

I just like the visual of yelling "You're all a bunch of useless clones for an emporer who doesn`t care!" And all the stormtroopers fall over bleeding from their helmets.

I just like the visual of yelling "You're all a bunch of useless clones for an emporer who doesn`t care!" And all the stormtroopers fall over bleeding from their helmets.

My poindextrous may be a bit strong, and believe me, I sincerely DO appreciate the visual, but I'm pretty sure the Stormtroopers aren't clones.

Vader's secret apprentice, kinda, well, destroyed all of Kamino (well their cloning facilities, at least). This may be relevant to your game.

But still, an excellent visual regardless.

There was a game I was in previous, my PC told the Stormtroopers that their quarry was "RIGHT OVER THERE! AND THEY'RE DRESSED AS STORMTROOPERS!". It was a good roll and the mooks opened fired on other mooks. I smiled.

I have a history of coming up with convoluted plans of attack involving lots of deception and misdirection. Usually don`t have the rolls to support it though. I`ve always wondered how scathing tirade would work in this case, could I be a politico bomb, walk my way into a stormtrooper patrol and do some serious strain to each of them by yelling at them. Now since minions count strains as wounds would I literally talk them to death?

I just like the visual of yelling "You're all a bunch of useless clones for an emporer who doesn`t care!" And all the stormtroopers fall over bleeding from their helmets.

Mechanically, wounds are an expression of physical health. But I think it was either described in a sidebar or maybe by someone else here on the forums that taking someone out of the fight (exceeding their WT in this case) doesn't have to mean killing them. Especially for Scathing Tirade I would have them run away, surrender, cower helplessly or some other narrative defeat when their wounds exceed their threshold.

I am also thinking there is a way to remove the bad guys from a fight without killing them , or at least fooling them to attack one another. This way i can add a little je ne sais quoi to the fight. Instead of blunt force trauma make it artistic, work of art

There is a very real chance, in our group anyway, Coyoteblack, that the others will kill the thing you are trying to cleverly remove before you cleverly remove it.

You should probably just let the Wookie win, lol.

bah wookies cant always win " runs to other end of battle field"

I am also thinking there is a way to remove the bad guys from a fight without killing them , or at least fooling them to attack one another. This way i can add a little je ne sais quoi to the fight. Instead of blunt force trauma make it artistic, work of art

I like this idea for Scathing Tirade on a minion group. Just as CruchyDemon suggested. Flavor the victory as minions turning on one another.

Never underestimate the ability to sneak a weapon around.

Pit Droid... Thief... Gadgetteer.

We've only had to fully reassemble our droid a mere 3 times.

Thank you all,

This character will be a thief with 4 agi/cunning so has the ability to use weapons he just will do so asa last resort. Thank you for the advice on using social skills to distract and disorient the enemy.

Don't go with 4's. Maybe with Agility...

3's go a long ways to mastering any ability. After that you got Dedication and cybernetics.

Pick an alien that has a high base characteristic you can use. Bringing a 1 to a 2 is cheaper than a 2 to a 3.

In My Opinion, you get a lot more bang for you buck with character variety than optimization. In our group the only character with a 4 at the start was our Rodian Doctor and that was for his Intellect. There are so many skills that use Intellect that he's been very useful.

UHF I so need a picture of the Imperial grey pit droid!! Too awesome.

No can do... Heck I can't even find a mini. I haven't even been able to find an OBJ for 3D rendering.

Thanks for tthe advise , I lowered my cunning to 3 and used the extra points.

I like the backstab option. so far we have decided no house rules yet as we are all new ish to this game. It would be nice though

Use BOOST dice on your next attack.... Use stealth hits over either opposed perception or Hard to determine how many boosts he gets.

I needed to complete my description of the Pit Droid for you guys. He's recently spent huge amounts of money on gear, which in this case is now all built in. I decided that if equipment was applied to the droid as a built in, it would be a cybernetic, and it would have 1 lower encumbrance.

PD-4 'Slash' is essentially a walking electronic warfare machine. He's got scramblers, decrypters, lock breakers, long range communicators, slicing gear, you name it. He's got the rock climbing armor since its been noticed that a Brawn of 1 makes it really hard to do anything physical for him. But he was able to add the Stealth upgrade Master Of Shadows MOD.

Soak 3, Wounds 11... In combat he's a total pushover compared the other characters. But he sliced two TIE Fighters to oblivion in the last spaceship battle. We'll see how he does with the Yiyar assault.

I'm not a fan of the idea that a 'sneak attack' should automatically be better. There are ways to do this in the system, like having Advantages from your Stealth roll provide you with a Blue die on your attack, simply having more time to Aim before attacking, and talents like Quick Strike. Beyond these, I'm not really in favor of giving sneaky guys any additional help.

HappyDaze

Not all characters have a stealth option for stealth attacks or even a stealth defence. I am still trying to get a grasp on what stealth actually does in this game, as opposed to everquest/wow/D&D.

HappyDaze

Not all characters have a stealth option for stealth attacks or even a stealth defence. I am still trying to get a grasp on what stealth actually does in this game, as opposed to everquest/wow/D&D.

Stealth allows you to not be seen. This sometimes allows you to bypass combatants rather than giving a bonus to engaging them. Stealth also is used to conceal items (including weapons) on your person.

Of the options I mentioned, using the time hidden to take Aim maneuvers and using Advantages rolled on Stealth to add a Blue die to your next attack are options available to anyone.