Episode 69: Sieze Object

I’m DarthGM, and here is the hopefully “most excellent” 69th segment of Fragments from the Rim.

Disarming is notoriously difficult in Saga Edition, to a point.  You can certainly build a character to be good at removing objects from opponent’s hands, but it takes quite a bit of focus to do it and have a decent chance.  Really, the biggest hurdle is that +10 bonus to the target’s Reflex Defense when you make a Disarm attack.  With that, it almost takes the Disarm action out of the realm of usefulness.

There is an interesting talent that was introduced to Scoundrels in the Legacy Era Campaign Guide.  The talent is Seize Object, and it falls under the Misfortune talent tree.  “Once per encounter as a move action, you can attempt to seize a held, carried, or worn object from an adjacent target by making a Disarm attack, with a +10 bonus to your attack roll.”  This is great!  Once per encounter, you can make a Disarm attack, and you get a bonus equal to the target’s bonus to Reflex Defense for the Disarm attack.  The talent goes on to say that “if the attack roll succeeds, you are now holding the object.”  You need to have a free hand with which to grab the object.  That makes sense, you’re reaching out, grabbing the object, and taking it.

We then come to an interesting bit that it says “you cannot use this talent in place of the disarm action.” To me, this means that you’re not replacing the Disarm action, you’re supplementing it.  So as I see it, the target still applies a -5 penalty to your attack roll if they’re holding the object in 2 hands, and if your disarm attack fails, your opponent can make an immediate free attack against you.  In addition, because you’re making an unarmed melee attack, unless you’re trained in martial arts you’re also triggering an attack of opportunity when you use this Talent.  Looking at everything else this talent does, I find this very fair.

The bit I love about this talent is this is a Move action.  The Three Stooges fan in me finds it hilarious that some Scoundrel standing next to a Sith Lord could seize the Sith’s lightsaber and then smack him with it in the same round with his Standard action.  The power gamer in me loves the fact that if a character with this talent is granted a move action by one of many various means in game, they could spend it using this talent.

So seize the day and take a look at this talent for your scoundrels, gamer nation.  Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.