Experience with Jedi

[HeapThaumaturgist]

See, I'm really trying to AVOID one-shot-wonder Jedi characters. The skills system sort of encourages it, as I've said before. You can max out ranks, even with few skill points, on something like Move Object and do that all day long and not be able to mind-trick yourself out of a paper bag nor force strike or see force or anything else ('cept for Untrained abillities). Plus there's a real incentive to spend all of your incoming skill points on Force Skills and let regular skills totally languish.

I've decided, for my upcoming Tales of the Jedi campaign, to force ALL of the Jedi to take a custom feat at lvl 1.

Academy Training

You have been trained in a controlled Jedi academy environment; the benefits of having more than one Master to learn from shows in your broad knowledge base.

Prerequisite: Jedi Level 1st
Benefit: You gain a bonus feat to be chosen from the following list: Attuned, Aware, Compassion, Link, Mettle, and Mind-Trick.
In addition, at 1st level you receive four (4) bonus skill points, plus one (1) bonus skill point each level thereafter. These skill points must be used to purchase ranks in the following skills: Craft (Armor), Craft (Lightsaber), Knowledge (Astronomy), Knowledge (Forensics), Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Jedi Lore), Knowledge (Medicine), Knowledge (Politics), Knowledge (World Lore). No more than one of these bonus points can be spent on any one skill per level (thus at 1st level you must choose four separate skills).
Your ranks in Knowledge (Jedi Lore) also increase by one (1) upon taking this feat. This does not conflict with the bonus skill point limitations of Academy Training. You must meet the requirements for any bonus feat you choose. Skill rank caps still apply to ranks achieved through bonus points.

This way I KNOW I can call for a K (Jedi Lore) check at some point and won't have everybody stare at me blankly. "But I spent all of my ranks on Move Object and Force Strike!" It also helps set the tone of the game, and I've watched my player's PC concepts move from "Dude I'll totally dual weild lightsabers and it'll be sweet and with all of these force feats my defense will be ungodly!" to something resembling a little more than a handful of numbers equating to "I kill it."

--fje

 

[The_Gneech]

Well, my Jedi Guardian has plenty of personality, but that's not something that game mechanics can make or break, and it's not a game balance issue either. (He's a narcissicistic Farghul who spent thirty years in carbon freeze, the former Padawan of Mace Windu shoved rather abruptly into the Rebellion era and having a lot of culture shock issues. Even in a game session where there's no combat at all, he's still a lot of fun to play.)

FWIW, players will tend to put ranks on skills that get checked a lot, that's just the way they are. Keep asking for Knowledge (Jedi Lore) checks often enough, and tsk, tsk when they don't succeed, and you'll be amazed at how quickly they start putting ranks there.

Having not all Jedi be good at all Jedi things, is a major way of keeping them from all being the same super-character. I hope your Tales of the Jedi game is all-Jedi, or the non-Jedi characters are getting seriously shafted.

-The Gneech

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

So far it's definately all-Jedi. If I get somebody who desperately wants to play a non-Jedi I'll think up something spiff-tacular for him, a custom background feat such as the one above.

Right now the game is in an era with heavier jedi population and will be starting in an academy situation, so I wanted to have the PCs reflect that. We'll be starting at 4th level, so I won't have the chance to call for Jedi Lore checks all of the time ... we'll be rapidly getting in the deep end of the pool, so 1 rank at 5th level will be a touch late.

--fje

 

[The_Gneech]

If I get somebody who desperately wants to play a non-Jedi I'll think up something spiff-tacular for him, a custom background feat such as the one above.

Very cool.

-TG

 

[Faraer]

Jango Fett would have so killed my guy instead of Obi-Wan chasing through the Geonosis rings.

Most opinions about whether a class is 'balanced' are either pure guesswork or very limited experience projected. But we can more easily answer whether the SWRPG Jedi adequately represent Jedi, and this is a good example of how they severely limit Jedi for game balance reasons. Obi-Wan is not an exceptional pilot for a Jedi -- indeed, he hates flying -- but still he's a preternaturally gifted pilot able to keep up with the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy.

 

[The_Gneech]

Most opinions about whether a class is 'balanced' are either pure guesswork or very limited experience projected. But we can more easily answer whether the SWRPG Jedi adequately represent Jedi, and this is a good example of how they severely limit Jedi for game balance reasons. Obi-Wan is not an exceptional pilot for a Jedi -- indeed, he hates flying -- but still he's a preternaturally gifted pilot able to keep up with the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy.

True, but in the context of a character party, who in most cases will be all tooling around in a tramp freighter or something similar, it gives the other folks something to do.

Plus, Obi-Wan was a Jedi Counsular, who get more skill points than Jedi Guardians do.

-TG

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Plus, Obi-Wan was a Jedi Counsular, who get more skill points than Jedi Guardians do.

ACTUALLY, circa EpII, Obi-Wan is a Jedi Guardian 7/Jedi Master 2/Jedi Investigator 1

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

ACTUALLY, circa EpII, Obi-Wan is a Jedi Guardian 7/Jedi Master 2/Jedi Investigator 1

He would know also...

 

[0-hr]

How have Jedi functioned in your SWRPG games?

In the first couple campaigns, they did dominate, absolutely. There was nothing they could not do better than everyone else if they wanted to.

In a more recent campaign we did a class re-balance:

http://home.insightbb.com/~ki.ryn/Morningstar/Class_Balance.htm

Main thing we did was only give them Force Training once. They need to spend real feats to get the other two Force schools. That leads to Jedi who do not have access to every ability by 4th level, which has (in my opinion) been a Good Thing(tm). We also cranked up most of the other classes to give them a clear niche.

So far it is working well. The Jedi are still the most powerful classes, but not so much that the others feel useless.

 

[Kesh]

Y'know, I'd love to find a group for SWd20... just so I could play a wise Gungan Force Adept. He'd be the anti-Jar-Jar.

Actually, that makes me curious... given the time gap between Ep. 1 and Ep. 3, we could potentially see a young Gungan Padawan in Ep. 3, even for just a scene or so. That'd actually be interesting.