[SWSE]Non-heroic levels and CL?

[Kaffis]

So, flipping through the CL stuff in Star Wars RPG: Saga Edition, I noticed that they don't seem to come out and define a rule for how many non-heroic levels it takes to give a non-heroic NPC 1 CL.

Thumbing through the example NPCs, it looks like 6 non-heroic levels is a CL2. Four non-heroics is a CL1. So there's some rounding going on, but I'm not sure if it's all round down, all round up, or round to nearest. 8 non-heroic is CL2, 3 non-heroic is CL1, 2 non-heroic is CL1.

So, if it's 3 non-heroics per CL unit, rounded down, that fits. If it's 5 non-heroics per CL unit, rounded up, that also fits. If it's 4 non-heroics, you can round to nearest or round up and it works.

So what's 5 non-heroic levels? CL1 (under my first or second rule), or CL2 (under my third)? How 'bout 9? CL3 (under the first rule), CL2 (under the second or third)? 7 non-heroic levels? CL3 (first rule), CL2 (second or third)?

Anybody seen official/semi-official comment on the Wizards boards about this, or have some insight from play experience?

 

[Cam Banks]

I'm pretty sure it's non-heroic level / 3, judging by the web enhancement that discusses designing an encounter. I also think this was in the book, too, but I can't recall where (and don't have the book here with me.)

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Asmor]

I'd go with 3 nonheroics/CL

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

Actually, I believe it's nonheroic level/4. Stormtroopers have 4 nonheroic levels and heavy stormtroopers have 8, and both are CR 1 and 2 respectively. I'm pretty sure they have the highest levels of their CR in the book.

 

[Kaffis]

Actually, I believe it's nonheroic level/4. Stormtroopers have 4 nonheroic levels and heavy stormtroopers have 8, and both are CR 1 and 2 respectively. I'm pretty sure they have the highest levels of their CR in the book.

Or are they just rounding down, and it's 3?

Everything else gets rounded down, after all. Which goes against the notion that scout troopers and the like are non-heroic 6 and CL2.

I guess the more I think of it, the more likely 3 non-heroics/CL sounds. It seems appropriate that stormtroopers (supposedly elite cannon-fodder) be slightly high for their CL.




Aha. Going off the suggestion in this thread that Web Enhancement #2 offers some insight, I spotted that the crab droids it mentions (non-heroic 9) are considered CL3.

This flat-out rules out 5 non-heroics/CL.

If it's 4 non-heroics/CL, you'd have to always round up for 3, 6, and 9 to work as CL1, CL2, and CL3 -- believable to me for 3 and 6, but rounding 9 up to 12 is a big stretch.

3 non-heroics/CL settles in nicely. 9, 6, and 3 (crab droids, scout troopers, and Rebel Troopers, respectively) are all clean CLs. Stormtroopers (4) get rounded down to 3 for a CL1, and heavy stormtroopers (8) get rounded down (following the notion that everything rounds down) to 6 for a CL2.

Additionally, weight is lent to this by the fact that most mixed heroic/non-heroic have 6 non-heroic levels, which makes sense that they'd go for an even cut-off point.

 

[wolfpunk]

I go with divide by 4. The Star Wars classes are so much more powerful than the Non heroic class.

 

[drothgery]

Even if it's never officially stated anywhere, the discussions by the authors/editors on WotC's boards on the subject seem to pretty strongly indicate it's 3 noheroic levels = 1 CL.

 

[pawsplay]

CL = nonheroic/3 + heroic, round down, + fudge