Greetings!

We've been working under some House Rules, and I wanted to see what other people thought about them.

Basically, we feel like every character that has had any lightsaber training should be able to block and deflect. It should be a rule like Force Reroll or moving two extra squares, except limited to lightsaber weilders.

Our solution is to charge the character 2 Force points to do Lightsaber Defense, should they desire it.

Of course several characters already have these abilities on their cards, and they're costed into the figure. If Lightsaber Block, Lightsaber Deflect, or Lightsaber Defense are already on the card, the character is deemed to have some proficiency at that skill and only has to pay the required printed Force points to use the power.

So what does this do to the game as a whole? Is it breaking it? We don't think so. With the proliferation of Mobile Attack, Greater Mobile Attack, Twin Attack, Cunning Attack, etc., the era of Melee characters being useful is quickly ending. Often it's difficult to get them into the battle to do some damage before they get mowed down, and when they do get into someone's face, their Double Attack isn't very effective.

We've tried these rules out a few times, and they seem to make the game flow a little better, but I'd like hear what you think about this initial change.

Then I'd like to discuss the next step in the rule: Lightsaber Reflect.

We thought of this:

Lightsaber Reflect (Force 3: When hit by a nonmelee attack, this character takes no damage with a save of 11 and the attacker takes 10 damage, save 11)

But that seems kind of expensive to possibly reflect only 10 damage.

Funnily enough, the Vader version of Reflect is costed the same as the Luke version.

Lightsaber Reflect (Force 3: When hit by a nonmelee attack, this character takes no damage with a save of 11 and the attacker takes damage equal to the prevented damage; save 11)

But that seems kind of broken. We don't want to make all the damage potential of a ranged character so dangerous to themselves.

Any thoughts?

DC

Followers whose name contain the words "Black Sun" gain the Black Sun Special Ability (This character gains Grenades 10 when in a squad with a character whose name contains Xizor or Vigo)

We already have this with Gungan Shieldbearer and X-1 Viper Droid. You could possibly take all the damage you should dish out when attacking these guys depending on adjacent or not and save rolls.

The extra cost for Lightsaber Defense for all Jedi is not a bad solution. Not sure how it would play out for pieces like Han who have Force points and could gain 2 FPs (Light Tutor, Force Spirit) and use Lightsaber Defense without a lightsaber. Also, how would that affect characters in a squad with Palpy on Throne? Not saying it isn't good, but adding generic Force powers are a delicate balance with so many strange combinations of abilities.

It would definitely make Jedi seem more like they are in the movies. I like they should be able to open doors also.

Lolwut?

I like the idea of limiting it to characters with a Lightsaber using the old glossary definition (lightsaber: A character counts as having a lightsaber if it has the Lightsaber special ability, a visible lightsaber on the model, or a force power whose name contains the word “lightsaber”.) That would eliminate pieces like Han.

Another idea I've thought about, but haven't actually playtested is a similar idea that all lightsabers users get the Lightsaber Defense ability, but with a save of 16. If the character has the ability printed on the card (or deflect/reflect/block) then the save remains 11. It imitates the movies a bit more and the ones who have the ability have a better proficiency thus the lower save. Just a thought.

Oh I like that Squid. It would only have to be a glossary fix also. It might also bring back melee squads a bit more as well. One of their biggest downfalls is if they do not have any ranged evasion on their card they have a hrd time getting across the field. It might even help with the map problem as melee would have a better chance on open maps.

I love the idea of bringing back melee into relevance with the Block/Deflect house rule. Too many dang shooters out there these days... And I also like the save 16 idea a lot.

I am in favor of the second, more epic Lightsaber Reflect SA. 3 FPs are a lot to blow, and with as many high-damage, low-HP shooters as there are today, they might have to think twice about shooting a Jedi.

Also, I would have some kind of rule that Jedi can't use Force batteries to use these powers. As Squid89 said, this is a delicate balance here, and plentiful FPs could break that like so much fine china.

My friends and I toyed with the idea that if you do a LS Block or Deflect and you rolled a 20, then the damage would be reflected back upon the attacker.

That is awesome!