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Today’s post is brought to you by a discussion I had with Scott Alden a few weeks ago. He was looking for death trooper stats, from Rogue One and Rebels – not the now-Legends book, and said he could’ve sworn I had done them but could not find them on D20 Radio. I thought that fellow writer and Star Wars stat block bro Ben Erickson had covered these guys, but was mistaken. Somehow, we had missed the opportunity to produce NPC stats for Disney canon’s love letter to stormtroopers. This post aims to finally take advantage of this opportunity, so garble your vocoders and prep your grenades, because it is time to unleash the death troopers.
Death Trooper [Rival]
Arguably the most elite of all stormtroopers, death troopers served primarily as bodyguards under the direct command of high ranking imperial personnel. These troopers were a rare sight, assigned only to the most influential commanders such as the squads employed by Grand Admiral Thrawn and Director Krennic. Death troopers were selected from the top percentile of the stormtrooper corps, recruiting only those troopers who met extreme physical requirements and perfect ideological compatibility. Rigorous training and classified surgical augmentation produced elite soldiers specialized in close protection and direct action missions. This physical perfection was combined with upgraded armor and weapon systems, providing death troopers with enhanced survivability and firepower. Unlike their lesser brethren, the death troopers were experts in small unit tactics. They made extensive use of cover, fire and movement, and mutual support among teams of two. While a single death trooper made for a challenging opponent, a team of two or more was a highly dangerous threat. Death troopers would thus deploy in either teams of two or a squad made of three or four teams (six to eight troopers). After the loss of Director Krennic’s entire squad on Scarif, it was unknown if any death troopers remained in service. Other black armored stormtrooper specialists would come and go into service, but few would be considered as deadly as the death troopers.
Br 4 Ag 4, Int 2, Cun 3, WP 4, Pres 2
Soak 6, W. Threshold 20, M/R Def 0/0
Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Cool 2, Discipline 4, Gunnery 3, Melee 2, Ranged [Heavy] 3, Ranged [Light] 3, Perception 2, Resilience 3, Stealth 2, Vigilance 2
Talents: Adversary 1 (Upgrade the difficulty of any combat check targeting
this character once.), Barrage 1 (Add one damage per rank of Barrage to one hit of successful
Ranged [Heavy] or Gunnery attacks with nonstarship / vehicle weapons at long or extreme range.), Body Guard (Once per round on the character’s turn, the character may perform a Body Guard maneuver to protect one ally with whom he is engaged. He then suffers a number of strain no greater than his ranks in Body Guard. Until the start of the character’s next turn, upgrade the difficulty of all combat checks targeting the protected ally a number of times equal to the strain suffered by the character.), Point Blank 1 (Add one damage per rank of Point Blank to one hit of successful Ranged [Heavy] or [Light] attacks at short or engaged range), Quickdraw (Once per round on the character’s turn, may draw or holster an easily accessible weapon or item as an incidental, not a maneuver.) Strong Arm (Treat thrown weapons as if they had one step greater range, up to a maximum of Medium range.)
Abilities: New Order Zealot (Death troopers are selected just as much for their ideological purity as their physical excellence. Any attempt to intimidate or bribe a death trooper has its base difficulty set as Formidable [5 Purple].), Small Team Tactics (Death troopers are experts in small unit tactics and have drilled to act in complete unison. If within medium range of at least one other death trooper, add a Boost Die to Perception, Vigilance, and ranged combat checks.)
Equipment: E-11D Blaster Rifle (Ranged [Heavy]; Damage 10; Critical 3; Range [Long]; Accurate 1, Stun setting) or DLT-19 Heavy Blaster Rifle (Ranged [Heavy]; Damage 10; Critical 3; Range [Long]; Autofire, Cumbersome 3), SE-14c light repeating blaster (Ranged [Light]; Damage 6; Critical 3; Autofire, Stun setting), two heavy fragmentation grenades (Ranged [Light]; Damage 9; Critical 4; Range [Short]; Blast 7, Cumbersome 2, Limited Ammo 1), death trooper armor (+2 soak, reflec coating [upgrade stealth checks once, sensors cannot detect the wearer subject to GM discretion], enhanced optics suite, encrypted comms), utility belt and load bearing vest, extra reloads.
Christopher Hunt
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Quick clarification question – are these guys meant to be run as Rivals or Nemeses? They’re listed as a Rival up top, but they have a Strain Threshold in their stat block.
Should be Rival. Forgot to prune the Strain Threshold from the block. Thanks for catching the mistake!
Very nice! I’ll need to drop these stats into the module I’m writing. I made up some other sorts of elite troopers I think when we couldn’t find some stats 🙂