Swse & d&d 3.5

[False God]

Realizing that they are both d20 systems and produced by the same company, how well do they mesh? How well do force powers and spells interact? How well do blasters and swords stand up side-by-side? Comments? Complaints? Biggest issues? Easy fixes?

I like mixing genres, surely someone has done this before, especially since they run on the same basic die and were produced by the same company.

I have some mild awareness of SWSE playing it standalone from years ago, and if I recall Jedi get overpowered (but I mean, it's WotC and the "magic class" gets overpowered? Noone saw that coming!) at some point in the game. But little else from the system overall.

I've been wanting to run Star Wars for my players and all this quarantine has given me ample time to work on my side projects, and one of which is a "sy-fy world with magic"(and Star Wars is probably one of the better sci-fi universes for not being too technical). So, looking at the d20 systems that are out there that give my sci-fi angle and working my primary knowledge of 3.5, I'm curious how these two mesh.

My players are mostly versed in 3.5, so if you have other suggestions for other systems, please keep them to d20-based. If I'm going to train my players on a whole new system, I've already decided to go FFG Star Wars.

[Afghanistan]

Not gonna lie, did not expect a Saga Edition question here. Most of those end up on TheSagaContinues forum, but whatever.

The answer to your question is as follows:


Spells and The Force: The systems are totally incompatible. In Saga Edition, you have a Force Suite, which is basically spells that you can use (with a Use The Force check), to perform Force Powers. These Force Powers essentially functioning as cards that you can play, and a system (expending force points or using force talents), to return those cards to your hand. You automatically regain your entire suite at the end of an encounter or when out of combat. I'm going to presume you understand how spellcasting works in 3.5 enough to know that this isn't necessarily how it works, and that spells are a day by day things, where you prepare your spells from one day to another.
Rule Overlap: So the rules for 3.5 and Saga Edition are similar enough that I imagine most would have very little difficulty picking things up. There is no AC, only saving throws, and your saving throws are static DCs that your attackers must hit to inflict damage.
Balance: So the strata, if memory serves is Shards > Droids <= Force Wizards > Everyone else. Shards being better than Droids and Force Wizards because they can literally be both.
Star Wars 3.5: I've tried something like this. I took the Lightsaber rules, the Star ship rules, the hyper space rules and just banned the Wizard, Sorcerer, Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Cleric, and Bard, and replaced them with Psion, Wilder, Psychic Warrior, Arden, Lurk, and any other Psionic class I might be missing. I intentionally did not include the Erudite because I felt the Erudite was more appropriate as a template, that would be applicable for entities like Aboleth and Tilotny (tack on a Divine Rank as well)


My suggestion? Play Saga Edition. Game is great. Hyperspace rules are bit wonky, and if you want to create some truly exceptional villains like any of the Sith Triumvirate, or do Palpatine's Force Storm (canon or otherwise), you'll need to fudge the rules a bit, but overall it's a good game.

[ShurikVch]

Not gonna lie, did not expect a Saga Edition question here. Most of those end up on TheSagaContinues forum, but whatever.

The answer to your question is as follows:


Spells and The Force: The systems are totally incompatible. In Saga Edition, you have a Force Suite, which is basically spells that you can use (with a Use The Force check), to perform Force Powers. These Force Powers essentially functioning as cards that you can play, and a system (expending force points or using force talents), to return those cards to your hand. You automatically regain your entire suite at the end of an encounter or when out of combat. I'm going to presume you understand how spellcasting works in 3.5 enough to know that this isn't necessarily how it works, and that spells are a day by day things, where you prepare your spells from one day to another.
Rule Overlap: So the rules for 3.5 and Saga Edition are similar enough that I imagine most would have very little difficulty picking things up. There is no AC, only saving throws, and your saving throws are static DCs that your attackers must hit to inflict damage.
Balance: So the strata, if memory serves is Shards > Droids <= Force Wizards > Everyone else. Shards being better than Droids and Force Wizards because they can literally be both.
Star Wars 3.5: I've tried something like this. I took the Lightsaber rules, the Star ship rules, the hyper space rules and just banned the Wizard, Sorcerer, Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Cleric, and Bard, and replaced them with Psion, Wilder, Psychic Warrior, Arden, Lurk, and any other Psionic class I might be missing. I intentionally did not include the Erudite because I felt the Erudite was more appropriate as a template, that would be applicable for entities like Aboleth and Tilotny (tack on a Divine Rank as well)


My suggestion? Play Saga Edition. Game is great. Hyperspace rules are bit wonky, and if you want to create some truly exceptional villains like any of the Sith Triumvirate, or do Palpatine's Force Storm (canon or otherwise), you'll need to fudge the rules a bit, but overall it's a good game.Question: can you make similar comparison for pre-Saga Star Wars d20?

[False God]

Not gonna lie, did not expect a Saga Edition question here. Most of those end up on TheSagaContinues forum, but whatever.
Never heard of it. But I don't really enjoy many fandom-specific forums.


Spells and The Force: The systems are totally incompatible. In Saga Edition, you have a Force Suite, which is basically spells that you can use (with a Use The Force check), to perform Force Powers. These Force Powers essentially functioning as cards that you can play, and a system (expending force points or using force talents), to return those cards to your hand. You automatically regain your entire suite at the end of an encounter or when out of combat. I'm going to presume you understand how spellcasting works in 3.5 enough to know that this isn't necessarily how it works, and that spells are a day by day things, where you prepare your spells from one day to another.
Ah, some kind of weird alternate system between 3.5 and 4e and some of the way FFGSW runs force powers, ok.


Rule Overlap: So the rules for 3.5 and Saga Edition are similar enough that I imagine most would have very little difficulty picking things up. There is no AC, only saving throws, and your saving throws are static DCs that your attackers must hit to inflict damage.
Balance: So the strata, if memory serves is Shards > Droids <= Force Wizards > Everyone else. Shards being better than Droids and Force Wizards because they can literally be both.
Reading a lot of 4E in this, maybe it was the pre-Saga Edition I played. The years will do that.


Star Wars 3.5: I've tried something like this. I took the Lightsaber rules, the Star ship rules, the hyper space rules and just banned the Wizard, Sorcerer, Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Cleric, and Bard, and replaced them with Psion, Wilder, Psychic Warrior, Arden, Lurk, and any other Psionic class I might be missing. I intentionally did not include the Erudite because I felt the Erudite was more appropriate as a template, that would be applicable for entities like Aboleth and Tilotny (tack on a Divine Rank as well)

I specifically wanted to include the classic spellcasters, and my table is not overly fond of psionics (even though I love them, noone else ever even glances in their direction).


My suggestion? Play Saga Edition. Game is great. Hyperspace rules are bit wonky, and if you want to create some truly exceptional villains like any of the Sith Triumvirate, or do Palpatine's Force Storm (canon or otherwise), you'll need to fudge the rules a bit, but overall it's a good game.
From your telling it may have been the pre-Saga Edition I played then, don't know. Very little of this sounds familiar, or my memory could just be bad.

I'll have to run the various systems by my group and see what they feel up to.


Question: can you make similar comparison for pre-Saga Star Wars d20?

I'll second this.

[Afghanistan]

Question: can you make similar comparison for pre-Saga Star Wars d20?

https://i.imgur.com/vFj3OnW.jpg

Jokes aside, I never really played pre-Saga Star Wars d20, however I've TRIED my best to familiarize myself with the rules on the off chance I ever find a group that wants to play it. I've always wanted to GM a game for this, but I just can never find a group who wants to play it. However as far as I understand it, they are more or less the same? Spells don't exist, spell slots don't exist, and force powers aren't basically cards, but are instead skills you can put ranks into. These skills are gated behind feats named after the various trees of Force Powers: Alter, Control, and Sense. For example, if you wanted to play a Jedi who specializes in Move Object, you would need to take the Alter feat, and apply ranks to the Move Object force skill. Like wise, if you wanted to do the same for Mind Trick, you would need the same feat, and to apply ranks to Affect Mind (seriously, just name it Mind Trick).

[fallensavior]

Saga edition is much closer to 4e. You'll want to use SW Revised Edition for compatibility. It does have some holdovers from 3.0 (ambidexterity, etc) and some variant rules from Unearthed Arcana that you'll need to make rulings on to decide which way to go. (Armor as DR, VP + WP vs HP, weapon group proficiencies, Crits don't double but go straight to WP, weapon dice are huge since crits don't double, etc.)

If you can figure that out, yeah go nuts. My players were quite surprised in my last SW campaign when the BBEG turned out to be a striaght up D&D Cleric.

[ngilop]

starwars d20 is too similar to standard 3rd ed D&D.


Saga edition is basically an improvement upon D20 Modern. I found nothing at all similar between it and 4th ed. Force users are a bit powerful in the early stages of the game, then the middle parts the soldier gets a tiny jump then it is pretty balanced in the later stages ( as balanced as a game design by humans for humans can be)


Also, I need to point out that there is a difference between mixing genres and mixing rules systems. The latter of which is what you want to do the former of which star wars already is