[Star Wars RE] Jedi Consular Help

[Nightly]

Looking for some help building a Jedi Consular for an upcoming SWRE d20 game.

Looking to play the Jedi Consular, our party is mostly a couple force adepts and soldiers so we really don't have any skill monkey, healer, face, etc.

I'm going to try and do a decent blend of those while still staying combat efficient with force/lightsaber.

We have a 25 pt buy and generally do +2 points every fourth level (must be split)
I've been thinking attributes will be something like this...
Str: 8 (I'll pick up weapon finesse to help with MAD)
Con: 12-14
Dex: 12-14
Wis: 14-16
Int: 14-16
Cha: 8-10

First off, what race? (Only Core allowed for first char)

Human: I've been leaning towards this the most. Skill (essentially +2 Int) and Feat
Cerean: +2 Int/Wis, but -2 Dex
Duros: +2 Dex/Int, but -2 Str/Con
Ewok: +2 Dex and -2 Str, Small size... My GM will probably nix ewok on principle.
Kel Dor: +2 Dex/Wis, -2 Con
Zabrak: +2 species bonus on Fort/Will save throws

All are roughly a positive one ratio of ability mods. There's really no shining star... is Human the best route to go because of that feat?

What force training should I start out with? I'm thinking Alter for Heal Another, followed by Control leaving Sense last.


What feats should I go with?
Weapon Finesse and Dissipate Energy are almost a given, but a lot of the other ones I can't decide how useful they will be in this system.

Burst of Speed (Base speed 10x)/Force (20x)/Knight (20x)/Master (30x) Doesn't seem supremely useful, at most the first one.

Force Flight (seems more useful than the speeds)

Heroic Surge (additional actions per round)

Force Mastery (attack or move action to free)/High Force Mastery (full round action to attack attack)

Force Mind (+2 Ability score to ally)/Improved (+4)/Knight (+4)/Master (+6)

Lightsaber Defense/Knight Defense/Master Defense (Each give +2 dodge while using light saber)

Surgery (Help allies' wounds)

Two Weapon Fighting/Ambidexterity


And after all that, is the Jedi Consular 20 better than say JC 10/ Jedi Master 10?


I know this is a lot, but I really don't know much about the star wars universe or how this system is played.

Thanks any advance for any help.

[Seatbelt]

I havent played this system in 10 years. But I have vague memories of force heal sucking in it.

[McStabbington]

I was reluctant to say much myself, since I too only played this game ten years ago. But I will offer what help I can.

The good news is that the Jedi Consular is one of the most gifted skill monkey classes in a game system that effectively turned skill monkeying into spellcasting. Quite literally, things like healing and offensive spellcasting are tied directly to how many skill points you sink into your Force abilities.

This of course leads to some fairly serious gameplay problems for the Jedi Consular. For one thing, the healing mechanics of the game are terrible. IIRC, unless you actually take a healer prestige class, you can only heal another on another person once per encounter. Same with the rate of casting heal self. And every casting chews up your own precious vitality, which as a Consular is always the one thing you're short of. On the other, as Jedi Consular you're likely the only healing the party has got. Which has the net effect of giving you a hundred different things you can do in any situation, of which you will only actually be able to do five, four of which are probably going to be healing someone else.

As a consequence, defense really has to be prioritized uber alles, followed closely by feats that allow you to finish fights quickly. You do not want a prolonged engagement at all in this game, as it will just burn vitality you will have a doozy of a time getting back.

So to that end, prioritize things that boost AC first of all; what doesn't hit you can't bleed your vitality. Dissipate Energy is a must have as well, because it helps you minimize the damage that does get through. The mechanical benefits of the lightsaber forms are a bit blurry after all these years, but IIRC Form II was a must have if you were facing lots of Sith and Dark Jedi because of the AC boost (which is okay because feats were quite plentiful). Form III was supposed to be pretty useful against blasters and mundane opponents, but I recall being distinctly underwhelmed by the mechanical benefit.

After that, prioritize offense and building vitality pools. Jedi Master was by far the best prestige class, because it had very high skill point totals to go with heightened vitalty pools and +1d8's for your saber. Form IV was extremely useful because of the added damage and the fact that you could prioritize dexterity to boost attack numbers and damage. Given the need to bank as many skill points and feats ias possible, humans are practically unbeatable as the core race to go with.

Beyond that, figure out what you want to do. You might effectively be stuck as party wizard and healer in one, which is equal parts frustrating and impossible given the limits of your shallow vitality pool, but if that's what you have to do, be sure to insist at the very least that your force adept partymates max out their Heal Self to make your job slightly less Sisyphean.

[Nightly]

Thanks for the replies, my DM actually just notified me that we're playing Saga instead. Of course, that's after I spent hours building my consular :P

No worries, I enjoy character building more than actually playing most of the time.

[BWR]

Thanks for the replies, my DM actually just notified me that we're playing Saga instead. Of course, that's after I spent hours building my consular :P

No worries, I enjoy character building more than actually playing most of the time.

Good news is SAGA is a lot easier to build decent characters with, there are a lot more options than SWRE and the Destiny mechanic is great. Bad news, the Force system, skill system and condition track suck donkey balls.

[Nerd-o-rama]

I'd say it's more that all of those things are imbalanced, and fights involving Jedi powers or dedicated Condition Track Killers quickly devolve into rocket tag (and not every side necessarily has rockets...)

It's no worse than D&D, anyway, it just gets as bad faster.

[Eisenheim]

Assuming no one sets out to break the system wide open, and the group uses a little restraint in picking up skill focus (UtF) early, Saga is super fun. I certainly enjoyed it a bunch more than revised. Jedi isn't a skill monkey class anymore, so if you want that flavor try starting in noble, then you can move to jedi for some lightsaber action.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Yeah multiclassing Noble->Jedi is the best way to get in the social skills you expect from a "talky" Jedi. Scout->jedi is good too for the same idea with different skills.

Or just take enough Talents to key all of your skills off of UtF, but that's much more of an investment than one level.