[SWSE] Are Jedi just plain better than everyone else?

[drothgery]

The only reason it's a Jedi weapon is because George Lucas says it is. From a purely logical standpoint, they shouldn't be!

You're right. It should be a nobody weapon. However, Star Wars says Jedi are able to kick butt and take names with the things, and nobody else uses them. Saga mechanics reflect this; if you're a Jedi (or a Sith), you've got lots of talents available that can make you a whirling machine of death with a lightsaber; if you're not, well, unless you're really strong and a tricked-out vibro-weapon expert, you're better off with a blaster.

 

[iwatt]

The whole, don't bring a knife to a gunfight situation, really.

The correct response is, I'll bring a gun, a knife, a bazooka, and however many grenades I can carry.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

The correct response is, I'll bring a gun, a knife, a bazooka, and however many grenades I can carry.

Translated into Star Wars Basic...

I'll bring a Star Destroyer.

 

[Faraer]

Anyone except a Jedi -- able to predict the future and mystically sense the positions of objects and beings around their body -- is liable to dismember themselves the first time they try to use a lightsaber.

 

[Asmor]

Anyone except a Jedi -- able to predict the future and mystically sense the positions of objects and beings around their body -- is liable to dismember themselves the first time they try to use a lightsaber.

Yeah, once more, gonna have to say no. No they won't.

There's no reason they couldn't train in it just as well as a Jedi. In fact, the only things they wouldn't be able to do is deflect blaster bolts and retrieve a lost saber.

Granted, someone who just finds one in the middle of an intense battle and ignites it for the first time is liable to dismember themselves-- although I'd say it's still not very likely-- but someone who's actually picking a lightsaber up for the first time in a dojo and being trained in its usage should be perfectly safe as long as he doesn't do something stupid.

Hell, from what I understand, Jedi learn to use lightsabers concurrently with their training in the force, and I'm sure they ignite their first saber before they've developed any sort of passive, always-on "spider sense." Thus, a Jedi learning to use a saber is no better off than any random person learning to use a saber.

 

[drothgery]

Yeah, once more, gonna have to say no. No they won't.

There's no reason they couldn't train in it just as well as a Jedi. In fact, the only things they wouldn't be able to do is deflect blaster bolts and retrieve a lost saber.

Err... what you can't do with a lightsaber if you're not Force sensitive (again, by Saga mechanics) is (leaving out things a Force sensitive could do with any weapon) ...
... block melee attacks over and above normal melee parrying, by using the force to anticipate attacks (block talent)
... deflect ranged attacks over and above normal ranged combat dodging, by using the force to anticipate attacks (deflect talent)
... redirect deflected ranged attacks at another target (redirect shot talent)
... construct and attune your lightsaber to yourself, making it easier for you to hit with it
... retrieve a lightsaber you threw immediately using Force telekinesis (throw lightsaber talent)
... become extraordinarily skilled in lightsaber combat (all the advanced lightsaber combat talents, most notably including the capstone lightsaber form talents, are exclusive to the Jedi and/or Sith preestige classes, which require Force Sensitivity to enter)

Now, you could make a pretty deadly lightsaber-weilding Soldier who didn't have any of those abilities. But because some of the best Eilte Trooper talents can't be applied to lightsabers, a non-Jedi melee expert is really better off using a more standard vibro weapon (and unless you've got a really high stregnth, you're better off using a ranged weapon). And as a bonus he can switch from vibroblade to electrostaff to vibro-ax as the situation requires, and all of his weapon-group specific feats and talents will still apply.

 

[Asmor]

I'm not basing my argument on Saga mechanics, but rather common sense. Certainly by saga mechanics, the lightsaber is far more effective for jedis.

 

[drothgery]

I'm not basing my argument on Saga mechanics, but rather common sense. Certainly by saga mechanics, the lightsaber is far more effective for jedis.

By common sense (or at least common physics), a lightsaber shouldn't work at all. So discussing lightsabers in terms of game mechanics or in terms of the internal logic of Star Wars are the only rational contexts. And since this is, after all, a thread in the "d20 Modern, d20 System, & OGL Games" forum, not the "Media Lounge" forum, game mechanics are the approriate context here.

 

[argo]

Basically, as written, the idea that a lightsaber is the exclusive purview of Jedi and those who've defeated them stretches all sense of verisimilitude.

Wait... this is the part of Star Wars that upsets your sense of verisimilitude the most?

Lightsabers are jedi-only because the story is cooler when the mystic sect of warrior-monks has a signature weapon.

The argument that you shouldn't bring a knife to a gun fight is a sufficent handwave. Figgure most of the universe takes Han's dim view of sabers and leave it at that.