Thursday, May 26, 2011

Star Wars Art: Moff Fulton Antilles

More art for the Art-Minded.




Tried something different here, a background.  I think it came out okay, if not simplistic.


I thought you also might like to see some of my process.  The boot on the right is colored with a "conte" brush in Painter 11.  After I change to a Blender brush and smooth it out to look like the boot on the left.


Neat, huh?

Monday, May 16, 2011

Star Wars Art: Bandit (Final...ish)

Well that happened a lot sooner than I thought...




It's not perfect, by any means.  I'm not happy with the angles on the bottom of the astromech portion, they're not parallel.  I might change it, I might not.  At any rate, I am happy with how the program and Wacom tablet are coming together.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Star Wars Art: Bandit (Work in Progress)

In preparation for my upcoming campaign "Another Longshot", I'm doing an art piece for one of my lovable droids from the predecessor campaign.  B4-NDT is a mash-up mechanic droid and astromech, who somehow has survived over a century of dodgy maintenance, incomplete memory wipes, and conflicts in operating systems between his two processors.

I've managed to get most of the shading on his upper half, and will likely get to his lower half later this week.  I also need to give him a nice coating of grime.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Episode 78: Battle Meditation

Let us regain our focus, Gamer Nation, as I bring you the 78th installment of Fragments from the Rim.

When Timothy Zahn wrote the Thrawn Crisis Trilogy, Star Wars fans were first exposed to a seemingly-powerful Force Ability that allowed Emerpor Palpatine, and Joruus Caboth in Zahn’s books, an edge over their opponents in combat.  This ability was explored further in the Tales of the Jedi series of comic books, and once more in the first Knights of the Old Republic video game.  That’s right, I’m talking about Battle Meditation, a power that has seen various iterations over the years, from uber-powerful to talent-wasting ineffectiveness.

Setting the Way Back Machine for the 1990s and the West End Games days of Star Wars Gaming, Battle Mediation was a powerful ability, able to affect tens of thousands of individuals, reducing one of their attributes while increasing allies attributes by the same amount.  The downside was that the character with Battle Meditation was doing nothing for the entire encounter except sitting in a lotus position sustaining the power.  That’s all your contribution to the combat was; maintaining Battle Meditation.  It also took five minutes to “set up”, so you’d better know the enemy fleet is coming, or that ground assault is on its way and have time to prepare to get the Battle Meditation in place.

In SAGA, we see the power flip to the opposite end of the spectrum in just about every regard. Now instead of 5 minutes to activate, it’s a full-round action and a Force Point.  Instead of tens of thousands of beings affected through-out the star system, it’s all allies within 6 squares of you.  Instead of decimating your foes ability to fight, you bump up your allies attack rolls by 1.  And it’s an insight bonus; it doesn’t even stack with a Noble’s Born Leader talent.  Heck, it doesn’t even COMPARE to Born Leader, which is Line of Sight and a swift action to activate.

That’s actually the only thing about Battle Meditation that is better than Born Leader, no Line of Sight restriction.  The other thing is that you can get the insight bonus to attack rolls, where a Noble with Born Leader does not.

But let’s look at what someone can do with Battle Meditation.  In the Knights of the Old Republic campaign guide we were given several talents that could make Battle Meditation a viable character choice.  The first is a standard Jedi Talent; Improved Battle Meditation.  It now only costs a swift action to activate Battle Meditation, instead of a full-round action. Next, the range of Battle Meditation is now a 12 square radius, greatly increasing the range of the bonuses and penalties the power applies.  Third, enemies within the radius of your Battle Meditation now suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls.

Now we have a talent that harkens back to the original feel of Battle Meditation, decent range, and can be used in a moment.  If you’re willing to invest completely in Battle Meditation, you’ll need to go into Jedi Knight and pick up two talents from the Jedi Battlemaster tree; Defensive Circle and Jedi Battle Commander.  Jedi Battle Commander simply makes the +1 insight bonus a +2.  Defensive Circle allows you to grant some protection to those in your Battle Meditation.  As a swift action, you and any allies affected by your Battle Meditation gain a +2 insight bonus to Reflex Defense, lasting as long as they are affected by your Battle Meditation. Additionally, you gain a +1 bonus to your Use the Force checks to Block and Deflect for each adjacent ally wielding a lightsaber.

For all these talents, you have to have Battle Meditation, obviously.  Defensive Circle is the only one where you need to also have Jedi Battle Commander and either Block or Deflect to get.
So a level 10 Jedi Knight with all these talents can, as two swift actions, spend a Force Point to grant himself and all allies within 12 squares +2 Insight bonus to Attack Rolls and Reflex Defenses, penalize all enemies attack rolls by -1, and grant himself a +1 bonus to use Block and Deflect for every adjacent lightsaber wielding ally.  You know, that doesn’t sound too bad at all.  

So what’s the best type of Jedi to use this?  To really be effective at providing this party buff, you’re going to be spending a lot of time in the middle of your party.  A lot of your movement is going to likely be spent maneuvering yourself to keep all your allies within your 12 square radius.  That pretty much limits you from charging to the front lines and wailing on a Sith with your lightsaber.  I feel that if you’re going to take this path that you devote yourself to a Force Wizard type of build.  Get a bunch of Force Powers you can use at range, like Move Object, Force Blast, Force Stun, or Ballistakinesis.  Look at Force Disarm too, it’s pretty good with the right Force Technique.  If you really like to hit enemies with your light saber, look at the  Lightsaber Force Power Draw Closer, which can bring a foe to you and let you hit it with your saber as one standard action.  For your talents, take Deflect and Redirect Shot.  You’ll need Deflect or Block for Defensive Circle, and if you’re not going to be in the front line much anyway you’re likely to be a target for ranged attackers.  Might as well maximize your defense and your ability to send the shot back at an enemy.

Looking over this, I think this could be a really fun character to play, and a great boon to the rest of the party.  I just don’t know if I could suffer the 10 levels of play it would require to get there.

Sabers off until next time, folks.  For Fragments from the Rim this is DarthGM wishing you 20 side up, and 1 side down.

Episode 77: Tactical Savvy and Predictive Defense

This is DarthGM, bringing you the 77th installment of Fragments from the Rim.

When I think of Nobles, I think of two stats; Charisma (naturally), and Intelligence.  Sure, many Nobles are socialites and negotiators, able to defuse situations with just their words and personalities, but I’ve also seen an equal number of nobles with very high intelligence scores, literal “skill-monkeys” with just about every skill in the game as a trained skill.  A heroic noble with a bent towards Military Strategy can use their exceptional intelligence to help their allies and increase their survivability with two character choices from Galaxy At War.

If you’re building a Noble with a talent for directing combat and aiding your allies, take a good long look at the Tactical Savvy  talent from the Leadership Talent Tree.  It can be found on page 19 of Galaxy At War.  You need to have taken the Born Leader talent to take this one.  If you do take this talent, any ally who you can see can add your Intelligence Modifier to their Force point die roll when they use a Force point to enhance an attack roll.  If Intelligence is your character’s big thing, and their primary stat, odds are you’re looking at a +3 or even a +4 bonus to another character’s Force point.  That means the ally is at least getting a +4 bonus to their attack if they spend a Force point to try to make their near miss a hit.  

This talent is great for party support and providing a serious bonus to any ally within line of sight.  I haven’t run a combat encounter yet where SOMEONE hasn’t spent a Force Point on an attack roll.  And more often than not, they’re spending that Force point to try and get between 2-4 more points to hit their target.  Take this talent and you can help ensure that no Force Point used to modify an attack roll is spent in vain.

So Tactical Savvy is great for keeping your friends happy and hitting the bad guys, but what can someone with a high Intelligence do to help themselves in combat?  Here, I would like to present a feat from page 25 of Galaxy at War, Predictive Defense.  Taking a page from D&D 4th Edition, this feat allows the character to use their Dexterity Modifier or their Intelligence Modifier to determine your Reflex Defense.  This feat is a bonus class fear for Scoundrels, and Nobles.  That same Intelligence bonus that’s giving your allies a +3 or +4 to their Force points for hitting bad guys is now also giving you a +3 or +4 to your Reflex Defense, something most Nobles have a low score with anyway.

With these two options, you can support your team, save your bacon, and get more mileage out of your smarts.

And that’s it for this review.  Until next time Gamer Nation, 20 side up, 1 Side down.

Episode 76: Frightening Cleave

DarthGM here with the 76th Installment of Fragments From the Rim.  

I’m heading back to the Unknown Regions for a Feat that…well…it scares the crap outta me.  Which is appropriate, because it’s called Frightening Cleave.  You need to have a Strength of 13, Power Attack, Cleave, and a Base Attack Bonus of +4. Given these requirements, any 4th level soldier built for melee combat could take advantage of this Feat.  Any Jedi built for melee combat could too; it would just take some creative character building.

What this feat does is immediately after you use the Cleave feat, each enemy within a 6 squares of you and with line of sight takes a -1 penalty to its reflex defense, attack rolls, and skill checks against you until the end of the encounter.  This penalty stacks to a maximum of -5.  This effect is a mind-effecting effect.

If you’re a rampaging Wookie with a vibro-axe, or a droid-wrecking Jedi with a lightsaber, you can potentially layer on the pain of a major villain by ruthlessly eviscerating their minions before them.  One thing that concerned me, and always has about cleave, is that it’s hard to use round after round.  As you go up in levels, the opponents get tougher, and the major villains get meaner.  That makes it really tricky to be the one to drop a target, and have another enemy nearby to cleave into.  Plus if you’re obeying the The List, your GM has spread out the foes and kept them from clustering up too much.

That being said, if you could still get some good mileage out of this feat with a little help from your friends.  If you have a Force using buddy who likes to toss people around with Move Object, get on their good side and talk them into constantly moving opponents into adjacent squares to you, injuring them, and letting you finish them off.  If you’re toe to toe with a Sith Warrior, you can keep finishing off his minions, cleaving into the Sith, and imposing a cumulative penalty to them, lowering their defense to your attacks, hindering their Use the Force checks against you, and distracting their attacks so they miss.

Maybe this feat isn’t scary…maybe it’s just mean.

Ah well, on that note, we’ll see you next time, Gamer Nation.  This is Darth GM wishing you the 20 side up, and the one side down.

Episode 75: Piercing Hit

75 installments, and Fragments from the Rim is marching on.  

I’m DarthGM, and this time we’re heading to the Unknown Regions for a Scout Talent that can really ruin a Mandalorian’s day.  On page 21 you’ll find the Scout talent Piercing Hit.  It’s a third-tier talent with three uses in an encounter.  You need to have Acute Senses and Keen Shot talents to take this one, which really flavors this talent for a Sniper build.  However all three of these abilities can be done with either a melee or a ranged attack.

As I said, this talent offers three different uses per encounter, specifically styled towards screwing over opponents that wear armor.  The first is Binding Hit, where your attack dislodges an enemy’s armor to hinder their defenses.  If you hit and damage the target, the target loses Armor bonuses to Reflex Defense and is flat footed until they spend a standard action to adjust the armor.  This is a great attack to help set up a devastating sneak attack or dastardly strike from a Smuggler, or to just really help make a heavily armored opponent easier to hit for your allies.  It’s also great for granting a round of reprieve from the armored character’s attacks, as they have to spend their standard action to reset their armor.  Either they spend the Standard action to reset their armor, or they keep getting pwned by a lack of Armor Bonus and by being Flat-Footed.

The next encounter ability is Blinding Fire.  If your attack hits and deals damage, the target takes a -2 penalty to all attacks until the end of your next turn. Additionally, all other creatures, droids, and vehicles gain concealment against the target until the end of your next turn.  Again, don’t let the name fool you, you can use this ability with a melee attack.  You’re basically smacking the armored villain in the helmet and knocking it off kilter, allowing all your allies, and everyone else for that matter, the opportunity to hide…and set up for another sneaky shot from a smuggler.

Finally, there’s Slowing Shot.  After being hit so hard their breast plate goes off kilter, and then following it up with their helmet getting turned 180 degrees on them, if this doesn’t convince your foe he should just go into combat naked because it would be a lot safer in the long run I don’t know what will.  If you hit and damage the target with Slowing Shot, the target’s speed is reduced to two squares.  Not reduced BY two, reduced TO two squares, until the end of your next turn.  Now you’ve knocked their knee plates off to the side, or caused their thigh plate to slip down and prevent the knee from moving.

In Star Wars, there are plenty of characters that wear armor.  Whether you’re using this talent to mess with stormtroopers, or putting the serious hurt on a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter that’s harassing your party, you can’t go wrong with this talent.  And as someone who occasionally wears full suits of armor, I can attest first hand to the debilitating effects of something, or someone, messing with the fit of your armor.

Until next time, Gamer Nation, 20 side up, one side down.

Episode 74: Defensive Thoughts

*rolls a d20* …miss...

*rolls a d20* …miss...

*rolls a d20* Huh... another miss...

Welcome to the 74th Installment of Fragments from the Rim.  I’m DarthGM and today I want to talk about something that’s come up recently in my Legacy Era game.  

One of my PCs plays an Imperial Knight, and through most of his career he’s had the Block and Deflect talents.  He’s 12th level now and running around with a Reflex Defense of 31, thanks to the Armor Mastery Talent, the Imperial Knight Battle Armor, and a fairly decent Dexterity score.  The player has actually found that the Block and Deflect talents are now useless to him, because if the attack does hit him, it’s highly unlikely he’ll be able to roll the number required to beat the attack roll.  It’s a good thing he never took Redirect Shot, or he’d never use the Talent at all.  He would actually get a lot more mileage from his talents and a greater defensive benefit by replacing both talents with two selections of Lightsaber Defense, which is what he did.

This led me to ponder situations and character choices where having both a high defense and having Block or Deflect would be helpful.  Several feats out there imply a penalty to your Reflex Defense, and still having Block and Deflect to fall back on could be a benefit.  Desperate Gambit, Flurry, and Sniper Shot all come to mind.  For Flurry and Sniper Shot, you’re getting a +2 to your attack rolls with melee and ranged weapons respectively, but take a -5 penalty to your Reflex Defense.  Desperate Gambit, covered by Alex back in Fragments from the Rim 15 [by Alex and Trevor], allows you to reroll a failed attack roll at a -2 penalty to your Reflex Defense, or a -5 penalty if you’re rerolling a natural 1 on your attack check.  Charging imposes a -2 penalty to your Defense, and there are several useful feats and a couple feats out there that modify your charge attack.

If you put all your effort into a charge, roll a 1, and decide to reroll with the Desperate Gambit feat, that 31 defense is now a 24.  That’s a Reflex defense score that your average CL 10 opponent shouldn’t have too much trouble hitting.  You now have a situation where Deflect can still protect you.

So if you’re rockin’ a high defense, and like to stack up Flurry, Critical Strike, and Improved Rapid Strike on an attack roll, and want to use Desperate Gambit to help make sure it hits, you may just want to hold on to Block and Deflect for insurance.

That’s it for this installment.  If you have any questions, drop me a PM on the D20 Radio Forums.  Until next time Gamer Nation; 20-side up, 1-side down.

Episode 73: Guardian Spirit

Good Day!  This is Darth GM with the 73rd installment of Fragments from the Rim.

With the most recent episode of the Clone Wars, as well as a talent choice by one of my PCs, I decided to take another look at what many would consider a wasted talent.  The talent can be found on pg 16 of the Jedi Academy Training Manual, and it is the main talent of the Guardian Spirit Talent Tree.  I’m talking about, of course, the Guardian Spirit talent.

When you take this talent, a Force spirit is watching over you from the realm of the Force, able to provide insight and advice.  When you use the Search your Feelings aspect of the UtF skill, you can instead choose to consult your Guardian Spirit.  When you do so, you learn much more than simply if the action is favorable or unfavorable, you also learn the nature of any immediate consequences, including potential encounters, and whether or not certain actions will bring you closer to your destiny.

Additionally, you gain one bonus Force point each day (after you rest for at least 6 hours).  This Force point can only be used to improve a Force power or activate a Force Technique or Force Secret.

The presence of a Guardian spirit in your game is usually one that should be worked out with your GM, not only because it causes the GM to have an NPC Force Spirit for your character to converse with, but because the application of this talent allows for more foreshadowing and information to be provided to the player in the form of conversation with the Force Spirit.

This talent presents an interesting option for information gathering.  You can converse with your Force Spirit about almost any action, and gleam it’s potential advantages and disadvantages.  Plus, the bonus Force point, while limited in its expenditure, can help out in situations where you might want to spend a Force point, but really don’t want to burn one of your precious few.  One example that leaps to mind is Vital Transfer, and spending a Force point to blow off the damage the Force User takes.  It also allows a Jedi Master with Force secrets more Force points to do some really powerful Force tricks, and underscores that you’re never too old for advice from those who have gone before you.

I’ll have to make some preparations for what the Force Spirit my PC will interact with will have to say, but I think this will make for some very interesting Role Playing Encounters.

We have come to the end of another Fragments, young padawans.  Until next time this is Darth GM wishing you the 20 side up, and the 1 side down.

Episode 72: Synchronized Fire and Squadron Maneuvers

Good day, Gamer Nation!  This is DarthGM with the 72nd installment of Fragments from the Rim.


Gonna be putting on my Squadron Commander hat for this one, folks.  It’s no secret I’m a huge fan of space battles.  I’ve talked about the X-Wing vs Tie Fighter games, and how I try to incorporate space combat into as many Star Wars Campaigns as I reasonably can.  One scene I’ve always liked about Star Wars space battles is watching nimble snubfighters harass and even threaten frigates and cruisers.  There’s a real sense of accomplishment when you’re a David taking down a Goliath.


Saga Edition provides several highly useful talents available to Ace Pilots that allow starfighters to do something almost unheard of; threaten capital ships.  It also allows us to recreate one of my favorite tricks that Rogue Squadron  would pull in Michael Stackpole’s X-Wing books.


First, take Synchronized Fire from pg 17 of Starships of the Galaxy.  This talent allows two characters to time their next attack so they land at the same time, adding the damage together before applying Shields and Damage Reduction.  You have to have the Ace Pilot talent Expert Gunner to take thi, and it can only be used once per encounter by the character with the talent.  Next, take the Squadron Maneuvers talent from pg 18; this talent allows you to share any Ace Pilot talent with every other member in your Squadron (a squadron is defined as a maximum number of ships equal to your CHA bonus + your Ace Pilot level).  Every fighter in your squadron now has the Synchronized Fire talent, and can double team the opposing capital ship.  It says you can only use Synchronized Fire once per encounter, but you can use it yourself one round, and then the next round be the “other character” that someone else with Synchronized Fire teams up with.  Get your average PC party of 4-6 together, and your torpedoes are punching through shields and armor.


You might not take out a Star Destoryer with this tactic alone, but you’ll put the fear ito most cruisers, and stand a very good chance of destroying most Frigates.


Now, this combo works best in a game were the majority, if not all, of your players are flying their own ships.  You also need to at least be level 12 to have all three of these talents.  But what if you’re not rolling with level 12 characters and want to pull this off?  Gamemasters, simply introduce a squadron leader or veteran pilot NPC with these talents, and have them grant Synchronized Fire to your players.  Then, even level 4 and 5 heroes can enjoy the dangers and glory of putting the hurt on capital ships.


Time to break formation and head for home, Gamer Nation.  Until next time this is "Commander Fil" saying 20 side up, 1 side down.

Episode 71: Artillery Shot, Flash and Clear, Targeted Area

I’m Darth GM, and you’re [reading] the 71st segment of Fragments from the Rim.

Every now and then you come across a player that…well, maybe they played a few too many first-person shooters in their day, and they really enjoy the idea of lugging around a weapon as big as they are.  Something that has a shoulder strap not just to sling it when not in use, but because you need it to be able to balance and aim the damn thing.  Weapons that, for lack of a better phrase, go “BOOM”.

Saga edition provides us with a bunch of heavy weapons for our cannon-loving players to use.  They also provide us with a few feats that really work well together.  Individually they’re nice, but stacked together these feats can wallop anyone that gets in the character’s way.

The first two feats come from the Clone Wars Campaign Guide.  The first one is situational, the second is highly useful.  Artillery Shot says that when you make an attack with a burst or splash weapon against a target at greater than point blank range, you can affect two additional squares adjacent to the normal burst or splash area.  This is nice, if you’re using grenades, since those are thrown weapons, but it’s hard to get off with a cannon that has a Point Blank Range out to 50 squares.

The next feat, however, is much more useful, and can really help out the survivability of your gunner.  Flash and Clear provides your character with concealment from a target you damaged with a burst or splash weapon.  Anyone you hit with your blast is taking a -2 penalty to shoot back at you.  Not only that, but you have concealment from that target now, and can employ a host of benefits and abilities with that requirement against that target.

The last feat is from the Unknown Regions; Targeted Area.  This feat you have to wait until you have a +5 base attack bonus to pick up.  This feat states that when you make a successful area, attack, select a single target hit by the attack.  That target takes an extra 5 points of damage from the attack before applying the effect of the Evasion talent.  A feat that gives you +5 damage to a target?  Sign me up!

All of these feats are Soldier Bonus Feats, and Flash and Clear and Targeted Area are Scout bonus feats.

I feel that these three feats work best with Blaster-cannon style weapons and grenade launchers.  Missile launchers, too; the weapons that hit an area for splash damage or affect a burst radius.  They could work with repeating blasters, or other autofire weapons, but with the inherent -5 penalty to auto-fire attacks, you’ll have to brace your weapon and likely invest in a level of Elite Solider to have the best chance to utilize these feats.

With these three feats, you can saturate an incoming column of soldiers with your cannon or grenades, gain concealment from your targets as you flood their vision with flashing spots, and really put the hurt on specific individuals within your area of effect.

By the time this segment airs, I will have subjected my PCs to an elite Stormtrooper with these feats.  We’ll see how well they work together in a live field test.  KA-boom, baby!

That’s all for this week.  Until next time, Gamer Nation, 20 side up, 1 side down.

Episode 70: Return Fire

Welcome to the 70th installment of Fragments from the Rim.   I’m DarthGM, and today I find myself drawn back to the Legacy Era Campaign Guide for a great little feat that is not only good in its own right, but makes another classic feat a lot more useful.  So let’s take a look at Return Fire.

To take this feat, you have to choose a specific ranged exotic weapon or a weapon group.  This handy little feat states that “once per encounter as a reaction, you can make a single ranged attack with your chosen weapon against an enemy that misses you with a ranged attack, provided you have line of sight to that enemy.  You need to have a Dexterity of 15 to take this feat, as well as the Quick Draw and Weapon Focus feats.  Not surprisingly, you need to have Weapon Focus in the same exotic weapon or weapon group as Return Fire.  It also states that this feat cannot be used with vehicle weapons or heavy weapons, and you must have your weapon in hand to use this feat.

With these requirements, this Feat screams “Gunslinger”.  Not only do you need Quick Draw to be a Gunslinger, but a Dexterity of 15 or higher is practically an unspoken requirement for that prestige class.  Working in Weapon Focus into your Gunslinger build is pretty easy in most cases, and brings a good benefit on its own to the table.  Plus, with a high Dexterity, and a high class bonus to Reflex Defense, a Gunslinger stands a very good chance of being able to use this feat at least once in every combat encounter.

I don’t think I’ve seen a Star Wars game where there wasn’t at least one player planning to dip into the Gunslinger prestige class.  I also can’t think of a single Gunslinger that wouldn’t like to make an extra attack  each encounter.

Return Fire has another neat benefit that beefs up the usefulness of an old favorite feat of mine; Combat Reflexes.  If you have Combat Reflexes, you can use Return Fire a number of times during an encounter equal to your Dexterity bonus, but no more than once during a given enemy’s turn. Since Attacks of Opportunity are somewhat few and far between in SAGA edition, so anything that can beef up Combat Reflex’s utility is good in my book.

That’s all for this week, and for this year.  Until 2011, Gamer Nation, this is Darth GM for Fragments from the Rim wishing you and yours Happy Holidays, a Great New Year, 20 side up, and the 1 side down

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.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Star Wars Art: Vi'tig

Next item I've been working on, Verpine Jedi Knight Vi'tig Sssra.


Everything is a work in progress, and a test of the Wacom Tablet's abilities and Painter 11's capabilities.