One other thing I thought of. The later lightsabers as written are crazy overpowered compared to all the other weapons. The master lightsaber deals 15 damage on average compared to 7 average for the highest average weapon in the PHB. It definitely needs to keep the feats to unlock them and have proficiency. The lightsaber should also be very dangerous to those without the required feat such as dangerous to self and others on fumbles or roll an attack roll against yourself with each attack or something. The first feat should maybe also give parry as reaction while wielding a lightsaber.
D&D 5E Star Wars Jedi - D&D 5e Character Build
Ahrimon
Bourbon and Dice
Have you thought about replacing the lightsaber, a troublesome balance issue, with the ability to energize weapons with elements? That opens up a realm of possibilities for character options. Combined with some liberal borrowing of the warlocks' pact weapon and you'd pretty much have a lightsaber built for DnD.
Ahrimon, my aging brain is starting to think your idea has a certain brilliance. A pact with a D&D equivalent of the Force?
The Ancient One as a parallel to the corrupting influence of the dark side immediately comes to mind.
Neither the Archfey nor the Fiend fits the bill for the light side, which would require creating a new patron. Your reference to using elemental forces appears to be pointing more to a sorcerous origin.
I've got to ponder this some more.
The Ancient One as a parallel to the corrupting influence of the dark side immediately comes to mind.
Neither the Archfey nor the Fiend fits the bill for the light side, which would require creating a new patron. Your reference to using elemental forces appears to be pointing more to a sorcerous origin.
I've got to ponder this some more.
Hmmm, in the Star Wars universe the Force is a constant presence throughout the universe, especially among living creatures. This got me thinking that maybe The Old Faith (ie druidic worship of life) could have deity-like (if not deities themselves) spirits of nature which could be pacted with to get a D&D equivalent of the 'force', with your character having access to every power, but the path chosen giving you more (or better) powers of a certain type. For example, some could grant mastery over lightning (force lightning), some could grant the ability to influence the minds of others (Jedi mind tricks), and some could let you use the power of the wind to manipulate your environment (Force jump, dash, push, pull, etc.). Maybe even one that lets you manipulate the Force in yourself and others, giving it to others to heal and revitalize them, or taking it from your enemies to deal damage.
Or, as Redthistle suggested, make it similar to a sorcerous origin, where you choose one of the nature spirits you have a particular affinity to. That seems to fit the Star Wars universe more where Jedi are born being able to detect the Force, and training only helps them control them better.
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Maybe I am misunderstanding the direction everyone is going here, but if the force is a warlock or sorcerous origin, what do you do with all the other magic using classes in D&D?
It seems to me that a better analog to the force would be the D&D weave of magic. That leaves all of the classes playable as is with regard to force users. Warlocks could still have their patron. It could be a voice they hear calling to them through the force, etc., and a Sorcerer could be a force user who is naturally adept. Keeping all of the classes lets force users play stereotypical Jedi knights as eldritch knights, Paladins or Rangers. Or they could choose a wizard class but take the lightsaber feat to still get a lightsaber. The sorcerer and warlock could still find it easier to access their force powers while the other classes had to spend time studying to learn how to access it.
In the end, it is almost all flavor anyway. I took a look through Dawn of Defiance, an adventure path that WotC released for free back when they had the star wars license. I came away after reading the first chapter thinking, "This would totally work in 5e." Add lightsabers and the appropriate feats. Reskin the equipment chapter: ranged weapons become blasters, melee weapons become vibroswords and the like (and force pikes), and armor becomes various levels of body armor. The most difficult part of adapting Star Wars to 5e is in figuring out which entries in the MM fit best with the Star Wars monsters that you are looking for. Lots of them would be non force-sensitive NPCs. The greatest potential weakness that I see at this point would be space flight. Hopefully some entry in the DMG gives an indication of how that would easily be covered.
In the end, the downside of a "simple" conversion approach is that the adventuring party is skewed towards lots of force users of one type or another and the flavor would be slightly different than "pure" Star Wars (like a Jedi with a cortosis weave shield), but it would be easy to do and make Star Wars work as a 5e campaign setting.
But I could totally see a paladin style Jedi Knight.
First, a nod of acknowledgement to Cernor's and Tormyr's preceding thoughts. I think we're singing in the same choir.
After re-reading the posts so far, with all of the different ideas put forth, it seems that there are two general schools of thought about this and I'm not always clear if the commentator is thinking playing Star Wars using D&D 5e rules or, as my understanding at the origin of the thread was, that it was about creating a Jedi-like class for the D&D 5e game. Silly me. Still clueless after all these years.
Recognizing that most of the contributors to this thread may be thinking about using the D&D 5e rules to play Star Wars, I think I get it now. Maybe. <ahem>
That said, a lot of the ideas overlap.
My notion of learning to use the Force skillfully, aside from the need for a sufficient midichlorian count and however that may be translated to a D&D group, is that it requires a combination of lots and lots of verbal and somatic instruction and practice, along with many hours of meditation. Michael Long's choice of monk as a base requirement for a Jedi fits that to a T.
The wizard class, however, gains its magical skills through reading, and must re-read spells daily in order to use that magic (discounting cantrips). For that reason /only/, wizard seems the wrong skin to wrap a Jedi's "magic" in. To me, the feel of sorcerous magic as described in D&D 5e is closest to the fundamental feel of the Force in Star Wars.
My conclusion: It doesn't matter which magic-using class a gaming group uses; we're re-skinning this beastie to suit our desires, tweaking the D&D 5e rules to fit.
Michael Long based his original example using the human variant build; I assume that was specifically to get a feat at 1st level that other races do not receive in order to get the lowest lightsaber feat. Since some players will want to be playing a Jedi of a different race, should that feat be attached to the class, rather than to race? That way, every PC Jedi would have access to it during the character building phase.
That also means that for a human Jedi, depending on whether it is built using the base or the variant build, the PC might start at 1st character level / 1st Jedi class level with 2 feats. Does that unbalance the low-level Jedi PC enough to be over-powered compared to other classes? Should a 1st level feat be granted to all races or classes? [Mind you, the rareness of feats in 5e is one of my few complaints with that edition of the game, so that may just be me whining.]
Picking up on the considerations Cernor and Tormyr expressed above, there have been many suggestions as to using class paths other than Long's introductory proposal, which used the fighter's martial archetypes. Each one of these makes some sense.
If we think in terms of the many races available to play in either D&D or Star Wars and the many different cultures and philosophies that implies, I can see that players in any given group might choose any class when they set foot on the Jedi Knight Path.
As long as a player makes a reasonable argument for picking up Cleric 1, for example, at 10th level, to gain access to Domain features and spells, I'd let the player try it. Some tweaking of when they gain features might be necessary on a level-by-level basis, as Michael Long did at Jedi 7. Normally, Ability Score Improvement is gained at Monk 4; Long swapped that out for Lightsaber Feat (Jedi Knight).
To quote Tormyr, "In the end, it is almost all flavor anyway." The crunch is already there.
After re-reading the posts so far, with all of the different ideas put forth, it seems that there are two general schools of thought about this and I'm not always clear if the commentator is thinking playing Star Wars using D&D 5e rules or, as my understanding at the origin of the thread was, that it was about creating a Jedi-like class for the D&D 5e game. Silly me. Still clueless after all these years.
Recognizing that most of the contributors to this thread may be thinking about using the D&D 5e rules to play Star Wars, I think I get it now. Maybe. <ahem>
That said, a lot of the ideas overlap.
My notion of learning to use the Force skillfully, aside from the need for a sufficient midichlorian count and however that may be translated to a D&D group, is that it requires a combination of lots and lots of verbal and somatic instruction and practice, along with many hours of meditation. Michael Long's choice of monk as a base requirement for a Jedi fits that to a T.
The wizard class, however, gains its magical skills through reading, and must re-read spells daily in order to use that magic (discounting cantrips). For that reason /only/, wizard seems the wrong skin to wrap a Jedi's "magic" in. To me, the feel of sorcerous magic as described in D&D 5e is closest to the fundamental feel of the Force in Star Wars.
My conclusion: It doesn't matter which magic-using class a gaming group uses; we're re-skinning this beastie to suit our desires, tweaking the D&D 5e rules to fit.
Michael Long based his original example using the human variant build; I assume that was specifically to get a feat at 1st level that other races do not receive in order to get the lowest lightsaber feat. Since some players will want to be playing a Jedi of a different race, should that feat be attached to the class, rather than to race? That way, every PC Jedi would have access to it during the character building phase.
That also means that for a human Jedi, depending on whether it is built using the base or the variant build, the PC might start at 1st character level / 1st Jedi class level with 2 feats. Does that unbalance the low-level Jedi PC enough to be over-powered compared to other classes? Should a 1st level feat be granted to all races or classes? [Mind you, the rareness of feats in 5e is one of my few complaints with that edition of the game, so that may just be me whining.]
Picking up on the considerations Cernor and Tormyr expressed above, there have been many suggestions as to using class paths other than Long's introductory proposal, which used the fighter's martial archetypes. Each one of these makes some sense.
If we think in terms of the many races available to play in either D&D or Star Wars and the many different cultures and philosophies that implies, I can see that players in any given group might choose any class when they set foot on the Jedi Knight Path.
As long as a player makes a reasonable argument for picking up Cleric 1, for example, at 10th level, to gain access to Domain features and spells, I'd let the player try it. Some tweaking of when they gain features might be necessary on a level-by-level basis, as Michael Long did at Jedi 7. Normally, Ability Score Improvement is gained at Monk 4; Long swapped that out for Lightsaber Feat (Jedi Knight).
To quote Tormyr, "In the end, it is almost all flavor anyway." The crunch is already there.
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I find it somewhat interesting to think of Jedi casting not just witchbolt a la Emporer Palpatine but fireball. 
I think it would also be interesting to have a "cleric" jedi who focused on healing. In the Thrawn trilogy, one of the jedi acadmey students specializes in healing and heals Mon Mothma by pulling poison out of her one molecule at a time over multiple days (if memory serves).
As for jedi having access to the lightsaber feat, I could see it given at start if you are running a short term, low level campaign. I would also find it interesting if you had the option for your character to decide if they were force sensitive or not. If the player decided their character was force sensitive, if they wanted to they could spend their 4th level ability score increase to learn how to use a lightsaber. Or the "Wizard" style Jedi could continue to work solely on their "force" powers and choose an ability score increase instead (another deviation from "standard" jedi lore). Having to work toward that lightsaber for a couple of levels would make it pretty darn important for those who wanted it and finally got it, and the first few levels go by quickly anyway.
I also think that rogues would be more important for all of the computer slicing required. You could fold slicing equipment into thieves tools with an intelligence bonus instead of Dexterity.
I think it would also be interesting to have a "cleric" jedi who focused on healing. In the Thrawn trilogy, one of the jedi acadmey students specializes in healing and heals Mon Mothma by pulling poison out of her one molecule at a time over multiple days (if memory serves).As for jedi having access to the lightsaber feat, I could see it given at start if you are running a short term, low level campaign. I would also find it interesting if you had the option for your character to decide if they were force sensitive or not. If the player decided their character was force sensitive, if they wanted to they could spend their 4th level ability score increase to learn how to use a lightsaber. Or the "Wizard" style Jedi could continue to work solely on their "force" powers and choose an ability score increase instead (another deviation from "standard" jedi lore). Having to work toward that lightsaber for a couple of levels would make it pretty darn important for those who wanted it and finally got it, and the first few levels go by quickly anyway.
I also think that rogues would be more important for all of the computer slicing required. You could fold slicing equipment into thieves tools with an intelligence bonus instead of Dexterity.
Ahrimon
Bourbon and Dice
If anyone is interested, I built a Jedi concept off of the warlock class. I'm not positive on balance though. I tried to keep it with other classes, but there were some things I wasn't sure about. One of the problems that I ran into is that star wars is a much lower power setting than DnD. You don't see anything in star wars like high level casters, so picking the spells was a challenge. I tried to stick with thematically appropriate choices though, lightning, necromantic (sith stuff), mind control, etc. I used the saga book and my experience with the old republic series of games (stand alone and mmo) for inspiration.
Let me know what you think.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1-e4eqKkYzZRV9hakNvcjkxX0k/view?usp=sharing
Let me know what you think.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1-e4eqKkYzZRV9hakNvcjkxX0k/view?usp=sharing
It looks pretty good. The customized force powers seem appropriate.
I do have a question on the 5th level spell Contagion Dream. That appears to be a home-brewed adaptation of the spells Dream and Contagion; do you have a specific description for it?
Ahrimon
Bourbon and Dice
Do'oh! That's an accidental missing comma.
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