[Martial Arts] Force-Swordsmanship—how does it work?

[JulianLW]

Originally Posted by Varyon

... the optional rule to let you suffer reduced penalties to multiple Parries if you have markedly higher ST than your weapon requires ...

Where is this optional rule?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by JulianLW

Where is this optional rule?

I don't have my books with me (or, rather, I'm on a machine that doesn't have the PDF's on it), but I believe it's part of the "A Matter of Inches" box. It replaces the general "halved iteration penalty for Fencing weapons" with "reduced iteration penalty if you have more ST than the weapon requires." IIRC, it's something like -3 per additional Parry (instead of the default -4) if you have 1.5xMinST, -2 if you have 2xMinST, and -1 if you have 3xMinST.

[Rupert]

It is, and you are correct. Thus most Force Sword users will, if using this rule, only take a -1 per Parry (TBaM and WM round against the defender, so they can't remove the penalty entirely).

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Rupert

It is, and you are correct. Thus most Force Sword users will, if using this rule, only take a -1 per Parry (TBaM and WM round against the defender, so they can't remove the penalty entirely).

Ah, I wasn't sure which direction the rounding went. My personal inclination would be to retain a fractional penalty, but round against the defender for the effect. So, with TbaM/WM, wielding the weapon with two hands, and having ST 9 or higher, you'd be looking at a base penalty of -1 per additional Parry, reduced to -0.5 for TbaM/WM, and reduced further to -0.25 for being two-handed. So, against 6 attacks (!), you're looking at +0, -1 (-0.25), -1 (-0.5), -1 (-0.75), -1 (-1), -2 (-1.25) to defend against each attack (and you need to be hit with 10 attacks to reach -3, 14 for -4, etc). That's a pretty big deal... particularly if you're going up against a large number of foes with blasters (provided you have the appropriate Advantages/Skills and the GM allows Force Swords to Parry blaster bolts).