Star Wars Saga Edition [SECR] Preview #3 is Up

[Ranger REG]

Lot of info to process.

BTW, from the Jenalari defender it is clear that Skill Focus(Use the Force) is a feat.

Looks like Skill Focus feat offer a +5 bonus. But can that also be applied to Untrained skills?

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Per encounter design with the in-game logic spelled out (ie, recover with a minute 'breather'). This just keeps getting better and better.

I'm not quite as sold on the 'list of abilities' style of design, but understand that's probably a given. It sounds something like a simplified version of Maneuvers, but with a skill component. The powers look limited enough in number to be easy to keep track of, though.


The stat blocks are interesting.

The Jensaarai Defender is troubling; even with THREE armor feats, his defense is only as good as Han's with none? Other than that, his stat block looks clean and easy to reproduce at CL 9, which is a good thing.

The Death Star Trooper has four levels but is only 'character level' (I assume that's what CL stands for) 2 because three of those are non-heroic levels. I suppose D&D CR would round out that way, though, so perhaps it's 'Challenge Level?' Anyway, simple and easy to use stat block.

Han at CL 9 puts the lie to the '20th level characters almost as fast as 1st level characters' boast; 21 lines long in a wide column at 9th level? Still much quicker than D&D, I'm sure, but not exactly something to do on the fly. As said above, Han has a force rating but no visible way to use it; perhaps it works the same as in the minis game, giving rerolls and extra movement?

The stormtrooper armor seems to actually hurt Han, presumably because he's nonproficient. Interesting that it doesn't appear to confer ANY bonus (or else the nonproficiency penalty is through the roof); I figured it would improve his Threshold.

 

[Ranger REG]

Is it me or does the Jensaarai Defender CL's does not match the sum of Jedi & Soldier class levels (5 and 3, respectively)?

 

[gribble]

HP seem pretty high, but I suppose they are 4th, 9th and 8th level.

And don't forget that in SWSE, characters start with 3HD (and max hp) at 1st level...

Threshold = Fort Defense in each example. Coincidence?

I think it has to be, otherwise why have 2 separate stats? SWSE seems to be all about simplification and streamlining, and having two identical values would go against this.

No iterative attacks for BAB 6+.

And both Jedi and Soldier appear to have full BAB (+1/lvl). Non-heroic appears to have 2/3 (or possibly 3/4) progression. Looking at Han, I'd say scoundrel is most likely 3/4 (+0, +1, +1, +1, +0 for his 5 levels), gunslinger is full, and ace pilot doesn't give BAB at 1st level (so could be anything really except full).

Also, the defences look pretty high - much higher than the typical d20 save suite would be:
Assuming a base of 11, the Jensaarai appears to have: +12/9/8 base defences; Han has: +12/10/10; and even the non-heroic has +3/3/1. Chalkazza has +3/2/1.

 

[gribble]

As said above, Han has a force rating but no visible way to use it; perhaps it works the same as in the minis game, giving rerolls and extra movement?

I expect them to work more like Eberron action points - use to re-roll a d20 roll, and activate special abilities.

Interestingly, all the PC characters we've seen so far have exactly 5 force (and the NPC 1). Co-incidence? Perhaps rather than being permanently spent they replenish daily or (less likely) per encounter?

I love the ToB-like per encounter force powers.

 

[jonrog1]

Things I've noticed so far from the stat blocks:

• HP seem pretty high, but I suppose they are 4th, 9th and 8th level.

New system starts them at 3xHP at first level, too.

EDIT: Gahhh, just saw the post above.

For those of us without Tome of Battle, anybody got a quick summary of the Maneuver system?

 

[nerfherder]

And don't forget that in SWSE, characters start with 3HD (and max hp) at 1st level...

Yeah, that must account for it.

Looking at the Death Star Trooper, with no CON bonus, and assuming that Soldier gets D10, that means the Nonheroic class must also be D10.

Lvl1 (nonH) = 3*10 = 30
Lvl2 (nonH) = 5.5 = 35
Lvl3 (nonH) = 5.5 = 41
Lvl4 (Sol) = 5.5 = 46

I would have assumed the Nonheroic class would have got a D6.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I'm a bit saddened by the apparent low number of skill "points". I also want to see how "class skills" work and if you suddenly gain a +5 bonus for taking even one level in another class.

The Defense doesn't seem too high to me, actually; right now, it looks like it's based on a skill, and it only scales at 1 per 2 levels (slower than most BAB values) but does start higher.

I doubt I'm going to steal the armor rules for Modern; Star Wars seems determined to shaft armor.

 

[gribble]

For those of us without Tome of Battle, anybody got a quick summary of the Maneuver system?

Essentially - you know a number of maneuvers. You can "ready" a smaller set of maneuvers, which you can change by meditating/resting/practising for 2 mins. Each encounter you get to use each readied maneuver once - once you've used it you can't use it again until you replenish it (automatic after an encounter, or by taking a special action in combat which varies by class).

So, I think force powers will work the same way. On the WotC forums, Rodney has made some clarifications and said that your powers known and ready are the same thing, so no readying. The way it looks like it works is:
Each time you take the force training feat, you learn 2 powers. Each encounter, you can use each of these powers once, unless you: spend a force point, roll a natural 20 on your use the force check, spend an action to recharge, and possibly some other special abilities.

So pretty similiar. Looks like the key difference is that you only know a power, you don't have to ready a subset of them and you can pick the same power more than once (see the Jensaarai's force strike power) - in ToB you can only learn/ready each maneuver once.

 

[Turjan]

I'm a bit saddened by the apparent low number of skill "points".

It's not that bad when you can use nearly all skills untrained, anyway.

I doubt I'm going to steal the armor rules for Modern; Star Wars seems determined to shaft armor.

I guess this is one of the "fits the films" moments. Even unarmored chars have a chance to live through a firefight.