Star Wars Saga, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[Baby Samurai]

Is there any difference between using 2 weapons and taking the feat to reduce the penalty to -5 or taking double attack and take the -5 to attack for 2 attacks besides the flavor?

Well with Double Attack you can get two attacks at –5 with a two-handed weapon getting 2 x Str bonus on each hit.

With Dual Weapon Mastery III you can attack once with each weapon with 1 x Str bonus on each hit at no penalty. The penalty for Dual Weapon Mastery II is –2, and for Dual Weapon Mastery I it is –5.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Is there any difference between using 2 weapons and taking the feat to reduce the penalty to -5 or taking double attack and take the -5 to attack for 2 attacks besides the flavor?

Double Attack is restricted to one weapon category each time the feat is selected, while Dual Weapon Mastery can be used with any weapon category, and by the time you'd qualify for Double Attack, you can take another level of DWM and get two attacks at a -2 penalty. You wouldn't get the damage output of Double Attack with a two-handed weapon, but you could make multiple attacks at a much lower penalty.

And for a double pistol character with DWM I to III, the Rapid Shot feat and Trigger Work talent, there's no loss in damage output whatsoever.

 

[Felon]

I am extremely impressed with the condition track. It replaces ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, nausea, poison, energy drain, paralysis, etc.

This is actually a point well worth noting. Champions of the hit point system have often dismissed the idea of some sort of injury penalty as locking players into a downward spiral of death, but we've always had that in D&D in the form of the likes of ability damage, negative levels and such.

Then again, I'm not sure if throwing it all under the ubiquitous category "steps down the condition track" is desirable. I can tell you that very little scares my group as much as the thought being hit with a negative level.

 

[Felon]

If there is anything you should take from the advice in the book is that you shouldn't hide behind the rules or go through the session speaking entirely in metagaming. You're supposed to be and participating in a story, not a series of random events and encounters. There has to be a point to the adventures.

Doesn't sound like there's anything fresh to take from that. And as much I'd rather the players get involved in the story, there are folks who have plenty of fun with random events and encounters. To each their own.

 

[Felon]

I think that's more a problem with the way they built Vader than with the grapple rules. Any time we see him in conflict that's not a lightsaber duel, Grappling seems to be his preferred tactic.

I don't know that logic really follows. What sort of combat should Vader be doing without a lightsaber? Bare-knuckle boxing?

I doubt Vader should be written up as some sort of wrestler (except maybe a lark) just because he likes to do basic phenomenally-strong cyborg stuff like picking folks up in the air one-handed. No, I think it's a pretty legitimate complaint that grappling's a dead end without feats, and you can't do stuff with it that you and I could do if we were grappling.

 

[Felon]

There was definitely more movement, and the combats were tactically more interesting.

Good to hear. I suppose it stands to reason that if you get a move action, and you're not allowed to burn it to gain additional attacks, then you're going to use it to move whenever you can. Why not?

 

[Baby Samurai]

I suppose it stands to reason that if you get a move action, and you're not allowed to burn it to gain additional attacks, then you're going to use it to move whenever you can. Why not?

But you can still take a full round action worth of attacks (Double Attack, Dual Weapon Mastery, Whirlwind Attack etc), and you have to be careful moving wherever you want because of AoO. And even with the withdraw action being a Move action, your starting square is the only one considered non-threatened.

Charge being a standard action is so much fun, as characters can withdraw as a Move action, and then charge somebody's ass in the same round.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Well, that can easily be remedied by allowing characters to spend their bonus trained skill selections from Intelligence on any skill, even if it's not a class skill. All those characters spent one of their bonus trained skills from Intelligence (I'm sure they'd have at least a 12 Intelligence right out the gate) on Mechanics.

This was an idea I first saw in Conan OGL, and I thought it was a good one then (class skill points spent on class skills, bonus skill points spent on what the hell you liked).

I'm pretty certain I'll incorporate it in my (eventual) star wars campaign.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

This was an idea I first saw in Conan OGL, and I thought it was a good one then (class skill points spent on class skills, bonus skill points spent on what the hell you liked).

Which is where I got the notion from. Only had a one player in my current game take advantage of it so far, but it's nice to have on the books.[/QUOTE]

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

I think that's more a problem with the way they built Vader than with the grapple rules. Any time we see him in conflict that's not a lightsaber duel, Grappling seems to be his preferred tactic.

Well, the only instance we see in the movies of Vader "grappling" would be ANH when he's choking Captain Antilles.

Though I'm wondering if it could be covered under the grabbing rules instead of the full-bore grappling rules? Don't have my book handy, but if you can attack with a light weapon (such as a fist) while grappling, then that explains how Vader was able to lift & choke Antilles. Had him in grabbed and was doing unarmed damage to him, with the descriptive effects of raising him off the ground and strangling the poor bloke.

Just a thought.