Force Wizard – Endure Force Power

August 10, 2020 Linda Whitson Astral Projections, Force Wizard 0

“Force Wizard” is my series on the Force powers in Fantasy Flight Games’ Star Wars RPG lines. It is primarily aimed at new players/GMs, and more experienced players playing a Force-sensitive character for the first time.

The Endure power from Knights of Fate (Warrior specialization sourcebook) is arguably the simplest power of the F&D line, even simpler than Enhance. Endure allows the wielder to do just one thing — ignore Critical Injuries for long enough to save the day, or the galaxy. If Rich Burlew’s The Order of the Stick webcomic had started life spoofing FFGSW mechanics, instead of D&D 3.x, O-Chul the Paladin would have bought into this power heavily.

Endure works a little differently than other powers. First, it’s an Incidental, not a Standard, action. Also, instead of spending Light or Dark Force pip/s to activate (with one exception), the wielder commits 1 Force die. As long as the die is committed, all effects of one Easy Critical Injury are ignored. No immediate effect (e.g., take 1 Strain, lose a free Maneuver, etc.). More importantly, if the character suffers a second Critical (or more) there’s no +10% on the effect roll. It doesn’t count. As soon as the die is un-committed, they will suffer all effects as normal until they receive proper treatment.

The upgrades all improve/expand the Basic power, most directly by the Control and Strength upgrades. Each Control–there are 3 costing 5/10/15XP–enables the character to ignore +1 Critical for each additional die committed, up to whatever severity they can ignore. An FR3+ Force user can ignore up to 3 Criticals–but recovering afterwards is going to take some time, since there’s a limit of 1 Medicine check per week per Critical. Nor can you use Endure to ignore the injury again, with just Control upgrade/s. For that you need the single Duration upgrade, which lets you ignore a previously suffered Critical. It still must be of a severity you can ignore, just like a new one.

The 4 Strength upgrades, costing 5-15XP each, allow a character to ignore more severe Critical Injury results for a time. The severity increases by +1 for each of the first 3 Strength upgrades you buy, so up to Daunting (4 Difficulty). And the fourth Strength? That allows the character to ignore a Dead result! But it’s still a temporary reprieve that ends when the Force dice are un-committed. You won’t leave your final task undone when you become One With the Force. Oddly, the Ignore Dead Strength costs only 5XP. I am not sure if this is correct, since few if any other third row upgrades cost so little. On the other hand, a Dead Critical result is very rare. I don’t recall seeing one and I have been playing FFG SWRPG since the Edge of the Empire beta book was released in 2013. Since I haven’t seen any errata for Endure, I’d say leave it at 5XP considering how situational it is.

Endure has 1 Magnitude and 1 Range upgrade, both in the lower right of the tree. Each costs 10XP. The Magnitude enables a character to use Endure to let an ally in short range ignore a Critical. Again, it only affects Criticals of a severity the wielder can ignore. The Range upgrade affects Magnitude, making it usable on an ally within medium range. If the wielder and ally move farther apart, the effect ends.

The final upgrade is the 20XP Mastery, which allows a character to negate the Critical Injury, rather than temporarily ignore it. This is the only time you make an Endure power check, combined with a Discipline check, Difficulty equal to the Critical severity. The Critical is averted if the Discipline check succeeds and Force pips generated are equal to severity. No, Mastery cannot negate a Dead result. Only that one Strength upgrade affects Dead results. The only path to Mastery is through it, by the way.

What to buy & when to buy it? At first glance, the whole Endure tree is open to FR1 PCs, but it’s not so cut and dried. None of the Control upgrades are usable until FR2+, since you won’t have the additional Force die/dice to commit, and the topmost Control is the only path to all upgrades except the top left Strength. Do you really want to have XP tied up in something you won’t be able to use for quite some time? For a low XP character, the Basic power and that top Strength–letting you ignore both Easy and Average Criticals–will help you out early on, for only 15XP.

However, since the top Control is only 5XP, you might consider buying it at FR1 if you feel investing in Endure is important. Even though the Control won’t help, it will enable you access to more Strength upgrades so you can ignore a more severe Critical, or grant the ability to ignore a previous injury (Duration) or aid others who have a Critical. Overall the Strength and Control are the upgrades you want to focus on. That said, Endure is inexpensive enough that you can increase it slowly over the campaign and not short yourself on other abilities. So that as the endgame approaches you can shrug off more dangerous injuries and even stave off Death for a while.

Next month, the Force Wizard completes her study of the Force powers–but will be back with Signature Abilities and other Force abilities. Until then, May the Force Be With You Always!

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Linda Whitson

Contributing Writer & Copy Editor at D20 Radio
Linda Whitson is a long-time RPGer, amateur musician & artist, & an officer in the Rebel Legion Star Wars costuming club. Linda met her husband in an AD&D game and they have 2 teenagers, an anime fangirl daughter and a son who plays on his university's quidditch team. She is the Lead Mod of D20 Radio's forums and Copy Editor for the blog. Linda can be reached at GMLinda@d20radio.com

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