D&D 5E Use the For - er Psionics Luke!

[pukunui]

What did you dislike about them?

Like [MENTION=6787650]Hemlock[/MENTION], I came to feel like the Vancian system doesn't do a good job reflecting Force use in the movies. I never actually played the RCR version of the game, but I liked the look of the skill-based Force powers more than SWSE's feat-based version. I also didn't like how you had to take a particular power more than once if you wanted to be able to use it more than once without having to spend Force Points to get it back. I think I would've liked it better if it had worked more like 5e's spellcasting system, where you'd just take each power once and then use them in any combination up to a certain limit of slots. I think that would represent the Force use we see in the movies much better.

The thing that *really* bugged me, though, was how wonky Skill Focus made the Force. You'd end up with overpowered low-level Jedi who grew up to be underpowered high-level Jedi. I ended up adopting a "skill attack modifier" that worked in much the same way as 5e's spell attacks do.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

You'd end up with overpowered low-level Jedi who grew up to be underpowered high-level Jedi.

Isn't that pretty much what Anakin is though? Can't even shoot force lightning like Count Dooku, then loses a fight to an untrained rookie with maybe a week's worth of training, since the whole time Luke was on Dagobah, Han and Leia never changed their clothes. If it had been months, Lando would have showered Leia with outfits and other presents, the flirt.

;-)

 

[jayoungr]

The thing that *really* bugged me, though, was how wonky Skill Focus made the Force. You'd end up with overpowered low-level Jedi who grew up to be underpowered high-level Jedi. I ended up adopting a "skill attack modifier" that worked in much the same way as 5e's spell attacks do.

Oh, that. It's such a trivial fix that it's never bothered me. We use the spell attack modifier too, but our Jedi didn't even take Skill Focus: Use the Force (she wants to concentrate on lightsaber fighting).

 

[Ancalagon]

Hello again

It seems that the feats aspect of the system has people in a tizzy. Although it has advantages (as cbwjm said, it allows almost any character to be a force user), perhaps in D&D it would be best to have this a class-specific feature.

That being said, my two main points were - (and it seems I really need to work on clarity):

1: Force powers and psionics have a *lot* in common. All you need is a bit of reflavoring and they are essentially the same.

2: The "use once and rest" really worked well in play. When I started the campaign some of the players were sceptical, but it turned out quite good. It is VERY IMPORTANT to note that this isn't a use/per day. It wasn't even use/short rest. You meditated for a few minutes and you had your suite of force powers back. A jedi can't force slam all day long, the mind grows tired. Also, some jedi were better at certain task than others - a character who took force slam 3 times in a row is an individual who is really good at force slamming. This system also has the advantage of not being complicated - no number of "Psi points" to keep track of etc.

As noted above, small force effects were a simple skill check.

Oh, that. It's such a trivial fix that it's never bothered me. We use the spell attack modifier too, but our Jedi didn't even take Skill Focus: Use the Force (she wants to concentrate on lightsaber fighting).

I think that the bounded accuracy of 5e would also solve the problem. We found that at higher level the math in Star Wars Saga started getting wonky.