[StarWars SAGA] cutting with Lightsaber question

[Pendragonx]

So.. I did a brief search but found no topic discussing this, so I figured I'd make a topic.

I'm currently DMing a campaign and have a player with a lvl 4 Jedi PC who has had on numerous occasions, tried cutting down doors, transparisteel, etc ..but only with limited success.. to me this seems somewhat odd as it seemed that Jedi were cutting things apart quite easily in the films ... how would you explain a Jedi who rolls and hits an object, yet (even with bypassing item DR) doesn't cut the substance?

(for example, transparisteel at 2cm thick is 10 hp I believe.. the damage range of my player's Jedi, can range from a low 4 to a high of 18 ..that's a lot of chances to not do enough damage)

[Mad Wizard]

Well, for one thing, not dealing enough damage to immediately destroy it doesn't mean he didn't hurt it. Dealing 5 damage to a 10 hp item means you are about halfway through it, and another cut will take it down. Also, in the movies, it can take them a while to cut down a particularly thick item (episode 1).

[Pendragonx]

yea i suppose.. i'm just thinking.. 2cm of transparisteel .. seems like it should be easier for a lightsaber to cut ..also, Luke appeared to easily take out a section of armor on the AT-AT.. though i suppose in RPG terms he may have just done max-damage

[Attilargh]

I'm fairly sure he struck a hatch there. But yes, even lightsabers have trouble with dense stuff like transparisteel.

[Kiero]

Here's a novel idea: don't roll for damage when it really doesn't matter. If he's not time-pressured and it's the difference between everyone waiting around for two rolls instead of one, how about you just handwave it?

[Logic]

I would say there is a difference between an attack roll vs an object, like you would have to do for a weapon unlike a lightsaber, and how Qui-Gon used it to attempt to cut down that door.

If you really need to know, find how much damage a lightsaber can do just being held to an object for 6 seconds.

[goat]

I think that's the difference. An attack roll is likely to be a strike, a swift slice or a thrust, rather than a continuous cutting motion that would be used against an inanimate object.

I'd say that as he can do more than 10HP's worth of damage to the transparisteel in a normal attack, cutting a hole out of it to pass through shouldn't take much more than a round.

If you want to slow him down a bit, a round to cut the material, a move action to then kick the cut section out could work.