Jedi Counseling 8: One-Handed!

By JD Wiker

The Jedi Counselor is back with more answers to your questions about the Star Wars Roleplaying Game This time around, designer JD Wiker addresses questions about wielding lightsabers and rifles one-handed, restoring angled shields, converting dark trooper armor to revised core rulebook stats, how to get out of an electronet, and more!

Have a question for the counselor? See the link at the end of the column!

Q: When you use a Computer Use check to restore shields, but you've got them set to double-front (or double-rear), do you double the shield points you gain? So, if my ship had 50 shield points, and I put them to double-front for 100, and then took 30 points of damage on my front shield, they would be down to 70. If I then restored shield points, would I gain 20 shield points, or only 10?

A: No, you don't double them. "Double," as in "double-front," is just starfighter-jockey jargon for angling shields. It doesn't actually double the shield generator's output. So, in your example, the shields would go from 70 to 80, rather than to 90.

Q: I was wondering if you could please give me the new converted stats for all three dark trooper phases. For the most part, I want to know the change in defense from their armor and damage reduction. (I would also like the converted stats for the Coruscant guard armor.)

A: For dark trooper armor, I'd rule that Phase I armor provides DR 1, Phase II armor provides DR 4, and Phase III armor provides DR 5. For Coruscant guard armor, I'd suggest giving it DR 9.

Q: Lightsabers can apparently be wielded one-handed or two-handed, but does a lightsaber being wielded two-handed get the x 1.5 Strength modifier to damage?

A: Yes, that's correct.

Q: So when are we to assume that a lightsaber is being wielded one or two-handed? When the player says so? Because if the damage modifier gets multiplied by 1.5, why would anyone ever do anything else?

A: A player trying to do a lot of damage will use both hands. (Note that Jedi in the movies generally do.) A character might choose to use only one hand, though, if he needed the other hand to carry something, operate a control panel, or whatever.

Q: Can you fire a blaster rifle one-handed? It would seem that a penalty should apply, but we've seen Luke and Leia shoot the things one-handed and seem to get along all right. So, are rifle weapons one- or two-handed? And if they're two-handed, are there circumstances under which a hero can use them one-handed, like we see in the movies?

Two hands, folks, two hands.

A: Rifles are technically two-handed weapons. It's hard to say, from watching the movies, if Luke or Leia ever actually hit anything while firing those carbines one-handed, though there are plenty of clear examples where they did so while holding the weapon with two hands. I'd probably apply a -4 penalty for a character using a rifle with only one hand.

Q: In the last fight I ran, the bad guy was equipped with a few electronets. As soon as he used one, though, the first question the entangled player asked was: "How do I get disentangled?" We looked everywhere and couldn't find a rule for this. Did I miss it?

A: Hmm. I don't know how we missed including that information; as I recall, it was meant to work much like a net in Dungeons & Dragons. That is, the entangled creature can escape with an Escape Artist check (DC 20) as a full-round action. Or, alternately, the net has 5 wound points (if the entangled character has a Tiny cutting weapon to slice his way out), or the electronet can be burst with a Strength check (DC 25, also as a full-round action).

Q: What is the attack roll modifier when attacking someone who is knocked out? Is someone who is knocked out also prone?

A: Generally, yes, a knocked-out character is also prone. So you'd get a +4 circumstance bonus to attack that character with a melee weapon, and a -4 penalty to ranged attacks against that character.

Q: If someone is pinned, is he or she prone for purposes of attack roll modifiers against them? In other words, do the pinned and prone modifiers both apply in this situation?

A: "Pinned" doesn't necessarily mean "on the ground." So, no, attackers would only benefit from the effects of the pin on their target.

Q: You were kind enough to provide the Break DC, Hardness, and WP of most weapons with the release of the Arms & Equipment Guide. However, my villains can't destroy the weapons of Force-users since you didn't give that information for lightsabers. Can you please provide that information, or, since the materials used in construction likely make a difference, give a guide for determining these as per common materials used?

A: As a Medium-sized weapon, a lightsaber should only have 5 Hardness and 5 wounds, with a Break DC around 17 or 18.

Q: Is blindness due to poison permanent? A few of my players got some Vong amphistaff poison in their eyes, and I couldn't find any conclusive evidence as to the duration of the effect or the DC to heal. One of them used "cure poison," and I ruled that it cured the blindness but that their sight only partially returned, as it seemed unlikely that they would suddenly be able to see again immediately. I could really use some guidance on this, though.

A: I hadn't noticed that amphistaff "spit poison" didn't have a listed duration. It should last until the poison is washed out of the target's eyes, or until 1d4x10 minutes have passed, whichever comes first.

Q: The Arms & Equipment Guide says that weapons can be jury-rigged during the customization process and that they have the properties of the weapon before the customizing process was begun. Does this mean that the time and materials spent so far on the customization are lost, or can the customization process be resumed where it was left off?

For example: A Blaster Rifle requires seven days of work (taking 10 on the repair checks) to customize. If, after five days, it is jury rigged to be used, will it take two days to finish the customization, or will the customization have to start again from the beginning, taking another seven days?

A: What that means is that if you need the weapon to become operational in the middle of a custom job, you can jury-rig it to become functional again -- it just doesn't get the benefits of the custom job yet. But it doesn't add any time to the customization; when you go back to customizing it, you pick up where you left off.

Q: Are the blasters on the Firespray-31 fire-linked? The damage suggests that they are, but it doesn't say so.

A: No, they're not. The Firespray-31's blasters are not fire-linked, and thus should only deal 4d10x2 damage. Good eye!

Q: Does the DR of a ship's hull work against ion damage?

A: Hull DR does not apply against ion damage. Once the ion damage penetrates the shields, the ship begins suffering the effects of ion damage.

Q: Can you use the Jedi weapon master's Rapid Strike class ability without using a full round action? For example: Jedi weapon master Bob attacks at +8/+3. He wants to move in and engage the enemy. Normally, he'd only get one attack at +8. Could he move and then use Rapid Strike to get two attacks at +6?

A: No. Whenever you choose to make multiple attacks in the same round -- for most any reason other than Attacks of Opportunity -- it requires a full-round action. So Jedi Bob could move and attack once, or not move and attack three times (at +6/+6/+1). If he had the Heroic Surge feat, though, he could use it to move into position, and then take three attacks as a full attack action.

Q: Why is Jacen Solo's vitality score only 46? As a Jedi guardian, even if he had dead average vitality die rolls of 5 at every level, he would have 54 VP (adding in his Constitution bonus)!

A: It looks like his vitality wasn't updated when he was leveled up for The New Jedi Order Sourcebook. Good catch. He should have 59 vitality points.

Q: I've gone through several characters in the rulebook and discovered that their skill points don't tally up correctly. Should this be considered errata?

A: Possibly -- but likely not. You have to realize that when we create characters for the game, we don't necessarily build them optimally. We try to build them as though they advanced level by level, according to our sources on what they did at various times in their lives. That means that they sometimes pick up skills as cross-class skills, and, therefore, spend more on their skill points than they would have if we'd just created them "all levels at once." So if you've noticed a small discrepancy in skill points, it's probably just a symptom of how they were created. Other numbers, though -- such as number of feats, attack bonuses, and save bonuses -- are more "hard," and if you notice any discrepancies there, chances are there was a miscalculation, and we'd appreciate finding out about it.