Noghri - Overpowered?

[Darth_Pnut]

Dear Rancor Pit, I've been running a Star Wars D20 game for a while now. Me and my players decided to take a break a month or so back. In the downtime I stumbled upon the Second Ed Blue Book at a bargin book store, and once I picked it up, and did a little research I was blown away. D6 is wonderful, simple, and true to star wars. I love it!

I plan to start my game again soon with the D6 system, and have managed to get ahold of Revised and Expanded, along with a few other random books, here and there. I recently found this site and have been looking over the various supliments fans have made, thank you all!

Now here in lies my true concern. My game is set at the beginning of the New Jedi Order, and one of my players was a Noghri. When I found the stats for them, I thought, well damn. It's simply broken.

16 base attributes, which would be 22 for a starting character. High Maximum stats, and lots of special stuff just sitting there. The only balancing factor is that most are on home world or serving directly under Luke or Leia.

The current character is a Noghri mercenary. The player is a great role player, but an overzelous min-maxer. If I give everyone the same CP, he will come out outshineing them all in ways it's hard to do. And if I short him points or tell him to make a new character he'll probably stop playing, and he's my most active player.

It's not like I'm starting a game and can just say no, we've been playing for a good half a year, and he's an original character, it's just converting from D20 to D6 that's going to make him broken.

Thoughts, Comments, Help?

-DP
_________________
Sincerely,
Darth_Pnut

[masque]

Sounds like you're trying to rebuild the characters from the ground up in converting them. Don't do that. Just take their existing D20 stats and do a straight conversion from D20 to real Star Wars. Give him the equivalent skills and what not, same with the rest of the players. If the players are balanced now, under D20, they should still be with a conversion.

From just the little bit of description, it sounds like a broken character anyway, from what I recall of the Noghri culture in the books, a "Noghri Mercenary" just wouldn't fly. They're too tribal, in my view, for that type of existence. The only way I would allow someone to play a Noghri with 22 starting attribute dice is if they were going to roleplay all of the various cultural quirks and whatnot that come along with them. Otherwise they're just combat monsters. At the very least they'd have some serious social handicaps.
_________________
Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

[Akari]

In our campaign there is a rule: Races with more then 13d in stats are NOT player character races. If you allow a Noghri to one, the next one wants to be a Duinougwuin or even a Derriphan...

Even those races with 13d should have a significant drawback. After all, its an advantage of about 30-60 character points you are handing out for free. Try and use a little common sense here and be firm. If a player character would ruin the game for others, GM's always have the veto.

[Gry Sarth]

Sure Noghri have overpowered stats. It's an overpowered species! It's described quite clearly in the books just how frigging awesome the Noghri are in anything combat-related. They are natural born commandos, a thing of legend. Toning down the Noghri for the sake of game balance (like Wizards has done) goes against the spirit of the species.

However, I see your problem. Your campaign started out in d20, because you didn't know better, and so it was alright for your player to make a Noghri character. Now he's fond of the character and won't give it up when moving to D6. However a full-blown D6 Noghri mercenary running around is sure to dominate the game's combats. Well, you'll have to fudge things a little. What I'd do is give the character only the usual 18D in attributes when converting, and leave the special abilities as they are. Then you can incorporate this into his backstory to explain why he's an independant mercenary, when noghris are tribal and united. Perhaps he's so weofully inept (compared to other Noghris, to humans he's still pretty awesome with all the special abilities) that he was cast away. A paria to his species, because he simply can't cut it among them. He would be a liability if going on a mission with other Noghris, so he was banished.

Come to think of it, he'd be the noghri version of Jar Jar! (no offense)

PS: If he doen't already have it, don't give him the Martial Arts skill. Maybe the others didn't find him worthy of receiving such training.
_________________
"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Pel]

I really like your take on that, Gry. Suppose a Noghri outcast didn't want to die, or live his life in seclusion, or whatever it is that dishonored Noghri do. That would definitely fit the situation and remedy the overpower problem. Win-win!
_________________
Aha!

[Gry Sarth]

That was my intention, both solve the stat problem and the coherence with the Noghri tradition problem.
_________________
"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Jamfke]

The Dark Force Rising Sourcebook lists the Noghri's stats thusly:

Noghri
Roleplaying Game statistics

Attribute Dice: 16D

Attribute Minimum/Maximums:
DEXTERITY 2D+l/5D+2
KNOWLEDGE 1D+1/3D+2
MECHANICAL 1D/3D+2
PERCEPTION 2D+2/4D+2
STRENGTH 2D+2/5D+2
TECHNICAL 1D/3D+2

Height: 1.3 meters
Move: 11/18

Quote: “Ssllyr'ush mir lakh svoril'lae.
Mir'lae karah siv Mal'ary'ush vir'ae Vader'ush.”

Special Skills:
Strength skills: Brawling: martial arts. Time to use: one round. This specialized form of brawling combat employs techniques that the Noghri are taught at an early age. Because of the deceptively fast nature of this combat, Noghri receive +2D to their skill when engaged in brawling with someone who doesn't have brawling: martial arts.

Also, when fighting someone without this skill, they also receive a +lD+2 bonus to the damage they do in combat.

Special Abilities:
Claws: Noghri have powerful claws (add +1D to damage in brawling combat) and sharp teeth (add +2D to damage in brawling combat).

Stealth: Noghri have such a natural ability to be stealthy that they receive a +2D when using their hide or sneak skills.

Enhanced Senses: Because the Noghri
have a combination of highly-specialized senses, they receive a +2D when using their search skill.

Ignorance: Noghri are almost completely ignorant of galactic affairs. Noghri may not place any beginning skill dice in any knowledge skills except for intimidation, survival or willpower.

Story Factors:
Enslavement: Noghri are indebted to Lord Darth Vader and the Empire; all
Noghri are obligated to serve the Empire as assassins. Any Noghri who refuse to share in their role are executed.

Strict Culture: The Noghri have a very strict tribal culture. Noghri who don't heed the commands of their dynasts (tribal leaders) are severely punished or executed.
_________________
Check out some of my games at DriveThruRPG!
Role Players Direct

[Gry Sarth]

Well, that wasn't really necessary, as it seems everyone here has already looked at the stats... but I guess it ilustrates the thread.

Following my previous line of thought, I'd lower all the attribute maximums by 2 pips for this "special" character.
_________________
"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Jamfke]

Oops, sorry, I overlooked the fact that Darth_Pnut already found the stats.
_________________
Check out some of my games at DriveThruRPG!
Role Players Direct

[Pel]

Yikes, I'd forgetten their strength was that high. Yeah, I can see where an entire cadre of little assassin guys who can dodge lasers and armwrestle Wookiees might be a bit unbalancing.
_________________
Aha!

[garhkal]

[masque]

[Orgaloth]

Go with Gry's idea. The character has the potential to reach the awesome abilities of the rest of his race, it's just going to take him time and a hell of a lot of training.
_________________
"I take orders from just one person: Me!"

"You know, sometimes I amaze even myself."
Du Cass' Dream

[Darth_Pnut]

Thanks for all the help guys, unfortunatly, when I gave him his alternatives which was 12D, and he is considered an outcast, and his people are either after him or treat him like crap, or a strait conversion, or he's full powered and recalled to his homeworld and he roles a new PC, and will cameo'ed he got all angery. After explaining the reasoning, and apologizing for not knowing in advance, cause I hadn't read up on them when game started, he calmed down but still made a new character.

The other main PC (cause only 2 show on a regular basis, it's kinda their game) decided to start over, and they voted for a entire new campaigne set in the Old Republic.

*shrug*

I do appreciate the help though, and have now instated the rule no race over 13D

-DP
_________________
Sincerely,
Darth_Pnut

[Gry Sarth]

Well, even though I think the Noghri outcast idea could have led to some good roleplaying, I guess you are indeed better off starting a completely new campaign when switching systems.... Just so there's no conflict regarding the change, like a character saying "Hey, my character could beat up a wookiee before, now he can't, what gives?"
_________________
"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."