WaveRaider's Star Wars RPG House Rules and Reformation

Welcome

Hello, for a long while now I have somewhat obsessed myself with tinkering with the rules of this game (we know it needs it), whether it is to make the game more fun, varied, "balanced", or "realistic", I strive to make the game rules "perfect" (I am a perfectionist and realist, and I don't mind complexity that much), though I may never reach that stage, whether in my own opinion or yours.

Rules like having Persuasion be a class skill for the Jedi class, I mean their core values are about making peace, and Dark-Siders could use the intimidate function to cow prospective targets. I would also give the Jedi class an extra skill point, since they have more skill options.

And how about having both character's Strength stats factor into intimidate checks (I know looks aren't everything, but you know people would be less likely to stand up against someone who could qualify as a living tank, unless, y'know, they're drunk or stimmed up or something [stims will also be added in]), prior knowledge (especially firsthand, more so than second) should also factor in.

I will be adding more content to this page in increments, and making more pages for ease of search. I will also add my advice from time to time.

Equipment

Buying Equipment

You can now have your droid make a Knowledge (Bureaucracy) check on your behalf to obtain any license to own anything, considering it is your property.

My advice is to have two droids, one of them to be your "primary" droid to make the check, and the other one (a third degree droid with the Protocol talent or a droid that has Skill Focus with Knowledge [Bureaucracy]) to aid on its check. Have them both of them equipped the improved coordination circuitry on that skill, and if your primary droid has Skill Focus with Knowledge (Bureaucracy), you are guaranteed to have at least a +14 on that check result, enough to automatically get licenses on restricted items and modifications.

Having the Recall feat on the primary droid might be somewhat helpful (although wouldn't a droid have a perfect memory?).

Although this could be seen as an expensive investment, the potential to save time and money could be more than worth it.

Armor

I have changed my mind on the aspect of armor, for more ease of use and time saving. Normal rules for armor are simple enough without my initial rule changes complicating them.

However, that being said, my point about Stormtrooper armor (and armor in general) still stands, it should not cause lightsabers to "miss" the target should be wearing any, therefore the most simple rule I thought of is that lightsabers ignore armor bonuses to Reflex Defense unless the armor is made of specific materials that resist lightsaber blades.

Personal Shields

Personal shields have been around since at least the Old Republic days, with various types to handle various jobs, but the purpose has always stayed the same: to protect the person wearing it from harm.

There are quite a few types of personal shields, from working in a hazardous environment to sparring and battle, with some shields have been made to absorb multiple types of damage as the environment demanded it, or as the tactics and equipment evolved to bypass it. The very basic energy shield which protected against the most common form of attack - blaster fire, an energy type, would soon be adapted to and bypassed altogether with the use of the less-damaging kinetic or sonic weaponry, though ion weapons also proved useful in that when they hit an energy shield, they had a higher chance to disrupt the shielding and causing a burnout of the generator, though this only worked when the shielding had an energy-absorption trait.

(More on this in a bit.)

Combat

Battle Damage

Armor and cover should also be taking damage in battle when taking more damage than it could protect from. That and it isn't right to be only able to damage the armor by specifically attacking it (unless it is specifically heavy and/or large [more room to actually hit the armor instead of the person inside of it]).

Armor shall take damage whenever the person who wears it takes a critical hit. It takes damage equal to the number of damage die from the attacker.

As of now, I'm not entirely sure what to do about cover taking damage, might get back to it later.

Damage Types

Ion damage is interesting in that it is kind of unique, being an electrical-type energy damage meant for disabling electronics, more commonly starships and droids.

What we can gather from video games is that it works well to drain shields faster than standard energy damage (as seen in Empire at War), and that it does not lend itself to being reflected by lightsaber blades (seen in the Jedi Knight games).

Due to these characteristics, damage resistance shall apply itself after seeing if it would move the target down the condition track, unless that target has a specific DR against this type of damage, such as a Verpine-template armor, the Ion Shielding feat, or the Ion Resistance talent from the Independent Droid prestige class.

A target wearing armor that has a helmet package is subject to getting the package disabled by ion damage upon a successful attack. A 25% chance from a regular attack, such as from small-arms like an ion rifle, and a 50/50 chance of being disabled if hit by an area attack, such as an attack with a burst radius (ion grenades), or a splash zone, such as from being adjacent to the targeted square of ion cannons.

Area attacks that miss reduce the chances of disabling helmet packages by 25%, with the exception of the previously stated cannons. If the target has the Evasion talent, they automatically reduce the chance by 25% beforehand.

Area-effect weapons such as ion cannons that directly hit a target in the targeted square have a 100% chance to disable helmet packages on a successful hit, with a 50/50 chance on a miss. Apply the above sentence in regards to the Evasion talent.

Ion damage shall also do 1 more die of damage to shields, and lastly, despite not being able to be reflected by lightsabers, it can be absorbed by them, so the Deflect talent works as normal, you just can't use the Redirect talent on it.