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

[D.Shaffer]

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

I think it's been mentioned somewhere in the massive glut of info that is the expanded universe that many of those later Droidekas were 'mass produced' versions which lacked the shielding. That'd explain why they were easier to take out.

 

[lukelightning]

I can't wait to play this game. Me wants to play a droid! I had an awesome droid character before, "X4 the scambot." He was a tech/repair droid that was programmed for larceny. Let the others be lightsaber weilding jedi and blaster-addicted gun nut... I want to be the innocuous droid who reprograms the ships computer system and launches stormtroopers out the airlock.

I think it's been mentioned somewhere in the massive glut of info that is the expanded universe that many of those later Droidekas were 'mass produced' versions which lacked the shielding. That'd explain why they were easier to take out.

Yeah, if Jar-Jar could kill one by accident they must have been pretty wimpy.

 

[Stalker0]

That was also using a "bane" weapon against them, and that probably took like 3 force points and a destiny point or something

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Yeah, if Jar-Jar could kill one by accident they must have been pretty wimpy.

Droideka was actively moving (deflector shields weren't up, and I believe that it can only move small distances due to the power drain of said shields), and Jar-Jar rolled a natural 20 on the attack roll.

In a nutshell, a thousand-to-one fluke. Just like a farmboy with no prior combat flight time in a starfighter hitting a target that's less than 2 meters wide without a targeting computer

 

[JohnSnow]

Droideka was actively moving (deflector shields weren't up, and I believe that it can only move small distances due to the power drain of said shields), and Jar-Jar rolled a natural 20 on the attack roll.

In a nutshell, a thousand-to-one fluke. Just like a farmboy with no prior combat flight time in a starfighter hitting a target that's less than 2 meters wide without a targeting computer

Han Solo: "I call it luck."
Obi-Wan Kenobi: "In my experience, there's no such thing as luck."

I've always maintained that the film incidents of non-Jedi getting incredibly "lucky" involve judicious expenditure of Force Points, Destiny Points, or whatever mechanic you want to use to represent that level of thing.

That covers Jar-Jar and the Droideka.

Or Han swinging blindly, and activating Fett's rocket pack - thus taking him out of the fight.

Crossing my fingers that's how they'll explain it in the preview...

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Han Solo: "I call it luck."
Obi-Wan Kenobi: "In my experience, there's no such thing as luck."

Or Han swinging blindly, and activating Fett's rocket pack - thus taking him out of the fight.

Crossing my fingers that's how they'll explain it in the preview...

I remember that Obi-Wan's leap out of the pit and over Darth Maul was explained as a Tumble check boosted by a Force Point in SWGamer 1 (did a pretty good job of showing Obi-Wan vs. Darth Maul round-by-round using OCR rules), citing that normally Tumble wouldn't let you do something like that, but the GM was feeling generous since Obi-Wan called upon the Force in a most desperate hour.

Could very well be that Han made a (literally) blind swing, spent a Force Point to boost his roll, ended up rolling a natural 20, and the GM decided to have that be enough to take Boba Fett out of the fight (or entirely out of the picture depending on your views of EU).

 

[JohnSnow]

Could very well be that Han made a (literally) blind swing, spent a Force Point to boost his roll, ended up rolling a natural 20, and the GM decided to have that be enough to take Boba Fett out of the fight (or entirely out of the picture depending on your views of EU).

My theory has always worked along those lines.

Harrison: "Han says 'Boba Fett? Boba Fett? WHERE?!' and I make a blind swing - can I spend a Force Point to negate the penalty for being blind?"

George (the GM): "Sure, I 'll allow that."

Harrison: "HA! 17! I got him! Okay, now I want to spend a Destiny Point to take him out of the fight."

George: "I wasn't expecting that...but okay, after he captured you, you certainly should be the one who takes him out. Given that, it sounds like a proper use of a Destiny Point to me."

George: "Boba Fett's rocket pack triggers, and he screams like a girl as it propels him off the skiff and into the side of the sail barge. He smacks hard and tumbles down into the pit. The Sarlaac lets out a loud belch."

<Everyone laughs>

Mark: "Geez George, you always got to go for the cheap jokes. I swear..."

Carrie: "Hey, at least your character's still fully dressed, and not being molested by some fat slug..."

Or something like that. GM and players' names a bit of "dramatic license"...

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Somehow I don't think Destiny is an expendable quality like Force Points are in SECR.

Now that I think about, maybe what Destiny does is allow you to either activate special functions of Force Points (such as take temporary narrative control), or add your Destiny score to the total die roll when spending a Force Point.

Edit: Seems I was quite wrong about not being able to "spend" Destiny Points, since according to the Fight at Carkoon that Rodney did, spending a Destiny Point is exactly what Han did to take Boba Fett out of the fight.

 

[hobgoblin]

Droideka was actively moving (deflector shields weren't up, and I believe that it can only move small distances due to the power drain of said shields), and Jar-Jar rolled a natural 20 on the attack roll.

my impression was that they could only use walker mode when the shield is up, and said walk mode was dead slow. thats why they have the rolling mode...

 

[RigaMortus2]

Personally, I look at it as a defensive measure. Really, the only time I'd see a droideka's grapple check coming into play is when a PC grapples it (which is - or at least would be if their modifer wasn't so good - a viable tactic against these things). Then again it *should* be hard to grapple a strong, large sized droid.

I agree, it should be hard to grapple the droideka, and the droideka should have a hard time grappling back (because it is a robot after all, and would be very awkward for it to grapple). But they only have one grapple check for both situations. It would make more sense to have a "defensive" grapple check which would be that +17 for when someone is attempting to grappl it, and then an "offensive" one with a lower check for when it tries to grapple someone. But that would be too complicated, so I understand why they did not go that route.

So, you agree that it should be hard for someone to grapple a droideka. Do you not agree it should be hard for a droideka to grapple someone else (since they aren't really built for it)?

As an offensive tactic, it's mud. Sure, it has a higher bonus to hit: +9 BAB +3 Str -1 Size = +11 to hit with a touch attack; then it's +17 grapple check bonus means it'll most likely win the grapple, but where does that really get it?

Huh? You admit that the droideka has a better chance to hit the target with a grapple and a better chance to maintain that grapple and prevent them from escaping, thus taking someone out of combat for 1 round or more vs. dealing damage which may or may not take someone out of combat, yet it's not a good tactic?

It's taken one PC out of the fight, but then can only deal 1d4+3 damage pretty reliably to that PC each round,

Again, the damage is not the reason you grapple. That's just a nice little bonus. The reason is to reduce they (standard) party size from 4 PCs to 3, in terms of being effective.

while the other PCs can blast it (without it's dex modifier to reflex save, as it's grappling) with impunity.

Unless the grapple rules changed that much, all those PCs firing at the grappling droideka and their ally will have a 50% chance of hitting their ally (I am basing this off of how D&D 3.5 handles it, SW could be different and not have this rule). Besides the fact, while they are busy firing at the droideka who is grappling their friend, they aren't concentrating on the other enemies (probably other droideka) that are there. Which is exactly the reason to grapple. Take the attention off of the droideka's allies. I hope you weren't assuming that I was suggesting that a solo droideka (which is outnumbered 4 to 1) would waste it's time grappling one PC? This tactic would be employed when the droideka has backup there.

As opposed to taking a 5ft (one square in the new parlance) step back from the meleeing character (assuming it can't attck with it's blasters in melee) and unloading with autofire twice? That'll deal somewhere between 3d8 & 6d8 (depending on whether it "hits" with both attacks or not) not only to the meleeing character but also to all other PCs within 2 squares...

That is great if you are more concerned with dealing damage which may or may not kill an opponent, rather than taking an opponent completely out of a fight (they will be wasting their actions trying to escape the grapple, even if it is just for 1 round, but most likely it will be longer with such a high grapple check).

I think I know which option wins - at least if I'm running the droideka.

Depends on your intentions. If you just want to deal damage back and forth all the time, go for it. Most times, the PCs will end up winning easily, especially as they have more defensive options open to them in ranged combat (cover, concealment, drawing fire, lying prone, running attack feat, total defense, combat expertise, fighting defensively, etc.) If you want to make it at least a little challening for the PCs, they will think twice about getting into close melee with a droideka once it grapples them. Once the grapple happens, none of the above will help them escape like it would in a fire fight.

Again, it is a silly side effect of being large sized, but why not use the high grapple check to your advantage? As a GM who wants to run challening combats, if you have the chance to take a PC out of combat for a few rounds, why not?