SW Saga House Rules, what are yours?

[Acid_crash]

I'm looking for what people have used for their house rules.

The only two I have right now is that I am limiting the Force Training feat that it can be chosen a maximum of three times, and to keep the balance with other classes, I'm going with the following limitation: Can be selected once between levels 1 through 6, the second time between levels 7 through 12, and the third time between levels 13 and 20. These are also the three tiers in the game (Padawan, Knight, Master).

The other is that when a person multiclasses they have the option of either picking one of the starting feats on the lists or gain a new Skill Training feat from the new class's class skill list.

What have you guys come up with and how has it worked?

 

[NMC]

I use the old means of measuring diagonal movement, with every other square counting as two; I just didn't like that characters could move further if they did it diagonally.

-Nate

 

[ValhallaGH]

Dude, Saga uses taxi-cab distances. You can't move further diagonally, since all diagonals count as two squares.

 

[DerekSTheRed]

My group is playing SWSE because some players didn't want to play 4E and I don't want to DM 3.x anymore. It's a nice compromise but my houserules definitely have a 4E influence.

Homerules:

1. My campaign uses the latest errata (8/2008 as of this writing) found here.
2. Characters use the point buy method for abilities with 28 points instead of 25. Droid PCs start with 24 points instead of 21.
3. Hit points after level one are half the max die value plus 1.
4. The skills Climb, Jump, and Swim are combined into Athletics (Str) and its a class skill for the classes Jedi, Scout, and Soldier.
5. Ride is rolled into Acrobatics (Dex).
6. All starting characters, regardless of level, get max credits for their first level class’ starting credits.
7. The feat Skill Focus (Use The Force) can’t be taken until a character qualifies for a prestige class with a requirement of Use The Force as a trained skill.
8. Movement along the diagonal cost 1 square of movement.
9. Area effects (for instance force slam or grenades) make one damage roll for all opponents but one attack for each target in the area. Attacks that miss against targets with cover do no damage instead of half damage.
10. Critical hits don’t do double damage. Instead the damage is maxed and the character adds an additional amount based on level. Levels 1-7 add 1d6, 8-15 add 2d6, and 15 or higher add 3d6.

I'm also considering houseruling the condition track to prevent the CT sniper build, but I haven't done it yet.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Got a whole 20+ page document of them (currently working on v2.0, which is just about ready to be rolled out). But here's a summary of what's covered (and in no particular order):

- Climb, Jump, and Swim have been rolled into Athletics (had taken this out on the last release, chose to put it back in)
- Diagonal movement has no extra cost (worked just fine for 4e, and makes moving around a battle mat that much easier to figure out for newer players)
- An expansion of the Lightsaber Form powers. It used to be just padding out the talents, but I've got a new system in place that works pretty well and doesn't make the talents potential game-breakers with some of the added stuff they can do.
- Block and Deflect rolled into one talent, Deflect Attacks.
- Redirect Shot can be used more than once per round.
- Several new uses for skills, from Entertaining (Persuasion) to Seduce (Deception) to Tactical Assessment (Knowledge [tactics])
- Treat Injury working a little faster for less downtime spent recovering (a bacta tank won't always be handy when you need it most)
- Human (and Chiss) Bonus Skills can be chosen from any skill, not just the ones on their initial class list
- Ithorian Bellow is spelled out as an area effect (it has all the treats of an area effect just lacks the descriptor)
- Battle Meditation is now a Force power instead of a Jedi class talent
- New Destiny choices, such as Betrayal, Heroic Sacrifice, Romance, and Self-Awareness
- Multiclass characters can choose Skill Training in one of skills of the new class' list instead of the usual medley of starting feats.
- Several new feats and talents, as well as some revisions of existing ones.
- Revisions to existing Force powers and some Force techniques, as well as some brand new Force techniques for powers that have been overlooked so far.
- A bunch of new uses for the Unleashed feat, as well as a section that ramps up Force using characters quite a bit (I'll admit that this section isn't for everyone; heck I don't even use them all the time)

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Homerules:

1. Ride is rolled into Acrobatics (Dex).
2. Area effects (for instance force slam or grenades) make one damage roll for all opponents but one attack for each target in the area. Attacks that miss against targets with cover do no damage instead of half damage.

Interesting choice to lump Ride in with Acrobatics. Given how much good stuff already comes with Acrobatics (namely tumbling but also stand & fall prone at reduced action costs and reduced falling damage), I would think if you were going to merge Ride with another skill, then Pilot might be a more natural choice, as both have to deal with directing your mode of transport.

As for area-effects, our group has been doing "One attack roll, one damage roll" to keep combats from getting too dragged down in the instances where PCs are able to hit a lot of targets at once. Then again, we've also been really grooving on the squad/swarm rules, which treats small groups as a single entity, so it may be something of a moot point.

 

[DerekSTheRed]

You make an interesting point about the ride and pilot and I'll have to consider it. Riding hasn't really come up in my adventures and I don't foresee it being an issue in the near future.

As for the area attacks, I had a couple bad experiences as a dm with area attacks. First level characters got critted by storm trooper with a grenade launcher. I almost had a tpk (yes I know you don't get extra damage on a crit with an area attack but they were down on low hps anyway and hiding behind cover). I changed it to the 4E way to make it less swingy and so that getting a crit is always a good thing.

I'm also considering changing healing which seems to be the weak link in my campaign. I've been going over the last Jed Counseling article and its list of healing tweaks.

 

[Acid_crash]

Derek, has there been any issue with restricting Skill Focus with the Use the Force skill like that, like is it a balance issue with picking that skill over all the others? I'm curious where that came from.

 

[small pumpkin man]

Derek, has there been any issue with restricting Skill Focus with the Use the Force skill like that, like is it a balance issue with picking that skill over all the others? I'm curious where that came from.

It's because of the whole using skills to attack defences, which (because they go up at different rates, and skills are so front loaded) is a silly rule, one I would consider the worst in SAGA.

It's because a low level character who takes skill focus UTF & force trainingx2 as soon as possible has both a UTF check higher than their opponents defence, and enough force powers to last an encounter. Delaying access to skill focus UTF to until 8th or 9th level allows the difference in scaling between skills and defences to take effect (and occasionally the added bonuses from multiclassing and prestige classes), such that defences are at least 3 or 4 points higher than UTF checks.

Our group uses the level limit, and I've seen it recommended here, on the Wizards forums and rpg.net at various times.

 

[DerekSTheRed]

Pumpkin said better than I could. Donovan makes a good point in another thread that the fault may be the Skill Focus feat in general and not just Skill Focus: Use The Force. I'm going to be houseruling it to require a character level of 8th or higher.