D&D 4E SWSE Experiences & 4E Hunches

[Theovis]

One of my favorite things about SWSE is receiving something cool every level. I hate the levels in 3.5 where all you get are hit points and a save increase. That's not very fun.

I really dig that about SWSE. However, the talent stuff actually makes me wonder...why have Feats at all? It seems like they could be done away with and put into non-class talent groups. Then instead of each class getting a bonus feat from a special list, they could get a bonus talent from one of those groups.

 

[ZSutherland]

I really dig that about SWSE. However, the talent stuff actually makes me wonder...why have Feats at all? It seems like they could be done away with and put into non-class talent groups. Then instead of each class getting a bonus feat from a special list, they could get a bonus talent from one of those groups.

I think the reasoning behind that decision is pretty clear. Talents are hands down better than feats in every sense. You're only ever going to get 10 of them (with one PrC exception) in comparison to 17 feats (18 for humans). For your suggestion to work, they have to make the non-class talents substantially worse than class talents and specify that on even levels you must pick one of the generic, non-class talents. Easier to just stick with a tailored list of feats.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

However, the talent stuff actually makes me wonder...why have Feats at all?

The designers have mentioned three levels of "availability."

1. Should be limited to one class = Talent.
2. Should be available to everyone = Feat.
3. Should be available to everyone, but thematically appropriate for certrain classes = Bonus Feat.

Besides, the system isn't really that different from what you are proposing, so long as you replace the normal, every-three-levels character feats with "Select Generic Talent," and the every-even-base-class-level feats with "Select Generic Talent from List [Y]." The terms are otherwise fairly exchangeable.

 

[Fenris2]

Hmmm, my SAGA experience so far with skills is mostly positive.

Beefs are:

granularity is not so good. You have either untrained, trained +5, and then skill focus +5 more... Maybe skill focus gives choice of +5, or two skills at +3 or three +2 or something else.. Or remove single +5 bonus as an option if front loading is problematic

There are fewer more general skills, which is good IMHO, but there are still some mostly dead ones - climb, jump and friends spring to mind. They could be combined opening up room for perform, craft, etc. I mean really swim or use force? Even remotely comparible? I say no.

Your amount of skills is class based, okay so far. Bu titi si also front loaded and then not much... You can spend feats to adjust that, but it is pretty expensive way to go. You can multi-class and a level of noble fixes a lot, but still.. Possibly either make it 2 more skills per feat, or allow some more learned skills based on char level, 1 per 5 or something.

Anyway, if I did 4e based on SAGA I would make those changes, or something like them.

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

Is Speak Language a skill in SWSE?

I'm hoping that it's not because I think having a single skill point represent the ability to learn a language is strange when many languages are much harder than most feats to learn.

I hope that 4E will require a little more than a skill point to learn a language.

Thanks.

 

[drothgery]

Is Speak Language a skill in SWSE?

No. You get 1+Int modifier bonus languages to start with, and can only get more (another 1+Int modifier more, in fact) by taking the linguist feat. Or buy a protocol droid with the right systems and you'll have one that's effectively fluent in a few million forms of communication.

 

[Henry]

I like having languages be a more important component in the game than they are now, but while the "fluent in 10 languages" thing is appropriate for Star Wars, I dislike personally the idea of seeing languages work the SWSE way in 4th edition D&D.

 

[Li Shenron]

The above works perfectly well for Star Wars, but seems unsuitable for standard D&D tropes, especially if they're going with even a partially skill-based magic-system.

That's the kind of subtle concern I have all the time when someone points out "it's already in SWSE, which is a good game", implying it would be just as good for D&D. :\

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I like having languages be a more important component in the game than they are now, but while the "fluent in 10 languages" thing is appropriate for Star Wars, I dislike personally the idea of seeing languages work the SWSE way in 4th edition D&D.

I really don't see such a big difference between D&D and Star Wars on this matter.

For the classes that have Speak Language as a class skill, it is pretty easy to get access to all important languages. And honestly, these are the only ones that will ever bother with the languages at all.
You rarely actually need it, though, since most people speak Common, and there are low-level spells and cheap magic items that allow you to understand every language you encounter.

To get 10 extra languages, you need to spend 10 skill points in D&D. In StarWars, assuming a fair intelligence of 14, you need ~3.34 feats.