I've managed to get most of the shading on his upper half, and will likely get to his lower half later this week. I also need to give him a nice coating of grime.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Star Wars Art: Bandit (Work in Progress)
In preparation for my upcoming campaign "Another Longshot", I'm doing an art piece for one of my lovable droids from the predecessor campaign. B4-NDT is a mash-up mechanic droid and astromech, who somehow has survived over a century of dodgy maintenance, incomplete memory wipes, and conflicts in operating systems between his two processors.
I've managed to get most of the shading on his upper half, and will likely get to his lower half later this week. I also need to give him a nice coating of grime.
I've managed to get most of the shading on his upper half, and will likely get to his lower half later this week. I also need to give him a nice coating of grime.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Episode 78: Battle Meditation
Let us regain our focus, Gamer Nation, as I bring you the 78th installment of Fragments from the Rim.
When Timothy Zahn wrote the Thrawn Crisis Trilogy, Star Wars fans were first exposed to a seemingly-powerful Force Ability that allowed Emerpor Palpatine, and Joruus Caboth in Zahn’s books, an edge over their opponents in combat. This ability was explored further in the Tales of the Jedi series of comic books, and once more in the first Knights of the Old Republic video game. That’s right, I’m talking about Battle Meditation, a power that has seen various iterations over the years, from uber-powerful to talent-wasting ineffectiveness.
Setting the Way Back Machine for the 1990s and the West End Games days of Star Wars Gaming, Battle Mediation was a powerful ability, able to affect tens of thousands of individuals, reducing one of their attributes while increasing allies attributes by the same amount. The downside was that the character with Battle Meditation was doing nothing for the entire encounter except sitting in a lotus position sustaining the power. That’s all your contribution to the combat was; maintaining Battle Meditation. It also took five minutes to “set up”, so you’d better know the enemy fleet is coming, or that ground assault is on its way and have time to prepare to get the Battle Meditation in place.
In SAGA, we see the power flip to the opposite end of the spectrum in just about every regard. Now instead of 5 minutes to activate, it’s a full-round action and a Force Point. Instead of tens of thousands of beings affected through-out the star system, it’s all allies within 6 squares of you. Instead of decimating your foes ability to fight, you bump up your allies attack rolls by 1. And it’s an insight bonus; it doesn’t even stack with a Noble’s Born Leader talent. Heck, it doesn’t even COMPARE to Born Leader, which is Line of Sight and a swift action to activate.
That’s actually the only thing about Battle Meditation that is better than Born Leader, no Line of Sight restriction. The other thing is that you can get the insight bonus to attack rolls, where a Noble with Born Leader does not.
But let’s look at what someone can do with Battle Meditation. In the Knights of the Old Republic campaign guide we were given several talents that could make Battle Meditation a viable character choice. The first is a standard Jedi Talent; Improved Battle Meditation. It now only costs a swift action to activate Battle Meditation, instead of a full-round action. Next, the range of Battle Meditation is now a 12 square radius, greatly increasing the range of the bonuses and penalties the power applies. Third, enemies within the radius of your Battle Meditation now suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls.
Now we have a talent that harkens back to the original feel of Battle Meditation, decent range, and can be used in a moment. If you’re willing to invest completely in Battle Meditation, you’ll need to go into Jedi Knight and pick up two talents from the Jedi Battlemaster tree; Defensive Circle and Jedi Battle Commander. Jedi Battle Commander simply makes the +1 insight bonus a +2. Defensive Circle allows you to grant some protection to those in your Battle Meditation. As a swift action, you and any allies affected by your Battle Meditation gain a +2 insight bonus to Reflex Defense, lasting as long as they are affected by your Battle Meditation. Additionally, you gain a +1 bonus to your Use the Force checks to Block and Deflect for each adjacent ally wielding a lightsaber.
For all these talents, you have to have Battle Meditation, obviously. Defensive Circle is the only one where you need to also have Jedi Battle Commander and either Block or Deflect to get.
So a level 10 Jedi Knight with all these talents can, as two swift actions, spend a Force Point to grant himself and all allies within 12 squares +2 Insight bonus to Attack Rolls and Reflex Defenses, penalize all enemies attack rolls by -1, and grant himself a +1 bonus to use Block and Deflect for every adjacent lightsaber wielding ally. You know, that doesn’t sound too bad at all.
So what’s the best type of Jedi to use this? To really be effective at providing this party buff, you’re going to be spending a lot of time in the middle of your party. A lot of your movement is going to likely be spent maneuvering yourself to keep all your allies within your 12 square radius. That pretty much limits you from charging to the front lines and wailing on a Sith with your lightsaber. I feel that if you’re going to take this path that you devote yourself to a Force Wizard type of build. Get a bunch of Force Powers you can use at range, like Move Object, Force Blast, Force Stun, or Ballistakinesis. Look at Force Disarm too, it’s pretty good with the right Force Technique. If you really like to hit enemies with your light saber, look at the Lightsaber Force Power Draw Closer, which can bring a foe to you and let you hit it with your saber as one standard action. For your talents, take Deflect and Redirect Shot. You’ll need Deflect or Block for Defensive Circle, and if you’re not going to be in the front line much anyway you’re likely to be a target for ranged attackers. Might as well maximize your defense and your ability to send the shot back at an enemy.
Looking over this, I think this could be a really fun character to play, and a great boon to the rest of the party. I just don’t know if I could suffer the 10 levels of play it would require to get there.
Sabers off until next time, folks. For Fragments from the Rim this is DarthGM wishing you 20 side up, and 1 side down.
When Timothy Zahn wrote the Thrawn Crisis Trilogy, Star Wars fans were first exposed to a seemingly-powerful Force Ability that allowed Emerpor Palpatine, and Joruus Caboth in Zahn’s books, an edge over their opponents in combat. This ability was explored further in the Tales of the Jedi series of comic books, and once more in the first Knights of the Old Republic video game. That’s right, I’m talking about Battle Meditation, a power that has seen various iterations over the years, from uber-powerful to talent-wasting ineffectiveness.
Setting the Way Back Machine for the 1990s and the West End Games days of Star Wars Gaming, Battle Mediation was a powerful ability, able to affect tens of thousands of individuals, reducing one of their attributes while increasing allies attributes by the same amount. The downside was that the character with Battle Meditation was doing nothing for the entire encounter except sitting in a lotus position sustaining the power. That’s all your contribution to the combat was; maintaining Battle Meditation. It also took five minutes to “set up”, so you’d better know the enemy fleet is coming, or that ground assault is on its way and have time to prepare to get the Battle Meditation in place.
In SAGA, we see the power flip to the opposite end of the spectrum in just about every regard. Now instead of 5 minutes to activate, it’s a full-round action and a Force Point. Instead of tens of thousands of beings affected through-out the star system, it’s all allies within 6 squares of you. Instead of decimating your foes ability to fight, you bump up your allies attack rolls by 1. And it’s an insight bonus; it doesn’t even stack with a Noble’s Born Leader talent. Heck, it doesn’t even COMPARE to Born Leader, which is Line of Sight and a swift action to activate.
That’s actually the only thing about Battle Meditation that is better than Born Leader, no Line of Sight restriction. The other thing is that you can get the insight bonus to attack rolls, where a Noble with Born Leader does not.
But let’s look at what someone can do with Battle Meditation. In the Knights of the Old Republic campaign guide we were given several talents that could make Battle Meditation a viable character choice. The first is a standard Jedi Talent; Improved Battle Meditation. It now only costs a swift action to activate Battle Meditation, instead of a full-round action. Next, the range of Battle Meditation is now a 12 square radius, greatly increasing the range of the bonuses and penalties the power applies. Third, enemies within the radius of your Battle Meditation now suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls.
Now we have a talent that harkens back to the original feel of Battle Meditation, decent range, and can be used in a moment. If you’re willing to invest completely in Battle Meditation, you’ll need to go into Jedi Knight and pick up two talents from the Jedi Battlemaster tree; Defensive Circle and Jedi Battle Commander. Jedi Battle Commander simply makes the +1 insight bonus a +2. Defensive Circle allows you to grant some protection to those in your Battle Meditation. As a swift action, you and any allies affected by your Battle Meditation gain a +2 insight bonus to Reflex Defense, lasting as long as they are affected by your Battle Meditation. Additionally, you gain a +1 bonus to your Use the Force checks to Block and Deflect for each adjacent ally wielding a lightsaber.
For all these talents, you have to have Battle Meditation, obviously. Defensive Circle is the only one where you need to also have Jedi Battle Commander and either Block or Deflect to get.
So a level 10 Jedi Knight with all these talents can, as two swift actions, spend a Force Point to grant himself and all allies within 12 squares +2 Insight bonus to Attack Rolls and Reflex Defenses, penalize all enemies attack rolls by -1, and grant himself a +1 bonus to use Block and Deflect for every adjacent lightsaber wielding ally. You know, that doesn’t sound too bad at all.
So what’s the best type of Jedi to use this? To really be effective at providing this party buff, you’re going to be spending a lot of time in the middle of your party. A lot of your movement is going to likely be spent maneuvering yourself to keep all your allies within your 12 square radius. That pretty much limits you from charging to the front lines and wailing on a Sith with your lightsaber. I feel that if you’re going to take this path that you devote yourself to a Force Wizard type of build. Get a bunch of Force Powers you can use at range, like Move Object, Force Blast, Force Stun, or Ballistakinesis. Look at Force Disarm too, it’s pretty good with the right Force Technique. If you really like to hit enemies with your light saber, look at the Lightsaber Force Power Draw Closer, which can bring a foe to you and let you hit it with your saber as one standard action. For your talents, take Deflect and Redirect Shot. You’ll need Deflect or Block for Defensive Circle, and if you’re not going to be in the front line much anyway you’re likely to be a target for ranged attackers. Might as well maximize your defense and your ability to send the shot back at an enemy.
Looking over this, I think this could be a really fun character to play, and a great boon to the rest of the party. I just don’t know if I could suffer the 10 levels of play it would require to get there.
Sabers off until next time, folks. For Fragments from the Rim this is DarthGM wishing you 20 side up, and 1 side down.
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.
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.
Episode 76: Frightening Cleave
DarthGM here with the 76th Installment of Fragments From the Rim.
I’m heading back to the Unknown Regions for a Feat that…well…it scares the crap outta me. Which is appropriate, because it’s called Frightening Cleave. You need to have a Strength of 13, Power Attack, Cleave, and a Base Attack Bonus of +4. Given these requirements, any 4th level soldier built for melee combat could take advantage of this Feat. Any Jedi built for melee combat could too; it would just take some creative character building.
What this feat does is immediately after you use the Cleave feat, each enemy within a 6 squares of you and with line of sight takes a -1 penalty to its reflex defense, attack rolls, and skill checks against you until the end of the encounter. This penalty stacks to a maximum of -5. This effect is a mind-effecting effect.
If you’re a rampaging Wookie with a vibro-axe, or a droid-wrecking Jedi with a lightsaber, you can potentially layer on the pain of a major villain by ruthlessly eviscerating their minions before them. One thing that concerned me, and always has about cleave, is that it’s hard to use round after round. As you go up in levels, the opponents get tougher, and the major villains get meaner. That makes it really tricky to be the one to drop a target, and have another enemy nearby to cleave into. Plus if you’re obeying the The List, your GM has spread out the foes and kept them from clustering up too much.
That being said, if you could still get some good mileage out of this feat with a little help from your friends. If you have a Force using buddy who likes to toss people around with Move Object, get on their good side and talk them into constantly moving opponents into adjacent squares to you, injuring them, and letting you finish them off. If you’re toe to toe with a Sith Warrior, you can keep finishing off his minions, cleaving into the Sith, and imposing a cumulative penalty to them, lowering their defense to your attacks, hindering their Use the Force checks against you, and distracting their attacks so they miss.
Maybe this feat isn’t scary…maybe it’s just mean.
Ah well, on that note, we’ll see you next time, Gamer Nation. This is Darth GM wishing you the 20 side up, and the one side down.
I’m heading back to the Unknown Regions for a Feat that…well…it scares the crap outta me. Which is appropriate, because it’s called Frightening Cleave. You need to have a Strength of 13, Power Attack, Cleave, and a Base Attack Bonus of +4. Given these requirements, any 4th level soldier built for melee combat could take advantage of this Feat. Any Jedi built for melee combat could too; it would just take some creative character building.
What this feat does is immediately after you use the Cleave feat, each enemy within a 6 squares of you and with line of sight takes a -1 penalty to its reflex defense, attack rolls, and skill checks against you until the end of the encounter. This penalty stacks to a maximum of -5. This effect is a mind-effecting effect.
If you’re a rampaging Wookie with a vibro-axe, or a droid-wrecking Jedi with a lightsaber, you can potentially layer on the pain of a major villain by ruthlessly eviscerating their minions before them. One thing that concerned me, and always has about cleave, is that it’s hard to use round after round. As you go up in levels, the opponents get tougher, and the major villains get meaner. That makes it really tricky to be the one to drop a target, and have another enemy nearby to cleave into. Plus if you’re obeying the The List, your GM has spread out the foes and kept them from clustering up too much.
That being said, if you could still get some good mileage out of this feat with a little help from your friends. If you have a Force using buddy who likes to toss people around with Move Object, get on their good side and talk them into constantly moving opponents into adjacent squares to you, injuring them, and letting you finish them off. If you’re toe to toe with a Sith Warrior, you can keep finishing off his minions, cleaving into the Sith, and imposing a cumulative penalty to them, lowering their defense to your attacks, hindering their Use the Force checks against you, and distracting their attacks so they miss.
Maybe this feat isn’t scary…maybe it’s just mean.
Ah well, on that note, we’ll see you next time, Gamer Nation. This is Darth GM wishing you the 20 side up, and the one side down.
Episode 75: Piercing Hit
75 installments, and Fragments from the Rim is marching on.
I’m DarthGM, and this time we’re heading to the Unknown Regions for a Scout Talent that can really ruin a Mandalorian’s day. On page 21 you’ll find the Scout talent Piercing Hit. It’s a third-tier talent with three uses in an encounter. You need to have Acute Senses and Keen Shot talents to take this one, which really flavors this talent for a Sniper build. However all three of these abilities can be done with either a melee or a ranged attack.
As I said, this talent offers three different uses per encounter, specifically styled towards screwing over opponents that wear armor. The first is Binding Hit, where your attack dislodges an enemy’s armor to hinder their defenses. If you hit and damage the target, the target loses Armor bonuses to Reflex Defense and is flat footed until they spend a standard action to adjust the armor. This is a great attack to help set up a devastating sneak attack or dastardly strike from a Smuggler, or to just really help make a heavily armored opponent easier to hit for your allies. It’s also great for granting a round of reprieve from the armored character’s attacks, as they have to spend their standard action to reset their armor. Either they spend the Standard action to reset their armor, or they keep getting pwned by a lack of Armor Bonus and by being Flat-Footed.
The next encounter ability is Blinding Fire. If your attack hits and deals damage, the target takes a -2 penalty to all attacks until the end of your next turn. Additionally, all other creatures, droids, and vehicles gain concealment against the target until the end of your next turn. Again, don’t let the name fool you, you can use this ability with a melee attack. You’re basically smacking the armored villain in the helmet and knocking it off kilter, allowing all your allies, and everyone else for that matter, the opportunity to hide…and set up for another sneaky shot from a smuggler.
Finally, there’s Slowing Shot. After being hit so hard their breast plate goes off kilter, and then following it up with their helmet getting turned 180 degrees on them, if this doesn’t convince your foe he should just go into combat naked because it would be a lot safer in the long run I don’t know what will. If you hit and damage the target with Slowing Shot, the target’s speed is reduced to two squares. Not reduced BY two, reduced TO two squares, until the end of your next turn. Now you’ve knocked their knee plates off to the side, or caused their thigh plate to slip down and prevent the knee from moving.
In Star Wars, there are plenty of characters that wear armor. Whether you’re using this talent to mess with stormtroopers, or putting the serious hurt on a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter that’s harassing your party, you can’t go wrong with this talent. And as someone who occasionally wears full suits of armor, I can attest first hand to the debilitating effects of something, or someone, messing with the fit of your armor.
Until next time, Gamer Nation, 20 side up, one side down.
I’m DarthGM, and this time we’re heading to the Unknown Regions for a Scout Talent that can really ruin a Mandalorian’s day. On page 21 you’ll find the Scout talent Piercing Hit. It’s a third-tier talent with three uses in an encounter. You need to have Acute Senses and Keen Shot talents to take this one, which really flavors this talent for a Sniper build. However all three of these abilities can be done with either a melee or a ranged attack.
As I said, this talent offers three different uses per encounter, specifically styled towards screwing over opponents that wear armor. The first is Binding Hit, where your attack dislodges an enemy’s armor to hinder their defenses. If you hit and damage the target, the target loses Armor bonuses to Reflex Defense and is flat footed until they spend a standard action to adjust the armor. This is a great attack to help set up a devastating sneak attack or dastardly strike from a Smuggler, or to just really help make a heavily armored opponent easier to hit for your allies. It’s also great for granting a round of reprieve from the armored character’s attacks, as they have to spend their standard action to reset their armor. Either they spend the Standard action to reset their armor, or they keep getting pwned by a lack of Armor Bonus and by being Flat-Footed.
The next encounter ability is Blinding Fire. If your attack hits and deals damage, the target takes a -2 penalty to all attacks until the end of your next turn. Additionally, all other creatures, droids, and vehicles gain concealment against the target until the end of your next turn. Again, don’t let the name fool you, you can use this ability with a melee attack. You’re basically smacking the armored villain in the helmet and knocking it off kilter, allowing all your allies, and everyone else for that matter, the opportunity to hide…and set up for another sneaky shot from a smuggler.
Finally, there’s Slowing Shot. After being hit so hard their breast plate goes off kilter, and then following it up with their helmet getting turned 180 degrees on them, if this doesn’t convince your foe he should just go into combat naked because it would be a lot safer in the long run I don’t know what will. If you hit and damage the target with Slowing Shot, the target’s speed is reduced to two squares. Not reduced BY two, reduced TO two squares, until the end of your next turn. Now you’ve knocked their knee plates off to the side, or caused their thigh plate to slip down and prevent the knee from moving.
In Star Wars, there are plenty of characters that wear armor. Whether you’re using this talent to mess with stormtroopers, or putting the serious hurt on a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter that’s harassing your party, you can’t go wrong with this talent. And as someone who occasionally wears full suits of armor, I can attest first hand to the debilitating effects of something, or someone, messing with the fit of your armor.
Until next time, Gamer Nation, 20 side up, one side down.
Episode 74: Defensive Thoughts
*rolls a d20* …miss...
*rolls a d20* …miss...
*rolls a d20* Huh... another miss...
Welcome to the 74th Installment of Fragments from the Rim. I’m DarthGM and today I want to talk about something that’s come up recently in my Legacy Era game.
One of my PCs plays an Imperial Knight, and through most of his career he’s had the Block and Deflect talents. He’s 12th level now and running around with a Reflex Defense of 31, thanks to the Armor Mastery Talent, the Imperial Knight Battle Armor, and a fairly decent Dexterity score. The player has actually found that the Block and Deflect talents are now useless to him, because if the attack does hit him, it’s highly unlikely he’ll be able to roll the number required to beat the attack roll. It’s a good thing he never took Redirect Shot, or he’d never use the Talent at all. He would actually get a lot more mileage from his talents and a greater defensive benefit by replacing both talents with two selections of Lightsaber Defense, which is what he did.
This led me to ponder situations and character choices where having both a high defense and having Block or Deflect would be helpful. Several feats out there imply a penalty to your Reflex Defense, and still having Block and Deflect to fall back on could be a benefit. Desperate Gambit, Flurry, and Sniper Shot all come to mind. For Flurry and Sniper Shot, you’re getting a +2 to your attack rolls with melee and ranged weapons respectively, but take a -5 penalty to your Reflex Defense. Desperate Gambit, covered by Alex back in Fragments from the Rim 15 [by Alex and Trevor], allows you to reroll a failed attack roll at a -2 penalty to your Reflex Defense, or a -5 penalty if you’re rerolling a natural 1 on your attack check. Charging imposes a -2 penalty to your Defense, and there are several useful feats and a couple feats out there that modify your charge attack.
If you put all your effort into a charge, roll a 1, and decide to reroll with the Desperate Gambit feat, that 31 defense is now a 24. That’s a Reflex defense score that your average CL 10 opponent shouldn’t have too much trouble hitting. You now have a situation where Deflect can still protect you.
So if you’re rockin’ a high defense, and like to stack up Flurry, Critical Strike, and Improved Rapid Strike on an attack roll, and want to use Desperate Gambit to help make sure it hits, you may just want to hold on to Block and Deflect for insurance.
That’s it for this installment. If you have any questions, drop me a PM on the D20 Radio Forums. Until next time Gamer Nation; 20-side up, 1-side down.
*rolls a d20* …miss...
*rolls a d20* Huh... another miss...
Welcome to the 74th Installment of Fragments from the Rim. I’m DarthGM and today I want to talk about something that’s come up recently in my Legacy Era game.
One of my PCs plays an Imperial Knight, and through most of his career he’s had the Block and Deflect talents. He’s 12th level now and running around with a Reflex Defense of 31, thanks to the Armor Mastery Talent, the Imperial Knight Battle Armor, and a fairly decent Dexterity score. The player has actually found that the Block and Deflect talents are now useless to him, because if the attack does hit him, it’s highly unlikely he’ll be able to roll the number required to beat the attack roll. It’s a good thing he never took Redirect Shot, or he’d never use the Talent at all. He would actually get a lot more mileage from his talents and a greater defensive benefit by replacing both talents with two selections of Lightsaber Defense, which is what he did.
This led me to ponder situations and character choices where having both a high defense and having Block or Deflect would be helpful. Several feats out there imply a penalty to your Reflex Defense, and still having Block and Deflect to fall back on could be a benefit. Desperate Gambit, Flurry, and Sniper Shot all come to mind. For Flurry and Sniper Shot, you’re getting a +2 to your attack rolls with melee and ranged weapons respectively, but take a -5 penalty to your Reflex Defense. Desperate Gambit, covered by Alex back in Fragments from the Rim 15 [by Alex and Trevor], allows you to reroll a failed attack roll at a -2 penalty to your Reflex Defense, or a -5 penalty if you’re rerolling a natural 1 on your attack check. Charging imposes a -2 penalty to your Defense, and there are several useful feats and a couple feats out there that modify your charge attack.
If you put all your effort into a charge, roll a 1, and decide to reroll with the Desperate Gambit feat, that 31 defense is now a 24. That’s a Reflex defense score that your average CL 10 opponent shouldn’t have too much trouble hitting. You now have a situation where Deflect can still protect you.
So if you’re rockin’ a high defense, and like to stack up Flurry, Critical Strike, and Improved Rapid Strike on an attack roll, and want to use Desperate Gambit to help make sure it hits, you may just want to hold on to Block and Deflect for insurance.
That’s it for this installment. If you have any questions, drop me a PM on the D20 Radio Forums. Until next time Gamer Nation; 20-side up, 1-side down.
Episode 73: Guardian Spirit
Good Day! This is Darth GM with the 73rd installment of Fragments from the Rim.
With the most recent episode of the Clone Wars, as well as a talent choice by one of my PCs, I decided to take another look at what many would consider a wasted talent. The talent can be found on pg 16 of the Jedi Academy Training Manual, and it is the main talent of the Guardian Spirit Talent Tree. I’m talking about, of course, the Guardian Spirit talent.
When you take this talent, a Force spirit is watching over you from the realm of the Force, able to provide insight and advice. When you use the Search your Feelings aspect of the UtF skill, you can instead choose to consult your Guardian Spirit. When you do so, you learn much more than simply if the action is favorable or unfavorable, you also learn the nature of any immediate consequences, including potential encounters, and whether or not certain actions will bring you closer to your destiny.
Additionally, you gain one bonus Force point each day (after you rest for at least 6 hours). This Force point can only be used to improve a Force power or activate a Force Technique or Force Secret.
The presence of a Guardian spirit in your game is usually one that should be worked out with your GM, not only because it causes the GM to have an NPC Force Spirit for your character to converse with, but because the application of this talent allows for more foreshadowing and information to be provided to the player in the form of conversation with the Force Spirit.
This talent presents an interesting option for information gathering. You can converse with your Force Spirit about almost any action, and gleam it’s potential advantages and disadvantages. Plus, the bonus Force point, while limited in its expenditure, can help out in situations where you might want to spend a Force point, but really don’t want to burn one of your precious few. One example that leaps to mind is Vital Transfer, and spending a Force point to blow off the damage the Force User takes. It also allows a Jedi Master with Force secrets more Force points to do some really powerful Force tricks, and underscores that you’re never too old for advice from those who have gone before you.
I’ll have to make some preparations for what the Force Spirit my PC will interact with will have to say, but I think this will make for some very interesting Role Playing Encounters.
We have come to the end of another Fragments, young padawans. Until next time this is Darth GM wishing you the 20 side up, and the 1 side down.
With the most recent episode of the Clone Wars, as well as a talent choice by one of my PCs, I decided to take another look at what many would consider a wasted talent. The talent can be found on pg 16 of the Jedi Academy Training Manual, and it is the main talent of the Guardian Spirit Talent Tree. I’m talking about, of course, the Guardian Spirit talent.
When you take this talent, a Force spirit is watching over you from the realm of the Force, able to provide insight and advice. When you use the Search your Feelings aspect of the UtF skill, you can instead choose to consult your Guardian Spirit. When you do so, you learn much more than simply if the action is favorable or unfavorable, you also learn the nature of any immediate consequences, including potential encounters, and whether or not certain actions will bring you closer to your destiny.
Additionally, you gain one bonus Force point each day (after you rest for at least 6 hours). This Force point can only be used to improve a Force power or activate a Force Technique or Force Secret.
The presence of a Guardian spirit in your game is usually one that should be worked out with your GM, not only because it causes the GM to have an NPC Force Spirit for your character to converse with, but because the application of this talent allows for more foreshadowing and information to be provided to the player in the form of conversation with the Force Spirit.
This talent presents an interesting option for information gathering. You can converse with your Force Spirit about almost any action, and gleam it’s potential advantages and disadvantages. Plus, the bonus Force point, while limited in its expenditure, can help out in situations where you might want to spend a Force point, but really don’t want to burn one of your precious few. One example that leaps to mind is Vital Transfer, and spending a Force point to blow off the damage the Force User takes. It also allows a Jedi Master with Force secrets more Force points to do some really powerful Force tricks, and underscores that you’re never too old for advice from those who have gone before you.
I’ll have to make some preparations for what the Force Spirit my PC will interact with will have to say, but I think this will make for some very interesting Role Playing Encounters.
We have come to the end of another Fragments, young padawans. Until next time this is Darth GM wishing you the 20 side up, and the 1 side down.
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