Episode 77: Tactical Savvy and Predictive Defense

This is DarthGM, bringing you the 77th installment of Fragments from the Rim.

When I think of Nobles, I think of two stats; Charisma (naturally), and Intelligence.  Sure, many Nobles are socialites and negotiators, able to defuse situations with just their words and personalities, but I’ve also seen an equal number of nobles with very high intelligence scores, literal “skill-monkeys” with just about every skill in the game as a trained skill.  A heroic noble with a bent towards Military Strategy can use their exceptional intelligence to help their allies and increase their survivability with two character choices from Galaxy At War.

If you’re building a Noble with a talent for directing combat and aiding your allies, take a good long look at the Tactical Savvy  talent from the Leadership Talent Tree.  It can be found on page 19 of Galaxy At War.  You need to have taken the Born Leader talent to take this one.  If you do take this talent, any ally who you can see can add your Intelligence Modifier to their Force point die roll when they use a Force point to enhance an attack roll.  If Intelligence is your character’s big thing, and their primary stat, odds are you’re looking at a +3 or even a +4 bonus to another character’s Force point.  That means the ally is at least getting a +4 bonus to their attack if they spend a Force point to try to make their near miss a hit.  

This talent is great for party support and providing a serious bonus to any ally within line of sight.  I haven’t run a combat encounter yet where SOMEONE hasn’t spent a Force Point on an attack roll.  And more often than not, they’re spending that Force point to try and get between 2-4 more points to hit their target.  Take this talent and you can help ensure that no Force Point used to modify an attack roll is spent in vain.

So Tactical Savvy is great for keeping your friends happy and hitting the bad guys, but what can someone with a high Intelligence do to help themselves in combat?  Here, I would like to present a feat from page 25 of Galaxy at War, Predictive Defense.  Taking a page from D&D 4th Edition, this feat allows the character to use their Dexterity Modifier or their Intelligence Modifier to determine your Reflex Defense.  This feat is a bonus class fear for Scoundrels, and Nobles.  That same Intelligence bonus that’s giving your allies a +3 or +4 to their Force points for hitting bad guys is now also giving you a +3 or +4 to your Reflex Defense, something most Nobles have a low score with anyway.

With these two options, you can support your team, save your bacon, and get more mileage out of your smarts.

And that’s it for this review.  Until next time Gamer Nation, 20 side up, 1 Side down.