DR and Droids in Saga (two questions)

[Elephant]

1. I've noticed that a lot of the custom Saga character sheets seem to have a section for Damage Reduction. Just how *do* you get DR in SE, other than being an Elite Trooper? n.b. I know about personal shields from KOTOR, but I'm focused on *DR*, not *SR*.

2. Droid HP. Is it just me, or do combat droids really get the short end of the stick compared to biological soldier PCs? Con bonus HPs really start to stack up after a few levels, and maker help you if you started out in something like Scoundrel before switching over to Soldier! Droid shields help a bit, but they seem hard to afford unless you're a Noble droid with the Wealth talent.

 

[Steel_Wind]

There are talents which give it, too, such as:

Damage Reduction 10 (Force User) -- Can spend Force Point as standard action to gain DR10 for 1 minute (SWSE)

Soft to Solid Matukai As reaction to attack, can spend Force Point to gain DR10 (JATM)

There are feats which allow tech to be modified to give it. These are a few off the top of my head: Superior Tech (S&V) and Biotech Specialist feat also allows it. (LCG)

This is not an exhaustive list.

If you are wondering how to give it to a droid - Superior Tech is the easy explanation.

The design rules in SGtD suggests that DR as an intrinsic element of a design (not just a Superior Tech bonus of +2 DR) ought to be restricted to at least Gargantuan and probably only Collosal Droids. Droids in SW are for the most part, relatively fragile electronic systems. If you want to put them behind 10" think Duranium Alloy exoskeletons (like a starship) DR 10 might be possible. For the most part, the sheer weight of that armor makes it impractical to add it to a droid. When that sort of protection is needed, it's more cost-effective in terms of protection/weight to do it via shields, not with incredibly dense armor.

Better still, just put the armor on a vehicle and DRIVE IT with a biological pilot and add gunners that don't need all those heuristic processors.

Note: DR shows up most often in heavy vehicles and starships. That's where it enters the game as a construction element, rendering many heavy armored vehicles and all capital ships essentially immune to small arms fire - even with their shields down (as they should be).

As for hit points....yes, droids are not as tough as a biological, level for level. But it's really only an issue when you are playing them as a Heroic Droid PC. Please appreciate that biologicals don't get the options of upgrading their equipment or buying Superior Tech to add significant and major bonuses to their stats. It does not cost that much, really for dramatic increases to stats and swapping out skills, for that matter, using superior Tech. And then there are Shield Generators and other special gear.

They also heal much faster, through use of their gain points per hour ability with mechanics. The lack of Con is an issue, and it may be that the hit point issue is a little over-emphasized with the lack of con. IF you think SWSE goes too far - give them more starting hits. It's not like Rodney is going to drop by your game and bitch at you about it

 

[Elephant]

There are talents which give it, too, such as:

Damage Reduction 10 (Force User) -- Can spend Force Point as standard action to gain DR10 for 1 minute (SWSE)

Soft to Solid Matukai As reaction to attack, can spend Force Point to gain DR10 (JATM)

There are feats which allow tech to be modified to give it. These are a few off the top of my head: Superior Tech (S&V) and Biotech Specialist feat also allows it. (LCG)

This is not an exhaustive list.

If you are wondering how to give it to a droid - Superior Tech is the easy explanation.

The design rules in SGtD suggests that DR as an intrinsic element of a design (not just a Superior Tech bonus of +2 DR) ought to be restricted to at least Gargantuan and probably only Collosal Droids. Droids in SW are for the most part, relatively fragile electronic systems. If you want to put them behind 10" think Duranium Alloy exoskeletons (like a starship) DR 10 might be possible. For the most part, the sheer weight of that armor makes it impractical to add it to a droid. When that sort of protection is needed, it's more cost-effective in terms of protection/weight to do it via shields, not with incredibly dense armor.

Better still, just put the armor on a vehicle and DRIVE IT with a biological pilot and add gunners that don't need all those heuristic processors.

Note: DR shows up most often in heavy vehicles and starships. That's where it enters the game as a construction element, rendering many heavy armored vehicles and all capital ships essentially immune to small arms fire - even with their shields down (as they should be).

As for hit points....yes, droids are not as tough as a biological, level for level. But it's really only an issue when you are playing them as a Heroic Droid PC.

Which I am -- and sitting at 12 HP behind a comparable biological PC, thus my concern on this count.

Please appreciate that biologicals don't get the options of upgrading their equipment or buying Superior Tech to add significant and major bonuses to their stats.

Only having the Saga core rulebook, I can't take things like Superior Tech into account. I can crib notes from other books on game days -- some of the other players have exhaustive SWSE libraries -- but on the whole, I'm ignorant of fine details of expansion material. The exception is KOTOR stuff, and that's mostly familiarity with concepts from playing the video games.

It does not cost that much, really for dramatic increases to stats and swapping out skills, for that matter, using superior Tech. And then there are Shield Generators and other special gear.

Organics can get shield generators, too, so I don't count that as a bonus in the droid's category (see KOTOR). Besides, even if shields are only available to droids, they're prohibitively expensive. OTOH, I think the KOTOR personal shields require armor proficiency, and they run out of charges, so droids do have a long-term advantage on that count. Still, considering survivability through a single combat, they come out equal.

They also heal much faster, through use of their gain points per hour ability with mechanics.

With Jedi healing in the party, I think the droid repairs will actually be slower. Good point about repair speed vs. natural healing speed though.

The lack of Con is an issue, and it may be that the hit point issue is a little over-emphasized with the lack of con. IF you think SWSE goes too far - give them more starting hits. It's not like Rodney is going to drop by your game and bitch at you about it

*sigh* "House-rule it" is unhelpful advice when you give it to a player. And the GM's response when I brought this issue up was "you can take armor plating." :'(

Anyway, aside from that last bit, thanks for the info!

 

[Steel_Wind]

Only having the Saga core rulebook, I can't take things like Superior Tech into account. I can crib notes from other books on game days -- some of the other players have exhaustive SWSE libraries -- but on the whole, I'm ignorant of fine details of expansion material. The exception is KOTOR stuff, and that's mostly familiarity with concepts from playing the video games.

If you are playing a droid, I strongly suggest you get Scavanger's Guide to Droids and look into playing an Autonomous Droid as detailed in Force Unleashed. You can get D12s for hits points as an Autonomous Droid - which serves to claw back the hit point deficiency, at 4th level.