F&D armor mod question

[jdizzlean]

in the most recent game, the GM threw a mercenary at us that had some pretty OP armor on. I hit w/ my heavily mod'd blaster for 13 damage which was SOAKED entirely... the only thing i managed to do that affected her was a crit, which gave her strain per action.. the next round i did 14 damage and that was soaked as well.

i don't see anywhere that you can get soak that high, in fact the highest i've seen is like 4 or 5 and that is w/ some crazy expensive things.

does anyone have any resources, links, explanations on how to modify or create armor that would do this? I play a engineer/saboteur and am the only non force sensitive in my group. I have a whopping defense 1 with a soak of 2, sure like to get that higher.

[Telwar]

Hrm. By armor, I'm not sure. The highest-soak armor I've seen is the powered armor in Dangerous Covenants, with a Soak of 3. I can't think of any attachments/mods that will jack Soak up that much. There's one for blaster fire, but that's it.

Now, my suspicion is it's not armor, but Enduring ranks out the wazoo. I've got my Project Soak: 10* going on my Gigoran Enforcer/Marauder; between Brawn 4, 2 from Padded Armor, and 1 rank of Enduring I'm at 7, and I have another rank of Enduring coming up in Marauder in about two sessions. Combine that with hitting Dedication into Brawn and Implant Armor, that'll be 10 Soak. With branching out into Bodyguard and Demolitionist, that gets me to 12 fairly quickly. But Wumpus would've still have taken some damage from your blaster.

Alternately, it's possible that her armor is somehow Armor 1 or Armor 2, at which point you need some Breach going on. Though of course she'd have Cortosis. So that's out.

Do you have anyone with Scathing Tirade? Inflict Strain with no soak option, or you have to have someone with Move fling a freighter into her. Also, check to make sure the armor isn't vacuum-sealed, by using some sort of gas. And there's always upgrading her difficulty up and hoping for a Despair or two to break her armor. (...somehow I think that's what the GM is looking for)


* - I went down from taking 4 autofire instances of 10 blaster damage to the chest. Admittedly, I wasn't at full health, but still, that irritated me.

[Faily]

Starting Brawn could be 4, or as high as 5.

Specs like Marauder and Bodyguard (both are Hired Gun) gets the Enduring talent which gives +1 Soak for each rank. IIRC, Vanguard, Armorer and various other specs also increase Soak value from Armor with the Armor Master talent. Also, it could've been an Armorer you fought because they can twink some pretty crazy stuff for Defense and Soak. GM might've also had a liberal interpretation of the Imbue Item talent to allow for it to increase Soak as well if it was a Force user.

PX-11 "Battlement" Powered Armor from Dangerous Covenants. Soak 3 as a Base. Can be modded to increase your Brawn by 1. Superior quality (attachement) also increases Soak by 1.

So it's not impossible to get crazy soak. It requires a lot of specialization, but it's not impossible. I've had Soak 7 on my Sharpshooter character, and that wasn't even through a whole lot of effort on my behalf. Good armor, decent Brawn, combined with some Talents. Same for the Droid PC in a one-shot I ran too.


EDIT: Made a quick mock-up in OggDude to see what I could do without thinking too much about it

Human Protector/Armor/Marauder
Starting Brawn 4, effectively 6 with armor on

Talents (the ones that matter here):
Dedication: Brawn
Armor Master (increase soak value by 1)
Force Protection (commit Force die equal to Force Rating to increase Soak by number of commited Force dice)
Force Rating (+1 Force Rating for a total of 2 in Protector tree, could've potentially gotten FR 3 from the Force Rating in Armorer as well)
Enduring (+1 Soak)

Gear:
PX-11 "Battlement" Powered Armor (mod for +1 Brawn, Superior Attachement for +1 Soak, Kiirium Coating attachement for +1 soak vs blasters and flame attacks)

The math:
+6 Brawn
+5 Armor (Base 3, + 1 Superior, + 1Kiirium coating)
+1 Enduring
+1 Armor Master
+2 Force Protection
= 15 Soak

[ArcanistSupreme]

does anyone have any resources, links, explanations on how to modify or create armor that would do this?

Hrm. By armor, I'm not sure. The highest-soak armor I've seen is the powered armor in Dangerous Covenants, with a Soak of 3. I can't think of any attachments/mods that will jack Soak up that much. There's one for blaster fire, but that's it.

This. I wanted to recreate the Tick as an EotE character and have scoured every available piece of equipment. It Simply doesn't go above 3 without talents, and then it's either custom made or very specific equipment.

Talents, on the other hand, make it a lot easier. Heck, a starting character can have soak 8. (Droid for free rank of Enduring [+1], Brawn 5 [+5], padded armor [+2]). Drop some XP in Marauder or Gunner for 2 more ranks of Enduring and you're at 10, and there's nothing stopping you from double dipping and going to other trees.

Unmatched Protection, the Hired Gun signature ability, would neatly answer your question. Halving damage before applying soak would only require a meager 8 soak to ignore your piddly blaster shots. Did the GM flip any destiny points?

Force Protect can also pump soak up rapidly depending on the number of Force die, but eats up actions (or destiny points again). Willpower of 4 and rolling 4 pips can activate the base power and proc the strength upgrade twice. If the BBEG has all four strength upgrades, that's +12 soak out of nowhere.

There's also GM fiat, which is boring, but acceptable as long as the game is still fun (see below).

...
Superior Attachment for +1 Soak

All of this is good, fun stuff! One slight nitpick: Doesn't Superior just grant an advantage to anything that involves using the armor?


One of the great parts of this system, though, is how much there is to do besides shooting stuff. Use mechanics/computers to suck the bad guy out an airlock. Use coercion/charm to get other people to join the fight on your side. Use perception/knowledge (education) to notice that the baddie is standing next to some highly volatile chemicals that your allies can blow up. Use a destiny point to add a speeder truck to the narrative, and then get in and run over the BBEG with piloting (planetary).

So don't feel bad when someone is super specialized and better than your character in various aspects. Instead, play to your character's strengths and YOUR creativity and you can do something completely different but equally effective at resolving the situation.

Now, if your GM is throwing high soak baddies at you because you deal a lot of damage (consistently dishing 13-14 is pretty good), there are a few other things that could be going on.

1) The GM doesn't want bad guys wiped out too easily. If this was supposed to be a climactic fight, a villain with high soak is totally appropriate. If you start running into this every fight, however, your GM doesn't know how to deal with your damage through appropriate encounter design. Then you need to talk it out (and possible send your GM here for some tips )

2) It's going to be/was supposed to be a recurring character. No plan survives contact with the players, and maybe your GM was hoping that making this character durable enough would make for a recurring baddie. Could be fun and interesting if played right.

3) Your GM was trying to spank you guys with a ridiculous villain. If done *VERY* sparingly, this can make for fun stories, but if it's just the GM being adversarial/a tool, it's time for a talk.

It all comes down to whether you're having fun or not! If you're constantly frustrated and powerless, talk to your GM. If it's just a one time thing, it can be incredibly satisfying to take down those villains. You decide how you feel, and then talk it over with the GM out of game if it's an issue!

[Faily]

All of this is good, fun stuff! One slight nitpick: Doesn't Superior just grant an advantage to anything that involves using the armor?

Force and Destiny, pg. 164

Superior (Passive)
A superior item is a sterling example of its kind, representing masterful craftsmanship. A superior weapon generates automatic [one advantage] on all checks related to its use, and its base damage is increased by one. Superior armor has its encumbrance reduced by one and its soak value increased by one.

[ArcanistSupreme]

Force and Destiny, pg. 164

Superior (Passive)
A superior item is a sterling example of its kind, representing masterful craftsmanship. A superior weapon generates automatic [one advantage] on all checks related to its use, and its base damage is increased by one. Superior armor has its encumbrance reduced by one and its soak value increased by one.

Wow! I've been referring to a bad online source for years! Thanks for the correction.