SW Saga: Republic Commando

Nifft

Penguin Herder
So I'm thinking about putting together a one-shot Saga scenario just to see how combat works (with auto-fire and grenades and all that), but without Jedi. I'm thinking of making pre-fab characters (one Soldier, one Scout, one Scoundrel, and one Noble "officer"). The scenario would be the attack on Geneosis. (Yes, I'm ripping off the video game as much as possible.)

What level characters would be appropriate? Anyone have advice for the four pre-fab builds? What are the roles that I need to fill? I'm thinking:
- heavy weapons / assault (Soldier)
- sniper / slicer (Scoundrel/Soldier)
- demolitions / mechanic (Scout/Soldier)
- officer (Noble/Soldier)

... possibly just a level or two of Soldier for each of the others for Light armor and some Commando talents.

What kind of armor would be appropriate? Looks like storm trooper armor is Light... is it too good? Anyone else thinking about this?

Thanks, -- N
 

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No Jedi?

Between force powers and the lightsaber talents, jedis are quite a unique beast in combat. I'd have at least two if I were you (one focused on lightsabers, the other focused on force powers).
 

Asmor said:
Right, I want to establish a "Jedi-free" baseline for combat.

I want to figure out what's sensible in 99% of the combats out there in the universe. Then, when the Jedi PCs come along, they can kick butt & take names because these tactics don't include Jedi. (Sith will be scary because they will take Jedi into consideration when planning their tactics. Everyone else will be fairly surprised. Jedi are rare.)

Cheers, -- N
 

Are you having the players be an RC squad? I'm also wondering what level you want these guys to be, since from the sounds of what you're planning they'd be pretty low-level.

They should probably have their 1st level as a Soldier to get a solid base of hit points and the necessary weapon proficiencies. But to get the kind of skill set that you see Delta and Omega squad having, these guys would have to be at least 5th level, mostly Soldier with a level of Scout to gain Stealth (if adopting a suggested optional rule of getting Skill Training instead of one of a new class' starting feats when multiclassing, otherwise spending a feat slot to gain Stealth as a class skill). Leader-role would also multiclass into Noble for one of the commander-type talents.

Armor would be the same mechanically as stormtrooper armor (the book's descrption of ST armor describes it as being the same as clonetrooper armor).
 

Donovan Morningfire said:
Are you having the players be an RC squad? I'm also wondering what level you want these guys to be, since from the sounds of what you're planning they'd be pretty low-level.
Exactly. RC squad. All action, no RP'ing. Advice on level would be appreciated -- I was thinking 4th level or so.

Donovan Morningfire said:
They should probably have their 1st level as a Soldier to get a solid base of hit points and the necessary weapon proficiencies.
I don't think all of them need their 1st level in Soldier. Two of them perhaps.

Specific builds?

Donovan Morningfire said:
Armor would be the same mechanically as stormtrooper armor (the book's descrption of ST armor describes it as being the same as clonetrooper armor).
Stormtrooper armor it is, then. :)

What are all the required roles?

- Everyone should be able to wear Light armor and handle a Rifle.
- 1 guy Commander
- 1 guy Slicer
- 1 guy Mechanic
- 1 guy Demolitions
- 1 guy Sniper
- 1 guy Heavy Weapons
- 1 guy Tank (heavy assault; able to soak up damage)
- 2 guys Medic
- 2 guys Scout (Stealth + Perception)

... other roles that need filling? Pilot, maybe?

Thanks, -- N
 

Nifft said:
So I'm thinking about putting together a one-shot Saga scenario just to see how combat works (with auto-fire and grenades and all that), but without Jedi. I'm thinking of making pre-fab characters (one Soldier, one Scout, one Scoundrel, and one Noble "officer"). The scenario would be the attack on Geneosis. (Yes, I'm ripping off the video game as much as possible.)

Sounds fun, any chance of a play report or even better posting the scenario once written.
 

Why a slicer/sniper? I think that dilutes the Sniper concept too much ... IMO.

In real-life Armies, this is what the TO&E looks like (for the US Army; note the USMC has a very different set up):

Fire Team
1 Sergeant (probably Soldier/Noble)
1 Light Machine Gunner (Soldier, high Strength)
1 Grenadier (Soldier, probably high Strength)
1 Rifleman/Radioman (Soldier)

In rank order (from highest to lowest).

Two fire teams, called a squad, have a staff sergeant in command (higher level sergeant). Two to four squads, called a platoon, are led by a lieutenant (Noble/Soldier) and a platoon sergeant. Note that the lieutenant is lower level than the platoon sergeant and probably lower level than the staff sergeants... if there's some kind of Plan talent, the lieutenant should build towards that.

In addition to the TO&E "mandated" stuff mentioned above, often a platoon will have a heavy machine gun team, a "marksman" (not a sniper!) and other special troops attached.

Mercenaries or special forces teams can be smaller and/or more specialized. (For instance, a merc team might have a dedicated martial artist, whereas a martial artist in the regular army basically does martial arts in his spare time ... even if he's better at kicking arse than shooting stuff.)


Special Forces teams vary widely. This is based somewhat loosely on a US Army Rangers team. There's more "room" to build a special forces team the way you want. Note that in real life special forces teams tend to be large. Fortunately, splitting them in half is common practice (a team of five or six special stormtroopers should be easy to manage in combat).

Officer (Captain or Major)
Team Sergeant (2-i-C; often trained in intelligence, sometimes this person is a lieutenant instead). If the Team Sergeant is in fact enlisted, they're almost certainly higher level than the Officer (as they're older and more experienced).

If the team splits in two, the officer leads one half, the team sergeant leads the other half.

Two each of:

Intelligence - trained in linguistics, interrogation, analysis and "making friends in foreign countries". Give them lots of Gather Information and have them get info on the enemy before the attack.

Medic - literally trained in trauma rooms in big cities where shooting victims are common. They have the Surgery feat.

Engineer - the "Smart Hero" of the bunch, though capable of killing someone with the very tools they use to build stuff. Trained in construction, battlefield fortifications, demolitions and possibly things like computer hacking, disabling devices, and what not.

Communications - capable of building a radio from scratch, carry the heaviest load.

"Weapons" - the killers of the team, they're trained in heavy weapons and melee (unarmed and various melee weapons).

Note that this messed with the CR/Challenge Code/whatever it's called, as only the "Weapons Guys" and the two leaders are actually all that great at combat and direct combat support.

There's two of each role for redundancy. It sucks when your only medic gets shot (which I swear happens in every novel of this type that I read; authors don't know medicine).
 


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