Imperial-class Star Destroyer
Imperial Capital WarshipGM · Enemy ShipThreat 20The Imperial flagship. 1,600 meters of turbolaser-bristling capital warship. The campaign-defining encounter.
- Size
- Huge
- Length
- 1600 m
- Speed
- Slow
- Reference price
- 150,000,000 cr
Lore
The Imperial-class Star Destroyer is the iconic capital warship of the Galactic Empire — a 1,600-meter Kuat Drive Yards dagger-shaped vessel that defines Imperial naval power. Every major Imperial fleet engagement features at least one ISD as the centerpiece; the Empire built thousands across its peak. Star Destroyer Devastator is the canonical example, the ship from the opening shot of A New Hope.
An ISD's combat profile is built around overwhelming firepower at long range, a TIE fighter wing for short-range work, and a stormtrooper garrison for boarding actions. Sixty heavy turbolasers and sixty ion cannons concentrate enough firepower to crack any Rebel capital ship in equivalent weight class; the 72-TIE wing handles fighter screens; the 9,700-personnel garrison handles boarding and ground deployment. Engaging an ISD without comparable capital support is suicide for any player crew.
For GMs, an ISD is the campaign-defining set piece — not a routine encounter, but a backdrop for major story beats. Players smuggling past a blockade have to deal with an ISD's sensor range and TIE-wing patrols; players in a Rebel fleet engagement watch their corvettes fight an ISD broadside; players defecting Imperial officers might escape from the ISD in a TIE/sf. The ship itself is rarely destroyed by player action; defeating an ISD usually involves clever angles (hidden engineering vulnerabilities, fleet support, ground-side Rebel ops) rather than direct ship-to-ship combat.
Default Loadout
| Weapon | Mount | Attr | Range | Acc | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Forward Turbolaser Batteries | fixed | DEX | Long | +4 | 10d10 energy |
| Octuple Turbolaser Cannon Battery | turret | DEX | Long | +4 | 8d10 energy |
| Octuple Turbolaser Cannon Battery | turret | DEX | Long | +4 | 8d10 energy |
| Quad Turbolaser Battery | turret | DEX | Long | +4 | 8d10 energy |
| Quad Turbolaser Battery | turret | DEX | Long | +4 | 8d10 energy |
| Heavy Ion Cannon Battery | turret | DEX | Long | +3 | 6d10 ion |
| Heavy Ion Cannon Battery | turret | DEX | Long | +3 | 6d10 ion |
| Tractor Beam Projector | turret | INT | Long | +5 | — |
| Tractor Beam Projector | turret | INT | Long | +5 | — |
| Concussion Missile Battery | missile bay | INT | Long | +3 | 6d10 explosive |
| Proton Torpedo Battery | missile bay | INT | Long | +3 | 8d10 explosive |
Reference loadout for a stock chassis. Players swap, add, or customize weapons in the Starship Builder, subject to hardpoint caps and GM approval.
Special Conditions
Capital-Grade Hull (Tier 2)
Starfighter weapons that lack proton torpedoes or capital-rated ordnance suffer Disadvantage on damage rolls. Light capital weapons (CR-90 turbolasers, Nebulon-B turbolasers) suffer Disadvantage on damage rolls. Only true heavy-capital ordnance (Mon Calamari MC80 turbolasers, Y-wing proton torpedoes in concentrated strikes, etc.) damages the ISD at full effect.
Tie Wing — 72 Fighters
An Imperial-class Star Destroyer's hangar carries 72 TIE-family fighters (typical loadout: 48 TIE/ln, 12 TIE Interceptor, 12 TIE/sa bomber). All 72 deploy from the main hangar in waves of 6-12 over multiple combat rounds. Destruction of the Star Destroyer does NOT immediately destroy launched TIEs, but they lose carrier hyperdrive support and must seek refuge.
Stormtrooper Garrison
An Imperial-class Star Destroyer carries 9,700 stormtroopers, fighter pilots, naval crew, and support personnel. Boarding actions are not a viable player tactic against an unboarded Star Destroyer; the garrison would overwhelm any boarding party.
GM · Tactical Notes
Don't fight an ISD directly. The ship is a campaign-scale obstacle, not an encounter ship. Use the ISD's capabilities to drive narrative pressure: tractor beam locks player ships, TIE wings deploy in waves of 6-12, turbolaser broadsides cripple capital allies, ion cannons disable hyperdrive. Player victories against ISDs in canon (Death Star Battle, Battle of Endor, Death of the Executor at Endor) involve massive Rebel fleet engagements with multiple capital ships supporting fighter strikes. Treat an ISD as the immovable threat that drives players to find creative non-direct solutions.
GM · Adventure Hooks
- A Star Destroyer is blockading the players' home planet. They need to break out — not by fighting the ISD, but by slipping past its sensors during a planned distraction.
- A defecting Imperial fleet officer is aboard a Star Destroyer with critical intelligence. Players smuggled into the ship's lower decks via cargo manifest must extract the officer before the ISD jumps to Coruscant.
- A pirate group claims to have salvaged a derelict Imperial Star Destroyer in the Inner Rim. Players hired to verify the claim — the wreck is real, partly intact, and Imperial salvage teams are inbound.
How to use this chassis
This is a GM-side stat block — an NPC ship for the GM to fly against the player crew. Use it as-is for a quick encounter, or fold it into a larger fleet engagement alongside other entries from the enemy ship catalog (filter to "Enemy / GM" on the catalog grid). For combat resolution, see the Starship Combat rules page. Enemy ships do not appear in the Starship Builder.
Similar Enemy Ships
More combat craft-category ships in the catalog.