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

[nerfherder]

On the WotC board thread, someone has postulated "Both the Jensaarai and Han Solo have an unaccounted +3 in their melee damage. My guess is that this is the replacement for iterative attacks."

http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=12075786&postcount=47

That would fit (and also fit with the idea of rapid shot giving extra damage rather than extra attacks)

See the revised stats in my post above. Han gets +4 (level/2?) +1 (strength) = +5.

 

[Dragonhelm]

I'm sure this has been mentioned already, but....initiative is a skill now?

 

[nerfherder]

I'm sure this has been mentioned already, but....initiative is a skill now?

Yes, several times, on here and on the Wizards board. I expect it to get mentioned a few more times as people absorb information on the new previews as well

I quite like it - more experienced people tend to be able to assess the situation and react quicker.

 

[Henry]

Looking at the preview... AGAIN with the darned "per encounter" stuff!

Oh well, at least I'm gettin' dinner first.

As for the speculations - it wouldn't be the first time there were errors in preview stat blocks. I remember people going wild with some of the stuff on the 3E iconic characters, but turned out to be a typo here or there.

 

[D.Shaffer]

Hmm. Bonus damage instead of iterative attacks? I can definitely deal with that. It does make me wonder if they're going to be simplifying natural attacks or attacking with two weapons.

 

[Baby Samurai]

It does make me wonder if they're going to be simplifying natural attacks or attacking with two weapons.

Yes, I would very much like to know how it will handle TWF.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Looking at the preview... AGAIN with the darned "per encounter" stuff!

Why the frowny? Per encounter seems like exceptionally good design to me

 

[Baby Samurai]

Why the frowny? Per encounter seems like exceptionally good design to me

Yep, and hopefully D&D will follow suit, instead of the silly assumed 4 encounters a day.

ToB was a move in the right direction.

 

[Sir Brennen]

With the consolidation of all the other skills, it seems very strange if they have still got a whole range of knowledge skills as implied by the Han Solo statblock.

If pseudo-medieval Bards can be well read enough to have 'General Knowledge', I wouldn't have thought it would be difficult to have a single 'Knowledge' skill that covers all aspects of knowledge in a general way (i.e. how well read you are). Talents could then improve knowledge specialties and stuff to provide any necessary specialisation.

Well, since everyone has "ranks" in untrained skills, there *is* a General Knowledge skill. My guess is that selecting Knowledge as a Trained skill requires you to then choose a specialized area of knowledge. I think this would be great for D&D, where characters are, by the rules, completely ignorant of even general info on common monsters that live right outside of town without ranks in the appropriate skill.

 

[Henry]

Why the frowny? Per encounter seems like exceptionally good design to me

Yep, and hopefully D&D will follow suit, instead of the silly assumed 4 encounters a day.

ToB was a move in the right direction.

Mainly because I intensely dislike the per-encounter design, because it brings in the problem of characters having effectively limitless resources. It's too much "wuxia" for me, if you understand where I'm coming from. I just don't like someone having just as many resources now as they did one minute ago, because they just aren't going to run out in most traditional d20 combats. Most d20 combats resolve in 5 rounds or less, and I can count on one hand the number of d20 combats I've played in that lasted more than 10 rounds. Book of 9 swords started the trend, and I just haven't liked it since. I don't mind it as an alternate mechanic, but having it as the way ALL of WotC's d20 games are going irritates me.

That said, I can see the writing on the wall, and if the designers are going to do this to me, at least they're wrapping it up in an awesome looking package...