It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done a Star Wars character. I recently picked up Knights of Fate and wanted to give some of those character options for a spin. The Colossus is a very straightforward career, but I love it conceptually, allowing a character to make a scarily impressive meatshield. Combine this with the new Force Power from the book, Endure, and you have a character that is going to be hard to take down.

Orok

Cosplay of Grummgar from Star Wars the Force Awakens by ulian Checkley of Order 66 Creatures & Effects

Species: Dowutin
Career: Warrior
Specialization: Colossus
Morality: Bravery/Recklessness
Strong and headstrong are oftentimes two traits that don’t go together well. But when you add a helping of actual ability in there, it can be easy to see how a person can laugh at death in the face and stand against overwhelming odds. But that confidence can easily bleed into overconfidence.
Motivation: Superiority
Being second best isn’t an option. You must be the best.

Characteristics
Brawn 4
Agility 1
Intellect 2
Cunning 2
Willpower 3
Presence 2

Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 1, Cool 1, Discipline 2, Melee 3, Perception 1, Resilience 2
Talents: Durable 2 (Reduce the effect of Critical Hits made against you by 20), Enduring 1, Grit 1, Hard Headed 2 (When staggered or disoriented, make a Hard Discipline check as an action to remove the condition), Toughened 2
Abilities: Force Rating 1, Force Power: Endure (When you, or an ally at short range suffers a Critical Injury of up to Hard severity, you may commit 1 Force Die to ignore one of the effects of that Critical Injury, suffering no effects including the +10 to subsequent Critical Injuries until the effect ends), Large (You are Silhouette 2), Immovable (When you suffer the immobilized condition, are knocked prone, or are otherwise forced to move, as an out-of-turn incidental suffer 1 strain to avoid the effect).

Wound Threshold: 23
Strain Threshold: 13
Soak Value: 7 (9 versus strain damage)
Defense: 1|1

Equipment: RS01 Ripper Powersword w/ monomolecular blade and serrated blade attachments (Melee; Damage 7; Critical 1; Range [Engaged]; Cumbersome 3, Pierce 4, Sunder, Knockdown, Vicious 3), Refined Cortosis Gauntlets w/ weighted head attachment (Brawl; Damage 7; Critical 4; Range [Engaged]; Concussive 1, Cortosis, may spend 3 threat or 1 despair from attack roll with a lightsaber or 3 advantage or 1 triumph on an attack roll against a lightsaber wielder to deactivate lightsaber until the end of the next round), Combat Knife (Melee; Damage 5; Critical 3; Range [Engaged]), Ancient Battle Armor w/ energy dispersion system attachment (+1 Defense, +2 Soak Value), hand-held commlink, hand scanner, electrobinoculars, portable shelter, backpack, datapad, breath mask/respirator, 5 stimpacks

Design Notes: I decided to go with a Knight Level build to show off some of the fun tricks that can be accomplished with the Endure power, plus how little it takes to get a character with an incredible Wound Threshold (believe it or not, there are two more picks of Toughened on the tree). The Endure power is great fun, stating that when you suffer a Critical Injury of an Easy Severity, you can choose to commit 1 Force Die and ignore the effects of that Critical injury until you uncommit that Force Die. You don’t even suffer the additional +10 to the next Critical Injury you receive as long as you have that Force Die committed. That’s it – no check required. The power is quite straightforward, allowing you to ignore more severe Critical Injuries (including eventually death!) with Strength upgrades, commit additional Force Dice with Control Upgrades, and even affecting allies with Magnitude Upgrades. The Duration upgrade is interesting in that it allows you to commit a Force Die to ignore a Critical Injury you are already suffering from, provided that it is of a severity that you could already guard against. Finally, the Mastery upgrade for the power allows you to make an Endure check alongside a Discipline check whenever you suffer a Critical Injury, with a difficulty equal to the severity of the Critical Injury. If successful, and you roll Force Points equal to the dice rating of the Critical Injury, you simply don’t suffer from it. You don’t just ignore it – you simply don’t suffer it.

The only thing the Colossus is lacking is a Force Rating upgrade, which means that you’ll only be able to ignore one Critical Injury at a time, and you’ll only be able to prevent up to an Average difficulty Critical Injury with the Mastery upgrade. However, they do have a 25 XP talent called Power from Pain that allows them to once per session spend 1 Destiny Point to gain +1 Force Rating for each Critical Hit they are suffering until the end of the encounter. This talent does carry a conflict cost, but in the right situation, it could be incredibly worthwhile.

This was a straight up Warrior build, but I could very easily see the Colossus being a great secondary specialization for the Armorer from Keeping the Peace, especially when you start creating your own armor. Additionally, the Endure Force Power also seems like a great fit for them, especially in a Fated Duel type of scenario…

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Ben Erickson

Contributing Writer for d20 Radio

Mild mannered fraud analyst by day, incorrigible system tinker monkey by night, Ben has taken a strong interest in roleplaying games since grade school, especially when it comes to creation and world building. After being introduced to the idea through the Final Fantasy series and kit-bashing together several games with younger brother and friends in his earliest years to help tell their stories, he was introduced to the official world of tabletop roleplaying games through the boxed introductory set of West End Games Star Wars Roleplaying Game before moving into Dungeons and Dragons.