I can't recall a time that I ran a Star Wars: Saga Edition game. I've always played in games run by a friend. And he runs pretty killer games. One thing he always grouses about, and even stumbles over as the game is running, is the stat blocks for enemies. After all the trash I was talking about 4th Edition D&D last week, I figured I'd play nice and try adapting the new monster stat block from 4th Edition for use with Saga Edition. I've also times myself at it to see roughly how much prep time it would consume to convert a few stat blocks for use at your game table. I grabbed a handy SW:SE book, so the NPCs come out of The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide. So hopefully, this is helpful to some of you besides my erstwhile GM. If it is, let me know!
Imperial Jump Trooper CL7
Force 1; Darkside 5
Init: +8; Senses: Perception +12(can reroll must take second result); Low-light vision
hp 51 bloodied 25 (threshold 20)
Defenses: Ref 24(FF 21); Fort 20; Will 16
Speed 6 (Flying: jetpack)
M: unarmed +9 (1d4+4)
M: Grapple +10
R: Blaster Rifle +12(3d8+3)
R: Rail Detonator Gun +12 (3d8+3, 1 square splash)
R: Strafing Run +10 (3d8+3) Targets a line 1 square by 4 squares (autofire) or all squares flown over while using jetpack (autofire)
S: Takes no penalties for firing into melee, or attacking a target with concealment.
S: Can move before and after an attack, provided movement does not exceed normal movement. S: +1 to attack and damage at point blank range.
Skills: Jump +11, Stealth +13
Str 13, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10
Possessions: rail detonator gun, blaster rifle, jumptrooper armor with helmet package, jetpack, comlink
Imperial Radiation Zone Trooper CL4
Force 1, Darkside 5
Init: +5; Senses: Perception +11, Low-light vision
hp 34 bloodied 17 (Threshold 19)
Defenses: Ref 19 (FF17); Fort 19 (25 vs Radiation); Will 14
Speed 6
M: unarmed +7 (1d6+2)
M: Grapple +7
R: Blaster Carbine +8 (3d8+1)
A: Autofire Blaster Carbine (Area 2 blast) +6 (3d8+1)
A: Frag Grenade (Area burst 2) +7 (4d6+1)
S: Aid Another is automatically successful when target is adjacent or at point blank range.
Skills: Endurance +10, Mechanics +9, Survival +9
Str 12, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10
Possessions: Blaster carbine, 2 frag grenades, Radtrooper armor with helmet package, comlink, radiation survival kit.
So it took me about 30 minutes to throw these two together. However, I had to look up several feats to make sure I incorporated their effects into the stat block for easy reference, and I had to look up some talents as well. I think when you start familiarizing yourself with those feats and talents, it will become even faster. In fact, the second stat block took roughly half as long as the first.
In newer Saga Edition books, the stat blocks have started resembling the 4th Edition monster block a little more closely, but even so, the choice not to include the specific numbers for autofiring, talents and feats that modify attacks, etc. has made running those stat blocks a little less GM-friendly. With a few minutes of quick work, they can be "streamlined." And they're reusable once you've converted them!
Hope this helps, and let me know how it works!
Showing posts with label Star Wars: Saga Edition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Star Wars: Saga Edition. Show all posts
November 04, 2009
September 16, 2009
Call Me a Waaa-mbulance!
I'm afraid, valued readers, that today is going to be a diatribe day. The last couple of game sessions I've played in have conspired to make me a bit whiney and so today I am going to share that with you. But fear not, for I will not simply whine about what I don't like, but I will also posit some suggestions as well. Not a ton of crunch this week, but I'll see what I can whip up next week, if you're feeling the need to get rulesy!
My first axe to grind is with the Star Wars: Saga Edition rules. I love the freedom of multiclassing in the system! Love it! Want to take a couple of levels of soldier to pick up armor talents? Sure! Take a level or two of noble to get some contacts, or some money to sling around? No problem. Want to make a Jedi who specializes in healing? Well, better multiclass, or just sit tight until level 7 and take the talent to use your Use The Force skill in place of Treat Injury. Really?! Jedi don't know First Aid?! Perhaps it is just the game I play in and the characters I choose to play, but in SW:SE, I find that more and more I feel less like the multiclassing rules give me more flexibility, and more like they make me jump through a ton of hoops.
So, I'm fabricating a new house-rule for the next time I run a SW:SE game: No class skills. Nobles already have an edge in the skill department with the highest number of trained skills starting out. No need to further expand the divide by giving them access to the most skills of any one class. Sure they have crappy combat stats, but between their unique talents, awesome bonus feat selection, and very different flavor, I don't think opening up skills to all classes really hurts the Noble. People will still be jumping into Noble for all sorts of things, even if they don't need to for access to the class skill list.
Let's stick with SW:SE for Axe#2: Use The Force as a skill.
The more I think about this, the more I just hate the idea. With UTF in SW:SE, you have a unique mechanic a skill that makes attack rolls. In SW:SE, defenses scale linearly with level. As do attack bonuses for most classes. Even the worst Base Attack Bonus progressions end at +15 at level 20. The base skill bonus for level 20? 10. If you're trained, it's 15 + Atttribute modifiers. If you take Skill Focus, it's 20 + Attribute modifier. At level 20, an enemies basic defense, before attribute modifiers is 30. That means that a Force User who doesn't take Skill Focus: UTF has to roll a 15 or higher (assuming roughly equivalent attribute modifiers, give or take since defense gets a bonus from class), that's a pretty rough roll to succeed on an attack. Especially when the Jedi who spent no feats on Lightsaber combat has a 20 + Attribute modifier attack, meaning that assuming roughly equivalent attributes, the Jedi with the lightsaber is about 25% more likely to hit.... The other way that this approach suffers is in early game. If a Jedi focuses heavily on Force use, you can pick up Skill Focus: UTF as a starting bonus feat and have 10 + Attribute modifier chance to hit at level 1 (assuming you play a human). Or level 3 if you aren't a human. Most classes have 1 or 0 + Attribute modifier attack rolls. This means that the low level Force wizard can't miss while the rest of the party only hits half the time or less. In my opinion, this needs to be leveled out some, instead of skewing toward low-level play as much as it does.
To resolve this, I am going to implement a house rule separating the UTF skill from other skills. For non-attack Force powers, the UTF skill will remain as is. You will be able to roll a skill check and take Skill Focus, or other feats as desired. When you make a Force attack, however, no skill modifiers will be used. Instead, the character will use BAB + Charisma modifier. This will bring hit percentages into line with other characters, without diminishing the effectiveness of non-attack powers, which seem to be pretty well balanced currently with the DCs given.
Star Wars: Saga Edition is a pretty fun game. With these tweaks, I think my next Saga game will be even more enjoyable. Unfortunately, it took me longer to rant about than expected, so I'm going to save my D&D 4th Edition rant for another time and sign off here. Next week, more crunch, less crying... I think.
My first axe to grind is with the Star Wars: Saga Edition rules. I love the freedom of multiclassing in the system! Love it! Want to take a couple of levels of soldier to pick up armor talents? Sure! Take a level or two of noble to get some contacts, or some money to sling around? No problem. Want to make a Jedi who specializes in healing? Well, better multiclass, or just sit tight until level 7 and take the talent to use your Use The Force skill in place of Treat Injury. Really?! Jedi don't know First Aid?! Perhaps it is just the game I play in and the characters I choose to play, but in SW:SE, I find that more and more I feel less like the multiclassing rules give me more flexibility, and more like they make me jump through a ton of hoops.
So, I'm fabricating a new house-rule for the next time I run a SW:SE game: No class skills. Nobles already have an edge in the skill department with the highest number of trained skills starting out. No need to further expand the divide by giving them access to the most skills of any one class. Sure they have crappy combat stats, but between their unique talents, awesome bonus feat selection, and very different flavor, I don't think opening up skills to all classes really hurts the Noble. People will still be jumping into Noble for all sorts of things, even if they don't need to for access to the class skill list.
Let's stick with SW:SE for Axe#2: Use The Force as a skill.
The more I think about this, the more I just hate the idea. With UTF in SW:SE, you have a unique mechanic a skill that makes attack rolls. In SW:SE, defenses scale linearly with level. As do attack bonuses for most classes. Even the worst Base Attack Bonus progressions end at +15 at level 20. The base skill bonus for level 20? 10. If you're trained, it's 15 + Atttribute modifiers. If you take Skill Focus, it's 20 + Attribute modifier. At level 20, an enemies basic defense, before attribute modifiers is 30. That means that a Force User who doesn't take Skill Focus: UTF has to roll a 15 or higher (assuming roughly equivalent attribute modifiers, give or take since defense gets a bonus from class), that's a pretty rough roll to succeed on an attack. Especially when the Jedi who spent no feats on Lightsaber combat has a 20 + Attribute modifier attack, meaning that assuming roughly equivalent attributes, the Jedi with the lightsaber is about 25% more likely to hit.... The other way that this approach suffers is in early game. If a Jedi focuses heavily on Force use, you can pick up Skill Focus: UTF as a starting bonus feat and have 10 + Attribute modifier chance to hit at level 1 (assuming you play a human). Or level 3 if you aren't a human. Most classes have 1 or 0 + Attribute modifier attack rolls. This means that the low level Force wizard can't miss while the rest of the party only hits half the time or less. In my opinion, this needs to be leveled out some, instead of skewing toward low-level play as much as it does.
To resolve this, I am going to implement a house rule separating the UTF skill from other skills. For non-attack Force powers, the UTF skill will remain as is. You will be able to roll a skill check and take Skill Focus, or other feats as desired. When you make a Force attack, however, no skill modifiers will be used. Instead, the character will use BAB + Charisma modifier. This will bring hit percentages into line with other characters, without diminishing the effectiveness of non-attack powers, which seem to be pretty well balanced currently with the DCs given.
Star Wars: Saga Edition is a pretty fun game. With these tweaks, I think my next Saga game will be even more enjoyable. Unfortunately, it took me longer to rant about than expected, so I'm going to save my D&D 4th Edition rant for another time and sign off here. Next week, more crunch, less crying... I think.
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