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Post by CRASHER on May 31, 2007 13:15:03 GMT -5
Saga Edition Preview 8
Starship and Vehicle Combat
From the opening scenes of A New Hope, starships have played an integral role in the Star Wars saga. For players of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, starships represent a chance to get into the cockpit of an X-wing and perform the same kinds of amazing feats that Luke Skywalker did when he blew up the Death Star. For the Saga Edition rules, we revised and streamlined starship combat to integrate it better with the combat rules for ground vehicles and for characters.
To encourage players to make the transition between character combat and space combat, the starship rules have been simplified to use many of the same mechanics as character combat. Movement and attacks work in much the same way as they do at character scale, and pilots and gunners can use many of the same actions that they would in character combat. Additionally, ground vehicles and starships use the same basic combat system, though starship and airspeeder combat can take place at a different scale to make movement easier to handle at such high speeds. These changes should ease the transition when a hero dashes across the battlefield to hop into a speeder, or when the party's space transport enters the atmosphere of an alien world and must ward off defending vehicles.
The Basics
Vehicle and starship combat is based on the rules for character combat. In this way, transitioning to space combat is nearly as simple as changing which statistics you're using. In Saga Edition, players whose characters hop into an X-wing will need to memorize far fewer variant rules to be effective in space combat. Moreover, the changes to the skill system make it easier for a hero to join in the fray even if she didn't invest many character resources in space combat abilities. Of course, certain characters will be better pilots than others, but the game now encourages most players to take an active hand in space combat, rather than waiting around on the ship for the scene to end.
Characters aboard starships can take standard actions, move actions, and swift actions, just as they do in character combat. Starships have their own movement speeds but otherwise move as characters do (though attacks of opportunity are not a standard part of the space combat system). Pilots and gunners can use a standard action to fire vehicle weapons against targets in range, using their base attack bonus and a bonus provided by the ship's targeting computers (a function of their Intelligence, discussed below). Some starship and vehicle actions, such as rerouting power and restoring shields, use swift actions, and heroes firing vehicle weapons at targets with cover can use the aim action to ignore cover.
In Saga Edition, all vehicles and starships have statistics that are very similar to character statistics. For example:
* A vehicle's Strength score measures the power of its engines, its structural integrity, and the general effects of its mass.
* A vehicle's Dexterity score measures its maneuverability, agility, and quickness, contributing to its ability to avoid damage and to the pilot's ability to avoid hazards and perform maneuvers.
* A vehicle's Intelligence score measures the quality of its onboard computers, including communications and sensor systems as well as the fire control circuits of its weaponry.
Also like characters, vehicles and starships have a Reflex Defense and a Fortitude Defense (but no Will Defense). The Reflex Defense of a starship works like the Reflex Defense of a character and determines whether the ship is damaged by an incoming attack. Most ships have a base armor bonus to their Reflex Defense, but characters with heroic levels can replace the ship's armor bonus with their heroic level (much in the same way that heroic level also affects the character's Defense scores). A ship's Fortitude Defense determines its hardiness, and helps in the calculation of the ship's damage threshold (equal to the ship's Fortitude Defense, plus a size bonus).
With regard to the damage threshold, vehicle and starship damage works in much the same way as character damage. The vehicle's SR and DR reduce the damage, which is then subtracted from the vehicle's hit points. If a vehicle takes damage greater than its damage threshold, the vehicle moves –1 step down the condition track, and it can't move back up until a character reroutes power on the ship (discussed below). If a ship falls to 0 hit points, it becomes disabled. If the attack that reduces a vehicle or ship to 0 hit points also exceeds the target's damage threshold, the target is destroyed.
Special Combat Actions
Despite these similarities, starships and vehicles still have some actions and maneuvers that are unique to their design. For example, starships and airspeeders can engage in dogfights. When two vehicles are engaged in a dogfight, they remain in place and make opposed Pilot checks to determine which pilot gets the upper hand in the fight. Breaking out of a dogfight can be difficult, but some pilots have special abilities that grant them combat advantages while engaged in a dogfight.
Additionally, as a standard action, the pilot of a ship can move the vessel up to its normal speed (a minimum of 2 squares) in a straight line and then make an attack against a target in range. This grants the pilot a +2 bonus to his attack roll but applies a –2 penalty to the vehicle's Reflex Defense. The attack run is similar to a charge in character-scale combat, except that squares occupied by allies do not prevent you from making an attack run through those squares.
Pilots and system operators aboard a vehicle have several options in combat as well. While aboard a starship with shields, a character can spend three swift actions during the same turn (or on consecutive turns) to make a Mechanics check, increasing the ship's shield rating by 5 (up to its normal maximum). Similarly, a character can spend three swift actions to reroute power, moving the ship +1 step up the condition track -- the equivalent of a character taking the recover action in character combat.
Character-Scale Crossover
In an effort to encourage more players to take an active part in starship combat, many character-scale abilities have been designed to work well while engaged in vehicle and starship combat. In Star Wars, everyone from princesses to Jedi take an active hand in piloting and shooting aboard a starship. The Saga Edition rules encourage that without forcing characters to invest large amounts of resources (such as talents, feats, and so on) into an aspect of the game that doesn't necessarily come up in every adventure. Instead, the rules allow heroes to use many of the abilities they already have. For example, all starship and vehicle weapons are considered "heavy weapons," meaning that a character who takes the heavy weapons group proficiency can hop into a quad laser turret and blast TIE fighters just as easily as he can use a heavy repeating blaster or an E-Web blaster.
This has an added benefit -- feats that affect weapon groups (such as Weapon Focus or Double Attack) serve double duty in helping with character-scale and starship-scale combat. For example, most vehicle weapons can be set to autofire mode, allowing them to strafe targets on the ground with their very powerful weapons. Feats like Rapid Shot and Burst Fire, which affect the way a character makes ranged attacks, work just as well with vehicle weapons as they do with character weapons, so heroes don't need to take multiple feats to become more effective in space combat. Additionally, feats like Point Blank Shot work just as well at starship scale as they do at character scale.
Many abilities make use of "line of sight" as a method of determining targeting. Some talents, such as the Adept Negotiator talent from the Jedi Consular talent tree, require the hero to have "line of sight" to the target. Seeing a character over a viewscreen now counts as "line of sight," which explains how Darth Vader was able to use Force grip on Admiral Ozzel while communicating with him shortly before the Battle of Hoth.
Despite these crossovers between starship and character-scale combat, some characters are destined to excel at starship and vehicle combat. For example, the ace pilot prestige class has access to new talent trees that allow those characters to be incredible pilots and exceptional gunners. They can also apply additional bonuses to the ship's Reflex Defense, making the vehicle harder to hit in the heat of combat. Furthermore, the prestige class is designed for use with ground vehicles as well as airspeeders and starships, which means that heroes who take levels in the class are not restricted to one or the other.
The 181st Fighter Squadron
Let's look at an example of how a character designed for starship combat can affect a ship. Presented below are the statistics for a pilot from the Empire's elite 181st Fighter Squadron, along with statistics for a TIE interceptor with said pilot at the stick. Note that these statistics don't represent normal TIE interceptor stats, but rather those for an elite starfighter far beyond the rest of the pilots in the Imperial fleet.
181st Squadron Pilot CL 12
Medium Human soldier 7/ace pilot 5
Force 5; Dark Side 3
Init +19; Senses Perception +9
Languages Basic, plus any one other language
Defenses Ref 29 (flat-footed 20), Fort 25, Will 25
hp 97; Threshold 25
Speed 6 squares
Ranged hold-out blaster +13 (3d4+6) or
Ranged hold-out blaster +11 (4d4+6) with Rapid Shot
Base Atk +10; Grp +10
Atk Options Rapid Shot
Abilities Str 10, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 10
SQ Vehicle dodge +2
Talents Battle Analysis, Devastating Attack, Dogfight Gunner, Expert Gunner, Penetrating Attack, Relentless Pursuit, Weapon Specialization (heavy weapons)
Feats Armor Proficiency (light, medium), Double Attack (heavy weapons), Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Skill Focus (Initiative, Pilot), Vehicular Combat, Weapon Focus (heavy weapons), Weapon Proficiency (heavy, pistols, rifles, simple weapons)
Skills Initiative +19, Knowledge (tactics) +12, Mechanics +12, Pilot +19, Use Computer +12
Possessions hold-out blaster, comlink, flight suit, 200 credits
181st Squadron TIE Interceptor CL 16
Huge starfighter
Init +24; Senses Perception +9
Defenses Ref 29 (flat-footed 22), Fort 24; +3 armor
hp 90; DR10; Threshold 34
Speed fly 16 squares (max. velocity 1,250 km/h), fly 5 squares (starship scale)
Ranged laser cannons +15 (see below) or
Ranged laser cannons +13 with Rapid Shot (see below) or
Ranged laser cannons +10 (see below) and
laser cannons +10 (see below)
Fighting Space 3x3 or 1 square (starship scale); Cover total (crew)
Base Atk +10; Grp +31
Atk Options autofire (laser cannons), Double Attack, Rapid Shot
Abilities Str 38, Dex 24, Con --, Int 16
Skills Initiative +24, Knowledge (tactics) +12, Mechanics +12, Pilot +24, Use Computer +12
Crew 1 (181st Squadron pilot) Passengers 0
Cargo 75 kg; Consumables 2 days; Carried Craft none
Availability Military Cost Not available for sale (unique)
Laser Cannon (pilot)
Atk +15 (+10 autofire); Dmg 6d10+9 x 2 (7d10+9 x 2 with Rapid Shot)*
* Treat successfully attacked targets as though their DR and damage threshold were 5 points lower.
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