My SW SAGA house rules

[Donovan Morningfire]

Interesting - is the errata being published on the wizards web site, or is it in one of the forum threads at the moment?

On the WotC Star Wars main page, click Rules on the left-hand side of the page, and scroll down the page. There's a link to the officially-released errata (web page format only; no PDF).

There's also a stickied thread in the Star Wars RPG Mess Hall section of the WotC forums where the 1st post is all the errata and clarifications to date, compiled from various posts by Rodney and/or Gary in a multitude of threads.

 

[Destil]

I thought about the following for Dodge:
+1 Dodge bonus to a single enemy.
Spend a swift action to gain an additional +1 Dodge bonus to defense against an enemy until the start of your next turn. The bonuses all stack, so you can spend a fullround gaining a +4 dodge bonus against a single opponent - which doesn't make much sense, because Full Defense would give you the same (if I am not mistaken) - though this wouldn't affect your AoOs and so on. And you could keep your standard action and get a +3 bonus to AC against a single opponent, which is nice. It's a bit more versatile then Improved Defenses or Martial Artist, which should make it worthwhile.

I was thinking Dodge could just give a +2 to reflex defense. +1 is still fairly underpowered vs. Improved Defense.

Also, Plane, what do you think of the rule that only people trained in a skill can take 10? I really hate it myself and it's on my very short list of things to fix...

 

[Pagan priest]

I switched diagonal movement as a houserule the moment I saw the 2 - 2 - 2 nonsense they had written. My comment to some of my mathematically ept friends was that WotC had declared the square root of 2 to be 2. :\

The only other thing I have done so far is to declare that Use the Force is an automatic trained skill for Jedi. If it seems too powerful, I might change it back, but for now, that really makes a lot of sense to me. Hmmm, I suppose that for things like multiclassing and whatnot, I should more formally say that the Jedi have another starting feat, Skill Trianing (UtF). That way, if someone multi's into a Jedi, they have to choose between UtF and Lightsaber proiciency.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I was thinking Dodge could just give a +2 to reflex defense. +1 is still fairly underpowered vs. Improved Defense.

Also, Plane, what do you think of the rule that only people trained in a skill can take 10? I really hate it myself and it's on my very short list of things to fix...

I agree that Dodge is weak compared to Improved Defence, but I'm going with minimal changes here (and I want to avoid reflex defences climbing into the stratosphere by accident!)

I'd not noticed the 'only trained people can take 10', but that actually makes sense to me, so I'd not be changing that. Is there a particular reason that you don't like it?

(and thanks for the errata heads-up Donovan!)

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

The only other thing I have done so far is to declare that Use the Force is an automatic trained skill for Jedi. If it seems too powerful, I might change it back, but for now, that really makes a lot of sense to me.

Wouldn't they already have to choose between force sensitive and lightsabre proficiency as their multiclass feat? (it might be funny to play a non-force sensitive jedi...)

One benefit of not making it an automatic trained skill is that it enables people to play Jedi who start off weak but really 'grow into' their powers. It also keeps Jedi on the same page as force-sensitive other classes, and that is something you might not want to get rid of casually... at least at the moment the Jedi has to pay by being less good at something else if they want to be good at Use the Force!

 

[Destil]

I agree that Dodge is weak compared to Improved Defence, but I'm going with minimal changes here (and I want to avoid reflex defences climbing into the stratosphere by accident!)

I'd not noticed the 'only trained people can take 10', but that actually makes sense to me, so I'd not be changing that. Is there a particular reason that you don't like it?

(and thanks for the errata heads-up Donovan!)

Cheers

I've always felt that take 10 is a great mechanic for gameplay reasons. I.e. climbing the 100 foot cliff with no distractions and a knotted rope. I'd have to have this break down into rolls just because some PCs aren't trained in climb, and it really hurts what the general level-based bonus is supposed to do.

 

[Baron Opal]

One house rule I've been contemplating is "Brawn Defense". It is a defense that is based off of strength that provides the target number for disarms, bull rushes and the like. There seems to be enough use for it that it would be best to extend the mechanic for those situations rather than making a new one.

Which begs the question, what kind of defense would employ intelligence and charisma?

 

[Plane Sailing]

I suppose you could use a wits defence (Int) to resist attempts to fool you, and charm defence (Cha) to resist attempts to woo you, while Will defence (Wis) becomes specialised against attempts to coerce you.

in SWSE Deception is used to bluff people, and I could see that applying against a Wits defence. Persuasion includes Intimidation which is clearly used against Will defence, and in the absence of any skill explicitly for charming or seducing people I guess that Persuasion would also be used for that kind of thing, but applied against a charm defence.

Would that work for you? (you might want to think of additional class bonuses to these areas too alongside the existing three, of course)

Cheers

 

[EditorBFG]

I was thinking Dodge could just give a +2 to reflex defense. +1 is still fairly underpowered vs. Improved Defense.

To my mind, the best solution is the version of Dodge SPYCRAFT did years ago: You can choose +2 vs. one enemy or +1 versus all opponents. Retains the choice to defend against one specific enemy, as necessary for some feats in other sources, but makes Dodge not suck.

 

[RigaMortus2]

To make the Dark Side more tempting, we use a rule that you can call on the light side of the Force by spending a Force Point to modify a d20 roll BEFORE you roll. And you can call on the Dark Side of the Force by spending a Force Point to modify a d20 roll AFTER you roll and see the result. This of course gives you a Dark Side Point...

It's very useful for when you know you missed an important roll by a point or two and want to roll the d6 for a little help.