Episode 70: Return Fire

Welcome to the 70th installment of Fragments from the Rim.   I’m DarthGM, and today I find myself drawn back to the Legacy Era Campaign Guide for a great little feat that is not only good in its own right, but makes another classic feat a lot more useful.  So let’s take a look at Return Fire.

To take this feat, you have to choose a specific ranged exotic weapon or a weapon group.  This handy little feat states that “once per encounter as a reaction, you can make a single ranged attack with your chosen weapon against an enemy that misses you with a ranged attack, provided you have line of sight to that enemy.  You need to have a Dexterity of 15 to take this feat, as well as the Quick Draw and Weapon Focus feats.  Not surprisingly, you need to have Weapon Focus in the same exotic weapon or weapon group as Return Fire.  It also states that this feat cannot be used with vehicle weapons or heavy weapons, and you must have your weapon in hand to use this feat.

With these requirements, this Feat screams “Gunslinger”.  Not only do you need Quick Draw to be a Gunslinger, but a Dexterity of 15 or higher is practically an unspoken requirement for that prestige class.  Working in Weapon Focus into your Gunslinger build is pretty easy in most cases, and brings a good benefit on its own to the table.  Plus, with a high Dexterity, and a high class bonus to Reflex Defense, a Gunslinger stands a very good chance of being able to use this feat at least once in every combat encounter.

I don’t think I’ve seen a Star Wars game where there wasn’t at least one player planning to dip into the Gunslinger prestige class.  I also can’t think of a single Gunslinger that wouldn’t like to make an extra attack  each encounter.

Return Fire has another neat benefit that beefs up the usefulness of an old favorite feat of mine; Combat Reflexes.  If you have Combat Reflexes, you can use Return Fire a number of times during an encounter equal to your Dexterity bonus, but no more than once during a given enemy’s turn. Since Attacks of Opportunity are somewhat few and far between in SAGA edition, so anything that can beef up Combat Reflex’s utility is good in my book.

That’s all for this week, and for this year.  Until 2011, Gamer Nation, this is Darth GM for Fragments from the Rim wishing you and yours Happy Holidays, a Great New Year, 20 side up, and the 1 side down