Alien Species stat limits?

[Ankhanu]

[Gry Sarth]

[Matthias777]

I understood that PCs have 25D of starting dice. You get whatever your species' base attribute dice is (usually 12D), plus 6D more in attribute dice, and the remainder (usually 7D) is your starting skill dice. Is this incorrect (that 25D is the magic number outlined in the rules)? I'll have to go look, but that's what I remember. I could be wrong.
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Arek | Kage

[Matthias777]

Sorry to double-post; I know where I'm getting that from. In the rules for playing a droid as a PC it outlines the 25D "base", although one may easily argue that that means that it only applies to droid PCs and not organics. I guess I just inferred that if a PC has less than 25D of combined starting dice, the difference is made up with starting skill dice. I'm not sure if that's what WEG intended (since they didn't come out and say it), or if it's just a house rule that has a partial basis on original WEG material.
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Arek | Kage

[PsiberDragon]

[Esoomian]

[Matthias777]

Precisely. While it may look odd for a Noghri PC's character sheet to only have 3D spent on skills at character creation...those attributes are going to be very high. Still, in almost all cases, a PC with more than 18D in attributes is going to trump a similarly-designed PC with 18D or less. My question is: Is this a valid interpretation of the rules? Or merely a house rule that follows the spirit of the rules regarding character creation, rather than the letter?
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Arek | Kage

[vong]

In my opnion, if you are going to change the max up to 4D, you should change the max DOWN to 4D as well.

So why not just set the min and max to 2D and 4D respectivly, and just allocate 12D attributes. That way everything is the same.

Which, as you can probably see, I am for the flavor of each species, dont add or subtract anything.
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The Vong have Arrived

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[Esoomian]

[Grimace]

I'll weigh in on this.

The 25D listing is for Droids only. They do this to offset the potential in-game difficulties faced by droids (assuming the GM runs it that way).

Racial minimums and maximums are for both NPCs and PCs, as has been mentioned. As Ankhanu has mentioned, the bonus for the PCs is that they receive an additional 6D above the starting amount of attribute dice listed for the race. Changing the mins and maxs waters down the races so much you might as well be playing all humans with different names. The racial minimums and maximums are there to add in the FLAVOR of that race.

Masque, you mentioned you and the other players with you "really wanted to get into the spirit and culture of the species". If this is the case, you would have realized that Rodian culture doesn't promote techs, doesn't promote "brainy" types of characters. That's not to say that the Rodians have no techs, but it does mean that any Rodian trying to be a tech will be going against their culture, their racial structure, and will be building upon a weaker base than what the Rodians are actually good at.

As someone mentioned, you don't see Ewok Gladiators very much because Ewoks aren't racially designed for that sort of things. Likewise, you don't see a lot of Verpine warriors. Rodians aren't known for brains and technology, they're known for their tenacity and eagerness to kill intelligent beings for the sake of a few credits. Sure, they're stereotyped, but that's what makes it a challenge to play a Rodian that goes against the grain of their culture and racial perceptions. You CAN make an Ewok Gladiator, a Verpine Warrior, or a Rodian Tech, but you'll have to work around their racial disadvantages to get such a character. THAT is what makes you realize you're playing a race other than a human. When you have lower attributes than others, but can do that tech job just as good as a human can, then you have bragging rights!

As far as the Twi'lek dancer goes....3D in Dexterity doesn't rule out a dancer. It's mentioned in the main book that 2D is the STANDARD for humans, so having 3D in something is better than the human standard. Take a look at the basic SpecForce Pathfinder's attributes in the Rules of Engagement: SpecForce Handbook. A DEX of 2D+2. A KNOW of 2D. A MECH of 1D+1!!! Is that suggesting that the Rebel Alliance only recruits people who are LESS THAN the human minimum for their special forces? Nope. It's suggesting that 2D is the human average. That means that a human of 4D is well above the human average, a veritable "master specimen" of its species, one that people look up to a go "Wow, they're good!" At the same time, a Twi'lek of 3D is hardly a clumsy oaf, and if such a Twi'lek has the skill, they could quite possibly be better than any "normal" human dancer out there. Against a PC human dancer, though, they're probably not as good, as a human could have 4D in DEX and then the skill added on.

I think most people forget that having 2D in something isn't "bad". You're not feeble, not terrible, not "gimped". You're the equivalent to an "average" human. Think of what an "average" Rodian would be! 1D+1 or 1D+2 most likely. So even if you had a character with the minimum in something, you'd still likely be as good as the "average" member of your race. Too many people have it in their head that you have to have 6D in something to be considered "really good", when in actuality, the racial maximums that the characters start at are "really good"! They're not called MAXIMUM for nothing. It means that's the best that race can really do with any sort of regularity, but that maximum is ONLY available to major NPCs and to PLAYER CHARACTERS.

This also goes hand in hand with the amount of attribute dice given out to NPCs vs. PCs. Try making a character with the listed amount one time, and see what kind of character you get. 12D isn't much, and that's what gives the "average" for humans at 2D. Not only can you go higher than the "average" when making character, you also get ADDITIONAL attribute dice to add on to make your character an even better specimen of your chosen race. +6D adds a lot and would give you an "average" human character of 3D in each attribute, which is ABOVE the normal average for humans of 2D.

So my suggestion, stick with the attribute minimums and maximums as listed on the race. They're there to provide the true "flavor" of that race. If you want to make a character that goes against the racial and cultural history of his chosen race, then you'll have to contend with what any other person in his race would when trying to be something that most are not. Rodians aren't designed to be techs. They're designed to be killers, or at least people that most think are killers. You can make a character that goes against the grain, but you're going to have to work around the limitations of that race to make that character.

As someone said, this isn't D20. Everything is NOT balanced in D6 Star Wars. You will not find things at 1:1, and some races just aren't races that you'll want to run a particular type of character in. Just don't water down the races that are in D6 Star Wars so that they're all "even" and all "balanced", as you'll lose the real flavor of Star Wars as it was meant to be.

[Ankhanu]

[garhkal]