Using a Dark Jedi for the First Time

[DougRed4]

I'm gearing up to drop a Dark Jedi on my group tomorrow night for the first time. I've not been as familiar with the various Force powers and skills, so it's been a bit of a learning experience for me.

I've decided to go with Jerec, for those that are familiar with him. I wasn't familiar with the charcter before, but discovered him while picking the look of my Dark Jedi, and he seems cool enough that I decided to work him into my campaign (though I am altering a few small things). I found a couple of people that have posted d6 stats for him online, so I adapted those, and now have a potent villain to face my PCs.

Not having played a Force User before, I'm open to all advice and suggestions, to make him as effective and formidible as possible. So far my plan is to:

Spend 4 hours using Rage, to give him a +10 bonus for the next 4 hours.

Right before he drops in, I'm going to have him use Enhance Attribute with Dexterity, to help him with attacks (Lightsaber), parry maneuvers, and Dodge, if necessary. That should give him somewhere in the neighborhood of +1D to +3D for a few rounds.

I figure I'll go with around 6 actions perund.

One to keep "up" Lesser Force Shield, another for Resist Stun, 1-2 for attacks, and another few to defend.

On the first round he'll attempt to hit the Jedi with Dark Side Web, then will utilize his Lightsaber, also occasionally attacking with Telekinesis, Injure/Kill, Inflict Pain, Projected Fighting, and Telekinetic Kill, as needed.

Any advice or suggestions?
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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

[garhkal]

Ensure he has LS combat up first as well.
But other idea's.

Use TK to crush the weapons of those shooting him on stun (their 2d body won't really resist much, especially if he is on a FP).

But one thing to keep in mind. 1 big baddie against lots of PC's will most often still be a win for the pcs, as they can all gang up on him.
If one shoots, and one uses grenade throwing, that is 2 different Dodge rolls he is going to make (well 1 parry, 1 dodge). Another attacks him with a LS or other melee weapon that adds a third 'reaction'.

So a lot depends on what his stats are, and how many FP/CP he has to spend.
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[DougRed4]

Thanks, garhkal, as that's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for!

BTW, I've postponed tonight's session, as two players couldn't make it, and this is a pretty pivotal event.

We've done away with LSC, so that's not an issue (for the Dark Jedi or the group's Jedi).

And I was still concerned about them ganging up on him, so that's why I gave him a really tough bodyguard and plan on there being 3-4 elite stormtroopers as well. Even if they gang up, he should be able to take down some of them, and that will leave many of them extremely vulnerable to some of the others (who will not be slouches).
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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

[garhkal]

Another trick i have used, is to have the DJ on his action use TK on someone holding them in place, while someone else shoots/bashes/hits them. Since they are motionless, there is no reaction roll to get out other than the resistance TK has.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Tupteq]

I'm not sure if you already played next session, but I'll add my 2 cents anyway:
* Jerec is a miraluka, he doesn't need light to see (I bet most of your players need it).
* I'm often equipping my bad guys with some armor. In case of Jerec it could be custom torso-only vest (+2/+2) hidden under uniform. Sometimes this +2 can make a difference.
* He should have high PER to win initiative. This way he will be able to force PCs to defend.
* It looks like you don't introduce multiple MAPs for keeping "up" powers using multiple Force skills. If so, you may consider starting from Dim Another's Senses on whole group (or most dangerous PCs) to slow them down.

[garhkal]

And if needed control mind on big brusier type pcs to get them to fight each other.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[DougRed4]

[garhkal]

[DougRed4]

Great idea on damaging their weapons!
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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

[thedemonapostle]

running a dark jedi can either be something everyone will always remember for how awesomely it was done; or it will be forgotten on the first bathroom break.

well i was still just the player the GM's would usually run the DJ's as the second. they werent interesting nor were they a real challenge. almost always combat.

when i started GM'ing i started doing the same mistake. almost always combat and easily taken out with a small, generally unorganized, group. so i sat down. drew up the back story, and created the personality and goals and all the details. i ran him so good that veteran players with very powerful characters refused to fight him in combat. they preferred to carpet bomb the area he was in. i rarely fudged any rolls for him. they knew only his name, what his custom light saber looked like and what he looked like when in his dark jedi garb. he was so well done that he became apart of the group without them ever really knowing it. led them on a wild goose chase for quite some time. in the end i was able to convince the force users to turn to the dark, the players did it themselves. i was then able to convince them to kill the other players that wouldnt swear fealty to them. after that, at the end of the campaign. after the long run of finding and saving and being harassed by the DJ the whole time, and only knowing so little about him, i did the "its my turn now" move by him pulling out his well known light saber, few PC's had cyber limbs from it. the look on their faces was worth it in the end when they found out and put it altogether. all but one one player died during that last game, and only 3 of 6 were by my hand.

play the dark jedi well and you wont have to fight the party directly with him/her/it.

but if youre going to go with the direct approach, remember, dark jedi dont really have the moral obligations that light side characters do.
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[garhkal]

[DougRed4]

What difficulty would you use to crush somebody's weapon using TK, garhkal (or anyone)?

It totally makes sense that it could be done (Vader was crushing Motti's windpipe, after all), but the rules (in the Tales of the Jedi Companion, at least) only spell out how to lift objects or fire/use them with TK.
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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

[garhkal]

TK roll against body of weapon. Anything above is damage weapon takes..

Some DMs have done body +10 or +5..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[vanir]

Personal equipment gets the bearer's PER/Control or any other applicable roll as per a direct attack by the Force upon their person.

You can break a weapon on a table no worries, but when it's in someone's hand they get the chance to reflexively whip it behind their back when they feel the pull of something strong and unseen, or somesuch. Basically, classic RPG rule, attacking something a PC holds is an attack on the PC themselves and has to defy the PC's own defences against such indirect attacks as if they were direct attacks.

Like in AD&D if you cast a spell to break an item that a person is wearing or carrying or using, you have to overcome the character's resistance, not the object's resistance. Only if the object is upon a table or away from a person is the basic item strength used.
On this basis I would house-rule you need to overcome a PER/Control roll with TK to break a weapon someone is carrying, in addition to exceeding the item strength.

Dark Jedi/Sithies can be extremely difficult to interject as a combat encounter because Force users can be so game altering, yet are bound by the roll of the die, so that the same NPC can roll one way and completely dominate an entire PC party, or the rolls could go another way and your big bad encounter just fizzles out when the very first PC to pull a vibroknife lobs his head off at hello.

My advice is to always, always have a backup plan for important plot points in your adventures. Like if a darksider encounter is meant to be frightening and overwhelming, then write up two darksiders just in case the first one rolls bad in the first round and somebody's kasa horansi literally eats him. Literally. Eats him.


Novel things PCs do. I'm a victim of making my DJ NPCs too scary for the PCs to handle, the last time I threw one at them one PC decided to grab him in a bear hug and let off a thermal detonator at their feet. It was a suicide bid, but the PC felt the needs of the many outweighed his own survival. But he was a tough alien and survived the thermal blast (barely, with surgery), the darksider wasn't so physically endowed and didn't...
So there went my recurring minor boss. Had to write up another one and redo a whole bunch of side-adventures to introduce a new one.

[DougRed4]

vanir, I don't agree that there's a standard, "classic" RPG way of dealing with direct attacks. I've played dozens of RPGs, and GM'd probably 15+, and they almost all seem to handle this with different rules. 4th Edition D&D doesn't even allow you to make an attack on an object someone is carrying. I've seen RPGs that increase the TN or difficulty number, require two rolls to hit (instead of one), and many other options.

Fortunately, with my house rules to lightsaber combat, my Dark Jedi proved to be tough enough, yet still wasn't so strong that he annihilated the party with little effort (as my PCs used good tactics against him, "ganging up" their attacks, so to speak). I would hesitate to use a back-up plan like that, personally. If the PCs do well enough to defeat him (quickly), then that's just how I'd let the chips fall. But like I said, fortunately, I've modified the lightsaber combat rules enough that we get something closer to what we see in the movies (lots of drama with parries, with actual "hits" being fairly rare).
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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