Why would anyone ever play a droid?

[jhaelen 98]

This is basically a continuation of a thread started in the beta forum: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/70643-droid-system-fail/

 

I'll repeat my post here, because I fear no one's reading the beta forum anymore:

 

Having just finished reading all three Core Rulebooks and finishing my lists of all available species, career, and power choices, one thing immediately stood out: Droids suck. Like hard.

 

While I don't consider myself a min-maxer I really couldn't bring myself to ever consider playing a droid.

See, I get what FFG was trying to do, creating them as a species that was inferior to a biological species but with a potential to be superior in a very narrow specialization.

The problem is, they failed to do even that. No matter which other species you choose, you'll end up with a better specialist than when you try to do the same thing with a droid.

The balancing is just off.

For anyone not believing it, here's a challenge: Create a droid character that is actually better at something than a character with any one other species!

 

Imho, the final nail in the droid's coffin (or whatever else it is that they're disposed of in) is their inability to ever become Force Sensitive.

 

There definitely needs to be _something_ that makes them actually be good at something. Implants would be an obvious way to go. This is just screaming for a dedicated source book.

[BigSpoon 371]

Don't forget their racial traits, not having to breathe is a pretty big one depending on your campaign and GM. But overall I tend to agree with you that eventually a droid will become weaker than an organic PC, however at the start they can be very powerful in their specialized role.

Plus, you get to call people meatbags.

[mulletcheese 669]

Droids are as powerful as a GM wants them to be.

Their physical bodies are changeable, the can be rebuilt after most forms of destruction, they are immune to lots of effects (including Jedi mind tricks).

 

Choosing a race isn't about min-maxing, they may be better or worse than organics but that shouldn't be the deciding factor. Many people would play a droid because they WANT to play a droid.

 

The occasional droid PC brings new plot hooks into a game, a GM should be happy to see these from time to time.

[DanteRotterdam 3,116]

6 Career skills at Chargen

4 Specialization skills at Chargen

No food, no air, no poison, etc.

The possibility to have weapons and equipment build in

Starting XP high enough to have a very specialized character

 

Yeah, I love droids.

[DanteRotterdam 3,116]

Also, I wouldn't like a setting where droids had the possibility to become force sensitive....

[jhaelen 98]

however at the start they can be very powerful in their specialized role.

See, if that was actually true, I'd be fine with the droids as written. But they're simply worse in every respect compared to a specialist of any other role.

Their terrible base stats aren't sufficiently compensated by their starting xp or their special advantages (basically two additional ranks in career skills and Endurable 1).

 

Their mechanical nature is a two-edged sword: Yes, they're immune to mind-affecting Force powers and they don't need to breathe. That's kind of neat.

But at the same time they can never have a Force Rating, so over a third of the available careers are closed to them and they cannot be healed using normal means.

In fact I'd argue the latter turns them into a liability for a group: If one player chooses to play a droid, one of the other players will have to be a competent mechanic.

 

We don't need to discuss the position of a player who wants to play a droid because he just wants to play a droid so badly. Obviously that may cause you to overlook the disadvantages, however, I feel you shouldn't have to!

 

I'd really like to grant them some bonus to make them a more attractive choice, but I don't have a good idea how to achieve it, yet.

After gathering some feedback among my potential players, there's currently definitely no one interested in playing a droid. So, perhaps I shouldn't worry. The question is why aren't they interested?

Because they're just not interested in playing a droid or because droids are bad 'mechanically'?

[Richardbuxton 7,234]

I all comes down to your GM making your decisions matter in the game, designing encounters where a Droid PC can shine.

If I go and make a Beast Rider and the GM never makes encounters where I can actually ride then I'm going to be just as useless as the droid who never has to go outside the ship in space, never needs to walk past the security check because they are only looking at meatbags.

The other part is the cybernetics, if your GM isn't giving you opportunity to get enhancements then your missing out, they can have a 7 in either Brawn or Agility for "only" 20k credits and zero earned XP, I know they're useless at anything else, but for a Hotshot Astromech or Glass Cannon Assasin that's amazing. An Intelligence of 6 for 10k is also incredible for a Slicer, Mechanic, Analyst, Doctor or Scholar.

They are the ultimate MinMax species

[mouthymerc 4,480]

This is basically a continuation of a thread started in the beta forum: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/70643-droid-system-fail/

 

There's still a beta forum?

[DanteRotterdam 3,116]

I suggest you listen to the order 66 podcast episode devoted to droids. Episode 53 - Do Androids Dream of Electric Meatbags?

 

In fact I am planning on doing a short 3 episode arc that features only droid PC's, all highly specialized and geared towards their goal.

[mouthymerc 4,480]

Why would anyone ever play a insert species here?

 

It is just one choice among many. No better or worse, just different.

[bradknowles 4,376]

So, put a Shard inside of a droid, and you’ve now got a Force-sensitive droid. Done.

[jbmacek 259]

Why would anyone ever play a droid?

My guess. Because... it is fun to roleplay a droid.

When he made his first EotE character, my oldest son didn't care about numbers. He had a character concept for a droid PC, so he made a droid PC.

[PrettyHaley 2,030]

Because...

 

THEY WANT TO!

 

I don't think I'd want to unless I got to play something like Guri. Not that I'd need my character to be some bad ass assassin. I just don't think I could play a character that didn't heave good, understandable emotions or even a body I could relate to.. and not just "humanoid". C3P0 is no less alien than R2D2. Maybe even more alien because he's a robot human rather than just a robot. But that's my hangup. My character has big head tails. Maybe someone else couldn't imagine plaing a character without hair.

[FuriousGreg 1,639]

What does it mean to be the best at something in this context? Are you expecting to win the Star Wars?

 

[Braendig 831]

Mechanically, droids are not the best choice unless the player is super-specialized.  Flavorfully, there can be all kinds of reasons to play a droid.

[jbmacek 259]

"These aren't the droids you are looking for."

Edited August 31, 2015 by jbmacek

[jbmacek 259]

What does it mean to be the best at something in this context? Are you expecting to win the Star Wars?

 

 

"We won roleplaying!"

That's the unofficial battle cry of my gaming group. Whenever we end a campaign, or something goofy happens, or somebody's character survives a horrible death, or we've had a boatload of fun during the evening, someone will often shout that.

[2P51 32,551]

If you're going off straight just starting CHARGEN power gaming mentality, why would anyone play anything other than a human?  By the time characters get a decent amount of xp under their belts the initial species creation differences are long since irrelevant and it boils down to what kind of character you want to role play. Since it is a role playing game seems like the most important reason to play one.

Edited August 31, 2015 by 2P51

[Lorne 2,019]

So, put a Shard inside of a droid, and you’ve now got a Force-sensitive droid. Done.

 

Image: The Vision. Don't even have to leave the park -- the Mouse owns everything...

[Archebius 59]

This is honestly a question that I never really considered. I've always considered the races things you picked out of interest and flavor, not for any sort of gameplay goals. Maybe I just haven't gotten deep enough into the rules and advancement, but I never thought that the droids were disadvantaged enough to make a real difference - especially given the huge variety in character builds my players go for. 

[winters_night 87]

Because Droids are awesome, if your only taking a race for stats than I feel for you. No one remembers the character rolling buckets of dice with uber stats they remember the awesome personalities and exploits. For instance one of my favs from pathfinder was a female Kobold named Vivara (viv to her friends) if you never played pathfinder kobolds are I think the only race with dual negative stats to one positive with no other perks. But she was awesome, a voracious appetite for life a lover of beers and meat of any variety she befriended some of the unlikeliest people. She was no power house but Yeh that's my point. Heh her coolest item was her pouch, full of trinkets and doodads, from string buttons springs gears bells rubber ducks she had almost anything in there

Edited August 31, 2015 by winters_night

[Pac_Man3D 445]

"Why would anyone ever play a droid?"

 

 

 

 

 

Edit: oops, didn't mean her to be that big.

Edited August 31, 2015 by Pac_Man3D

[Daeglan 4,499]

"Why would anyone ever play a droid?"

 

 

 

 

 

Edit: oops, didn't mean her to be that big.

subtitling for Haley. Picture of Prince Xixor and Guri. 

[Daeglan 4,499]

Droids also make the ultimate infiltrator. No one pays attention to droids so they can pretty much go anywhere with out any one paying any mind. 

[DarthGM 2,328]

But at the same time they can never have a Force Rating, so over a third of the available careers are closed to them and they cannot be healed using normal means.

In fact I'd argue the latter turns them into a liability for a group: If one player chooses to play a droid, one of the other players will have to be a competent mechanic.

 

We don't need to discuss the position of a player who wants to play a droid because he just wants to play a droid so badly. Obviously that may cause you to overlook the disadvantages, however, I feel you shouldn't have to!

 

I'd really like to grant them some bonus to make them a more attractive choice, but I don't have a good idea how to achieve it, yet.

After gathering some feedback among my potential players, there's currently definitely no one interested in playing a droid. So, perhaps I shouldn't worry. The question is why aren't they interested?

Because they're just not interested in playing a droid or because droids are bad 'mechanically'?

 

 

First, who says those careers are closed off to them? There really is nothing in the rules that state "Droids cannot take this Career". The only paradox is what to do with the starting droid career skills and the starting career skills for the F&D Careers. The droid can most certainly take the Specs if they started in another career. They would be treated just like any other organic being who took Makashi Duelist or Aggressor without having Force Sensitive Exile/Emergent first; they just wouldn't be able to use the Force Talents.  The droid could still buy them to get by them to other talents in the tree; expensive but hey, what can you do?  Inefficient, sure but that doesn't mean the droid can't do it.

 

I have plenty of players in my neck of the woods who seem fine with the droid stats,plus I think after 3 years if FFG felt droids needed any tweaking they'd have made them by now.  Any additional boosts might make Droids "too good".

 

They're made to be "the specialists" or "the Pros from Dover"; pick one (or two) areas and own it.  They're the only race that could start game with a 5 in any characteristic, that goes pretty far right outta the box.