A new lightsaber idea

[hazardchris]

I got to play in a one-shot Old Repubilc game. We were all Jedi and were given the oportunity to create our own lightsabers.

The other 2 guys that I played with made a double bladed and a dual-phase.

I decided to go with an idea that had been brewing in my head.

Here's the stats.

Chi'ann Karrian's Custom Lightsaber
Type: Custom Built Lightsaber.
Scale: Character
Cost: Unavailable for sale.
Availiblity: Only one known to be in existance.
Difficulty: Difficult
Damage: 5D/4D+2 (Stun)
Game Notes: Karrian's Lightsaber was unique within the Jedi Order. He used the same basic technology used to create Dual-Phase lightsabers. However, when the lightsaber's setting is switched from the normal blade, a second crystal activates that deals only stun damage. It takes one action to switch the blade's setting.

I'm trying to come up with a name for the type of saber but so far I've blanked. Any ideas?

[garhkal]

I am not sure a lightsaber can be configured for stun damage, but if so, then coolness to your character..
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[Jedi Skyler]

Actually, they can.

Exar Kun's double-bladed lightsaber was truly a work of art. It was created in such a fashion that each blade's intensity was fully adjustable; each could either deal full damage, be dialed down so that they'd only do stun damage, or even become insubstantial (read: glorified glow rod). Kun perfected his technique with this weapon to the point that when duelling with a Jedi, he'd lock blades with his opponent, flip the switch to dial the locked blade's power down so the Jedi's lightsaber would suddenly have no resistance holding it up, and the strike when the Jedi was suddenly thrown off balance because he'd been pushing forward with all his strength against a force that suddenly was no longer there. This technique was responsible for dispatching a number of Jedi.

So there is a precedent for a weapon of this type. Also, the training lightsabers that the padawans at the temple used only do stun damage if they hit someone. Therefore, this should not be a problem. I would think it would be a simple dual-phase weapon, with the sole exception that instead of changing the length of the blade, it changes the intensity. Perhaps the indicator of this would be a change in color (if you have different colored crystals installed). I say this because a regular dual-phase blade is obvious; either the blade's normal or double the length. Otherwise, it might get a little confusing as to which setting the saber is on. You'd HATE to be in the middle of a battle, finally getting in a good strike, only to find you did STUN damage, rather than taking the guy's hand off.

[Boomer]

[Gry Sarth]

Also rememeber that a stun blade will not be able to cut through any material. I'd also rule that it's not cohesive enough to control deflected blaster bolts.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Boomer]

But it can deflect stun bolts fer sure.
_________________
My backpack has jets!
I'm Boba the Fett!
And I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt,
to finance my 'vette!

[Gry Sarth]

Deflect yes, control no.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[garhkal]

[Ejacobs]

Well they better be prepared for absorb/deflect energy. That way they won't get stunned when they do get hit by a stun bolt they can't parry away.

E

[Jedi Skyler]

I think we're just dealing with semantics here. What the toned-down blade can deflect is the stinger dart fired from a remote. Not the ring-shaped blue discharge from a blaster set on stun.

[hazardchris]

Here's what we did with the stun setting (and the color code was Green=normal, Yellow=Stun).

When on stun it could deflect blaster bolts but not send them back. And it didn't cut through objects, it did 2D phy damage against objects.

[Boomer]

Only in one film do we see stun used. It is ring shaped... what, you can't block a ring all of the sudden?

And in one book stun is used to stop a jedi, and that Jedi cannot block it. This book is not the bible of star wars, why does it have precedence? What is their reasoning behind the stun bolt hitting the jedi when a blaster bolt couldn't?

I need logic.
_________________
My backpack has jets!
I'm Boba the Fett!
And I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt,
to finance my 'vette!

[Ejacobs]

Okay, here's my take on stun bolts and what they look like. In the movies, they chose to depict stun bolts as expanding rings that knocked a character unconscious.

IMO they should have used a fat looking blaster bolt that upon impact, sends a shimmer of energy over the body of the victim. That way, you can fairly easily see that someone has been hit with a stun round, outside of the fact that the stormtrooper says "set blasters on stun."

If they use rings to stun, that kills your range. Since the game has no mention of this, then I feel that stun bolts act and look just like regular bolts except.... stun. Thereby being able to be deflected and even directed back at the firer by Jedi. That's how we do it.

E

[Jedi Skyler]

The main argument I can see for a lightsaber being unable to deflect a stun bolt would be that the bolt is spread out over a greater area, which kills your range, as was stated before. The greater area covered by the bolt is in essence like the spread pattern of a shotgun; the further it travels, the more dispersed it gets, and thus the harder to deflect.

Now, that having been said, let's play devil's advocate for a moment. If you maintain that a stun bolt CANNOT be deflected by a lightsaber, and cite the wider nature of the bolt as the reason, then how do you explain Jedi catching entire lightning bolts on their lightsabers? I'd think the effect would basically be the same... and yet they can catch that wide spread of arcing electricity, all on that thin little energy blade.

So which logic wins out?

[Boomer]

On top of that, if a stun bolt is supposed to be a spreading ring, that kills your range and increases chance to hit, how come that isn;t in the rules.

I have seen that as a house rule, but it just isn't in the normal rules. In the rules, the only thing that changes when you set your weapon to stun is that it now stuns, rather than kills.

On top of that, everyone keeps talking about how in the movie we see "The shot spread, the shot spread!" But remember, it shrank back down to just a point when it hit Leia.
It could very well have been we were watching the stun bolt from head on.

And I agree with the point Skyler brought up. Lightsabers can defect the wide arc of force lightning. In the game battlefront they deflect every spread shot weapon. Why would they be unable to deflect stun if in fact stun was a spread shot?
_________________
My backpack has jets!
I'm Boba the Fett!
And I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt,
to finance my 'vette!