D&D 4E Star Wars Saga Edition as preview of 4e?

[SeRiAlExPeRiMeNtS]

Ok, so if we were to compare it to D&D...

A Fighter (The D&D equivalent of the Soldier) gets the following class skills automatically: Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Ride, Swim.

The Fighter would also allow a player to choose an extra couple skills as Trained Skills. Assuming the Fighter/Soldier comparison holds, that means three skills. So I could add, say, Diplomacy, Knowledge (Nobility & Royalty), and Perform to that list.

Let's assume that same Fighter has Int 12. So that would give me yet another Trained Skill. So I could take, for example, Survival.

Last but not least, it's a Human Fighter, which grants another Trained Skill (This is something I've always thought humans should be able to do. Grant another class skill). In this case I'll go with Gather Information.

So to sum up, this Human Fighter would have the following as Trained Skills: Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Nobility & Royalty), Perform, Ride, Survival, and Swim. Is that the basic gist of how it works in Saga? If so, then that's fantastic! It's a great way to handle things.

Let's assume a Level 1 Human Fighter with 25 point buy with the following stats:
STR 15, DEX 10, CON 14, INT 12, WIS 8, CHA 13

His Trained Skills would have bonuses as follows:
Climb +8, Craft +7, Diplomacy +7, Gather Information +7, Handle Animal +7, Intimidate +7, Jump +8, Knowledge (Nobility & Royalty) +7, Perform +7, Ride +6, Survival +5, Swim +8.

What I especially love about the elimination of Skill Points is the ability to take what I call "Roleplay Skills" without penalizing the character. Perform, for instance, and Knowledge (Nobility & Royalty). Those skills are there for flavor more than anything else. To represent a character who isn't just "a fighter", but a knight. But to take them I'd have to sacrifice Skill Points which can be better spent in other skills which give you more tangible rewards. Thanks to this system, though, you can have both crunch and roleplay. It's very nice.

No it's not like that.
The fighter would have Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Ride and Swim as class skills, at 1st level a fighter would chose 3+int bonus of these skills as trained skills, so a fighter with int 12 could chose 4 skills, for example climb, swim, intimidade and ride, to be trained. At later levels he can use a feat to chose another class skill as trained.

 

[Green Knight]

Whoops. Scratch everything I said, before.

 

[drothgery]

Whoops. Scratch everything I said, before.

Well, the important thing here is that you don't really suck at untrained skills in Saga, especially at high levels.

 

[Green Knight]

True enough. And thinking about it, I can see the reason why they'd be more limiting with Trained Skills, as Untrained Skills are much better.

As for D&D 4E, one can always hope that they'll allow a player some leeway in the kinds of skills they can choose, rather then restricting them to a specific skill list. God knows that I've had just about enough of the Fighters class skill list. Class skills in general, really (I wouldn't mind Class Skills so much if each class allowed the player to add a couple skills of his choice to the list. If it was something like "The Fighter gets Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Ride, Swim, and three other skills of the players choice as Class Skills" then I'd be content).

- you can take the Skill Training feat to become trained in any class skill (note that in Saga, you usually get far more feats than anyone in D&D except single-classed fighters)

So any idea how often you get a new Feat in Saga? One Feat for one Trained Skill seems a bit harsh, but that's assuming one Feat every three levels.

 

[pawsplay]

So any idea how often you get a new Feat in Saga? One Feat for one Trained Skill seems a bit harsh, but that's assuming one Feat every three levels.

I think I remember hearing that skill training or skill focus for a class skill was a bonus feat available to all classes.

 

[Shalimar]

From what I understand you get a class feat every other level and the regular bonus feat every 3 levels. You can pick up another trained skill via a class feat.

 

[Green Knight]

From what I understand you get a class feat every other level and the regular bonus feat every 3 levels. You can pick up another trained skill via a class feat.

So one Feat every even level, like a Fighter? And every class gets this? Just making sure.

Whatever the case, can't wait til wednesday, when I'll be getting my copy of the new Star Wars RPG.

 

[pawsplay]

So one Feat every even level, like a Fighter? And every class gets this? Just making sure.

Whatever the case, can't wait til wednesday, when I'll be getting my copy of the new Star Wars RPG.

Talent trees from from d20 Modern. In d20 modern, each class gets either a bonus feat or a Talent at each level. I assume SWSE works about the same.

 

[Green Knight]

A poster at the WOTC boards has the book, already. Go HERE for more info.

Here's one interesting tidbit from that thread.

Chapter One: Abilities

Not much new here, although, again, everything has been streamlined. The same 4 methods of generation are present, and the ability modifiers are the same. The biggest change I noticed was that at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th level, a heroic character increases TWO ability scores by 1 point each.

 

[drothgery]

So one Feat every even level, like a Fighter? And every class gets this? Just making sure.

Every base class does this. The prestige classes may be different (no official word, and not enough data in the previews to go on); they could do the alternating talent/feat thing, but it hasn't been confirmed.