Lit Beyond the big two: lesser Force traditions in the GFFA

Wasn't there also a Gungan Witch Doctor in one of the TCW Episodes?

 

Probably.

 

That would be Rish Loo.

 

So not a force user but he got given that amulet thing?

 

Maybe it's like Tales of the Jedi's Sith amulets - enhances power of someone who already has it.

 

Rish Loo. Hilarious.

 

It could also "just" be a focus for the Force user to concentrate his power thought

 

So until now the Force traditions I have gone trough from Wizard of the Coast’s have actually been more of templates/archetypes for the player and game master to create their own traditions then real traditions, this changes now when I will begun to discuss the gand findsmen.
Light the gand signal! Summon Findswoman and TrakNar !

I understand there are some other templates/archetypes in Power of the Jedi Sourcebook and the Dark Side Sourcebook but I don’t have those books so I will wait to do those classes until I can get my hands on the books.

To my understanding the findsman tradition is one of the oldest EU created Force traditions that to my was first mentioned in Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back (can somebody back me up on this?) but I lack that book so I can not compare how it is presented there with its later presentation.

Since the findsmen is a gand tradition will I also quote and comment what the UAA have to say about the gand. With that said lets begin:

You know it would have been nice if UAA hade removed some of the rather unplayable species – like the charon, ssi-ruu, bartok and yevetha* – and used the space for ‘how to play a [specie]’ tips.

* maybe published them in a web enhancement.

The Findsman has some class features that represented Force powers/technique: Target Bonus, Swirling Mists, Free Farseeing, Sneak Attack and Locate Target.
Target Bonus/Level 1: “The findsman uses meditation techniques to become uncannily familiar with his target.”
Swirling Mists/Level 2: “Much of the Gand homeworld is shrouded in mist. Findsman visualize the mist to “center” themselves before embarking on hunts. […] the findsman can use this or some other visualization technique to gain a bonus on certain skill.
The Findsman spends 10 minutes visualizing whatever serene environment he finds most relaxing. He loses his perception of everything around him, as if entering a different reality, and is treated as helpless. Once he’s successfully navigated the mists (or other environment), he “emerges” with special clarity.”
Free Farseeing/Level 2: “the Findsman can see far away places, as well as past and possible future events.”
Sneak Attack/Level 3: “a Findsman can strike a vital spot of an off-guard or unaware opponent for extra damage.”
Locate Target/Level 8: “the Findsman can use the Force to sense when his target (the recipient of the Findsman’s target bonus) is near."

Also, as presented in UAA the findsmen have no tradition of using the Force to manipulate the world around them or their bodies but can study how it “binds us and guides us” a.k.a. the Sense feat and the skills that depend on it.

The findsman prestige class was illustrated by Doug Alexander Gregory with an unnamed gand.


Thoughts
Since so much about the findsmen comes from their homeplanet would it have been nice if they had given a longer description of it, the same goes for gand and findsmen culture overall since it would help all the GM:s who’s players want to play a findsmen and have to visit Gand and go through all the initiation rituals. Also one of the pre-requirements for being able to chose this class is the astrogate skill and I find that a bit strange, why would you need to astrogate to become a findsman?

I would have preferred if they hade done the findsman tradition like they did the new Force traditions in Hero’s Guide with a longer presentation followed by [Tradition] Philosophy, Force Tradition, Force Powers and Force Tradition Feats - were they give some feats that are associated with that tradition. That give the players and GM so much more to work with. A short presentation of some of the more interesting findsmen sects would also been nice

So how do people think of the way WotC presented the findsmen or any other thoughts or comments?

 

True, but that is what you have pilot sidekicks for and I don't see a need for astrogation if you are a gand who don't plan to leave Gand or what ever planet you/the mist have decided is your hunting ground.

I was suprised by it also.

That is true and then there is that many species probably need some special equipment to just survive the daily life on Gand.

I am all for it

 

True but it just feel strange, or stupid, that they put astrogation as a pre-requirement to chose the findsman class.

 

It is a flavour thing mostly; I just find it stupid that my gand PC is planning to join the ancient <It-was-nothing-really> findsmen sect and have trained myself in hunting, path finding and reading the mist and as I ready myself for their accepters of my worthless application they tell me to comeback later after I know how to navigate a starship. I mean why? Can I not just buy a astrogate droid for that?

 

The kilian rangers were probobly the first of WotC's lesser Force-traditions that I read about, I actually read it before I read the description of the Force adept class.

Also in one of the adventure suggestions informs us that some or all (it don’t tell) of the lords have serfs. So we know that there exist serfs, free men (divided in burgers and farmers/herders) and lords.
[…]

Also the RES give us two kilian NPC:s, kilian ranger Varen Kol (Noble 1/Force adept 7) and dark ranger Zandarun Toril (Force adept 8) who are equipped with siang lance, marker ring and shield gauntlet respective marker ring, shield gauntlet, longsword, bow and arrows.


Thoughts
Regarding Kilia and the kilians so would I liked to have a bit more information on, or at least a picture of, their valley. After all “lush valley between two mountain rangers” can mean so much, do we mean “lush Alp valley”, “lush Semien valley”, “lush Indian valley”, “lush Arabian valley”, “lush Ural valley” or some other kind of lush valley?
It would also been nice if they hade given a bit more information on the kilian society and technological level. Just saying that they “have iron tools and oil lanterns” is not that helpful since it can mean anything between pre-colonisation savannah Africa to pre-industry Holland to Ming-dynasty China to high republican Rom. They also don’t really give a clue what kind of “higher technology” noble houses have access to just that they lack “speeders, starships, and vibro weapons”. For all we know they could be trading insults along the semaphore line while enjoying punched card programmed clockwork puppet theatre and food prepared on a gas stow.

When it comes to technological artefacts so do I find the marker ring a fun piece of curiosa that make the Kilian culture a bit different from other colonies-turned-feudal-societies but I do wonder what the use for the transmitter and receiver in the ring originally was and when they decided to put them in to rings and use them for members of the same house to recognize each other.
Regarding the siang lances I guess that that the lances is actually more of a carbine then a rifle since it is used one handed
And I have to say that I find it impressive that the shield gauntlet technology is still working since, to my understanding, personal force field technology is a bit more advanced – a.k.a. harder to repair – then blaster tech or a transmitter (that don’t meet the same kind of stress). I would also want to know what the shield gauntlet was originally and why we don’t see something like it in the modern era. Also I call bantha podoo on that it is impossible to both wield a lightsabre and a shield gauntlet simultaneously since we have seen jedi/sith with the right training running around with two lightsabres without any real problems.

I like the concept of the kilian rangers, they are more or less a knightly order with Force training but who uses ancient, modified blasters instead of swords and/or spear, but I would have liked to find out more about their jurisdiction, their Force philosophy, how they use the Force and what Force skills they know.
Also I find that the amount of rangers is a bit low, I mean three full rangers and two squires to protect all of civilized Kilia - also what kind of training program do they have if there exist two dark rangers for every third full ranger? I guess that it is the authors’ way to show that only a handful of kilians have the Force sensitivity needed to be a Force adept/kilian ranger. Personally I think that around ten to twenty full rangers with around two thirds of them having squires would make it a bit easier to “defend the noble houses and protect the common people” and also make it a bit more justifiable for a kilian ranger PC to leave Kilia for the stars with the other PC:s since you are not taking away one fifth of the rangers. We can (somewhat) justify the relative high amount of Force users by saying that most of them lack the talent to go beyond a certain level, I suggest around 4th to 7th, and instead multiclass with soldier and/or noble. That is probably still a bit high amount of Force sensitives but makes it a bit more believable since most of them will not even be at Tionnes level of Force skill.

Some more comments:
It would have been nice if the kilians were not humans since more or less every colonised world we see have humans as the colonisers.

I find it interesting that neither of Kol or Toril (the kilian NPC:s) have any armour, if the siang lance was more common I could understand it since the leather or metal armour they can create are worthless against blaster bolts but since it is more likely that they face muscle powered weapons I don’t get it. Maybe it is cultural thing or the game designers just did not think.

Also the kilian ranger was illustrated with an image by Adi Granov

Lets just ignore that that the gun the ranger wield lack the long bayonet and look more like a gun then a rifle or even a carbine, that is just part of the long tradition of SW art looking little like the description. With that ignored I want to say that it is a cool image and I highly dislike it as an image of a kilian ranger. the reason for my dislike is that the ranger don’t look like somebody that live in a renascence-and-backward level society, instead he look like somebody that can share a table with Han Solo and Dash Render and not stand out one bit. If your minimal-contact-with-the-rest-of-the-galaxy looks like a spacer you are doing something wrong!

 

I have, through illegal means, got my hands on Star Wars: Gamer 4 inwhich the shaman archetype (a combination of two classes with a different concept). So lets take a look at the shaman:

Shamans have some Class features that represented Force powers: Force Weapon; Comprehend Speech and Force Talisman
Force Weapon/Level 7: the shaman imbue a nonpowered melee weapon with the Force, which for a short time increase the damage and make it possible to parry a lightsabre. I don’t understand why you cannot use it on a powered melee weapon; do anybody know?
Comprehend Speech/Level 11: gives the shaman the ability to comprehend any spoken language, if not speak it.
Force Talisman/Level 12: the adept imbue an item of personal significance with the Force. Once imbued the new talisman gives a bonus when the adept try to defend against Force tricks or attacks.

Also since the shaman is built from a combination of Force adept andfringer so are bonuses on jury-rigging and survival among its class features but it is possible for the player to replace both those different bonuses for a equivalent bonus in healing arts to become a masterful healer or to replace the jury-rig bonus with a second bonus in survival.

The shaman archetype was illustrated with an unnamed ithorian by Ramón Pérez

thanks to Gorefiend for the image

Thoughts
I find the shaman archetype misnamed, to me the way the spirit adept archetype is presented is more fitting for the title shaman while the shaman itself feels more like it should be called medicine-man.

I have come to rather highly dislike the order in which the Force adept’s class features comes, after all why do all those different kinds of Force tradition that the ‘adept represent have Force Weapon as their first non-standard Force power? While we are at it why could they not make Force weapon a normal feat that any Force user could by if they had what was prerequisite, so those gamers who want to play a pacifistic ecological priests of Ithor don’t just get a power that don’t fit their concept.

As earlier I miss a small list of examples of traditions as inspirations for the player and GM for how they could play a shaman. Or at least some name dropping, I suggest: dathomirian witch doctors; the medicine-men of the jawa tribes; themidewiwin society on Ossus; tsahìk healers and the sangomas from lower Metellos

Any thoughts or comments?

 

I forgot to ad that the shaman first receive the jury-rig bonus at Level 9 and the survival bonus at Level 13

 

I think, that game mechanics should stay away from theology/spirituality.


@Arwen_Fenn: Rish Loo? Try Dya Rhia.

 

That's why I have tried to fully ignored game mechanics. I only posted the levels to show how deep in the training you are supposed to learn certain techniques.

 

Class Feats
Spider Walk/Level 2: using the Force the witch can climb like Spider-Man across vertical, angled and even horizontal surfaces. Unlike the mystic agents wallwalk feat so must the witch’s hands and feet be bare.
Summon Storm/Level 4: as the name suggest, changing the weather to the worst: rain, winds, lightning and all that. The witch have no real control over the weather beside summoning it.*
Enshroud/Level 6: “the witch can summon darkness about herself.” This fully conceal her and obscures the area, and the people on it, around her.
Force Flight/Level 7: “the witch learns to float or fly by manipulating the Force.”

* Summon Storm is actually a standard Force feat that theoretically any Force user can learn.

The dark Force witch prestige class was illustrated with an unnamed human/human-like woman by Doug Alexander Gregory

this was the best pic I could find, ignore the fabric to the right, it's in the picture because I found it in a cosplay thread

Thoughts
It seems to me that the dark Force witch was created for any player who wanted to be a nighsister, or something similar, and thought they deserved their own prestige class.

I don’t really see how the dark Force witch prestige class really ad something to the RPG since you could just as easy used the dark side devotee to represent a nightsister. They could just have made a sidebar with variation suggestions and there put nightsister, add and subtracted some feats and numbers and write that a nightsister only begin with the Weapon Group Proficiency (simple weapons) feat.

 

I always wondered what she is holding in her hand.

 

Maybe a scroll case?

 

Yeah that or maybe some kind of talisman.

 

The Dark Side Sourcebook don’t give the Sorcerers of Tund any unique feats or feats that are associated with them, the NPC we are given as an example of a Sorcerers of Tund, Rokur Gepto, was a 12 level Force adept.

Thoughts
First of: if I understood it right so did the Sorcerers of Tund have powers/skills “at least as great” as the jedi and I find that a bit… I think the word I am looking for is unfair. After all the jedi have spend thousands of years travelling the known galaxy, meeting uncountable cultures, studying the Force in many different forms and ways, etc. and the we have the Sorcerers who stay in monastic enclaves on their homeworld and still are able to master the Force to more-or-less the same level. I guess that life is just not fair.
I also find it a bit strange that neither side seems to think that they can learn something from the other.

Now, from a GM or player point of view I find the description of the Sorcerers lacking in more-or-less anything that can be used to play them. There is nothing about how they use the Force or their philosophy, except that they treated the Force as magic, or their organisation, daily life or overall way of thinking.

Also since the Sorcerers are presented as a neutral Force tradition so it does feel a bit wrong that it is in DSS. Do anybody know why it was there beside Rokur Gepto being a not-nice guy?

 

"Rish Loo, I am at your secret laboratory. Meet me here and leave enough of a trail for Skywalker to follow you. I have a surprise waiting for him."