Star Wars Saga Edition [SECR] Preview #6 is Up

[Donovan Morningfire]

hmm, picking up classes to get better saves across the board...

Nice to see some of the things from d20 remain unchanged

For the droideka, to a high-level Jedi Master, maybe it isn't as much of a threat; though we still have no idea what Jedi are fully capable of. But from the looks of things, Qui-Gon wouldn't have been able to dispatch them very quickly, and he had Obi-Wan's saftey to worry about, as well as the potential for even more droideka re-inforcements.

Personally I think the CR is a bit low (I'm thinking it should be a 6), given how hard it is to take down and how much damage it can dish out per round, but aside from that it looks like a viable threat.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Assuming grappling works basically the same, it would actually be +9 for the initial attack roll which would be against a touch AC. After that, if he hits (generally not hard to miss on a touch attack), with a +17 grapple, the PC is going to have a problem escaping.

Why do you think a Touch attack will be any easier than a normal attack?

Either way, you're going to have to overcome the character's Reflex Defense. If the character is flat-footed then that's a bit easier but not much.

There's a reason touch attacks dislike class defense variants. Suddenly Touch defenses are just as high, or higher than, flat-footed defenses. Generally, touch defenses are within five points of normal defense, and in a setting that doesn't have shields (i.e. Star Wars) they should be exactly the same.

When you've got the same chance of hitting, would you rather use an attack that deals 3d8 damage, with half damage on a failed attack and the ability to hit multiple targets, or an attack that deals 1d4+3 damage and leaves you vulnerable to all the other guys?
Given the popularity of Fireball versus grappling characters, it seems obvious what most players would choose.

 

[Baby Samurai]

Why do you think a Touch attack will be any easier than a normal attack?

Will they even have touch AC in Saga?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

From what I recall in the movies, the droidekas like to use big globe-like force shields that would prevent physical contact anyway.

Furthermore, I don't know if they have "hands" - it looked to me like they only have blasters, so what are they grappling with?

Third, droidekas aren't particularly intelligent, so they might not think of trying the nearly-impossible task of grappling a Jedi for a tactical advantage. They're powerful, not smart. The Jedi often simply ran away from them, like a DnD party might run from a golem. (It's not like the golem is a BBEG after all, unless the DM did something completely unexpected.)

 

[D.Shaffer]

Now obviously the droideka isn't going to want to get into melee if they can help it, but if you have melee characters (I don't know, such as Jedi maybe?), as they are slicing through the competition they are most likely going to want to get into melee with the droideka to take it out quicker.

That's assuming that the melee character can get past the droideka's shielding to get into melee range. I'm getting the idea that they cant, as it gives a good reason for the Jedi to run from the things rather then charging in while deflecting the shots.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

The solution is in this thread:
The Jedi don't get into melee with the Droidekas because they would immediately start a grapple and pin the Jedi until reinforcements arrive to blast them to hell...

 

[gribble]

The solution is in this thread:
The Jedi don't get into melee with the Droidekas because they would immediately start a grapple and pin the Jedi until reinforcements arrive to blast them to hell...

Not if I was running them... see my post above for why - it's just not the best thing for them to do offensively.

 

[hobgoblin]

one thing about running from the droideka, the jedi was at the time on a mission, one that required the capture of the trade federation leadership (or something close to that). they could probably defeat the droideka's, but that could result in the target getting away, ergo dont bother with the fight.

later movies showed droideka being defeated in battle iirc. so its not like they cant be defeated, its just that they take more time to defeat then the droid soldiers. ergo higher CL.

in some ways i wish that they would just drop the CL stuff fully, and go for a pure level comparison. this because you can give a non-leveled "monster" a race level/level modifier.

the CL is just a guesstimate anyways, there are no hard rules about calculating it...

 

[Morgenstern]

Or it could mean that everyone gets a bump at 4th level, droids just get 2 abilities.

When there are two ways to interpret a statement, and one of them is obviously irrational/stupid, I usually extend the benefit of the doubt and go with the one that isn't hella silly until I can find out more.

That's just me though.

 

[nerfherder]

When there are two ways to interpret a statement, and one of them is obviously irrational/stupid, I usually extend the benefit of the doubt and go with the one that isn't hella silly until I can find out more.

I do the same - except at work, where I always have a sneaking suspicion that the irrational/stupid explanation is correct...