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Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your
side."
-Han Solo
How right
you are Han. Time and time again, I read misinformed FAQs about how
weak ranged fighters become as the game progresses;
lightsaber this, and
lightsaber that. Anyone can simply refute these claims, but I am here to prove
it.
I have successfully run through this game as a dual wielding, blaster
pistol Jedi, with more success than any other build
I have previously used. If
gunning down Dark Jedi with one round of attacking appeals to you, please read
on;
for the rest of you: the Sith are holding dueling lessons on Korriban. The
ultimate goal of this guide is for you
to end up with a powerful, dual wielding
blaster pistol, light sided, Jedi Counselor, scoundrel.
This is
by no means a complete KOTOR guide. I have simply become fed up with
the lack of 'saber-less' guides, for the lack
of a better term. I am going to
assume you have played through KOTOR before and are familiar enough with it that
I
can skip over many of the basics. Lastly, this document contains spoilers; do
not read any further if the thought
of accidentally reading a spoiler will cause
you to become agitated and/or sad.
Table of Contents
1.
Character Stats
1.1 Strength
1.2 Dexterity
1.3 Constitution
1.4 Intelligence
1.5 Wisdom
1.6 Charisma
2.
Starting Class
3. Skills
4. Feats
4.1 Two Weapon Fighting
4.2 Rapid Shot
4.3 Blaster Pistol Weapon Proficiency
4.4
Implants
5. Jedi Class
6. Force Alignment
7. Force Powers
7.1 Force Heal
7.2 Stasis Field
7.3 Force Speed
7.4
Force Valor
7.5 Affect Mind
7.6 Force Breach
7.7 Force Armor
7.8
Destroy Droid
8. Allies
8.1 Jolee Bindo
8.2 Juhanni
8.3 Bastilla
8.4 Mission
8.5 Zalbaar
8.6 HK-47
8.7
Others
9. Leveling
10. Equipment
10.1 Implants
10.2 Headgear
10.3 Left Arm
10.4
Left Hand
10.5 Body
10.6 Right
Arm
10.7 Right Hand
10.8 Belt
11.
Final Results/Thoughts
12. Thanks
1. Character Stats
As we all know, stats can make or break a character.
Knowing what the various
stats do, and where to place your stat points are of paramount importance.
Please read the
following carefully.
1.1 Strength.
Strength adds to your to-hit and melee weapon damage. Since we are
using
pistols, we can ignore this stat. Either leave it at base 10, so you don't incur
a penalty, or put it to 8 so
you may use those two points elsewhere. I
recommend 8 points.
1.2 Dexterity.
Dexterity adds to your to-hit
and ranged weapon damage, as well as adding to
your defense rating. This is the 'money' stat, for not only does it
help us hit
and damage opponents with our ranged weapons, it also adds to our defense. I
recommend 16 points for
starting.
1.3 Constitution.
This stat determines how many hit points your character receives per level.
Since
we will be a ranged attacker, we will be out of danger for a good portion
of the game. I recommend 10 points as a
base for this stat. There's no
reason to incur a negative penalty in this stat by placing it at 8; by the same
token
any more than 10 can be considered overkill for normal difficulty. With
all of the enhancements your character will
receive from items and force powers,
I find that your ending HP is quite sufficient with this amount of stat points.
1.4
Intelligence.
Widely regarded as a waste of stat points. Intelligence raises the amount of
skill points you receive.
Since all skill points are relatively useless, we
will leave this at a base of 10, as to not incur a negative penalty.
1.5 Wisdom.
Wisdom raises the amount of force points you receive as well as determines how
effective you are
at using and resisting force powers. This is the other
'money' stat for this build. We need to be able to effectively
use our force
powers on the enemy without them being resisted as well have the ability to
avoid the enemies force powers.
Think of wisdom as force dexterity. I
recommend putting 16 points into this stat. Combined with items, you
should be
able to resist most of the dark Jedis' attempts to strike you down with force
powers, while dealing out a
beating yourself.
1.6 Charisma.
Charisma determines how amiable you are; how well you interact with others.
The
higher your charisma, the better you'll be at being able to persuade. There
are plenty of persuade options in the
game, none of which are truly critical.
In addition to being correlated with your persuasion skills, charisma also
adds
to the amount of force points your character will have; and to a lesser extent,
the power in which you use the
force. Charisma does not have as profound an
effect on your force abilities as wisdom, but the effects are evident,
nonetheless.
For example; the more points you put into charisma, the more force
points you'll have available to you for casting force
abilities. In addition,
the power in which you use those abilities, will be greater than if your
charisma was
lower. I recommend putting 12 points into this stat initially,
and boosting it with various equipment throughout
the game.
Note: if you plan on having your character only use the treat injury skill
(described below in greater
detail; section 3), you could drop your
intelligence to 8; then using those skill points in charisma, boosting it to
12.
If dexterity or wisdom is more of a concern to you, you could also use
those two points to raise them a point, to 17.
My
starting stats looked like this:
STR: 8
DEX: 16
CON: 10
INT: 10
WIS: 16
CHA: 14
Every subsequent
stat point you receive should go into getting both your
dexterity and wisdom to 20. Because of all the +dexterity
equipment you can get
throughout the game, I recommend getting your wisdom up to 20 before your
dexterity.
2.
Starting Class
As you've read, we will be choosing the Scoundrel as our non-Jedi class. Why
choose the scoundrel
class? Sneak Attack, good reader, sneak attack. As you
progress as a scoundrel, you will receive the feat,
sneak attack. Sneak
attacks allows you to do extra damage to stunned or unfocused opponents. Master
sneak
attack(level 3) adds 3-18 damage to each successful attack, which may not
seem like much at first. Keep in mind,
however, that we will be using skills
and enhancements that will allow us to attack multiple times per attack round.
Along
with sneak attack, we also receive Scoundrel's Luck, which increases our
defensive rating. Since our character will
not have a lot of hit points, we'll
take all the defense we can get.
3. Skills
As a scoundrel, we get
more skills than the other classes. Unfortunately, not
many of these skills are worth while. I recommend that
you max Treat Injury at
every level. The higher your proficiency in treat injury, the more health
you'll gain
from medical packs.
With your leftover points, you should do one of two things. Add the points to
Persuade,
which if you get high enough, could allow you to put your charisma
stat down to 8. With those two extra points you've
saved, you could then move
the points into something more useful, like wisdom, dexterity, or constitution.
You could
also, add the points into Repair. The main reason for doing so is
that you may be able to unlock the functions of
HK-47 when you purchase him.
Make the choice after determining if you're going to use HK-47 as one of your
main NPC
allies or not.
All other skills can be performed masterfully by your allies.
4. Feats
As a scoundrel,
we get the fewest feats of the bunch, so we have to make them
count. I will list the feats you should consider getting,
in order of
importance, highest to lowest.
4.1 Two Weapon Fighting.
Maxing this skill will greatly reduce the
penalty of wielding your dual pistols.
Without this skill, you are penalized -6 for your chance to hit with your main
weapon,
and a -10 for your chance to hit with your secondary weapon. When
maxed, this skill will reduce that penalty down
to a -2 per hand. A must have
for this build.
4.2 Rapid Shot.
Rapid shot allows you to engage in an extra
attack per round at the cost of
defense and chance to hit. At the maximum level you lose 1 defensive point and
1
to-hit point. Well worth the penalties for that extra attack.
4.3 Blaster Pistol Weapon Proficiency.
You
need level one to use blaster pistols, but scoundrels already start with
this feat. At the maximum level, this feat
adds +1 to your to-hit and a +2 on
top of your damage dealt.
4.4 Implants.
Depending on the level invested, will
allow you to use level 1, 2, or 3
implants; which in turn can grant bonuses such as mind-immunity and +dexterity.
5.
Jedi Class
The Jedi Counselor will be our class of choice for two reasons. The first
reason is that we get
an extra four force abilities as we progress, compared to
the other Jedi classes. The second reason is that we obtain
Force Focus. At
master level, force focus gives us a +6 bonus in both dealing and defending
against force powers.
6.
Force Alignment
I have only gone through this build as a master light-sided Jedi, and I believe
this is the best
alignment for this build. I'm positive that it can be done as
dark-sided, but the force powers that accompany a light-sided
Jedi are much more
aesthetically pleasing to this build. After all, we're supposed to be a blaster
wielding scoundrel
that shoots his way out of a fight, not a dark counselor who
prefers to use the force to do his dirty work. I suppose
one could remain
neutral in alignment, but I don't honestly believe that there are any dark-sided
powers to use that
warrant the penalty of being aligned as neutral. The choice
is yours, but I will only out line light-side force powers
in the next section.
7. Force Powers
As a light-sided force user, you will use these powers to enhance your
fighting
and defending abilities to their upper tiers. I will list the more optional
force powers toward the bottom.
As always, it is your preference as to which
ones you'd like to get.
7.1 Force Heal.
Heals you and your party
members. This force power also nullifies any poisoning
you or your party members may have. Use this instead
of medical packs whenever
possible. This will help you to save money and stock pile the medical packs,
which you
will most likely need on the Star Forge.
7.2 Stasis Field.
At master level, this power has the chance to stun groups
of enemies for 12
seconds. This should be your most used skill. Not only will your opponents be
unable to
move or attack after a successful casting, but because they are
stunned, every successful attack you perform on them will
result in your sneak
attack feat taking place. Take into consideration that you will have an extra
attack per
round from the rapid shot feat, and up to two more attacks per round
possible from force speed (covered in detail below,
section 7.3).
If your normal attack and all three bonus attacks hit during your round of
attacks, that's an extra
4 * (3 to 18), or 12 to 72 damage you'll dish out on
top of your blaster damage!
7.3 Force Speed.
At level one,
this power increases your movement speed and defense for its
duration, 38 seconds. At level two, you gain an extra
attack in addition to
extra defense gained. At its master level, this force power will grant you two
extra attacks
per round, a +4 to defense, and the faster movement speed. Try
casting this before and during every battle.
You may also wish to cast this
power to simply increase your movement speed. Sometimes you have to tediously
run
back and forth through certain areas in the game. Cast this to reduce the
time it takes to get from point A to point
B.
7.4 Force Valor.
Master valor grants the caster and his/her party a +5 to all attributes and
saves.
In addition, it also grants the recipients immunity to poison. There
are two drawbacks to this skill which makes
it optional in the minds of many.
Drawback one: the duration on this spell is pitifully short; 20 seconds.
Drawback
two: it's an expensive power to cast; and because of it's duration
you'll want to cast it often. I believe, however,
that this spell is worth
getting to master level. The temporary boost it gives you in your stat points
can give
you up to a +2 modifier on everyone in your party. Not only that, but
the +5 to saving throws is huge; adding to
your already high defense. I highly
recommend using this power before and during large group battles, mini-bosses
and
Malak. Add this power on top of taking stims, and you'll be nigh
unstoppable.
*Any spell I list below here,
you should consider optional in maxing, or getting
altogether.
7.5 Affect Mind.
Putting a point into this skill
opens up a new dialog option; force persuade.
Get this skill if your persuasion is low, but be careful as many of the persuade
options
are inherently dark-sided in nature. Try to avoid using this on any of
your allies, as they'll usually know when
you're using the power on them. I
would avoid dominate mind altogether as affect mind serves it's purpose well
enough.
As a light-side user, you shouldn't need to force anyone against their
will.
7.6 Force Breach.
At master level,
this will remove all helpful force powers on the target. Since
every Jedi you encounter is dark (Bastilla aside),
there aren't many buffs to
breach. All beneficial force powers are light sided, minus one: force immunity.
The
dark Jedi who use force immunity are few and far between. If you're
concerned, however, with breezing through the
star forge and your final battle
with Malak, this wouldn't be a bad choice.
7.7 Force Armor.
At its master level,
this force power gives its caster +6 to defense and saving
throws. The major drawback to this power is, like force
valor, that its
duration is only 20 seconds. By the time you cast valor and armor on yourself,
your window of
benefits isn't very long. A good way to use this skill is have
one of your Jedi allies cast master valor while you
cast this on your self.
You will, however, not be able to do this during any of the important solo
battles that take
place during the game. In such instances, you'll have to cast
both valor and armor yourself and reap the benefits
in a very short time frame.
7.8 Destroy Droid.
Not only will this force power deal damage to a droid(s), it will
stun them for
a period of time as well. At master level, this power turns enemy droids into
free experience.
Normally, I allocate this power to one of my Jedi allies;
Jolee can easily get this to master level.
One compelling
reason to get an initiate point in this power is for the end
battle with Malak. As a light-sided force user, you
will not be able to
kill/neutralize the captured Jedi without this power. If you simply don't have
the patience
to duke it out with Malak for 15 minutes, put a point in this
skill.
8. Allies
I won't explicitly tell
you who to use in this section, but rather gloss over
the party members, who I feel, benefit you the most during your journey.
Remember
that you are a ranged attacker that benefits from stunned or
pre-occupied opponents. Jedi party members can fill
both roles, but certain
non-Jedi members bring some other, much welcomed, benefits to the party.
8.1 Jolee Bindo.
Jolee
is a neutrally-aligned Jedi counselor. He is helpful in many regards.
If you fail to stun one or two opponents Jolee
can chime in with a stasis field
of his own. When you encounter mini-bosses, Jolee can use Force Kill on
individual
targets or Force Lightning on groups of targets; making your life
much easier. If you're tied up in battle, or simply
don't have the force
reserves, he can cast force heal or force valor in a pinch. Let's not also
forget that this
game has many, hard-to-kill droids. Have Jolee get Destroy
Droid, and you can cake-walk past their broken hulls.
8.2
Juhanni.
Juhanni is a light-sided Jedi guardian. As a guardian, Juhanni should be used
as a melee combatant, engaging
opponents while you work your game. Give her
force speed and force healing, and she can be force to be reckoned with.
8.3
Bastilla.
As a light-sided Jedi, you will have to battle Bastilla on both the unnamed
world, and the star forge.
For these reasons, I recommend developing her as
little as possible. It doesn't hurt to do her side-quest or romantic
story,
but the star forge battle may take longer than if you hadn't. Make sure you
strip her of all equipment
before you run into Malak on the Leviathan.
8.4 Mission.
Mission is a non-Jedi scoundrel. At first glance,
Mission doesn't seem like a
very competent combatant. She is, however, quite the opposite. Mission shines
for
one reason and one reason only; sneak attack. Unlike your character,
Mission's sneak attack ability can increase
to level 9, which can deal massive
damage on top of her attacks. You can equip her in a plethora of attack options
such
as a melee combatant, rifle user, or blaster pistol user.
There are many good melee weapons in the game, and some can
come close to being
as powerful as finely crafted light-sabers. Have Mission use a double bladed
weapon with flurry
on stunned opponents, and she will probably kill faster than
even you. The downside to Mission as a melee combatant
is that she has a low
hit point pool. Boost her constitution with equipment, implants, and force
valor to keep
her going.
Another route to take with Mission is one similar to your own. As a dual pistol
wielder, she can
sit back with you and eliminate stunned enemies at lightning
speed. The problem with this setup, obviously, is that
you have to split your
limited pool of good blaster pistols with her. To avoid that problem, you can
set her up
with a good blaster rifle or heavy blaster. This will also free
points from the dual wielding feat.
8.5 Zalbaar.
You
can't assume that because someone is a Wookie that they should use a
crossbow. One look at Zalbaar's stats and you
should be able to tell that he is
befitting a melee warrior. Equip him with some of the great double bladed
weapons
throughout the game and use him as a high hit point tank. Raise his
already high strength to do some extra damage,
or raise his constitution to
help him live longer. Make sure you get him the level 3 implant feat since he
cannot
equip armor or headgear. Because of his high hit point pool, make sure
you put all of his skill points into treat
injury; otherwise you'll be using a
lot of force heal and medical kits to get him back to full health.
8.6 HK-47.
If
you've taken the time, and invested the points to repair HK-47's latent
abilities, he can become a very helpful ally.
A good heavy blaster, and flame
thrower will serve him well. He has a high hit point pool, but can only be
healed
by using repair parts. He is also very expensive to upgrade. If you
wish to use HK, brush up on your Pazaak
skills to get some easy money.
8.7 Carth, T3, Canderous Ordo.
I will skip these teammates because I feel the other
allies listed above do
their job better. Your character and Mission wield pistols better than Carth.
T3 is the
weakest combat character. HK-47, Mission, and Zalbaar can all
competently replace Canderous in battle, as well.
9.
Leveling
There are many viable options as to how you level up your character. Do you
save a majority of your
levels until you become a Jedi, or do you level up as a
scoundrel before becoming a Jedi?
There is no definitive
right or wrong answer. If you save your levels until
you become a Jedi, you will have more force powers to use, but
a much lower
damage output from sneak attack; level 1 (1-6), level 2 (2-12). If you choose
to level up more as
a scoundrel, you will probably end up with level 4 or 5
sneak attack (4-24 and 5-30 damage respectively), but will have
less force
powers to allocate once you become a Jedi.
If you're into making your character streamlined toward one
end of the spectrum
or the other, by all means, go for one of the above strategies. For a more
balanced approach,
I reccomend getting to a level 5 or 7 scoundrel. At level 5
you get sneak attack 3 (3-18 damage); a level 7 scoundrel
gets sneak attack 4.
The damage doesn't increase much between level 3 and 4 sneak attacks, but you
can still get all
of your core force powers, including extras, as a level 7
scoundrel.
10. Equipment
There are various FAQ's
touching on the equipment throughout KOTOR. Feel free
to use them in scouting out the equipment you'd like for you
and your allies.
I will list, briefly, in this section what my final character was wearing. The
equipment you
use can be open to so much debate, that to think that any one
setup is the definitive, would be silly. I was under
much duress as to which
equipment I used; I hope you take as much consideration.
10.1 Implant.
I mainly
used +dexterity implants throughout the game. At endgame, my character
was using the Advanced Alacrity, level 3 implant.
Dexterity +5.
10.2 Headgear.
I can't think of a better headpiece to wear than the Circlet of Saresh. It
grants
a +5 to wisdom. If you use this headgear, you could leave your wisdom
at 19; the +5 from the helmet will put your
end statistic at 24, for the extra
+2 bonus.
10.3 Left Arm.
I used various shields throughout the game on both
arms. Use them before
engaging Sith, droids or Mandalorians to absorb the blaster damage.
10.4 Left
Hand.
My offhand. Believe it or not, I was still using a fully upgraded Bendak's
Blaster up to the last battle.
I urge you to kill Bendak Starkiller, for you
will be using this pistol for a majority of the game. Great pistols
simply do
not become available until the end stages of the game. This pistol deals a
moderate 5-10 damage, but
also sports a +3 to attack modifier.
Before you get this pistol, undoubtedly, Carth's pistol will be equipped on your
right
hand. Once you receive Bendak's pistol, I recommend moving Carth's over
to the left hand while using Bendak's on
your main hand.
10.5 Body.
Before you become a Jedi, make use of the various light armors you find on Taris
that
don't give big penalties to dexterity. I recommend not investing in medium
or heavy armors as you will be unable
to cast various force powers later in the
game when you are wearing them. I could not find a better robe than a simple
Jedi
Master Robe. My defense ended up at 33.
You can, however, find better robes. Qel-Droma's Robe is a light-side
only
robe that is found on Korriban. The Star Forge/Darth Revan robe would also be
a good choice if you can manage
to get them.
10.6 Right Arm.
Once again, I used mainly shields throughout the game. If you're knee deep in
action,
you may consider using Brejik's Arm Band and Belt to suppress melee
damage. This is a good setup for dueling on Taris.
10.7
Right Hand.
Take note that you should be using your highest damage pistol in your main hand.
Until you master two weapon
fighting, you will have a greater to-hit penalty in
your offhand. The best pistol in the game is Cassus Fett's Heavy
Pistol. It
does a huge 6-19 damage. On top of its rifle-like damage, it has a +5 attack
modifier and gives
a 25% chance to stun an opponent per hit. You will, of
course, pay dearly for a pistol this good, but to use anything
less would be
criminal. This item can be bought on Korriban.
10.8 Belt.
I found a nifty little belt in
my journeys, the Adrenaline Stimulator. This
belt boosts your dexterity +2 and adds a +4 to all saves.
11.
Final Analysis
Let's quickly recap what you should have accomplished through reading this
guide. You are quick
killing scoundrel, who can attack multiple times a round,
toting dual-wielded blaster pistols, through feats as well as
dealing that extra
oomph through sneak attack. You wear only a robe, yet your defense is very
high; your saving
throws are unparalleled. You're also a light-sided Jedi
counselor who casts force powers not only to benefit
him/herself but also your
party members. The only good compliment to a blaster by your side is a stunned
opponent
in front of you; stasis field is the basis of all your attacks.
The only challenge I have found with using this build
for the game is the final
battle with Malak. Because you are a light-sided Jedi, you are unable to kill
the captured
Jedi in Malak's chamber. Due to this fact, the battle is drawn out
considerably until he drains the life from each
and every one of the captured
Jedi. This is not necessarily a weakness due to the build, but an inherent
weakness
of becoming a light-sided force user. If you haven't put a point into
the destroy droid force power, grin and bear
it; the final battle is, after all,
less than 1% of the game.
12. Thanks
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