Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

By Matthew Rorie
Design by James Cheung

Barely a year after the original Knights of the Old Republic came out for the Xbox, we have its sequel, Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords. As the subtitle implies, all isn’t exactly well in the Old Republic, as the Jedi have gone to ground in the hopes of luring out the Sith that have struck against them with impunity. It’s a dark time, as the unsteady Republic attempts to hold itself together in the wake of a civil war and domestic unrest. Into this shaky situation steps you, a former Jedi who has given up all attachment to the Force.

The primary new features of KOTOR2 include:

The ability to reach level 30.
New Prestige classes for high-level play.
An increased ability to influence your teammates and their relation to the Force.
New Jedi Powers and Feats.

In addition to all this, though, you’ll be treated to an engrossing (and long) story that can easily be played through many times. In fact, it’s basically impossible to see everything there is to see in one play-through; certain characters will refuse to join your party unless you act a certain way or are of a certain sex, meaning that you’ll need to play through at least twice just in order to obtain all of the various party members (12 in all).

In GameSpot’s unofficial guide to KOTOR2, we’re going to bring you an exhaustive look at the game, including details on character creation, tips on how to play with all of your teammates, a look at the mini-games, and, of course, a complete walkthrough.

Table of Contents
Character Generation
    Classes
    Prestige Classes
    Attributes
    Skills
    Feats
    Jedi Feats
    Jedi Powers
    Lightsaber and Force Forms
Party Members
Walkthrough
    Prologue
    Peragus-II
    Telos
    Nar Shaddaa
    Onderon
    Korriban
    Dantooine
    Return to Dxun
    Pursuing Your Destiny
Mini-Games
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 Knights of the Old Republic 2. 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 D&D 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.

Classes

If you played through KOTOR1, then you’ll be pleased to know that in KOTOR2, your character will start the game as a Jedi; no need to level up as a Scoundrel, Scout, or Soldier before you finally unlock your Force Powers. (Your party members will still level up as members of these classes, unless they are or become Jedi.) At the beginning of the game, then, you’ll be asked to choose between one of three 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.

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 Sentinal

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. Without spoiling the game overmuch, this turns out to be much less useful in KOTOR2 than it was in KOTOR1, but can still come in handy in certain spots.

In all, Sentinals are a great, balanced choice for players that want to engage in melee combat while still retaining enough Force Powers to use them when appropriate.

Vitality: +8 per Level Force Points: +6 per level Feat Progression: Levels 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19 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 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, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 First level Skill points: (4 + Intelligence Modifier) * 4 Skill points progression: (2 + Intelligence Modifier) / 2

Prestige Classes

KOTOR2 adds a new twist to the choice of classes. After your character hits level 15, you’ll be able to speak to Kreia to choose a new Prestige Class. These offer new abilities that aren’t available to the normal Jedi classes, and will let you continue along the gameplay path that you’ve chosen, or shift play styles. A character that’s been a Consular may suddenly decide to become a Weapons Master, for instance; it’s up to you. Each Prestige Class will have its own unique Feats.

Jedi Weapon Master

Jedi who choose to perfect the use of weaponry will become Weapon Masters. Weapon Masters gain the Inner Strength and Increase Melee Damage feats, which both help them to decrease the amount of damage that they take and to increase the amount of damage that they dish out.

Jedi Watchman

If you want to take a balanced approach to the game, and participate in both lightsaber and Force-based combat, than the Watchman class will likely be right up your alley. Unfortunately, the unique feats to this class are kind of useless; you get to use Force Camouflage, which will let you enter Stealth Mode without having a stealth field generator on, and Sneak Attack, which is essentially the same thing as the Scoundrel talent of the same name. The latter feat can be handy when combined with Force Powers like Stasis Field.

Jedi Master

If you’re strong with the force, then Consulars will want to shift over and become Jedi Masters. Masters gain Enlightenment, which will help you convince other party members to shift towards the Light Side themselves, as well as Inspire Followers, which will enable you to temporarily buff your teammates’ attack and damage rolls.

Sith Marauder

Some Sith just like to bust out their lightsabers and kill a whole mess of people; the Marauder class is ideally suited for this form of gameplay. With it, you’ll gain Fury, which will let your character enter a vicious rage that’ll improve your health and combat abilities at the cost of a Defense penalty, and Increase Combat Damage, which will let you dish out even more hurt on enemies.

Sith Assassin

As with Jedi Watchmen, Sith Assassins are able to use Stealth without having to use a Stealth Field Generator. They also obtain the Sneak Attack feat, which lets them deal extra damage to enemies that aren’t aware of an incoming attack or are unable to defend against it.

Sith Lord

The most devestating Force-using Sith are known only as Sith Lords, including Crush Opposition, which will enable you to strike fear into the hearts of anyone that opposes you, as well as Corruption, which will enable you to more easily sway the Force alignments of your teammates.

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 2 purchase points, while the elite stats of 17 and 18 will each cost 3 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 in KOTOR was pretty much a required stat for most characters due to the way it (perhaps as a bug) added its modifier to your attack roles with lightsabers automatically, which should’ve happened only with your Strength modifier. In KOTOR2, though, it apparently doesn’t automatically do this, although you can still take the Finesse: Lightsaber Feat to mimic this effect, which will again make Dexterity one of the most desirable stats for most Jedi characters.

A high Dexterity modifier also affects your attack rolls with ranged weapons, and 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 Dexterity 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. (In KOTOR1, the armor restriction only affected your Defense; in KOTOR2, it now properly applies to all of your Dexterity modifiers, including those for ranged attacks, making it even more important to not wear armor that will restrict you overmuch.) 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 and the Finesse: Lightsabers Feat, the game will use 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 15, 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 behind your more heavily-armored party members in terms of Defense. Luckily, KOTOR2 eases this penalty a bit by including some forms of light armor that don’t restrict the use of Force Powers, giving your character a few extra points of Defense without restricting their abilities, but you’ll still be low Defense when compared to characters like Atton and Mandalore.

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 or 14/16 split (or even a 12/16 split) between Strength and Dexterity at character creation will make the game 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 Guardians 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 Guardian 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.

One noticeable difference between KOTOR1 and KOTOR2 are the way the new game handles implants. In the previous game, you had to acquire a feat in order to use implant items; in KOTOR2, though, the implants your character can use is entirely dependent on his or her constitution score. If you have a constitution of less than 12, then you won’t find any implants that will actually be useable by your character.

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 Guardian characters will use skills only rarely, since most skills are related to non-combat activities, so Guardians 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. Sentinals, and especially Consulars, 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. Consulars (along with Scoundrels, for non-Jedi characters) are the most skillful of the KOTOR classes, with Sentinals coming close behind, while Guardians, 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 Guardian is not going to be as useful as a Consular when you’re confronted with a locked door, and by the same token, you probably wouldn’t want a Consular 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. (There are new feats that will let you convert cross-class skills into class skills, though, and these can occasionally come in handy.)

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: Sentinal

Luckily, apparently 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 l33t NPC teammate along when you really need one.

In KOTOR2, Computer Use is made more handy than in the first game, but it’s still probably not something you need to worry about for your main character, unless it’s a class skill and you’ve got plenty of points to allot. When you get Bao-Dur in your party, he’ll be able to easily handle any Computer-related problems. Computer use does come up a lot more often in conversations, especially with droids, but will rarely be mission-critical for your character to have.

Demolitions

Modifier: Intelligence Class skill: Guardian

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.

Thanks to the fact that you’ll sometimes be taking control of party members individually, you may actually find yourself occasionally using the Demolitions skill to take down tough enemies, as opposed to the first KOTOR, when it only came in useful at the very end of the game. Luckily, you can now lay mines during combat, so that a weak character can start dropping mines, backing up, and wait for their opponents to trip them as they run over them. Repeating this method a few times can be a great way to perservere in some of the game’s tougher solo battles. As with KOTOR, this can be quite a help for physically weak characters before the final battle.

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.

In KOTOR2, Demolitions will also come in handy when you come across a damaged container or door. These can’t be opened by bashing or Security; instead, they can only be blown open by using a mine on them. Truthfully, though, after you escape the first mining station, you’ll almost never come across a damaged container or door ever again, meaning that you shouldn’t increase your Demolitions skill just to have this ability.

You cannot use the Demolitions skill unless you’ve achieved a skill rank of at least one. Skill increases from equipment doesn’t count, either; you’ll need to actually give yourself a point at a level-up to use it.

Stealth

Modifier: Dexterity Class skill: Sentinal

Completely and totally useless. Sorry! You can, and most likely will, easily get through the game without ever using this ability, even despite the fact that you can lay mines while running around all invisible-like; mines aren’t all that great on their own, and forcing your character to boost another nearly useless skill in order to lay traps for enemies that you’ll usually be easily defeating anyway isn’t exactly a good career path. There are two spots on Nar Shaddaa where you can use Stealth to access a quest pointer, but Kreia can easily use her stealth ability to achieve these without ever increasing her skill allotment to this ability. You may want to have one character boost their Stealth stat for use with the workbench, but beyond that, you’ll never really need it.

Awareness

Modifier: Wisdom Class skill: Consular, Sentinal, Guardian

Awareness allows all of the classes in the game a chance to spot mines that are in your path, 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.

In KOTOR2, one of the new features of Awareness is its ability to open up new conversation options, allowing you to pick up on subtle clues in a character’s speech and drive towards the topics that they’re avoiding. This is never required, but can come in handy nonetheless; still, though, this isn’t going to be the highest priority skill for any character.

Persuade

Modifier: Charisma Class skill: Consular, Sentinal, Guardian

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. Luckily, this is a much easier skill to level up than in the first KOTOR, where it was a class skill for only one class; in KOTOR2, all Jedi characters will find it a class skill.

Keep in mind that only your main character can use Persuade, since they’re the one you’re going to be using in conversation. Also note that you can sometimes mimic the effects of Persuade with the Jedi Power Affect Mind, but that Persuade will generally allow for more subtlety and will appear as an option more often.

Repair

Modifier: Intelligence Class skill: Consular

In the first KOTOR, Repair was mostly useful for reactivating droids that you stumbled across and forcing them to attack your enemies, whom in most cases you could easily destroy yourself anyway. In KOTOR2, it’s more useful as a skill check when trying to interface with damaged equipment, as you’ll rarely find any disabled droids in this game. In the cases where you can use the Repair skill to fix something, though, it works similarly 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.

Repair also governs the amount of Vitality that your droid NPCs gain when they use Repair Kits on themselves to recover from damage, and will also get you more components from items when breaking them down at a workbench. It’s thus a good idea to maximize this skill for all of your droid characters, and to keep it topped off for Bao-Dur as well, if you don’t make him into a Jedi.

Security

Modifier: Intelligence Class skill: Sentinal

Security is the euphemism for "lockpicking" 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 tunnelers") 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. Unlike in KOTOR, though, bashing containers in KOTOR2 will often break items inside, leaving you with piles of junk where you might’ve obtained something terrifically useful had you the acumen required to open the chest. For this reason alone, it’s usually worthwhile to have someone in your party with a good Security skill; Bao-Dur usually makes a good choice.

Treat Injury

Modifier: Wisdom Class skill: Consular, Sentinal, Guardian

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 usually 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 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 simple +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, after you find the parts required to make one, 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. You can actually begin investing in Lightsaber Focus or Specialization before you obtain one, and have those set aside until the happy day arrives.

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. All Jedi Classes 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. 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.

Note also that many pieces of head armor will require certain armor proficiencies to use, thus greatly restricting the kinds of equipment that characters without any armor proficiencies (such as Kreia and Visas) can use.

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.

Note that dual-bladed weapons also require the Two-Weapon Fighting Feat to use properly. With the new upgrading system in Knights of the Old Republic 2, it can sometimes be more beneficial to invest a single dual-bladed lightsaber with all of your best crystals, rather than dilute your resources by giving all of your dual-wielding Jedi two sabers apiece.

Also note that Kreia cannot take the Two-Weapon Fighting feat.

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

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 you take when hit with an exceptionally powerful blow. When you take over 20 points of damage, all the damage from the 21st point and above will be reduce by 10%. Thus, if you took a single massive blow for 100 points of damage, you would take the first 20 damage as normal, then would get a 10% reduction on the remaining 80 points, which would convert it to 72, for a total of 92 points. Not tremendously impressive, especially since you won’t be taking these kinds of massive blows very often, but it does come in handy at times, and will let you achieve the important third rank of the ability.

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, but everyone with a Feat to spare could do worse than to grab a single rank of Toughness.

Rank Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 Adds 1 Vitality per level (retroactive) Second Rank Level 4 When you take 20 or more damage, the damage from 21 and above is reduced by 10% 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, Jedi Watchmen, and Sith Assassins can use the Sneak Attack Feat, and indeed get a new rank in it for free at every few level-ups; it corresponds roughly to the Backstab attack of a Thief character in traditional Dungeons and 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

Precise Shot

The Precise Shot series of Feats will help your blaster-oriented characters deal extra damage when they successfully hit an enemy. Pretty simple concept, really; for each rank they obtain here, they’ll add damage to a hit.

Rank Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 4 Adds 1 damage to a successful hit with a ranged weapon. Jedi will face a -2 penalty to their deflection roll Second Rank Level 8 Adds 2 damage to a successful hit with a ranged weapon. Jedi will face a -4 penalty to their deflection roll Third Rank Level 12 Adds 4 damage to a successful hit with a ranged weapon. Jedi will face a -6 penalty to their deflection roll Fourth Rank Level 16 Adds 6 damage to a successful hit with a ranged weapon. Jedi will face a -8 penalty to their deflection roll Fifth Rank Level 20 Adds 8 damage to a successful hit with a ranged weapon. Jedi will face a -10 penalty to their deflection roll

Close Combat

Prerequisite: Level 4

One of the main weaknesses of characters that use ranged weapons is the fact that they suffer from large Defense penalties when engaged by an enemy with a melee weapon. The Close Combat feat can reduce these penalties somewhat, allowing your characters to more easily defend themselves when engaged at close range, but it’s worth pointing out that you can easily negate these penalties altogether by giving your ranged characters a melee weapon in their off-hand slot and setting them up with the Ranged AI setting, which will automatically switch them between the two weapons as appropriate.

Rank Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 4 Character gets +1 to attack a target at close range; melee attackers get only +4 to attack instead of +6 Second Rank Level 8 Character gets +2 to attack a target at close range; melee attackers get only +2 to attack instead of +6

Dual Strike

Dual Strike rewards your characters for sticking together by increasing their attack rolls while they target the same character. As such, it’s something that’s best used on a character that isn’t your main character; someone like Visas can make good use of this if they’re in your party a lot. Your main character, however, will have to face their toughest challenges alone, rendering this ability useless when it’s needed most.

Rank Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 Character gets +2 to attack a target that another party member is attacking Second Rank Level 4 Character gets +4 to attack a target that another party member is attacking Third Rank Level 8 Character gets +6 to attack a target that another party member is attacking

Stealth Run

Prerequisite: Level 4

There’s only one rank for this Feat. When taken, your character will be able to run while stealthed. Most characters with Stealth won’t be getting a huge amount of Feats to pass around, and probably won’t even be using the Stealth ability all that often, making this a relatively useless ability to have.

Regenerate Vitality Points

Prerequisite: Level 4

When taken, this feat will let your character more quickly regenerate Vitality points after being wounded.

Finesse: Melee Weapons

Prerequisite: None

Although most characters will add their Strength modifier to their attack rolls when wielding melee weapons, characters that take this Feat will be able to add either their Strength or Dexterity modifiers, whichever is higher.

Class Skill Modifications

There are a number of these Feats, such as Class Skill: Stealth, Class Skill: Demolitions, and so on. When taken, they’ll allow your character to adopt a new skill as a Class Skill, and thus let them spend skill points more easily on them at each level-up. So long as you maintain a balanced class (i.e., take Bao-Dur along wherever you go), you shouldn’t have to expend your precious Feats here, but Guardian-class characters may want to nab Security.

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.

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 Guardian characters that achieve the Juyo form may be better off with Critical Strike instead, since that form also grants you an extra attack per turn.)

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

Power Attack has been increased in efficacy in KOTOR2, although it’s still an ugly sister when compared to Flurry and Critical Strike. When used, it’ll let you add a set amount of damage to your attacks, and will also let you deal extra damage when you land a critical strike. (If a weapon would normally deal two times the normal damage on a critical strike, then it’ll deal triple damage with a Power Attack critical hit.) It also has a chance to knock back enemies. All told, though, Power Attack is still not worth sinking your Feats into if you have the ability to invest in another Feat instead.

Rank Prerequisites Effect First Rank Level 1 +3 damage per hit; -3 attack penalty; critical multiplier is increased by 1; critical hits will knock back opponents if they fail Fortitude save Improved Rank Level 4 +7 damage per hit; -3 attack penalty; critical multiplier is increased by 1; critical hits will knock back opponents if they fail Fortitude save Master Rank Level 8 +12 damage per hit; -3 attack penalty; critical multiplier is increased by 1; critical hits will knock back opponents if they fail Fortitude save

Power Blast

Power Blast is essentially the same as Power Attack, except that it can only be used with a ranged weapon.

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.

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.

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 one of your characters have been a Scoundrel before becoming a Jedi, this addition is cumulative with Scoundrel’s Luck.

Prerequisites Effect First Rank Jedi Level 1 +2 to Defense Second Rank Jedi Level 7 +4 to Defense Third Rank Jedi Level 13 +6 to Defense Fourh Rank Jedi Level 19 +8 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 Force Focus Jedi Consular Level 1 +2 to DC of Force Powers Improved Force Focus Jedi Consular Level 6 +3 to DC of Force Powers Master Force 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 melee opponents, it’s not going to be too helpful. Even Sith Troopers usually resort to melee combat when you close in on them. 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

Finesse: Lightsabers

Prerequisite: Jedi

As with Finesse: Melee Weapons, this will let Jedi add either their Strength or Dexterity modifiers to their attack rolls while using lightsabers, instead of defaulting to the Strength. Since Jedi are much more needful of Dexterity than Soldiers are, this is going to be a worthwhile Feat for almost any Jedi character to have.

Regenerate Force Points

Prerequisite: Level 4 Jedi

When taken, this feat will let your character more quickly regenerate Force points after they’ve been expended. When combined with one of the Force Focuses, Consular-type characters can easily restore points as they’re spent.

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. 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 30% on your friendly Force Powers, but using Powers from the other side of the Force will cost you 50% more than they normally would. 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.

Force Wave, in particular, becomes massively handy at higher levels of gameplay, since it will almost always clear out any nearby enemies and quickly stun them. If you’re playing through as a Light Side Consular / Jedi Master, it’ll be one of the few sources of direct damage against your opponents, although not much of one. (It deals damage equal to 150% of your character level.)

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

We’ll be frank and say that you’re going to be encountering very few real Jedi or Sith in your travels, and those that you do come across don’t seem to often use the powers that Force Suppression can strip away. As such, you’ll probably want to invest your power points in powers that are a bit more utilitarian.

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.

In the first KOTOR, this power could come in handy for characters who were attempting to stick to ranged weapons, as it would allow them to throw lightsabers to bypass a Dark Jedi’s blaster deflection abilities, but the number of Sith you’ll be facing off against in KOTOR2 is drastically reduced, rendering it less useful.

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

Every character should get Master Speed; it’s just that simple. 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. 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. Again, though, encounters with Jedi are much more rare in KOTOR2 than they are in KOTOR, making this even less useful than in that game.

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. You’ll be encountering far, far more energy-based damage than any of the types that Energy Resistance protects you from, rendering it less than compelling, although it can help ward off the special attacks of some droid enemies. 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 Entire party ignores first 6 points of cold, fire, electrical and sonic damage ignored Improved Energy Resistance Level 9 Entire party ignores first 12 points of cold, fire, electrical and sonic damage; party immune to poison and disease Master Energy Resistance Level 17 Entire party ignores first 20 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

Force Body

Force Cost: 0

Force Body seems to be primarily intended as a method for Jedi Guardians to bypass the restrictions placed on them by their low amount of Force Points, as it lets you pay the costs for your Force Powers by paying an equal amount from your Force pool and from your health pool. The very fact that you have to invest your precious Power selection points into Force Body in order to use it works against it, though, as you’re more likely going to want to select actual Powers that are actually useful to you. Still, though, if you find yourself consistently running out of Force Points in long battles, then this ability may be useful to you.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Force Body Level 1 50% of Force Point requirements come from health, 50% from FP. Lasts 30 seconds Improved Force Body Level 9 40% of Force Point requirements come from health, 40% from FP. Force powers cost 20% less than normal Master Force Body Level 15 30% of Force Point requirements come from health, 30% from FP. Force powers cost 40% less than normal

Battle Meditation

Force Cost: 35 Restricted By Armor

Although an expensive Power, Battle Meditation is generally going to be worth the cost, as it’ll let any Jedi become a mini-Bastila and use the sheer focus of their mind calm and boost the morale of all party members. When activated, the entire party will get bonuses to their attack rolls, damage, and will saves, making it a useful counterpart to Force Valor, if you also have that ability. Although it only lasts for 20 seconds, its effects are powerful enough to generally ensure that you’ll gain the upper hand on a foe, if not destroy them outright, during that interval. What’s more, it can also have an adverse effect on opposing forces at the upper levels.

Since Battle Meditation only lasts for 20 seconds, though, you’re likely not going to want to have your primary character continually use it during battle. It’s best to give it to a secondary character, such as Kreia, and then set them to the Jedi Support AI model, which will let them cast it automatically when needed.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Battle Meditation Level 6 All party members get +2 to attack rolls, damage, and Will saves. Their rate of Vitality regeneration is also boosted Improved Battle Meditation Level 12 All party members get +2 to attack rolls, damage, and Will saves. Their rate of Vitality regeneration is also boosted Nearby foes get -2 to attack rolls, damage, and Will saves if they fail a Will save Master Battle Meditation Level 18 All party members get +4 to attack rolls, damage, and Will saves. Their rate of Vitality regeneration is also boosted Nearby foes get -4 to attack rolls, damage, and Will saves if they fail a Will save

Force Deflection

Force Cost: 0

Force Deflection lets your Jedi characters deflect blaster bolts back at their attackers, should they not be wielding lightsabers, in which case they automatically deflect blaster shots without needing to invest Powers in the ability. There are almost no situations in which you’d want to have one of your Jedi running around without a lightsaber, though, making this power only useful if you’re a Jedi with a blaster, which isn’t going to occur too often. Even Consulars are generally going to be better off using a lightsaber than a ranged weapon, given the fact that you can add +Wisdom crystals to them, so invest here only if you’re willing to give up on all the benefits that carrying a lightsaber gives you.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Force Deflection Level 6 Allows you to deflect blaster bolts while not using a lightsaber Force Redirection Level 12 Allows you to deflect blaster bolts while not using a lightsaber. Also allows you to reflect bolts back at the shooter, and gives you a blanket +3 to deflection attempts

Mind Trick

Force Cost: 20 No Effect on Droids

Although Mind Trick might bring to mind images of Obi-Wan sneaking around the Death Star without being detected, for a combat-oriented game like Knights of the Old Republic 2, the ability to avoid encounters generally isn’t a desirable one; most of your experience will be coming from combat, so bypassing enemies will actually weaken you in the end. That said, the second rank of this power, Force Confusion, can be pretty fun to use, as it’ll let you convert a single enemy to your side and force him or her to fight against their former teammates. It can be a kick to watch a Sith Lord slaughter his apprentice, but even so, it’s probably not worth investing two Force Power points in order to gain the ability to do so. Although entertaining, it’ll rarely be the deciding factor in a battle, and you’ll wind up having to wait for the effects to wear off before you can kill your target. Only the main character can select Force Confusion, but any other Jedi can obtain Mind Trick.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Mind Trick Level 1 If subject fails a Will save, it will not attack you unless you get very close Force Confusion Mind Trick, Any Prestige Class If subject fails a Will save, it will be forced to fight on your side of a battle for 30 seconds.

Light Side Powers

Heal

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.

A new addition in KOTOR2 is the inclusion of a Master Heal rank for the power, which will let you heal up your teammates much more easily than you could before. In addition to extra vitality restoration, the upper level of the power will let you "cure" your teammates of any stun effects that happen to be afflicting them, making it exceedingly handy when dealing with enemies that can stun you.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Heal Level 6 All party members are healed for 5 points + Charisma modifier + Wisdom modifier + level of Power’s character Improved Heal Level 12 All party members are healed for 15 points + Charisma modifier + Wisdom modifier + level of Power’s character; eliminates poison in all party members Master Heal Level 18 All party members are healed for 15 points + Charisma modifier + Wisdom modifier + 2xlevel of Power’s character; eliminates poison and stuns 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 or Watchmen/Assassins 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 All nearby enemies are stunned for 12 seconds Save versus Fortitude: target is slowed instead of stunned for the duration Restricted by armor

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 you rip 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: you’ll probably want to get at least one character to the third rank in this skill, preferably your PC if you’re a Consular, 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 A group of targets is stunned for 12 seconds; all targets take 1-6 damage per character’s level Save versus Fortitude: half damage

Force Barrier

Force Cost: 20

If you intend to engage in melee combat, then Force Barrier is a power that’s going to come in quite handy for you, as it lets your character shrug off a good portion of the damage that they’ll be taking from enemies with slashing, bludgeoning, or piercing attacks (which encompasses almost every kind of attack save for those from blasters). Although it won’t help you against Jedi or Sith (since lightsabers deal energy damage), it can help you survive when mobbed by sword-wielding foes, or when you’re forced to duel with a single powerful non-Jedi opponent.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Force Barrier Level 1 Resists the first four points of piercing, bludgeoning, and piercing damage from each attack Improved Force Barrier Level 9 Resists the first eight points of piercing, bludgeoning, and piercing damage from each attack Master Force Barrier Level 15 Resists the first 15 points of piercing, bludgeoning, and piercing damage from each attack

Revitalize

Force Cost: 50 No Effect on Droids

Another new skill that’s really not worth bothering with, Revitalize will let you revive comrades that have fallen in battle, allowing them to fight again. Although this sounds like a great ability on paper, it’s worth noting that the KOTOR games aren’t really all that difficult to begin with, meaning that you’ll rarely be forced to bring anyone back from the dead, and even when teammates do keel over, they’ll come right back to life if the rest of your party manages to survive the fight. What’s more, almost all of the really difficult challenges in the game have to be faced solo, meaning that Revitalize won’t work at all for those. Also, the only characters likely to have enough spare Powers to invest in Revitalize will be Consulars/Masters/Lords, who will usually be the weakest characters in a fight, and thus the most likely to die first, which will prevent them from using it. To sum up: avoid this Power.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Revitalize Level 9 Brings nearest fallen ally back to life with 5% of total Vitality points Improved Revitalize Level 15 Brings two fallen allies back to life with 5% of total Vitality points Master Revitalize Level 21 Brings two fallen allies back to life with 10% of total Vitality points

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. Still, though, it’s worth noting that this ability is the same as it was in the first KOTOR, while an extra rank was added to the Heal power available to Light Side characters. For this reason alone, you’ll likely want to have Kreia along if you’re going through the game as a combat-oriented Dark Jedi, as she’ll be able to Heal you without associated Force Point penalties, due to her alignment neutrality.

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 is the only 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. Even Light Side Consulars and Jedi Masters will want to pick up a few ranks here, as they can easily absorb the extra Force Point cost, due to their huge reservoirs of same, and it’ll allow them to deal direct damage, which they’re otherwise not very good at.

One thing to note about Shock is that the restriction on maximum damage from the first KOTOR has apparently been removed, allowing you to deal much more damage to large groups of enemies. It’s not uncommon for high-level Masters and Lords to dish out 140 or so damage to every target in a room with Force Storm.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Shock Level 1 One target takes 1-6 damage per level of Jedi. Save versus Will: half damage Force Lightning Level 9 All targets up to 16 meters away in front of character take 1-6 damage per level of Jedi. Save versus Will: half damage Force Storm Level 18 All enemies within 10 meters of a single target take 1-6 damage to both Vitality and Force Points per level of Jedi. Save versus Will: half damage

Fear

Force Cost: 10 No Effect on Droids

Fear is one of the dark side’s more potent effects, although it may not appear so on the surface. Fear is a counterpart to the light side’s Stun Power, though it is marginally weaker, since the dark side’s emphasis is on destruction, rather than mere stunning effects. The main difference is that Fear’s upper ranks Feature area-effect stuns at a distance, meaning you can use Horror or Insanity on your enemies before closing in, whereas Stasis Field works best when you are surrounded by enemies. If you can hit a few of your opponents with Insanity before closing to lightsaber range, you’ll be able to divide and conquer that much more easily; another good use for the distanced stunning effect is to pair it up with grenades, which are difficult to use against many Jedi enemies, since they will run towards you as soon as you’re spotted. The fact that there is absolutely no effect if the targets make their Will save is an obvious strike against this power, though.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Fear Level 1 A single target is overcome with fear (stunned) for six seconds. Save versus Will: no effect Horror Level 6 All enemies within five meters of target are overcome with fear (stunned) for twelve seconds. Save versus Will: no effect Insanity Level 12 All enemies within ten meters of target are overcome with fear (stunned) for twelve seconds. Save versus Will: no effect

Wound

Force Cost: 15 No Effect on Droids

Wound is one of the dark side’s weaker powers at low levels, due to the somewhat tepid damage, short duration of the stun effect, and the fact that it’s only capable of targeting one opponent. Once you reach Kill, however, you’ll obtain a fairly decent method for eliminating wounded opponents. Since the damage dealt by Kill is based not on random dice rolls, but on the opponent’s maximum Vitality, it will always kill an opponent outright if used when that enemy is at less than half of their maximum health (unless, of course, they make their save). The fact that you can use any rank of this Power while wearing armor is also a plus.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Wound Level 1 Target is stunned and takes two-thirds of the attacking Jedi’s level in damage every two seconds for six seconds Save versus Fortitude: No effect Choke Level 9 Target is stunned and takes two-thirds of the attacking Jedi’s level in damage every two seconds for six seconds, and takes a -4 penalty to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution for 24 seconds Save versus Fortitude: No effect Kill Level 12 Target is stunned for six seconds and takes damage equal to half of their (the target’s) maximum Vitality Save versus Fortitude: No choking effect, take damage equal to attacking Jedi’s level

Slow

Force Cost: 15 No Effect on Droids

Getting tired of Powers that are decent only at their highest rank? Unfortunately, you find no respite in Slow, which is another Power that affects only a single target and has no effect on the lower ranks if that target succeeds in his or her saving throw. The actual effects of the spell on the first two ranks are somewhat laughable: very few common enemies will last 21 or 30 seconds in combat against your party, even if their stats are unaffected by Slow, and the more powerful enemies are exactly the ones that will usually make a saving throw in a crunch. Plague, the third rank, is somewhat more useful, if only because there is no saving throw, which makes it slightly more useful against bosses (at least, those that don’t activate Force Immunity as soon as your fight begins).

Rank Prerequisites Effect Slow Level 1 Single victim takes -2 penalty to Defense, Reflex saves, and attack rolls for 30 seconds Save versus Will: no effect Affliction Level 6 Target is drained of one point from each attribute every three seconds for 21 seconds, and is slowed Save versus Fortitude: no effect Plague Level 12 Target is drained of one point from each attribute every second for 12 seconds, and is slowed No save possible Restricted by armor

Drain Force

Force Cost: 5 Restricted By Armor

Drain Force is something of a Force-based equivalent to Drain Life; when used, your Jedi will attempt to suck the Force from a nearby opponent and add it to his own Force Point reservoir. Whether you find this of any use or not depends on your character; if you’re playing a Sith Lord or Assassin, you’ll likely have more than enough FP to use any Force Powers you wish, but if you’re going through as a Marauder, then you may need the extra boost from Force Drain. Like Force Body, though, this is purely a supplementary power, and will have to be matched up with Powers that have actual effects to be useful.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Drain Force Level 1 Transfers 10 Force Points from target to player Save versus Will: Only half the points are transferred Improved Drain Force Level 9 Transfers 20 Force Points from target to player Save versus Will: Only half the points are transferred Master Drain Force Level 15 All nearby enemies are drained of 30 FP Save versus Will: Only half the points are transferred

Force Scream

Force Cost: 15 No Effect on Droids

Force Scream is essentially a neutered version of Shock that deals less damage, but also throws in the possibility of reducing your opponent’s stats for a short period of time. In combat, the extra damage afforded by Shock and Lightning will almost always be preferable to the theoretical stat penalties from Scream, especially since your opponents will avoid all stat penalties if they make a saving throw, as boss-style enemies almost always will.

Rank Prerequisites Effect Force Scream Level 1 Deals 3-18 damage and reduces all stats by 2 for 30 seconds for all opponents in front of character Save versus Will: Half damage, no stat reduction Improved Force Scream Level 9 Deals 5-30 damage and reduces all stats by 4 for 30 seconds for all opponents in front of character Save versus Will: Half damage, no stat reduction Master Force Scream Level 15 Deals 7-42 damage and reduces all stats by 6 for 30 seconds for all opponents in front of character Save versus Will: Half damage, no stat reduction

Lightsaber and Force Forms

One of the new inclusions to KOTOR’s gameplay in KOTOR 2 are the various Lightsaber and Force Forms. Each character will automatically learn three different lightsaber forms and one force form during their adventure. After you obtain a Prestige Class from Kreia, you’ll be able to gain a few more forms.

Lightsaber Forms

Shii-Cho

Obtained: Level 7 Attack: +1 Defense: +3 (all enemies), -3 (current enemy; these are cumulative, meaning you have a net +0 Defense against the current enemy)

Makashi

Obtained: Level 8 (Guardian), 10 (Consular), 12 (Sentinal) Attack: +3 Blaster Bolt Deflection: -5 Save versus Force Powers: +2

Soresu

Obtained: Level 10 (Guardian), 12 (Consular), 8 (Sentinal) Defense: +2 (current target only) Blaster Bolt Deflection: +4

The following four Lightsaber Forms can only be learned by Guardians, Sentinals, Watchmen, Weapon Masters, Assassins, and Marauders. They’re unavailable to Consulars, Lords, and Masters.

Ataru

Obtained: After first (Guardian, Weapon Master, Marauder) or second (Sentinal, Assassin, Watchmen) Jedi Master encounter. Defense: -2 (all enemies), +5 (current target, resulting in net +3 Defense against current target) Blaster Bolt Deflection: -4

Shien

Obtained: After first (Sentinal, Assassin, Watchmen) or second (Guardian, Weapon Master, Marauder) Jedi Master encounter. Attack: +2 Defense: -5 (current target only) Blaster Bolt Deflection: +2 Critical multiplier: +1 (if a weapon would critically hit for 2x damage, it will do 3x damage with Shien, etc.)

Niman

Obtained: After third Jedi Master encounter (Sentinal, Watchmen, Assassin only) Attack: +1 Defense: +1 Blaster Bolt Deflection: +1 Save versus Force Powers: +1

Juyo

Obtained: After third Jedi Master encounter (Guardian, Marauder, Weapons Master) Defense: -4 (all enemies), +2 (current target, resulting in -2 net defense against current target) Attacks per round: +1 Critical Hit Attack Modifier: +4 Save versus Force Powers: -4

Force Forms

All characters will gain access to Force Channel, which will let you regenerate your Force Points a bit more quickly. Only Consulars, Sith Lords, and Jedi Masters are able to obtain the subsequent forms; this is a trade-off for their inability to use the advanced lightsaber forms.

Force Channel

Obtained: Level 12 (Guardian), 8 (Consular), 10 (Sentinal) FP Regeneration: +50% (outside of combat only) Force Power Damage: +3 (this is plus three points, not percentage) Save versus Force Powers: +2

Force Potency

Obtained: After first Jedi Master encounter Force Power damage: +30% FP cost of all Force Powers: +20%

Force Affinity

Obtained: After second Jedi Master encounter FP Regeneration: Allowed during combat. (This is almost entirely useless, as if your character is able to access this power, then he or she will by definition have a huge FP pool and will rarely scratch the surface of it during most of the game’s short battles.)

Force Mastery

Obtained: After third Jedi Master encounter Duration of Force Powers: +50% Opponent’s saves versus Force Powers: -2 Save versus Force Powers: -4 FP cost of all Force Powers: +20%

Party Members

There are no fewer than 12 different potential party members in KOTOR2, of which you’ll be able to recruit 10. Some characters will be inaccessible to you based on the sex of your main characters, while others will choose to side with you or not depending on what Force alignment you’ve chosen.

How to Steal Souls and Influence People

One of the intriguing new aspects of Knights of the Old Republic 2 is the inclusion of a system that will let you bend your teammates to your will. If you become a truly evil character, then you can expect the alignments of your teammates to adjust accordingly. If, on the other hand, you treat everyone you meet with kindness and respect, then you can expect the fellow travelers aboard the Ebon Hawk to become more oriented towards the Light Side of the Force.

This was all true in KOTOR as well, of course, but in KOTOR2, there’s a more fleshed-out system of influence that you can use to attempt to coax your team members along the path that you’ve chosen for them. In most cases, you won’t have to worry too much about this, but some party members can become Jedi. For these party members, you’ll have to talk to them constantly and attempt to gain influence over them until they trust you enough to allow you to train them in the ways of the Jedi. Check back to these character descriptions over the next couple of weeks to learn more about each character’s path to the Force.

Kreia

Initial Stats

Class: Jedi Consular Strength: 10 Dexterity: 16 Constitution: 16 Intelligence: 14 Wisdom: 16 Charisma: 12

If you could take that annoying undergraduate who liked Ayn Rand just a bit too much and put her into a video game, then Kreia would probably be the result. This wizened Jedi is a wearingly cynical, and encourages you at every opportunity to act only in your own self-interest, and will chide you every time you happen to help people with problems, or even if you happen to take notice of them.

Still, though, Kreia has really good starting stats, and, like Jolee in the original KOTOR, will have an easier time skirting the difference between the Light Side and Dark, allowing her to more easily access powers from either side of the fence without incurring penalties. As a Consular, she’ll be able to more easily overpower enemies with her Force Powers and will have a much larger pool of Force Points to use, making her a natural choice for the Jedi Support AI setting.

In combat, Kreia is naturally suited for wielding a lightsaber in one hand. Although her Defense won’t be so hot, she will rarely be the focus of much enemy attention (that honor will fall to your main character), allowing her to skirt the edges of battle, striking enemies that are occupied with other characters. You’ll want to occasionally flip over and manually control her, though, if only because she won’t usually use her most powerful Force Powers unless explicitly instructed to do so.

Attributes: Since Kreia’s most useful feature will be her ability to use Force Powers to full effect, you’ll want to continually increase her Wisdom whenever possible. Luckily, this is one of the easiest stats to increase via equipment and lightsaber crystals.

Skills: Unless you’re crazy, you can avoid boosting Stealth completely. You shouldn’t need to boost Repair very much, either, unless you’re going to constantly keep her in your party. Treat Injury is likely your best bet here, if only so that Kreia can make implants and other items at a workbench; she’ll obviously be relying more on Heal in combat than medpacks.

Feats: As a Consular, Kreia’s Feat progression will be somewhat stunted, but she should still be able to get one once every third level or so. Since we had her outfitted with a lightsaber, Dueling and Toughness were natural choices, but you can browse through the tree and see what you want her to have.

Force Powers: Kreia will have no shortage of powers to choose from here. Because of the Force Bond between the main character and Kreia, you can let her level up the self-buffs that are available, such as Speed and Armor, and let her use those, since they’ll affect herself and the main character at the same time. If you wish for her to use abilities in combat, then level up things like Fear and Shock. Light Side characters will probably want to have Kreia focus on the damaging Dark Side powers, due to the difficulty of bending her alignment too far from the middle of the road.

Bao-Dur

Initial Stats

Class: Tech Specialist Strength: 14 Dexterity: 10 Constitution: 14 Intelligence: 15 Wisdom: 14 Charisma: 10

Bao-Dur will be a welcome addition to any party, if not for his combat skills (although he’s decent in a fight), but for his pure technical acumen. His unique Tech Specialist class allows him to access almost every technical skill as a Class Skill, meaning that you can continue to level them up without having to invest double points in them at each level up. He’ll also have a much larger number of skill points at each level up, making it easy to keep him maxed out in all the relevant skills.

In this sense, Bao-Dur isn’t all that much different than a droid, but his simple ability to be healed by the Heal Force Power makes him more desirable in a party than any droid. He also packs the decent Unarmed Specialist Feat, which will help him dish out a bit of pain while wading into battle with nothing but his fists. If you keep him unarmed, be sure to check around for gloves that add to his Physical damage, or that add other kinds of damage while he’s unarmed. While unarmed, he’ll also be able to use his lightning fist to overwhelm the energy shields that enemies use, dropping them in one blow.

In addition to his combat and field tech abilities, Bao-Dur will be able to upgrade your droid party members on occasion, giving them valuable stat boosts. Since he’ll usually be taking up a slot in your party that might normally go to a droid, though, this might be less useful than you imagine.

If you gain a tremendous amount of influence over Bao-Dur, you can attempt to train him as a Jedi; he’ll wind up as a Jedi Guardian, and will be quite handy at wading into battle with sabers blazing.

Attributes: You’ll probably want to pump Intelligence once, if only for the increased skill points at each level-up, then start dishing the rest of your points into Strength.

Skills: Heck, what can’t Bao-Dur learn? As a Tech Specialist, he’ll be able to easily upgrade Computer Use, Demolitions, Awareness, Repair, and Security, all of which are needed in the field. Know him, love him, keep him progressing in everything he can. You might actually wind up having too many points, and will have to start dispensing them into cross-class skills.

Feats: As an unarmed specialist, one of Bao-Dur’s initial weaknesses is his lack of health; you’ll want to get him a rank of Toughness as soon as possible to offset this. If you’re planning on turning him into a Jedi Guardian, then Two-Weapon Fighting or Flurry would also be a good investment.

Atton Rand

Initial Stats

Class: Scoundrel Strength: 12 Dexterity: 16 Constitution: 14 Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 12

Atton Rand is the latest in a long series of extended universe Han Solo wannabes, following in the footsteps of Dash Rendar, Carth Onasi, and the like. As with Carth Onasi, the feeble blaster-specialist of the first KOTOR game, you likely won’t be keeping Atton in your party any longer than is absolutely necessary; the game just doesn’t have much room in it for people who are merely good at using blasters, especially when their only really useful skill is Security. Sorry Atton, but you’re getting the boot, at least after you obtain the services of Bao-Dur, who can usually match Atton’s damage output while bringing a much broader array of skills to the table.

If you’re fond of Atton, for whatever reason, then he can still be a decent contributor in combat, especially if you outfit him with a pair of blaster pistols (of which you can find plenty of powerful examples later in the game) and let him take on foes from a distance.

If you use Atton a lot, in fact, and manage to either boost up his morale or mercilessly crush his self-esteem, you can eventually convert him into a Jedi Sentinal.

Attributes: Dexterity is your only real choice here; whether you’re using Atton for his proficiency with blasters or intend to shift him over to a Jedi class, it’ll come in handy.

Skills: Security and Demolitions are going to be Atton’s primary focus, with Awareness coming in in third place.

Feats: As with most combat-oriented characters, you’ll want to get Atton’s Two-Weapon Fighting Feat up to its Master level as soon as possible, along with one of the active combat feats for him to use. If you’re not planning on making him a Jedi (or probably even if you are), then giving him Heavy Armor Proficiency will let him use a bunch of armor that would otherwise hang around in your inventory.

Visas

Initial Stats

Class: Jedi Sentinal Strength: 12 Dexterity: 18 Constitution: 12 Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 12 Charisma: 15

Although you might not imagine it, this blind Sentinal will be one of your best offensive threats throughout the game, especially if you’re playing as a Consular. As a Sentinal, she’ll also be able to wield a few Force Powers when needed, but she’ll really excel only after you complete her ascension to the top of the Two-Weapon Fighting Feat and get her a couple of lightsabers to use. After that’s complete, she’ll be one of your ace front-line fighters, able to deal out an incredible amount of punishment while avoiding the blows that come her way, thanks to her huge Dexterity bonus.

The only characters who might not want to use Visas all that much will be Guardians, who can usually do the combat damage required by themselves just fine; having two offensively-minded Jedi in the party can lead to a diluted supply of lightsaber crystals. Sentinals and Consulars will appreciate having another powerhouse along, though, especially since Visas is the only character besides Kreia who will actually join your party as a Jedi; everyone else will have to be coaxed and prodded along the long road to Forcehood.

Attributes: Visas has a lot of Dexterity, but you’ll want to give her more of it, especially after investing in the Finesse: Lightsabers feat. Since she can’t wear even light armor (unless you upgrade her with the relevant feat), she’ll need plenty of Dexterity to avoid blows. Alternately, if you’re a Guardian, you can start buffing her Wisdom to improve her abilities to channel the Force Powers at her disposal.

Skills: Visas doesn’t bring much to the table when it comes to skills. Awareness and Treat Injury are your only real options here.

Feats: Obviously enough, Finesse: Lightsabers should be the first item on your docket, followed by Two-Weapon Fighting and Flurry for even more fun.

Force Powers: Whether you go Light Side or Dark, Master Speed is critical for Visas, as well as Storm. Although it might appear weird for a fully-Light Visas to run around Storming people to death, it shouldn’t take too much Force for her to achieve, since she’ll rarely be using anything else.

G0-T0

Initial Stats

Class: Expert Droid Strength: 10 Dexterity: 17 Constitution: 12 Intelligence: 16 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 10

G0-T0’s primary gameplay abilities make him something of a Dark Side T3-M4; neither character will probably be getting much use in your adventuring parties, but if you feel compelled to bring a droid along on your adventures, then G0-T0’s bleakly controlling personality will make him more palatable for Dark Side adventurers.

As with T3, G0-T0’s primary claim to fame are his skills at Repair, Computer Use, and Security. He’s no great shakes at combat, although his Dexterity enables him to easily land shots with dual-wielded blasters if you use him a lot.

Attributes: You’ll want to push either Dexterity, if you plan on using G0 in combat, or Intelligence, if you instead prefer to use his skills at a workbench.

Skills: As with T3, G0’s skill set revolve