WotC Star Wars: Your thoughts?

ERRATA: I have to retract my earlier statement about the Fringer class. It purposefully written that they don't necessarily start out with formal repair training like other classes do. Instead they get the bonus to Repair checks when jury-rigging. However, they have the capacity to take Repair as one of their class skills with their Adaptive Learning class ability.

You're right that it's odd that Scoundrels don't have Sense Motive.

Other oddities:

*Jedi don't have Pilot as a class skill, but there are some astounding Jedi Pilots (Vader & Luke especially, Jaina Solo to a lesser degree)

*Jacen Solo is listed as a Jedi Guardian, when in EU he's a Consular if ever there was one

*Vader, the most whoop-arse character in the galaxy, has no ranks in Battlemind

*Luke, who spent 20+ years scouring the galaxy for info about the Old Republic Jedi, has no ranks in Knowledge(Jedi Lore)

I've also noted an oddity with the feat path of Jedi characters that I'm checking out with WotC directly.

On a positive note, here's a bit of power-gaming for you: On the way to becoming a Starfighter Ace, take up a few levels as a Noble. Use the Inspire & Command abilities to give your wingmen a bonus. The Inspire ability allows you to inspire a bonus for 10 minutes per round that you're able to speak inspirationally. In other words, if you take 1 round to give a pep-talk at the beginning of a vape-brawl, your wingmen have a bonus to all their to-hit rolls & skill checks for ONE HUNDRED rounds. The Command ability is a little harder to pull off because it's a Charisma check instead of a Diplomacy check.

 

"Another thing is that Yoda Maxed out level-wise in EPI. It should be interesting to see them fix that."

Well, there's not much to indicate that Master Yoda has "adventured" much since EpI, or even before...

The oddity I noticed about the feat path of Jedi is that you have to "hold" feats for later levels in order to take advantage of the Knight & Master bonus feats, and also the requirements are kinda squirrely. I stumbled across it when I tried creating a Jedi Guardian working from 1st to 20th level; in other words, making a 1st lvl character & mapping out feats, stats, VP, & skill points all the way out to 20th level. I confirmed it again, when I mapped Obi-Wan from 1st level to 15th level (how he appears in ANH)

At 6th lvl, his feats are Alter, Burst of Speed, Control, Deflect Blasters, Exotic Weapon (lightsaber), Quick Draw, Sense, Weapon Finesse (lightsaber) & Weapon Prof (simple & blaster pistols)

At 15th lvl, he also has Iron Will, Knight Defense, Lightsaber Defense, Low Profile, & Master Defense

Here goes: Obi-Wan starts out as a 1st lvl JG. That entitles him to 2 feats (1 for ist lvl, 1 for Human) plus Control, & Weapon Prof (simple & blaster pistols) as bonus feats. We'll say he takes Quick Draw as his starting feat, and in order to match up to later stats, he has to hold his bonus feat. Why? Because of prerequisites.

At 2nd lvl, he gains Exotic Weapon (lightsaber) and can now use his bonus feat from 1st lvl on Weapon Finesse. He couldn't take the feat before now, because you can't take finesse in a weapon you're not proficient with.

At 3rd lvl, he gains Sense as a bonus feat, and gains a new feat for being 3rd level. The logical next step for a Padawan learning to use his lightsaber would be to learn Deflect Blaster, but he can't because you have to be 4th lvl in order to learn it. He takes Burst of Speed instead, the only feat that he qualifies for. Alternately, he could hold this feat until 4th level. He also gains Alter as a bonus feat at 4th level.

At 6th lvl, he gains a bonus feat. He FINALLY learns how to Deflect Blasters, or takes Burst of Speed if he held his 3rd level feat until 4th level.

After being victorious against a Sith Lord, Obi-Wan is granted the rank of Jedi Knight and begins training young Anakin. He also gains a bonus Knight feat. Unfortunately, he doesn't meet the prerequisites for ANY of them.

At 9th lvl, he gains another feat. He takes Lightsaber Defense, and finally qualifies for Knight Defense, the Knight feat he's been sitting on for two levels.

At 12th level, he takes Iron Will as a feat, and Master Defense as his bonus Master feat at 13th level.

At 15th level, he takes Low Profile and becomes a hermit in the wastes of Tatooine, not adventuring for another 20 years.

My solution to this glitch?

A) Give Jedi a "menu" of bonus feats like the Soldier. I'd also add Weapon Finesse, Burst of Speed, Deflect Blasters, and the Knight & Master prerequisites to that menu. I'd also...

B) Eliminate the level requirement for Deflect Blasters, retaining the +3 base attack requirement.

Or

C) Give Jedi a bonus feat at 4th level, combined with solution A.

Your thoughts?

 

Here's the response from Wizards:
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The solution isn't in the core mechanics. A couple of the core book characters were built without going on a level by level basis and occasionally mistakes were made. There is no specific plans to errata them
at this time, but different versions of them may appear in future products. If you want a hard core consistance in your home campaign, you can, of course, change them to suit your needs (and the rules).
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That having been said, I'm inclined to go with solution C. The Jedi gain bonus feats at 4th, 7th, & 13th level. The "menu" to choose from would be: Burst of Speed, Deflect Blasters, Force Mastery, High Force Mastery, Knight Defense, Knight Mind, Knight Speed, Lightsaber Defense, Master Defense, Master Mind, Master Speed, Skill Focus (Force skills only) Weapon Finesse (lightsaber) and Weapon Focus (lightsaber). The character must meet all prerequisites for any feat he/she wishes to take.

I've decided to keep Deflect Blasters as it is, because it's a hellacious feat. I confirmed with WotC that a Jedi can deflect ANY NUMBER of incoming shots, so long as they make the Reflex save for each; even if two or more characters are flanking the Jedi and they hold their actions to fire simultaneously!

Your thoughts?