Misdirect and Lightsaber fighting

[MatrixQ 3]

So I'm eager to be playing my first force sensitive character. I'll be playing a Bothan Spy Force Sensitive who will start out captured and we'll go from there. I'm looking at the way I want him to grow and I would very much like him to go the way of the sage. I know, Shadow would fit more with a spy, but I see him more going into the councelor/wise man direction over teh course of the game. Still, he will start out as a spy and that will somewhat influence the way he goes about things.

 

We'll be three force users total, one of them will be going for a Soresu style, while the other one is going for Shii-Cho. I'm kind of trying to figure out where to go with my character in order round out the team. I'm mainly going for support, but I also like the somewhat extravagant style of Makashi that would allow him to do fairly well in a single opponent situation. This is also part of why I am shying away from the Shadow, as I see him more as a loner, which doesn't fit too much into the group like this.

 

I'm not really looking to minmax (I'm starting out with highest Cunning and will transition to a Presence based char), I'm mostly trying to get a better feel for where I'm going with this and how I might achieve it. One of the powers I'll be going for is definitely Battle Meditation, as that is THE support power, but that's a long way off.

 

Misdirect will be the first power I'll go for, as it makes perfect sense for a spy. Later, when he is able to do illusions as well, I would like him to go for a misdirect influenced style of Makashi. One of the key ideas was to use a two saber fighting style with only one saber and create the illusion of one in the other hand. That would certainly create some confusion among his opponents, as they never know which saber to actually defend against.

Question is, would that make sense? Would that be feasible? How could we do this mechanically?

 

Any suggestions/additional ideas?

[kaosoe 7,573]

If you're going sage, maybe you should not focus so much on the lightsaber (you already got 2 saber monkeys), and instead focus on the using the Force. It takes a lot more effort if you go this route (getting Force Rating is a slow and arduous process), but it could make for a more dynamic team.

[i.jenkinson 54]

Just having a lightsabre and a couple of points in the skill will make you a decent 2nd line fighter so maybe take your time and see how it goes.

 

With no talents you won't be doing the flash stuff but when it comes to just killing people the lightsabre talents don't make much difference, they will just allow you to survice combat more.

[Donovan Morningfire 10,200]

Yeah, in the early going you're either going to have to choose between heavy focus on a lightsaber and being able to become a more proficient Force user, primarily as most of the Lightsaber Form specs don't have the Force Rating talent; with the exception of Niman Disciple, you'll need a second spec to get above Force Rating 1.

 

From what's been said, it sounds like there's already two saber-monkeys in the party, so I'd suggest not really bothering with the lightsaber beyond a couple of skill ranks (at most).  If you're not looking to be an out-and-out Force wizard but still want some combat tricks, the Peacekeeper and Protector specs under Guardian are pretty solid, with Peacekeeper offering a number of command-related talents.

 

Misdirect's a bit situational in usage, as it's mostly good for avoiding attention being drawn to you, particularly in the early going.  It is a very good power for a Sentinel/Shadow, and you can just as easily pick up the Influence power to put your Force rating to use for social interaction checks, either with the direct mind whammy or simply adding your Force dice to those checks.

[MatrixQ 3]

Ah, I forgot to mention the char starts out with the force sensitive exile career, so that's where his first and probably second force rating come from.

 

I was going to go sage, as that fits the way I see the char grow. The Soresu guy is already going towards peacemaker and I don't really like it when the characters tread on each other's areas of expertise.

I was definitely going to go heavy on the force powers, especially since the Sage also allows me to go for 2 additional force ratings, making this char quite a force power house with 4 possible dice. Though that's a long way off. Over all, more Force Wizard (I like the term) than Saber Monkey (also a great term). But... come on, Jedi, lightsaber. I've got to have at least something. Though it makes sense to maybe just go for a lightsaber tree and take the characteristic talent, since I won't be able to do anything with my meager Bothan brawn. And otherwise I'll just push up my force abilities. and see how I can use those in combat to aid the others.

 

As far as I understand it, buying force powers is, for the most part, better than getting additional force rating die. I mean sure, I get that some powers or upgrades can't be used without a second or even third die, but there seems to be a lot you can do with FR1 already. Though the exile has some nice talents I want to take anyway, so spending those points to get there isn't going to be much of a problem.

 

With a bit of luck, I can satisfy my lightsaber cravings another way and go all out Ataru with a secondary character.

 

Thanks, I think I've got a better idea of where I'm going with this now. Thanks.

[Jareth Valar 481]

Well, with not going into a saber spec, you would have more experience to spend on force powers. If you want to not be left out of the fight, I would suggest Enhance, as at a higher level you can commit to increase your Brawn, thus your Lightsaber ability. Since you expect to have the most (probably) force dice, this will still leave you with some to play around with after enhance.

 

If you want to commit to a saber style, and stay defensive, Shien is excellent as it's the only one with Supreme Reflect, leaving you and the Soresu bouncing back blaster bolts.  Or Niman, if you are wanting to stay a 'force wizard' it's the only saber spec that adds a force die and is still a very nice style.

 

Though Shien would benefit from your higher Cunning, and Makashi would benefit from your (eventual) higher presence, I personally think Makashi is more suited for someone who prefers to 'get up in da face', just mano y mano instead of groups.

 

So IMHO, if you feel the need to have a specific style, I'd suggest Niman or Shien. Niman would be my first choice with what you have described.

[MatrixQ 3]

I had been eyeing Shien as well, partly because of cunning, partly because of the defensive way of fighting it supports. Niman is fine, but I'm not too much of a fan. Even though it gives an additional force rating. The GM kind of plans on giving us some aadditional xp to offset the cost of some of the trees and powers we'll inevitably be buying in the campaign, so that's going to work nicely. I'll see if I'll skill deeper into it or just a bit to get the basics. I'll always have sense to fall back on with some higher force rating, and if all else fails I'll just misdirect and bail.

 

I was kind of going to avoid the brawn branch of the enhance tree. It'll be expensive already. Plus one point more or less is not going to make that much of a difference, I'm afraid. Plus, the Shii-Cho guy is already going full on brawn, being a trandoshan and all.

 

****, I think I just need to play a couple of dozen games to do all the things I want that don't fit together. For now I will just restrict myself to basic Shien plus loads of force powers. Should be fun. And once I learned the whole Battle Meditation tree, I'll just leech the lightsaber knowledge off the others.

[bradknowles 4,449]

I’ve got a Presence-based character in Stuart’s F&D game, and s/he hasn’t gotten any kind of lightsaber yet. Technically, Klaad/ia is a male Clawdite, but finds that presenting as an attractive human female is usually more effective.

When in combat, Klaad has a hold-out blaster, and does okay. We do have a Makashi fighter in the group, and with his sense abilities committed and a Defensive Stance taken, he’s nearly impossible to hit. My character has recently dipped into the Move tree, enough to allow me to grab weapons out of the hands of other people, but I’m not planning on going much further in that area.

As the main Face for the group, I tend to be the group leader, but I try very hard to include everyone on discussions and present things like “I would be inclined…”. We do have an NPC that is giving us missions, and recently we’ve had the honor of traveling and fighting side-by-side with Grandmaster Luke, but the GM is really good about letting the NPCs fade into the background.

We did have a Chadra-fan PC who was a lot heavier into the Move tree, and also had FR2, but Charlie hasn’t been playing for a while, so that character seems to be retired.

My character is the only other one in the group that is currently FR2, but I’m sure that the others aren’t too far behind me.

I’m definitely angling to be more of the “Force Sage”, and while I might wind up getting a lightsaber at some point, I’m really not looking forward to that. My character is not entirely non-combat, but s/he does feel that having a lightsaber is a big step closer to the precipice of the Dark Side.

Klaad might be okay with having a training saber, I haven’t figured that part out yet. But that would be a significant investment to pick up a combat specialty in order to support having a saber of any kind.

Edited July 5, 2015 by bradknowles

[MatrixQ 3]

That sounds pretty cool. I've come to flesh out my character a bit, which gives me a bit of an insight as well as a cool way to have both. First, his uncle was a Jedi in the clone wars that my parents talked about a lot, but always in terms of "war hero", never mentioning Jedi. He actually survived order 66 because he was only with a small group on a scouting mission. The ship was damaged in the struggle and he crashed on a remote planet. He lived for a few years there in hiding, but eventually died of old age. My character will go to look for him after a vision and, if successful, will get his lightsaber or at least the hilt. Fixing the sabee and going on a crystal quest is kind of an honor thing after that. Though the weapon will be mostly decorative and ceremonial.

 

The other thing I'll go with is a brother who is similarly force sensitive to mine, but far more rash and emotional. He got captured as well, but the inquisitors had an easier time noticing that he is force sensitive and, given his nature, an easy time taking him to the dark side. I'll sort of level this one side by side, and at some point, my character gets captured and I'll play this one for a while, infiltrating the group. He'll be a hunter and ataru striker, so I'll have some fun swinging around a saber for a while. It's going to be one of the things that will tip off the others, but that's part of the fun.

 

The original character will go heavy on the force. I'll see that I get down in the exile tree fast and pick up the occasional force power on the way. once I got the second force die, I'll go all in on the force powers, picking up battle meditation and deeper into the other trees.

 

Does my own skill do anything when defending against something? In that case I'd take up Shien just to get some solid defense. Together with Sense, it should do me some good.