Dexterity Skills
Dexterity Skills
Dexterity is a measure of your character's eye-hand coordination and balance. Characters with a high Dexterity are good shots, can dodge blaster bolts, can walk balance beams with ease and even make good pickpockets. Characters with a low Dexterity are clumsy.
Using Ranged Combat Skills
Dexterity has several "ranged combat" skills covering weapons that can be used to attack someone from a distance. These skills all work the same way.
When a character shoots a ranged weapon, the difficulty number is based on the range to the target: the further away a target, the higher the difficulty number.
If your skill roll is equal to or greater than the difficulty number, your attack hits.It's not always that simple, however — the target might dodge (that's a "reaction skill") or might be partially protected by cover.
The "ranged combat" skills include: archaic guns, blaster, blaster artillery, bowcaster, bows, firearms, grenade, missile weapons, thrown weapons and vehicle blasters. (Starship gunnery and capital ship gunnery are also "ranged combat" skills, but they're covered by Mechanical.)
Using Melee Combat Skills
Dexterity has "melee combat" skills which cover any type of hand-to-hand attack. They're melee combat and lightsaber; brawling — a Strength skill — is also a melee combat skill.
Each melee weapon has a different difficulty number. If the character rolls equal to or higher than the difficulty number, the attack hits.
Of course, just like ranged combat skills, it's not always that simple. The target might parry the attack using a "reaction skill" or might be partially protected by cover. This is explained in the chapter on "Combat and Injuries."
Using Reaction Skills
Dexterity covers several "reaction skills," which are used to avoid or block attacks. When your character is attacked and you roll a "reaction skill," the attacker's difficulty number is now whatever you roll.
There are several reaction skills: brawling parry, dodge and melee parry. Lightsaber can also be used to parry attacks. The many vehicle operation and starship piloting skills — they're all under Mechanical— can also be used for "vehicle dodges" to avoid enemy fire.
Full Reaction: A reaction skill can also be used for a "full reaction." The character rolls the reaction skill — brawling parry, dodge, melee parry, parries with a lightsaber, or a vehicle or starship dodge — and adds the roll to the attackers' difficulty numbers. However, a character making a full reaction can't do anything else in the round.