Star Wars Universe Roleplaying Game
The Next Generation of Star Wars Tabletop Adventure
The Next Generation of Star Wars Tabletop Adventure
Droids in SWURPG can be fully playable characters — from astromechs and protocol units to security enforcers and assassin models. They don’t play like “organics with a metal skin,” though. Droids are nonliving constructs with different strengths, different weaknesses, and a completely different relationship with healing, hazards, and The Force.
Droids are treated as a species choice during character creation. After selecting a droid subtype, you follow the normal flow: choose a class, assign ability scores, pick skills, and gear up.
➡️ See Droid Species Types & Roles for detailed droid subtypes and role guidance.
Use the rules below as the default baseline for all droid player characters unless a specific droid subtype, class trait, or GM ruling says otherwise. These rules are also useful when designing droid enemies — because a good droid encounter starts with the same assumptions.
As electronic constructs, Droids are vulnerable to Ion weapons. Generally, Ion Damage has the same effects on Droids that Stun Damage has on living beings: system disruption, lockups, temporary shutdowns, and cascading malfunctions.
Droids are nonliving constructs. They are immune to the following unless a specific effect explicitly states it works on droids:
Droids have no connection to The Force. They can’t gain Force Sensitivity, learn Force Powers, or use Force-driven class options that require a Force connection.
They can still be affected by physical Force effects (pushes, pulls, thrown debris), because physics doesn’t care about your operating system.
Droids do not sleep, eat, or breathe. When the party takes downtime, a droid typically enters maintenance cycles: diagnostics, calibration, cooling, and software checks. This is flavor unless the GM uses maintenance as a story hook (damage, degraded parts, memory corruption, etc.).
All droids can speak, read, and process Binary, and also understand one additional language chosen by the designer (usually Basic). Additional languages can be added as upgrades or programming packages.
Droids do not naturally heal and generally cannot benefit from biological healing sources such as Medpacs. They regain lost Hit Points through repairs, most commonly using the Mechanics skill. The DC and HP restored are determined by the GM based on tools, time, and the condition of the droid.
Droids have no CON. Their Hit Points come from their:
HP can be higher for larger models or increased via upgrades (reinforced frames, structural overhauls, redundant actuators, etc.).
Droid durability is engineering. AC and survivability are primarily driven by chassis quality and upgrades:
Droid characters level up like any other character. They gain class traits, proficiency bonuses, and class progression normally. When a class feature assumes biology (sleep, food, breathing), treat it as “not applicable” or reskin it as maintenance or programming, as long as it doesn’t create balance issues.
In general: yes. Droids can take any non-Force class. Social classes can be great for protocol models (or hilarious for assassin frames pretending to be friendly), but droid subtypes should influence roleplay: some models were built to negotiate, others were built to remove negotiation from the universe.
Force-using classes and Force Training are not available to droids by default (see “No Connection to The Force” above).
When you design a droid enemy, don’t start with numbers — start with purpose. Droids are defined by directives.
Typically no. Droids regain HP through repairs (usually Mechanics) rather than biological healing.
Not by default. Droids have no connection to The Force and can’t gain Force Sensitivity or learn Force Powers unless your campaign introduces a very specific exception.
Droids don’t sleep, eat, or breathe. They use maintenance cycles instead of biological rest. Whether they gain the same recovery benefits as organics is campaign-dependent, but repairs are the primary way they recover lost HP.
Want combat-ready droid enemies for your sessions? Head to Battle Droids & Security Units.