Tiger-SB Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 For background, I’ve completed KotOR 1 with 2 characters (1 Light, 1 Dark) and I’ve played KotOR 2 through to about half way (roughly half way as I don't actually know - I was still exploring the planets after Telos) with a Light sided character. I’d like to get back into the game and finish it, so I’ve been working on designing a Dark side character (as a contrast to my first character). Here's a build I've come up with which I'd like some comments on please – The build is up to L26 which should be more than sufficient to get the idea. Below the build I'll indicate my overall character concept as well as reasons for some of my choices. Btw, I don’t know how the ending to KotOR 2 works out (and I’ve worked hard to avoid finding out), so please no spoilers!!! Str 14 Dex 8 Con 14 Int 14 Wis 14 Cha 14 Skills -------- L1 -- L5 - L10 - L15 - L20 - L25 Awareness --- 4 --- 8 -- 13 -- 15 -- 15 -- 15 Demolitions ------------------------ 10 -- 10 Persuade ---- 4 --- 8 --- 13 -- 17 -- 20 -- 28 Repair ------- 4 --- 8 --- 13 -- 17 -- 20 -- 21 Treat Injury - 4 --- 8 --- 13 -- 17 -- 22 -- 28 Main Force Powers Force Shock -> Force Lightning -> Force Storm Fear -> Horror -> Insanity Burst of Speed -> Knights Speed -> Master Speed Energy Resistance -> Improved Energy Resistance -> Master Energy Resistance Feats 1 Toughness 3 2-weapon fighting 6 Imp Flurry / Critical Strike 9 Imp 2-weapon fighting 12 Master 2-weapon fighting 15 Master Flurry / Critical Strike 16 Weapon Focus - Lightsaber 17 Weapon Specialisation - Lightsaber 18 1st Superior weapon focus: Lightsaber 20 2nd Superior weapon focus: Lightsaber 22 3rd Superior weapon focus: Lightsaber 24 Imp Toughness 26 Master Toughness The overall concept for this character is to have a strong force user who can use Insanity and/or Force Storm well in combat, but also have a devastating lightsaber attack. I want to be able to use Force Storm effectively so that lead into picking Consular as the starting class for the Force Focus ability. Sith Marauder was picked to provide the strong melee combat abilities with the superior weapon focus feats, the extra damage and the Fury ability. Due to the combination of Consular and Sith Marauder, I expect the character will have good (thought not extreme) amounts of both Vitality and Force Points. Overall they should be a well balanced character, able to adapt to the situation. My starting statistics are balanced across the board to provide the most benefit to as many different areas, all of which I see as useful. Dex is left at 8 as I’m consciously choosing to not even bother trying to get a decent defense rating. Defense seems like an all or nothing thing to me, and I'd much rather focus on strong force powers and damage ability in melee combat. High Strength is important for melee combat. Constitution is important both for more vitality and to allow better implants. I expect to increase Constitution to 16 by L8 and then work on increasing Strength. Intelligence is 14 because I find having access to a range of skills to be very useful. Wisdom and Charisma are both 14 to provide extra force points and increased the DC for my force powers. For skills, I’ve chosen a range of skills but focusing mainly on Persuade, Treat Injury and Repair. Persuade is because I enjoy the extra dialog options it opens up. Treat Injury is very useful as I’m Dark Side, especially in combat. Repair is mostly so I can breakdown items into components (I have heard that the Exile’s repairs skill is used to breakdown items regardless of which character uses the workbench). Awareness is raised to 15 which should allow me to detect most mines. For Demolitions I'll wait until I’m a Sith Marauder so I can get it as a class skill before I put points into it, and then I'll instantly raise it to 10 as this should be high enough to allow me to at least disable, if not recover, most mines out of combat. Use Computer, Security and Stealth are left alone and I will rely on other characters (mostly likely Atton or T3) for these skills. The feats I’ve chosen are focused around melee combat with 2 lightsabers (or possibly a double bladed lightsaber) with either Flurry or Critical Strike (I can’t decide which - opinions anyone?). The Toughness feats are also included to provide that extra durability during fights, particularly as with this character's low defense, they will get hit. Many thanks for your time, Tiger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger-SB Posted October 31, 2006 Author Share Posted October 31, 2006 For background, I’ve completed KotOR 1 with 2 characters (1 Light, 1 Dark) and I’ve played KotOR 2 through to about half way (roughly half way as I don't actually know - I was still exploring the planets after Telos) with a Light sided character. I’d like to get back into the game and finish it, so I’ve been working on designing a Dark side character (as a contrast to my first character). Here's a build I've come up with which I'd like some comments on please – The build is up to L26 which should be more than sufficient to get the idea. Below the build I'll indicate my overall character concept as well as reasons for some of my choices. Btw, I don’t know how the ending to KotOR 2 works out (and I’ve worked hard to avoid finding out), so please no spoilers!!! Str 14 Dex 8 Con 14 Int 14 Wis 14 Cha 14 Skills -------- L1 -- L5 - L10 - L15 - L20 - L25 Awareness --- 4 --- 8 -- 13 -- 15 -- 15 -- 15 Demolitions ------------------------ 10 -- 10 Persuade ---- 4 --- 8 --- 13 -- 17 -- 20 -- 28 Repair ------- 4 --- 8 --- 13 -- 17 -- 20 -- 21 Treat Injury - 4 --- 8 --- 13 -- 17 -- 22 -- 28 Main Force Powers Force Shock -> Force Lightning -> Force Storm Fear -> Horror -> Insanity Burst of Speed -> Knights Speed -> Master Speed Energy Resistance -> Improved Energy Resistance -> Master Energy Resistance Feats 1 Toughness 3 2-weapon fighting 6 Imp Flurry / Critical Strike 9 Imp 2-weapon fighting 12 Master 2-weapon fighting 15 Master Flurry / Critical Strike 16 Weapon Focus - Lightsaber 17 Weapon Specialisation - Lightsaber 18 1st Superior weapon focus: Lightsaber 20 2nd Superior weapon focus: Lightsaber 22 3rd Superior weapon focus: Lightsaber 24 Imp Toughness 26 Master Toughness The overall concept for this character is to have a strong force user who can use Insanity and/or Force Storm well in combat, but also have a devastating lightsaber attack. I want to be able to use Force Storm effectively so that lead into picking Consular as the starting class for the Force Focus ability. Sith Marauder was picked to provide the strong melee combat abilities with the superior weapon focus feats, the extra damage and the Fury ability. Due to the combination of Consular and Sith Marauder, I expect the character will have good (thought not extreme) amounts of both Vitality and Force Points. Overall they should be a well balanced character, able to adapt to the situation. My starting statistics are balanced across the board to provide the most benefit to as many different areas, all of which I see as useful. Dex is left at 8 as I’m consciously choosing to not even bother trying to get a decent defense rating. Defense seems like an all or nothing thing to me, and I'd much rather focus on strong force powers and damage ability in melee combat. High Strength is important for melee combat. Constitution is important both for more vitality and to allow better implants. I expect to increase Constitution to 16 by L8 and then work on increasing Strength. Intelligence is 14 because I find having access to a range of skills to be very useful. Wisdom and Charisma are both 14 to provide extra force points and increased the DC for my force powers. For skills, I’ve chosen a range of skills but focusing mainly on Persuade, Treat Injury and Repair. Persuade is because I enjoy the extra dialog options it opens up. Treat Injury is very useful as I’m Dark Side, especially in combat. Repair is mostly so I can breakdown items into components (I have heard that the Exile’s repairs skill is used to breakdown items regardless of which character uses the workbench). Awareness is raised to 15 which should allow me to detect most mines. For Demolitions I'll wait until I’m a Sith Marauder so I can get it as a class skill before I put points into it, and then I'll instantly raise it to 10 as this should be high enough to allow me to at least disable, if not recover, most mines out of combat. Use Computer, Security and Stealth are left alone and I will rely on other characters (mostly likely Atton or T3) for these skills. The feats I’ve chosen are focused around melee combat with 2 lightsabers (or possibly a double bladed lightsaber) with either Flurry or Critical Strike (I can’t decide which - opinions anyone?). The Toughness feats are also included to provide that extra durability during fights, particularly as with this character's low defense, they will get hit. Many thanks for your time, Tiger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mace MacLeod Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 There's a number of threads out here somewhere about character classes, and the general consensus is that crossing classes produces rather inferior PC characters. Consular to Sith Lord or Jedi Master would be what I'd recommend, pumping up your force powers rather than trying to add a bunch of combat feats. If you want to go for combat, go Guardian to Marauder or Weaponmaster without worrying too much about the force-related attributes. Trying to make a PC who's a jack-of-all-trades type means you won't get the most out of any one character class. I usually don't bother with skills much at all, as there are lots of your party members who can be the computer/repair/demolition experts. I always end up using my PC as my primary meat tank and leave intelligence-related tinkering to my sidekicks. And welcome to the forums, Tiger-SB! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoffe Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 The overall concept for this character is to have a strong force user who can use Insanity and/or Force Storm well in combat, but also have a devastating lightsaber attack. I want to be able to use Force Storm effectively so that lead into picking Consular as the starting class for the Force Focus ability. If you want Insanity to be effective you will probably need to put some more ability points into Wisdom or Charisma when you level up to raise the save DC, since it's an "all or nothing" power (unlike the lightside Stasis Field) that does nothing at all if the enemy make their saving throw, and enemies tend to have rather good saving throws overall in the game. Force Focus does make a difference, but even common grunts will make their saves on occasion if you put all your ability score points in Strength/Constitution at levelup. My starting statistics are balanced across the board to provide the most benefit to as many different areas, all of which I see as useful. Dex is left at 8 as I’m consciously choosing to not even bother trying to get a decent defense rating. Defense seems like an all or nothing thing to me, and I'd much rather focus on strong force powers and damage ability in melee combat. Keep in mind that Dexterity affects your Reflex saving throw as well though, so you'll probably have a pretty abysmal reflex save. There are primarily three things that offer Reflex saves: the Force Push/Whirlwind/Wave family of force powers, mines and grenades. Not too bad over all; mines can be detected and avoided, grenades can be dodged if you see them being thrown and are quick on your feet. The Push powers can be a bit more annoying since they stun or incapacitate you if you fail the saving throw, which can be devastating if you have otherwise poor defense and rely on offense primarily. But there aren't very many force using enemies in the game so it will not be a constant problem. Still, personally I always get the Force Immunity power since it gives you an extra layer of defense against all hostile force powers and the standard AI is too stupid to use Force Breach to drop your immunity. For skills, I’ve chosen a range of skills but focusing mainly on Persuade, Treat Injury and Repair. Persuade is because I enjoy the extra dialog options it opens up. Treat Injury is very useful as I’m Dark Side, especially in combat. While Treat Injury is very useful if you get up-close with enemies a lot and have poor defense you may want to supplement it with the Death Field power as well, if you have the picks to spare. While not quite as damaging as Force Storm it can heal quite a lot when used against packs of enemies, and very few opponents in the game have Darkside damage resistance. Use Computer, Security and Stealth are left alone and I will rely on other characters (mostly likely Atton or T3) for these skills. Keep in mind that this requires some advance knowledge of where you are going and what's about to happen unless you plan on bringing Atton or T3 along all the time, since there are a fair number of a areas in the game where you are unable to change which party members you bring along. (Not that T3 is a bad choice though, it's a tank once you've gotten all its personal upgrades and give it a pair of good, upgraded blasters and a plasma/flamethrower or carbonite ray. ) The feats I’ve chosen are focused around melee combat with 2 lightsabers (or possibly a double bladed lightsaber) with either Flurry or Critical Strike (I can’t decide which - opinions anyone?). Personally I think Flurry would be the better of the two if you have to choose. It gives you an extra attack/round all the time, while Critical Strike only increases your chance of doing a critical hit. And if you are into critical hits I personally prefer Master Power Attack + the Shien lightsaber form instead since they up the damage multiplier to X4 on a critical hit and knock the victim down as well. Master Power Attack works well if you dual wield (+1), use Master Speed or Fury (+2) and use the Juyo lightsaber form (+2) since by then you already have 5 attacks/round, which is the max possible, and thus Master Flurry wouldn't do anything. (Getting flurry may still be a good idea for when you use another saber form, or fight enemies with too high Defense for Power Attack to be useful.) There's a number of threads out here somewhere about character classes, and the general consensus is that crossing classes produces rather inferior PC characters. That shouldn't really be a limiting factor in how you choose to build your characters, in my opinion. Sometimes it's more fun to make a different character than the most power gamed munchkin possible. And the difficulty of the game is adapted so it's possible to get through it no matter how you build your characters (with the side effect of making power gamers complain it's too easy ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mace MacLeod Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 That shouldn't really be a limiting factor in how you choose to build your characters, in my opinion. Sometimes it's more fun to make a different character than the most power gamed munchkin possible. And the difficulty of the game is adapted so it's possible to get through it no matter how you build your characters (with the side effect of making power gamers complain it's too easy ).Oh I know, but I've been sort of stuck in my uber-Consular to Sith Lord rut after the first couple of playthroughs. Stomping godlike through waves and waves of the Onderon Lemming Brigade with my unstoppable Force Storm spam is fun of the nth degree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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