Star Wars: Weapon and Armor Special Materials

[Varyon]

Actually, now that I've taken a look at the document, I think Beskar may indeed be overpowered. Using the Durasteel values, beskar armor is going to give DR 135, fully hardened against blasters. This means a blaster needs a minimum damage of 23d to have a chance of doing any damage (maximum damage for 23d is 138) outside of a critical hit. I'm all for beskar rendering a person nearly-immune to small-arms fire, but when you get to the point of shrugging off stationary cannon, you may have gone a bit too far.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Actually, now that I've taken a look at the document, I think Beskar may indeed be overpowered. Using the Durasteel values, beskar armor is going to give DR 135, fully hardened against blasters. This means a blaster needs a minimum damage of 23d to have a chance of doing any damage (maximum damage for 23d is 138) outside of a critical hit. I'm all for beskar rendering a person nearly-immune to small-arms fire, but when you get to the point of shrugging off stationary cannon, you may have gone a bit too far.

Hmm... we hadn't crunched those numbers. Thanks for the heads-up.

Would you say, then, that 3 or 4 levels of Hardened would be better?

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Actually, now that I've taken a look at the document, I think Beskar may indeed be overpowered. Using the Durasteel values, beskar armor is going to give DR 135, fully hardened against blasters. This means a blaster needs a minimum damage of 23d to have a chance of doing any damage (maximum damage for 23d is 138) outside of a critical hit. I'm all for beskar rendering a person nearly-immune to small-arms fire, but when you get to the point of shrugging off stationary cannon, you may have gone a bit too far.

Perhaps drop it to "just" Hardened 2. Blasters will get AD (2) and Lightsabers AD (3), meaning DR 90 Durasteel would typically block a 12d Blaster or 8d Saber. Jedi could cut through with the aid of Power Blow or similar damage-boosting Force skills. A hotshotted Semi-Portable Blaster would also penetrate reliably. (I picture that as something like the E-Web Portable Blaster as seen in the Hoth attack and elsewhere.)

[Christopher R. Rice]

It also occurs to me that you might get some mileage out of David Pulver's Blaster and Laser Design from #3/37 Pyramid: Tech and Toys II. I've used it to great effect in my own campaigns.

:-)

[Varyon]

An effective DR of 60 is what I'd be tempted to go with - that will make them nearly proof against any lightsaber, as well as any blaster up to 10d. DR 60 means the lightsaber would be cutting the DR down by a little more than half, so 4 levels of hardened would work there - although that won't fix the blaster problem. 3 levels will let the lightsaber drop DR down to 45, giving a Jedi a small chance to penetrate for up to 3 damage. Blasters will be dropping DR down to 75 or so, meaning you need 13d to have a chance at penetrating. That still seems high, but if we drop it any lower Jedi's will have a 50% shot at penetrating it, which is entirely too high.

So, yeah, I'd go with 3 levels here. Skilled Jedi can use things like Power Blow, Chinks in Armor, and so forth to have a decent chance at penetration against a fully-armored Mandalorian. If this seems like it weakens beskar against Jedi's too much, you could allow it to have additional hardening against lightsabers only.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Actually, now that I've taken a look at the document, I think Beskar may indeed be overpowered. Using the Durasteel values, beskar armor is going to give DR 135, fully hardened against blasters. This means a blaster needs a minimum damage of 23d to have a chance of doing any damage (maximum damage for 23d is 138) outside of a critical hit. I'm all for beskar rendering a person nearly-immune to small-arms fire, but when you get to the point of shrugging off stationary cannon, you may have gone a bit too far.

Given that every example of armor present in the films appears to function as costume first and protection second, if at all, I would err on the side of offense over defense. To make up for it, be generous with the Impulse Buys.