Star Wars SAGA Edition Preview in Game Trade Magazine (May 2007)

Hey kiddos, just picked up a copy of the new Game Trade mag for May. In it is a four page preview of Star Wars SAGA Edition. The preview consists of a partial outline of the Scout class, as well as two pages of feats.

So, questions?

-TRRW
 

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Give us some feats! Anything that doesn't sound like it's come from a previously existing d20 product, preferably...
 

Sure.

1) Scan it and send me a copy? :)

2) How are skills? How many does the Scout get, how many are trained, do they receive more trained skills later on?

3) What feats are listed that give a peek into the rules changes (2WF, special combat maneuvers, etc)



3) How do the BAB/Save progression tables look now?
 



Some more details from Game Trade Magazine, kindly typed out by GM_Trader on the Wizards board.

Scout

Attack Bonus Progression: 0, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9...
Class Features (1st): Defense bonuses, starting feat, talent
Bonus feats at 2nd lvl and every even lvl after
Bonus talents at 3rd lvl and every odd lvl after

Class skills (Trained in 5 +Int mod): Climb, Endurance, Initiative, Jump, Knowledge (all skills, taken individually), Mechanics, Perception, Pilot, Ride, Stealth, Survival, Swim

Hit Points: 24+ Con mod at 1st level. 1d8 + Con mod after.
Force Points: Scouts start with 5 +half char lvl (rounded down) at 1st level and every time they gain a new level in this class. Any Force Points left over from previous levels are lost.

Defense Bonuses: At 1st lvl you gain a +1 class bonus to Fort Def and a +2 class bonus to Ref Def.

Starting Feats: Shake it off*, Weapon Proficiency (pistols, rifles, simple weapons)
*must meet prerequisites:Con 13 and trained in Endurance)


Talents: Must meet all prerequisites and no talent can be taken more than once unless expressly indicated.

Awareness Talent Tree:
Acute Senses, Expert Tracker, Improved Initiative, Keen Shot, Uncanny Dodge I, Uncanny Dodge II

Camouflage Talent Tree:
Hidden Movement, Improved Stealth, Total Concealment

Fringer Talent Tree:
Barter, (my preview ends here)


Talent Trees:

Awareness Talent Tree
Acute Senses: You may reroll any Preception check, but you must use the result of the second roll (even if worse).
Expert Tracker: No penalty on Survival checks to follow tracks while moving at normal speed (prereq:Acute Senses).
Improved Initiative (prereq:Acute Senses): You may choose to reroll your Initiative check, but must accept the new roll even if worse.
Keen Shot (prereq:Acute Senses): No penalty on attack roll when attacking target with concealment (but not total concealment).
Uncanny Dodge I (prereq:Acute Senses, Improved Initiative): Retain Dex bonus to Reflex Def regardless of being flat-footed or struck by hidden attacker. Still lose it if you are immobilized.
Uncanny Dodge II (prereq:Uncanny Dodge I, Acute Senses, Improved Initiative): Cannot be flanked. Can react to opponents on both sides of you as easily as reacting to a single attacker.

Camouflage Talent Tree
Hidden Movement (prereq:Improved Stealth): No penalty to Stealth checks when moving at normal speed.
Improved Stealth: You may reroll a Stealth check, but must accept the second roll even if worse.
Total Concealment (prereq:Improved Stealth, Hidden Movement): Any situation that would give you concealment gives you total concealment instead.

Fringer Talent Tree
Barter: May reroll any Persuasion check to haggle, but must accept the second roll even if worse.



A quick look at some Feats:

Improved Damage Threshold
Benefit: You may increase your damage threshold by 5
Normal: A creature without this feat has a damage threshold equal to its Fortitude Defense plus its size modifier (+5 for large, +10 for huge, +20 for gargantuan, +50 for colossal).
Special: You can take this feat more than once. Its effects stack.

Melee Defense
Prerequisite: Int 13
Benefit: When you use a standard action to make a melee attack, you can take a penalty of up to -5 on your attack roll and add the same number (up to +5) as a Dodge bonus to your Reflex Defense. The changes to attack rolls and Reflex Defense last until the start of your next turn.
Normal: A character without the Melee Defense feat can fight defensively while using the attack action to take a -5 penalty to his attack roll and gain a +2 Dodge bonus to his Reflex Defense.

Linguist
Prereq: Int 13
Benefit: Gain bonus languages equal to 1 + Int bonus (min 1)
Special: Take this feat more than once

Martial Arts IBenefit: Damage from your unarmed attacks improves one die step. In addition, you gain +1 dodge bonus to Ref Def.
Normal: Damage from your unarmed attacks is ased on your size (med 1d4).
Special: Anything that makes you lose your Dex bonus to Ref Def also affects this.

Martial Arts II
Prereq: Martial Arts I, base attack bonus +3
Benefit: Damage increases by another die step and another +1 dodge bonus to Ref
Special: As Martial Arts I

Martial Arts III
Prereq: Martial Arts I & II, base attack bonus +6
Benefit: Another die increase for damage and +1 dodge bonus to Ref
Special: As others above

Mobility
Prereq: Dex 13, Dodge
Benefit: You get a +5 dodge bonus to Ref Def against attacks of opportunity caused when you move out of or into a threatened area. A situation that makes you lose your dex bonus to ref Def also makes you lose this.

Pin
Prereq: base attack bonus +1
Benefit: If you succeed on a grappling attack and your opponent fails the opposed grapple chack, your opponent is automatically pinned until the start of your next turn. A pinned creature can't move or take any actions while pinned, and it loses its Dexterity bonus (if any) to Reflex Defense.
Special: You can't use the feats Pin and Trip during the same round. You can use Pin and Crush
feats in the same round, however.

Point Blank Shot
You gain a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at point blank range.
(see table 8-5: Weapon Ranges, page 129).

Powerful Charge
Prereq: Medium or larger size, base attack bonus +1
Benefit: When you charge, you gain an additional +2 bonus to your melee attack roll.
If your melee attack hits, you deal additional damage equal to one-half your level.

MIGHTY SWING
Prereq:Str 13
Benefit: Spend 2 swift actions to gain +1 die of damage on next melee attack in same round. Does not stack with extra damage from Rapid Strike feat.

PRECISE SHOT
Prereq: Point Blank Shot
Benefit: Shoot or throw ranged weapon at opponent engaged in melee combat with one or more of your allies without taking the -5 penalty.

QUICK DRAW
Prereq: Base attack bonus +1
Benefit: Draw or holster a weapon as a swift action instead of a move action.


Looks like they're making a lot of use of Swift Actions.
 

nerfherder said:
Looks like they're making a lot of use of Swift Actions.

Well, we kinda knew that from the last preview on combat. I think it's more interesting that a lot of the things which were -4 in D&D and previous versions of d20 SW have been rounded off to -5... seems as if most things in SWSE will be in multiples of 5 (penalties, trained bonuses to skills, skill focus, size bonuses, etc).

I kinda like that.
:D

And while we knew they were going to be using re-rolls to improve skills without relying on a proliferation of small bonuses, I didn't think they'd take things quite as far as those talent tress indicate - looks like SWSE characters will have a *lot* of re-rolls!

Again, I kinda like that too - eliminates the potentially crippling effects of really bum rolls in standard d20. If a character is really good at something, (s)he shouldn't spectacularly fail at things very often, if at all.

I still *really* want to know if skill checks in SWSE auto succeed/fail on natural 20/1. I get the feeling that they kind of have to if skills are going to be used as attacks against static defences.
 

Also looks like they're dropping +2 (and multipliers) in favor of +5 (and multipliers).

Interesting. I wonder what the rationale was behind that?


The Improved Initiative change is ... clean; with it being a skill now, it's already going up all the time - this is more meant to make sure PCs that should usually be quick enough to act first do - I'd almost reroll any die result less than 7 or so.

I'd rename it to Double-Take though. :)

Edit: Darnit Gripple, you stole all my post before I typed it! :)

To say something original; Quick Draw seems neater now. There was some talk about converting around swift actions, so could you not technically:

1) Swift: Holster a gun
2) Swift: Pull a different gun (light saber?)
3) Standard: Attack

in a round? Or am I misremembering?
 
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Koewn said:
To say something original; Quick Draw seems neater now. There was some talk about converting around swift actions, so could you not technically:

1) Swift: Holster a gun
2) Swift: Pull a different gun (light saber?)
3) Standard: Attack

in a round? Or am I misremembering?

You remember correctly, as outlined in Saga Edition Preview 4 (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=starwars/article/SagaPreview4):
Saga Edition Preview 4 said:
One difference between the swift action and other actions is that you can take more than one swift action in a round if you sacrifice a move or a standard action. Just as you can sacrifice a standard action to take an additional move action, you can also sacrifice a standard or move action to take an additional swift action. As a result, a character can theoretically take up to three swift actions in a single round.

Which is why I really like the Mighty Swing rules. Instead of taking a full round action, it takes 2 swift actions and an attack action. Plus the rules for aiming/recovering/etc they outline in the preview. I love the idea that you can recover in a single round if you do nothing, or spread it out over 3 rounds if you want to continue taking normal actions (sans your swift action). Or any combination thereof.

I *really* like this rule (have I mentioned there are a *lot* of things I like about SWSE?). It just seems like a natural extension to swift actions - I wish it was in D&D.
:)
 
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