Wookie Bowcaster Underpowered?

[Phalanks Balas]

Raiz,

during boarding the Tandive IV (ep IV), a lot of stormy was killed by the defend crew equiped with 4D blaster pistol.
If you want to match with the movie regarding wound taken, apply a 5 pts of damage for each damage dice. Target roll its hull/body dice normaly.
I considere 4D damage as an average damage rate for blaster weapon. If you give powerfull weapon to your charaters to allow them 1 shoot to kill, you also have to give same kind of weapon to the vilains... It can become very dangerous for characters with 2D in strengh (all members of the team are not true special forces member)... Beware to not unballance too much the game with powerfull equipment.
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Phalanks

A day you will be facing the guns of the Black Pearl. You will know what means damned pirates !

[Raiz]

There are lots of rifles and automatic blasters that give 6D damage. I do not see any point why a heavy bowcaster of 6d damage will be unbalancing? 7d part is the standart modification rules of the d6 system.

Heavy weapons shall be deady i think, as a cyberpunk solo

[Akari]

Simply put: Bowcasters are archaic weapons. Traditional. Like a blunderbuss today. You might certainly use it or even kill someone with it, but its certainly seen more as an antique then a weapon.

Blasters are more effective in damage, handling and fire speed. Giving it the same damage as a light repeater or even an E-Web () if modified is putting the thing just way out of relation. Yes, with enough effort it should be possible to make the thing as good as a blaster carbine. Maybe even a bit better, but thats certainly all thats possible with the ancient tech. "Heavy" bowcasters IMHO are quite out of place in the starwars universe. Even Chewies does a mere 4d damage.

I mean, do whatever you please in your campaign, but try and put things into relation. Its not all about damage output...

[Rerun941]

Since the bowcaster shoots energy bolts, would it be worthwhile to say that the person hit by a bowcaster round has to roll vs. energy AND kinetic damage (both at 4D).

The advantage here is that if someone has armor designed to stop blasters, then the kinetic damage will get through. Vice versa, if someone has armor that protects from kinetic damage, the energy damage of the bolt will get through?

Any thoughts?
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[garhkal]

I like that ruling Rerun. Simple but yet effective.
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[Robert]

As Bowcasters are usually made by the Wookiee himself, i would rule they pack as much punch as possible behind it - their strength. Imho the simplest ruling would be that the weapons deals maximum damage as the strength of the owner at the time of creation. Unless the shooter has a lower strength, then the bowcaster can´t be reloaded at all.

Iirc, in the jedi knight games, the bowcaster was quite devastating, more like a modern shotgun, but very effective. It could even shoot a triple shot bouncing back from walls, couldn´t it? But to say the truth, wookiees are fighters good enough, they don´t need ranged combat effectiveness.
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[Phalanks Balas]

[Raiz]

I just cannot understand why some people are opposing bowcasters shall have a variety of range from light bowcasters to heavy bowcasters just like all other weapons does. With blaster skill you are able to use 10s of light or heavy weapons with damage range from 3d-8d.

And with bowcaster skill thinking the core rules of the game you can only use one thing "the bowcaster" which has 4d damage. I just wrote different variations of bowcasters (5 in total - Regular Bowcaster(4d), Repeating Bowcaster(4d), War Bowcaster(5d), Repeating War Bowcaster(5d) and Heavy Bowcaster(6d)).

If a weapon group doesnt have a variety of choices then it is not a group it is a specialization like "heavy blaster pistol". If you pay full skill price for increasing the Bowcaster skill you have to be able to use more than "the poor bowcaster".

This is the point. And in addition wookies have already got good ranged firepower with Kashyyyk Long Rifle (8d).

[Tythorin]

Honestly in my opinion I am against the idea of any type of standerdised bowcaster since most information I have come across points to the idea that they were personaly built.

But.. this has inspired an idea:
I would have each wookie character make a Bowcaster skill roll at character creation (not blaster repait since I believe any wookie able to shoot a bowcaster will most likely have some skill in bowcaster craftsmanship.) Then for every difficulty the player succeeds that is difficult or up he/she may choose a benefit to add to his/her bowcaster from a list created by the GM BUT for every difficulty less then difficult the player fails he must add a flaw to his weapon.

At GM's aproval a character may add a extra benifit to his weapon for at the cost of a extra flaw.

A wookie can make another Bowcaster creation roll provided he has that parts. Bowcaster creation should take a minium of one week at plus 2 days per benifit.

A Benifit/Flaw list might look somthing like this
Benifits:
* +1 damage
* +1 to hit roll
* +1 simultanius shot (costs two benifit points, seperate damage/to hit
roll made for each at full dice pool)
* +10/+15/+20 range
* 1d of armor piercing

Flaws:
* -1 damage
* -1 to hit roll
* -1 simultanius shot (costs two benifit points, seperate damage/to hit
roll made for each at full dice pool)
* -5/+10/+15 range
* +2 to physical armor of target (target must be armored already)

Anyways just an idea. Might be fun for wook players as they see there weapon grow as they do but new players weapons might be worse than the standered bowcaster.

[Pel]

Raiz, I like your variations on the standard bowcaster. Options are always welcome.

Tythorin's idea definitely touches on the artisitic and individually creative nature of Wookiees, but I find it a bit too in-depth for my campaign. Nice work, though.
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Aha!

[Raiz]

Tnx Pal. I aggree with the handmade part. I always make my bowcaster myself and upgrade it in our campaign. And the skill is bowcaster repair (specialized form of blaster repair) so it is easier to improve. I have 5d+2 and it is really enough to make a good bowcaster (for a wook) I think.

[ebertran]

Thread necromancy.

Just watched TFA again and the part with the bowcaster and Han made me think about it in d6 terms.

The weapon is in serious need of an upgraded stat block.

[Ninja-Bear]

Tythorin I get what you are saying. Fwiw though Lightsabers.are hand built and have a standardized stat.

[Whill]