Fantasy Flight Imports: Part 4, Zen and Zorro

Time to move on my conversions of the more difficult, and highly customized, characters from my Order 65 Campaign.  The character group includes a couple pretty colorful characters, but no more so than these next to.  One is a light-foil wielding duelist cut from the cloth of pulp-fiction.  The other is pink.

Hey, you define colorful on your own time, I'll define it on mine. 

Once again, I'll start with a comment to check out the first article in this series to read about my conversion theory.  Today I'm focusing purely on the results of moving characters from Saga Edition Star Wars RPGs to FFG's Star Wars RPG Edge of the Empire.

 So,without further ado, let's talk conversions.

Sir Lucas Paddox

Lucas is perhaps one of my favorite characters, of all time.  He's a pulp hero in Star Wars; an alter-ego super-hero.  Much like the Green Hornet, Zorro, and Batman; Lucas is a costumed crusader who fights for the down-trodden, protects the innocent from the shadows, and instills fear in those who would prey upon them..

This is what I have to work with.
 

Lucas Paddox                                                     CL 10

Medium Human noble 3/scoundrel 1/Jedi 4/crime lord 2

Init +13; Senses Perception +11

Languages Basic, 5 unassigned

Defenses Ref 25 (flat-footed 22), Fort 22, Will 25; Block, Elusive Target

hp 78; Threshold 22

Speed  6 squares

Melee archaic lightfoil +9 (2d8+6) or

Melee archaic lightfoil +9 (2d8+7) with both hands

Ranged sporting blaster pistol +10 (3d4+5)

Base Atk +7; Grp +10

Atk Options Acrobatic Strike, Improved Disarm, Melee Defense, Point Blank Shot, Sneak Attack +1d6

Special Actions Presence

Force Powers Known (Use The Force +17) battle strike, cloak, mind trick, surge

Abilities Str 12, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 15

Special Qualities build lightsaber, command cover +1

Talents Block, Elusive Target, Inspire Fear I, Inspire Fear II, Noble Fencing Style, Presence, Sneak Attack

Feats Acrobatic Strike, Force Sensitivity, Force Training (2), Improved Disarm, Linguist, Melee Defense, Point Blank Shot, Skill Focus (Use the Force), Weapon Proficiency (lightsabers, pistols, simple weapons)

Skills Acrobatics +13, Deception +12, Initiative +13, Perception +11, Persuasion +12, Stealth +13, Use the Force +17

Possessions archaic lightfoil, sporting blaster pistol, utility belt (3 day food supply, medpac, tool kit, power pack, energy cell, glow rod, comlink, liquid cable dispenser)

Lucas was a difficult conversion for me; given the option I'd have him draw from Scoundrel, Thief, Marauder, Force Sensitive Exile, Politic, and my Fast Lightsaber Style tree from my Edge of the Jedi doc.  Since that would be a prohibitive amount of his 300xp limit, I set about trying to find the "best fit" in as few trees as possible.  Looking over my options, I need two trees that give Lucas talents to be like the pulp heroes that inspired him.  Maybe because I always thought of him as more of a Zorro analogue than anything else, I wanted him to be able to taunt his foes like any good, dashing swordsman with his rapier would.  He needed to be sneaky, because these vigilante heroes work in the shadows.  He needs to be able to keep his alter-ego separate from his heroic persona, and be convincing about it.  Finally, he needs the Force, because that's where this hero gets his "Super Powers".

I settled on starting Lucas as a Smuggler/Thief, as that gave me a lot of skills and highly useful talents.  Jumping over to the Politico and buying into the Scathing Tirade path gives Lucas the chance to really degrade and fluster his opponents into making mistakes.  Finally, jumping into the Force Exile tree gets Lucas some really useful talents.  I got him invested all the way up to Superior Reflexes to get a bump to his Melee Defense, which helps replicate his Block talent from Saga.

We've always envisioned The Stratt as wearing protective armor, at the very least a full face-mask to hide his identity.  It was never really armor in Saga Edition, though; Lucas could never spare the feats on Armor Proficiency.  Now, in EotE, The Stratt can finally get his armor.  Looking at the image for it, it's probably most like "Armored Clothing", giving him a little Soak value boost and a good Defense base.

His weapon of choice was another custom job.  Much like Marin's Targeting Rifle, I needed to home-brew his ancient Light-foil.  I made it a base 7 damage weapon, 3 less than lightsabers.  I also reduced the Vicious rating to 1, instead of 2.  These weapons are supposed to have thinner blades.  The ancient ones made by the Mecosia artisans are exceptionally balanced, granting it a base Accuracy quality of 1.  Adding in the Superior quality bumps up the damage 1, and gives the weapon an additional Advantage point on every attack.

The Stratt also has a high Obligation, due to him broadcasting his firing of the Centerpoint Station gravity cannon at the Death Star, killing Supreme Chancellor Mon Motha after she used the Death Star to destroy Corellia (...hey, it's an Alternate Universe Game; these things happen).  The Stratt is still wanted by the Republic, and while the heat has cooled off some, it's still hanging over his head.  If the public makes the connection between Lucas Paddox, bad-boy noble from the Taipani Sector and The Stratt, vigilante hero wanted for killing hundreds of thousands of Republic Soldiers and the insane Supreme Chancellor, things may get real interesting for him and the rest of the party...

Glendora

The first of the true Jedi character conversions.  A zeltron taught at an isolated Jedi Temple, she doesn't quite comprehend the effect she has on others due to her being an incredibly attractive zeltron.  She's innocent, and inexperienced when it comes to the larger galaxy.  The biggest problem I faced is that some abilities were taken by the Jedi based on game mechanics issues.  No Jedi worth his salt lacks Rebuke, and Negate Energy is effectively a once-per-encounter heal.  Ataru is a common Talent to take for any Jedi that invested in Dexterity over Brawn.  These are choices that, given the current system, may not have been made.

Glendora                                                             CL 10

Medium Zeltron Jedi 7/Jedi Knight 3

Init +7; Senses Perception +7
Languages Basic, 1 unassigned
Defenses Ref 24 (flat-footed 22), Fort 22, Will 24
hp 96; Threshold 22
Speed  6 squares
Melee double-bladed lightsaber +12 (2d8+7) or
Melee double-bladed lightsaber +12 (2d8+9) with both hands or
Melee double-bladed lightsaber +10 (2d8+9) and double-bladed lightsaber +10 (2d8+9)
Ranged  by weapon +12
Base Atk +10; Grp +12
Atk Options Dual Weapon Mastery

Special Actions Force Fortification, Master Negotiator, Skilled Advisor

Force Powers Known (Use The Force +18) enlighten, mind trick, move object, negate energy, rebuke, surge, vital transfer (2), Shien deflection

Force Techniques Force Point Recovery
Abilities Str 12, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 16
Special Qualities build lightsaber, zeltron pheromones
Talents Adept Negotiator, Ataru, Force Fortification, Force Persuasion, Master Negotiator, Skilled Advisor
Feats Dual Weapon Mastery I, Dual Weapon Mastery II, Force Boon, Force Sensitivity, Force Training (3), Skill Focus (Use the Force), Weapon Proficiency (lightsabers, simple weapons)
Skills Acrobatics +12, Knowledge (life sciences) +11, Perception +7 (+10 to sense deception or sense influence), Persuasion +8 (+13 to change attitudes of non-Zeltron creatures; may Use the Force +18 instead), Use the Force +18 

Possessions double-bladed lightsaber

For Glendora, the task was taking the character that had been played and portrayed more-so than the stats had presented.  She's a Zeltron, so to recreate her I need to tap into the Unofficial Species Menagerie from the Gaming Security Agency website.  

Glendora is a support character; with Force healing, Enlighten, and Force Persuasion.  She was specialized in talking her opponents down (in the case of Saga Edition, "down" meant "the condition track").  I'd considered using the Influence Force power to help replicate this, but looking over my options I feel that the Overwhelm Emotions talent was is a better fit for how she handled herself in combat and situations, using Charm and Negotiate.  This game is so much a better fit for the Jedi who talks his opponents out of fighting, where as in Saga it was a cheap combat tactic to wear down an opponent so the beat-stick in the party could get to attack an opponent suffering -10 to every Defense and d20 check.

Another aspect of her character that wasn't really exploited was her proficiency with a double-bladed lightsaber.  Her stats were decent for using the lightsaber, but it wasn't until she picked up Ataru that she had any luck with hitting with it, even with one attack.  Even then, Ataru felt more like a mechanical choice for a mechanical benefit, rather than Glendora actually fighting with Force-fueled acrobatics.  She seemed like a more basic fighter, skilled with the basics of Shii Cho and likely drifted towards Niman to learn Jar'Kai (the art of two-blade fighting).

The Healing power mentioned here was borrowed from Dono's Ways of the Force document.  It's solid, and makes Force Healing awesome but not overpowered.

And that's that.  Two characters left to cover, both Jedi.  I've actually got them converted already but I haven't written them up like these past reviews.  I've got other things on my plate, like getting the write-up completed for the game session they're all in on Sunday. 

It should be good.  And fun.  And completely bonkers.  This will be the first live playtest of the work I've done, both in this conversion and in my Edge of the Jedi doc.  Let's see how broken it all is.

But enough of this.  Time to stop theorizing, grab some friends, grab some Mt. Dew Code Red, and roll some frikkin' dice.