Yes, you can choose Vicious and still attack non-lethally: think of it as a “heavy stun” setting.
And yes, Romulan disruptors can still be used to make nonlethal attacks.
Klingon and Jem’Hadar weapons are really the only ones noted that I can think of off the top of my head that do not have any sort of stun setting.
It is generally assumed that unless the weapon has the “Deadly” quality all weapons are defaulted to stun unless specifically stated otherwise.
If a weapon does have the “Deadly” quality then they normally cost threat to fire, but they can be used non-lethally by increasing the Difficulty
Romulan Disruptors do not have the Deadly quality so suffer no penalty for firing non-lethally.
Memory Alpha specifically states that Jem’Hadar plasma rifles have a stun setting Plasma rifle | Memory Alpha | Fandom
Offhand I cannot find a source that states whether Klingon Disruptors have a stun setting or not, it seems logical that they would, it’s just that your average Klingon does not use it. Klingon Intelligence officers must have a need to take prisoners.
It stands to reason that sneaky people like the Romulans value the information that can be extracted from prisoners (that’s why they have mind probes). Thus their weapons likely have a stun setting.
It is stated in the shows a few times over the years that Klingon disruptors don’t have stun settings. It is possible that they might have special weapons for the Klingon Intelligence officers designated to take someone alive that would have a stun setting, but the average Klingon Warrior would not have that weapon. If all else fails, though… They could simply pummel their target to unconsciousness or injure them in the legs so they can’t run to take them alive.
I thought the Jem’Hadar were the same in that regard, but thank you for correcting me on that issue.
Can you cite examples? I looked but couldn’t find anything that proved/disproved this.
@StephenBirks: Unfortunately, no… I don’t remember which episodes/movies it was in, but I seem to recall Worf mentioning once or twice that Klingon disruptors didn’t have a stun setting. Odo eluded to this when employing Worf’s brother to security on DS9, asking if his brother knew how to use a stun setting.
Although like most of the arguments I see on a few other boards in my quick search, this could be simply a preference of the warrior culture, wishing to kill and die in honorable combat. Being taken alive during combat being seen as a dishonorable end.
I might have to rewatch Star Trek Generations, because I think it might have been mentioned there, too, when they boarded the Amargosa Observatory.
Not sure how accurate these scripts are, but a cursory check at http://www.st-minutiae.com/resources/scripts/gens.txt agrees with my memory.
Worf: These blast patterns are consistent with type-three disruptors.
Riker: Well, that narrows it to Klingon, Breen or Romulan.
Klingon Disruptors, and early Andorian weapons do not have stun settings.
From what we’ve seen, when they do deign to capture, they simply beat the * out of their targets, and/or use batleth.
The Andorian rifles are stated as such in ENT, but again can you cite a source on Klingon Disruptors? I am genuinely interested in definitively settling this, though I fear we cannot.
Implications are, that, at least as of DS9, there may be one:
I think it is like firing phasers or changing course at warp. It is not possible, but sometimes the writers forget about it.
So basically you have to establish your own canon and go from there.
Thanks everyone.
A new question:
Can Rally be used in personal combat (to improve team or personal morale), or just in Starship Combat?
Purely by the book, no. It is a Starship combat task.
In play, potentially. I get the impression that turns in Starship combat are longer than personal combat, so could afford the time to do the Rally, however I don’t see that a quick pause in the action whilst the CO issues orders for a plan could not count as a Rally.
Strictly speaking, no. But there’s nothing wrong with taking a Difficulty 0 task purely to generate Momentum during a tense situation of any kind, and that’s really all Rally is.
And, well, I’ve run simultaneous personal and ship combats, so there’s nothing game-breaking about allowing a Rally to benefit personal combat.
4 Likes
I ran into this question yesterday: Does the Charge Quality require the characters to charge their weapon for every shot? My players argued that this would be a setting that should apply until changed, keeping their phasers to have area or vicious effects for the whole scene. I was slow in finding the rules on this, so I allowed it, but now would like to have an expert opinion on this.
They also argued “Hey, I still have my phaser charged for vicious from the last fight.”, but I did not allow this. Even if the phaser kept charged for effects for longer than one attack, I think Starfleet Officers would be trained to set their phasers to standard settings prior to holstering after a fight.
I require it every time. It’s a cost of getting a bonus ability. You can call it ‘extra care’ when using the weapon on a different setting, even if it’s on one setting. I’m tempted to even say that if they don’t use a Minor Action, there’s an automatic Complication.
1 Like
It’s meant to be every time. Mechanically, it is “spend bonus action to get one of these bonuses on your next attack”, and means no tracking of when a character set to a particular option or how long it’s been that way.
2 Likes