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Saga Edition Preview 3Use the Force, Luke! | |||||||||||||||
One of the most important aspects of the Star Wars setting is the omnipresence of the Force. Without the Force, Star Wars would be little more than another example of space opera. The Force distinguishes the setting and is a key part of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. For Saga Edition, the Force revamp represented one of the most daunting challenges of the entire design process. Getting it right certainly took a lot of work, a lot of tweaking, and a lot of time during the design process. In Saga Edition, the Force has been distilled into a more straightforward mechanic, relying on a single skill and the activation of powers and special abilities rather than on multiple skills and feats. The old system overtaxed the resources of Force-users too often. Rather than consuming permanent resources, such as skill points and feat slots, Saga Edition uses the mechanics of the individual powers with limited uses to balance out Force use. The Force has become a system unto itself, rather than a part of other subsystems. New Skill: Use the ForceUnder the old system, it was difficult for a Force-user to be skilled at anything other than the Force. One of the first changes made for Saga Edition was the creation of a new skill called Use the Force. This skill allows a character to do basic things with the Force without consuming many resources. These actions won't have a huge impact on any given encounter, but they still allow the use of the Force with a simple skill check. A character must have the Force Sensitivity feat to use the Use the Force skill untrained, and only someone trained in Use the Force can activate Force powers (explained below). Below is the text from Saga Edition that explains the Use the Force skill. USE THE FORCE (CHA) Requires the Force Sensitivity feat You draw upon the Force to help you recover from injuries, gain special insights, or perform other remarkable acts. You must have the Force Sensitivity feat to be trained in this skill. Activate Force Power (Trained Only): You make a Use the Force check to use a Force power. This use of the skill requires no action. Force Trance (Trained Only): As a full-round action, you can enter a Force trance with a DC 10 Use the Force check. In this state, you remain fully aware of your surroundings. Each hour you remain in the trance, you regain a number of hit points equal to your character level. You can emerge from the trance as a swift action. If you remain in a Force trance for 4 consecutive hours, you emerge from the trance fully rested (as though you'd rested for 8 hours). While you're in a Force trance, you can go ten times as long as normal without food or water (see the Endurance skill).
Search Your Feelings: As a full-round action, you can make a DC 15 Use the Force check to determine whether a particular action will yield favorable or unfavorable results to you in the immediate future (10 minutes or less). For example, you can make the check to determine whether destroying a dark side artifact will have immediate unforeseen repercussions. The answer does not take into account the long-term consequences of a contemplated action. Using the above example, a successful check would not portend a future encounter with vengeful darksiders angered by the destruction of the dark side artifact. (The GM must assess the immediate consequences of the action, based on what he knows about the circumstances.) Sense Force (Trained Only): You automatically sense disturbances in the Force. A location that is strong in the dark side of the Force can be sensed out to a range of 1 kilometer. A relative, companion, or close friend in mortal danger or great pain can be sensed out to a range of 10,000 light years. A great disturbance, such as the destruction of an entire populated planet or the distress of a whole order of allies, can be sensed anywhere in the same galaxy. As a full-round action, you can make a DC 15 Use the Force check to determine the distance and general direction to the location of the disturbance. As a full-round action, you can use this ability to actively sense other Force-users out to a range of 100 kilometers. If you succeed on a DC 15 Use the Force check, you know how many Force-users are within range, their approximate distance and direction from you, and whether you've met them before or not. Another Force-user within range can try to conceal her presence from you by making an opposed Use the Force check. If she equals or exceeds your Use the Force check, you don't sense her presence at all. Sense Surroundings: As a swift action, you can make a DC 15 Use the Force check to ignore the effects of cover and concealment when making Perception checks to detect or observe targets. Increase the DC by 5 if this ability is used against targets with total cover. Telepathy: As a standard action, you can establish a telepathic link with a distant creature. Through the link, you can exchange emotions or a single thought, such as "Go!", "Help!", or "Danger!" The target must have an Intelligence of 2 or higher, and the distance between you and the target determines the DC (see below). Against an unwilling target, you must make a Use the Force check against the target's Will Defense; if the check fails, you cannot establish a telepathic link or attempt to telepathically contact the target for 24 hours unless the target becomes a willing one.
Special: You can't make Use the Force checks unless you have the Force Sensitivity feat. Use the Force is a class skill for any character with the Force Sensitivity feat. You can take 10 on a Use the Force check, but you can't take 20. Unlimited Power(s)!
When a character uses a Force power, he removes it from his suite of powers, makes a Use the Force check, and follows the explanation of the effect. That power is now considered spent and can't be used again. Force-users regain their Force powers by resting for one minute outside of combat, activating special talents, spending Force points, and a variety of other means. Additionally, if you roll a natural 20 on your Use the Force check to activate a Force power, you regain all of your spent powers -- the Force is with you! The new system allows Force-users to do incredible things without completely overshadowing the other heroes. Force powers take up your actions and have a finite amount of uses; to regain them, you must spend time, resources, or effort. Thus, well-trained Force-users will be able to use the Force well and often, pausing occasionally to regain their powers. The system works very well for Jedi in particular, who now face a tactical choice between using their Force powers and wading into combat with a lightsaber. For example, a Jedi must decide whether to: The combination of Force powers and lightsaber combat in Saga Edition is not only more engaging for players, but it also encourages more diversity in combat and simulates what is seen in the movies. The sample Force power rebuke, below, illustrates how the new Force system works. REBUKE You harmlessly absorb or deflect one Force power used against you, perhaps even turning it against its creator. Time: Reaction. Target: One Force power directed at you. Make a Use the Force check. If your result equals or exceeds the check result of the power directed at you, you harmlessly redirect it and suffer no ill effects. If you result exceeds the check result of the power directed at you by 5 or more, you may choose to turn the Force power against its creator, who suffers the effect. Special: If you successfully reflect a Force power back at its originator, the originator may attempt to rebuke the power as well. If he reflects it back again, both you and the originator are affected by the Force power. You can spend a Force Point as a reaction to suffer no ill effects from a Force power that has been rebuked twice -- once by you and once by the power's originator.
Rebuke is one of the new powers added to Saga Edition that helps the game more closely model events seen in Episodes II and III. The power covers the duel between Yoda and Dooku duel at the end of Attack of the Clones. It also helps to illustrate how Anakin and Obi-Wan were able to lock themselves into a Force duel in Revenge of the Sith, sending them hurling to either side of the control room on Mustafar. Force TalentsForce-users also have access to a selection of special talents that enhance their Force-using ability. Any character who takes the Force Sensitivity feat gains access to several Force talent trees (Alter, Control, Dark Side, and Sense), which add special abilities to her powers or grant her special actions regarding the Force. Some Force talents require the character to expend a Force point to activate them, while other talents alter the way a character uses the Force in a typical situation. Any character with the Force Sensitivity feat can always select a Force talent whenever she would gain a new talent from a standard class or a prestige class. Thus, Force-sensitive characters can mix and match talents from their classes with Force talents, giving them greater diversity in how they're built. Jedi, who gain Force Sensitivity as a bonus feat, can also select from these talent trees. However, the class-specific talents for Jedi help cater toward her unique talents and make choosing a generic Force talent a tough decision. Alternate Force TraditionsAll of the elements described above come together to create our new system for creating non-Jedi Force-users. In the old system, it was the domain of the Force adept class. In Saga Edition, creating a Force-user from an alternate tradition is a simple matter of taking the Force Sensitivity feat and choosing Force powers and talents that suit the tradition. For example, a player who wants to create an urban Force-user might select the scoundrel class, choose a few scoundrel talents, dip into the Alter talent tree for a few more talents, take the Force Training feat a few times to learn Force powers, and mix and match the use of the Force with the features of the scoundrel class. Moreover, some specific Force traditions have their own unique talent trees that represent abilities inherent to that particular tradition. They're considered Force talent trees, but only characters who belong to that tradition can choose from that tree. The Saga Edition core book presents two alternate Force traditions: the Jensaarai and the Witches of Dathomir. Each tradition has its own talent tree, which provides Force-users with unique abilities that complement their other talents and feats. Let's close this Saga Edition preview with a sample statistics block for a Jensaarai Defender, which makes use of the new system.
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Move Light Object (Trained Only): As a move action, you can use the Force to telekinetically lift and move a relatively light object within your line of sight. A successful DC 10 Use the Force check allows you to move an object weighing up to 5 kg a distance of 6 squares in any direction. As a standard action, you can use the object as a projectile weapon, but the DC increases to 15. If your Use the Force check beats the target's Reflex Defense, the object hits and deals 1d6 points of bludgeoning damage.
Now that you've seen the Use the Force skill, you should have a good idea of how it works at its most basic level. None of its uses can radically alter the flow of combat. To do that, a character must be trained in the skill and have access to Force powers. Force-users gain access to a feat called Force Training that gives them a pool of powers to draw upon. Each power represents a single use of the Force that helps make up a character's "suite."
