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Jedi Counseling 7: Carbonite Freezing | |||||||||
Hmmm . . . difficult to see, the answers are. The dark side clouds everything! With this installment of "Jedi Counseling," Star Wars Roleplaying Game designer JD Wiker answers your questions regarding Sense Surroundings, flame projectors, and being frozen in carbonite! Have a question for the counselor? See the link at the end of the column!
Q: Can the Sense Surroundings ability of the Sense feat (found in the Power of the Jedi Sourcebook) allow the Jedi to get a clear picture of their area without line of sight? That is, can you see through walls, or things that people are hiding behind? A: Basically, yes. You can use it to tell where people are in an area. It's not perfect -- it won't tell you what the person is carrying, or even necessarily what species the person is. But you'd get broad impressions like "someone Large is hiding behind that crate" or "several people are lurking in the shadows around us."
Q: The ryyk blade in the new Arms & Equipment Guide is a bit different than the one that was in Star Wars Gamer. It seems like the old one made more sense, though, considering that it was based on The Essential Guide to Weapons. Why is the ryyk blade now a small weapon? It's the size of a machete. And why did the weight change? A: Between Star Wars Gamer #4 and the Arms & Equipment Guide, we gave a lot of thought to the ryyk blade, and we realized that it was way out of proportion with the weights of other, similar weapons. A longsword, for example, is only 2 kilograms. So, it made sense to lower the weight. Then, the illustration in The Essential Guide to Weapons shows a Wookiee wielding one in either hand. So, to make that a little easier for a Wookiee character to pull off, the designers of the A&EG decided to make ryyk blades Small weapons, meaning that a Wookiee will get the bonus for the off-hand weapon being light.
Q: If you use the skills Battlemind and Enhance Ability (boosting your Dexterity) at the same time, it's going to give you a lot of bonuses. If you have a 7th-level Jedi, he can roll a 20-24 on average, getting +4, and Battlemind gives him at least another +3. So, just in the space of one round, he already has a +7 bonus to attacks! Isn't that a bit much for just a few skills, considering he still can move in that round? A: Battlemind costs a move action, and Enhance Ability costs an attack action, so the character isn't going to have any actions left for the round he activates them. As for gaining a +7 attack bonus, that's actually only a +5 bonus; the +4 Enhance Ability boosts the ability, not the ability modifier. In any case, using both those skills is costing him vitality points that he might be sorely missing in a few rounds. His defense, on the other hand, only goes up by +4, since Battlemind only applies to attacks.
Q: When a Jedi uses Deflect (attack) on a blaster bolt, it can only hit a target one range increment away. Does this mean the initial range of the weapon, or can they return the bolt past that? A: It means, simply, that the maximum distance the Jedi can redirect the blaster bolt is equal to the range increment of the weapon that fired it. So, a bolt from a blaster pistol can hit a target up to 10 meters away, while a bolt from a blaster rifle can hit a target up to 30 meters away.
Q: In the Power of the Jedi Sourcebook, it seems that the XJ X-wing has been greatly toned down in capabilities. The +3 engine bonus it should get to maneuvers and all weapons appears only in its main blasters, and it is no faster than the standard X-wing. (I always assumed it was.) Is this correct? A: There's a general assumption that it's faster, and it is indeed a little faster in atmosphere (in terms of kilometers per hour). However, the upgrades to the XJ are more to its weaponry than to its engines, which is why we chose not to upgrade its speed by comparison to the standard X-wing.
Q: In the Arms & Equipment Guide, the Flame Projectors are missing their Reflex save DC numbers (pages 35 and 36). The text above the flamers states that the Reflex saves vary with the weapon but the individual weapons don't have one listed in the stats. A: I checked with the original designers, and it seems that the DCs were accidentally omitted. But here they are: Czerka CZ Wrist-Mounted Flame Projector Merr-Sonn Model C-22 Flame Carbine Merr-Sonn Model CR-24/Czerka CZ-24 Merr-Sonn Model CR-28/Czerka CZ-28
Q: In the Power of the Jedi Sourcebook, the description of Jedi battle armor reads, "In an effort to protect themselves from the dark fury of their foes, the greatest Jedi armorers developed battle armor that was the best possible protection against a lightsaber blow." But lightsabers ignore the damage reduction of armor when dealing damage to an opponent. The description of Jedi battle armor, then, seems to be entirely inaccurate since lightsabers, in essence, make the damage-mitigating capability of armor null and void. One of my players is pressing that perhaps this particular suit of armor's DR should work against lightsabers, but I'm not so convinced. Can you help? A: We've gotten this question quite a bit lately, and we've come to the conclusion that the original designer meant for the Jedi battle armor to resist lightsabers, as your player suggests, but that this simply didn't come across in the write-up. Consider this errata.
Q: Are there any rules for carbonite freezing? I'd like to use it in my campaign. A: No official rules, no, but here's my suggestion. Upon being released from a block of carbonite, the character should be considered "exhausted" until he's had eight hours of rest, and he'll remain blinded for 1d4 days. It's probably not a good idea to call for a Fortitude check of some kind. (It just wouldn't be any fun for a player's character to undergo carbonite freezing in a dramatic moment, and then drop dead because of a bad Fortitude save!) The stats for the frozen person wouldn't change, though they should probably be protected by the hardness of the carbonite block. As for that, I'd say that carbonite is probably hardness 10, with maybe 10 wound points per centimeter of thickness.
Q: In the Power of the Jedi Sourcebook, the Cathar are listed as a Small species. Under Defense, however, the species is not given the +1 size bonus. One of these must be a misprint, but which one? A: The species' size is a misprint. Cathars are Medium-sized.
Q: If you use Illusion to create an image of a dark side user wielding a lightsaber, and you make it attack an opponent, what happens to the opponent? Aside from the check to see through the illusion, would he take some kind of damage if the "lightsaber" struck? Could it inflict a critical hit? A: No and no. Remember, Illusion can't, in and of itself, cause physical harm. The target would see the attacker, but as soon as it "hit" him, he'd get a Will save to see if he realized that it was an illusion. And I'd personally give him a bonus, because all the evidence of his senses would be telling him he should be in tremendous pain, but he wouldn't feel any.
Q: Can I use Transfer Essence to transfer my essence into a droid? A: Not normally, no. But as noted in the skill description, you can transfer your essence into a building in extreme cases. So, it's really up to your GM whether you could do something similar with non-living but animate objects, such as droids.
Q: Our group has been in a few starfighter battles recently. But none of the books list a Challenge Code for any of the ships. The prime example of this is the droid starfighters. Is there a Challenge Code system for starships, or would you just use the Challenge Code for the pilot or crew of the ship? A: We thought about this quite a bit, and it would be nearly impossible to create a system based on the ships themselves. It's the pilot inside who makes the ship more dangerous. Use the Challenge Code of the pilot/crew to select suitable challenges for your players. If the ship had a particularly dangerous weapon, or an extremely high shield point total, you might consider upping the Challenge Code, just as you would if you give an NPC a particularly dangerous weapon, or armor with extremely high Damage Reduction.
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