SW KOTOR I

By The Stratos Group
Design by Katie Bush

The Star Wars saga has seen incarnations in a remarkably broad number of gaming genres: even if we restrict ourselves to discussing console titles, there have been side-scrollers, arcade rail shooters, fighting games, first-person shooters, space-flight sims, and even a kart racer or two in there. Star Wars fans have had the opportunity to indulge their interest in a series of games whose breadth of scope and quality are unmatched by any other major license.

The one exception to this smorgasbord of Star Wars genre-mining has been the role-playing game, which is odd, considering both that role-playing games have a deep fan base, and that Star Wars, with its richly imagined universe and compelling sci-fi archetypes, seems like a natural choice to be the basis for such a game. For whatever reason, though, Star Wars and role-playing games have never come together--until now.

Enter Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, an epic new Xbox-exclusive (for now) RPG from BioWare, creators of such RPG masterpieces as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, and LucasArts. In case you had any doubts: when you marry the RPG creation skills of BioWare with the world's most powerful license, you wind up with a game of stunning quality that shatters sales records as soon as it hits the shelves. KOTOR is a game that no Xbox owner will want to be without.

And speaking of things you can't live without, GameSpot is proud to present the biggest and best strategy guide that's available for Knights of the Old Republic. In the following pages, you will find:

As well as the proverbial "much, much more." Many Bothans died to bring us this information, so put it to good use. You'd be surprised at how much torture those little guys can take before they finally crack.

Table of Contents
CHARACTER GENERATION
  QUICK CHARACTER VS. CUSTOM CHARACTER
  CLASS
    Soldier
    Scout
    Scoundrel
  JEDI CLASSES
    Jedi Guardian
    Jedi Sentinel
    Jedi Consular
  ATTRIBUTES
    Strength
    Dexterity
    Constitution
    Intelligence
    Wisdom
    Charisma
  SKILLS
    Computer Use
    Demolitions
    Stealth
    Awareness
    Persuade
    Repair
    Security
    Treat Injury
  FEATS
    Passive Combat Feats
    Active Combat Feats
    Passive Skill Feats
    Jedi Feats
  JEDI POWERS
    Neutral Powers
    Light Side Powers
    Dark Side Powers
PARTY MEMBERS
  CARTH ONASI
  BASTILA SHAN
  MISSION VAO
  ZAALBAR
  T3-M4
  CANDEROUS ORDO
  JUHANI
  JOLEE BINDO
  HK-47
WALK-THROUGH
  Light side vs. Dark side
  Battle Tips
  ENDAR SPIRE
    Command Module
    Starboard Section
  TARIS
    Upper City
    Lower City
    Under City
    Lower Sewers
    Upper Sewers
    Black Vulkar Base
    Black Vulkar Garage
    Swoop Race
    Upper City
    Sith Military Base
    Lower Sith Base
    Davik's Estate
    Side Quests
  DANTOOINE
    Jedi Enclave
    Courtyard
    Matale Grounds
    Grove
    Sandral Grounds
    Ruins
    Side Quests
  KASHYYYK
    Czerka Landing Port
    The Great Walkway
    Village of Rwookrrorro
    Upper Shadowlands
    Lower Shadowlands
    Side Quests
  TATOOINE
    Anchorhead
    Dune Sea
    Sand People Territory
    Sand People Enclave
    Eastern Dune Sea
    Side Quests
  MANAAN
    Docking Bay
    West Central
    Ahto West
    East Central
    Ahto East
    Sith Base
    Hrakert Station
    Sea Floor
    Kolto Control
    Hrakert Rift
    Side Quests
  KORRIBAN
    Dreshdae
    Sith Academy Entrance
    Sith Academy
    Valley of the Dark Lords
    Shyrack Caves
    Tomb of Ajunta
    Tomb of Marko Ragnus
    Tomb of Tulak Hord
    Tomb of Naga Sadow
    Side Quests
  LEVIATHAN
    Prison Block
    Command Deck
    Bridge
    Hangar
  THE UNKNOWN PLANET
    Central Beach
    North Beach
    South Beach
    Temple Exterior
    Temple Interior
    Temple Catacombs
    Temple Summit
    Side Quests
  THE STAR FORGE
    Deck 1
    Deck 2
    Command Center
    Viewing Platform
GALAXY SIDE QUESTS
  CANDEROUS
  CARTH
  JUHANI
  BASTILA
  JOLEE
  HK-47
  MISSION
  DWINDLING SUPPLIES
  THE TROUBLE WITH GIZKA
  CALO NORD
  DARTH BANDON
  GENOHARADAN
MINI-GAMES AND ITEMS
  PAZAAK
    Tips
    Players
  SWOOP RACING
  UPGRADEABLE ITEMS
    Ranged Items
    Melee Weapons
    Armor
GLOSSARY

 

Character Generation

Before you begin your adventure, you will need to create the character that will become your alter ego in the world of KOTOR. Those of you who are familiar with previous BioWare RPGs, such as Neverwinter Nights, will feel right at home with the character creation process, since it strongly resembles the Dungeons and Dragons-style character creation that we all know and love.

Quick Character vs. Custom Character

If you wish to simply jump into the game with a minimum amount of hassle, you'll want to create a quick character. This option lets the game decide your character's attributes and results in a well-balanced, if somewhat generic character. You'll still be allowed to select your character's sex, class, in-game portrait, and name.

If you're used to pre-made characters, such as are found in most console RPGs, by all means select a quick character and jump directly into the game; they're not handicapped at all when compared to a custom character. On the other hand, selecting the custom character option will give you access to a much broader array of customizations and allow you to select your player character's (or PC for short) attributes, skills, and feats, in addition to the cosmetic choices required of quick characters.

Class

Selecting your class is required for either quick or custom characters. You can think of your class as roughly analogous to an innate talent that may be used or squandered as you see fit, rather than as a rigid mold that must be adhered to at all times. In other words, a soldier can try to be stealthy and evade a confrontation with an enemy, but will usually be better off just fighting his or her way through the encounter. Of course, if you intend to be sneaky, you might as well be a scoundrel from the beginning, so think for a bit before you start the game and choose a class that best suits your style of play.

Soldier

Soldiers, as you might expect, generally possess more brawn than brains and are apt to use firepower to blast themselves out of a tight spot. While soldiers are obviously the best class for combat-oriented players, they are less adept at dealing with electronics and security measures than the other classes. If you do make your primary character into a soldier, you'll want to make sure that you keep an NPC with excellent security skills in your party, if only to make it easier to get through locked doors. Soldiers lag behind scoundrels in terms of the number of skills they acquire, both at character creation and at level-up, and have the fewest number of class skills, but gain more feats than either of the other classes upon gaining a level.

Soldiers will miss out on some early opportunities for experience, since they won't be able to use skills to solve problems to gain the optional experience bonuses available in some situations, but you can always come back later on with a highly skilled NPC and gain at least some of that experience, or just wait for some of the respawning enemies later on in the game. Once you do gain a few party members, though, you will probably begin dominating opponents in fights, and your high vitality will enable you to tank for your ranged attackers, giving your entire party a better chance of surviving battles.

Starting Feats:

Class Skills: Vitality: +10 per Level

Feat Progression: Levels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20

First level skill points: (1 + Intelligence Modifier) * 4

Skill points progression at higher levels: (2 + Intelligence Modifier) / 2

Scout

Someone who makes his or her way through the universe by becoming a jack-of-all-trades would most likely be a scout, since this class is proficient at both combat and the more intellectual methods of problem-solving. Unfortunately, the two class skills that scouts have in addition to the three that soldiers get are somewhat less than useful in practice: computer use and repair are both decent enough skills, but rarely offer players a preferable alternative to combat, unless perhaps you're playing on the hardest difficulty levels. There are some tough fights in KOTOR, to be sure. But assuming you have made decent choices when leveling up and choose useful teammates, few fights should give you trouble. This effectively nullifies the purpose of computer use and repair, which for for the most part is to avoid combat, by creating droid slaves to fight for you, or by using the computer terminals to turn security systems on your opponents. It's also useful to point out that these skills don't make it any easier to actually repair a droid or use a computer; they simply make it so that your character uses fewer computer spikes and parts when performing the action. If you can keep a surfeit of parts and spikes, you will rarely be in dire need of either skill.

For these reasons, it's perhaps best to just rely on your teammates for their computer use and repair talents, and make your player-character either a soldier, if you intend on participating in combat, or a scoundrel, if you wish to utilize truly useful skills, like persuade or security. Scouts seem to be merely downgraded soldiers, with less vitality and fewer feats. Granted, you'll get more skill points when you gain a level, but the skill set that's available to scouts is barely improved over what soldiers are given access to, so this a mediocre benefit at best.

Starting Feats:

Class Skills: Vitality: +8 per Level

Feat Progression: Levels 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19

First level Skill points: (3 + Intelligence Modifier) * 4

Skill points progression at higher levels: (6 + Intelligence Modifier) / 2

Scoundrel

If you faint at the sight of blood, or merely wish to avoid any more scars on your chin, then the life of a scoundrel is probably what you're after. Scoundrels are more likely to take on the Sith with brains than with blasters, by utilizing explosives and traps to do the dirty work for them, or by simply evading a confrontation in the first place. As such, scoundrels are unfortunately lacking in the simple toughness needed to gut out toe-to-toe battles, but will gain many more skills than the other classes to supplement their lack of enthusiasm for intimate combat. Unfortunately, they progress in feats more slowly than do soldiers or scouts.

Scoundrels have a rough time for the first few hours of the game, and, indeed, the strategy and stealth required of a scoundrel probably makes this class the most difficult to play with, especially if you're a Light side character. Since they only gain six vitality per level, scoundrels will soon have much less health than a soldier of similar experience, so you'll need to ensure that you have plenty of medpacs available when your health starts to run low. Once you gain party members that are able to step up with a melee weapon and protect you from enemy attackers, though, you should have a much easier time in the game, and when you actually become a Jedi initiate, you'll likely have a step up on the other two classes when it comes to learning and using Force powers, and the defense bonus from the high dexterity required for the ranged weapons that you'll likely be using in the first portions of the game will come in handy when you shed your armor for the robes of the Jedi Order. The scoundrel is also the only class that can easily learn the persuade skill, and since this skill is not usable by party members, you'll be able to do some things that will probably be beyond the ability of the other classes to access, unless they overload themselves on charisma.

Starting Feats:

Class Skills: Vitality: +6 per Level

Feat Progression: Levels 1, 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20

First level Skill points: (4 + Intelligence Modifier) * 4

Skill points progression at higher levels: (8 + Intelligence Modifier) / 2

Jedi Classes

The Jedi classes aren't something you'll need to worry about for some time after the start of the game; you'll have to find a way off of the first planet before you become a Jedi anyhow, and all of your Jedi teammates will come with a Jedi class already chosen.

Once you do reach the second planet, however, and are chosen to become a Jedi Padawan, you'll need to decide which of the three possible classes is right for you. This Jedi class becomes your new class; you no longer advance levels as a soldier, scout, or scoundrel, but instead, all of your level progress comes in the new class that you've chosen.

One thing to keep in mind is that your character has a maximum character level of 20; the game calculates this by adding together the levels that you've gained in your original class, and those that you've gained in your Jedi class. This means that if you proceed through Taris normally, you'll probably hit Dantooine with around 8 levels of experience, and thus, when you do become a Jedi, you will not be able to reach above level 12 in whatever class you pick. This isn't a problem for most players, since you do retain all of the vitality, feats, and skills that you've gained with the standard class that you began the game with.

There are a few drawbacks, though: your Force point reservoir will be smaller than the other Jedi party members (though not by much, since you begin with 40 points automatically); your progress in the defense-boosting Jedi Sense feat will lag behind; and most importantly, you will be allowed to choose fewer Force powers than your party members who started their adventuring careers as Jedi. None of these are critical flaws in your character's power levels, though; indeed, the game has been balanced to take all of this into account, and if you proceed through the game normally, a character that splits 8 levels of a mundane class with 12 levels of a Jedi class shouldn't have a problem beating the game in the end.

All of this is a roundabout way of getting to the point: you can manipulate KOTOR's leveling system so that, once you become a Jedi, you can dump nearly all of your experience points into your chosen Jedi class, thus becoming as powerful, if not much more so, than your Jedi companions. This necessitates making the first planet of the game much more difficult than in a game with "normal" character progression, but can be worth it if you simply want to kick ass later on in the game.

You see, once you become a Jedi Padawan on Dantooine, the game automatically grants you a level-up; you'll now leave your old class behind, and become a level one Jedi, of whichever class you've chosen. But, if you never converted your extra experience into new levels of your old class, all of the level-up opportunities you've skipped will still remain as experience credits for your character, allowing you to instantaneously convert all of those "saved" levels into the new Jedi class that you've just chosen.

For example, your character starts the game as a level one soldier. You proceed through the Endar Spire and parts of Taris, eventually raising him up to a level four soldier. After that, however, when you gain enough experience to advance one level, you leave him as a level four character, thus delaying the level-up, saving it until you get off of Taris and become a Jedi, when you can pile all of those saved levels into your new Jedi class. Assuming you gain a normal amount of experience on Taris, your new Jedi will start out as a level four soldier / level five Jedi guardian (or whichever class you pick), instead of a level eight soldier / level one guardian.

There will be substantial differences in statistics between these two characters. A level eight soldier / level one guardian will have, in most cases, 90 vitality, 44 Force points, nine feats, two Force powers, and somewhere around 12 skill points allocated. A level one soldier / level eight guardian, on the other hand, will have 90 vitality, 72 Force points, five feats, nine Force powers, and, again, somewhere around 12 skill points allocated. The first character will probably be somewhat more deadly in strict weapons-based combat, due to the extra Feats from his soldier levels, but the latter character will be more dangerous overall, due to the larger Force point reservoir and the greatly increased number of Force powers.

Obviously, if you intend to bring a character all the way from the Endar Spire to Dantooine without leveling up, you're going to have a hell of a hard time doing so, since you won't have more than 6--12 vitality at most. It's certainly possible, especially if you use your teammates to fight all of your battles in solo mode, and are willing to make many, many trips to the load game screen. There is a kind of sweet spot, however, that will probably make a bit more sense for most players. Soldier characters will find it easiest to reach level four before ceasing to level-up; this will give them a few feats under their belt, which will make it easier for their Jedi characters to deal damage in combat later on, since the Jedi typically gain fewer feats than do the regular character classes. For the same reason, and also to gain more vitality, the scout and scoundrel may want to reach level five before they stop leveling; they each gain one more feat this way, and the extra life will make the harder fights in the latter stages of Taris a bit easier to manage. Also, keep in mind that your skill progression will drop sharply once you become a Jedi; if you are relying on your player-character to pick locks or do other skill-related tasks, then you'll want to have a few more starting-class levels when you become a Jedi.

There is one other significant drawback to this method of leveling-up: while your character will likely be more powerful, your teammates will not gain quite as much experience when they're not in your party, if indeed they gain any at all. This bug is exacerbated if you choose to "save" levels earlier on: if, for instance, you cease leveling up from the very beginning of the game, your party members will usually lag behind your player-character by almost 30,000 experience. This means that they will be significantly underpowered for much of the mid-game, but by the time you reach the end of the adventure, this gap will be much less than a level, and so things will be a little less complicated. The experience gap is more severe if you try to save more levels, so if you wait until level four or five, your teammates will not lag as far behind.

Of course, you can feel free to proceed in Knights of the Old Republic however you see fit. If you do manage to survive Taris with a low-level character, however, your super-Jedi will make for a very fun playing experience, and will make your character more versatile in his or her use of Force powers as the game goes on. Indeed, this is the biggest difference between the normal method of leveling and this loophole-leveling; characters who exploit a loophole like this will gain more Force powers in the latter stages of the game. If you just want to chop stuff up with a lightsaber, this won't make a large difference in your playing style, but if you plan to become a Jedi consular, you can expect to be spoilt for choice when choosing your Force powers if you do manage to save a few levels before Dantooine.

Now, with that lengthy lemma out of the way, let's proceed to an explanation of the Jedi classes.

Jedi Guardian

The Jedi guardians are those Jedi who aren't afraid to take out their lightsaber when the situation demands it. They shouldn't be thought of as warriors, since "wars not make one great," after all. Indeed, the life of a Jedi guardian should be dedicated to peace, the minimization of bloodshed, and serene meditation on the meaning of the Jedi Code.

I'm kidding, of course. Guardians are meant to kill, kill, kill; that's what they're good for, and that's what you'll be able to do with relative ease if you choose to upgrade your character to this class. Guardians are not as strong in the Force as the other Jedi classes, but are much more powerful when it comes to wielding a lightsaber, and are more physically resilient as well. A guardian is roughly analogous to a soldier.

The Jedi guardian's class-specific feat is Force jump, which is a combat-oriented feat that allows a Jedi to cover massive amounts of ground and deliver a powerful blow when combat begins. The Jedi guardian is also the only class that is allowed to obtain lightsaber specialization, which gives each lightsaber attack +2 damage.

Vitality: +10 per Level

Force Points: +4 per level

Feat Progression: Levels 1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15, 18

Skill points progression: (2 + Intelligence Modifier) / 2

Jedi Sentinel

The sentinel class is supposedly a balanced, diplomatic class, involved in settling conflicts between parties and arbitrating grievances through negotiations. Given the nature of KOTOR, though, most of a Jedi sentinel's negotiations will be of the aggressive variety, but not to worry; Sentinels are quite adept at handling themselves in combat.

The Jedi sentinel's unique feat is probably the most useful of the three: as a sentinel increases in level, he or she will become increasingly resistant to mind-affecting attacks, such as attacks that cause fear, or stun your character. This will become quite important when battling the Dark Jedi later on in the game, since they will quite often resort to these kinds of attacks when using the Force powers.

As a note, characters who advance through Taris as a soldier, and who want to proceed through the game as a combat-oriented character, may want to consider the sentinel as an alternative to the guardian class. While you do lose out on lightsaber specialization, which hurts, you'll gain more Force points, and will be able to increase your skills a bit faster than you were previously. And not to put too fine a point on it, but Force immunity is almost always going to be a better feat to have than Force jump, especially in the last few stages of the game.

Vitality: +8 per Level

Force Points: +6 per level

Feat Progression: Levels 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18

Skill points progression: (4 + Intelligence Modifier) / 2

Jedi Consular

Jedi consulars seem to fit into the mold of the "crazy old wizard," since they are much more adept at channeling the Force than are the other two classes. They don't gain any special Force powers when compared to the other two classes, but do gain Force powers at a very slightly more rapid pace than do guardians and sentinels, and will have a deeper pool of Force points to draw upon when they need to unleash their powers in combat. They spend less time training for physical combat, however, and so are not going to be as appropriate as front-line combat troops. A good example of a Jedi consular, albeit a Dark side example, is the cronish Emperor Palpatine from Return of the Jedi.

The consular's unique Jedi Feat is Force focus, which lends a bonus to the DC of their Force power attacks. Since this is a passive feat, it is always active, and will help your characters stun or incapacitate their opponents.

In addition to the normal Force power that's gained at every level-up, consulars also gain an additional Force power at levels 5, 9, 13, and 17.

Vitality: +6 per Level

Force Points: +8 per level

Feat Progression: Levels 1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15, 18

First level Skill points: (4 + Intelligence Modifier) * 4

Skill points progression: (2 + Intelligence Modifier) / 2

Attributes

Attributes govern your character's innate physical and mental resources. The bonuses and penalties associated with high or low attributes will affect your character's combat acuity, skill usage, and the efficacy of your Force powers. If you choose to create a quick character, your attributes will be distributed automatically, but if you wish to create a custom character, you'll be able to choose all of your vital statistics individually using a pay-for-points system.

An unmodified character is initially a tabula rasa, and is, in fact, slightly below average in each attribute. In order to increase your attributes, you'll have to buy each additional point using a pool of 30 purchase points. The initial increases to a skill are on a one-for-one basis, but as you progress towards the upper limit of your initial attributes (during character creation, no attribute can be raised above 18), each additional point begins to cost more; purchasing a stat of 15 or 16 will each cost your character two purchase points, while the elite stats of 17 and 18 will each cost three purchase points.

Luckily, you aren't going to be shackled by your initial attribute allotment for the rest of the game: your character will gain one extra point to allocate to any attribute every time you gain a level that's a multiple of four. So, upon reaching level four, you gain an attribute point, and again at level eight, level 12, and so on. These points are simple additions to an attribute; you can raise a score of 18 to 19 just as easily as you can go from 10 to 11.

All of your attributes possess the same bonuses and penalties associated with high or low scores, as shown on the following table.

Attribute Rank Modifier
8--9 - 1
10--11 0
11--12 + 1
13--14 + 2
15--16 + 3
17--18 + 4
19--20 + 5
21--22 + 6
23--24 + 7
25--26 + 8

In addition to the extra attribute points you get at your level-ups, you will also occasionally come across items that will add to one or more of your attributes. Some of these, such as stimulants, are merely temporary boosts, but many items can be equipped to lend a constant bonus to a statistic as long as they are worn. You should be sure to distribute these items where needed among your NPC friends; a soldier probably won't have much use for something that gives a bonus to intelligence, but a scoundrel party member would most certainly benefit from it.

Strength

If you're planning on putting your lightsabers to heavy use in KOTOR, then you'll want to boost your strength score to a decent rank when you create your character. (Maybe; see the dexterity section below for a more detailed look at the way strength works with lightsabers and Jedi characters.) The modifier that you gain from strength is applied to the attack roll and damage of a melee weapon, meaning that a character with high strength will find it both easier to hit an opponent and easier to inflict large amounts of damage. If you plan to focus on ranged weaponry, however, you shouldn't need many points in strength; there are no strength requirements for any items in KOTOR, and since your inventory is unlimited in size, you don't need to have a high strength to carry loot around.

Dexterity

Dexterity is likely going to be the primary attribute for most players, since a high dexterity modifier affects your attack rolls with both ranged weapons and, oddly enough, lightsabers. That bonus is also applied to your defense, making you more agile in battle and thus less likely to be shot or hit with an enemy weapon. Your defense modifier may be reduced or even eliminated if you wear heavier suits of armor that restrict your ability to dodge, so you should be sure to check your defense before and after you put on new threads to ensure that they actually benefit you. The dexterity modifier is also applied as a bonus to your reflex saving throws, allowing you to more easily escape serious injury from situations that call for quick moves, such as a nearby explosion.

The balancing of dexterity and strength will be critical for lightsaber-intensive characters. In most cases, the attack roll of a melee weapon is determined in part by the Strength modifier, but with lightsabers, it appears that the game uses the higher of the strength and dexterity modifiers to add to the attack roll, so that if your character has a dexterity of 16, and a strength of 14, then the attack roll modifier for a lightsaber would be the +3 from the dexterity. The strength modifier would still be applied to the damage rolled, however.

Where this becomes important is in the consideration that many of the Jedi Force powers require your character to not be wearing armor. While the many varieties of Jedi robes offer some light protection, and some Force powers themselves will boost your defense, your character will still generally lag far behind your other Jedi party members in terms of defense, since they will almost always join your party with two levels of the Jedi Sense feat in their belt.

You can probably see where we're going with this: if your Jedi character has a high strength, but low dexterity, he or she will deal quite a bit of damage, but will either have to wear armor to survive combat, and forgo the use of the many useful powers that are armor-restricted, or wade into combat with a low defense. If you possess a high dexterity, but a low strength stat, then you'll be able to go a bit longer in combat without having to resort to the cure power or medpacs, but will deal less damage on the whole than a character with high strength.

Want a hint? Go with dexterity. You may not be a melee powerhouse in the earliest portions of the game, but you'll be able to use any ranged weapon with ease, even without a focus feat, and you'll have the advantage of a very high defense when wearing light armor. You can still pump your strength score at character creation, perhaps by under-boosting constitution and making the difference in vitality back later on with the toughness feat. If you want very specific advice, a 16/16 split between strength and dexterity at character creation makes Taris quite survivable for most characters, and when you become a Jedi, you'll be able to cast off your armor for the Jedi robes without any qualms, especially if you devote the first two attribute additions to dexterity.

Also note that if you plan to become a Jedi guardian, you'll be able to use the lightsaber specialization feat. Since this gives all of your lightsaber attacks +2 damage, it essentially takes the place of four points of strength for lightsaber specialists. (And really, how many guardians are going to be using long swords?)

Constitution

The hale and hearty soldiers of the Republic benefit most from a healthy constitution, seeing as how it simply increases the amount of vitality you gain after each level-up. More vitality is obviously important to characters that see a fair amount of battle, but keep in mind that the benefits of a high constitution can be emulated by the toughness feats. Rather than expending valuable attribute selection points to gain an extra hit point per level, you may wish to reserve those points for an attribute that more directly affects your character, and simply allot one of your feat slots to toughness or its upgraded brethren. This especially holds true for soldier characters, who will gain more feats than either of the other two classes. A high constitution also affects your fortitude saving throw, allowing you to more easily fight off the effects of poison and other harmful physical ailments, or avoid them altogether.

Intelligence

Some people just don't feel like getting singed by blaster fire every time they step out for a cup of java juice at the cantina. Fortunately, a high intelligence score can make combat skills almost irrelevant, since your intelligence modifier both increases the number of points you can spend on skills, and applies itself to those skills that are most useful for evading battle: repair, computer use, and demolitions.

Wisdom

Wisdom is usually associated with sagacious Jedi Masters, such as Yoda. (Speaking of Yoda of Dagobah moreso than the Clone War-era Yoda, of course.) As such, your wisdom score will be important if you intend to rely on the power of the Force more than the speed of your lightsaber. Your modifier here will increase your Force power reservoir and make it easier for you to resist enemy Force powers. In addition, high wisdom will make your Force powers more difficult for your enemies to defend against. Your wisdom modifier, in addition to adding Force points, is also used to modify your will saving throw, which improves your chances of resisting an enemy's Force powers.

Charisma

Jedi radiate a sense of internal power that can greatly affect those around them. For that reason, a high charisma will become fairly important after your character becomes a Jedi, when the modifier for the skill starts to apply to certain Jedi-specific feats and Force powers. Even before you feel the calling of the Force, a charismatic individual will have much greater success in persuading others to see his or her side of an argument.

Charisma and wisdom aren't exactly created equal, though, especially for characters that intend to use Force powers as their prime means of affecting the game world and their enemies. If you're planning on playing a Jedi consular who can wield Force powers with ease, you'll definitely want to increase your wisdom stat at the expense of charisma. Even though both of them add their modifier to the DC of a Force power attack, a high wisdom score also increases the amount of Force points your character possesses, as well as your will saving throw.

Skills

Your character's proficiency in KOTOR's skills will to a large extent determine the path you take through the game. Most soldier characters will use skills only rarely, since most skills are related to non-combat activities, so soldiers will generally have to rely on the talents of NPC teammates to make their way past obstacles. There's never a guarantee that you'll have an NPC along with the right skill when you need it, though, so the choices you make with your PC's skills will still have a great impact on your experience as you play KOTOR. Scouts, and especially scoundrels, will need to hone multiple skills to make up for their lack of raw combat ability.

The number of skills characters get to choose depends on their class, as well as their intelligence modifier. Scoundrels are the most skillful of the KOTOR classes, with scouts coming close behind, while soldiers, rarely the smartest people in the galaxy, lag far behind. You'll be able to select a few skills when you create your character, and you'll get to further enhance your knowledge at each level-up.

Skills, like most everything else in the game, are based upon simulated rolls of a 20-sided die, so even a high level of proficiency in a skill won't always protect you from failure. Most skill-related tasks in the game are assigned a difficulty check (DC) of a number usually between 10 and 30, with higher numbers representing the more challenging scenarios. When you make a skill check, you take your rank in that skill, add or subtract the appropriate modifier for the governing attribute to find your modified skill rank, and then, depending on the circumstances, the game either adds a random number between one and 20 to that rank or simply adds 20 to determine whether or not you succeeded at your task.

The difference between the dice roll and the simple addition of 20 is known as the "take 20" rule: if your character has a theoretically unlimited amount of time to pick a lock, for instance, then their chance of success are going to be much better than that of a character who's attempting to pick the same lock while dodging blaster fire. For the purposes of the game, demolitions and security are the only two skills that are consistently subject to the "take 20" rule, so if you wish to disable a mine, or pick a lock, you'll want to make sure you make your attempt outside of combat.

If the final number that the game generates is equal to or above the DC of the task, then you've accomplished your mission; if it's below, then you failed in some way. Some tasks will allow you to try them multiple times; many, most notably those relying on the persuasion skill, are one-time-only opportunities.

It's important to consider, when making a character, that not all classes are equally adept at all the skills. A soldier is obviously not going to be as useful as a scoundrel when you're confronted with a locked door, and by the same token, you probably wouldn't want a scoundrel looking you over when you need to have a combat wound treated. These congenital deficiencies are represented in-game by the notion of "cross-class skills." Each class has certain skills that they excel at; these are listed in the Class profiles section. These skills are purchased with skill points at a one-to-one ratio. Unfortunately, the cross-class skills, i.e. those that your character just wasn't trained in, are difficult to learn, and are thus much less efficient to improve, requiring two skill purchase points for each single-point upgrade to the actual skill.

Lastly, there is a limit to how high you can raise your rank in a skill. For class skills, this limit is your experience level plus three, resulting in a maximum limit of rank four when you begin the game. For cross-class skills, the limit is half of the limit for your class skills, rounded down, so that, at experience level 4, your upper limit for a cross-class skill would be rank three (experience level four + three equals seven, divided by two is three and a half, which is rounded down).

Computer Use

Modifier: intelligence Class skill: scout

Luckily, KOTOR comes before the time in the Star Wars universe when a Scomp Link interface like the one R2-D2 possesses was necessary to hack into computer systems. As such, your human character will be able to droidishly override the default programming of computers you encounter along your adventure, provided you have the skill necessary to use the computer "spikes" which act as disposable hacking tools. Each task that can be accomplished with a given computer requires a certain number of spikes, but the computer use skill reduces the number of spikes necessary for a job by one for every four points of proficiency you possess in the skill. Unfortunately, this makes computer use a rather point-hungry skill to upgrade, since you won't necessarily see any benefit from adding less than four skill points, so this is a skill you may want to consider going all-in on, and pumping as high as possible, or simply avoiding it and hoping you have a hacker NPC teammate along when you really need one.

Truthfully speaking, computer use can be disregarded as a serious choice for your skill points, at least for your PC. While there are some occasions where the ability to reprogram all of the droids in an area to fight alongside of your party is useful, the designers have carefully made sure that computer use is never a required skill for passing through an area; thus, there's never any situation where the ability to hack a computer is absolutely required, or will accomplish anything that can't be achieved with the use of brute force, or the security skill. If you have extra skill points hanging around, computer use might be useful as a last resort, but even the weakest characters will rarely find it necessary to resort to hacking to get through an area.

Demolitions

Modifier: intelligence Class skill: soldier, scoundrel

Every so often, you'll encounter traps in KOTOR. Sometimes you won't see them coming, in which case a high demolitions rank won't be very helpful, but if you do manage to spot a mine in your path (using the awareness skill), you'll need to have some measure of demolitions proficiency in order to disarm it. You can set a mine that you have bought or found by making a check against the DC of the mine, which is either DC 15, DC 20, or DC 25, with the higher difficulties being, of course, the most powerful mines (which are usually used to guard the most valuable locations and items). When you wish to disarm a mine, you add five points to the DC of the task; if you want to both disarm the mine and recover it so that you can use it later, you'll need to add 10 to the DC. Luckily, mine disabling falls under the "take 20" rule: if you have a theoretically unlimited amount of time to perform an action, you'll be able to assume that your roll on the DC check is always a 20, the best possible result. This means that, when you attempt to disarm or recover a mine when your party is not in combat, you'll stand a pretty good chance at doing it. Unfortunately, the high DC of the more difficult mines still makes demolitions another skill that's unwieldy for dabblers; if you don't have a high enough Intelligence modifier to give you a reasonable chance of succeeding on a DC of 25 or more, you may wish to leave the bomb squad heroics to your teammates. They won't mind a bit.

Using mines in an offensive capacity is rarely useful, though when it does work, you can sometimes find the skill single-handedly killing off an opponent that three party members combined can't defeat. (This can come in fairly handy towards the *cough* end of the game.) You don't find quite enough mines to make this a consistently viable approach to combat, though, and while your teammates cannot accidentally trigger your own mines, they do seem to take a peculiar kind of glee in running towards your opponents and attacking them before the enemies walk over your mine field. In order to properly use mines, then, you'll need to: be able to spot your enemies from a distance away (or have died and reloaded, and thus know where they are or which door they're behind); go into solo mode and plant the mines with your other party members far enough away so that they don't spot the enemy and go hostile; get one of the enemies to spot you; then run back across the mines and wait for your foes to blow themselves up. In short, it's often a little more work than it's worth, but it when it does work, it can sometimes single-handedly win a difficult battle for you.

You cannot use the demolitions skill unless you've achieved a skill rank of at least one.

Stealth

Modifier: dexterity Class skill: scoundrel

While scoundrels are generally ill-equipped to deal with hordes of enemies, the stealth skill gives them a bit of an edge against their foes, by allowing them to sneak past patrols unmolested, hack into computer systems that are behind enemy lines, or plant mines in the midst of a group of enemies. Activating stealth requires a personal camouflage unit, which is provided to a scoundrel at the beginning of the game; more advanced units, which lend a positive modifier to your stealth rank, can be purchased or found later on. Once you activate stealth mode, your character will disappear from sight, allowing you to travel where you wish, provided you don't run across an enemy with keen eyesight. Every time you pass through an enemy's line of sight, that enemy will have the opportunity to make an awareness check; if it succeeds, you can expect to find yourself in the crosshairs within seconds. Your NPC teammates will not join you in stealth mode, nor will they follow you while you're invisible, so if you do find yourself suddenly exposed, they may be too far away to lend you support. If you pump your stealth stat high enough, though, and pair it with state-of-the-art camo gear, you should be as hard to spot as a Dianoga in a trash compactor.

Again, as with some of the other skills here, stealth is a somewhat marginal talent that is not universally useful. Since you're forced to walk while stealth mode is active, using it slows the pace of the game down considerably, but if you're deeply involved in role-playing your character, you may find some interesting solutions to puzzles via this skill.

Awareness

Modifier: wisdom Class skill: soldier, scout, scoundrel

Awareness allows all of the classes in the game a chance to spot mines that are in your path or that exist as part of a trap on a door or chest, or expose an enemy that has entered stealth mode. Spotting mines is fairly handy, since you can recover and sell them for extra cash, but seeing stealth characters won't be a consideration for your party, since the only enemies that you encounter that are capable of stealth are apparently immune to awareness. It probably isn't worth your while to pump awareness up too high; it is, after all, a somewhat passive skill that merely seeks to let your character avoid damage. Since your characters cannot die outside of combat, and since there are easy ways to heal your characters, the avoidance of mines shouldn't figure too highly on your list of skill priorities.

Persuade

Modifier: charisma Class skill: scoundrel

Having a good blaster at your side won't always get you where you need to go; in fact, since you're unable to indiscriminately cut down the foolish peons who block your way, you may sometimes find that a silver tongue will gain you access to hidden areas and optional quests more reliably than brute force. persuasion is a dialogue-based skill, and isn't useful in every situation, but the ability to win people over with sheer charm will often open up new options and better quest endings for a persuasive character, or allow you to avoid combat with a tentative or gullible opponent. Only scoundrels are able to truly excel in persuasion, but unfortunately, the computer-controlled character creation process seems to discount the usefulness of this skill: if you choose to make a quick character scoundrel, or let the game select the recommended skills in the custom character design process, you will wind up with exactly zero points in persuasion. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since persuasion isn't immediately useful when you start the game, but you'll want to be sure to pump this skill up at your first level-up to ensure that you'll be able to use it by the time you reach the first planet. Also, keep in mind that only your PC can use persuade; none of the NPC members of your party are apparently gifted with a way with words. This alone makes advancing this skill doubly important for scoundrels.

Repair

Modifier: intelligence Class skill: scout

Repair is similar to the computer use skill in that the difficulty of successfully repairing a damaged machine or droid is not based on the use of a DC check. Rather, the repair skill merely reduces the number of parts required to repair a broken droid, allowing you to save one part for every four ranks you possess. It's worth pointing out that, as you progress further into the game, most of the broken droids you encounter will require multiple individual repairs before they're restored to working order, and since you save parts from each repair, you can sometimes save four or five parts per droid for every four levels you possess in repair. Or you can just skip repairing the droid, and make up the couple hundred experience you miss out on by killing one extra enemy somewhere along the line. Repairing droids can be amusing every once in a while, but the occasions where they accomplish what your party alone could not are, well, non-existent, at least in this game.

Repair also governs the amount of vitality that your droid NPCs gain when they use repair kits on themselves to recover from damage.

Security

Modifier: wisdom Class skill: scoundrel

What would a BioWare RPG be without lockpicking? Security is the euphemism used for that eternally useful skill in KOTOR; characters with at least one point in security can attempt to disable the many locks that you'll encounter throughout the game, with higher skill required for more difficult locks. This skill doesn't necessarily require equipment, although you will encounter lockpicks (excuse me, "security spikes") throughout the game, which can add a positive modifier to a lockpicking attempt. All of these spikes are one-use-only, unfortunately, and are removed from your inventory after you add their modifier to an attempt to breach security (whether the attempt was successful or not).

Of the three tech-oriented skills, security will generally be the most desirable. Again, the game has been carefully crafted to ensure that you never have to have a character with a high security rank in your party, through the use of keys and passcards and such, but most areas will have numerous locked stashes of items that you will miss out on without at least one character with sufficient security to open them. On the other hand, you will be able to make do without security if the locked item is susceptible to bashing; to see if this is possible, use the d-pad to cycle up or down from the "Open" command on your action menu. If the attack icon appears when you have a locked item in your reticule, you can simply hack it open instead of picking the lock. This works on a surprisingly high number of locked doors and containers, but keep in mind that many of these bashable items have a very high damage resistance, meaning that it might take you a very long time to open them without the security skill.

Treat Injury

Modifier: wisdom Class skill: soldier, scout

The best armor in the galaxy won't prevent your character from taking damage every once in a while. You have a finite amount of vitality, and this precious commodity does not recover by itself over time; you'll either need to find a doctor to repair your wounds, or consume a medpac to gain back your health. The treat injury skill simply adds itself to the amount of vitality you would normally gain from a medpac; this amount can be further increased by using advanced medpacs or life support packs.

Players who intend to become Light Jedis would do well to keep in mind that the cure and heal Force powers essentially replicate the effects of medpacs, and have the bonus of being reusable, since your Force gauge will gradually replenish itself over time. If you plan to focus on using Force powers, you may want to tough out the early sections of the game without over-investing in treat injury if the skill will become less useful when you gain the ability to heal yourself with the Force. On the other hand, soldiers and those who wish to become Dark Jedi will probably want to pump their treat injury skill quite a bit, since it will heal them more than their Force powers will be able to.

Feats

Encompassing a broad variety of specific abilities, feats are used to further specialize a character, largely through customizing the way you conduct yourself during combat. While not all feats are combat-oriented, the majority are, and your choices here will determine what weapons and armor your character can use, as well as any special attacks they can use during battle.

Feats can be upgraded; once you possess both a basic feat and whatever prerequisites are required, and obtain a feat purchase point at a level-up, you may advance that feat to the next level, which allows you to obtain more bonuses to the special ability that the feat affords you. Some feats, such as armor and weapon proficiencies, are cumulative, but most are not, so that achieving the second level in a feat replaces the bonuses that the first level gave you, rather than having them add together.

Passive Combat Feats

For the money, feats that are passive in combat are usually more desirable than those that require activation. Although BioWare has done an admirable job in streamlining the d20 combat system for a console, and although you can always pause at any time you wish, combat can still become a bit hairy and complex with multiple combatants. Since passive feats are always active, working behind the scenes to make your characters better warriors, they ease the burden of micromanagement somewhat.

If you're the type of person who likes to micromanage your PC and let your other party members do as they wish, then you might want to ensure that your NPC party members are selecting passive feats when they level up, rather than letting the game decide to give them active feats. NPCs will use feats as part of their default AI, but not necessarily. It's usually a good idea to load up on the passive feats that match your character's preferred weapon or weapons, and save the active feats for later in the game.

Weapon Proficiencies

(Blaster Rifle, Blaster Pistol, Heavy Weapons, Melee Weapons)

Since combat is such a core aspect of the KOTOR gameplay, every character will want to pick a weapon type (if not two) and advance its proficiency to its second rank. Even if a mere +1 to hit doesn't sound impressive, you have to consider that, over the course of the game, your characters will engage in thousands of rounds of combat, so even a five percent larger chance to connect with a weapon will add up to a large savings in combat time, not to mention medpacs, since some enemies will undoubtedly die before they can deal damage to you due to your improved accuracy.

The third ranks of weapon proficiencies, called weapon specializations, are a unique case, since they are only available to characters of the soldier class. When a character specializes in a weapon, he or she adds two damage to the total damage dealt on the blow.

For those of you planning to use the ol' laser sword later on, keep in mind that the bonuses gained from advanced ranks of melee proficiency do not apply to lightsabers; that weapon has its own proficiency that you'll need to advance in.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Proficiency Level 1 Allows use of weapon type with no penalties Weapon Focus Level 4 Attacks with weapon type gain +1 attack Weapon Specialization Level 8 Successful hits with weapon type gain +2 damage

Armor Proficiency

A piece of body armor cannot be used by a character unless they have a proficiency for armor of that weight class. Pretty simple, really. Scoundrels start with only the light armor proficiency, but keep in mind that heavier armor generally reduces or negates the dexterity bonus to defense, so if you have a high dexterity stat, you may as well find a great piece of light armor and use that. Also note that many Force powers are not useable while you are wearing armor; this fits thematically into the notion that scoundrels will usually become the most powerful Force users once your character becomes a Jedi. Since feats are somewhat precious commodities as it is, it's probably for the best that you use the default proficiencies that your character starts with, rather than buying a proficiency for higher-level armor that might not be useful later in the game.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Light Level 1 Allows use of light armor Medium Level 1 Allows use of medium armor Heavy Level 1 Allows use of heavy armor

Two-Weapon Fighting

You might as well just call this "dual lightsabers," because that's probably all anyone will want to use it for. Two-weapon fighting gives you the opportunity to wield a weapon in each of your hands with a reduction to the normal penalty. Although you can use this feat in conjunction with dual blaster pistols, it's most beneficial, or perhaps just cooler, to use it with dual melee weapons, of which, of course, the lightsaber is the most famous example. Unfortunately, the attack penalties are still absolutely horrendous at the first level, so unless you want your enemies to think that you got weapons training from Greedo, you'll probably want to stick with a single weapon until you reach the second rank of this feat. Note that the use of a "balanced" weapon in your off-hand slot can reduce the attack penalty of your main-hand weapon, so be on the lookout for balanced swords and pistols during your travels. Lightsabers are not balanced; you'll need to use a short lightsaber in the off-hand if you want to reduce your main-hand penalty.

Rank Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 Attack penalties: -6 (main hand) / -6 (off-hand) Improved Rank Level 4 Attack penalties: -4 (main hand) / -4 (off-hand) Master Rank Level 8 Attack penalties: -2 (main hand) / -2 (off-hand)

Conditioning

Conditioning adds a bonus to every saving throw your character makes. Saving throws are used to reduce or negate damage from certain sources, such as explosives and harmful Force powers. A single +1 to saving throws is unlikely to have an immediate impact on your chances of survival, but it will average out to a greater likelihood that a character will live through a powerful attack somewhere along the line.

Rank Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 +1 to all saving throws Improved Rank Level 4 +2 to all saving throws Master Rank Level 8 +3 to all saving throws

Implant Level 1

This feat allows the character to use implants, which can have drastic effects on a character's statistics and attributes. Since most implants are used to increase a single attribute by one for each level of the implant, gaining a level in this feat can be thought of as gaining another attribute point to allocate (assuming you can find an implant that modifies an attribute that will actually be useful to you). Scouts gain all three levels of this for free as soon as they're available, but the other classes would be wise to consider this as a back-up feat if nothing else seems to pop out at you. This feat is cumulative, so if you achieve the third rank, you can use level one, two, or three implants.

Rank Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 Allows use of level one implants Improved Rank Level 4 Allows use of level two implants Master Rank Level 8 Allows use of level three implants

Toughness

Toughness has two separate effects, depending on the rank that you advance it to. The first rank and the third rank each cumulatively add one to your vitality total for each level of your character; if you achieved the first rank of this feat upon reaching level 12, for instance, your character would instantly gain 12 vitality, and would gain an extra health point at each level-up thereafter. The third rank doubles the point bonus, meaning that if you achieved the third rank of this feat at level 12, you'd still possess the 12 extra vitality from the first rank, but also instantaneously gain another 12 points. Every time you leveled-up from then, you'd gain two points of vitality.

The second rank differs from the first and third in that it reduces the damage dealt to you by two points. This applies to each individual attack, and works against any form of damage, not just physical. While the extra health from ranks one and three will be helpful to any character, this rank is of most use to melee-range characters, since they will often be taking damage from multiple enemies at the same time, or will be the target of opponents that can attack multiple times per turn. The damage reduction affects every attack from an opponent, so if an opponent with two weapons hits you twice, your character would take four less damage during that round.

This feat is of somewhat universal utility; it fits almost any character, since everyone takes damage. It's perhaps most useful for the aforementioned melee fighters, since they will be the ones who will generally be targeted by the most enemies during any given fight.

Rank Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 Adds 1 vitality per level (retroactive) Second Rank Level 4 Reduces all damage taken by 2 Third Rank Level 8 Adds 1 vitality per level (retroactive)

Scoundrel's Luck

As you might've guessed from this feat's name, it is only available for the scoundrel class. (So where's the feat called scout's honor?) To compensate for the scoundrel's discomfort when wearing medium or heavy armor, scoundrel's luck simply adds a bonus to defense that is always active, even when the character is wearing no armor. This is an automatic feat that scoundrels gain for free upon hitting the appropriate level.

Rank Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 +2 to defense Second Rank Level 6 +4 to defense Third Rank Level 8 +6 to defense

Dueling

If you fancy your character to be the model of the traditional Jedi, or perhaps one of Han Solo's progenitors, then the dueling feat will be right up your alley. It's something of an alternative to the Two-weapon proficiency, but instead of reducing penalties, dueling simply takes a good thing and makes it better. If you use a single-handed weapon (such as a lightsaber, sword, or blaster pistol), and keep your off-hand free, then the dueling feat will add a bonus to both your attack and defense. You won't deal any extra damage, but you will last longer in battle and will be able to more easily strike your opponents. This feat is one that you'll want to consider giving to your Jedi NPCs as soon as you get an opportunity; few of them will have enough spare feats to excel in Two-weapon fighting, so a single lightsaber and this feat is a good compromise between defense and offensive capabilities.

Rank Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 +1 to attack and defense Second Rank Level 4 +2 to attack and defense Third Rank Level 8 +3 to attack and defense

Sneak Attack 1

Only scoundrels can use the sneak attack feat, and indeed get a new rank in it for free at every other level-up; it corresponds roughly to the backstab attack of a thief character in traditional Dungeons & Dragons. When you successfully hit with a sneak attack, you add damage to the blow, but there are conditions. Since it's a sneak attack, you have to ensure that your quarry either doesn't know the blow is about to arrive, or simply can't do anything to defend himself. It can be applied when you are attacking an enemy from behind, if your target is stunned or immobilized, or if the scoundrel is in stealth mode. Since attacking automatically brings you out of stealth mode, you'll only get one shot at a sneak attack before your target is alerted to your presence. Of course, if you kill him or her in one blow, you won't have to worry about that.

The most useful application of sneak attack comes in conjunction with Force powers that stun opponents; since these powers are cheap and generally quite effective, you can have one of your party members stun an opponent, while your scoundrel proceeds to wipe them out with just a few hits.

Rank Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 Adds 1-6 damage to a successful hit Second Rank Level 3 Adds 2-12 damage to a successful hit Third Rank Level 5 Adds 3-18 damage to a successful hit Fourth Rank Level 7 Adds 4-24 damage to a successful hit Fifth Rank Level 9 Adds 5-30 damage to a successful hit Sixth Rank Level 11 Adds 6-36 damage to a successful hit Seventh Rank Level 13 Adds 7-42 damage to a successful hit Eighth Rank Level 15 Adds 8-48 damage to a successful hit Ninth Rank Level 17 Adds 9-54 damage to a successful hit Tenth Rank Level 19 Adds 10-60 damage to a successful hit

Active Combat Feats

While passive feats remain working in the background of the game all of the time, active feats require player input during a battle before they'll be used. These generally allow you to perform an attack that is enhanced in some way, although they will also carry a temporary penalty. There is no activation cost for active Feats, so you can use them and abuse them as much as you like, though working around their penalties will require some strategy depending on your foe.

Critical Strike

Stunner! The primary benefit of critical strike is that it has a good chance of stunning an enemy for a short duration on a successful melee attack (and only melee attacks; critical strike doesn't work with ranged weapons), if they fail a saving throw. That saving throw, however, is checked against a DC that consists of the attacker's experience level plus the attacker's strength modifier, so at low levels, you won't stun an opponent more than 1 time out of three at best. Once you gain 10 levels or so, and gain bonuses to your strength through implants or other items, you will stand a much better chance of incapacitating opponents.

In addition to the stunning effect, critical strike doubles the chance that a hit will result in the possibility of a critical hit. If a weapon would normally perform a critical hit on a roll of 20, for instance, a critical strike will increase that range to 19-20. For best results, try to use this feat with a weapon that already has a critical range of 19-20; the range will be increased to 17-20, giving fully 20% of your attacks the chance to see their damage doubled if they connect. At higher ranks, this feat triples or even quadruples the chances of a critical strike, meaning that, at master rank, a weapon with a natural critical chance of 19-20 will have a 80% probability of a critical hit for each attack. (Note that, due to the mechanics of the critical hit, this doesn't necessarily mean that 80% of your attacks will do double damage. See the glossary entry for "critical hit" to get a bit more in-depth on this topic.) Against some powerful foes, the critical range will actually exceed the range needed for a hit, meaning that 100% of your successful hits will have a chance for double damage.

The drawback is that, when you use a critical strike, your defense is lowered by 5 points for a few seconds. This is obviously a substantial penalty, which balances the powerful effect of critical strike, and should make you wary of using this skill when dealing with multiple enemies, since they'll have a much better chance of hitting you and causing massive vitality damage.

Rank Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 Chance to stun enemy; doubles critical strike range Improved Rank Level 4 Chance to stun enemy; triples critical strike range Master Rank Level 8 Chance to stun enemy; quadruples critical strike range

Sniper Shot

Sniper shot works exactly the same as critical strike, except that it only works with pistols and other ranged weaponry. Also, when calculating the chance that the target will be stunned, the DC is calculated by your character's level plus the modifier of their intelligence attribute, instead of the strength stat.

Rank Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 Chance to stun enemy; doubles critical strike range Improved Rank Level 4 Chance to stun enemy; triples critical strike range Master Rank Level 8 Chance to stun enemy; quadruples critical strike range

Flurry

Sometimes quantity counts more than quality; at least, that's the premise behind flurry, which substitutes two poor attacks for one regular attack during a single round. Instead of taking a single attack during a round, flurry allows you to make two attacks, each with a penalty to your attack number, and also lowers your defense for three seconds, so that one of your opponents will usually get in a cheap shot. Like critical strike, flurry is only available for melee weapons.

Flurry is the active combat feat to increase to its highest rank. At low levels, you'll want to have your character pursue passive feats that are always active, but when you begin looking for a useful active feat, this is the one that you'll almost always want to max out. Critical strike has its uses, but the defense penalty is a tremendous drawback, while power attack is, well, fairly useless in most cases. Flurry is just plain better than either of those feats when you compare all of them at their highest ranks. More attacks is a surefire way of increasing the rate that you deal out damage, and the attack penalty at the second and third ranks is negligible, as is the defense penalty. Once you hit the third rank, especially, you will be able to essentially replace your regular attack with a queue full of flurries.

Note that flurry is only good for one extra attack per turn; if you use two weapons at once, the weapon in your main hand will be granted the extra attack, so that you'd have a total of three attacks during a round. However, you can combine flurry with Force speed to gain even more attacks, so that a character with two weapons, master flurry, and master Force speed will have an incredible five attacks per round.

Rank Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 Two attacks per round, both at -4 attack; -4 defense for three seconds Improved Rank Level 4 Two attacks per round, both at -2 attack; -2 defense for three seconds Master Rank Level 8 Two attacks per round, both at -1 attack; -1 defense for three seconds

Rapid Shot

Rapid shot is essentially the same as flurry, except that it only works in conjunction with blasters or other ranged weapons.

Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 Two attacks per round, both at -4 attack; -4 defense for three seconds Improved Rank Level 4 Two attacks per round, both at -2 attack; -2 defense for three seconds Master Rank Level 8 Two attacks per round, both at -1 attack; -1 defense for three seconds

Power Attack

If you're using a melee weapon, then power attack can greatly increase the damage a successful strike dishes out, but it unfortunately reduces your attack bonus, rendering said strikes more difficult to accomplish. This is of minor use against powerful opponents, against whom you will need as high a chance to hit as possible, but against less significant foes, the extra damage can end skirmishes quickly. Note that there are diminishing returns as you add a third rank to this skill; if you find that the improved rank helps you kill foes quickly enough, you might want to save your feat point for something more utilitarian.

Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 +5 damage per hit; -3 attack penalty Improved Rank Level 4 +8 damage per hit; -3 attack penalty Master Rank Level 8 +10 damage per hit; -3 attack penalty

Power Blast

Power blast is essentially the same as power attack, except that it can only be used with a ranged weapon.

Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 +5 damage per hit; -3 attack penalty Improved Rank Level 4 +8 damage per hit; -3 attack penalty Master Rank Level 8 +10 damage per hit; -3 attack penalty

Passive Skill Feats

Some feats simply add bonus points to skills. These are not bad purchases if you simply can't find something worthwhile on the feats list, especially for soldiers, who will usually have very few skill points to allocate at each level-up, and who gain feats at a more rapid pace than the other classes. Scoundrels and scouts should usually be fine with the number of skill points they get at each level-up. The exception to this rule is for NPC party members; if you're the kind of player who tends to micromanage your PC and lets the other party members act on their own, you may want to give them more of these passive skills instead of loading them up on active combat feats that require you to manually switch over to the character and queue up an action. Note that these feats are definitely not cumulative; the bonuses you gain from the second rank replaces the bonus from the first rank, instead of adding to it, as does the bonus from the third rank. These additions allow you to exceed the maximum skill rank that's imposed by your experience level.

Caution

Caution gives a bonus to demolitions and stealth. If you really enjoy using your stealth skill to wander into an enemy position and set mines, then this might be something you'll need; most characters will want to stay away from this feat, though.

Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 Adds +1 to each skill Second Rank Level 4 Adds +2 to each skill Third Rank Level 8 Adds +3 to each skill

Empathy

Empathy boosts persuasion, awareness, and treat injury. Any class would stand a fair chance of finding this useful, since it is difficult for soldiers and scouts to increase their persuasion skill, and vice versa for scoundrels and treat injury.

Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 Adds +1 to each skill Second Rank Level 4 Adds +2 to each skill Third Rank Level 8 Adds +3 to each skill

Gear Head

For the techies among your party, gear head benefits the repair, security, and computer use skills. Perhaps uncoincidentally, these are the three skills that T3-M4 is most adept at, so you may want it to abuse this feat a bit in order to become your party's Swiss Army knife.

Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 Adds +1 to each skill Second Rank Level 4 Adds +2 to each skill Third Rank Level 8 Adds +3 to each skill

Jedi Feats

Jedi characters, including your PC, will get to choose from a few feats that are specific to the Jedi classes. In addition, each individual Jedi class will get a feat unique to it.

Jedi Sense

Jedi are renowned for their ability to recognize and adapt to the various threats that surround them in a battle situation, and are thus generally much more adept at defending themselves in a fight. The sense abilities, which you gain automatically as your Jedi character gains levels, simply add a bonus to your defense rating, helping to compensate for a Jedi's characteristic lack of armor. Note that, should your PC have been a scoundrel before becoming a Jedi, this addition is cumulative with scoundrel's luck

Prerequisites Effect Jedi Sense Jedi Level 1 +2 to Defense Knight Sense Jedi Level 6 +4 to Defense Master Sense Jedi Level 12 +6 to Defense

Force Focus

The indomitable will of a Jedi consular can greatly affect the efficacy of his influence on weaker minds, and Force focus is the gameplay extension of this rather nebulous concept. Since consulars are much more in tune with the Force than are the other classes, their Force powers are generally considered to be much stronger and more difficult to resist. Thus, upon gaining skill in wielding the Force, they are able to channel some of their learnings into their powers, reducing the chances that an enemy will successfully make a saving throw. Like the other class-specific feats, this is a passive skill that is always working in the background

Prerequisites Effect Jedi Focus Jedi consular Level 1 +1 to DC of Force powers Knight Focus Jedi consular Level 6 +2 to DC of Force powers Master Focus Jedi consular Level 12 +4 to DC of Force powers

Force Jump

When a Jedi decides to instigate battle, the results are usually something their opponent will remember for awhile. Of course, not all Jedi are temperamentally suited to aggressive acts, so only Jedi guardians will be capable of pulling off a Force jump, which catapults them towards a distant enemy, and allows the Jedi to cover the intervening ground in the blink of an eye. All Jedi guardians gain additional levels in this feat automatically when they reach the appropriate level.

In practical terms, Force jump gives the Jedi's first strike in battle a bonus to hit and to damage. Juhani, or the PC if you're a guardian, will use this feat automatically every time the conditions apply (you're using a regular attack, and the enemy is more than ten meters away). Sometimes it's not necessarily a good thing to have a single Jedi wandering into the midst of a group of enemies by themselves, however, so you might want to cancel this feat's use by selecting an active combat feat or Jedi power for that Jedi to use; Force jump won't activate in these circumstances.

Note that Force speed will interact with this feat quite favorably; if Juhani or your PC has master Force speed and master Force jump, they will get three attacks after they leap, each at +4 attack and +4 damage.

Prerequisites Effect Force Jump Jedi guardian Level 1 Jumping attack; +1 to attack and damage on first strike Improved Force Jump Jedi guardian Level 6 Jumping attack; +2 to attack and damage on first strike Master Force Jump Jedi guardian Level 12 Jumping attack; +4 to attack and damage on first strike

Force Immunity

Jedi sentinels are reliant on their personality to resolve conflicts, and to bring together parties in discord so that resolution to their problems can be achieved. This focused determination lends them great mental stability, and protection against many of the mind-affecting afflictions that would cause a less disciplined individual to panic. Like the other class-specific feats, this is always active

Prerequisites Effect Immunity: Fear Jedi sentinel Level 1 Jedi is immune to all fear attacks and effects Immunity: Stun Jedi sentinel Level 6 Jedi is immune to all stunning attacks and effects Immunity: Paralysis Jedi sentinel Level 12 Jedi is immune to all paralysis attacks and effects

Jedi Defense

Although all Jedi are trained in the proper use of a lightsaber upon initiation into the Jedi Order, it's a simple matter of fact that some of them are more adept at wielding the blade than others. What's more, it's one thing to put your fencing skills to the test; it's another thing entirely to become proficient at using a lightsaber to defend yourself against the nigh-endless number of overeager fools with blaster rifles looking to make their name by taking out a Jedi.

Thus, Jedi defense is a feat that can be pumped in order to give your character an edge when dealing with ranged attackers. Every time your Jedi is attacked with a ranged blaster attack, he or she will have a chance to deflect the blaster shot, or even reflect it back at the attacker (which you'll no doubt discover if you ever attempt to use a blaster rifle to take on a Dark Jedi master). All Jedi have a rudimentary ability to perform this kind of deflection, so that everyone picks up Jedi defense at their first level, but with practice, a Jedi can become much more adept at this skill, thus increasing not only the chance that they'll escape from an attack unharmed, but also turn the attack back upon the attacker. This skill relies on a dice roll that is compared to the opponent's attack roll.

This feat's main drawback is that it is not useful in every situation; when taking on mandalorians, you might save your character a bit of vitality, but when in combat with Tuskan raiders, or Wookiees, or, most importantly, Dark Jedi, this feat won't help you one whit. Even Sith troopers usually resort to melee combat when they're closed in upon. This isn't necessarily a bad feat, but something like flurry is more likely to be useful in every combat situation

Prerequisites Effect Jedi Defense Level 1 Able to block incoming blaster fire Advanced Jedi Defense Level 4 +3 to your opposing roll Master Jedi Defense Level 8 +6 to your opposing roll

Weapon Proficiency: Lightsaber

Simple enough; increasing this lets your Jedi strike more accurately and deal more damage with a lightsaber, much like all of the other weapon proficiencies. Note that lightsaber specialization is only available to Jedi guardians

Rank Prerequisites Effect Proficiency None Allows use of weapon type with no penalties Weapon Focus None Attacks with weapon type gain +1 attack Weapon Specialization None Successful hits with weapon type gain +2 damage

Jedi Powers

Oh, baby. Knights of the Old Republic has what is, hands-down, the best integration of Force powers into a Star Wars game we've seen yet. If you've seen it in the movies, you can probably do it; if you haven't seen it in the movies, well, you can probably do that, too.

While lightsabers might give your Jedi a slight edge in battle, you're going to need to call upon your powers to deal with the really beastly fights. Hell, since your Force points recover so quickly outside of battle, you'll be able to use your powers in every fight along the way. You'd think that this would make the game too easy, but let's just say that BioWare has planned accordingly: as you unlock the more advanced Force powers, your enemies will become tough enough to withstand quite a bit of damage, thus actually requiring you to use powers just to give yourself enough of an edge to actually win.

Powers are sorted into Light side, Dark side, and neutral classifications. No power is ever off-limits to you; you'll still be able to pump Force lightning, even if you're the most virtuous of Light side Jedi, but your unfamiliarity with the energies required to summon such harmful effects will take its toll on you; you'll be forced to use more Force points than would a Dark Jedi. On the flip side, Light side Jedi will burn fewer Force points when using a Light side power than would a neutral or Dark Jedi. At its most extreme, this effect will save you 50% on your friendly Force powers, but using powers from the other side of the Force will cost you 50% more than they would if you were neutral. Force costs remain constant when you upgrade a power, so previous iterations of a power will be erased from your combat menu once you do achieve a new rank.

Neutral Powers

Force Push Force Cost: 10 Push and its derivatives don't deal much damage, but are useful for stunning and incapacitating your enemies. The higher two levels will enable you to quickly and easily knock down opponents, while often rendering them stunned for a round or so afterwards. Even though most powerful opponents won't be stunned or knocked over by this power, you can still render their lower-level goons as numb as the typical audience at a Michael Bay film, leaving you free to gang up on the bossman. Sadly, like that same audience at the Michael Bay film, they will awaken with a powerful desire to kill, so keep an eye on the stunned ones, and be sure to activate the power every other turn or so.

In your rush for the more destructive powers, you might overlook Force push, but discount the efficacy of stunning powers at your own risk. While a Force storm might knock a group of opponents down to half of their life, a Force wave is much more likely to stun a good number of them, which not only makes them easier to kill, but prevents them from dealing damage to you while they're knocked out. If you couple the stunning effects, the wide area of effect, and the low cost of this power, a case could be made for giving each of your Jedi characters three ranks in Force push: it's almost always useful.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Force Push Level 1 * Target is thrown, stunned, and takes damage * Save versus reflex: No stun, half damage Force Whirlwind Level 9 * Target is trapped in a vortex, takes damage; other enemies are pushed away * Save versus reflex: No immobilization or damage, but other enemies are still pushed Force Wave Level 15 * All nearby enemies are repelled, take damage, and are stunned * Save versus reflex: No stun, half damage Force Suppression

Force Cost: 25 Restricted By Armor Suppression sounds like a good deal on the surface: when used, it can strip your opponent of any number of beneficial powers that they may have activated on themselves, such as an aura, or valor. Unfortunately, for the purposes of the game, you'll only be able to remove speed and Force resistance from your opponents, since you won't be facing off against any Light side Jedi during your journey. What's more, very few Dark Jedi seem to actually use the speed skill, so that, at its core, this power is really only good for removing Force resistance. This is still important for Dark side Jedi, who will be relying on powers like drain life and Force lightning, but Light side Jedi won't have to worry as much about an enemy's resistance to their powers, since so few of them target opponents

Rank Prerequisites Effect Force Suppression Level 9 * Removes first and second ranks of speed, aura, valor, but only the first rank of energy resistance and Force resistance. * No save Force Breach Level 15 * Removes all ranks of speed, aura, valor, energy Resistance, and Force resistance. * No save Throw Lightsaber

Force Cost: 20 While throwing your lightsaber around might sound like a good substitute for a ranged attack for Jedi, in truth, the range restriction means that it will only be useful if your character is standing a ways away from his or her target, which means that this power is usually worse than useless in a duel. The damage is decent enough, but not so overwhelming that you would be better using this power than, say, reserving the Force points for an emergency cure.

This power may come in handy, though, if your PC is a former scoundrel who still settles matters with a ranged weapon. If you still use a blaster weapon in battle, then you're unlikely to be powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with a Dark Jedi, but even if you have Jedi teammates who are able to take down opposing Jedi, you'll still usually be unable to fire your weapon at the enemy, since half of them will just be deflected away anyway. In this instance, it might be worth your while to be able to throw your lightsaber, especially since it always hits. If you upgrade it to the second rank, then you'll be able to have your NPC party members engage Jedi at close range, while you sit back and send your lightsaber into the fray every round, with minimum risk to yourself.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Throw Lightsaber Level 1 Attacks one target more than five meters away; deals 1-6 damage for every two levels of your character Advanced Throw Lightsaber Level 9 Attacks three targets more than five meters away; deals 1-6 damage for every two levels of your character

Burst of Speed

Force Cost: 20 Restricted By Armor It's difficult to underestimate the utility of speed. If all it did was allow you to travel through KOTOR's massive outdoor levels and towns at twice the speed, it'd probably still be worth spending a feat on. As it is, it doesn't just reduce your travel time; it also gives you a defense bonus, and, most importantly, gives you free, unpenalized extra attacks per turn. All other things being equal, there's nothing you can do to your character to make him or her more powerful in combat that's quite as efficacious as adding more attacks per round; that's why flurry and rapid shot are so useful, and that's why it's difficult to imagine why any Jedi wouldn't want to get burst of speed up to its third rank as soon as possible. Although it only lasts for 36 seconds, that's about as long as most normal encounters will last anyway, and against Jedi, it's a simple matter to queue up another speed once the first one fades away. Just be sure you don't attempt to activate speed while another instance is already active; this just wastes your Force points, since you can't extend an active speed by using the power again.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Burst of Speed Level 1 Double movement speed; +2 to defense Knight Speed Level 9 Double movement speed; +4 to defense; 1 extra attack per round Master Speed Level 15 Double movement speed; +4 to defense; 2 extra attacks per round

Force Resistance

Force Cost: 20 Restricted By Armor This is another of the limited-use Force powers, though this one is more useful than most other powers that fall into this category. Force resistance gives you a decent chance of resisting the effects of an opponent's Force powers when they attempt to use them on you; assuming both the attacking and defending Jedi are of the same level, the attacking Jedi's Force powers only have a 50% chance of working; if they fail, then they have no effect, although the attacking Jedi will still be drained of his Force points. Force immunity gives the defending Jedi an even greater chance of beating back the tides of an opposing Jedi's Force powers

Rank Prerequisites Effect Force Resistance Level 9 Opposing Jedi must make a roll of d20 + his level vs. DC of 10 + your character's level, or his Force powers have no effect Force Immunity Level 15 Opposing Jedi must make a roll of d20 + his level vs. DC of 15 + your character's level, or his Force powers have no effect

Energy Resistance

Force Cost: 10 The world of KOTOR is not a safe one, by any stretch of the imagination; in addition to the numerous hostile characters looking to bring your party low, you'll also have to contest with fire and other elemental attacks that may cut through your defenses, if you've only been planning for melee combat with other Jedi. Energy resistance is meant to be a bit of a bulwark against these forms of attack, since it actually renders your character partially immune to the effects of fire, ice, electrical, and sonic attacks. The first 15 points of damage that your character would take from one of these sources is ignored; the rest is dealt as normal. Note that the first rank of this power is, well, fairly useless; you'll be encountering far, far more energy-based damage than any of the types that Energy resistance protects you from, although it can help ward off the special attacks of some droid enemies. The second rank extends the benefits to your whole party, however, which makes it easier to resist area effect weapons, like mines or grenades. The beneficial effects of this power last for a full 120 seconds, so it's fairly easy to keep it on all of the time with a minimum of fuss, if you're in an area where you have to deal with environmental damage.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Energy Resistance Level 1 First 15 points of cold, fire, electrical and sonic damage ignored Energy Immunity Level 9 Entire party ignores first 15 points of cold, fire, electrical and sonic damage; party immune to poison and disease

Affect Mind

Force Cost: 0 "These aren't the droids you're looking for...move along." Now that we've gotten that very much obligatory quote out of the way, let's talk about affect mind, which is the Jedi equivalent of the persuasion skill, though both a bit more limited and a bit more powerful.

Like persuasion, affect mind opens up new conversation paths; you'll be able to dominate other people into feeling what you want them to feel, or force them into revealing information that they would otherwise wish very much to conceal. The catch, for the Light side, at least, is that these conversation paths are often interpreted as an act of aggression, and thus will wind up shifting you towards the Dark side, even if you're working towards the greater good. Persuasion, on the other hand, will never shift you in either direction, though it's generally more difficult to use persuasion than it is to use affect mind. Persuasion and affect mind don't always overlap; sometimes you'll be able to persuade someone of something that affect mind won't have an option for, and vice versa.

Affect mind, especially at its second rank, will almost always succeed, but even it has its limits, and if your subject is asked to do something that it would normally find repulsive or endangering, then you're likely to fail in your attempt. Also, like persuasion, this Force power is only available to your PC; giving it to your other party members is a waste.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Affect Mind Level 1 Allows you to use the force to persuade the weak-minded, opening up new conversation branches Dominate Mind Level 6 More powerful version of affect mind

Light side Powers

Cure Force Cost: 25

No Effect on Droids Utility is a blessed thing, and cure is perhaps the most useful of all of the Light side Force powers. The concept is simple: trade Force points to heal vitality of all of your non-droid party members. Simple is generally powerful, though, and it's definitely so in this case. Since Force points regenerate so quickly in KOTOR, you can quite easily use cure to heal your entire party after every battle, provided you give yourself a short resting period between conflicts. During battle, cure will automatically be used by the party members that are not under your direct control, provided they have sufficient Force points; this will probably save your life a few times, provided you actually do the smart thing and give your teammates the cure power

Rank Prerequisites Effect Cure Level 6 All party members are healed for 5 points + Charisma modifier + Wisdom modifier + level of casting character Heal Level 12 All party members are healed for 10 points + Charisma modifier + Wisdom modifier + level of casting character; eliminates poison in all party members

Force Aura

Force Cost: 15 Restricted By Armor Another of the Light side's myriad defensive-oriented powers, aura is probably not quite as useful as some of the others, except for guardians and Jedi who are intent on always being in the thick of things. Its main drawback is that it only affects the character that uses it; it offers a pretty powerful benefit, but isn't meant for team players. If you breed one of your Jedi NPCs, or your own character, to be the prime battle workhorse at melee range, though, the defense modifiers, which stack with those of Jedi sense, can make you virtually untouchable by all but the most powerful opponents. The short duration of the power (20 seconds), though, makes this an all-or-nothing kind of power; if you want any ranks, you might as well get all three, and be sure to keep it active when you need it

Rank Prerequisites Effect Force Aura Level 1 +2 to defense and saving throws Force Shield Level 6 +4 to defense and saving throws Force Armor Level 12 +6 to defense and saving throws

Force Valor

Force Cost: 20 Restricted By Armor This power is roughly congruous to Force aura, except that it is a bit more general in application and affects all of your party members. For the 20 second duration of the power, valor will increase the attributes (strength, dexterity, etc.) and saving throws of all party members by a few points. Higher saving throws are nice, but the real benefit comes with the higher attributes. Each time an attribute hits an even number, you gain an extra +1 to every modifier that relies on that attribute. Thus, the +5 to all attributes that you gain from the third rank of Valor will mean that essentially every action you can perform will get a +2 or +3 modifier to it, whether it's an attack, a damage roll with a melee weapon, a defense check, a skill, or a Force power. Most Force powers, in fact, rely on both your charisma and wisdom modifiers, so that a Force wave initiated when under the influence of Master valor will get either a +4 or +6 to the DC. Heck, the bonus to your constitution alone will result in an immediate increase in vitality equal to at least two or three times your current level.

This is a great skill to initiate just before a tough battle, or when you have a single powerful foe cornered and are dueling to the death

Rank Prerequisites Effect Force Valor Level 1 Entire party gains +2 to all attributes and saving throws for 20 seconds Knight Valor Level 9 Entire party gains +3 to all attributes and saving throws for 20 seconds Master Valor Level 15 Entire party gains +5 to all attributes and saving throws for 20 seconds

Stun

Force Cost: 20 No Effect on Droids Fittingly, the Light side has few powers that inflict direct damage upon an opponent, instead focusing on disabling an opponent's defenses, allowing your characters to more easily damage or kill the enemy. Stun fits into this philosophy well; if the enemy fails his or her saving throw, they'll lose any dexterity bonuses to defense, and sneak attacks from your scoundrels will always work (assuming the attack hits), no matter from which side of the target they originate. Even so, stun doesn't make the jump into area-effectiveness until the third rank, so you might want to stick with Force whirlwind for large groups until you access stasis field at level 15. Stun does not work on droids; they get their own special stun droid power

Rank Prerequisites Effect Stun Level 1 * Target is stunned for nine seconds * Save versus fortitude: target is slowed instead of stunned for the duration Stasis Level 9 * Target is stunned for 12 seconds * Save versus fortitude: target is slowed instead of stunned for the duration Stasis Field Level 15

Stun Droid

Force Cost: 10 Since you don't run across quite as many droids as you do human opponents during your journey, it makes sense that stun droid would wind up being a bit more powerful than the regular stun power, but you could make the case that it actually goes a little too far: once one of your characters accesses the third level of stun droid, even the biggest and baddest of the mechanical monstrosities won't threaten you again. You see, unlike stun, destroy droid offers no saving throw to the stunning effect itself, so that anytime you use this power on a droid, it will have no choice but to shut down for a short period of time, while you and your teammates will, of course, be trying not to get flying metal in your eyes while ripping said droid to pieces. What's more, the power penetrates droid energy shields, rendering even the most powerful opponents to so much scrap metal for you to demolish.

Bottom line: get at least one character to the third rank in this skill, preferably your PC, just so you'll always have it available. At the second and third ranks, the power is area-effect, enabling you to shut down a whole group of droids, turn to attack the human opponents, switch back to stun the droids again, and so on. Fights against droids alone are even more ridiculous; just queue up three destroy droids and almost any droid in the game will be dead by the time you need to queue anything else, since there's significant direct damage on top of the stunning effect.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Stun Droid Level 1 * Target is stunned for 12 seconds; takes damage equal to character's level * Save versus fortitude: no stun, half damage Disable Droid Level 6 * A group of targets is stunned for 12 seconds; all targets take damage equal to character's level * Save versus fortitude: no stun, half damage Destroy Droid Level 12

Dark Side Powers

The insidious and malevolent powers of the Dark side will be off-limits to players that are role-playing a Light side character. You'll still be able to use them, sure, but you'll be hitting a significant Force point penalty every time you do so when compared to comparably priced powers from the Light side of the Force. If you do play a Light side character, you'll want to let Jolee be your quasi-Dark Jedi for the duration of the game; since he's relatively neutral on the Force alignment scale, he can use the powers of either side without penalty, and since he's a Jedi consular, he'll have a deeper well of Force points than any other of your party members.

Drain Life

Force Cost: 20 Restricted By Armor

No Effect on Droids To reflect the Dark side's selfish and destructive nature, characters of an evil bent will not be easily able to heal themselves through the Force; instead, they'll be required to steal the life from their enemies to revivify themselves, like a vampire. The life gain is decent, but combat-oriented Dark Jedi may still want to let their Light side party members cure them every now and again, as the damage range is 10--40. Even a heal from a 20th level Light side Jedi probably won't restore 40 vitality, but it will always restore at least 30 health; if you're in a heated battle and need to restore your life, on the other hand, drain life might restore just 10 vitality, which is almost never going to be sufficient. In short, it's a bit too unpredictable.

At its second rank, against multiple enemies, death field has a much better chance of getting you back a high amount of vitality, since it gives you life equal to the highest amount of damage that's dealt

Rank Prerequisites Effect Drain Life Level 9 * Target is dealt 1-4 damage for each level of the Dark Jedi (up to level 10); Dark Jedi gains that much vitality * Save versus fortitude: half damage Death Field Level 18 * All targets within a ten meter radius are dealt 1-4 damage for each level of the Dark Jedi (up to level 10); Dark Jedi gains that much vitality * Save versus fortitude: half damage Shock

Force Cost: 20 Restricted By Armor

Now we're getting down to it. Of the Dark side's powers, shock and its upgrades are the only ones intended to deal massive amounts of damage to a large number of opponents. While the other powers can sometimes affect large groups, they are intended to simply weaken your foes or make them easier to kill; shock's reason for existence is to deal the killing blow itself, and kill it does, especially at its highest rank. Unfortunately, there is no stunning effect associated with the damage, so even though you'll likely kill a few opponents with a high-level shock, you'll still have to deal with fully mobile foes afterwards.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Shock Level 1 * One target takes 1-6 damage per level of Jedi (10-60 max). * Save versus Will: half damage Fo