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Random_Axe Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 11 Sep 2013 Posts: 102 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 12:27 am Post subject: Does anyone else ... |
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... consider the Stokhli Spray-Stick grossly overpowered?
According to the Heir to the Empire sourcebook, it shoots a "spraynet mist" up to two hundred meters. Then it does massive stun damage (more than any blaster weapon). Then it hardens into an immobilizing net stronger than most Wookiees or Gamorreans.
I have a LOT of trouble with this concept. How do they reconcile shooting "a mist" up to two football fields away accurately enough to snag a running target? Then couple it with a knockout zot. Then triple it with a final insult of entangled/immobile?
Moreover, how can any player have ANY other reaction, when their character gets hit by one, other than "Oh come on now. You have GOT to be f***ing kidding me." Seems like a fanboy GM's version of a joke that too many people let go through the publishers' reviews too far before he let them in on it. |
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Tinman Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 26 Dec 2013 Posts: 110
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 1:01 am Post subject: Re: Does anyone else ... |
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Random_Axe wrote: | ... consider the Stokhli Spray-Stick grossly overpowered?
According to the Heir to the Empire sourcebook, it shoots a "spraynet mist" up to two hundred meters. Then it does massive stun damage (more than any blaster weapon). Then it hardens into an immobilizing net stronger than most Wookiees or Gamorreans.
I have a LOT of trouble with this concept. How do they reconcile shooting "a mist" up to two football fields away accurately enough to snag a running target? Then couple it with a knockout zot. Then triple it with a final insult of entangled/immobile?
Moreover, how can any player have ANY other reaction, when their character gets hit by one, other than "Oh come on now. You have GOT to be f***ing kidding me." Seems like a fanboy GM's version of a joke that too many people let go through the publishers' reviews too far before he let them in on it. |
The stats on these were somewhat updated in the Thrawn Trilogy compilation (WEG40131, pg. 194-195,) though not in any way which would probably make you feel better about them.. except maybe the price tag of 14,000 credits. If you don't want them in your game, I would say any GM would be perfectly justified in considering them a very rare item. They're considered Restricted, with no availability code is given.. but the description states that they're made on only one planet. The above taken together leads me to believe it's something you might only otherwise find in the collection of some absurdly wealthy big game hunter. |
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garhkal Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 14215 Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 3:10 am Post subject: |
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Which would make the availability code a 4 just for being only available on 1 planet. _________________ Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk! |
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DougRed4 Rear Admiral
Joined: 18 Jan 2013 Posts: 2286 Location: Seattle, WA
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 2:21 pm Post subject: |
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Sounds to me like an item that normall is simply considered GM fiat. In other words, "I need the characters captured for this next bit (without really hurting them), so I'll unleash this on them!" _________________ Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green |
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Random_Axe Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 11 Sep 2013 Posts: 102 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 7:16 pm Post subject: Re: Does anyone else ... |
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Tinman wrote: |
The stats on these were somewhat updated in the Thrawn Trilogy compilation (WEG40131, pg. 194-195,) though not in any way which would probably make you feel better about them.. except maybe the price tag of 14,000 credits. If you don't want them in your game, I would say any GM would be perfectly justified in considering them a very rare item. They're considered Restricted, with no availability code is given.. but the description states that they're made on only one planet. The above taken together leads me to believe it's something you might only otherwise find in the collection of some absurdly wealthy big game hunter. |
I'm actually running the Dawn of Defiance campaign, which in episode 4 has a team of Noghri bodyguards with their spraysticks in possession. So the party is actually expected to face down these antagonists, and not even as the finale (though I suspect now they were deliberately placed not to be defeated but to act as a plot device to bring the PCs to the Big Bad).
But it isn't even my objection to having these PC's "win" these weapons, given their limited (and practically irreplaceable) ammunition. I'm objecting to these things more on the philosophical grounds that these things could even technically or technologically exist in the first place. Like I said, a "mist" that has an effective range of 200 meters. Stretches the bounds of plausibility, IMO. Like, the designers have never heard of wind? |
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Tinman Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 26 Dec 2013 Posts: 110
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 10:42 pm Post subject: Re: Does anyone else ... |
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Random_Axe wrote: | I'm actually running the Dawn of Defiance campaign, which in episode 4 has a team of Noghri bodyguards with their spraysticks in possession. So the party is actually expected to face down these antagonists, and not even as the finale (though I suspect now they were deliberately placed not to be defeated but to act as a plot device to bring the PCs to the Big Bad).
But it isn't even my objection to having these PC's "win" these weapons, given their limited (and practically irreplaceable) ammunition. I'm objecting to these things more on the philosophical grounds that these things could even technically or technologically exist in the first place. Like I said, a "mist" that has an effective range of 200 meters. Stretches the bounds of plausibility, IMO. Like, the designers have never heard of wind? |
You'll get no argument from me that the range (at least) is a little ridiculous. You could just always add "..and are impossible to aim accurately if there is even a mild breeze." |
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garhkal Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 14215 Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 3:53 pm Post subject: |
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Perhaps change it up with 2 firing methods.
Method one is a mist spray that can hit up to 10m away (deck sweeper style), making a sort of sticky web in front of you.
Method 2 is a projectile that streams out to 200m, and anything in the path that is hit, takes the stun damage/gets caught.
The former is a standard to hit action, but the latter takes a full to hit action (kind of like a full dodge), since he has to stay there holding his spray stick in the direction the stream of goo is going till it reaches the 200m max range. _________________ Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk! |
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Random_Axe Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 11 Sep 2013 Posts: 102 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 9:40 pm Post subject: |
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garhkal wrote: | Perhaps change it up with 2 firing methods.
Method one is a mist spray that can hit up to 10m away (deck sweeper style), making a sort of sticky web in front of you.
Method 2 is a projectile that streams out to 200m, and anything in the path that is hit, takes the stun damage/gets caught.
The former is a standard to hit action, but the latter takes a full to hit action (kind of like a full dodge), since he has to stay there holding his spray stick in the direction the stream of goo is going till it reaches the 200m max range. |
Wow. See now, that's the kind of thinking that should have gone into this in the first place. Well done and thank you. If my PCs succeed in picking up one of these weapons, then that will be the system they will have. |
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garhkal Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 14215 Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 12:57 am Post subject: |
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Go for it. Anything and everything i make and post here is fair game. _________________ Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk! |
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cheshire Arbiter-General (Moderator)
Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Posts: 4853
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Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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I had a character that had one a long time ago. The lack of readily available ammo really made me think twice before using it. It was something I would go to if we were fighting a hard contingency of Sith, but it was never a go-to weapon.
And I think the GM toned it down a bit for the game. I think the stunning effect was nullified, and it had a little less punch in it's sticky-spray. _________________ __________________________________
Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind. |
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DougRed4 Rear Admiral
Joined: 18 Jan 2013 Posts: 2286 Location: Seattle, WA
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Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2014 7:08 pm Post subject: |
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As a long-time GM of a supers game (my current regular game is over 23 years old, and I've been running the game for over 30 years) I can tell you emphatically that two of the most annoying, powerful, and game-breaking "powers" (or abilities) are transmutation and stunning attacks.
Most RPGs have some mechanic for wound levels or hit points, or allow most PCs to be able to 'take a few hits' before they go down. The above two powers bypass that mechanic. So whether it's Doctor Dastardly turning a PC into a pumpkin or a Gamma World character dropping an opponent with a stun whip, it's something that can really be frustrating (for players when it's used on them or the GM when his big bad is one-shot taken down!)
Our Star Trek game has the crew able to use nerve gas (or other powerful gases), with which they can flood anything from the entire ship to a particular individual deck. Of course doing so doesn't discriminate between friend and foe, if they're in the same area.
I tend to view this as you originally perceived it: pretty ridiculously powerful. If I even allowed such a thing in my game, it would be astronomically powerful and likely impossibly rare, as it's not a precedent you'd want to have lots of floating around in your game, most likely. _________________ Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green |
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garhkal Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 14215 Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 1:46 am Post subject: |
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DougRed4 wrote: | As a long-time GM of a supers game (my current regular game is over 23 years old, and I've been running the game for over 30 years) I can tell you emphatically that two of the most annoying, powerful, and game-breaking "powers" (or abilities) are transmutation and stunning attacks.
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So i take it when you do D&D you hate polymorphs and petrifications! _________________ Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk! |
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DougRed4 Rear Admiral
Joined: 18 Jan 2013 Posts: 2286 Location: Seattle, WA
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Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 2:29 pm Post subject: |
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Actually, I've hardly played D&D. I played a few games (over one weekend) a few months ago, but that was the first time I'd played the game in decades. And there were none of those spells/effects, I don't think.
And just to be clear, it's not that I hate them, per se. I'm just extremely cautious with them, as I realize that one of the worst things you can do to a player is have them give up 4-5 hours of precious time, all to basically go sit on the couch, not able to do anything but watch, while their character has been turned into a toad (or lies there paralyzed, or whatever). _________________ Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green |
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Random_Axe Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 11 Sep 2013 Posts: 102 Location: Toronto
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 9:49 pm Post subject: |
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I feel the same way about Charms, Commands, and other Dominate or mind-control effects. In D&D terms, it all comes down to a "Save-or-die" situation. If you blow your one saving throw, you are taken out of commission and effectively out of the game because you have no more control over your character and what he or she can do next. If anyone has read any of the articles at Gnome Stew last year, there was something about "agency", or "Player Agency". Whether it is killing the PC outright, or taking him over via mind-control, you are in effect removing someone from Play. And there is NOTHING more frustrating than that kind of instant elimination. |
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garhkal Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 14215 Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 12:21 am Post subject: |
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So i take it you never have the enemy use affect mind, control mind, dim others senses etc.. _________________ Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk! |
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