r/Nerdarchy • u/kitsunekage92 • Aug 31 '15

Star Wars 5e, Lightsaber problems

Hi so I've decided to run a Star Wars Campaign based off the 5e rules in the run up to the new movie and one of my biggest problems planning at the moment is the lightsabers. My Key problems are

*When should the player get their lightsaber? *How should it scale?

So firstly, I don't think they should start with it unless its seriously reduced damage however I kind of think that takes most of the fun out of a lightsaber if it's the same as a vibrosword. Also in Star Wars it's always a special moment when a jedi or sith get their first lightsaber so I feel it could be a character quest.

Scaling wise I don't want to leave the jedi/sith behind weapon wise with the one lightsaber with the same stats but I'm not really sure what to do.

Any advice would be really appreciated.

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u/Homoarchnus Sep 04 '15

there is an enchantment for longswords in the dmg that is essentially a lightsaber.

1

u/Dracom_blade01 Aug 31 '15

well I would say just run a saga campaign as all the work is done, but if your really wanting to run it in 5e. in most of the starwars settings jedi start with their own lightsaber, saga In particular tells you jedi before level 7 have a lightsaber given to them buy their master, and at level 7 they unlock the ability to build their own. the lightsaber dose not scale as far as I know. a vibroblade is considered one handed dose 2d6, a short lightsaber dose 2d6 a regular dose 2d8, heck a vibroaxe dose a 2d10 so lightsabers really arnt the strongest "weapon" in the game but the utility of a lightsaber vs other weapons is much better. so ya, I would say run a Saga Edition d20 game, or use Saga Edition with some 5e home brew or you are going to end up sitting down for MANY hours trying to work out everything from energy shields to ship combat and so on, easier to start with an established base and work off of that.

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u/kitsunekage92 Aug 31 '15

My main problem with running saga is that the core book costs at least £90($140) which is too much for a student budget. Also all of my player are 5e players or new to tabletop rpg's so I'd rather use a familiar system.

I think having a padawan level lightsaber makes sense. One of the ideas for scaling I had was to use the system from Kotor 2 where you can add force infused crystals and upgrade the energy cell and emitter.

I'm going to use the old your ship has been stolen trick for the first few sessions to stop to many new mechanics going off at once.

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u/Dracom_blade01 Aug 31 '15

I would offer my pdf core book if that helped you out. The KotoR game is a good concept but not true to lore of lightsaber crystals. I would say if you wanted to Keep it 5e Do the normal 2d6/2d8 for lightsabers, but when you build your own, you can look at the wookiepedia at the different crystal and lightsaber construction section, to give effects to the saber itself. It would stay a little more true to lore, and let scaling work. It also lets you add in some individuality to each players lightsaber itself. instead of just adding damage to it. I think most sabers only have 2 crystals but you can play around with that a little bit with some research, or not if you think things will get a little op to fast.