While not a particular fan of including those in the Star Wars universe, I would lower their starting xp to 80 considering their high starting characteristics and their abilities and increased wound threshold.

About the Net launcher, for how many rounds do the damage go on for?

Jegergryte said:

Their Cunning could probably be lowered to 2, I think. Other than that, they seem right around Wookiee/Trandoshan level, unless you consider the Leaping or thick hide to be exceptionally powerful (compared to, say, Regeneration and Claws).

Good call on the nets, I totally overlooked that. I'd say no more than five turns, but probably three or four. It only tightens around prey so much.

As for using them in Star Wars? Just consider them bounty hunters no one had to pay! ^_~

Its mainly the leaping ability I react to. I find it very powerful to make such movement (and disengage) into incidentals (ie no manoeuvre). Although I might be over reacting.

Also I would suggest setback dice for the shift suit instead of upping the difficulty to daunting, perhaps 2 setback dice. Keep the potential boost die/dice, for stealth.

I'd drop the Cunning to 2 and raise their Agility up to 2 as well.  Nothing I saw in the movies suggested they were slow or clumsy to justify a 1 in Agility.

Their tough hide provides quite a few advantages, so I'd call that justification for dropping their starting XP to 80.  If compared to Wookiees, Yautja get a +3 to their starting Wound Threshold with no penalty to their Strain Threshold, where Wooks get +4 WT but -2 ST with Willpower being their low stat.

The Leaping thing is kinda clunky, so rather than that, I'd suggest changing it so that the Yautja can spend 2 Advantage to gain one additional maneuver's worth of movement if you want to reflect quickly moving around.  I figure for the scenes that we see them doing that in the movies, they've made an Athletics check to leap from one spot to the other, thus generating the extra Advantage for the additional movement.

I'd swap the rarity on the wrist-blades and combi-stick, as the former seems to be standard issue.

Razor Disc I'd set the Crit Rating at 3, as the Pierce and Vicious qualities already reflect how easily it can slice through stuff.  Maybe bump those qualities up to 3 if you really want this thing to be deadly?

Shoulder cannon, hunter's mask, and shift suit look good.  Though seeing as how the cannon's targeting seems to be linked to the mask, perhaps add a caveat that the cannon's Guided quality can only be used when wearing a hunter's mask?

Aye, I'd reduce Cunning to 2, increase Agility to 2, and remove Leaping, as, to me, it's amazingly overpowered to be able to jump around engaging/disengaging as easily as that ability allows.

Jegergryte said:

For the Daunting difficulty, I modeled it after personal stealth field generators, only made it less effective because it's obviously not full invisibility.

Not that I'm necessarily arguing with you, but why do you think the ability to engage and disengage easily is overpowered?

[quote Donovan Morningfire]

I'd drop the Cunning to 2 and raise their Agility up to 2 as well. Nothing I saw in the movies suggested they were slow or clumsy to justify a 1 in Agility.

Their tough hide provides quite a few advantages, so I'd call that justification for dropping their starting XP to 80. If compared to Wookiees, Yautja get a +3 to their starting Wound Threshold with no penalty to their Strain Threshold, where Wooks get +4 WT but -2 ST with Willpower being their low stat.

The Leaping thing is kinda clunky, so rather than that, I'd suggest changing it so that the Yautja can spend 2 Advantage to gain one additional maneuver's worth of movement if you want to reflect quickly moving around. I figure for the scenes that we see them doing that in the movies, they've made an Athletics check to leap from one spot to the other, thus generating the extra Advantage for the additional movement.

I'd swap the rarity on the wrist-blades and combi-stick, as the former seems to be standard issue.

Razor Disc I'd set the Crit Rating at 3, as the Pierce and Vicious qualities already reflect how easily it can slice through stuff. Maybe bump those qualities up to 3 if you really want this thing to be deadly?

Shoulder cannon, hunter's mask, and shift suit look good. Though seeing as how the cannon's targeting seems to be linked to the mask, perhaps add a caveat that the cannon's Guided quality can only be used when wearing a hunter's mask?[/quote]

Yeah, I'd say change Cunning and Agility both to 2. I do like the idea for movement, and that might work well.

I'll take your suggestions for the razor disc. They are supposed to be very deadly. And finally, I think the caveat on the cannon is a good call.

[quote MILLANDSON]Aye, I'd reduce Cunning to 2, increase Agility to 2, and remove Leaping, as, to me, it's amazingly overpowered to be able to jump around engaging/disengaging as easily as that ability allows.[/quote]

Please tell me why you think that, if you would. Just so I have a better feel tor it.

Because the way you have it written, the character can go from long range to engaged using just one maneuver.

One maneuver to leap from long to medium. No maneuvers to leap from medium to close. And then no maneuvers from close to engaged. That's just a little bit silly if you ask me.

Additionally if they find themselves with a melee situation forced upon them, then can completely get out of it on their turn for free and still have a full suite of actions instead of having to spend those two maneuvers, so even limiting it to once per round seems more than a little bit overpowered. Maybe make it a once per session ability where they can leap from close to engaged as an incidental instead of a maneuver.

Basically what Cyril said - even allowing them to do it for 1-2 strain seems a bit overpowered, as it makes them a hell of a lot more mobile than anyone else. I'd scrap it, to be honest, since they're powerful enough without it.

This is a great thread.  I am still awaiting the arrival of my book (just purchased it on eBay), so I cannot contribute.  But would someone be kind enough to work up the Dug (that is, if requests are being taken)?

Final proofreading is done, the stats have been checked and re-checked, and the final steps taken to get this sucker ready for mass consumption.

Soon, oh so very soon…

Donovan Morningfire said:

Drool

It's live everyone.

You can read the announcement article here.

You'll be able to find a link to the actual PDF in the article.

We'd love to get your feedback and comments.

 @Cyril: Some minor comments on the Zabrak.  But overall it looks good on a quick skim.

I think, compared to Twi'leks, your Zabrak is a little weak because of the lack of attribute modifications.  I'd recommend either bumping a threshold up one or increasing their starting XP.  

Also, based on the their description in on wookipedia, they have more mental resilience and single-mindedness than what I think you've represented here.  Your write up is more similar to what would be expected adapting the Sage Ed information to the game.

My write up varied from your by the following:

• Increase ST by 1
• Discipline instead of Vigilance/Perception
• Rapid Recovery instead of durable.

-WJL

PS Did you HAVE to include Gungans?

LethalDose said:

Yes, we had to include Gungans.  Seeing as how we're friends with one of the prime members of the Gungan Anti-Defamation League, we'd be hearing about it if we didn't include them.  Besides, they can be pretty bombad if played even half-seriously

As the actual author of the Zabraks, I think they're fine as are.  While they don't have an increased characteristic, they also don't have a "weak stat."  Perception and Vigilance play well into their d20 write-ups as being more perceptive then normal.

In regards to "balancing species," I personally used Humans as the baseline, not other species.  Compared to Humans, Zabraks get a free skill rank in something that could very well be a non-career skill (worth about 5 XP), a +1 to Strain and Wound Thresholds (5 XP each), and a pretty decent combat related talent that's always available and can be improved upon (10 XP).  Using Twi'leks as a comparison, they get a +1 to a possibly non-career skill (+5 XP), +1 to Strain and Wound Thresholds (+5 XP each), a +1 to Presence (+30 XP), a -1 to Brawn (-20 XP), and a fairly limited species trait (0 XP).

So in that light, Zabraks are pretty well-balanced as are.  Increased Soak Threshold is way too good, as not even Trandoshans (who've typically had some form of armor in all the d20 games) get a boost to ST, but instead get a better Wound Threshold.  Rapid Recovery vs. Durable is going to simply be a matter of preference, and in a choice between recovering an extra point of Strain versus reducing the effect of a Critical Hit, I'll go with reducing the effects of a Crit.

So I used ST for Strain threshold, not Soak threshold.  Yeah, no one else gets increased soak.

While I appreciate that there's "no weak stat" you should realize that a character with 6 stats at 2 really is at a 10 xp disadvantage to one with a 4 stats at 2, one at 3, one at 1.  This can be demonstrated by the xp that must be spent to reach a state with 5 stats at 2 and 1 stat at 3:

• All 2's  -> 5 2's and a 3 cost 30 xp (increase a 2 to 3)
• 4 2's, a 3 and a 1 -> 5 2's and a 3 costs 20 xp (increase a 1 to 2)

By this math, not grating them a stat boost and a stat penalty, you're effectively docking them 10 xp, since it would cost them 10 more xp to reach a comparable level.  We always figured this where the 110 xp for humans came from.  The value of a non-career skill I would value at 10 xp each, since that's what the first rank of a non-career skill would cost.  So if 130 is a baseline for species creation (post errata), then your zabrak would add up as:

• 100 xp Base
• +1 WT (5 xp)
• +1 ST (5 xp)
• +1 Perc/Vig rank (+10 xp, we'll call this a non-career skill) 
• Durable (+5 xp, could be any tier 1 talent)

100+ 10 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 125

They're about 5 xp short, which where I granted them more strain bonus.  I don't think its fair to say Durable is a "a pretty decent combat related talent that's always available and can be improved upon (10 XP)" when it appears as a first tier talent available for 5 xp, and then also say "Rapid Recovery vs. Durable is going to simply be a matter of preference", when rapid recovery is definitely a 5 xp talent.  Further, I think durable really is a little too good of a talent to give away, it doesn't seem to be in line with the other errata'd creation talents (convincing demeanor and expert tracker).  So, with the numbers, I feel either:

• Durable is over-valued in your analysis, and the species if 5 xp short, or
• Durable is appropriately value, but shouldn't be eligible to be a species granted talent.

Yeah, ultimately, its 5 xp, no big deal.  But you made some statements (no stat changes is a wash, out-of-career skill rank is worth 5 xp) that makes me nervous about the valuation you assigned to the other aliens in the document.

I'm singling out the Zabrak because my group and I went through a long discussion to determine if they even needed a write-up, or if they could simply be handled as "near-human".  We came down on the write-up side.  

-WJL

PS on a quick run through, looks like Weequay came out just right.