Looking to play Star Wars SAGA

[Batman4560]

6, so how are we figuring starting gear?

[hellrazoromega]

I don't suppose you have any slots open?

[Muse]

  I love that comic, Frag. 

  So, why dexterity 18?  Especialy at the cost of inteligence left at 16? 

[Batman4560]

Here is what I have so far. http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=272015

[Cassandra LeMay]

I don't suppose you have any slots open?

As a matter of fact I'd be happy to have one more character on board.  :-)

  Are we level 5 or level 6?

Your choice. If you are undecided what classes to take and want to play a little before making up your mind you can be level 5. I'd give you ... say, 13,500 XP in that case, meaning you will reach level 6 before too long.

6, so how are we figuring starting gear?

I'll begin thinking about that when I am done working out some details and NPCs for the first 2 or 3 encounters. Right now getting my adventure ideas and setting details in order takes up most of my creativity.

[hellrazoromega]

OK, I freely admit to being a Jediphile so I'll give this a shot--to see if you'd allow it.

Kia Jan-Tarsis was a youngling on the way back with other younglings from the trip to find their saber crystals an make their lightabers when the Temple fell. The Jedi Master accompanying them received Obi-Wan and Yoda's override of the signal and hid the younglings on an unexplored planet well off any know hyperspace route while he left to gather information. He son returned after learning of the ongoing purge. He had hoped to train the younglings to preserve the Order. Months grew into years and the Master was killed by the one of the many dangers the planet offered, and then one by one the other younglings followed leaving Kia alone. Only several years later when a crippled scout ship wandered onto her planet to make repairs was she discovered. Heeding the master's final warning and the news she heard of the galaxy she hid what she was and stayed on the fringe until she could find shelter with the rebellion and use her skill as a scout to stay away from anyone who could give her away, even inadvertently.

That is a basic overview of what I was shooting for, but I was thinking 2-3 levels of Jedi and the rest Scout and I am perfectly OK with being a middle aged character.

[Batman4560]

OK so I'm rolling hp and I don't really know how to use the dice bot and post what I rolled. Can anyone tell me how that works?

[Cassandra LeMay]

OK so I'm rolling hp and I don't really know how to use the dice bot and post what I rolled. Can anyone tell me how that works?

The dicebot is pretty self-explanatory, as I recall it. Once you made a roll you'll see a results page with a few links, one of them "view my rolls". That brings up a list of your dice rolls. Click on the "ID" link for the roll in question (leftmost column of the rolls list). That brings up a page that provides you with a url code you can post like this:

Code Select Expand

[url=/forums/dicebot.php?r=77864]At 2015-07-11 01:52:44, Cassandra LeMay (uid: 52364) rolls: 1d20 Result: 16[/url]
Posted that looks like this:
At 2015-07-11 01:52:44, Cassandra LeMay (uid: 52364) rolls: 1d20 Result: 16

[Batman4560]

Ok lets see if I did this right...

At 2015-07-11 01:58:53, Batman4560 (uid: 44483) rolls: 5d10 Result: 33

[Cassandra LeMay]

A few preliminary thoughts about the character we have so far and those who are in the works:

Hellrazor: If that's the character you want, go for it. Nothing wrong with the concept.

Muse: Would you consider giving your Twilek scoundrel some of the more interpersonal skills, perhaps making her someone who picked up some persuasion and deception skills dealing with the underworld? We are still somewhat lacking in that department. If that means you don't have enough talents/feats to turn her into the ship's gunner, maybe there could be a solution to that.

Batman: Would you consider taking Weapon proficiency: Heavy Weapons instead of one of the feats you now have? Your character could make a pretty good ship's gunner if you took that one feat.
Also, while the armor feats are pretty impressive, wearing armor will make you stand out like a sore thumb in some situations. If it's what you want, go for it, but have you considered going in the weapon specialist direction? I guess it might depend a bit on the character's background.

Frag: Would you be willing to take Trace instead of Master Slicer if no one else covers the Gather Information skill?

[Batman4560]

I'm new to Saga so let me ask you guys. Is one of these following feats more "worth it" than the others...

Shake it off, Weapon Focus, Martial Arts.

Those are the ones I would for sure be willing to take out for Heavy Weapons Prof.

My initial idea was to make this character a sort of enforcer for the rest of the group. Or someone who can take the brunt of attacks for the rest of the group. Hence the Armor traits. I had considered the weapons specialist path but it didn't really grab my attention. However I did like the idea of being able to take lots of strikes and be able to chip away at enemy hp i.e. the knight from D&D 3.5

But if anyone has suggestions please let me know.

[Muse]

*Smiles* I'll cover gather info, deception,a nd persuasion.  :)  Don't worry about then.  ; )

[Cassandra LeMay]

*Smiles* I'll cover gather info, deception,a nd persuasion.  :)  Don't worry about then.  ; )

Sweet. :-)

I'm new to Saga so let me ask you guys. Is one of these following feats more "worth it" than the others...

Shake it off, Weapon Focus, Martial Arts.

Those are the ones I would for sure be willing to take out for Heavy Weapons Prof.

My initial idea was to make this character a sort of enforcer for the rest of the group. Or someone who can take the brunt of attacks for the rest of the group. Hence the Armor traits. I had considered the weapons specialist path but it didn't really grab my attention. However I did like the idea of being able to take lots of strikes and be able to chip away at enemy hp i.e. the knight from D&D 3.5

But if anyone has suggestions please let me know.

All those three feats have their advantages - it just depends on what you are after. If it were my character (meaning what follows is totally subjective) I'd probably drop Martial Arts. I think that's best for characters who want to specialize in close combat and intend to take MA-II and MA-III eventually. The extra damage from MA-I isn't all that much, which leaves the dodge bonus as the real benefit if you want to take just Martial Arts I. Only I think you can do without that bonus if you slightly shifted your attributes, giving him STR14 and DEX16. Strength 14 is still pretty solid and Dexterity 16 will help you with both offense and defense.
I am not sure about the advanatges of Shake It Off, as I haven't played Saga all that much. Maybe someone else can offer an opinion on it. I'm a bit on the fence about it.
Weapon Focus is something I would definitely keep. Every bit helps, and it is a prerequisite for Penetrating Attack and Weapon Specialization, should you want to pick up some Weapon Specialist talents during character creation or later in life.

One thing you have to consider with the "damage soaker" concept is that there is no guarantee that the enemy will really target you. Some enemies might actually decide it's best to take out all the lightly-armored opponents first before they concentrate their fire on you. If heroicly taking fire for your teammates is what you want you should consider the talents from the Commando tree. Replacing the two Armor talents with either Battle Analysis + Cover Fire or Harm's Way and Indomitable could work pretty well. Or, if you really want to stick with the armor talents, consider Harm's Way instead of Tough As Nails. At least with that talent you can make certain you are in a place to take some damage for an ally.

[Cassandra LeMay]

Okay, soooo... characters aside I am also beginning to think about the ship you'll get...

@Frag: As it does make sense that your character owns the ship I will leave it (mostly) to you to work out with the rest of the group if one of the other characters is someone you have worked with as a co-pilot before. Most small freighters do need a crew of two so I guess it would make sense if one of the other characters is your co-pilot.

As for the ship itself, I am beginning to think that a YT-1300 isn't a bad choice.

There are stock freighters that are "better", more capable than the YT-1300, but I realized that I was conciously avoiding the YT-1300 when I was thinking about a ship for this game, very much because it might lead people to think about the Millenium Falcon. But the 1300 isn't a bad ship, and it has one advantage: Everyone knows what it looks like. I think visuals are important; players should be able to imagine the scene. So why not something that closely resembles the Millenium Falcon?

So unless someone has a serious beef with the YT-1300 that might well be the ship you will end up with - with some serious modifications, of course.  ;)

[FragarachZ]

YT-1300 central cockpit variant

I'll call it the Lucky Magpie. I'm definitely thinking getting some reinforced shields on there, as that would have been something my character would have tinkered without doubt. She would feel safest in her ship after all. Definitely a basic luxury upgrade to have liveable quarters. It's not just her ship, it's her home as well and it doesn't have to be spartan.
Other than that, either a second gunner seat or a set of lighter laser cannons that are pilot controlled for "navigating asteroid fields". For the same reason, combat thrusters for handling and to better avoid collisions (and battleship fire)? Could make it look like a salvager or deep space ship that sells space junk. For hyperdrive... yeah a good one helps, but in my experience the rules for hyperspace travels aren't really important since in star wars everything goes with the speed of plot. Still, a x1 would be nice. And definitely an astromech droid, maybe a red R5 unit equipped with tools, fire extinguishers and maybe a vibrator when the capt'n is lonely.
I'll just go ahead and assume having space suits for the crew and tools and kits on board will be given or we'll requisition them from the rebels first chance we get.

Does anyone have any other ideas for the ship? If our GM lets me take tech specialist or anything from the outlaw tech stuff I'll pimp out the ship and everyone's guns even futher.

If it comes to space combat, my character will take the pilot seat. There will be some other roles that'll need to be filled based on skill and weapon proficiencies. If we get the astromech droid, it can do either copilot or shields freeing up a character to do something else.

Pilot: Anya
1 copilot
1 system operator for shields, sensors and comms (computer use and mechanics)
1 engineer if we need to move up the CT (mechanics
1 or 2 gunners (heavy or starship weapon proficiency or at penalty)


I think it would make most sense if Muse's twi'lek was part of the original crew, seeing how she'd be more of the people person while my character is the technican. But I'm open for ideas and suggestions.

[KirbysFolly]

Replying from my phone, so I'll be brief. I don't have much preference on the ship, that one looks good to me.

If you have the ship, you guys could have been the ones who gave my character a lift off her planet.

[hellrazoromega]

So it seems odd to me that treat injury is not on the Jedi or Scout list. I am going for something of a healer.  I took Knowledge Medicine but I was wondering if the  GM would allow a hand wave a let me take treat injury?

Also a general question to the group, what languages do we have floating around the party? I am trying to think of whcih ones to take other than Huttese.

If our GM is generous with my above request I would like to suggest we convert a small section of one of the bays into a sickbay or something that could rapidly be converted into a such a space.

[FragarachZ]

So it seems odd to me that treat injury is not on the Jedi or Scout list. I am going for something of a healer.  I took Knowledge Medicine but I was wondering if the  GM would allow a hand wave a let me take treat injury?

Also a general question to the group, what languages do we have floating around the party? I am trying to think of whcih ones to take other than Huttese.

If our GM is generous with my above request I would like to suggest we convert a small section of one of the bays into a sickbay or something that could rapidly be converted into a such a space.

You can start with noble or soldier levels and add jedi on top of that? Or multiclass into one ofthose and raise int to get a retroactive skill proficiency from any skill one of your classes have.
Taking a non-jedi 1st level you could still get force sensitivity as your feat, then lightsabers when you multi into jedi. Train UtF and Treat Injury, and pick a talent that matches the character concept, like one of the noble's bolsters or battle analysis from soldier to know when we drop under half hit points?

Not sure if a medical facility would fit into a freighter, but we can repurpose the port crew quarters if you have medical kits and surgical equipment. That means everyone gets the starboard crew quarters with two double bunks. I still call dibs on the captain's cabin when not piloting.

[hellrazoromega]

Yeah sadly I am a concept builder and the Scout/Jedi paring fits the character more. And one of my true hangups about D20 systems is class cherry-picking "I'm gonna take 1st level in 12 classes to get all this stuff and access to every skill." Though that is an exaggeration well beyond what you suggest I prefer to not even to begin to go down that road. I could take scout as my level one class to min min-max the skills and feats--but again I try not to roll like that. If I have to I may switch solider for scout and tweak my background so I can be a healer. It just seems odd that Jedi (who have healers) don't have treat injury and scouts who are going to be out alone on the fringes don't have it either.

I should have been more clear and said makeshift sickbay, I was not suggesting a full medical bay with bacta tanks and all that, more a space with cots which could be set up and a few pieces of medical equipment in one of the smaller cargo bays. Or as you say one of the crew quarters could be used. At times when we don't needed this stuff could be stowed away and broken out when and if we have injured to treat.

[FragarachZ]

Since saga has 5 classes, we never really considered them as anything than a label around a group of loosely connected abilities. You can be a jedi character (as in member of the jedi tradition) with no levels in jedi whatsoever just by picking 2 or 3 feats.

The way my group used to play is, they picked soldier or noble as their first level for jedi guardian and consular respectively, keeping to abilities that matched the character concept, and jedi levels only for the lightsaber and force related talents. That way they could get harms way, persuasion, treat injury, a bunch of knowledge skills etc.

If you want to stick to jedi class and be a healer, take vital transfer. We've seen Obi-Wan lay on hands half a dozen times, but never take a medical pack or surgeon's tools right? Later on I know there's a talent to replace treat injury with UtF but I think it is only for force adepts?

[Cassandra LeMay]

I agree with Frag that the character classes are (to some extend) just labels. Personally I like the multiclassing in Saga a whole lot, because it allows for some nice cutomization of a character.

As for the Treat Injury skill, don't forget that Saga allows for a whole lot of skills to be used untrained. The applications of Treat Injury that do require skill training are things that would be the field of trained doctors or at least paramedics. I think it's fitting that those skill applications are reserved for only a very few classes. I don't think it would actually be all that fitting for a character who grew up more or less alone in the wilderness to have the skill to install a cybernetic prosthesis or treat radiation poisoning.

As for the ship, I may toy around with the deckplan a little bit. How about we get rid of that refrigerated cargo bay? I'm sure the person who did the deckplan had his reasons for it, but it's a bit specialized. I might also move the computer to the center of the ship, allowing for a complete, unbroken ring corridor. That's a bit more practical, I think.

Modifications... Hyperdrive x1, combat thrusters, and some shields are pretty much a given. For weapons I was thinking light laser cannons controlled by the pilot and a medium double blaster in a gun turret. I am not so sure about the luxury upgrade. Those cost monthly maintenance and that is (a) expensive and (b) adds extra bookkeeping to the game. If you want to describe the  pilot cabin as cozy and well-maintained that's fine by me, but a ship-wide upgrade is perhaps a bit much.

[FragarachZ]

Cozy living quarters is basically what I wanted yeah. The guns you say sound good to me too.

[Batman4560]

Ok so aside from starting gear I think I'm done with my sheet. Can someone go over it to make sure I did everything right?

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=272015

Also Frag, can I be your ships Gunner and go from there? Maybe the two of us have been working together for a while. I could possibly double as a co pilot when needed since I'm trained in pilot.

[hellrazoromega]

I agree with Frag that the character classes are (to some extend) just labels. Personally I like the multiclassing in Saga a whole lot, because it allows for some nice cutomization of a character.

As for the Treat Injury skill, don't forget that Saga allows for a whole lot of skills to be used untrained. The applications of Treat Injury that do require skill training are things that would be the field of trained doctors or at least paramedics. I think it's fitting that those skill applications are reserved for only a very few classes. I don't think it would actually be all that fitting for a character who grew up more or less alone in the wilderness to have the skill to install a cybernetic prosthesis or treat radiation poisoning.

Not saying I dislike multi-classing  by any means, just saying I get an concept in my head and I build a character to that concept  rather that just taking another class simply to grab a new ability or two, in order to min-max.

Anyway, I see the character as having spent several years in the planet be having been rescued and hiding out with the fringers or rebels for the last few years, giving her time to pick up some of the more technical skills.

I don't disagree on the skills more technical aspects, and in fact the only Trained Use of the skill I was really interested in would be Treat Poison which I think a person stranded on some back water filled with deadly flora and fauna for years might be likely to learn. Other than that I was interested in First Aid and Long-Term Care which, while I know they can be used untrained, I was hoping to make her a good healer without having to use the Force all the time. But, you are the GM and I will abide, I'll just take the character in another direction as having her be untrained would make her equal to everyone else in healing and remove that vibe of being a dedicated non-force healer I was going for.  :D

With that in mind I have to ask what sort of abilities do you see Knowledge: Medicine conferring since the knowlegde skills are rather broad?

[KirbysFolly]

Okay, here was the character portrait I was going to use.

Picture